GA Dave

6 hours ago, akeka said:

I'm going on first MSC cruise in September.  Do all the OC beaches have beach chairs?  I understand umbrellas have to be rented except for limited free ones at lighthouse beach.

Yes, hundreds and hundreds (maybe thousands??) of them. The Lighthouse Beach has bean bags, Adirondack chairs, etc., along with "free" umbrellas. Just have to get there early. The rest of the beaches have plenty of loungers, you just need to rent an umbrella or bring your own cover. I brought a GoRich beach tent with me when my family cruised with me, and the grands loved it.  Beach Tent

If you want to see how the crew live, watch this video. It shows how the regular crew live starting around 48:00 into the video.  The Secret Life of the Cruise

Bring them cash. Most of the crew work to support their families back home and they get all the food they need from the multiple crew restaurants onboard.

5 hours ago, michelle028 said:

Which is the best beach with the clearest water close to ship? ie no rocks

Lighthouse Beach right next to the ship is very clear water with no rocks.

13 minutes ago, GPPhilly said:

Isn't this were the Crew Beach was?  Does the crew not get a beach now?

If you look closely, the Crew Cove is the area to the north (left on this map) of the new Seekers Family Cove. Same place it has always been.

Just a note: If you are Diamond, or have one of the packages, you can get anything on the menu outside of the "Dining Experience" items for 50% off the regular price. I always go to Butcher's Cut for my Diamond meal and get the 20-ounce Ribeye meal that I love for 50% off the regular price.

11 minutes ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

I'd like to see MSC do true 14 day cruises in the Caribbean instead of stopping back at Port Canaveral after 7 days. I guess that works for them.🙂

If you look, they have Divina doing some "extended" sailings out of Miami in the Caribbean that include ports like Panama and Columbia. See sample snapshot.

1 hour ago, JAGR said:

Interesting that she doesn't port at Ocean Cay either week. Very unusual.

They did announce that they will have seven ships sailing the Caribbean during that winter season. So, they may be running out of capacity at OC and are planning different ships to skip it during certain sailings. Personally, I have been there so many times I am not that I don't mind missing it on one trip.

BOOKED!! 😁

18 hours ago, Beamafar said:

👍. I’d say you’ve given some people a great meal suggestion here. 

This is what it looks like when "assembled".

On 5/24/2024 at 2:28 PM, Beamafar said:

Not sure if the menu is new, but we enjoyed lunch at a perfect table under the new canopy. Mr B had the crab starter, followed by the lobster roll (has nothing to compare it to as he hadn’t had one before) and finished with crème caramel.  He highly recommends everything he had.  I had the carne asada;  while the meat was very rare for my taste, it was so tender and had a very nice flavour, so I would recommend it.  I had the mango cheesecake;  the biscuit base was soft. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is the same menu I had in January and March of this year. Personally, I always order the burger with a bun and the lobster roll without the roll, then put the lobster meat on the burger. I call it an Island Surf & Turf. 

1 hour ago, Até said:

Is there more than one charter?  I only see Jam Cruise 21 on Feb 14th to 19th, I don't see anything for Feb 19th to 24th. 

No there is not. Which is why so many of us were confused in why they would cancel our ten-night cruise for a five-night charter. I guess they felt they could make more money on the shorter charter cruise.

I was booked on that same Divina cruise as the OP. It was part of my 28-day B2B/S2S/B2B cruise in January & February of next year. I actually heard about the ship being chartered out before they even sent out emails, so I immediately called and had my reservation moved to the Seaside which is sailing out of Miami a day earlier. So now I am on Seascape for 14 days, one day in Miami, then 14 days on Seaside. The only real "loss" is I don't get to go to Aruba and Curacao, but I also got a refund of $200.

On 5/25/2024 at 3:05 PM, Catnip said:

Thank you for your responses!   So i guess if we decide to park in the terminal lot, we'll plan to get there maybe a little before 10, and keep our fingers crossed we can get a spot in the garage.

@ GA Dave......I noticed the last time we were there last time that it looked like they were getting ready to do some construction in that surface lot.   So if we decide to drive our truck, do they have any "oversized" spaces for larger vehicles anymore at Terminal 10?

They still have a small area of surface lot for the oversized vehicles. I saw a couple of RV's parked there a month ago.

2 hours ago, LorraineP said:

Curious if you would be able to see light show from your balcony. We will be on the starboard side in October in the YC. 

You will be able to see it. If you are on a Seaside-class ship, the best place to watch it is from the outdoor area of the Top Sail Lounge. On Meraviglia, you're better off on your balcony.

1 hour ago, Notch8 said:

Hard to tell what’s different from up on the ship…

Looks like they still have some heavy construction equipment out by the crew and Yacht Club beaches.

She is docked!!!

Looks like Mera is on final approach to OC.

5 minutes ago, Notch8 said:

Tomorrow is Ocean Cay.

 

We brought our own snorkeling gear and a sun shelter.  WOW, was THAT a good idea; umbrella rentals are $29!!

 

I got the idea to bring a sun shelter (beach tent) last time I was here; there was a family that had one and I realized what a great idea it was.  We’ll see tomorrow…

 

(FWIW:  the sun shelter was $35 at Wal-Mart.  Pays for itself in two uses.)

I bought one for my cruise in February for my granddaughters to use. They loved being able to sit in there and eat their lunch from the food truck in the shade.  Beach tent

2 hours ago, cue881 said:

When I was on Divina (which is a smaller ship) they came in nose first and spun around 180 degrees to put the starboard side of the ship against the dock.   It may be that Seashore, being bigger, cannot rotate, and has to back in.

This is the case. The Seaside is longer than the Meraviglia. Seaside is 1060' in length while Mera is 1037' in length. Seashore and Seascape are 1112' in length.

3 hours ago, RichYak said:

This video doesn't show the ship rotating, just sailing through the channel towards the dock. Are you saying it rotates 180 degrees AFTER this video?

Correct. We turned 180 degrees in the basin just past the dock and docked with my forward-facing YC Deluxe Suite facing the lighthouse. 

4 hours ago, RichYak said:

While this is certainly beneficial, I don't think it's the reason. My understanding is that there is no room for the ship to turn around on the land side of the narrow channel leading to Ocean Cay. The captain must choose whether to turn the ship around and sail backwards through the channel into the port (starboard faces lighthouse), or sail backwards out through the channel when leaving (port side faces lighthouse). The first option seems to be the one used most often.

I was on Meraviglia several times in 2021/2022 where we sailed through the channel to the island "nose first", then turned 180 degrees in the small turning basin just beyond the island and docked with the starboard side facing the island. You can see our approach in this video.  Ocean Cay Approach by Meraviglia 

Just as an FYI: I had a Divina cruise booked for next February for many, many months. I had even already paid in full. It was part of my B2B/S2S/B2B I had planned on Seascape and Divina and was scheduled to go to Aruba and Curacao. Unfortunately, we just found out a little over a week ago that they had chartered the ship out to some electronica music group and our cruise was cancelled. So it can happen at any time.

18 hours ago, CityGrrl said:

It makes sense that they aim the bow to the lighthouse: their highest paying customers are in the Yacht Club, which occupies most of the bow. I am on the port side however, and so will hope and dream for an anomalous docking on May 30! 

This is true. I was in Yacht Club last summer on Seaside and was able to catch this view of the lighthouse at sunset from the outdoor balcony of the Top Sail Lounge.

2 minutes ago, Notch8 said:

Sure thing!  Menus are easy because I can screenshot the app.  I’ll have to take photos of the daily programs, which I presume we still receive on paper.

 

Jim

Jim,

My last two cruises (Seashore and Magnifica), they were no longer giving out the paper Daily Programs in the cabins. Everything has migrated to the app.