Moparfiend

Pee smell, or just general nasty smells in the cabin from the bathroom can happen on any ship when the trap becomes uncovered due to rough seas, or even fast turns.

Unlike at home, where getting water on the floor in the bathroom is a no-go, on ships I take the shower wand and purposely point it at the floor drain by the toilet for a good 30 seconds or so each day when showering.

This was a tip from someone years ago, i don't take credit for it, but it works wonders. 

As for what I liked about my only MSC cruise so far - here was my post when I was on the Seascape in Yacht Club: 

For Seashore, I'll have a review of that in a few weeks, it's the sister ship of Seascape. I haven't tried any general cabins, Yacht Club offers so much more then other lines at a price that's unbeatable (for the level of service that I prefer)

17 minutes ago, Gordoncruickshank said:

Is $12k the going rate for a RS now?

 

We have 2 booked for Feb/Mar next year for £7k each week which is similar to what we paid for one on Preziosa 5 years ago - that's about $9k. I know it is different seasons but I thought the winter was more expensive. 

Sorry, I should have mentioned there are 3 people in that room

The upgrade offers seem really high these days for upgrades

There's 5 rooms booked in YC on Seashore in October
Owners, Royal, Deluxe grand on deck 16 (extra wide), and two interiors. It seems like, at least from YC to YC, it's close to the same as just calling and changing the room.

MSC YACHT ROYAL SUITE (cost 12k)
- to Owners Suite - Min bid PP - 3,465 USD per guest
 

MSC YACHT CLUB DELUXE GRAND SUITE (cost 6k)
- to Owners Suite - Min bid PP - 6,735 USD per guest
- to Royal Suite - Min bid PP - 3,255 USD per guest

YACHT CLUB Interior (cost 4k)
- to Deluxe Suite - Min bid PP - 1,125 USD per guest

At least we didn't get downgrade offers for more money this go around lol

Made a list of these, it does seem most are YMMV

OS/RS Suite perks beyond YC perks
Ignoring Room size/location as that's a given
 

YC General
 - Staff 'go the extra mile' to differentiate their high end suite guests, be nice and get nice service
 

YC Sun Deck
Reserved Private Cabana on YC Sun Deck
 - Seashore/Seascape have this
 - Other ships may be a YMMV 

In room options for Royal and Owners
  Food
  - Room Service (all YC have this option)
  - Dining in room from YC MDR sounds like a big ole "maybe as a one off, prob not"
   - MSC limits in-room dining to the room service menu and the butler brings all the food at once, no course-by-course service

  Booze
  - All the booze, instead of picking 1 bottle, you get them all
  -- can take them home if you like - (wine bag/box from amazon added to my list)
  -- Might be able to get the Butler to swap out one for another (like Baileys)

 
 Other Drinks - same as all YC

OC Specifics
- Transport 
    Private Golf cart for RS/OS, likely YMMV [Unconfirmed]
- Cabana
   No reserved Cabana on OC

Instead of messing around with these "tiny" ships.
Take the MSC Irina and make another, attach the two MSC Irina ships in the middle with "sky bridges" and pools, weld the containers in place, add some windows, and Royal will never catch up.

I'm kidding of course, please don't do that MSC

Thank you for the details and answers to my questions. 

Maybe an RS/OS would be best considering the space/sizes/number of people, but with little to no privacy I'm going to have to really consider if this is the right ship for us and a Summer sailing (Summer 2025)

Making a list of these, it does seem most are YMMV

OS/RS Suite perks beyond YC perks
Ignoring Room size/location as that's a given
 

YC General
 - Staff 'go the extra mile' to differentiate their high end suite guests, be nice and get nice service
 

YC Sun Deck
Reserved Private Cabana on YC Sun Deck
 - (YMMV) might be ship specific, Seashore/Seascape have this

In room options for Royal and Owners
  Food
  - Room Service (all YC have this option)
  - Dining in room from YC MDR sounds like a big ole "maybe as a one off, prob not"
   - MSC limits in-room dining to the room service menu and the butler brings all the food at once, no course-by-course service

  Booze
  - All the booze, instead of picking 1 bottle, you get them all
  -- can take them home if you like - (wine bag/box from amazon added to my list)
  -- Might be able to get the Butler to swap out one for another (like Baileys)

 
 Other Drinks - same as all YC

OC Specifics
- Transport 
    Private Golf cart for RS/OS, likely YMMV [Unconfirmed]
- Cabana
   No reserved Cabana on OC

We are still on the fence about World America, which should be basically the same for YC as WE. The main concern is that it's too many YC rooms for a much smaller YC area, forcing most YC's out to the general areas.

If you have time, can you comment on the following. I have only done Seascape YC at this point, and the YC area, crew, and YC Director where all amazing (best cruise ever).

YC Dining
Is there enough seats for all of the YC guests, or will some be forced to the buffet overflow where a reservation is needed? Or wait for a long time to get in.

Air conditioning in the TSL, some report that it's not enough to keep it cool

Lounge snacks are not available 'buffet style' and instead are brought on a tiered stand with fewer choices then other YC that have the station

Hot Tub and Pool on YC deck
Some are saying the pool way too small for the number in YC, that it is over crowded, over the limit in hot tub (number of people). Sea days they said it was unusable

Shows
No more reserved seating for Yacht Club guests in theatre, how does that work? 

SPA area
Overcrowded and overbooked, can't handle the number of guests

2 hours ago, Two Wheels Only said:

You can order room service and specify exactly how you would like your omelette. Write down what you want since you are not limited to the check boxes that are on the door knob hanging thing.

You mean you can get stuff that's not on the door card? (specially asking for YC as they don't even have omelets listed from what I can remember)
 

I just wanted to share a brief comparison of the two as these where my most recent cruises on my favorite ships from the brands.

Some will say it's not fair to compare an older ship like Carnival Pride to a newer one that's double the size. Having been on 17+ carnival cruises, with 9 on the same size (spirit class), this is actually in Carnivals benefit as it's our favorite ship and size for Carnival. Carnival's Mega ship experience was bad, really really bad, but that's a future review for MSC Owners Suite vs Mardi Gras Presidential Suite comparison later this year.

Both cruises where 7 days

Price
Carnival 
Room+Drinks+wifi came in roughly at 8k
MSC
Room (comes with drink and wifi), came in roughly at 6k
Winner: MSC, significantly cheaper

Rooms
Carnival Vista Suite
Room Size: 
Cabin: 245 sqft (23 m²)
Balcony: 220 sqft (21 m²)

Features: Wrap around deck at the back of the ship, split room (living room/seating area)
Perks: 1 bottle of water, priority boarding/disembarkation
Biggest Pro: Nice view and lots of natural light from inside. The deck area is nice, but it's so narrow that you can't lay out and see the ocean without turning your head to the side by > 90 degrees
Biggest Cons: The room layout is so bad that I could not even get out of bed without closing the door to the bathroom and with less then 12" I was sideways and usually ended up hitting the wall. The TV is tiny and not visible from the bed's left side where I sleep (ok, you can kinda see it, but the angle is extreme). No chair in the bedroom area.  Room was dirty, had them clean it but no attention to detail. 

Seascape Deluxe Grand
Room Size: 
Cabin: 269 sqft (25 m²)
Balcony: 86 sqft (8 m²)
Features: Larger then normal balcony deck where you can sit or lay down (they brought us a lounger) and look straight to see the water. Bigger walk in closet then Carnival. Way nicer bath room in both size and layout.
Perks: YC Level, priority, room service, butler, more then enough threads on all the stuff YC includes here
Biggest Pro: Clean, I mean super clean, we wiped the entire room down with wetwipe's and there was 0 dust or specs of anything on them. Service and YC features made this my wife's and I #1 cruise ever (pretty good considering we have gone on 35+ between the wife and I)
Biggest Cons: Weed smell on day 2, resolved by day 3 by the most awesome YC Director Mustafa 

Winner: MSC - I liked the concept of the Vista Suite, but in practice, if you sleep on the left side of the bed, it's horrid. My wife said the right side was fine.

Service
In general areas, both where fine. Some fast, some slower, overall no complaints.
In YC, service was over the top, Carnival suites on this class don't have a dedicated area (like loft 19 on Excel class)
Can't really compare Guest Services as we had Suite and are Platinum so there was never a line more then a person or two on Carnival, and YC has it's own area where we never waited more then a few minutes (if at all)
Winner: n/a, YC level service is at such a higher level it's not fair to compare service in the YC area to a Suite on Carnival's smaller ship. 

Food
Carnival food was better then some prior cruises with them, we didn't go hungry, but nothing that I would consider above Golden Corral (which I don't mind). Overall we had no issues other then some raw eggs, which they replaced, and I had a nasty Beef Wellington, which was beyond gross and like chewing on a tire. I simply got something else, maybe I don't like Beef Wellington. (my son said it was horrid as well)
Burgers - Guys Burgers are amazing and those fry's, yeah love them - 10/10

MSC food was amazing in YC, I didn't have a bad meal, even the regular buffet is better then Carnival in my opinion. We loved the food and lack of excessive amounts of sugar in everything.
YC donuts, wow, those have to be one of my favorite items in YC 🙂 Not that I should eat them, but they where SOOOO good.
Burgers - As served, 6/10, Once I learned to ask for extra cheese and some thousand island dressing, the burgers where much better, 8/10

Winner: MSC

Water
This is one of those that should not be a comparison, but since we had brown water coming out of the sinks in the stateroom on Carnival, I'm calling it out. Half the group (14 people) had stomach issues, one person could not eat the entire cruise after night 1. We blame this on the brown water as it was the only thing that was the same between all the people. 

MSC - clear water, no smell, it's water .. but.. some drinking glasses smelled off even if it was from water in a bottle, so I drank sparkling water from the single serve container. Good thing it's YC and those are always available, even in the room.

Carnival - Brown water, yes brown, terrible incredibly strong smell of chlorine in ice and water, dishes smelled like a wet dog. We brought this up multiple times only to hear it happens, it's fine, and they will bring more. I ended up with soda or booze as they didn't have or couldn't get sparkling water in the MDR. Everyone in my group switched to bottle water and no ice.

I will no longer drink tap water on a ship. Bottled only.
Also, what the heck is that wet dog smell?
Winner: MSC

Overall Winner
MSC Seascape YC - and it wasn't even close
Price, food, service, cleanliness, YC perks, fully stocked mini fridge with CLEAN water

When Carnival was a much cheaper option, and the food was 2018 and back level, they where our favorite line. Today with the price, service decline, and failing to even have clean water, they priced themself out of our range for what we get.

If I was being silly, and they asked me as a shareholder with 1 share of stock... I'd give them this made up fake list of randomness

All levels reset on date of implementation (or randomly, to keep things fresh, with no notice of change)
 

Rewards that cost money, removed
Free items now 15% off your purchase, first day only, limit timeframe to 15 minutes on day 1 to ensure they are rarely used
Free cruises no longer count towards days
Free cruise offer for Diamond is now 5% off with a $299 service fee (adjusted to ensure amount off is actually no more then $5)

Discounted Cruises no longer count towards days
Only the person that pays for the booking gets the days added, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th person do not

New Levels, save money on card's by reusing as many as possible 
Blue - 21days 
Red - 22 to 74 days
Gold - 75 - 199 days
Platinum - 200 - 499 days
Diamond - 500 days - 799 days
Diamond Plus - 800 days - 999 days (same card, blue sharpie stripe)
Sapphire - 1000 - 1499 days (white card, blue sharpie stripe)
Quartz - 1500+ days (white card, double blue sharpie stripe)

Option to purchase Quartz Plus for a one time fee of $299 per person, good for one cruise, (white card, double blue sharpie stripe and hand drawn smiley face)

Rewards reset after 3 years of inactivity, in any case where tips where removed from a cruise, or any negative posts on cruise critic 🙂 
 

2 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Let me be specific. The Seascape has the easiest muster drill in the cruise industry. Scan your card anytime from 11:30 am from a pink ball capped muster station crew member, take the elevator back to cabin, watch video, call number indicated, done. 

P.S. Those that miss embarkation day muster drill, show up at Chora Theatre following morning at 9:30 am to scan card.

100% agree on Seascape muster drill, I hope they start to do this with the other ships.
I was sure to put that feedback into the post cruise survey in hopes they will expand that to the other ships.

I had seen posts where it was stated that casino comps where people ended up in free royal/owner suites. Well, that had me curious, is that even possible to pull off in advance?

Short Answer, No

Here's what I found out from the Casino Department

My wife had received a free Balcony room, any sailing up to 10days, from the casino. I asked them the fees if it was upgraded to YC, and the different rooms choices.

This is just an idea of the costs of what the free room (Balcony Bella) to upgrade to a higher level in YC.

This isn't the "upgrade bid" that you may get after the room is booked, but the details from the Casino when you make a booking and upgrade it at that time.

This was for a 7 day, Sept '24 on the Seashore from Orlando

I'm sure they change depending on where the cruise is leaving from, and it's length

YC Deluxe  - 2200 USD

YC Grand Suite -  2449 USD

YC Royal Suite -  6600 USD

YC Owners Suite -  8700 USD

So basically it seems it's normal room cost (in this case a Balcony Bella), from the highest non-discounted rate for the YC room. The booking details will show a bunch of odd line items to equal the dollar amount, while it lists out the cruise as "free"

Also of note, if you upgrade a "free" casino room to a higher level item, you have to pay the full amount when you "upgrade" that room. 

If I'm reading this correctly, which I'm really not sure I am, the Pride won't be going into Baltimore until the full channel is open.

Carnival Pride has a displacement of 85,920 tons.

"vessels greater than 60,000 long tons of displacement will most likely not be allowed to transit"
REF: 
https://homeport.uscg.mil/Lists/Content/DispForm.aspx?ID=89633&Source=/Lists/Content/DispForm.aspx?ID=89633

 

Final Review Score
10/10
More value then we paid for, worth it, awesome.

Would we book YC again, YES!!!!

I think the key take away with MSC is you get to pick the experience level when booking, choose wisely, and set expectations inline with that. There's always bumps and hurdles with any vacation, with the right mindset any vacation is a good vacation.



 

At the end of the cruise, getting off the ship was easy. 
We added a transfer to MIA (twenty one bucks pp) and they gave us the luggage tags with number 5 on them. 
At 7:45 we met the butler in the lounge, we had one carry on so he took that and led us down to deck 6 to be scanned out. Off the ship, we headed to pickup the luggage (which had the same number on it), and off we went to the bus.

The baggage area, and lack of walking space in the row meant one person could get the bag, and then walk back down the row, then another could go in to get another bag. They should have had more space between rows. 

The bus drops you off at one end or the other, and it's a hike to the terminal as MIA is a mess of an airport. I'd recommend taking an Uber and skipping the bus transfer.

I'm not sure of the Captains name, but he ends every notice with "Bye Byeeeee" 🙂

Got one on Seascape without issue in YC

Mustafa noted he will still be in September.

YC time is almost up for us, disembarking in the morning.

Love YC, still a 10/10. 

We where able to get any food from any dining menu if we asked in advance. Not sure if that is a policy or courtesy. One member of our group has dietary restrictions so they loved getting option's from anywhere (basically).

Great job MSC YC

Fancy out in common areas as well

Mustafa has been great, and on top of things.

Fresh OJ, great breakfast with a view.

Late night pizza, yummy 

MUSTER DRILL - new format, go at any time after boarding to have card scanned, watch video in room at any time, dial 881 from cabin phone and done.

Room - Every drawer is soft close, spotless, smells great, that diffuser is a nice touch. Shower had great pressure and plenty of room in (Deluxe Grand suite). Closet and two wardrobes give plenty of space.

Sofa is comfy, deck is a good size and they brought a lounger after asking.

Overall: 10/10 Amazing 

Cleanliness - Super clean areas

Food - Excellent food, except the burgers, which need some donkey sauce or something, still decent, but Guys burgers are better. I rate it better then the Four Seasons which we stayed at pre cruise.

Staff - Room bulter team, the best we have had, Gusti is amazing. Crew are super friendly and quick.

Top sail lounge, awesome, great snacks and instant bar service willing to make pretty much any drink you can think of.

Pool deck, wonderful and the crew picks up left over towels every half hour, so no chair hogs.

Overall, as of day 3, best experience ever from more then 15 other cruises with other lines.

The ship, a beautiful and super shiney ultra clean masterpiece.

Well done MSC, you have taken the top spot with Yacht Club experiences.

We haven't tried the other experience offerings. You get what you pay for.

Links to the time where he shows the bathrooms
Owners Suite, yes, - https://youtu.be/G1sYPAySNN4?t=41
Royal Suite, yes, - https://youtu.be/lxs_lffbBrU?t=43