Valpacino

Thank you RELS. That's exactly what I needed!

Thank you Capslockon That's super helpful!

Thank you Z & TB for a very enjoyable & informative live review. We will be on the Grandeur in November 2024 as a first time newbie on Regent. If at all possible, could you share a spa menu please? I've looked online & am unable to find a spa service list on Regent's website. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide. Keep enjoying the high seas; looks tremendous fun!

Thank you IslaBonita for sharing your experience vs Divina. Your dress is wonderful! Is this the Gatsby party I've read about previously on here? The crystal stairs in YC lounge up to the YC restaurant were in darkness the whole duration of our trip which was a shame as it's a lovely effect I think. I live in South Ft Myers very close to Fort Myers Beach. We do not own a restaurant. We are in guest hotel/lodging hospitality. I used to be in the food business 20+ years ago when I lived in the UK. Would you sail MSC again?

I agree re. trying to deliver to a large & busy deck - how would they find you? However it would be nice if they had pizza on the buffet at lunch time & you could have it by the slice like you can at Marketplace Buffet.

You can certainly consume it on the pool deck but they will not deliver it to the pool deck according to our butler. You had to order it as room service, get it delivered to your cabin then carry it up there yourself. That was what we were told to do if we wanted pizza on the pool deck for lunch.

In my opinion I think the last sentence vtgumby expressed hits the nail on the head. Our experience on Seascape was very good in all aspects except the YC evening meal. Their on board service from the crew far surpassed X Retreat as did our cabin & the YC pool deck. If only they could get the food offering right with maybe a dedicated Kitchen, they'd be unbeatable for a 'ship within a ship' experience. JMO.

Hi Itchy&Scratchy, I have to say they did make a good amount of fuss around high tea with the staff mentioning it multiple times as something to attend. It was pouring with rain that day (again!) so it was a welcome break in the afternoon. I believe it started about 3.30 pm & finished 4.30 pm. They had a good turnout overall. The tea came around on a big trolley with multiple tea caddies with loose leaf tea. I am afraid I do not know the brand as it was all in nice storage caddies. The lady on the tea trolley (there were 2 trolleys in total circling the lounge) asked us what sort of tea we wanted, explained the selection & then made up a fresh pot of loose leaf tea & set it to steep on the table along with milk, sugar etc. There's a lot of stuff that is placed on the table for high tea. If you're a party of 4 you're going to need to get one of the bigger tables to fit everything on. We made the rookie mistake of sitting at a smaller 4 top by the window as one of the first people in the lounge. Our Butler swiftly came over & ushered us to one of the largest tables in the lounge telling us we'd need the table space. They were right! On tip/comment from us. The scones you see in the picture on the second tier with the clotted cream were very nice & crumbly. However there was only 3 & we had 1 stand between 4 of us so one of us was without a scone & clotted cream which is the pinnacle of a high tea in my opinion. We requested more scones from one of our favorite servers. We had to wait a little bit, which was fine, as she explained that the entire lounge had to be served before they started dishing out seconds so to make sure everyone got 1 plateful at least which made sense. It was worth waiting for because what we got was a further 3 scones which were much bigger/taller/plumper than those you see in the picture + they had raisins in them so were a fruity scone. They were even better!

Hi Pa-annie, In answer to your question re. pizza. We did ask our Butler if we could order pizza & have it delivered to the pool deck. He informed us this was not allowed & we had to go to our room, order it to be delivered to our cabin & then carry it up to the pool deck. For what ever reason they do not allow pizza delivery on the pool deck. Whether that is the same protocol for say, a midnight snack in the YC bar I don't know as I never asked nor saw anyone ordering or bringing pizza in for a night cap munchie! We did not use room service during our trip so I am afraid I cannot comment on that. Hope that helps a bit!

Hi BeeJay, I double checked & yes, we had a Grand Suite in YC. Very nice room & great layout. There was a ton of storage in addition to the walk in closet. Nicely decorated with dark tones which made it feel cozy & kept the room dark in the morning which we liked. A better cabin overall than the Sky Suites in our opinion. Sky Suits Bathroom is probably a little more spacious but we didn't like the 'tub' you had to climb in to, to shower. Our bahtroom in the Grand Suite was perfectly good enough with plenty of counter space for your personal stuff. Water pressure in the shower was excellent also.

I'm sorry to cause you concern DaKahuna! That was never my intention. When I started this thread I mentioned I was a long time lurker on here & had been helped tremendously by other posters about their experiences & tips of their time with MSC. I wanted to give something back & share our experience, hoping it may help someone. I never wanted to cause any consternations! We had a decent breakfast & lunch experience on the YC Pool Deck. I have no issues with the food there. That they serve the delicious pizza by the slice would be a great addition seeing as it seems to be a jewel in the crown, so to speak, in the food offering on board. I am hoping MSC may be monitoring this thread & consider this suggestion. To keep such a great offering confined to the Marketplace buffet or room service seems to be a bit of an odd move. Maybe there are operational reasons why this isn't possible? I do feel what we experienced in YC dining room evening meal times was 'that is the way it is & this is our offering' for our sailing. Morpheus has alluded to inconsistencies during their many trips as per their post on this thread. It clearly seems it can rely on staffing & who is on board doing the cheffing at the time. I think maybe we were simply on an 'off' week with regards to the galley staff. I return to the confirmation from a fellow regular passenger traveling during our sailing that they asserted the offering & service did not compare to previous trips on other MSC ships & when mentioned to senior management in the dining room, little changed. I feel that Dexddd's observation that the issues we experienced may be operationally led are probably correct with a not so great 'back of house' set up. The staff are doing their best but if things are not set up efficiently such as traveling long distances from kitchen/beverage to dining room, no matter what a guest says as way of feedback or staff try to compensate will make much of a difference. JMO.

Hi DaKahuna, Thank you for the question. On Day 1 we let it slide, believing it was a hiccup as the kitchen/staff settled in to a new cruise. We'd experienced the same thing on X Beyond with Day 1 being pretty disorganized on the food front so wasn't overly fazed by it. On Day 2 evening meal 3 of 4 of our party left their entrees due to taste/quality. I ate mine but it was different to what everyone else had. When the staff came to clear the entrees away they asked was everything ok. Members of our party said, in a polite fashion, they didn't really like what they had. We also ordered the Tiramisu that evening. We left that also. Again the server came to clear & asked "Did you not like it?" seeing it had been left and we said no we didn't. Maybe we were being overly generous in thinking it was just a blip & things would smooth out a bit. On Day 3 we ate with another couple on board who were MSC regulars with 5-7 cruises under their belt on various ships. We mentioned to them we thought service had been a bit slow & the food quality a bit disappointing in the YC dining room. They said they agreed and it was not the same as they'd experienced on other ships. They also told us they'd already spoken to someone in authority in the dining room and they felt whilst it seemed they now had more staff hovering around them & watching them a bit more once something had been said, they had not seen a change in the overall experience in the dining room to match what they'd experienced elsewhere. So on hearing this it kind of felt to us this was how it was. I hope that answers your question.

Good question Captain-John! I have to say I'm a bit mixed about it due to the food experience in the evenings. I'm one of those people who lives to eat, not eats to live! It's my one vice & passion in life. Having a so so or low quality evening meal when on vacation is what's holding me back at the moment if I'm honest. Everything else we absolutely loved about MSC Seascape. I've even looked at other ships in the MSC fleet to see if something else may fit the bill & sample another experience but I'm only pulling up Seascape as my option for Fall 2024. My issue is we can only vacation in a very small window every year during the last weekend in October until about the second week in November due to our business pressures. We can't travel in the summer or in the really active hurricane season, nor can we travel leading up/during Thanksgiving. So our window of when we can travel is tight. We also don't have time to fly anywhere to pick up a ship as we can only be gone 5-7 days max. We live in SW FL so to drive to Port Canaveral which is well over 4 hrs away is not ideal. It's bad enough trying to get in to crazy Miami! I have no desire to do less than 5 days & end up on a 'booze cruise' type ship. I also love the ship within a ship concept & now we've experienced that type of cruise with X & MSC, I don't want to return to 'gen pop'! It probably sounds very picky & I'm being a bit awkward but unfortunately, as a business owner, we have certain operational pressures we have to adhere to which tightly controls what we can do as a vacation. I totally agree with Mark-T's observation that there seems to be variable standards across the fleet. The couple we chatted to who had sailed MSC 5-7 times said they had a much better dining room experience on the Divinia than the Seascape. But the Seascape Lasagna was superior to the Virtuosa so there definitely seems to be disparity in quality at play. Thank you Dexddd for your insights in to your experience on the Mera. I agree regarding maybe the issues are due to process & set up. I have no idea if my hunch is right but I'm assuming the kitchen servicing the YC dining room is not close by and, dare I say, dedicated just to that area? It just took an awful long time to get anything whether it was breakfast or dinner & I noted the staff constantly up & down the stairs when getting drinks. It must drive them nuts. Thank you Loge23 for your input. We did try some daily selections as I agree this is usually where the better items are on a menu & tends to show off the kitchen's skills a bit better (or not!). We tried the Duck & Chicken Terrine. It was dry & tasteless. The Vitello Tonnato was decent. The Asparagus in Tarragon Sauce 3 of our party left. It was dreadful. The Chicken Kiev was a bit dry & just not very garlicky. My DH sampled the Egg Fettucini with the Porcini along with a Lobster Tail. He took 2 bites & pushed it away. The pasta was overly salty & the Lobster Tail was tough & rubbery. The Herbed Gravadlax app came with a potato patty. I assumed this would be warm, almost like a warm blini. I was wrong. It was cold & I believe supposed to be served like that. A cold potato cake is not that pleasant to eat for my taste. The Tiramisu was not set & very liquidy. We took one mouthful & left that also. The best thing by DH ate all week in the YC dining room was the Indian Butter Chicken on the healthy menu! He did enjoy that but overall, after a few nights of not liking what we were being served drove us off to Butchers Cut. Lastly I agree that heading off to Marketplace Buffet was a bit like hacking through a jungle! We went about 2pm on the 1 day we did it & it was busy but manage-able. I can't imagine what it must be like at 12 noon which I imagine is a peak time for the masses to rush in!

Final thoughts - I really think overall MSC are doing a great job for the price point. I would not sail in the 'gen pop' area but I totally understand why it's popular. It's a good price for families and this seemed to make up the majority of the gen pop guests. We saw multiple generations in large groups having a great time and so they should be! We are a mature couple that seeks quiet and relaxation, hence why YC was our choice for this trip. The MSC gen pop experience would be too noisy and busy for us but if you're a family, it is probably ideal. If you want calm and great service and can pay the rate, it's worth upgrading to YC. The YC cabins are lovely. The walk in closet an absolute bonus. The beds are comfortable, the linens are nice quality. The blackout curtains keep the room dark. I do not have a bad word to say about the accommodations. The YC area from the lounge on Deck 16, to the restaurant space on 18 and to the 2 deck areas (19 & 20) are lovely open spaces with multiple lounging/seating areas. They were never crowded or noisy. You could always get a seat or lounger. The YC was supposedly at full capacity but it never felt crowded. It actually felt more like half full all the time, even on a sea day. We loved that and this was far superior compared to The Retreat experience where we struggled to find loungers by 11am on sea days and seating in the restaurant at 8pm. The staff everywhere on the ship, whether YC or gen pop, were wonderful and friendly. The YC staff were head & shoulders more experienced & attentive than anything we experienced in The Retreat on Celebrity. As another example of how good they are. We went for breakfast on Deck 20 on embarkation day in the pouring rain once docked in Miami. There they were - all waiting again ready to take care of us. 2 Members of the crew came over with the heavy beach towels and wrapped them over our shoulders to keep us warm as we enjoyed our final breakfast. Kudos to the staff selection & training program for MSC! The embarkation/disembarkation process with your butler by your side is a joy. No queues to deal with. I have to say we got a frisson on disembarkation as we strode through the lines, led by the lovely Rakesh, & ropes were lifted for us as we went straight to the front of the lines to get off. The food offered for breakfast/lunch on Deck 20 on the pool buffet was absolutely fine and did the job. Our only negative experience was the quality of the food in the evenings in the YC dining room. What, in our opinion, is the most important meal of the day fell short on the 4 times we ate there. This is a personal thing I know but as food is extremely important to us, that negative experience has given us pause on whether we'd return again to this ship. Our 1 week a year for vacation is too important to settle for so so evening dining. As I said before I don't expect Michelin class food by any stretch but I would expect the offering in YC dining to be comparable with Luminea or a close thing. It wasn't. So that's my 2 cents for what it's worth. If anyone has any questions I'll be glad to try & answer best I can.

As I bring our time on the Seascape to a close, here are some miscellaneous observations/comments: Elevators - The override system seemed to work for us about 60% of the time. To be fair we only ventured outside of YC about 7-8 times & had mixed success with the overridge function. When it worked, it was great. We didn't go to any shows. We seemed to be always either in a bar or restaurant during show time. We did talk to some guests who went to the Elton John tribute show. They said he was fantastic. The YC lounge is a great space to hang out for tea & coffee and cocktails pre/after dinner. They had a young guy from Brazil playing piano or guitar and singing along during the evenings. He was very good and we enjoyed him very much. The overall nationality guest mix in YC for our trip was US. There were a few Europeans but really not many at all. There were 2 children under 12 & about 3-4 teenagers. They were all impeccably behaved. Apparently the week before it was full of kids in YC and not quite so well behaved according to one of our preferred servers. In your cabin there is a little panel right by the front door where you press a button to either make up your cabin or do not disturb. This triggers a light system outside your door so to show the butler or room steward room status. Nice and easy to use and I appreciated not having the old fashioned tag to hang on the door. I visited the spa twice for a couple of paid treatments (massage & reflexology) along with one of our traveling companions. The spa space is absolutely beautiful and far superior to anything I've experienced at Celebrity Edge class. Whilst waiting for my appointment slot I spotted multiple 'interlopers' trying to access the spa area. My understanding is this area & the various thermal rooms are free of charge to YC and Aurea guests. Everyone else has to pay a fee to acces the thermal rooms and other rooms. There were a lot of people meandering into the lobby area which is pretty open to the access corridor with no 'barrier' & heading down the corridor towards the thermal rooms, only to be chased & stopped by one of the spa staff & questioned (politely by the way) on where they were going. It must be quite tiresome for the spa staff to police this open lobby. I truly felt for them! Interlopers in YC - I know this is a topic of much discussion! I am pleased to say we did not see any interlopers at any time in the YC area or pool deck. That being said there were 3 days when the pool deck was unusable due to weather conditions so not conducive to encourage interlopers! We did once get challenged at YC Concierge when we came through one evening after someone held the door open so we didn't use our cards for access. I have no problem with being asked to verify our status by crew. It was done in a polite manner & was pleased to see they were checking guests accessing the area!