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!

On Day 6 the rain did stop by it was blowing a gale and the wind was so strong we could not dock at Ocean Cay as the captain declared the approach too dangerous to attempt. We'd been hunkering down in our cabins for the past 2 days so braved Deck 20 in the morning to get some sea air. The lovely crew came over with multiple towels and swaddled us like babys to keep us warm as the wind howled around us. They even tucked my feet in! They made the best of a not so great day weather-wise.

Here's an idea of the weather we experienced on Days' 4, 5 & 6!

A view of the YC dining room during day time. Lovely views over the ocean. The outside veranda you can see in picture one has lovely 'light up' sofa style seats & tables. If it's warm & dry & not blowing a gale it's a great spot to sit outside with a cocktail!

A couple of shots of our breakfast in the YC dining room on Day 2.

To break up my ramblings I thought I'd post a few pictures I took whilst on board. In no particular order! Hopefully they'll post up the right way as the last one I posted was on it's side & I have no idea on how to correct it! A picture of one of the crystal staircases in the main atrium. We saw lots of people during the evenings taking pictures on these. They do give a lovely effect if you have a great camera. Interestingly the crystal staircase from YC lounge to the YC restaurant was not lit & in darkness every night so I think it may be broken.

Due to the underwhelming experience of the evening dining in YC, we tried Butcher's Cut on Day 4. We chose from the $59 per head menu as there was everything we wanted on there without having to go a la carte. We really enjoyed BC. This is the experience we were looking for in the YC dining room in terms of food flavor and attention to detail. The food was promptly delivered, it was hot, it had flavor!!! The baked goats cheese was delicious. A stark contrast to the rather sad Asparagus in Tarrgon sauce in YC dining room which consisted of a few thin spears with 2 cold dry twists of puff pastry on the side & a bit of sauce. In my opinion not a cohesive dish at all. Three of us had filet mignon which was better than the YC offering but I also appreciate we're paying extra for it. We also had the Slow Roasted Chicken which had bags more flavor than the chicken breast on offer in the YC dining room. We sampled a selection of sides and all the sauces on offer. The sides were very much a step up on anything we'd had so far in the YC dining room. The sides in YC felt like an after thought with not much attention paid to any detail. We enjoyed BC so much we booked it again for the last night and it delivered again and didn't disappoint. Worth the extra spend in our opinion.

Continuing our observations about the food. I would say our most important food experience on any cruise is the nightly dinner. For me this is where a cruise shines, or not. For us it is also one of the main criteria when making the decision who to cruise with. We previously sailed in an Edge stateroom with infinite veranda during the first year of the pandemic. We were fortunate enough to experience a couple of nights in The Luminea as a guest of a long term loyal Retreat guest who was sailing on the Edge for about 2 months solid on B2B's. We were blown away by the experiene in terms of quality of food at the evening meal + the service we experienced. That led us to book the Beyond in The Retreat for Fall 2022. The experience was diminished compared to the Edge in Fall 2021. The service was not comparable nor was the evening meal food quality. It wasn't bad by any means but no where near what we'd experienced previously. We were just thankful we'd paid Fall 2021 prices and not Fall 2022 prices which were more than double what we'd paid for the same trip. That disappointment in the quality of The Retreat led us to decide to explore other options and after reading the various reviews on here about MSC YC, we booked that for our annual Fall trip. So the evening dinner experience was important. Unfortunately it was very much just like the breakfast experience in YC dining room. It was slow and when the food arrived, it was lukewarm. It was also pretty bland with no real flavor in anything we sampled. I'd agree with 'Walter', the guy in the video that Stockjock kindly posted. The food was not bad but it wasn't great either. Unfortunately for me, I don't want an 'ok' experience for my annual vaction. Nor do I expect Michelin star quality at sea but I expected a lot more from YC dining and it just didn't deliver for us. We ordered pasta a couple of nights, thinking as an Italian liner they'd get that on point. DH left his pasta after a couple of mouthfuls and really didn't care for it - it was overly salty & the wrong side of al dente (on the hard side). I tried the Duck Ragu one night. It was ok but the pasta was stuck together so not great either. As an aside I worked in Italy back in the late 90's around the Milan region in the cheese industry. So I feel I'm probably on safe ground to assess the pasta offering. It just wasn't great. That being said, for balance we got chatting to another couple from Europe who have sailed MSC at least 5-6 times, 2 of those in the YC. They said the lasagna on the Seascape was far superior to the Virtuosa! So I understand it's subjective. This couple also said they found the service so slow they had to have a word with the Maitre d'. Things got a little better for them after that but the fact they felt compelled to have a word says it may have been an issue on our sailing. Why I just don't know.

Okay so the continuation of our experience on MSC Seascape. I am sorry I'm jumping around on the days & what we experienced & when. I'll try & keep to a better order! Yesterday was disembarkation in Miami. It was pouring with rain again which was pretty much the main theme of our trip unfortunately. I know there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about the weather. It's just one of those things. Thankfully living in SW FL meant we could drive out the rain hanging over Miami & by lunchtime we were back in blue sky country & 85F temps. If only the weather had been kind to us on board (sigh!). A lot of chat on both the forums here and Youtube has been around the quality of food on MSC and continues to be a hot topic. I totally understand this is probably one of the most personal things to critique and what is great for someone is not so great for another. Also the actual experience can vary, depending on what's going on at the time (is the dining room full to capacity? Is the kitchen under pressure & getting more guest requests for special dietry requirements etc.) This is a very important part of our cruise and certainly makes up our top 3 considerations (quality of food, room, crew service). I've talked about the lunch buffet up on Deck 20. Overall we felt it was a nice offering & never busy with a fair amount of choice. I just wish they had pizza available & they could keep the french fries hot. Cold french fries are just awful in my opinion! The breakfast buffet was also similar in that there were a fair amount of options available - really everything you would want for a good breakfast. The star of the breakfast buffet on Deck 20 was the made to order coffee just like any fancy coffee shop. They have a commercial grade coffee machine making cafe latte, americano etc. You place your order either with the server or at the counter, they make it fresh & bring it your table. I am not a coffee drinker at all but I drank these in the morning. They were always lovely & hot & delicious. A big plus for the breakfast buffet on Deck 20! We tried breakfast twice in the YC dining room. I am afraid this was not so good. We tried it on Day 2 (first full day at sea). It was pouring with rain in the morning so we figured there would be no breakfast on Deck 20 as it does say on the daily planner 'weather permitting' when giving hours of operation. So we headed to the YC dining room for what I call a 'sit down' breakfast! The dining room was probably about a third full, if that, and for good reason. We thought our cell phones had re-adjusted automatically to reflect the 1 hr ahead time change. They didn't! So what we thought was 8.45 am was in fact 7.45 am. The room is beautiful in the day time with stunning views of the ocean. Soothing music plays in the background. It really is very nice. We ordered our tea and coffee & breakfast selection & sat back and waited. And waited. And waited a bit more. Tea and coffee eventually arrived but it was lukewarm. I reckon it took about 20-25 minutes to get the breakfast items served. DH had the MSC express breakfast. I ordered a selection of the fishes on offer with toast. Absolutely nothing wrong with the food & quality but again the hot items were lukewarm. The staff were friendly and courteous. I just don't know why it took so long to get everything in a dining room that was less than a third full & why it was not that hot? It was not a one off either. On Day 4 it was raining with high winds so we took to the YC dining room again for breakfast. This time we got there about 8.50 am. It was exactly the same experience. Took a long time to get items delivered & when they arrived, the hot items were lukewarm. Also we noted if you ordered coffee, they didn't come back & ask if you wanted more or check if you needed a top up. It was a disappointing experience on both occasions and after the second experience of slow service, we ended up braving the wind & rain for the remainder of the cruise & head for Deck 20 for breakfast. Even though it says in the planner that the food offering is 'weather permitting', we ventured there on the last 3 days with rain & very high winds, thankful that the staff were there & ready with a hot breakfast. I don't know what would constitute them closing this area due to bad weather as what we had was pretty bad. I just wanted to mention this so people are not put off going up on Deck 20 if it's raining/high winds etc. Chances are the staff are there & waiting for you with that delicious hot coffee on hand!

Just to clarify the drinks around the pool observation. Everything we saw was served in plasticwear tumblers or wine glasses. No glassware or glass bottles were observed in or on lip of pool.

So quick update. We never got to Ocean Cay. The captain abandoned the approach citing it was too dangerous to attempt docking. Got to see the light house in the distance but that was as far as we got. Currently at sea with grey skies and very high winds. Apparently the weather is due to deteriorate further as the day progresses.