kelleherdl

It was a Saturday in late May 2022. There were three cruise ships in Kiel that day and most of the folks on the train were meeting a cruise ship. Very few were commuters.

We traveled from Hamburg to Kiel by train. Then took the MSC shuttle to the ‘new’ MSC terminal at the ferry port outside of town. Never again. We were doing a back to back Baltic/Norway. We were thus taking a lot of heavier clothes. The weekend trains were packed local commuters with no reserved seating or baggage check. I mean ‘all’ passengers had multiple pieces of luggage. We literally had bags on our laps for the full ride. When we did get to the Kiel station MSC has zero signage for the shuttle. It is out the station to the right on a side street. In the future we will hire a sufficiently large car for the trip from Hamburg to Kiel. For our return trip to Hamburg the Yacht Club Concierge arranged a private car as they knew we did not likely have a great experience on the train. If you are sailing Yacht Club, a special note if you do take the train then MSC shuttle. Let the clerk selling tickets for the shuttle know you are Yacht Club. They loaded our luggage on the shuttle bus. Otherwise, your luggage will be loaded with all the others onto a truck arriving at times unknown. As always, others experience may have been more pleasant.

If you check in with the Yacht Club white tent, which you should; your bags will be retagged by the porter with Yacht Club luggage tags.

Except for any cash tips you may wish to give to crew all transactions on MSC ships are cashless. All transactions are processed via your onboard account using your cruise card. You onboard account can be satisfied by registering a credit card or ‘depositing’ cash with Guest Services. The ship will happily take US$ or Euros. The same holds true for any supplemental crew tips you may choose to give. Crew members I’m certain will be happy with either dollars or Euros. If you are wondering about getting Euros when you arrive, I’m certain there will be ATMs in close proximity to any port terminal. as stated above MSC ships do not have any ATMs for passenger use.

Always order the risotto to share as a secondo. There will be a new one each night.

Storing the bar-coded eTicket on your smart device is fine. Screen-shotting page 2 of the eTicket works great. That way you really only need to print the health questionnaires and the luggage tags. Just in case there are any questions on board I also print the pages that include any pre-cruise purchases/excursions.

And practice driving it before you get to the port. I’ve seen novices get to the port and start driving the scooter for the first time. It was not a pretty sight. It’s not getting around the ship that can be the most challenging. Getting on and off the ship can be very difficult, with ramps and gangways.

Not disagreeing at all, but what would be the purpose of a loyalty program status match. On Explora Journeys I would not expect that there would be any ‘perks’ that would be offered based on loyalty status. It’s an all inclusive cruise, with complete service for every guest. Yes, I appreciate that the residence and owners suites will get more, but that is based on purchase not status.

I don’t believe their Med itineraries are all ‘same old.’ I have a collector cruise on Explora II next year, Rome to Athens, that is very definitely different from any mainstream cruise line. The Adriatic segment is more like a small Adriatic specialty line cruise.

The truth is you can turn up at the terminal without any of the e-ticket documents. Yes, it’s nice, but not necessary. Just have your reservation confirmation page screen-shotted and saved on you phone. Along with your passport or photo ID you will be able to have luggage tags made at the port by the porters and you will get through security. The check-in agents will be able to look you up on their tablets to get you checked in. Don’t stress yourself unnecessarily just before your cruise. Dennis

YC guests have full access to the thermal suite in the Aurea Spa. I’ve never seen that reservations are required. Any spa treatments of course require reservations. Also the fitness center is open to all who sign the necessary waivers.

I don’t recall if you said you did the MSC loyalty status match. If you did and matched to MSC Voyager Club Diamond you will get a complimentary dinner at Butcher’s Cut, or other specialty restaurant. My personal opinion, take the complimentary specialty restaurant dinner and spend the rest of you evenings in the Yacht Club Restaurant. The menu changes every evening. You can order whatever you want. If ordered at least a day in advance you can often special order. The wine selection is more extensive. The view is better. but I won’t belabor the point. 😀. The kitchen is not the same. YC Restaurant has a separate chef. I even think the beef preparation in superior in the YC Restaurant on the 5 MSC ships I’ve sailed with YC and Burcher’s Cut. As I said, my personal opinion.

Here’s where the word VALUE for MSC YC has real meaning. Cost divided by apples to apples benefits. Then you put the kicker in that the itinerary was more to your liking. I’d say you have made the same calculation a lot of us have.

Faxing is not necessary. An emailed photo or scan directly to the cruise port agent will often suffice. I’m only pointing out that folks can be scared by the word ‘fax’ as few have them. I must caution that these are not hard and fast. The standard is ‘state-issued’ birth certificate with photo ID; copies not acceptable.

I have personally worked check-in for a Disney Cruise Line cruise (not Port Canaveral). It was actually my assignment to visually check port arrival times and ask cruisers to wait outside for their assigned port arrival times. And yes they were asked to remain outside in the heat and humidity. So even DCL does do this as needed. Each cruise terminal has a ‘capacity.’ If that capacity is exceeded for whatever reason, like boarding is delayed, entry into the terminal can and will be restricted. Now have I ever seen it at Port Canaveral for any of my MSC cruises. It only happened once that I experienced, but we were YC so it didn’t impact us. I did see that only the first hour of arrivals were permitted to enter the terminal. As the crush lessened there was no longer any looking at check-in times. From what I have seen recently from sailing at Port Canaveral people are arriving more spread out.

Arthur is usually contracted on the newer ships to enter the US Market. He is such a favorite of US Yacht Club passengers. We first met him on the Seaside during her first season out of Miami. He was our YC Restaurant server on that cruise. I think we can reliably predict he will be on the World America for her initial US sailings in 2025.😀

The Yacht Club check in area of Terminal 10 at Port Canaveral is not purpose built. MSC sails from an older terminal that never had a proper VIP area. Please don’t let that turn you off. If you arrive at Terminal 10 after about 10:00 you will not be spending much time there. As soon as the ship is open for boarding you will be promptly escorted to the Topsail Lounge on the ship. The Terminal 10 area does have light refreshments, including sparkling wine, if you desire, for the short stay there. If you see the design concepts for the new MSC constructed terminal at Port Miami you will be wowed by what MSC will have for YC guests. Those of us who often sail MSC from Port Canaveral can’t wait for the announcement that MSC will build its own terminal there. Unfortunately, it looks like Galveston will get the next new MSC terminal in the US.

No cruise line can ‘guarantee’ that you can be off the ship and out the door by 9:00 AM. There are just enough things that can go wrong. That said it is reasonable under normal circumstances for a YC guest to do this. YC luggage will almost always be the first luggage brought ashore. You can of course increase the probability of success by doing ‘self walk-off, early departure.’ YC guests will be escorted to the front of the line. But even then I have had that not work. There was a one-off glitch in securing one of the gangways that was used for YC guests.

Just curious. Which 3/4 day party hard cruise never leaves the USA?

Just like the US Vice President I like Venn Diagrams. 😀. Let’s explore a Venn Diagram of this thread. The first circle is the population of North Americans; the next circle is the number of North Americans who take cruise vacations; the next circle is the number of cruisers who routinely sail MSC Cruises; the next circle is the number of MSC cruisers who read Cruise Critic. That is the population that is interested in this thread. I would propose that this intersection would actually be aware of ‘Time to Say Good-bye’ and the song does elicit fond memories of past cruises.

Don’t say you weren’t warned. One YC cruise and you will be hooked.

It’s not played out of Port Canaveral at all. It must be a licensing thing. 😀. Up in Yacht Club we play it on our smart devices. 😀. All the regular Yacht Clubbers and the staff smile. If Hubert is bartending at the One Pool bar he will sing it. He’s quite good. I think he may be on Divina out of Miami now.

You will get your cruise cards at port checkin. The cards are ‘active’ when you get them. They get you on the ship, into your cabin and charge against your onboard account with them. In order to assign a credit card against your shipboard account you have options. You can register a credit card on your booking during the online checkin process. Some have experienced difficulty in doing this due to unfortunately notorious MSC website issues. You also have the option of registering your credit card once you board. MSC cruise ships have credit card kiosks in public areas of the ship. The process is very straightforward as the kiosk walks you through. You have the ability to select which persons in your cabin may charge against that credit card. Every person in a cabin can register their own card. You can also register your card against other cabins.

The masseuses know how to effectively manage the sheets and are discreet when you are asked to adjust your position on the table. There is no need to wear anything, other than arrive for your appointment in your robe and slippers. To be honest, even wearing very skimpy underwear could hinder the masseuse. I’ve never been asked to wear underwear for a massage on a cruise.

What happened to the format beginning on page 3. It’s expanded double wide. Very annoying.