Mikesa1721

Congrats, Mike!

 

On both 1000 posts and sailing in YC. :)

They looked very nice from outside.

 

 

And we are finally home, after 22 hour drive.

Thank You Tatka!!!!! I've driven up to Upstate New York quite a few times so I know what that ride is like. Hoping to hear more about your trip aboard Divina once you recover from the long ride!!!:D

YC snob..............:D

You're gonna be up there one of these days Aussie,,,just wait and see!!!!:D:D And I just hit 1000 posts!!!! Yayyyyyyy!!!!

In our cruise it was from 9:45 pm near main pool on White out party.

I have my photo taken with him there. I will post it when I reach home (we are still driving)

Excellent Clue Tatka!!!! Thank You so much for that info!!! Yes,,Tuesday night,,

Cigars Under The Stars from 9:45pm - 10:45pm at The Aqua Park. We didn't attend though,,we had met with Captain Scala at The Yacht Club Welcome Party, and then again at another cocktail party later in the week.

Mike, a place you might meet the Captain is the smoking lounge, we saw him in there one day!:)

American,,,Captain Scala announced something about cigars under the stars one night. I'm looking through my Daily's but haven't found it yet. I thought he did this in the Cigar Lounge on Thursday night, have to see if I can find some more info about it.

Was om MSC Poesia 3 years ago out of NYC.. Every message was in 5 languages. Thinking of taking MSC Divina . How many languages are used for passengers daily?

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Sy

Five languages Sybird, when Captain Scala makes his very infrequent announcements. These announcements are usually only heard in the common areas of the ship and not in your stateroom.

So Captain Scala's a nice guy.............wonder if he would be up to reversing the itinerary?......I'd rather have GSC up first and have the two sea days home to recoup......:D

That would definitely be a better itinerary Aussie!!! Nothing like spending your day at GSC only to get back on this ship knowing you have to pack all your things. Horrible feeling I tell you!!!

Hi Mike after all the hours the crew works I don't think they will there early to exercise. Mike are you making that YC tempting, wow!!!!!!!!

Love The Yacht Club Riclop!!! Stay there once and you'll never want to stay anywhere else!!!:D

Nice to hear from you, Mike! I wish you a great next cruise on pretty girl Divina. I would also try Musica class, very pretty and cozy ships.

 

We usually do not repeat ships, so we will wait new MSC ships hear in US.

 

I think it would be great if MSC added more ellipticals to their gym. There are only four machines and they are not standard. They do have built in TV and games. Gym opens at 6am, so I had to be there very early to be able to use elliptical.

I have a feeling after our Trans-Atlantic trip, we will be doing a Med cruise next. We're getting kind of bored with the Caribbean. My girlfriend Kim wants to see Greece and more of Italy, but I have a feeling after next year,,sailing from Venice will be a thing of the past. We love the Fantasia class ships because of the Yacht Club, so hopefully we can find an itinerary that encompasses her wish list of ports.

I went into the gym one day looking around and noticed just about every machine was being used. I'm wondering if some of the crew aren't in there exercising?? Wonder if they have set hours they can use the gym?? Interesting questions I'll have to ask on our sailing in January.

We are boarding next Saturday and about to start packing. Could someone let me know if they have blow dryers in the rooms. I hoping the do since it would be one less thing to pack.

Cathy

 

 

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Yes Thecat,,all staterooms have a hair dryer in them. :D

Now we also returned. :( Could have stayed on Divina for several more weeks!

 

- Entertainment puts other lines to shame.

- Ship is the prettiest out of all

- Food is good for the most part. Evening buffet is kind of weak.

- Entertainment by the pool is non-stop. Fun to watch and to participate.

 

- Crowd was a bit different than on Poesia, but still very international. I had nice conversations with people from Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Russia, South Africa. :)

 

I missed announcements in five languages, but our great captain put some great show congratulating guests in 10 or more languages. Captain Scala is great comedian!

I'm so happy you had a great time Tatka!!!!! We said the same thing when we disembarked last Saturday. I can only imagine how hard it is going to be for us when we have to disembark Divina after our 19 day repo sailing in October 2015.

I don't want to even think about that,,just want to be back onboard right now, but we have another 146 days before we can do that again.

We met a lot of great people onboard,,especially a wonderful family from Manchester who we are in contact with almost every day, and will be visiting for a few days before we fly to Genoa for our TA sailing. We loved meeting people from all over the world and it sounds like you do to Tatka!!

Captain Scala is wonderful as well,,,love his sense of humor, and he is so approachable and easy to talk to. I'm hoping one of these sailings we get to have dinner with him just so we can talk in more of a casual setting.:D

I think this is brilliant. Does the kids club take the kids to the shows as part of a group?

 

 

 

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Yes RSLeesburg,,,They all go as a group and sit together. :D

Mike, You've mentioned this before, can you explain to me the rationale of squirmy 5 year olds getting the best seats in the house? Seems like it would be distracting to the performers and unfair to the adults. Is the thinking that they are too short to see over the adults? Not being mean, it just seems like a lose, lose proposition to me. :confused:

Yes Maureen,,MSC reserves a section of the front row for the kids club. They only do this for the late show so the little one's can see. They don't reserve that many seats, so there is still front row seating available for the adults.

oh dear so people that travel YC have special sizing on clothes too.........I'm shocked..............hopefully you know my aussie sense of humor is just "joshing"....as in kidding.........but it's still funny.........you buy special stuff for cruises........I'm thinking you uber rich are keeping the price up for us modest bees........just sayin....

C'mon Aussie!!! I can't afford to pay attention and definitely can't afford to shop at Saks Of Fifth Avenue at The Waterside Shops. They really do have great deals at the Ralph Lauren outlet store at Miromar plus I get their coupons e-mailed to me to save even more. I found some good deals at the Neiman Marcus outlet store as well. The Saks outlet never has anything good though!!!

Keys,,here is the list of activities that were available for our 3 and a half year old nephew the week of August 23rd:

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We plan to have a full day shopping there, we normally go to premium outlets when we are in Orlando last year we got 4 pairs of Levis for the same cost of one pair here.

 

Judith

We have them here in Naples as well Tigger. I like the Ralph Lauren Outlet, Saks of Fifth Avenue Outlet, and the Neiman Marcus Outlet as well,,,they have some great deals if you can find things in your size however.:D

Thanks Mike I'm sure we won't want to leave after 14 days of being pampered but we plan to go to sawgrass mills and my sister is heading up to Orlando once we have picked up our hire cars at the airport so probably be on the go early.

 

Judith

I think you'll enjoy SawGrass!!! We go over every now and then and walk through the shops!!!

hscruiser,,,AWESOME blog!!!! I love how this was created and want to thank you for giving me this idea for my reviews in the future.

We were on the MSC Divina next to you in port, and thought you might appreciate some of the photos I took of The Norwegian Getaway as we pulled into port:

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Hey, Mike....did you ever find out if write-ins or call-ins could get you something delivered that was not listed on the room service menu?

 

Trish

There you are Tipsy!!!! Yes I did,,,I tried ordering pancakes for breakfast for my nephew in 12006,,I was told that those items were not available on the room service menu but are available at either the buffet or the MDR. I'm sorry this was not the answer you were hoping for,,,but try it on your sailing,,perhaps you may better luck than I did. I never tried it in the YC,,,we always went to the buffet at The One Bar for breakfast, which is a shame because I heard the breakfast at LeMuse was fabulous.

Hi Mike

 

How long did it take to disembark the Divina we are thinking about booking a transfer to the airport but not sure what time. Do we leave with the rest of the ship or is it separate.

 

Judith

Tigger,,,this is what we loved the most about sailing in the Yacht Club besides the excellent food and service,,,,Our butler escorted us to the disembarkation area of the ship and from there we walked to the luggage area with the other passengers. All Yacht Club luggage is pulled off the belts and arranged in areas away from all of the other luggage. Once you walk downstairs, a representative will ask you if you are "Yacht Club" and he will help you find your luggage and call a porter for you. The porter will put all of your luggage on a cart and follow you all the way through customs and out to the curb. We disembarked the ship at 8:45am,,we were standing on the curb waiting for our cousins at 9:00am. :D

Thanks for the quick reply! Unfortunately, we will just miss him! We sail on Oct. 11th. Hopefully his replacement will be just as good!

Oh noooo!!!! Frederic,,once you sail, could you please stop back here and let me know who Johnny's replacement was??? I'm hoping he will be back in December but want to prepare my girlfriend in the event that he is not.:)

Hello...

 

Looking for any input on sailing with a five year old. We have a wonderful opportunity to cruise with family in December, but will have to make a decision in the morning if we want to secure a good rate. I will continue to scour the boards, but does anyone have any input, good or bad, as to if there are things to occupy him. We have all traveled before (on Disney), but welcome any opportunity to cruise. :)

 

We are the type of travelers that make the best out of any situation, but it would be nice if there were some kid activities.

 

Thanks in advance for your input!!!

We had our 3 and a half year old nephew with us onboard last week and he had a blast!!! Mom and Dad never really brought him to the kids club very often for the same reasons you have stated, but everyday he wanted to know when he was going back to his club. The counselors did a great job keeping the little ones entertained,,they even get front row seats to all of the late shows in the Pantheon Theatre!!!

Hi Mike, one more question for you. We will be staying in the YC3 suite. Do you know if we are allowed to have a small cocktail party in our room (with other YC guests)? I know on other cruise lines, this is something you can request in a suite and the butler will prepare a little spread. Thanks!

Frederic,,as Pete had posted above,,,I see no problems at all,,,but just so everything goes according to plan,,talk to either Thomas or Jessica,,the concierge, about your plans and they can help arrange whatever you'd like. When are you sailing btw??? If you're sailing before September 27th, Johnny will be your butler. He takes care of 10 stareooms,,16009 through 16010. Johnny is spectacular!!!

We are also on the October 18 sailing and have not received the documents. We received the docs for the May 3 sailing in mid-March from the travel agent; the upcoming sailing was booked directly with MSC. What I find really irritating is that I cannot locate any place on the website to request the docs. I go into my dashboard, but can't "add my reservation" because it does not like my first name :mad: Web check-in does accept my first name. Anybody sense a bit of frustration here? Love the ship, hate the website.

Hey neighbor!!!! If you've made your reservation through a travel agent or with an MSC personal vacation consultant,,you won't be able to add your reservation when you access your dashboard. I can access my January sailing, only because I reserved it on-line, through the website and not with a pvc. It is irritating,,especially when you have a few sailings booked like we have.

What's a PVC?

As an Organic Chemist by profession it means ..PolyVinylChloride.... to me

 

 

I'll hazard a guess at ............Personal Vacation Consultant............., what we call a TA...Travel Agent . which can mean a shop/business (highstreet or online) where you purchase holidays ,or. the person who gives the advice and books the holiday for you in the shop.

 

 

Pete

Haaaaa!!!! Personal Vacation Consultant

That will all change when you get "experiences" in the US B3 and S well become Aurea

They start with Oct sailings in Europe

 

 

BELLA

FLEXIBILITY

Preference of cabin* (subject to availability)

Choice of dinner seating (subject to availability)

 

FANTASTICA

FLEXIBILITY

Preference of cabin* (subject to availability)

Opportunity to choose among the best cabins available

Maximum flexibility in booking** (changing passenger name, changing dates)

Opportunity to book a Super-Family cabin for the whole family (where this cabin type is available)

Choice of dinner seating (subject to availability)

Priority in choice of dinner seating

 

 

AUREA

FLEXIBILITY

Preference of cabin* (subject to availability)

Opportunity to choose among the best cabins available

Maximum flexibility in booking** (changing passenger name, changing dates)

Free time dining in a dedicated area of the restaurant

 

Pete

Pete,,how do these packages apply to Divina when she sails from Genoa??? We booked the Repo from Genoa to Miami and booked the Yacht Club,,,would pax who are booking in Europe have the ability to book those packages??