NCteacherlovescruising

Oh. I assumed we would travel by a taxi or bus.

We absolutely loved the yacht club and booked another while onboard! I don’t know why so many said the food was better on Celebrity. I quite enjoyed the food on MSC, but I’m not a foodie. Four of the 7 nights I had the filet, which was very tender and good. My husband is a more adventurous eater and he liked everything except their lasagna. The lobster was the largest we’ve ever been served on a cruise. We mostly stayed in the yacht club. We went to the theater most nights, and it was nice being escorted by a butler to our seats. They reserve seats for yacht clubs guests every night, not just on their gala night. I found their two biggest shows better than what we’ve seen on X. We also left our area to get gelato, shopping and I got my hair done 3 times. Beyond that, I felt no reason to leave the YC. We had access to the thermal spa but never used it. We made some friends on the ship and enjoyed chilling with them in the lounge. The pool deck was amazing!! The pool was never crowded, there were plenty of loungers and service was excellent. We didn’t even have to leave for lunch because the YC grill was right there. Their private island, Ocean Cay was beautiful! It made for two free port days too, because everything was included, including the YC restaurant and beach service. I mentioned we booked another YC cruise while onboard. That makes 3 Mediterranean cruises booked for next summer. We plan to cancel the Barcelona to Rome with Celebrity (sunset sky suite) and keep the other two. The first is NCL Athens to Rome with friends. We just have a standard balcony cabin, but it’s also 9 ports in 9 days! It has an awesome itinerary! Then round trip Naples in the yacht club. We’re getting both for about $2,500 more than just the X cruise! We will have 5 days between cruises to explore by land. We will be in Europe most of next July. I almost forgot to mention their elevators. So awesome! We just summoned an elevator with our wrist band and it took us directly to our floor, without stopping to let others on. A sweet yacht club perk. Someone else mentioned others getting in the elevator with them. It wouldn’t do them any good because there are no buttons inside the elevator so it would have taken them to our floor. As for announcements in multiple languages, while it wouldn’t have bothered us, we only heard them in English. Perhaps it depends on where you are. We sailed out of Port Canaveral with mostly Americans. We realize next summer in Europe it will be very different.

We have a cruise booked on the Pearl exactly one year from today, Athens to Trieste. I see we are in Trieste our last port day until 11 PM and then disembark there the next morning. We would like to disembark the day prior so we don’t waste all those hours going back and forth to Venice. How do we arrange this? I’m sure there’s more to it than just bringing our stuff and just not showing back up. Lol

Thanks for all the tips! This will be the longest, most expensive vacation we’ve ever had. I will make a list of what I would like to do/where to say and see what my dh says. I will check Positano, but also Praiano and Sorrento, although I’ve heard day trips to Positano don’t allow for the true experience because of the crowds. How far is it from Positano and Amalfi? Is it expensive to get from one town to the next? Would the hotel savings be enough to make up for the extra travel expenses?

We received one on the last night.

Sounds like a good plan.

I’d prefer staying where in pretty. I’d love the classic post card scene, if we can fit it in our budget. Thank you! More than a day, most likely 2-3. It looks like our ship doesn’t dock on Naples until 1:00 so the first day won’t be a full one. I’d like to at least spend one night on the coast. Since this is the end of our trip, not not just a port stop, we do want to see Pompeii.

No idea how we plan to get around. Trains, taxi, walking, tour company. What’s best? Is Sorrento pretty? It sounds convenient.

No I don’t know that we will spend much time on Naples. I haven’t researched it at all yet. Seeing the Amalfi Coast is my top priority! While we are there we would like to see Pompeii too, so it sounds like that would be best to do on our way to the coast from Naples? I would love to stay somewhere along the Amalfi Coast overnight, but may just look into a full day tour from Naples if it’s too expensive. Which place is the most beautiful, yet still affordable? Is Naples cheaper to stay in than Positano or Amalfi? We haven’t decided where we will fly home from yet. It may depend on prices. I know Rome offers a direct flight to Charlotte, which would be nice. But then we would have to travel back there just to get on a flight.

After our cruise ends in Naples, we want to see the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. We will have about 3 days to do this. Where should we book a hotel? Not looking for a specific hotel yet, just the area we should stay in. Should we stay in Naples and do day trips or somewhere along the Amalfi coast? We will consider cost, as well as convenience.

Yes! He seemed like a very nice young man. I’m certain he will be a fantastic butler. That’s odd. I won’t go on to the Europa with that expectation then. I’m sure we will have some items that need attention.

The Seaside out of Port Canaveral. We went there for two days, sea day, Costa Maya, Cozumel, sea day, Port Canaveral.

That very well could be! We have never traveled in a suite before so we weren’t needy at all. They did have the afternoon tea yesterday, our last sea day. They put an invitation on our bed the night before. I was out by the pool reading so we didn’t attend. We had pizza delivered twice. It was ok. The second time I ordered pepperoni, sausage, bacon and ham and it came with pepperoni, raw bacon and hot dogs! 🤢 Oh wow! I read it somewhere online. Our butler also informed us when I inquired about how to go about it. It worked out perfectly because that was how many items we needed pressed. It was super convenient! We didn’t feel the need for specialty dining because we loved the suite restaurant. We took a tour of the thermal spa but never used it. I did get my hair done three times. Twice I got a wash and blow out and an updo on gala night. They were more expensive than Celebrity for blowouts. Well now ya do! 😁

Yes, service was outstanding! I don’t feel like we missed out on anything.

With the yacht club you get four items pressed free of charge.

No. Lol We’ve been there several times and it’s never crowded. An hour beach massage is only like $60 and it was amazing!! The taxi is $17 for two people, each way.

We saw our junior butler a lot more than our butler. They did leave us treats every night but we never ate them so I’m surprised they didn’t stop. We didn’t get any towel animals.

Ours never offered to do anything, except when I asked him about our clothes that needed pressed he bagged them and whisked them away. We didn’t do any ship tours, nor did he ever ask what our plans were. He gave us a card on the first day with the number for the concierge and told us to call him if we needed anything, which is what we did. The two men that introduced themselves as our butler and junior butler were the same two that cleaned our cabin daily. We did mention it was our first time sailing with MSC. They didn’t appear short staffed. We never waited to be assisted for anything on the ship. Our favorite server/butler (recently promoted but not assigned cabins yet) was Arnold from the Philippians. He always came to help us as soon as we entered Top Sail Lounge and insisted on carrying our glasses to our cabins one day when we decided to go back there to drink them.

Final day: I always hate the last day of a cruise. While I want to make the most of it, in the back of my mind I know it’s almost over. We didn’t see any interlopers at the seafood buffet today. I was looking after reading about them on here. Honestly, it seemed like we saw the same people over and over all week. I believe they said there were 184 YC guests on this cruise. I don’t know how many is typical. Tonight for dinner, I asked for the garlic and olive oil pasta from the MDR with a piece of grilled chicken and they were happy to oblige. It was good. My husband ordered the lasagna. He said it wasn’t very warm and he didn’t care for it. He thought maybe it got cold waiting for them to custom make my pasta. Maybe he’s correct. Our friend got it too, hers was hot and she said it was delicious. Tastes vary. We both ordered the lemon delight for dessert. It was the worst thing I tried on the ship. I was full so I didn’t care, otherwise I would have asked for something else. Service was excellent all week. P We went to Michael Jackson show tonight. It was really good and they got a standing ovation. Final thoughts: Sad to say goodbye to our new friends and to get off tomorrow, but we had a terrific cruise! I think we need to keep this MSC yacht club a secret to keep prices reasonable! The only negative either of us could think of was the pillows and beds weren’t to our liking. We still managed to sleep well every night, it was just hard to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. We do have a very expensive mattress at home so our expectations are high. The service was above and beyond anything we expected. I do wonder why they call them “butlers”. They were really just cabin stewards that would occasionally escort you places on the ship. Not even our own cabin steward. For instance, we would all wait at the concierge desk for some butler to escort us to the theater. If we needed anything we called the concierge. He set up my hair appointments and took our room service orders. The only thing our butler did was take our clothes that needed pressed and placed them in our closet when finished and cleaned our suite. This isn’t a complaint, just an observation. I guess I assumed the butler and cabin steward would be two separate people. Perhaps it’s different with an upper level suite. Don’t get me wrong, our every need was taken care of! We love MSC and very much look forward to our next cruise with them! They made me feel like a princess for the week.

Did they not have a yacht club section reserved at the shows? Good to hear! We just booked this for next summer. Was it only available the first night or did you only use it first night? We’re currently on a 7 night cruise that had two days at Ocean Cay. It was awesome!

Aw! We don’t gamble. We just left the pool deck for our balcony after frying for several hours. We haven’t left the YC much, outside of going to the theater, Venchi for gelato, shopping, hair salon 3 times, and just a quick ship tour. We never even used the thermal spa.

I don’t recall meeting a Laura and John. There are a few John’s in the YC though, including my husband. Speaking of dh, he’s currently eating the seafood pasta, which he says is very good. I’m not a huge seafood lover so from todays seafood buffet I had cod and salad. He also liked the seafood salad.

I don’t think it’s open at night. We usually head to Top Sail Lounge before and after dinner. Arnold, our favorite server/butler, told us about the white party. It wasn’t well announced. We told the couples we had been hanging out with. Communication is an area they could improve. I do wish they would leave the pool and hot tub open up here later at night.

Lol I haven’t seen anyone misbehaving!

Thanks! Yes, we agree now that we know how far it is from the ship. We plan to travel light. Second cruise is Naples, Messina, Malta, at sea, Barcelona, Marseille, Genoa, Naples (July 15-22) We just have to decide what’s most important for us to see between Venice, Tuscany, and Rome before we head to Naples. I’m hoping to spend a couple days in this area post cruise to see the Amalfi Coast and possibly Pompeii.