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MSC Seaside Review 6/2-6/9 (Yacht Club)


GMS4771
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I am doing the review for the MSC Seaside 6/2 through 6/9 Yacht Club Room 18028.

 

 

A little Background: This was our 11 cruise, 1st on MSC. We have sailed Carnival (Captains Suite on the Liberty), NCL Escape (Owners Suite Deluxe), Royal Caribbean Oasis (Royal Suite)

 

 

 

Embarkation: a complete breeze, we got there at around 11:30, went straight to the white tent (Yacht Club) and luggage was taken right there and escorted by a butler to the yacht club waiting area. We were served finger foods, champagne/mamosa's until our name was called for check in, once we checked in we were escorted again by a butler to the Concierge area on Deck 16 and did the credit card check in there and then we were turned loose. We were on the ship and through all the check ins by 1pm. The butlers work as a team (all in tux/tails).

 

 

Once we were on we explored the Yacht Club area, Lounge was huge (in comparison to Carnival (none), Royal Caribbean and NCL Haven. They have piano and violin music playing often (especially in the evening). They have a very nice outside area right through the lounge and the views are magnificent (this area is on top of the bridge). Then we worked our way up to the restaurant which is up the diamond embedded stairs. Good size.

 

 

The up to Deck 19 (private area for Yacht Club) and it is great. Good size private pool, two hot tubs and a ton of lounge chairs (all padded) and cabanas all around (these would have to be rented for $59 for days at ports and $99 for days at sea. They include a ton of things too. Pool is salt water and is 6'3" deep so unless you are very tall, hang on the sides or tread water. The hotubs are not salt. There are ACTUALLY lifeguards here that enforce rules. Some parents would drop their kids here (12-13 yr olds, then leave for hours, I guess they assumed the other families and pool staff were babysitters, well then only happened for 2 days until someone said something, the next day they told the parents one of them had to stay) There is a bar up here too along with a buffet. Pool staff and Butlers are all over taking orders for you.

 

 

Yacht Club rooms (Deluxe Suites), very good size, plenty of storage and stuff left every night in the room from chocolates, macaroons, fruit, champagne and a bowl so big of grapes (I think its a Julius Ceasar thing). Bathroom was a good size, shower was great. In terms of size compared to the rooms listed above it was the smallest, BUT it was a perfect size for a couple. Not to mention the rooms above cost up to 5 times the cost of this room (Royal Suite was 16k)

 

 

Yacht Club as a whole was fabulous, only a few small hiccups. Formal nights (nights at sea), the restaurant is very busy. Plan on 2-2.5 hours+ for dinner. The Maitre D (Giuseppe) will do anything to make your experience better. Never have I seen this much on a cruise (his employees know he will come down hard on them) so they are all over things.

 

 

 

The group that supports the yacht club is an amazing group of people, from the Maitre D, to the butlers, to the stewards, concierge, pool staff, all of them AMAZING!!

 

 

Specialty Restaurants: We did every one of them (we bought the Trio and then the Teppanyaki seperate). Excellent Food!!! all of them. It was so worth the $79 (I think its higher now), but SO WORTH IT. They were relatively empty every time we went, I dont know why. One meal a la carte was about $70 a person, so its kind of like buy 1 get 2 free. Yes the menu's were fixed, but plenty to choose from and you can substitute for 50% off the normal price, so at the Pan Asian restaurant I got a $4 Calamari appetizer....:-)

 

 

The Ship was amazing, beautiful. We did pictures with the family on formal nights, you have to leave the Yacht Club area, but there are a lot of photo stations. Casino was nice, didnt seem very crowded ever. The chocolate bar was great, free chocolate martinis for Yacht Club members.

 

 

 

Ports: Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Nassau. I wont go into details for excursions, but the service on/off the ship and tender was first class. Escorted by butlers all the time. Lines?? What lines?? There were some long ones too.

 

 

Debarkation: Again escorted off the ship and we were off in 15 minutes with our luggage. This was out mistake, we made arrangements for a shuttle and we had to wait 45 minutes for that. If you dont mind they have buses for $7/person to take you to the airport right when you get off.

 

 

As a whole, the Ship, the Staff, the Food we have MSC #1 (the room size was very good even thought the smallest of the premium rooms weve had), the cost was WAY TOO GOOD to pass up. so MSC moves up to #1 even higher, if that makes sense.

 

 

 

A few tips: Use your wrist band, theyre free for Yacht Club. You can prioritize the elevators, forward ship, to take you right to the Yacht Club, but we never did, didnt want to start a fight. Free Gelato..very good!!! Zip Line were free (fun) and water slides were a blast. Highly recommend doing these while at port. No lines and can go down multiple times.

 

 

We are already booked again for next year, same ship, different itinerary. With these prices and the amenities you receive, I dont see us switching from MSC for a while. Eventually I see them raising prices, but for now get it while you can. I just found out their private island, Ocean Cay (Nassau) wont be open until late 2019, so that a bummer because it was supposed to be ready late 2018.

 

 

Any questions, please feel free to ask.

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Did you make reservations for the shows?

 

Seeing that dinner can take a while, if we were to have dinner around 6:00, what time would you suggest we make our show reservations for?

 

 

 

BTW: Thank You for your review.

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We were on the same cruise also in YC and agree with all your comments. The YC concept is exceptional and in my opinion provides some of the best cruise value out there. We usually cruise in suites on Celebrity or Azamara and have four booked through late 2019 but although both X and AZ have good products I don’t think that they compare in terms of value for money. We’ve just booked the whole family in YC for a March 2020 cruise. Here’s hoping that the current quality can be maintained.

 

 

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GREAT REVIEW GMS!!

 

As someone who has spent more than 33 days in RCI Royal Suite and many others...I can heartily agree with your YC assessment. I think the MSC Yacht Club is the best thing to hit cruising in the 21st.. Century!

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Question. Just pouring over more info about MSC and Yacht Club. Does the dedicated YC restaurant only serve lunch and dinner and not breakfast?

 

Are the drinks only complimentary in the YC lounge or sun deck, or at all other bars on board? Does this include premium spirits?

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Question. Just pouring over more info about MSC and Yacht Club. Does the dedicated YC restaurant only serve lunch and dinner and not breakfast?

 

 

 

Are the drinks only complimentary in the YC lounge or sun deck, or at all other bars on board? Does this include premium spirits?

 

 

 

The dedicated restaurant is open for breakfast. They also serve a nice breakfast at the pool bar.

 

Drinks are included at all bars,venues. Not sure whether it is labeled premium but covers high quality though not super luxe.

 

 

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Question. Just pouring over more info about MSC and Yacht Club. Does the dedicated YC restaurant only serve lunch and dinner and not breakfast?

 

Are the drinks only complimentary in the YC lounge or sun deck, or at all other bars on board? Does this include premium spirits?

 

The YC restaurant is open for all three meals. Drinks all over the ship are included with the exception of ultra premium ones. Not just alcoholic ones but all water, speciality coffee,gelato, crepes.

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Did you make reservations for the shows?

 

Seeing that dinner can take a while, if we were to have dinner around 6:00, what time would you suggest we make our show reservations for?

 

 

 

BTW: Thank You for your review.

 

 

We did make reservations for the shows, we didnt use the concierge for this, we used the MSC for me application. The later shows seemed to book much faster then the early shows.

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Question: Someone told me the YC restaurant only has very large circular tables that seat 8-12, no tables of 2 or even 4 ? Is that correct ? Thanks!

 

 

No this is not correct, there were tables for 2 and 4, in fact there are less tables for more. There was only 1 table that can handle 10 people. If you need a larger table, let the Maitre d know and what time you are shooting for

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GMS...thanks for the review. So excited for our sailing in July! You mentioned buses being available for transport to the airport for $7pp...do you arrange that with the YC concierge ahead of time? Where are these buses located? This sounds like a pretty good deal.

 

 

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GMS...thanks for the review. So excited for our sailing in July! You mentioned buses being available for transport to the airport for $7pp...do you arrange that with the YC concierge ahead of time? Where are these buses located? This sounds like a pretty good deal.

 

 

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No we pre booked another shuttle, but right when we walked out of customs, there were MSC employees offering the bus ride back to the airport, no reservations required, wish we would have known ahead of time

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Great Review. This will be our first time on MSC too and we are booked in the YC. As to the Trio...did you pre-book or book once onboard?

 

 

We pre booked everything, Trio Dinner Package (well worth the $79 we paid, or $89 now I think), we pre booked the internet, family package (6GB) for like $127 and we pre-booked our excursions. I will say one thing about excursions..the prices on board are higher, only reason we know is you get your excursion tickets the night before left in your room by your butler, we had pre booked the VIP Blue Lagoon Beach Break for 5 adults and 2 children through the website and to find out its an 18+ excursion, so they had to call us down to pick a new excursion. I pushed back and asked how would we be allowed to pre book this excursion for 2 children if children arent allowed? After a few Im very disappointed, we got 25% off the new excursion we selected. They do try to make it right!! If I had one complaint about MSC, it would be their website, but the pain is worth the pleasure for that. :-)

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I did forget to mention, if you do like to tip, on top of the normal service gratuities, it goes a long way. Im not saying its required, but for the first time in a long time, I felt the Yacht Club folks deserved extra for the service they provided. Bartenders, wait staff, etc...and they remember...that may have something to do with the level of service we received. Concierge can break larger bills for singles and fives. Example: We wanted guacamole and there didnt seem to be any. Our butler, Muhammed, searched the ship and found avacados and brought them to us, he then found some cilantro and brought that and we made our own right on Deck 19. We had others coming up and asking where we found out. Once we told them how, they asked if we would make them some and would tip us...lol...fun experience!!

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Thanks again for your great review. Lots of helpful info for someone like me who is completely new to MSC.

 

I agree about the prices. My husband and I started sailing in suites when the nest became empty back in 2012, and we weren't paying anymore for our daughters to be in their own interior room. We still both work full time and don't live in Florida near a port, so we don't cruise as often as some of the people here on CC. The suite thing has become fun for us, and since we know we'll never make the highest levels of any line (unless we upped our game...but we like to do other vacations as well), we're not completely loyal to anyone. I was looking at NCL Haven, but wasn't crazy about the room lay out with a round bed in the center of the room. Almost forgot about MSC, but it popped up in my NCL research.

 

The room I've booked on Seaside looks similar to a Sky Suite on Celebrity, probably my favorite so far, and maybe a tiny bit smaller than an JS on some RC ships. We've sailed in up to Owner's Suites on RC, but still had to pay for our drink packages, unless we wanted to drink in the concierge lounge, which was VERY crowded (people lining up before 4pm) with limited hours and menu. While an OS is a big and beautiful room, for 2 people it just seemed like way more than we needed. Grand Suites on RC are nice, but again, drinks aren't included outside of the concierge lounge, so you end up spending more. Our last couple of cruises have been in Sky Suites on X, and those were booked with promos that included everything, including $300 obc, which was nice. Really liked their suite restaurant and Michael's Club.

 

Anyway, the room on MSC that we've booked, YC Deluxe Suite, looks just about perfect, especially the shower. Prefer that over a tub. I also really like the YC interior room option. Something like that would be perfect for a mother/daughter cruise.

 

While you were on your cruise, did you notice if they offer any specials for booking while on board that included things like internet and OBC?

 

Sorry for the long post. As you can tell, I'm super excited to be trying MSC. Thanks again for all your info.

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Thanks again for your great review. Lots of helpful info for someone like me who is completely new to MSC.

 

I agree about the prices. My husband and I started sailing in suites when the nest became empty back in 2012, and we weren't paying anymore for our daughters to be in their own interior room. We still both work full time and don't live in Florida near a port, so we don't cruise as often as some of the people here on CC. The suite thing has become fun for us, and since we know we'll never make the highest levels of any line (unless we upped our game...but we like to do other vacations as well), we're not completely loyal to anyone. I was looking at NCL Haven, but wasn't crazy about the room lay out with a round bed in the center of the room. Almost forgot about MSC, but it popped up in my NCL research.

 

The room I've booked on Seaside looks similar to a Sky Suite on Celebrity, probably my favorite so far, and maybe a tiny bit smaller than an JS on some RC ships. We've sailed in up to Owner's Suites on RC, but still had to pay for our drink packages, unless we wanted to drink in the concierge lounge, which was VERY crowded (people lining up before 4pm) with limited hours and menu. While an OS is a big and beautiful room, for 2 people it just seemed like way more than we needed. Grand Suites on RC are nice, but again, drinks aren't included outside of the concierge lounge, so you end up spending more. Our last couple of cruises have been in Sky Suites on X, and those were booked with promos that included everything, including $300 obc, which was nice. Really liked their suite restaurant and Michael's Club.

 

Anyway, the room on MSC that we've booked, YC Deluxe Suite, looks just about perfect, especially the shower. Prefer that over a tub. I also really like the YC interior room option. Something like that would be perfect for a mother/daughter cruise.

 

While you were on your cruise, did you notice if they offer any specials for booking while on board that included things like internet and OBC?

 

Sorry for the long post. As you can tell, I'm super excited to be trying MSC. Thanks again for all your info.

 

 

 

We didnt book again while on board, but booked again when we got home. If you didnt do the status match program I HIGHLY recommend you do. For example we had Silver and Black before we even stepped on the ship and the Black got some perks, like a Specialty Dinner for 2 free. Having said that, when we booked again we got a 15% discount on the next cruise because of the Voyager Club. It was even better then the last cruise we did (which we got police and military discount) price wise $100 less and we got an OBC because of the Voyager status. So I dont know if there are additional specials to book while on board (cant hurt to ask). $127 for 6GB of internet was more then enough for 2 of us, in fact we had 2GB left and did a lot of social media posting during the cruise and I didnt think that was too high of a price and the speeds were very good. (Uploaded some videos too, like the Bridge of Sighs...hope you like heights....lol

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