Quick Seaside Observations (YC) from mid-June

We just got back from our Florida trip and were on Seaside June 9-16 in YC. Our overall impression was great! DH said that he would love to sail again, but only in YC.

- We were very pleased with our YC balcony room. It fit 4 of us nicely. It was both longer and wider than even a mini-suite on Princess, and had the biggest bathroom we have ever had on a cruise ship (other than a full suite on Princess). It was about the size of the Disney split bathrooms, but all in one room, with a gorgeous glass-walled shower (with tiled bench). There were plenty of toiletries (tubes of shampoo, conditioner, etc.) and washcloths in the room.

- Gelato is wonderful! The gelato bars are supposed to be included in the YC package, but they would only give them to us at the Deck 16 gelato place. At the South Beach pool they argued with us and said they were a charge and it wasn't worth the fuss.

- Crepes are NOT included. They are also at the South Beach pool, where they wanted to charge me for everything except straight gelato.

- Pizza is very good. I found out that every day at 4 pm they serve fresh pizza at the YC pool grill, so no need to go to the buffet if you do not want to do so! They also serve the most wonderful fresh-baked cookies at 4 pm. Be there to make sure you don't miss out!

- At dinner the first night we told our waiter that we wanted to 'eat fast'. She said that it was no problem as long as we arrived early. We like early dining, so we were there at 5:45 every day, and always done by 7 pm. No problem, even on dress-up night. So you won't be subjected to 2.5 hour meals unless that is what you want.

- We made reservations for the shows on the first day. No problems.

- There were 3,300 English-speakers on board and 400 Spanish-speakers. Then smaller numbers (less than 20) of other language groups. I don't know if Seaside has reached a tipping point with European visitors, or if it was the time of year that had fewer Europeans onboard.

- Trivia was well done,. but in a tiny, noisy area in front of Venchi. Perhaps it would have been better the previous weeks, with fewer English-speakers onboard, so fewer people present?

- Towels are in your room for use at the pool, but we never brought them. The attendants would give them out, or you could just take them from the mirrored wooden cabinets behind the YC grill.

- YC food was excellent! We always enjoyed our meals there. The kids enjoyed eating at the YC pool grill a lot, and occasionally the buffet. Honestly though, the YC restaurant is like a specialty restaurant. We found no need (other than our Black Card meal) to pay for specialty restaurants when we had the YC dining room available).

- We ate at Butcher's Cut for our free Black Card meal. It was nice, but they really messed up my steak. I ordered medium rare and it was well done. It was so dry that I had to tell them to re-do it. Then they sent it rare, but by that point I just ate it. It was good otherwise. I also had overdone steak in the YC dining room... ordered medium rare and got well done. I think MSC is still figuring out how to make steaks more rare. I believe Europeans tend to like them more well done...? Or is that just in the UK?

- The zip line is a let down. It is super slow, and my husband was lucky to get on it after a 90 minute wait one day. The rest of us never rode it, because it was always closed. If there is the slightest bit of wind it gets closed. Not worth paying extra for, but since it was included with YC, my husband wanted to try it once.

- The interactive waterslide game was disabled, because the boards you ned to ride to play the game were getting stuck in the tubes. The slides were still open, but they used inner tubes and the game didn't work with them.

If there are any questions, I am happy to answer!

Also, we had a room for 5 (even though we were only 4). This is what our room looked like with the extra berths.

The pull out couch was very large and 2 people can definitely fit (see picture to compare it to the size of the 1-person bunk). My 17-year-old daughter slept on the couch bed all week and said that the mattress was thick and very comfy.

the pull out couch was very large and 2 people can definitely fit (see picture to compare it to the size of the 1-person bunk). My 17-year-old daughter slept on the couch bed all week and said that the mattress was thick and very comfy.

Thank you so much for sharing the photos of the sofa bed that really helps us a lot we're also a family of 4 2 adults 2 kids.

Did your kids use the kids club?

Sad to hear that the crepes are not included :loudcry::loudcry: i love crepes and got so excited about reading on here that they were included.

Did you use the butler for any special requests?

Did you happen to see donuts anywhere? (My little one loves donuts)

Thanks for sharing. It looks like a tight fit between the bed and the slider to the balcony. We are also a party of 4 adults. If I may ask, what room were you in?

I'm surprised about your experience with the different gelato servers. We were never charged at any of them no matter what we ordered including shakes, various sizes/flavors, etc.

Thanks for the sleeping arrangement for 5 pictures. I'm planning a large group and 1 familt is 5 (I might split them, however). BTW, which stateroom was it?

I never waited for more than 5 minutes (if that) for the zipline even though only 1 was open. I agree about the strange hours (even while docked) when it seemed to be closed down until 3pm or something.

Thanks for your report.

Great review and very helpful as we sail on Seaside mid July

Did you have a problem getting served gelato at Venchi also? what about drinks at Venchi and the other bars across the ship?

Where there many children on the ship?

What about In the YC?

If you had dinner before 6 pm, what time did you make reservations for the shows?

How was the casino?

:hearteyes:

I was a little disappointed at the passenger mix. I was looking forward to a higher percentage of European passengers in two weeks.

Dennis

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Thanks for the info. We are set for next March and June. Crepes on Divinia were also extra charge. Not much on MSC for YC is extra though.

Cool for 4 p.m. pizza.

Did you book that room outright and if so, how far out? MSC not letting us book a 5 person room for 4 but we just ended up adding a YIN for the March trip.

Are the pool towels still the inmate orange?

I'm surprised about your experience with the different gelato servers. We were never charged at any of them no matter what we ordered including shakes, various sizes/flavors, etc.

 

 

This surprised me too. Haven't sailed with MSC yet, but will in January in YC. Their chart showing what's included with all the different liquor packages clearly states that both gelato and crepes are included with the Deluxe, or whatever it is we get in the YC, package. Milkshakes too. Really bugs me when there are inconsistencies like this. And I've seen it on other cruise lines as well.

I asked the YC concierge on the first day and they called and confirmed that ALL ice cream (gelato) is included. This includes the chocolate-covered gelato bars. BUT, the South Beach pool gelato station always argued with us and said that it was only straight gelato. The Deck 16 gelato station gave us the bars. The Venchi chocolate store gave us gelato and hot chocolate and milkshakes. But the YC concierge (and the South Beach pool bar) both said that the crepes were not included.

We never had any trouble getting drinks elsewhere.

My kids are teens and used the teen club. My son especially enjoyed the video games, and made friends there as they all competed in the games. But I gather some parents complained that the kids were playing too many video games and didn't have 'activities', so they weren't allowed to use the consoles in the teen club after that, and my son stopped going. There was a teen pool party, but it was very lightly attended and my son (who is a very social kid) said it wasn't fun.

The room was 18025, which is a YC1 deluxe balcony. It was actually very wide, so although it looks like very little room next to the couch bed , the sliding door was actually AFTER the end of the bed. In other words, the bed ended before the balcony door open space began. So there were a few feet between the end of the bed and the wall/cabinets. NO PROBLEM getting to the balcony with all of the beds out.

I booked the room through a TA. I had to add a 'ghost child' to the reservation, otherwise they would not allow us to book a room with 5 berths. I canceled the 'ghost child' at final payment, and we stayed in the room. We had to tell the steward to take out the top bunk, because he was going to only pull out the couch bed.

We did not make any special requests of the butler, except to ask him to get the steward to our room. We had a mediocre steward. Not bad, just not good.

I do not recall seeing donuts anywhere, but there were lots of pastries at breakfast and those fresh cookies at 4 pm.

We did not use the casino, only walked through it occasionally. The section near the exit to the South Beach pool had a strong smoke smell. Actually, it probably wasn't *that* strong a smell, but we really noticed it, because we aren't used to smelling cigarette smoke anywhere anymore.

Our show reservations were at 8 pm (for the evening shows). We also reserved some of the afternoon shows. The Beerprov family shows were very good, but I never stayed up late enough for the adult shows.

YC pool towels are now a nice navy blue. The ones in the regular area were a beige color, and the Aurea sundeck had white ones.

There were quite a few children onboard, and yes, there were a number in the YC. Not overwhelming numbers, but there always seemed to be at least 10 kids in the YC pool in the afternoons. It didn't bother us, as we preferred the hot tubs.

Thank you for coming back and answering our questions.:)

Thank you for coming back and answering our questions.:)

It's the least I can do after all of the great information I received on these boards! Thanks to Cruise Critic, I knew what to expect and what to do. My family was amazed by how much I knew about this ship/line we had never sailed before!

You mention afternoon shows. First I've heard of that.

What kind of shows are there?

You mention afternoon shows. First I've heard of that.

 

What kind of shows are there?

At 4 on on Sea Days they would have family Beerprov in the main theatre. It was very good! We went to all 3 shows.

What time did you embark?

Any problem finding the Yacht Club awning?

Thanks for the review and i agree the YC is fabulous and now we are spoiled.

Thanks for posting your review! We will be sailing in the YC in September. Can't wait!!

What time did you embark?

 

Any problem finding the Yacht Club awning?

No problem finding the YC awning. It is right before the main terminal as the traffic moves along. I was keeping an eye out for it as we drove and was easily able to view it, knowing what I was looking for.

We were late (we slept in) and didn't arrive until about 11:30. Most people had arrived before us, so we had a wait in the YC area to check in. The people in the terminal said that it was usually busy in the mornings for check-in, and seemed surprised by that. My guess is that since there weren't a lot of Europeans on this cruise, there weren't a lot of people checking in late because they flew in that same day. But we were still onboard by 12:340 and eating lunch in the YC dining room by 1:00 pm.

Also, we had a room for 5 (even though we were only 4). This is what our room looked like with the extra berths.

 

 

 

The pull out couch was very large and 2 people can definitely fit (see picture to compare it to the size of the 1-person bunk). My 17-year-old daughter slept on the couch bed all week and said that the mattress was thick and very comfy.

Do you happen to have any more photos of the room and YC areas? We are looking at booking that exact room 18025

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Thanks for the pics of the 5th bed...we are booked in 18047 in a little over a week! We are a party of 5 and trying to figure out sleeping arrangements, and the pics help!

My DD and I are lobster fanatics...earlier postings said the YC Grille served it every other day, but more recent postings seem to indicate only on the Friday of the sailing. Can you share your insight, pls?:cool:

Do you happen to have any more photos of the room and YC areas? We are looking at booking that exact room 18025

I don't have other ones at the moment, but it looked very similar to the other YC balcony pics/videos we have seen here on Cruise Critic and Youtube. The only differences were having the 5 berths (see pictures above) and the connecting door. The connecting door was located on the wall behind the main entrance door to the cabin. so it didn't bother us at all, and we didn't lose out on any cabinet/closet space. It should make no difference to you (unless, of course, you are using it to connect to the handicapped cabin next door).

In the daytime, the steward put the couch back, and the upper berth was completely in the ceiling, so the cabin was very similar to the other YC balcony cabins. As an example, the room was very much like this one, except the orientation was backward (in 18025 the bathroom was on the right as you entered the cabin, as were the bed and couch, while the wall/cabinets/desk were on the left).

Psmarkle, I'm sorry, I don't eat seafood so I wasn't paying attention to lobster. I don't recall seeing it at the YC pool grill, although they did have 2 or 3 different kinds of grilled fish there for lunch every day. They did have lobster 2 or 3 times on the dinner menu, usually as a 'surf and turf' type option.

No lobster at grill after lobster night on this sailing. I only noticed lobster on the YC menu once, on the second formal night. Only missed one meal in restaurant, unless it as repeated for lunch as I mostly ate at the grill by the pool.

Thank you for the info!

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