Celebrity cruiser tries MSC Yacht Club for first time

[helen haywood]

In Italy, 17 is an unlucky number.  In America it’s 13.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Thanks for your comparison.  I guess Wonder Man is not going to come back and do his.  It sounded like he didn't particularly care for the Yacht Club.

 

One thing you didn't mention which I think is wonderful is that you can get breakfast at the grill up by the pool.  Eggs cooked to order, etc.  Also, the mini bar includes snacks like Pringles and chocolate-covered peanuts.  All this is complimentary.  And you can have a full copy of the newspaper of your choice delivered every day.

[grandgeezer]

8 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

Thanks for your comparison.  I guess Wonder Man is not going to come back and do his.  It sounded like he didn't particularly care for the Yacht Club.

 

One thing you didn't mention which I think is wonderful is that you can get breakfast at the grill up by the pool.  Eggs cooked to order, etc.  Also, the mini bar includes snacks like Pringles and chocolate-covered peanuts.  All this is complimentary.  And you can have a full copy of the newspaper of your choice delivered every day.

It's nice to see another kindred spirit. It's no secret, that of the 46 cruises we've done the two 14 day cruises on the Seaside, were our favorites by a mile for the experience as well as the value. Speaking of value, we were looking for pricing for the Christmas/New Years time frame expecting Celebrity type price which would have nixed the plan. 14 Days, on the Seaside from December 22 until January 4, in a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite was just shy of $12k for the two of us, everything included. I check pricing for the Equinox and it was sold out. I checked the Edge and a Sky Suite was available for both weeks and they only wanted $30,742 for the two. That included taxes and all four perks so some of the loyalist would say it's so worth it. We are going to have a serious discussion tomorrow and if we can find decent airfare and hotels we might just do it.

One last thing, the most memorable thing about the cruise we got off of yesterday happened that morning at disembarkation.

We got off at 7:45 and due to some problem the express walk off didn't start until 5-10 minutes before that. Deck 6 was wall to wall people wanting to get off. The butler took us through deck 7, to the front elevators, where they had one set up for us to go to deck 6. While we were walking on deck 7 two younger couples figured out what was going on and joined us. The butler saw them and didn't say a word. When we got to the express lane to card out, he asked to see their YC cards and off course they didn't have them so he told them they had to use the regular line. They thought they could ignore him and attempted to go around him and the security guy scanning cards turned them away also. I thought the people in the front of the other line went crazy cheering and clapping. They left in a big huff to go to the back of the line of the line they belonged in to begin with.

I only mentioned this because it was nice to see some MSC employees stand up and enforce the rule. Too often they just look the other way rather than offending a paying customer.

[ipeeinthepool]

11 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

Thanks for your comparison.  I guess Wonder Man is not going to come back and do his.  It sounded like he didn't particularly care for the Yacht Club.

 

I believe in Wonderman.  He will return.

[Doubt It]

Interesting thread and excellent analysis by the posters.

 

People want different experiences, and all of us are fortunate to be able to cruise and to have a variety of cruise lines to choose from.

 

I am not interested in MSC in general nor the isolation of the "hotel" pod the YC.

 

When I cruised, I wished to be on a ship and be connected to the ocean "the mother". Being outside and looking at the ports rising from the ocean was the point of it. Walking the deck, watching the birds, clouds made a ship different from a hotel. The public wing bridge on the QM2 is heaven and the best ocean experience of any passenger ship anywhere.

 

What I observe now, is that cruise ships are now hotels, the "ship" element and ports are secondary. Cruise ship design and function have turned guests inwards where they can be "shaken down" for more expenditures.

 

This has turned me, and many of our travel group, off cruising.  We were loyal to Celebrity from 1992 to 2015, but the cutbacks and downgrading, combined with significant price increases, ended our patronage of Celebrity. Our group moved up the food chain to Oceania numerous times, but disappointed in past couple of years with significant product decline combined with arrogant ship management, will not patronize Oceania again. Did Crystal, was better for sure.

 

It is not about the cost, it is about being able to purchase a compatible product for the group. 

 

Future cruising for us, if any, will be on specialty ships in the Canadian arctic, smaller ships doing Norway etc.

 

The main stream cruise lines have lost our patronage and we have now commenced customized land vacations with private cars/drivers to amazing places. For our group, this is a significant amount of $ diverted from cruising.

 

We enjoy CC to keep up on the changes to the industry and issues, CC is an outstanding public venue.