Butler is Everthing!!

[rattanchair]

MSC Yacht Club YC3 Royal Suite Seaside

 

For people who have ‘been there and done that’ I will try to relate to you the experience received in the Royal Suite aboard the Seaside this past summer. Having read many reviews of luxury lines, Viking, Seabourn, Silverseas, Oceana, Regent and all the recent problems many affluent cruisers have experienced on board these fine cruise lines, I have to tell you about MSC Yacht Club. From strictly my point of view, your whole cruise experience depends on the butler… Mine made all the difference in the world. I started out 40 years ago cruising, like most of you. I canceled a 2020 cruise in December in the Royal Suite again because I know this butler will not be on board until January, and booked a 14 day on the new Regent Splendor instead, though retired we still work to stay relevant. This coming summer I will return to the Royal Suite in June and July when he returns.

     I tried this past summer a Haven Penthouse aft suite which was fabulous, the largest balcony on the ship. The food in the Haven Restaurant was monotonous, but digestible. The enclosed pool, air conditioned splendor. The following month with a week aboard my all-time favorite in a Celebrity Suite on the Equinox, with an exceptional butler, so I booked the same suite for next summer. But I was absolutely blown away by the service of my MSC butler.

     Food: Sorry I do not like to comment. I feel that as long as my system can digest the fare I am happy.

     Dining Service: A window table for two. I am tired of tablemates coughing into my plate.

     Entertainment: Always enjoy most everything, except opera. Have enough of a woman screeching at me when I am home.

     Cabin: 667 sq ft and 355sq ft of balcony. Bring some duct tape to cover the blue light of the thermostat in the bedroom and the red light of the TV. Air conditioning was adjustable.

   Balcony had a 50” table and 4 chairs and 2 recline lounges, room steward provided extra 4 plush blue yacht club towels to cover cushions each day. Bring towel chair clips.

     Do not attempt to eat in yacht club restaurant if you should have a booked excursion unless you allow a 2- hour window. Everything is prepared to order and many left their half -eaten burgers. All the waiters could accommodate was to keep filling their wine glasses to reduce passenger anxiety. Try the One Pool deck for a quick bite. 

    Top Sail Lounge. Great butler service, nice live music, best ocean views.

    One Pool Deck and grill. Crowded on sea days, not much shade. Royal suites have their private cabanas, stocked cooler with whatever you ask for of your butler. He will bring trays of fruit skewers and cheese and chocolate strawberries. Thursday is grilled lobster day only on the One Pool deck, so every yacht club passenger is on deck. No chairs or tables were unoccupied, passengers were chowing down along the pool perimeter. No line for Royal Suite, butler does the butting and service to your private cabana.

   Getting on and off the ship is a breeze with your butler. He takes YC guest a back way and we have our own gangway on and off the ship. Embarkation was a little more of a wait if you get to the white tent early. Staff show up at 10 am and terminal YC porter at 10:30. We did experience a quick passing bit of rain, but we and our luggage were under the tent. Debarkation, again our butler escorted us to a roped off closed double door at 7:00am. When he opened the door there was a line of passengers ‘a mile long’ queued to get off. He removed the red velvet rope and placed us at the front of the line. We were the first off the ship, even though our luggage still had to be unloaded from the ship.

     Had no problem with wine selection at dinner, our assistant waiter opened whatever I thought sounded good. No need to taste test in front of DW, just fill it up. Every night I tried something different.

    Elevator servicing the YC is a treat, though it did not always work the way it is supposed to work. Even when being escorted to the evening shows, reserved seating for YC every evening, our butlers access card did not work. It is supposed to call the elevator ‘express’ and deliver YC guests express to the YC. Hint: YC guests on deck 18 walk down to 16 (no deck 17 “unlucky”) to use your key card. YC passengers on 16 are priority and deck 18 will be left waiting while 16 goes down.

    The ship is immaculate. And any ship that returns me home shipshape without having to visit my doctor the following week is a ship I will surely sail again.

     Winston Churchill once said “ a good review should be like a woman’s skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.” I hope I’ve done both.

 

  

MSC Yacht Club YC3 Royal Suite Seaside.docx

[rattanchair]

Some Photos:

[rattanchair]

Please notice the light in the bedroom photo on the thermostat !

[mnocket]

Thanks for the review.  I'm recently back from my first time on MSC in a YC balcony cabin.  My wife and I really enjoyed the cruise.  The only question that lingers with us regarding future sailings in MSC Yacht Club is the itinerary's climate. I say that because we really enjoyed our time in the YC itself - especially time spent at the pool and pool grill/bar.  However, we found the rest of the ship outside of the YC to be overcrowded, loud and generally not appealing.  We wonder if we would enjoy MSC as much (or at all) on a sailing in a colder climate where the YC pool & grill would be of little use.

 

What were your impressions of the ship beyond the YC?

[rattanchair]

13 minutes ago, mnocket said:

we found the rest of the ship outside of the YC to be overcrowded, loud and generally not appealing

Dear M, You hit the nail on the head!  Last December YC3 on Divina Caribbean, same description. July  YC3 on Seaside Caribbean, same description; but we were so blown away with our butler service we booked I feel too many future YC cruises(in the Caribbean). Just saying to DW we may get tired of the same. We go for the ship. We will probably be comparing all future cruises to this last fabulous Seaside cruise. ET1, on the other thread recommends Oceania. When I sign off here I am on the hunt. Presently booked in YC3 for this Nov and Dec, both paid for at this point. Will let you know how 'tired' we get of the YC service. Thank you for all your kind postings in the past.

[hbe30]

can you tell me your butler's name. We were on the Seaside last year and thought our buttler was our room attendant. I had to ask the concierge who our butler was.  Really didn't use hime much, but I was surprised that the butlers also take care of the rooms.

[WonderMan3]

Can you describe what your butler actually did that made your cruise experience so positive? I'm not seeing it in your review other than they escorted you on and off ship and to shows which are all part of their standard duties on MSC.

[WonderMan3]

48 minutes ago, hbe30 said:

can you tell me your butler's name. We were on the Seaside last year and thought our buttler was our room attendant. I had to ask the concierge who our butler was.  Really didn't use hime much, but I was surprised that the butlers also take care of the rooms.

 

Yes, I was surprised by this. The butlers do appear to clean rooms along with the room attendants. It's not that way on Celebrity or NCL where the butlers do oversee the room attendant's work but don't get involved in the actual cleaning. That gives them the time to focus on servicing guests.

[rattanchair]

1 hour ago, hbe30 said:

can you tell me your butler's name. We were on the Seaside last year and thought our buttler was our room attendant. I had to ask the concierge who our butler was.  Really didn't use hime much, but I was surprised that the butlers also take care of the rooms.

We consider ourselves very capable travelers. Been around the world several times like most of you on the CC boards. Cruises, lost count after the first hundred (started early no kids). Let me just say that until you experience someone so exceptional you will never understand where we are coming from. This Vishnu, put us in another place and time, reserved only for the 'leisure class'..Even my 'observations' were affected as I posted them to you all. I was accused of playing a 'role of landed gentry' and rightly so.  Being addressed as "Sir R" so many times in a day gets to you, in a rather 'fun' way. All the world's a stage and Vishnu pressed all the right buttons with me.

[rattanchair]

Yes the famous Vishnu Domah, butler extraordinaire. I remarked to him how fluent he was speaking to passengers in the YC in French. Asked him how many languages he speaks. He is from Mauritius and besides speaking English, French, Creole, Italian (taught to him on board Italian language classes); he also speaks Hindi having been sent to religious school by his parents, in his youth. He stated that this ability has given him a great advantage in the hospitality field, naturally....

    Now I understand why you made up this thread. You experienced someone that far exceeded you wildest expectations !! Yes, I went as far as writing MSC about how Vishnu should be elevated to butler trainer. That it was because of his service, we went to the future cruise desk and booked two more Royal Suites. I was more in line with the post from Grateful RIC until we had Vishnu. We felt 'compelled' to tip him $400 and DW questioned me if it was enough? We have never tipped so much to one person for a week of service as we did to Vishnu. I thought he only serviced the Royal Suites because he was always looking for us, thought he had a GPS on us and I asked him how many cabins in YC does he provide butler service to...13 !!!   He was very kind when he received our gratuity,  he placed his hands, palms together in front of his heart in thanking the divine within us all. We told him we did not think it was enough for the service he provided us this week.

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[rattanchair]

Our final day aboard the MSC Seaside with some final observations. The YC restaurant is one of the highlights of cruising the Seaside. As our butler Vishnu promised on day one, "just let me escort you" and escort he did, every night we had the same table for two next to the window to watch the setting sun. There was a table of 8 along side nearby and the staff was able to accommodate us all, with some of the shortest wait times we experienced this summer.  The wait was worst in  the NCL Haven, up to 2 hours. The Celebrity Luminae was standard for cruise lines that prepare everything to order, an then there is YC restaurant, no puddle in my Venchi ice cream every night. The table for 8 was served just as quickly as we were for 2. The food is subjective and all I can say is we enjoyed all 3 cruise lines suite food. Presentation for all 3 was great.

[rattanchair]

Now we  like to think that we are very capable people, but Vishnu advised us it would be to our advantage to allow him to book all our dining and shows. He assured us he could get us our dining times at the same table with the same waiters every evening, just allow him the privilege of doing the escorting.  This is our first day on board and so far he is capable of parting the waters of the' MSC Red Sea'.

[rattanchair]

1 hour ago, WonderMan3 said:

Can you describe what your butler actually did that made your cruise experience so positive? I'm not seeing it in your review other than they escorted you on and off ship and to shows which are all part of their standard duties on MSC.

Dear W, Loved your tome.  These are excerpts of my 'Observations from the MSC Seaside' this past summer. We had a cabin steward as well and tipped him $200 for the week because he got the cabin ready every morning when we got back from breakfast in the YC restaurant. I will be sure to photo this Nov the one pool deck lobster grill on Thursdays, just to validate the endless lobster for YC guests. DW and I ate in the restaurant for lunch, NO lobster on the menu.

   What did he NOT do is the question? We NEVER got a 'no ' for an answer. We felt he was stationed outside our door. Every evening we would hear a light tapping on our cabin door at the appointed dinner time, Vishnu to escort us down the hall to the YC restaurant where he would approach DiPauolo the Maitre D and remind him of our preferred table and waiters for the evening..On Chic night he insisted on helping me on with my tuxedo jacket and adjust my bow tie. We did not sign up in time for the CC M&M on board (you all need to sign up at least one week before sailing),  no problem ,he escorted us to the M&M, and made sure that as suite guests we were on the roster without an invitation. We simply do not know how are future Nov and Dec 2019 will go without him on board. But we will 'suck it up' and report to you all again our observations in real time.

[rattanchair]

Our butler, Vishnu, introduced himself to us at the gangway and recommended that we allow him to take our carry on luggage to our room (which would not be ready until 1:00) where it would be secure and to have a seat in the Top Sail Lounge and he will escort us at 12:00, upstairs to the YC Restaurant.    I mentioned this morning to DW that on other cruise lines one gets the feeling the butlers are avoiding the guests in their care. But with Vishnu,  "it is like he tagged us with some form of 'GPS',  he anticipates our moves" (DW words). After dinner and the show at around 9 pm there was a surprise unannounced party for Yacht Club guests at the YC pool deck. Live music and dancing in front of the pool.  Of course, Vishnu, escorted us to a table which soon became almost part of the dance floor

[Hlitner]

Thanks for your review.  While we have yet to cruise on the Seaside (it is booked) we have cruised in the Divina's YC.   Butler's are there for everyone in the YC (not just the Royal Suite) and will do just about anything to please.  However, we love being out and about on any cruise so that we can meet new and interesting folks.  Rather then sitting in our cabin (or balcony) we would rather walk down the corridor to the Top Sail Lounge and socialize.  In Le Muse we sometimes enjoyed a quiet two top, but the times when we shared our table with others were the real highlight.  Dinner is nice, but dinner and socializing can be much nicer then nice.    We agree that things can be crowded outside the YC, but we see that as a plus.   Having cruised on lines like Seabourn (excellent) where nothing is crowded (in fact you many often find yourself alone) we enjoy meeting other folks in the lounges, listening to the various music groups, etc.    Although it would have been possible to have our Butler escort us to the small reserved area for the main shows, we never bothered.  It was no big deal to simply walk in the theater on our own (or with some newfound friends) and grab seats that were actually in a better location then the one's used for the YC.   We also had a fantastic bartender in the Top Sail Lounge and I spent too much time at the bar chatting with him and a few other bar rats.  

 

Hank

[rattanchair]

On Divina YC3 we had to think if we even had a butler. Elusive 'bugger'. The other butlers were more of a help escorting us on and off the ship. They were more deserving of a tip than the one assigned to our cabin. Yes, I understand socializing, we did it for years. But, we got tired of getting sick when our table mates coughed into our plates. Reminds me of a quote of our first President George Washington " It is better to be alone, than to be in bad company."

[jdvmd]

Love that Winston Churchill quote!

Thanks for your comments!

[chrismelpig]

Such a wonderful review and very happy that you had such an incredible experience with Vishnu. We, like you, have over 100 cruises under our belt with the last 7 being  MSC YC. All of our butlers have been outstanding with the exception of Vishnu. Perhaps it was because we weren't in a RS. Our Jr. Butler, who was fabulous, confirmed that Vishnu only really interacted with RS guests and we heard him refer to our Jr. Butler as "boy". He was very condescending to us, as well. We obviously love MSC YC and are boarding Meraviglia Oct.18th...Having cruised Seaside and Divina, we are thrilled to be adding Meraviglia! 😁

[rattanchair]

11 hours ago, chrismelpig said:

Such a wonderful review and very happy that you had such an incredible experience with Vishnu. We, like you, have over 100 cruises under our belt with the last 7 being  MSC YC. All of our butlers have been outstanding with the exception of Vishnu. Perhaps it was because we weren't in a RS. Our Jr. Butler, who was fabulous, confirmed that Vishnu only really interacted with RS guests and we heard him refer to our Jr. Butler as "boy". He was very condescending to us, as well. We obviously love MSC YC and are boarding Meraviglia Oct.18th...Having cruised Seaside and Divina, we are thrilled to be adding Meraviglia! 😁

Yes,  Vishnu did have an 'air' about him and he did reign over the other butlers and they in return were deferential toward him. He told us he was responsible for 13 cabins in the YC. I can not see how he could devote equal time to each of us. Do, please, report back to us your review of the Mera. I have a feeling your perspective might be more enlightening. Reading some recent reviews of  MSC, I am reminded of a Will Rogers quote "People that pay for things never complain. It's the guy you give something to that you can't please."

[Fogfog]

Another great review. TY!

I think part of what makes a great experience is gratefulness to the butler/steward who is serving. They are serving us but are not our "servants". Gratefulness and graciousness go a long way in that relationship and it sounds like you are those kind of people to be gracious, grateful etc.

 

We are looking fwd to our time in YC in early 2020

Your passing comment about the Haven and folks waiting to be seated 2 hrs for dinner...yikes

We never had that kind of wait on Celebrity and would hope to not have that in YC

Edited October 8, 2019 by Fogfog

[chrismelpig]

5 hours ago, rattanchair said:

Yes,  Vishnu did have an 'air' about him and he did reign over the other butlers and they in return were deferential toward him. He told us he was responsible for 13 cabins in the YC. I can not see how he could devote equal time to each of us. Do, please, report back to us your review of the Mera. I have a feeling your perspective might be more enlightening. Reading some recent reviews of  MSC, I am reminded of a Will Rogers quote "People that pay for things never complain. It's the guy you give something to that you can't please."

 

[chrismelpig]

Sorry Rattanchair, I wrote a reply and then I forgot to post it...What I was saying  basically is Attitude is everything and we are putting that one negative experience in the "rearview mirror" and looking forward to cruising on the beautiful Meraviglia! I will share our impressions once we're onboard, but we've cruised with the YC Director before and really like him...He was on Divina with us in Jan...Happy Sailing!

[rattanchair]

On 10/7/2019 at 5:05 PM, Hlitner said:

Thanks for your review.  While we have yet to cruise on the Seaside (it is booked) we have cruised in the Divina's YC.   Butler's are there for everyone in the YC (not just the Royal Suite) and will do just about anything to please.  However, we love being out and about on any cruise so that we can meet new and interesting folks.  Rather then sitting in our cabin (or balcony) we would rather walk down the corridor to the Top Sail Lounge and socialize.  In Le Muse we sometimes enjoyed a quiet two top, but the times when we shared our table with others were the real highlight.  Dinner is nice, but dinner and socializing can be much nicer then nice.    We agree that things can be crowded outside the YC, but we see that as a plus.   Having cruised on lines like Seabourn (excellent) where nothing is crowded (in fact you many often find yourself alone) we enjoy meeting other folks in the lounges, listening to the various music groups, etc.    Although it would have been possible to have our Butler escort us to the small reserved area for the main shows, we never bothered.  It was no big deal to simply walk in the theater on our own (or with some newfound friends) and grab seats that were actually in a better location then the one's used for the YC.   We also had a fantastic bartender in the Top Sail Lounge and I spent too much time at the bar chatting with him and a few other bar rats.  

 

Hank

Dear Hank, I can not say one thing, ever, to contradict anything you have said in the past year since I have joined the CC boards. Your posts turned me 'on'  to MSC and for that I am eternally grateful. You are a much 'better' man than me, I freely admit. I am a misanthrope, but for you I make an exception. Thank you.

[Hlitner]

5 minutes ago, rattanchair said:

Dear Hank, I can not say one thing, ever, to contradict anything you have said in the past year since I have joined the CC boards. Your posts turned me 'on'  to MSC and for that I am eternally grateful. You are a much 'better' man than me, I freely admit. I am a misanthrope, but for you I make an exception. Thank you.

Humbug  🙂

 

Hank

[rattanchair]

2 hours ago, Fogfog said:

 

Your passing comment about the Haven and folks waiting to be seated 2 hrs for dinner...yikes

Dear FF,  No, please do not misinterpret my post, you are too fine a poster. We all love different things. We never waited on any cruise line booking suites. DW requested a broiled chicken breast every night for dinner. Me , I am happy to try anything on the menu. Special requests for something as simple as a broiled chicken breast took 2 hours. I think the chef is trying to tell us, please nothing special, even if we request it in advance...

 P.S. Well on second thought , we were asked to wait for a dinner on a RCCL cruise in the Coastal Kitchen with a standing reservation in an Owners Suite.. But I attribute that to NSPP , non-suite pinnacle passengers who are given priority...