Observations from the Poop Deck Seashore September

[morpheusofthesea]

46 minutes ago, happy cruzin said:

Any issues boarding with the new revised Heath and Safety Plan that went in to effect 9/1??

None.

[frank808]

On 9/4/2022 at 9:23 PM, morpheusofthesea said:

Reports of Diamond Club cut backs on Seashore are not warranted. At least not tonight.

The water is a YC perk and not a Diamond perk. 

 

We did not get bags of Venchi chocolates like you mentioned on our Seashore B2B in June/July. Not in our cabin or the grandma's cabin.

[morpheusofthesea]

On the topic of wifi on board the Seashore. It appears that the included wifi in the YC perks is only for browsing. Last night I could only get on FB and CC. Try as I may to get onto You tube it just kept buffering. Every evening at home we love to listen to cruise news with Gary B, Tony B, Don T, and Capt. Corey (who we met last cruise on the Seashore and gifted him one of our chocolate boats in appreciation of his great reporting). So DW suggested I type in mcwifi.com and upgrade to browse and stream package for 2 devices (went to concierge desk last night to get print out of OBC $550 credited to our account). The moment I pressed start I clicked on YT and' bingo' all our favorites popped up along with "You Bet Your Life" with Groucho Marx.

[no1talks]

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"...all our favorites popped up along with 'You Bet Your Life' with Groucho Marx."

"Say the secret woid and the duck will come down to give you $50 OBC."

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

2 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

On the topic of wifi on board the Seashore. It appears that the included wifi in the YC perks is only for browsing. Last night I could only get on FB and CC. Try as I may to get onto You tube it just kept buffering. Every evening at home we love to listen to cruise news with Gary B, Tony B, Don T, and Capt. Corey (who we met last cruise on the Seashore and gifted him one of our chocolate boats in appreciation of his great reporting). So DW suggested I type in mcwifi.com and upgrade to browse and stream package for 2 devices (went to concierge desk last night to get print out of OBC $550 credited to our account). The moment I pressed start I clicked on YT and' bingo' all our favorites popped up along with "You Bet Your Life" with Groucho Marx.

Shucks!  I'm sorry you had to upgrade.  We were able to get youtube music with no problem at all on the regular package.  Maybe we were using during off peak hours.

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Shucks!  I'm sorry you had to upgrade.  We were able to get youtube music with no problem at all on the regular package.  Maybe we were using during off peak hours.

Yes. It is 'hit or miss'. First time we had so much OBC $550. So we splurged. All the other Seashore cruises we could watch YT only at certain moments on the just browse package(included in YC).

[morpheusofthesea]

9 hours ago, frank808 said:

The water is a YC perk and not a Diamond perk. 

 

We did not get bags of Venchi chocolates like you mentioned on our Seashore B2B in June/July. Not in our cabin or the grandma's cabin.

The bags of Venchi chocolate came as thank you gifts from appreciative staff members. As did extra bottles of wine, Spumante, and Prosecco. I think the blue MSC tote bags (2) are gifts from Diamond ?

[morpheusofthesea]

If we knew then what we are experiencing out now....we would just wait to cruise on the Seascape these next few months. We know we have a free change offered by MSC, but we have the next year already booked up with cruises. Its the details that make the Yacht Club the Yacht Club. The details have gone by the wayside.

Edited September 6, 2022 by morpheusofthesea

[morpheusofthesea]

It appears that there is a transitioning occurring now on board the Seashore in preparation of the Seashore repositioning to Brazil. 80% of the hotel staff have to speak Portuguese, this includes the cleaning staff as well. Everyone still on board, non-Portuguese speaking, are in a state of disquietude. They are going home not knowing where their next job assignment might be.At the moment those that have already left have not been replaced. There is no sommelier in the YC, No executive Chef in the YC to replace Chef Lisa (noticed immediately the over cooked Chicken Kiev(my favorite in the YC restaurant) and the undercooked vegetables and potatoes whether boiled or wedge roasted.Butter being forgotten to be placed on all the tables. A temporary YC (real nice guy) director having to deal with these shortcomings he is faced with. No replacement butlers for those that have already left, leaving those still onboard with more than double the cabins to attend to. Newbies to the YC are not receiving the top notch service we repeaters have come to enjoy ( I suppose it is worse for us repeaters that know the difference). DW suggested we try the buffet (sacrilege).

[morpheusofthesea]

GOOD NEWS!  Just 'heard' that there is a new executive chef on board the Seashore that is coming out of quarantine today! Heard he is coming over from the Seaside. Happy days are here again...we hope.

[Georgia_Peaches]

4 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

If we knew then what we are experiencing out now....we would just wait to cruise on the Seascape these next few months. We know we have a free change offered by MSC, but we have the next year already booked up with cruises. Its the details that make the Yacht Club the Yacht Club. The details have gone by the wayside.

Oh Goodness!  You're right, us newbies don't know the difference.  So sorry to learn things are not up to per usual standard.

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Oh Goodness!  You're right, us newbies don't know the difference.  So sorry to learn things are not up to per usual standard.

 

Staffing and training is the issue.  Just read some of the posts of those who have sailed on Silverseas and Seabourn.  The quality consistency of the cruise experience, at this time, is gone.  

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Staffing and training is the issue.  Just read some of the posts of those who have sailed on Silverseas and Seabourn.  The quality consistency of the cruise experience, at this time, is gone.  

You are so right. Back in February the head butler told us that since restart they have been sending him new butler recruits that know nothing about how to be a butler. Back then during the Captain meet and greet in the TSL we counted 16 butlers lined up at attention when Mr. Balla walked in. Today there are 8. Though we have the best, as many have posted, Ana Lisa Geraldo. She may be just 5 feet tall, but among all the other butlers she is the equivalent to the other 7 rolled into one.

[Georgia_Peaches]

7 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

You are so right. Back in February the head butler told us that since restart they have been sending him new butler recruits that know nothing about how to be a butler. Back then during the Captain meet and greet in the TSL we counted 16 butlers lined up at attention when Mr. Balla walked in. Today there are 8. Though we have the best, as many have posted, Ana Lisa Geraldo. She may be just 5 feet tall, but among all the other butlers she is the equivalent to the other 7 rolled into one.

Couldn’t agree more about Ana Lisa. We were blessed to have her last week. A true gem!

[morpheusofthesea]

This evening we witnessed the tail end of an unusual incident. It appears that of a young couple in the YC deck 19 the husband became intoxicated to the point he was lost outside the YC and 'something' happened. We were waiting for the elevator, being escorted down to the Madison Theatre by Ana Lisa when the elevator opened to a scene of security and nurses on either side of this young man who they had strapped (restrained?) to a wheel chair and not allowing entry to the elevator. Why it stopped on deck 18 is a mystery, unless he was being transported to the medical center as we were on 18 going down as well.

[morpheusofthesea]

Tonight was lobster night. The new YC chef must have taken complete control at the right time. The dinner was suburb. The potatoes and vegetables cooked perfectly. All is right once again.

[morpheusofthesea]

31 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Couldn’t agree more about Ana Lisa. We were blessed to have her last week. A true gem!

As an aside. I think Ana Lisa would greatly appreciate if we could give her a excellent recommendation when we receive the MSC survey in the weeks following the cruise. This was the first time she has ever asked us for one, hoping that  it would help  her get placed  on the Seascape as she does not speak Portuguese. 

[Seadweller001]

The most important aspect of the browse internet to us is the viewing of our Doorbell and outside house cameras when away.  The browse included internet has zero problems with home camera notifications and we can speak with anyone ringing the doorbell.

 

Every other internet access is secondary to us when vacationing.  We have been very satisfied with the included YC internet.

[morpheusofthesea]

I know that I can be a big complainer as well as the next guy. But we are paying more for the experience of a life time. I just take umbrage at the panning of an entire cruise by one incident.

Or sometimes it is just the nature of the clientele. Been on board and seen a standing ovation in appreciation of a Madison Theatre production and the following week no one rises out of their seat for the same production. That a family of four can book passage for $700 which works out to $43.75 pp pd. MSC is even advertising a week sailing for $199 which works out to $28.42 pp pd The average 'guest' consumes around 15 drinks a day. All this and one expects what? The complainers have expected too much for the price they paid for the cruise category they selected. Here is a quote from a crew member in response to the question "What are the passengers like?"

""The passengers were so varied, it is hard to say. The line itself was a bit cheap so the clientele tended to follow suit. There were a lot of complaints. Some were very aggressive. However, the majority of clients were lovely, grateful, and very interested in life onboard." — Bethany, English hostess

"People that pay for things never complain. It's the guy you give something to that you can't please." Will Rogers

[morpheusofthesea]

Last night we had two great shows. The Madison Theatre production of "Coast to Coast" had standing room only and Le Cabaret Rouge with "Off the Record On the Rocks" had the entire dance floor filled with passenger dancers as they played 'Disco' favorites. A few guests came prepared with bell-bottom pants and disco garb and what we thought was 'afro' wig, but it might have been his normal hair. Again standing room only.

[zackarykeef]

On 9/5/2022 at 3:18 PM, morpheusofthesea said:

Today is Monday and we should be arriving to Puerto Rico (5pm) and we went to guest services deck 5 to get a NON YC Daily Planner so as not to miss out on any of the 'happenings' not advertised in the YC Daily Planner. Be sure to use the Voyager Club line, it is shorter. 

 

Is this a thing? I've only sailed YC, so I guess I didn't realize they leave things out of the planner? Will have to look into this for our upcoming sailing.

 

16 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Everyone still on board, non-Portuguese speaking, are in a state of disquietude. They are going home not knowing where their next job assignment might be.At the moment those that have already left have not been replaced. There is no sommelier in the YC, No executive Chef in the YC to replace Chef Lisa (noticed immediately the over cooked Chicken Kiev(my favorite in the YC restaurant) and the undercooked vegetables and potatoes whether boiled or wedge roasted.Butter being forgotten to be placed on all the tables. A temporary YC (real nice guy) director having to deal with these shortcomings he is faced with. No replacement butlers for those that have already left, leaving those still onboard with more than double the cabins to attend to. Newbies to the YC are not receiving the top notch service we repeaters have come to enjoy ( I suppose it is worse for us repeaters that know the difference).

 

Oh, man. Happy to hear about the chef as you mentioned, but I hope things improve before our sailing 10/22. We've only sailed once on MSC, which was YC on the Mera, and we were blown away...and that was only a 4-day. The YC sommelier completely made our trip that time. We're really looking forward to spending an entire week in YC...

 

9 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Though we have the best, as many have posted, Ana Lisa Geraldo. She may be just 5 feet tall, but among all the other butlers she is the equivalent to the other 7 rolled into one.

 

May I ask what room or deck you're on? Wondering if we'll have the pleasure to experience the wonderful Ana Lisa soon! (although, tbh, I'm not sure how exactly they're assigned)

[Georgia_Peaches]

37 minutes ago, zackarykeef said:

 

 

 

May I ask what room or deck you're on? Wondering if we'll have the pleasure to experience the wonderful Ana Lisa soon! (although, tbh, I'm not sure how exactly they're assigned)

We were in 16030 when she was assigned to us. 

[zackarykeef]

6 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

We were in 16030 when she was assigned to us. 

 

We have 16015 as of now, so I guess we'll see!

[perakcruiser]

18 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

It appears that there is a transitioning occurring now on board the Seashore in preparation of the Seashore repositioning to Brazil. 80% of the hotel staff have to speak Portuguese, this includes the cleaning staff as well. Everyone still on board, non-Portuguese speaking, are in a state of disquietude

Wow, that is brutal that Spanish is not enough for the staff.

[no1talks]

16 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

Wow, that is brutal that Spanish is not enough for the staff.

If cruise itineraries are going to be predominantly bought by passengers from Brazil, MSC is correct to go heavy on Portuguese.

 

Brazil is not a bastion of multilingualism. You have to staff based on passengers' communication abilities.