Nice live Divina YC review. A S2S combo of Celebrity/MSC

[PTC DAWG]

Starts on MSC post 204 I believe. She does a good job with live reviews.

[GenerationX]

14 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Starts on MSC post 204 I believe. She does a good job with live reviews.

Thank you very much!  I meant to post a link here and completely forgot.  I blame Ashish’s One Pool rum punches.

[Seas2mountains]

This is a great review. However, this was not the kind of service we experienced from the same butler, Kevin, on the cruise immediately preceding the cruise the OP is on now. 
 

My husband briefly met Kevin on the first night of a 3 night cruise where my husband was asked if he wanted a free bottle of wine or booze for the room. He declined as the Top Sail lounge was so close to our room.  I didn’t meet Kevin until the last night of the cruise when we arrived at Ocean Cay and he asked again about the free bottle of booze. We declined. If I had known all the fancy cheese palates and desserts as this OP experienced could be delivered to the room, we would have gladly accepted. 
 

I’m curious if anyone typically receives daily unrequested treats like this from the YC butler? 

[mnpurple]

12 minutes ago, Seas2mountains said:

 

I’m curious if anyone typically receives daily unrequested treats like this from the YC butler? 

 

I am wondering the same thing! I think the person doing the review has some pull, just meets the right people or something. I have never been on the Celebrity Board, but I think she must be a very regular contributor. I'm glad she is having a great time, but I'm not expecting the same treatment, although some would be nice.

[Cruisergal1208]

My last few cruises I did receive something special each day.  Sometimes in the afternoon and sometimes after dinner.  Had awesome butlers each cruise.  

[Seas2mountains]

6 hours ago, Cruisergal1208 said:

My last few cruises I did receive something special each day.  Sometimes in the afternoon and sometimes after dinner.  Had awesome butlers each cruise.  

Do you have any suggestions for how you communicate to the butler so you receive those special somethings each day? Or do you tip up front?

[emmas gran]

Maybe a 3 day cruise is  little short to build a relationship with the butler . We have received the same treatment as Generation X it is nothing to do with

"the person doing the review has some pull, just meets the right people or something.".

 

Just treat the butlers with respect , ask politely what is available or say "Is it possible to have cheese plate and crackers or whatever you want". If you don't ask you don't get to know.

 

Many years ago on HAL the Maitre D' addressed me by name and I was intrigued how he knew it, he said staff had told him I always said Hello with a smile and it made their day, he went out of his way to do the same to me.

[Seas2mountains]

3 hours ago, emmas gran said:

Maybe a 3 day cruise is  little short to build a relationship with the butler . We have received the same treatment as Generation X it is nothing to do with

"the person doing the review has some pull, just meets the right people or something.".

 

Just treat the butlers with respect , ask politely what is available or say "Is it possible to have cheese plate and crackers or whatever you want". If you don't ask you don't get to know.

 

Many years ago on HAL the Maitre D' addressed me by name and I was intrigued how he knew it, he said staff had told him I always said Hello with a smile and it made their day, he went out of his way to do the same to me.

Thank for your suggestions. I considered that this was only a 3 night cruise but Generation X only has one more night on a 4 night cruise. By night one, the special treatment she received from the butler on day one surpassed what we experienced throughout the cruise. We still had a wonderful cruise and will return to YC. 
 

My husband is one of the sweetest and kindest people I’ve known and he goes out of his way to treat people with respect. While only my husband met our butler on day one, it was difficult to build the relationship when we didn’t see him again until day three. 
 

While the butler offered the bottle of booze to take home during all conversations  with him and he asked if we wanted anything special in the refrigerator, other than directing my husband to the room service and pizza delivery menu, we didn’t know that they could provide surprise drinks and surprise treat plates not requested.

 

We definitely will be asking for daily cheese plates in the future now that we realize it is an option.  
 

When in Top Sail, we asked the butler on duty  there if we could have a pizza delivered to be enjoyed in the lounge. The butler said they would be happy to have the pizza or other room service items delivered to our room but discouraged guests from having food delivered to Top Sail. I mentioned that we remembered guests on Seaside having food delivered to Top Sail but he was firm that it was not something they did on Divina. I do not remember seeing any guests in Divina Top Sail with any food delivery. Just a few days later, Generation X posted a photo of her pizza ordered and enjoyed in Divina Top Sail. It’s the inconsistency that is making me wonder about the difference in treatment. 
 

On our cruise, some guests wore shorts, tank tops and flip flops to dinner in Le Muse which also made me wonder how the staff chooses to enforce policies or not. 
 

How do they choose when to say yes and when to say No to the identical question is the mystery here that I am trying to figure out. 

[emmas gran]

Regarding the pizza in Top Sail I would guess it was a late night thing and not a regular event --can you imagine all guests sat eating pizza

[emmas gran]

25 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

Regarding the pizza in Top Sail I would guess it was a late night thing and not a regular event --can you imagine all guests sat eating pizza

We have friends sailing next week on Seaside, I’ll ask them to ask for pizza in the lounge and let you know if it’s possible 

[Morgsmom]

2 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

On our cruise, some guests wore shorts, tank tops and flip flops to dinner in Le Muse which also made me wonder how the staff chooses to enforce policies or not. 
 

How do they choose when to say yes and when to say No to the identical question is the mystery here that I am trying to figure out. 

This sums up MSC yacht club perfectly.  While the overall product is a great bargain, the experience differs significantly from sailing to sailing and ship to ship.  On a 7 night with a great YC director? Wahoo!  Go for it.  A 3 night with a lousy one, sorry, nothing for you.  On my last 4 night YC I asked for the Kettle One as my bottle of spirit; was told that for 3 & 4 nights you could only get Absolut.  The Ketel was now for 7 nights.  

 

Pizza on the One Pool deck? Yes, it can be done.  In TopSail, no... unless, of course, the crew thinks you are a vlogger... in which case all bets are off.... 

 

On some ships you can wear shorts and flops to dinner in Le Muse.  On other sailings you are stopped at the door.  

[styles27]

It really depends on your butler.

If you’re a first timer in the YC like we were on our first MSC cruise, and you have a busy or a little bit lazy butler, the less you know about what you can ask for, the less they have to do. 

That also goes for room attendants outside of the YC. 

 

Having said that. We always leave a note with a cash tip on day 1 requesting items we need like tissues, washcloths and ice etc. The items are always there when we return.

Nothing like a tip every couple of days to get what you’d like and a hand written note really does help.

They can put it in their pocket and be reminded instead of asking them in passing which they may innocently forget about. 
 

We saw people like this blogger on our cruise. They are very good at letting the crew know what they’re doing therefore they sometimes get everything they ask for. Sometimes. 
 

We had one on an excursion in Colombia who wanted the front row on the bus because that was the seat she originally had.
She expected everyone to leave it vacant for her even though she was always the last on the bus after each stop.
The tour guide rightfully told her there were no assigned seats and she needed to just take a vacant seat. Everyone applauded him and she wasn’t happy lol

 

A real piece of work. I often wonder if she’s on CC. lol