Live Seascape YC (7/9-7/16): A Celebrity Loyalist Jumps Ship

[jules815]

Following along! We'll be on Seascape in September. We're also Celebrity suite cruisers who made the jump over to MSC in 2019 (Seaside) to try out the YC and love it.

 

Have a great time.

 

[GenerationX]

We made it to Miami after a smooth, on time flight!  For some reason, every single cruise transfer rep for the Disney Magic in baggage claim approached Gen Z and I and asked if we were going with them…can’t imagine why they would think we’re sailing Disney. 🤔😂

 

Anyway, we just checked into our hotel, the Hyatt Centric Miami Brickell. This is my go to hotel for pre-cruise when sailing out of Miami.  It’s not really budget but way cheaper than south beach and still in a cool neighborhood. Rooms are clean, beds good, great rooftop pool and the restaurant onsite makes surprisingly good Cuban food and cocktails.  Pro tip on booking Hyatt properties in Miami: be sure to recheck prices regularly.  I reserved our room a few weeks before final payment on our cruise was due and when I checked just after final payment, the rate had dropped $75.  Then I checked again on Wednesday (a day before the free cancellation deadline for my rate) and it had dropped another $60.  I promptly canceled and rebooked again at the lower rate.

 

We’ll be spending a night here post cruise as well. I got a little nervous after that whole fiasco in the port a few weeks ago and I’ve heard MSC can have occasional disembarkation delays anyway. 

 

Since I had a Hyatt award night to burn and Gen Z doesn’t have to rush back for school, I decided to book us a night post cruise so we don’t have to end vacation stressing about making a flight. I also saved over $400 on airfare booking a Monday late morning return flight rather than a Sunday afternoon one.

 

I paid $50 when booking for guaranteed 11am early check in and had no trouble getting in our room at 10am.  I’m going to check in with Jeremy and send a couple of emails then we’re going to head up to the pool for a couple of hours before hitting the restaurant for lunch.  

 

I’m really hoping my child will agree to nap time before our dinner reservation tonight, but she’s already asking about what sightseeing we can do this afternoon. I’m going to try and really wear her out in the pool then stuff her with empanadas at lunch…that ought to drum up some doziness! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Two Wheels Only]

59 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

Anyway, we just checked into our hotel, the Hyatt Centric Miami Brickell. This is my go to hotel for pre-cruise when sailing out of Miami. 

 

Thanks for the tip. We usually drive to Miami the morning of the cruise but I'll keep this in mind if we decide to drive the day before. 

[KKB]

You KNOW I'm in! 

Will be very curious to hear your thoughts on this MSC cruise.

[LouChamp]

4 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Aloha! Funny you should ask.  My mother is terrified of being on open water but has said she’d be willing to put her fear aside and try a cruise if we were to go to Alaska or Hawaii.  
 

What are your thoughts on doing Hawaii via cruise?  I’ve always thought of it as more of a land trip, but if it gets my mom out to sea that’s a big plus in my book. Any thoughts on which cruise lines do it well?  The reviews I’ve read about NCL’s Hawaii cruises have not been the best.

Aloha.  We have tried the NCL Hawaii cruises and were not so pleased. The first one being the Pride of Aloha which is now the NCL sky. It replaced the Pride of America which we had reserved but the ship was damaged before it went into service. It is very expensive but if you want to sample the islands you save on wasting days flying to the different islands.  We did a princess cruise from Hawaii around the islands south to Kiribati and then to French Polynesia where we sampled those islands and stayed after the cruise for several days. We were on that trip for about a month so there is a lot of possibilities but it does involve doing homework but if mom is into it I would say go for it!

[JackE]

2 hours ago, GenerationX said:

We made it to Miami after a smooth, on time flight!  For some reason, every single cruise transfer rep for the Disney Magic in baggage claim approached Gen Z and I and asked if we were going with them…can’t imagine why they would think we’re sailing Disney. 🤔😂

 

Anyway, we just checked into our hotel, the Hyatt Centric Miami Brickell. This is my go to hotel for pre-cruise when sailing out of Miami.  It’s not really budget but way cheaper than south beach and still in a cool neighborhood. Rooms are clean, beds good, great rooftop pool and the restaurant onsite makes surprisingly good Cuban food and cocktails.  Pro tip on booking Hyatt properties in Miami: be sure to recheck prices regularly.  I reserved our room a few weeks before final payment on our cruise was due and when I checked just after final payment, the rate had dropped $75.  Then I checked again on Wednesday (a day before the free cancellation deadline for my rate) and it had dropped another $60.  I promptly canceled and rebooked again at the lower rate.

 

We’ll be spending a night here post cruise as well. I got a little nervous after that whole fiasco in the port a few weeks ago and I’ve heard MSC can have occasional disembarkation delays anyway. 

 

Since I had a Hyatt award night to burn and Gen Z doesn’t have to rush back for school, I decided to book us a night post cruise so we don’t have to end vacation stressing about making a flight. I also saved over $400 on airfare booking a Monday late morning return flight rather than a Sunday afternoon one.

 

I paid $50 when booking for guaranteed 11am early check in and had no trouble getting in our room at 10am.  I’m going to check in with Jeremy and send a couple of emails then we’re going to head up to the pool for a couple of hours before hitting the restaurant for lunch.  

 

I’m really hoping my child will agree to nap time before our dinner reservation tonight, but she’s already asking about what sightseeing we can do this afternoon. I’m going to try and really wear her out in the pool then stuff her with empanadas at lunch…that ought to drum up some doziness! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Love her Disney bags! 👍

[weacat]

I'm here and following along.  We are very interested for your journal with MSC YC and comparisons to X as we may consider it very soon.  

We leave in a week with our 9 yr DD for a cruise on Apex out of Rotterdam.  Thankfully we traveled to London last summer to get her ready for an overnight Europe flight and it went very smoothly.  The MSC cruises look so interesting and hoping to book something in the near future for next summer.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[hobo1937]

5 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Aloha! Funny you should ask.  My mother is terrified of being on open water but has said she’d be willing to put her fear aside and try a cruise if we were to go to Alaska or Hawaii.  
 

What are your thoughts on doing Hawaii via cruise?  I’ve always thought of it as more of a land trip, but if it gets my mom out to sea that’s a big plus in my book. Any thoughts on which cruise lines do it well?  The reviews I’ve read about NCL’s Hawaii cruises have not been the best.

We have done several Hawaii Cruises from LA on both Princess and Holland America. Typically the first 2 days at sea can be a bit bouncy and cool but then it warms up as you get closer to the islands. The cruises in Nov-early March time frame can have more ship movement those first few days because of storms in the North Pacific that can cause swells farther south. We did a cruise on Princess once in late April and the Pacific was like a calm lake both going and coming but you never know what mother nature will do.

Princess has some Hawaii cruises next year in Sept Oct out of LA on the Grand Princess, which is an older ship. We did a Hawaii cruise on her a few years ago and it was great. Actually, we are booked  on the Sept 29, 2024 sailing. Never sailed to Hawaii in September and the only potential problem is that it still Hurricane season in the Pacific but hoping for the best. Princess does a great job on Hawaii cruises. They have Hawaiian Ambassadors onboard sailing over to the islands to get you in the spirit. They conduct lei making, hula and ukulele classes. They usually have some local hula dancers come onboard for a performance the evening the ship is docked in Honolulu, where they usually don't sail until 11 pm. Holland also does a good job and we enjoyed our cruises with them. 

[Essiesmom]

31 minutes ago, weacat said:

I'm here and following along.  We are very interested for your journal with MSC YC and comparisons to X as we may consider it very soon.  

We leave in a week with our 9 yr DD for a cruise on Apex out of Rotterdam.  Thankfully we traveled to London last summer to get her ready for an overnight Europe flight and it went very smoothly.  The MSC cruises look so interesting and hoping to book something in the near future for next summer.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

She did a review/comparison of her side to side MSC and Celebrity cruises back in ?april?  on the Celebrity board. Maybe she can post a link to it.  EM

it was in January, Silhouette Live S2S.  If you click on her avatar and page back through her posts, it starts on page 13.  

Edited July 8, 2023 by Essiesmom

[KKB]

6 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Aloha! Funny you should ask.  My mother is terrified of being on open water but has said she’d be willing to put her fear aside and try a cruise if we were to go to Alaska or Hawaii.  
 

What are your thoughts on doing Hawaii via cruise?  I’ve always thought of it as more of a land trip, but if it gets my mom out to sea that’s a big plus in my book. Any thoughts on which cruise lines do it well?  The reviews I’ve read about NCL’s Hawaii cruises have not been the best.

DH & I did Carnival in January--our 1st Carnival & all we heard was that we would NOT like it.

WE LOVED IT--very good food, SO much to do, great bands & bartenders.

(If you take the Miracle I KNOW you would find the decor...well...interesting!)

There was a storm in CA that gave us some waves & winds a couple days (tho sunny & warm) & we had to wear patches for a couple days for the first time in many years. 

 

I did not think I wanted to to AK but we did last Sept & loved it as well! 

We did Discovery Princess--you will find that AK cruises are much more casual & relaxed.

What we loved about Princess was different kinds of local salmon nightly--SO good!

[abbydancer2003]

7 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Aloha! Funny you should ask.  My mother is terrified of being on open water but has said she’d be willing to put her fear aside and try a cruise if we were to go to Alaska or Hawaii.  
 

What are your thoughts on doing Hawaii via cruise?  I’ve always thought of it as more of a land trip, but if it gets my mom out to sea that’s a big plus in my book. Any thoughts on which cruise lines do it well?  The reviews I’ve read about NCL’s Hawaii cruises have not been the best.

The thing with Hawaii cruises, of course, is that a cruise from LA is 14 or 15 days, and mostly sea days.  I've done Princess twice - but I love sea days.  Our last one was over the holidays - and I don't think I'd do that again - 400+ children running through the halls - playing in the stairwells (I almost got pushed down the stairs, etc).  However, the advantage was that if you time it right you can do a night tour of the Ialoni palace - it's open 3 nights year around Xmas.

 

The other option is that Celebrity seems to do some repositioning cruses from Vancouver to Honolulu or vis versa.

 

 

[Silkroad]

18 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Thank you! I will be stealing this motto for the agonizing stretch from July till my next cruise in October!  I’m hoping that many people have late summer and early fall cruises planned that they’ll be reporting on…preferably with gratuitous food and cocktail pics.

I’ll board Apex later this month for a b2b. I don’t know if I’ll be up to posting my very first live review, but I can promise to a least post a trip review with some food & cocktail pics🍹😎 

[dani negreanu]

9 hours ago, GenerationX said:

What are your thoughts on doing Hawaii via cruise?

 

If you go with very low expectations, and treat NCL Pride of America as a low (😉) budget hotel, its itinerary is the best.

 

Add 2 days before in Honolulu, and you're all set.

[deseylou]

I’m looking forward to your report.

We are on the Seascape in Nov. and in the retreat on the Beyond in April.

[momofmab]

Can't wait to see the outfit reveals!  

[GenerationX]

12 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

If you go with very low expectations, and treat NCL Pride of America as a low (😉) budget hotel, its itinerary is the best.

 

Add 2 days before in Honolulu, and you're all set.

Jeremy’s response when I floated this idea on our goodnight call last night…”YOU and YOUR mother trying to go and do ANYTHING with low expectations???  Yeah good luck with that, Norwegian. Count me out for that cruise!” 🤣

[LouChamp]

38 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

Jeremy’s response when I floated this idea on our goodnight call last night…”YOU and YOUR mother trying to go and do ANYTHING with low expectations???  Yeah good luck with that, Norwegian. Count me out for that cruise!” 🤣

Aloha. Then consider Princess of HAL. If you fly I would do two islands Oahu and Maui as four with air travel between is quite tiring and wastes days.  Jeremy would love the Halekulani which we use for staycations and Andaz or Grand Wailea on Maui.

[GenerationX]

Here we are! After 6 months of waiting it’s finally Seascape embarkation day!

 

Last night my very well dressed dinner dates and I tried a restaurant I hadn’t been to before for dinner called The Rusty Pelican.  A few cruises back I met a really nice Miami-based AA flight attendant on my trip and she mentioned how much she enjoys brunches there and suggested checking it out.

 

The restaurant is in a marina on Key Biscayne so it’s a short but a little more pricey (thanks to the toll charges the drivers incur) drive from Brickell.  The views of the ocean and Miami alone are totally worth it though.  

 

From certain areas of the restaurant there’s also a great view of the Miami cruise port. I kind of wished we’d reserved our dinner a little earlier so we could’ve sat on the patio and watched the cruise ships sail off while we ate.

 

You’re also definitely paying a location tax on the menu prices, but they do give you your money’s worth on the portions.  Gen Z had a kids salmon plate (which I missed getting pic of as she dove into devouring it before the server had even set it on the table good) and I had lobster and shrimp risotto with a “side” broccoli and broccolini plate.  Sometimes with seafood risottos they skimp you on the actual seafood meat, but this one came with a whole lobster tail and several very juicy and flavorful jumbo shrimp.

 

For dessert, Gen Z had cookies and cream ice cream and I had the chef’s special dessert of the night: an absurdly rich and decadent bread pudding which turned out to be the size of Gen Z’s head, topped with caramel ice cream and smothered in a warm brandy caramel sauce.  By about bite #7 I knew I’d be having no trouble sleeping.

 

Service was great when we started our meal a little before 7, but as the restaurant filled for the main dinner rush our server was clearly overextended and just getting our from placing our dessert order to getting the check took over an hour.  Next time I’ll definitely plan for early dinner there.

 

I just checked the port of Miami schedule and it looks like Seascape is at Terminal C today. There are only 2 other ships scheduled but both are on the bigger side (Carnival Celebration and NCL Escape) so I can see potential for the port to be busy.

 

In a little bit we’ll pull ourselves out of these comfy beds (hey it’s Sunday and we’re on vacation) dress and head to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast, then we’ll get all packed up and get ready to head to port.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[travelwide]

Do you recall who the YC director was on the Divina? Glad to hear you enjoyed that ship.

[Essiesmom]

Loving those black patent Mary Janes.  Did you have a matching starry night dress?  EM

[catgirl411]

So happy to be following along with you again. I’m currently laid up after a total knee replacement so it’s nice to live vicariously through you. Our next cruise isn’t until an October TA Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale on Reflection so these Lives have to tide me over.

 

On the Hawaii front my stepdaughter is booked on Edge in May 2024 Honolulu to Vancouver so that’s an option you might consider.

[LMaxwell]

We have dining plans with friends in near future at Rusty Pelican so nice treat reading about it here 

[Lena11033]

That food looks amazing

[GenerationX]

You know if I could just stop having these extravagant avocado toast breakfasts (with Cuban mimosas featuring a passion fruit liqueur), I could probably afford to sail Silversea. lol

 

We are all dressed and on our way to port!

 

 

 

[jules815]

16 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

You know if I could just stop having these extravagant avocado toast breakfasts (with Cuban mimosas featuring a passion fruit liqueur), I could probably afford to sail Silversea. lol

 

We are all dressed and on our way to port!

 

 

 

Love the matching outfits and your daughter's hair bows.  

Have a great boarding day. So excited for you.