OBSERVATIONS FROM THE POOP DECK SEASCAPE SEPT 24, 2023

[morpheusofthesea]

Thought I would start this post the night before so as not to fumble around on my iphone reporting while waiting to board.

 I will try to 'pick up the ball' being left by @jules815 who is departing the Seascape in the morning. Looking forward to another great week on the Seascape. Folks, it doesn't get any better than this. MSC Seaships have everything we look for in cruising. We love the food, we love the service, we love the entertainment and we love the more sophisticated international clientele. Sure I complain about the overcrowded ship, the interlopers, the long lines, the elevators (stop me, someone.) These I have written about ad nauseam. But 'hope springs eternal'. Some posters have intimated that the kids are back in school and though the cabins are fully booked there are only 2 per cabin versus 4 or 5? @jules815 reported that the over-ride key cards are operating again. Just these two things will contribute to an already swell time on board. So "fasten your seatbelts".Bette Davis

[Bgwest]

Hot Dog!! He’s back!!😃

[cruisin'a]

Woohoo! Following along as DH and I will board Seascape on Oct 29. It will be our first YC experience on Seascape. 

[Best Cat Mom]

Looking forward to hearing all about your week, Morph!

[Stem to Stern]

Bon voyage!!

[perakcruiser]

Looking forward to read 🙂

[Fighterone]

14 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

 

 I will try to 'pick up the ball' being left by @jules815 who is departing the Seascape in the morning. Looking forward to another great week on the Seascape.

 

Looking forward to your "picking up the ball" and reading all of your comments in anticipation of  our sailing. 

 

Folks, it doesn't get any better than this. MSC Seaships have everything we look for in cruising.

We love the food, we love the service, we love the entertainment and we love the more sophisticated international clientele.

Agree wholeheartedly and the ships are beautiful. 

 

Sure I complain about the overcrowded ship, the interlopers, the long lines. 

"We love YC for the lack of crowds and rarely leave the area but those interlopers gotta go." 

 

 

[lcpagejr]

Morph...you amaze me!! Another YC cruise!! Couldn't agree more with your opening post.  Its been a few years since we've been on MSC...But YC #3 coming up over Thanksgiving on Seascape.   Have a wonderful cruise and I also look forward to following your thread!!

[DaKahuna]

 I just opened a new bottle or Kirk & Sweeney Grand Reserve and am looking forward to enjoying it as I follow along on your adventure. 

 

[morpheusofthesea]

39 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 I just opened a new bottle or Kirk & Sweeney Grand Reserve and am looking forward to enjoying it as I follow along on your adventure. 

 

I see you are Bette Davis’s kind of man.

Edited September 24, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[DaKahuna]

7 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

I see you are Bette Davis’s kind of man.

 

 I like my aged rum's.  What can I say.  Looking forward to the Zacapa 23 on our upcoming MSC sailing. (I have a 750ml and a 1L bottle of Zacapa stashed away)

 

 Love those eye's!!  Sorry that they are forever closed. 

 

 

[morpheusofthesea]

58 minutes ago, lcpagejr said:

Morph...you amaze me!! Another YC cruise!! Couldn't agree more with your opening post.  Its been a few years since we've been on MSC...But YC #3 coming up over Thanksgiving on Seascape.   Have a wonderful cruise and I also look forward to following your thread!!

So you are the ‘lucky stiff’ that booked the Royal for Thanksgiving. We will be in a YC4 for Thanksgiving. I will have to watch what I post. “Nothing spoils a good story more than the arrival of an eyewitness.” Mark Twain

[lcpagejr]

Just now, morpheusofthesea said:

So you are the ‘lucky stiff’ that booked the Royal for Thanksgiving. We will be in a YC4 for Thanksgiving. I will have to watch what I post. “Nothing spoils a good story more than the arrival of an eyewitness.” Mark Twain

Nope... not me..lol. I am just a a mere mortal. I will be in a  basic deluxe suite. I did post a while back that I did bid on a  upgrade for a Royal (on a previous cruise). The funny thing is the person who had booked that cabin replyed saying he was in that Suite and not going anywhere😄

 

Excited to hear you will also be on Thanksgiving cruise. Would love to meet you guys!!

[psmarkle]

Yesss! Another Poop Deck review! Just poured a glass of Pinot Grigio and kicked my feet up...

[morpheusofthesea]

It is 10:50 and the B2Bs are reboarding. We followed them on board. On board by 11:05am. Lunchtime at 12:30, breakfast at 6:30am(7am if Ocean Cay),Dinner now begins at 6 pm.Heard that there were 350 guests in the Yacht Club last sailing. On this sailing the manifest says 230 in YC. 7 are children, 22 of us are over 70. Now that doesn’t mean the YC will sail with only 230. Those on board can opt to upgrade still to YC. Heard as well that there is a big group that have “access” to the YC that have cabins outside and this is for the YC restaurant as well. It could be casino perk as well as officer friends and family.

  Got luggage at 1 pm. We all were greeted in the terminal by the YC director Iancu, who told us that Hotel Director Yannis(who left today to take over the helm of the Seashore is taking him as well to be YC director on the Seashore along with Arthur maitre ‘d, sometime after his vacation in January. Arthur’s replacement is an Italian Gentleman? Who has worked his way up in the MSC ranks.

Edited September 24, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[Best Cat Mom]

12 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Arthur’s replacement is an Italian Gentleman? Who has worked his way up in the MSC ranks.

Might this be Mauricio, who used to be on Divina? We sailed Divina last October and this past January and he was the manager of Le Muse then. He is also a sommelier and would offer some excellent surprise wines to accompany those great YC meals.

[morpheusofthesea]

Met a gentleman that is a frequent passenger on board. He travels solo and revealed that MSC still has 6 cabins that they only charge as a single. He books a year in advance and is on for 2 weeks having just got off the Seascape two weeks ago. So we are not the only ones to sing the MSC praises and spend all our free time on these ships.

[morpheusofthesea]

3 minutes ago, Best Cat Mom said:

Might this be Mauricio, who used to be on Divina? We sailed Divina last October and this past January and he was the manager of Le Muse then. He is also a sommelier and would offer some excellent surprise wines to accompany those great YC meals.

You are probably right. My informant said they worked together and that he was a sommelier when they worked together. I will drop his name on our next encounter to confirm.

[morpheusofthesea]

Well my first encounter with the elevator was a bust. My key card did not work to over ride the system. But when pressed normally the elevator came empty in 10 seconds and went direct from deck 6 to 16.

[morpheusofthesea]

It just about time for muster drill. Will see if anything has changed.

[morpheusofthesea]

Well the Sports Bar is open  and packed.

[morpheusofthesea]

Well what is nice about the muster drill is we were able to use the elevators to go up after scanning in.

Edited September 24, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[Saving Up To Be Eccentric]

Would appreciate a report on hearsay after the ports about if we need to bring bugspray. 

[morpheusofthesea]

Muster drill is announced inside the cabins in three languages this cruise, English, Italian, Spanish.

[morpheusofthesea]

1 minute ago, Saving Up To Be Eccentric said:

Would appreciate a report on hearsay after the ports about if we need to bring bugspray. 

That was a concern of ours visiting the out islands of the other big three cruise lines. We had ants crawling all over the cabanas we rented in suite section of the islands. Ocean Cay is so pristine we have left the can of 'Raid' home. We no longer get off the ship at other ports, only Ocean Cay is nice enough to bother.