Always available items in YC

[Beamafar]

Personally, I thought the martini bar over-rated.  Maybe it’s so popular because there are so few other venues to enjoy (on Edge ships) -  unlike the newer MSC ships, where there is so much more choices.  Also, Top Sail Lounge on MSC is a far superior venue than the Retreat lounge. 

[Best Cat Mom]

2 minutes ago, bphman said:

My wife was born and raised in Brooklyn but I married her regardless.

Careful! I am also a Native NYer from Brooklyn (Bensonhurst), and I'm partial to anyone else who is the same. 🙂

 

Ask for everything you desire in YC and they'll always do their best for you. Enjoy your YC cruise and let them spoil you!

 

[Beamafar]

13 minutes ago, Best Cat Mom said:

Careful! I am also a 

14 minutes ago, Best Cat Mom said:

Careful! I am also a Native NYer

 

🎶 You should know the score by now 🎶

 

Sorry - couldn’t resist!  😁

[Best Cat Mom]

2 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

You should know the score by now

Hell yes! But Billy Joel said it best: "I'm in a New York State of... Mind" -- always. 🙂

[Beamafar]

1 minute ago, Best Cat Mom said:

Hell yes! But Billy Joel said it best: "I'm in a New York State of... Mind" -- always. 🙂

🎶In a New York minute🎶

 

Sincere apologies to the OP. 😔

[DisneyJen]

52 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I think you will enjoy it..I enjoy both…agree on the Martini Bar comment above.  Overall I prefer the entire ship on Celebrity, but the YC is a step above.

But the big question @PTC DAWG is can I get blue cheese stuffed olives in the YC?🍸 Could NEVER get them on X even though they promised "tomorrow" every time I asked.

 

40 minutes ago, bphman said:

We were Celebrity loyalists but the pricing for the suites and cutback is services had us looking to book elsewhere,  Even AQ is getting ridiculous.  We have our first YC cruise this Sunday and are looking forward to it.  We live about an hour from Brooklyn.  My wife was born and raised in Brooklyn but I married her regardless.  I am very pleased to hear that low salt is not an issue since I, too, develop cruise cankles.  Will report back upon return.

 

Agree 💯 @bphman on X and its crazy pricing and cutbacks. We started in AQ about 8 years ago and then moved to the Retreat. I can't justify spending what X is asking for ships that haven't been fully "Revolutionized." I suspect we, in our very early 60s. aren't their target demographic.

 

Can't wait to read your reviews! I am expecting a cankles report from you and a pizza report from you DW 😉  The only good pizza in State College is what I make 🍕

 

We haven't sailed out of Brooklyn but are very familiar with Cape Liberty. Any tips about driving and checking in will be appreciated.

 

 

 

 

[DisneyJen]

🎹 "Who needs a house out in Hackensack ... Is that all you get for your money" 🎹

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by DisneyJen

[DisneyJen]

Speaking of music ...

 

How is the music in TS? We love a good pianist who can play everything from classical to current music. Nothing better than a post or pre prandial cocktail with lovely piano music.

 

 

[Beamafar]

2 minutes ago, DisneyJen said:

Speaking of music ...

 

How is the music in TS? We love a good pianist who can play everything from classical to current music. Nothing better than a post or pre prandial cocktail with lovely piano music.

 

 

From our experience it tends to vary.  You can have anything - from wonderful classical music played on a piano, to a singer accompanied by a guitar, to a band - depending on your sailing and the ship you’re sailing on.

I read on here that someone had very lively music that they danced all night to.  Not something I could imagine in TSL - it’s usually a venue for chilling out in.  There are lounges around the rest of the ship if you want to dance the night away. 

[Beamafar]

23 minutes ago, DisneyJen said:

🎹 "Who needs a house out in Hackensack ... Is that all you get for your money" 🎹

 

Had to google that one. 🙄   Turns out I know it - just didn’t know the lyrics other than “If that’s moving up, then I’m moving out”.  😆

Edited October 11, 2023 by Beamafar

[debb75]

On 10/10/2023 at 6:31 PM, DisneyJen said:

Greetings all!

 

@DJ's DH and I are considering our 40th anniversary cruise on MSC in YC.

 

Most recently we have been sailing on X in their upper suites.  Pricing and service on X has us looking at other lines.

 

@DJ's DH big questions include if he can get French Onion Soup, Caesar Salad or Shrimp Cocktail for dinner in the YC and Bagels with Lox and Cream Cheese for breakfast.

 

First world problems but the man knows what he likes ... and he foots the bill 🙂

Pretty much whatever you want you will get in yacht club.  Bagels and lox is a definite, I'm not sure about French onion soup but shrimp and Ceasar salad were served.  The buffet in YC had shrimp and scallops almost everyday.  

[DisneyJen]

8 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

From our experience it tends to vary.  You can have anything - from wonderful classical music played on a piano, to a singer accompanied by a guitar, to a band - depending on your sailing and the ship you’re sailing on.

I read on here that someone had very lively music that they danced all night to.  Not something I could imagine in TSL - it’s usually a venue for chilling out in.  There are lounges around the rest of the ship if you want to dance the night away. 

 

We aren't dancers ... @DJ's DH idea of dancing is either the Worm from "Animal House" or moving in circles to "Stairway to Heaven."🎶

 

After 40 years of marriage, most of them happy, we are now to the point where the ship is the destination. When we travel with the kids and grands we do Disney and RCCL.

 

We love the idea of a ship within a ship.

 

[DisneyJen]

Thanks @debb75!

 

I think we will be very happy in YC🍾

[Beamafar]

1 minute ago, DisneyJen said:

Thanks @debb75!

 

I think we will be very happy in YC🍾

I was just about to post the very same sentiment.  

[deliver42]

The short answers are yes and yes.

[Stem to Stern]

MSC first timer here sailing this December on Seascape in The Yacht Club followed by Summit in The Retreat side-by-side.  Echoing the previous comments regarding Retreat pricing, this will likely be our final experience in The Retreat.  We enjoyed our Luminae experiences in the past.  Sounds like YC will blow it out of the water.  Have we set ourselves up for Retreat disappointment?  Based on all the positive YC comments on this board I think the possibility is real.  Time will tell.  Fortunate to be sailing with friends on the Summit segment, so that should cushion the blow.  The four of us sail martini glasses half full.  Hubby will be looking for garlic-stuffed olives on MSC.  Any intell out there?  Personally I look forward to trying the MSC Signature Martini.  Also will ask for the above noted mozzarella sticks.  Don’t hate.  Sweet potato fries could be a nice treat as well.  Preparing my preference sheet.😀😉

[RichYak]

3 hours ago, bphman said:

We were Celebrity loyalists but the pricing for the suites and cutback is services had us looking to book elsewhere,  Even AQ is getting ridiculous...  We live about an hour from Brooklyn.  My wife was born and raised in Brooklyn but I married her regardless.

Based on these comments, we could be the same person.

[CGTNORMANDIE]

On 10/10/2023 at 6:31 PM, DisneyJen said:

Greetings all!

 

@DJ's DH and I are considering our 40th anniversary cruise on MSC in YC.

 

Most recently we have been sailing on X in their upper suites.  Pricing and service on X has us looking at other lines.

 

@DJ's DH big questions include if he can get French Onion Soup, Caesar Salad or Shrimp Cocktail for dinner in the YC and Bagels with Lox and Cream Cheese for breakfast.

 

First world problems but the man knows what he likes ... and he foots the bill 🙂

“Ask…and you shall receive”

[CGTNORMANDIE]

On 10/10/2023 at 6:31 PM, DisneyJen said:

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by CGTNORMANDIE

[jcpc]

@DisneyJen and all others "jumping ship" to try MSC YC.  Below is a small review that I posted on my personal FB page for all my "Celebrity pals" to read.  You may (or may not) find some of my thoughts interesting. I will admit that I like the overall ambience of a Celebrity ship rather than the atmosphere of the non-YC areas on Meraviglia.  But easy solution......stick to YC enclave until you want to venture out for shows or specialty dining.

 

Our sailing on MSC Meraviglia was not at full capacity. I would estimate there were 5000 passengers onboard (ship holds 5600 passengers). Prior to sailing I had read that there is a very large travel agency in NYC that caters to Asian clientele and they book groups on this ship. I believe we probably had close to 2000 Asian passengers onboard. Whenever you have a large amount of any one demographic on any ship it somewhat skews the vibe of the ship. This was definitely the case on our sailing.

Of note: in my opinion the pier in Brooklyn leaves a little bit to be desired. The Yacht Club waiting room we were in prior to boarding the ship reminded me of the prison visiting room in Orange is the New Black. Plus in bad weather, be prepared for you and all your belongings to get soaking wet as there is very little overhead covering outside.

I stayed in the Yacht Club (YC) section of this ship. The YC concept is a “ship within a ship” concept. All passengers staying in YC suites have their own dedicated butler service, restaurant, cocktail lounge, and sundeck. Service and food quality in the YC venue was outstanding. I sailed with 4 friends who, like me, are loyal Celebrity Retreat (Suite) passengers. I definitely felt (as they also did) that the MSC YC experience far exceeded the Celebrity Retreat experience…on all levels. Our service was the best I have ever experienced in any of my cruises. The Top Sail Lounge (the cocktail lounge) had nightly entertainment ranging from a piano player, a guitar player, a singer, etc. The lounge also had “finger food” available from 7 am until 1 am - basically all day and night. You could “make a meal” on the snacks that they offered. The YC restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner on all days of the cruise (except closed for lunch the day the ship is in Ocean Cay, the MSC private island). The Pool Deck was gorgeous (however with very, very limited shade) with a large buffet and grill available for breakfast and lunch. It is a “semi-buffet”.....you can order your eggs to your liking and they deliver them freshly cooked and piping hot to your table……same for burgers, etc. at lunch. For my fellow Celebrity Retreat friends I think you definitely will find MSC Yacht Club to your liking.

We did venture into the “non-YC section” of the ship each evening to attend the nightly production shows in the Broadway Theater. We were escorted to the Theater by our butler and were seated in a section of the Theater reserved for Yacht Club passengers. Non YC passengers need to make reservations to see the shows. Our butler bypassed the crowd and lines waiting to enter the theater and brought us directly to our reserved seats. The shows were, in my opinion, typical cruise ship entertainment. The production shows were very good. They also had a comedian and a magic type show if that type of entertainment is to your liking. One of the best parts of the shows was watching the pushing, shoving, shouting, trying to “sneak into the YC seating” of the non-YC passengers on the ship. The behavior was unlike anything I’ve seen on any cruise before.

We also attended two “pay-for” shows in the Carousel Lounge. Again, having dedicated butler escort and reserved seating. These two shows were excellent and well worth the charge ($18 if you purchase ticket onboard, $12 if you purchase prior to sailing).

The casino was packed every night. There is a lot of smoking in the casino and the smell of smoke was, to me, very prevalent no matter what part of the casino you were in. On September 8, (just 2 days prior to our sailing) MSC opened a “non-smoking” part of the casino with a pretty large size bank of slot machines outside of the casino proper (adjacent to the Champagne Bar). There was no smell of smoke in this section. However, if you like table games you need to be able to tolerate smoke. There were no video poker slot machines onboard.

Each evening from 10:15 pm to 11:00 pm in the “inside promenade” on Decks 6 and 7, they conducted a 45 minute “dance party”. When exiting the Broadway Theater after the 9:30 pm show you were smack dab in the “dance party”. It was like a mosh pit with 3000 people. Not my thing…..but I’m old. So maybe some of you young folks would love to dance, sing and scream in the promenade for 45 minutes with 3000 people!

We popped into the Sky Lounge one evening for a drink. For me…..it was a “one and done”. We did get excellent service in the Lounge, but we tipped generously. No need to be in the Sky Lounge when we had the Top Sail Lounge in the YC enclave.

We did do Specialty Dining one evening in Butcher’s Cut (steakhouse). The food and service was excellent. I would not hesitate to eat in Butcher’s Club on our next sailing.  Full disclosure:  this was a complimentary tasting menu meal due to my Diamond status with MSC (I did the status match prior to booking my cruise......Celebrity Zenith matched to MSC DIamond).

On a port day, I stopped into the Marketplace Buffet area just to see what it was all about. To me, it reminded me of a huge cafeteria. The food offerings looked pretty decent but I could only imagine the chaos of the place on a sea day. The pizza onboard the ship was pretty good.

Passenger mix: What can I say?? To me, it was a classless, rude bunch. I won’t even get into how a lot of passengers were dressed in the evening. Again, classless is the only word I can use to describe it.

We all re-booked MSC Yacht Club for 2024. For me, I would NEVER sail on MSC unless I was in the Yacht Club. The main part of the ship is just too frenetic, crowded and chaotic for me.

 

 

[lcpagejr]

20 minutes ago, jcpc said:

@DisneyJen and all others "jumping ship" to try MSC YC.  Below is a small review that I posted on my personal FB page for all my "Celebrity pals" to read.  You may (or may not) find some of my thoughts interesting. I will admit that I like the overall ambience of a Celebrity ship rather than the atmosphere of the non-YC areas on Meraviglia.  But easy solution......stick to YC enclave until you want to venture out for shows or specialty dining.

 

Our sailing on MSC Meraviglia was not at full capacity. I would estimate there were 5000 passengers onboard (ship holds 5600 passengers). Prior to sailing I had read that there is a very large travel agency in NYC that caters to Asian clientele and they book groups on this ship. I believe we probably had close to 2000 Asian passengers onboard. Whenever you have a large amount of any one demographic on any ship it somewhat skews the vibe of the ship. This was definitely the case on our sailing.

Of note: in my opinion the pier in Brooklyn leaves a little bit to be desired. The Yacht Club waiting room we were in prior to boarding the ship reminded me of the prison visiting room in Orange is the New Black. Plus in bad weather, be prepared for you and all your belongings to get soaking wet as there is very little overhead covering outside.

I stayed in the Yacht Club (YC) section of this ship. The YC concept is a “ship within a ship” concept. All passengers staying in YC suites have their own dedicated butler service, restaurant, cocktail lounge, and sundeck. Service and food quality in the YC venue was outstanding. I sailed with 4 friends who, like me, are loyal Celebrity Retreat (Suite) passengers. I definitely felt (as they also did) that the MSC YC experience far exceeded the Celebrity Retreat experience…on all levels. Our service was the best I have ever experienced in any of my cruises. The Top Sail Lounge (the cocktail lounge) had nightly entertainment ranging from a piano player, a guitar player, a singer, etc. The lounge also had “finger food” available from 7 am until 1 am - basically all day and night. You could “make a meal” on the snacks that they offered. The YC restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner on all days of the cruise (except closed for lunch the day the ship is in Ocean Cay, the MSC private island). The Pool Deck was gorgeous (however with very, very limited shade) with a large buffet and grill available for breakfast and lunch. It is a “semi-buffet”.....you can order your eggs to your liking and they deliver them freshly cooked and piping hot to your table……same for burgers, etc. at lunch. For my fellow Celebrity Retreat friends I think you definitely will find MSC Yacht Club to your liking.

We did venture into the “non-YC section” of the ship each evening to attend the nightly production shows in the Broadway Theater. We were escorted to the Theater by our butler and were seated in a section of the Theater reserved for Yacht Club passengers. Non YC passengers need to make reservations to see the shows. Our butler bypassed the crowd and lines waiting to enter the theater and brought us directly to our reserved seats. The shows were, in my opinion, typical cruise ship entertainment. The production shows were very good. They also had a comedian and a magic type show if that type of entertainment is to your liking. One of the best parts of the shows was watching the pushing, shoving, shouting, trying to “sneak into the YC seating” of the non-YC passengers on the ship. The behavior was unlike anything I’ve seen on any cruise before.

We also attended two “pay-for” shows in the Carousel Lounge. Again, having dedicated butler escort and reserved seating. These two shows were excellent and well worth the charge ($18 if you purchase ticket onboard, $12 if you purchase prior to sailing).

The casino was packed every night. There is a lot of smoking in the casino and the smell of smoke was, to me, very prevalent no matter what part of the casino you were in. On September 8, (just 2 days prior to our sailing) MSC opened a “non-smoking” part of the casino with a pretty large size bank of slot machines outside of the casino proper (adjacent to the Champagne Bar). There was no smell of smoke in this section. However, if you like table games you need to be able to tolerate smoke. There were no video poker slot machines onboard.

Each evening from 10:15 pm to 11:00 pm in the “inside promenade” on Decks 6 and 7, they conducted a 45 minute “dance party”. When exiting the Broadway Theater after the 9:30 pm show you were smack dab in the “dance party”. It was like a mosh pit with 3000 people. Not my thing…..but I’m old. So maybe some of you young folks would love to dance, sing and scream in the promenade for 45 minutes with 3000 people!

We popped into the Sky Lounge one evening for a drink. For me…..it was a “one and done”. We did get excellent service in the Lounge, but we tipped generously. No need to be in the Sky Lounge when we had the Top Sail Lounge in the YC enclave.

We did do Specialty Dining one evening in Butcher’s Cut (steakhouse). The food and service was excellent. I would not hesitate to eat in Butcher’s Club on our next sailing.  Full disclosure:  this was a complimentary tasting menu meal due to my Diamond status with MSC (I did the status match prior to booking my cruise......Celebrity Zenith matched to MSC DIamond).

On a port day, I stopped into the Marketplace Buffet area just to see what it was all about. To me, it reminded me of a huge cafeteria. The food offerings looked pretty decent but I could only imagine the chaos of the place on a sea day. The pizza onboard the ship was pretty good.

Passenger mix: What can I say?? To me, it was a classless, rude bunch. I won’t even get into how a lot of passengers were dressed in the evening. Again, classless is the only word I can use to describe it.

We all re-booked MSC Yacht Club for 2024. For me, I would NEVER sail on MSC unless I was in the Yacht Club. The main part of the ship is just too frenetic, crowded and chaotic for me.

 

 

This mirrors my previous 2 cruises on Seaside.... Fortunately in YC for both cruises. As I have said numerous times on these boards....Its YC or bust if you cruise MSC. Thanks for sharing your observations and comments

[3some]

13 hours ago, JAGR said:

For breakfast, lox and bagels with cream cheese is on the menu in YC.  For the dinner, it would be wise to advise the staff on what you want.  The French Onion Soup, Caesar Salad are only one one day of the seven-day rotation  The Shrimp Cocktail has been on the the always available on our last cruise, but that may change.  Certainly, those three requested dishes would be easy for them to make up for you with a bit of notice.

 

Good luck against U Mass.  The next week may be a bit more difficult for you!  (I hope, at least! ☺️).  Go Bucks!

OH

[Brighton Line]

16 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Personally, I thought the martini bar over-rated.  Maybe it’s so popular because there are so few other venues to enjoy (on Edge ships) -  unlike the newer MSC ships, where there is so much more choices.  Also, Top Sail Lounge on MSC is a far superior venue than the Retreat lounge. 

Having a cabin on 16 we just went to the Top Sail Lounge even to just get a bottle of water. Yes we asked for diet drinks for the fridge, but rarely drank them.

[JAGR]

11 hours ago, 3some said:

OH

Sorry!  Late to the Party!

 

I - O!

[DisneyJen]

Thanks for sharing your review and thoughts @jcpc!