**LIVE** from the MSC Seascape: A Family's Experience in the Yacht Club – 7-Night Western Caribbean – March 23-30, 2024

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

2 minutes ago, Faulkh said:

Thank you for sharing your experience and family with us. Love your writing style and attitude. We are exploring going to Greece on MSC so reading all I can. Thanks again and enjoy your cruise. 

I appreciate the kind words, thank you!

 

Greece is on our cruise bucket list! We are doing the Med in June on Celebrity, but it will be Italy/France/Spain.

 

Enjoy your cruise (and have fun researching)!

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I could see somebody doing that, but that's not our style.

 

We enjoy great service, but I wouldn't want great service to cross over into the territory of entitled, and I think this would.

That is funny !  I remember years ago a Disney experience that one who pays more gets a host (butler-like guide) who butts one to the front of every ride and exhibit.We would actually go from behind the scenes coming out of secret doors at the head of the lines and the attendants automatically took us VIPs immediately. The Yacht Club is the same concept. Pay more, get more. Let's not get sanctimonious with "entitled".

P.S. "Get essential details about the Disney Private VIP Tour.

Pricing: Ranging from $450 to $900 per hour, depending on the season (valid park admission is required for each park visited on tour and is not included in the price of the tour)."

Edited March 25 by morpheusofthesea
P.S.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Butcher's Cut:

 

We experienced what will likely be our only specialty dinner on the Seascape tonight since we want to enjoy the YC restaurant (we did Hola! for lunch earlier but it wasn't a good experience and I didn't want to turn this live thread into me whining about a bunch of things, so I decided to not share our experience for now).

 

The good news is we had a fantastic dinner, from start to finish!

 

Pro Tip: Status match with MSC to get Gold/Diamond status...I was able to use my status received from my Amex Business Platinum card to get status with Marriott/Hilton that I was then able to match to MSC Diamond. As a result, dinner tonight was nearly free (we paid for some upgrades).

 

---

 

Starters:

 

- Foie Deviled Eggs: I wasn't sure what to expect having what was essentially fried chicken skin on top of deviled eggs, but it was actually very good.

 

- House Chopped Salad: As served it was pretty dry but this was nothing a modest amount of salad dressing couldn't fix.

 

- Smoked Tomato Soup: My wife had this and she said it tasted exactly like it said it would, but the smoky taste was a bit much for her.

 

---

 

Entrees:

 

- T-Bonezilla Steak (medium rare): This was their creative name for a gigantic t-bone steak that was shared by my daughter and I. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare temperature and expertly seared. This was split across our two Diamond status comp meals so instead of costing $99 it was only $25 (you get half off the regular menu steaks and this combined the two).

 

- Sirloin Steak (medium rare): My son ordered this off the Dining Experience menu and honestly, it may have been better than our T-Bonezilla. Again, cooked perfectly with a great sear.

 

- Hearts of Palm: My wife is a vegetarian so there weren't many options for her with it being a steakhouse, so she got this dish and seemed to really enjoy it.

 

---

 

Dessert:

 

- Vanilla Ice Cream: My son is easy and predictable. He said the vanilla ice cream was just right 🤣

 

- Lava Cake w/ Vanilla Ice Cream: My daughter is a chocolate lover so this was an easy choice for her when she saw it on the menu. The lava cake was warm and judging by her plate afterwards, she enjoyed it.

 

- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie w/ Vanilla Ice Cream: My wife went for this and enjoyed it. The cookie was large, warm, and extra peanut buttery. The ice cream paired well with it.

 

- Strawberry Cheesecake: I went for this even though my wife just had this last night in the YC restaurant, but I was pleased it was a unique dish and not the same exact thing (hers was light on the strawberry in the YC, where mine has strawberries covering the entire top of the cheesecake). It scored a Yummy from me, which is our top food score.

 

---

 

Service:

 

As most cruise ship restaurants do, Butcher's Cut uses a team approach to service (separate servers for drinks, bread, and entrees), but MSC seems to do a very good job with this (at least outside the MDR).

 

The teams seem to communicate well so there's no confusion about who is doing what or what's up next.

 

---

 

Ambiance:

 

Sometimes in nicer restaurants they can go too far with the mood lighting, making it difficult to see. However, I'm happy to share that Butcher's Cut seems to have found the perfect balance between ambiance and visibility.

 

Beyond the lighting, it is well decorated and my kids liked that they had artwork on the walls that showed cows with a diagram of where the different cuts of beef come from. This spurred a fun conversation about the different types of meat that come from cows and why they're named what they are (did you know it's called a "ribeye" because it's located in the center of the ribs on the cow? now you do...).

 

The only complaint here, and it's super minor, the legs of the tables project pretty far out so when you're sliding into your seat on the booth side, you have to lift your legs over them.

 

---

 

Overall:

 

This was definitely our best meal yet and it may have been our best steakhouse experience on a cruise ship. They really did well in all facets.

 

---

 

Scoring:

 

- Food: 4.5/5 (the house salad wasn't great, nor was the smoked tomato soup, but the steaks were fantastic and that's what really matters at a steakhouse)

- Service: 5/5

- Ambiance: 5/5

- Overall: 5/5

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

30 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

That is funny !  I remember years ago a Disney experience that one who pays more gets a host (butler-like guide) who butts one to the front of every ride and exhibit.We would actually go from behind the scenes coming out of secret doors at the head of the lines and the attendants automatically took us VIPs immediately. The Yacht Club is the same concept. Pay more, get more. Let's not get sanctimonious with "entitled".

P.S. "Get essential details about the Disney Private VIP Tour.

Pricing: Ranging from $450 to $900 per hour, depending on the season (valid park admission is required for each park visited on tour and is not included in the price of the tour)."

I am familiar with those Disney tours and honestly, I plan to do one of those in the next couple years.

 

I'm not sure why the Disney experience doesn't seem entitled, but asking a YC butler to do this does.

 

Maybe some of it is because with the cruise, these are people I'm sharing a cruise with vs somebody I'll never see again after I pass them in line? Or perhaps because I'm jumping a 20 minute line vs a 2-3 hour line.

 

I'm not sure why the two things are different for me... Something to think about.

[morpheusofthesea]

7 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I'm not sure why the two things are different for me... Something to think about.

The ancient Greeks considered this the most important aspect of human existence. They had it chiseled in stone above the entrance to their holiest site the Oracle of Delphi “Man Know Thyself”.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

For those of you following - I spoke with Mustafa (YC Director) this morning about the issue with lunch on embarkation day + spa scheduling.

 

He's going to do what he can to try and rectify their mistake in the spa by getting us scheduled on the only sea day (day 6)... That's not ideal since we'd have rather started our cruise with a massage vs at the end, but it would be better than not getting one at all.

 

Additionally, he said he was aware of the issue with lunch on day 1 and after somebody else had been turned away, he had told the restaurant they needed to stay open later to accommodate everybody (but that wasn't until after us and others were turned away and somebody else complained...I guess we should have said something sooner vs accepting it, lesson learned).

 

I'll circle back with whatever the outcome of things is.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

MSC Fitness Center by TechnoGym

 

Our first port day is sunny Falmouth, Jamaica! We were originally supposed to be alone in Ocho Rios today, but after a Carnival ship crashed into the pier there and Royal cancelled all trips to Labadee, Haiti because of political unrest, it appears we'll be sharing the little corner of Heaven with the folks from Symphony of the Seas (and they beat us here).

 

In the past a trip to the gym while on a cruise ship wouldn't have been very high on my priority list but I've been on a weight loss journey to be around and more active for my wife and kids as they grow up, so I've resolved to coming to the gym every day on the side-to-side (to-side because I have a two day cruise on Margaritaville at Sea next week after the Seashore).

 

---

 

Things to Note:

 

- Crowd Control: The gym was crazy crowded yesterday to the point where there were lines of people waiting for equipment and people trying to sneak in front of others.

 

- I'm happy to report it's not as busy today. I don't know if that's because today is a port day or it's just because yesterday was morning 1 and today people are getting more into vacation mode (or perhaps nursing a hangover 🥴)... Whatever the reason, I'm grateful for it. It's still close to capacity today, but there's no waiting in lines or fighting to get on a piece of equipment.

 

- Equipment: The equipment is all nice and in good condition. The equipment that was broken down yesterday is repaired today (but the first bike I hopped on, that worked yesterday, is broken today). The good news here is that it seems MSC has a crew who regularly repairs broken down equipment.

 

- Layout: Things are laid out well, so even at capacity you aren't having to worry about bumping into others while working out.

 

- Group Classes: For those of you who enjoy group classes, the earliest they offer them is 9am, so if you prefer to workout early like I do, that's not an option.

 

Overall, I'm pleased with things. They are setup much better than they were on the Meraviglia where trying to workout was a challenge every day.

 

---

 

Scoring:

 

- Crowd Control: 3/5 (this could potentially go up if the rest of the week is more like today than yesterday).

- Equipment: 4.5/5

- Layout: 5/5

- Group Classes: 3/5

 

Overall: 4/5

 

 

[no1talks]

On 3/24/2024 at 9:09 AM, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

"My wife and I mainly played the automated roulette..."

 

Is regular roulette still available as well? Thank you very much.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

3 minutes ago, no1talks said:

 

Is regular roulette still available as well? Thank you very much.

Yes, I haven't spent much time over there because of the smoke, but I'll try to get a list of table games and limits for you guys!

[Shadow9612]

Really enjoying your review (content and style).  I found out about this from one of your posts on the Celebrity board.  

 

I sail mostly Celebrity but have been considering trying elsewhere due to the skyrocketing costs of staterooms in Celebrity retreat.

 

So your details about MSC YC are every much appreciated.

 

Like you, I don't like smoke in the casino so this is a concern for me - I wish MSC had non smoking tables (ie roulette since I prefer the table game rather than electronic).

 

Just curious if you've left the YC to "explore the ship" and if so, is exploring easily done?  I don't really have a gauge as to the size of the MSC ships.  I'm used to being able to explore almost everywhere on Celebrity S class ships in a short period of time.

 

Again, really enjoying this - thanks for all the time and details!

 

 

Edited March 26 by Shadow9612
Typos

[momofmab]

On 3/24/2024 at 5:04 PM, muttley said:

I don't remember seeing life guards at Ocean Cay. What i did see is people leaving their half finished alcoholic drinks all over the place if that is a concern.

 

We had a lifeguard on the YC beach for our cruise. It's rough over there as it opens up to the ocean (an older gentleman had to be helped up after he fell in the surf and couldn't get up).  I would not be comfortable with my kids swimming over there, unsupervised by me.  They do have some kind of a netting/buoy contraption up to keep swimmers from heading out to sea but I'm not sure how well that works. Other non-YC swimming areas on the island are much better, IMO.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

41 minutes ago, momofmab said:

 

We had a lifeguard on the YC beach for our cruise. It's rough over there as it opens up to the ocean (an older gentleman had to be helped up after he fell in the surf and couldn't get up).  I would not be comfortable with my kids swimming over there, unsupervised by me.  They do have some kind of a netting/buoy contraption up to keep swimmers from heading out to sea but I'm not sure how well that works. Other non-YC swimming areas on the island are much better, IMO.

Just so you (and others) know... There's zero chance I would ever allow my kids to swim in the ocean without our direct supervision. I know I asked the question, but I didn't mean for it to come across seriously.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

YC Response to Our Issues

 

I spoke to the YC Director, Mustafa, yesterday morning about the issue with the embarkation day lunch in the YC and the spa scheduling mistake. He took the day to review with his team while we were in Jamaica and when he saw us grabbing a drink in the Top Sail Lounge before dinner, he asked if he could talk with us after dinner.

 

This was fine with us, so after another fantastic dinner in the YC Restaurant, we returned to the lounge and he made his way over 10 minutes or so later.

 

---

 

re: Being Turned Away at the YC Restaurant Lunch on Embarkation Day

 

He said this was something he had been made aware of on the day of after some other upset YC guests brought the issue to him. 

 

He said it was a matter of an overwhelmed hostess (not sure of the actual title) making a judgement call to turn people away without first asking the leadership team. Once they learned about her doing this, they told her this was not appropriate and the restaurant would stay open later for lunch, but it was not appropriate to tell people they could not be accommodated.

 

Their Offering: Mustafa said they will comp a specialty dinner for us to make up for things.

 

I don't know if we'll accept this, simply because we already ate at Butcher's Cut for our Diamond VC comped dinner and I don't know that we want to miss another dinner in the YC with how good it is.

 

Whatever we decide, I definitely appreciate the gesture.

 

---

 

re: Scheduling Mistake for our Couples Massage

 

For this he said on embarkation day they have people from the spa, excursions desk, and restaurants come help at the YC Concierge Desk who aren't as good about following up since after the few hours they assist, they return to their typical assignment and are not focused on the YC.

 

As a result, the spa person who made our reservation and told us she'd be checking to make sure the Kids Club was open during our appointment failed to do so and as a result, we were forced to miss our appointment on the first morning (and all of the sea day time slots for couples massages being booked).

 

Their Offering:

 

I'm not sure how, but somehow they were able to open up a time slot for our couples massage on day 6 (the only other sea day), at 10:15am (our preferred time so we can drop our kids off at the Kids Club while we get our massage).

 

They are also comping our massage, a very kind gesture.

 

The two things mentioned already would have been a sufficient and appropriate way to handle things, but Mustafa didn't stop there.

 

He also gave both of my kids a drawstring bag filled with goodies (Lego set of the ship, a kids card game, a T-shirt, and a hat). He also offered to give us phones we can keep with us on the ship so the Kids Club can contact us if needed (we declined, but again, appreciate the gesture).

 

Mustafa also gave me his personal phone # so I can contact him on WhatsApp if we need anything at all.

 

---

 

Our Reaction:

 

While these gestures can't undo the experiences we had (and missed), we are both truly overwhelmed by the response.

 

We are typically the kind to just quietly take things and not return, but I'm glad we listened to a couple of you urge us to say something to give them a chance to address things.

 

Mustafa did a great job of turning a negative experience that would have likely resulted in us not sailing on MSC again, and turning it into a positive and we are already talking about what trip to book in the YC next.

 

So I hope those of you sailing in the YC in the future will learn from our experience and give the YC Director an opportunity to address things if you ever do have a negative experience in the YC.

 

We are beyond impressed by not only the gesture, but also by the way Mustafa owned the situation (vs making excuses), and shared how they are using our situation to provide training to their staff to prevent situations in the future.

 

Well done YC and Mustafa.

Edited March 26 by FamilyAtSea.travel

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Port 1 - Falmouth, Jamaica

 

I know the purpose of this review is to be focused on the ship and not the ports, but I figured I would share very brief overviews of the port days for anybody else looking for fun things to do.

 

11 years ago my wife and I did our first ever cruise on our honeymoon - 7 days on the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore.

 

Not the greatest ship or itinerary but we didn't know any better at the time as 20-somethings and had a truly magical time that led to our love of cruising.

 

With that said, one of our favorite port days ever was in Ocho Rios, so when we had the chance to return and take our kids back to such a special place, we jumped at the chance.

 

Unfortunately a Carnival ship took out the pier in Ocho Rios (they said it will take up to a year to repair due to underwater damage), so we ended up in Falmouth instead, 45 minutes from Ocho Rios.

 

We had booked a tour with the same company we did 11 years ago (and amazingly their prices hadn't gone up more than a few dollars) - Marvyn's Paradise Tours.

 

We were trying to squeeze a lot into a single day and by adding 90 minutes of trip time they didn't think we'd be able to do it all, but agreed to try and see where we were time wise at the day went on.

 

The ship was 20 minutes late to getting the all-clear at the port, so we were thinking it wasn't going to be possible but we gave it our best anyways.

 

The YC Butler escorted us off the ship from the Top Sail Lounge at 9:20am and we tracked down our guide, Joel, at the Independent tours parking lot by 9:45am.

 

We told him we were going to move quick to try and get everything done and he said we'd see where we were time wise after 2 of the 3 stops, and decide then if we had time for the third.

 

Well, I'm happy to report we got all 3 done (and without feeling rushed)!

 

✅ Stop 1: Dunn's River Falls

✅ Stop 2: Cliff jumping/rope swings at Blue Hole

✅ Stop 3: Tubing down the White River

 

I often tell people that not only are private excursions a better value, but they're also much quicker to get you places and you don't feel like you're being herded like cattle from place to place.

 

A great example of this is that yesterday as we were leaving Dunn's River Falls, the MSC excursion was just finally arriving.

$just

For those of you curious, I tracjked how long each stop took (I'm pretty Type-A 😜):

 

- Dunn's River Falls: 58 minutes

- Blue Hole: 72 minutes (this included doing every jump twice)

- Tubing on the White River: 48 minutes

 

All-in-all, an absolutely incredible day... It will be hard for any port to ever top this for a family like us who loves adrenaline thrills and nature!

 

 

Bonus: Us at the Top Sail Lounge bar after an action-packed day!

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

I should have added this picture to my post about the YC Director response, but here's a picture of Mustafa (YC Director) and myself this morning as we wait for our turn to tender to Grand Cayman to begin today's adventures!

 

[DisneyJen]

Another great report @FamilyAtSea.travel👍

 

Thanks for sharing how the YC Director handled the issues you faced

[RichYak]

5 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Well done YC and Mustafa.

All I can say is, WOW! What an incredible response from Mustafa. This was very well handled IMO.

[bgooding12]

On 3/25/2024 at 3:23 PM, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Yes, I haven't spent much time over there because of the smoke, but I'll try to get a list of table games and limits for you guys!

Do you know if they recently started allowing smoking in the main casino again? I thought I had seen somewhere that they made a smoking section on deck 8 for Seashore and Seascape and that there was no longer smoking in the main casino.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

3 minutes ago, bgooding12 said:

Do you know if they recently started allowing smoking in the main casino again? I thought I had seen somewhere that they made a smoking section on deck 8 for Seashore and Seascape and that there was no longer smoking in the main casino.

I may have been mistaken about this.

 

I definitely smelled smoke on the first night, but I played table games last night (vs just walking through) and I didn't see anybody smoking.

 

Unfortunately I can't go back and edit my original post, but I do think I was wrong about that.

[bgooding12]

2 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I may have been mistaken about this.

 

I definitely smelled smoke on the first night, but I played table games last night (vs just walking through) and I didn't see anybody smoking.

 

Unfortunately I can't go back and edit my original post, but I do think I was wrong about that.

Thanks! Enjoy your vacation and your posts have been great so far!

[Dock B]

What about having the comped specialty dining for lunch so you can continue to enjoy dinner in Yacht Club?

Edited March 26 by Dock B
Typing while practically napping, so fixed my error!

[Beamafar]

14 minutes ago, Dock B said:

What about having the comped specialty dining for lunch so you can continue to enjoy dinner in Luminae?

Wrong company  😆  It’s just known as Yacht Club restaurant (on ships other than Fantasia-class). 

[cruisebeachgirl703]

9 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

YC Response to Our Issues

 

I spoke to the YC Director, Mustafa, yesterday morning about the issue with the embarkation day lunch in the YC and the spa scheduling mistake. He took the day to review with his team while we were in Jamaica and when he saw us grabbing a drink in the Top Sail Lounge before dinner, he asked if he could talk with us after dinner.

 

This was fine with us, so after another fantastic dinner in the YC Restaurant, we returned to the lounge and he made his way over 10 minutes or so later.

 

---

 

re: Being Turned Away at the YC Restaurant Lunch on Embarkation Day

 

He said this was something he had been made aware of on the day of after some other upset YC guests brought the issue to him. 

 

He said it was a matter of an overwhelmed hostess (not sure of the actual title) making a judgement call to turn people away without first asking the leadership team. Once they learned about her doing this, they told her this was not appropriate and the restaurant would stay open later for lunch, but it was not appropriate to tell people they could not be accommodated.

 

Their Offering: Mustafa said they will comp a specialty dinner for us to make up for things.

 

I don't know if we'll accept this, simply because we already ate at Butcher's Cut for our Diamond VC comped dinner and I don't know that we want to miss another dinner in the YC with how good it is.

 

Whatever we decide, I definitely appreciate the gesture.

 

---

 

re: Scheduling Mistake for our Couples Massage

 

For this he said on embarkation day they have people from the spa, excursions desk, and restaurants come help at the YC Concierge Desk who aren't as good about following up since after the few hours they assist, they return to their typical assignment and are not focused on the YC.

 

As a result, the spa person who made our reservation and told us she'd be checking to make sure the Kids Club was open during our appointment failed to do so and as a result, we were forced to miss our appointment on the first morning (and all of the sea day time slots for couples massages being booked).

 

Their Offering:

 

I'm not sure how, but somehow they were able to open up a time slot for our couples massage on day 6 (the only other sea day), at 10:15am (our preferred time so we can drop our kids off at the Kids Club while we get our massage).

 

They are also comping our massage, a very kind gesture.

 

The two things mentioned already would have been a sufficient and appropriate way to handle things, but Mustafa didn't stop there.

 

He also gave both of my kids a drawstring bag filled with goodies (Lego set of the ship, a kids card game, a T-shirt, and a hat). He also offered to give us phones we can keep with us on the ship so the Kids Club can contact us if needed (we declined, but again, appreciate the gesture).

 

Mustafa also gave me his personal phone # so I can contact him on WhatsApp if we need anything at all.

 

---

 

Our Reaction:

 

While these gestures can't undo the experiences we had (and missed), we are both truly overwhelmed by the response.

 

We are typically the kind to just quietly take things and not return, but I'm glad we listened to a couple of you urge us to say something to give them a chance to address things.

 

Mustafa did a great job of turning a negative experience that would have likely resulted in us not sailing on MSC again, and turning it into a positive and we are already talking about what trip to book in the YC next.

 

So I hope those of you sailing in the YC in the future will learn from our experience and give the YC Director an opportunity to address things if you ever do have a negative experience in the YC.

 

We are beyond impressed by not only the gesture, but also by the way Mustafa owned the situation (vs making excuses), and shared how they are using our situation to provide training to their staff to prevent situations in the future.

 

Well done YC and Mustafa.

That is great. Good for MSC. Glad you had a chance to meet with the YC director and glad he took care of the situations.

[Dock B]

2 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

Wrong company  😆  It’s just known as Yacht Club restaurant (on ships other than Fantasia-class). 

Thanks for catching this while I had time to fix my mistake! I had just been reading the Celebrity thread then switched to MSC thread…without switching my brain too LOL

[Beamafar]

Just now, Dock B said:

Thanks for catching this while I had time to fix my mistake! I had just been reading the Celebrity thread then switched to MSC thread…without switching my brain too LOL

Oops - see you caught it and edited it lol

 

It can be hard to keep up when you’re switching from one forum to another.  👍