vanelli56

Completely understand that thought process.. and I think each person has to weigh that in their decision to cruise or not.... personally.... sign me up! lol ?
But I think we all hope things get back to some form of normality soon. 

Wanted to bring this back up and get peoples thoughts now with more information available such as rapid covid testing, some cruise lines starting to sail in Europe, CDC travel updates, etc. 
Currently with most RCL cruises cancelled until Nov. 1, when would you think we will hear about the next round of cancellations... or even better, a statement about confirming some cruises will actually happen as part of a phased in approach? As of today... that would put us about 60 days out for sailings. 
I am starting to think that we might have a chance for a small number of sailings to happen between different cruise lines. I think its just a matter of having one carrier make that call... and the rest will follow. (fingers crossed)

Wanted to bring this back up and get peoples thoughts now with more information available such as rapid covid testing, some cruise lines starting to sail in Europe, CDC travel updates, etc. 
Currently with most RCL cruises cancelled until Nov. 1, when would you think we will hear about the next round of cancellations... or even better, a statement about confirming some cruises will actually happen as part of a phased in approach? As of today... that would put us about 60 days out for sailings. 
I am starting to think that we might have a chance for a small number of sailings to happen between different cruise lines. I think its just a matter of having one carrier make that call... and the rest will follow. (fingers crossed)

It's the exact same in the UK - our media is crazy, full of scaremongering headlines and our government also fudged the death figures - those who had tested positive for COVID at any point and had died of other things (including as a result of being run over by a car) were listed as COVID death figures. The US isn't alone in that regard, however fact remains that deaths are much lower over here - I live in Scotland where we've had 2 deaths in the last 6 weeks.

Good morning Joe. Regarding about being safer in Europe vs. US... Not sure I completely agree... but I can only speak from what I see and read/hear in the US. I would say honestly its all optics motivated by the hyper elevated political environment we all live in, advanced by a media that will do all it can to get clicks, views, and likes.... along with an upcoming election here in the states. Basically.... the news will hype anything to get attention. I say all this, along with the anecdotal stuff I have heard... Personally, yes I have heard of people dying in my neighborhood from covid, but each one was already in poor health. I've also heard of people that got hit head on in a car crash... and they were added to the covid death numbers. Also talked to people at my place of business that have tested positive along with their kids, and they said they literally never felt a single symptom at all. So, while I am sure each persons view and experience is different... I just think with all the conflicting information (right or wrong, true or misleading) makes it extremely difficult for everyone to make good decisions. 
With allllllllll that being said..... Dang I wish we could cruise!
Personally, as soon as it sounds like they are starting back up.... I'm going to call my TA and say.... 'SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!!" ?
Take care everyone. 
~Cheers  

Good morning Joe. Regarding about being safer in Europe vs. US... Not sure I completely agree... but I can only speak from what I see and read/hear in the US. I would say honestly its all optics motivated by the hyper elevated political environment we all live in, advanced by a media that will do all it can to get clicks, views, and likes.... along with an upcoming election here in the states. Basically.... the news will hype anything to get attention. I say all this, along with the anecdotal stuff I have heard... Personally, yes I have heard of people dying in my neighborhood from covid, but each one was already in poor health. I've also heard of people that got hit head on in a car crash... and they were added to the covid death numbers. Also talked to people at my place of business that have tested positive along with their kids, and they said they literally never felt a single symptom at all. So, while I am sure each persons view and experience is different... I just think with all the conflicting information (right or wrong, true or misleading) makes it extremely difficult for everyone to make good decisions. 
With allllllllll that being said..... Dang I wish we could cruise!
Personally, as soon as it sounds like they are starting back up.... I'm going to call my TA and say.... 'SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!!" ?
Take care everyone. 
~Cheers  

As I am sure most everyone on here is the same as me... wondering when we can get back on a cruise???? (Particularly a RCL ship) While we wait with bated breath, cruising came up in a conversation with some friends the other day about possibly booking a short trip as soon as things get going again. This group of friends have been together on 2 cruises before... one on CCL and one on RCL. (And I have been on 3 other RCL cruises with an Alaska one booked for 2021). But for this trip in question, one of our friends has FCC with C**nival cruise lines (C**nival is a bad word in my house) :-) But for a short quick trip, I would gladly go just for the heck of it. It would most likely be a small group of friends, mainly looking to drink and have some fun.... so CCL really fits the bill for a short trip and that 'party' vibe. 
 Now I know you are asking.... "Why am I talking about CCL when the title clearly mentioned MSC???" Just stay with me for a moment.... I'm getting there. (Besides, we all know you are 'working from home (cough cough), in your PJ's, reading cruise formus') :-)
While browsing potential trips with CCL, I broadened up my search parameters and noticed new sailings from MSC out of Port Canaveral. I've never really even considered them due to mixed reviews in the past and various other reasons. BUT... in this most recent search I see they have moved some ships around (To port canaveral) and also have their private island available similar to RCL Coco Cay. As I dove deeper and deeper into the depths of MSC reviews on youtube... I came across their 'Yacht Club' rooms and area of the ship. Personally, I'm a frugal type cruiser that is happy in an inside or perhaps splurge on a Balcony if the price is right. But I've never even considered a suite style room on either a RCL or CCL ship, just because I feel the value is not there for me personally. BUT.... here's where I am going with this.... The MSC Yacht club area really seems to be a 'ship within a ship' area. Private dining, lounge, bar, sundeck, pool, etc. etc. And they have all categories of staterooms that you can choose from within the YC class. (Inside, balcony, suite, grand suite, grand suite Plus, super grand suite plus plus, super grand suite plus plus super awesome extra gold platinum, etc.) Just kidding on some of those... but you get the idea. 
With that being said... their inside YC cabin is a similar price point to a Jr. Suite or even a XL balcony on an RCL ship (Give or take, depending on the cruise and ship, etc). So my thinking is that as a value standpoint getting an inside cabin with suite level perks, and a fully private area on the ship (Thinking about the whole covid-19 thing)... might be a potential adventure I am willing to try out. (yes, slightly more then what I would typically spend for a cabin.... but I can see added value for what MSC is offering at this price point). 
Anyone on here have any thoughts on the newer MSC ships (Particularly the Seaside) and booking in the Yacht Club rooms, and how it may compare to what I know and love with Royal?
Cliff notes: 
Sweet perks (pun intended) 
Private ship within a ship area (thinking covid)
Wont break the bank (thinking about my wallet)
Sample a new/different ship & cruise line (variety is the spice of life)
New private island (thinking about the Coco Cay Competition) 
So.... with that literary challenge behind you.... tell me your thoughts
I'm thinking of booking a Yacht Club room on the MSC Seaside.....Change my mind!

Good morning Joe. Regarding about being safer in Europe vs. US... Not sure I completely agree... but I can only speak from what I see and read/hear in the US. I would say honestly its all optics motivated by the hyper elevated political environment we all live in, advanced by a media that will do all it can to get clicks, views, and likes.... along with an upcoming election here in the states. Basically.... the news will hype anything to get attention. I say all this, along with the anecdotal stuff I have heard... Personally, yes I have heard of people dying in my neighborhood from covid, but each one was already in poor health. I've also heard of people that got hit head on in a car crash... and they were added to the covid death numbers. Also talked to people at my place of business that have tested positive along with their kids, and they said they literally never felt a single symptom at all. So, while I am sure each persons view and experience is different... I just think with all the conflicting information (right or wrong, true or misleading) makes it extremely difficult for everyone to make good decisions. 
With allllllllll that being said..... Dang I wish we could cruise!
Personally, as soon as it sounds like they are starting back up.... I'm going to call my TA and say.... 'SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!!" ?
Take care everyone. 
~Cheers  

Been reading your review you linked... so far I'm about half way through. Thanks for sharing. 
 
Also, thanks for everyone's input so far. 

Been reading your review you linked... so far I'm about half way through. Thanks for sharing. 
 
Also, thanks for everyone's input so far. 

We faced these exact questions two years ago when the Seaside first came out.  As cruisers who are mainly loyal to Royal and suite snobs, I couldn't believe the prices of YC and the perks that came with it.  We booked a sailing over the summer of 2018 because we were waiting for Symphony to show up and there were no Royal sailings at the time that appealed to us.  My detailed thoughts are here.
Quick summary: The Seaside is definitely not Royal and YC is most definitely not Royal Suite Class.  Even the Balcony rooms in YC are comparable to a JS at best.  The food quality in the Top Sail restaurant was good, but does not hold candle to Coastal Kitchen.  The lounge was nice though and their YC sundeck is way better than Royal because there is dining up there.  That was probably the only thing that YC does better than Royal.  Shows were not great.  Once you see one, you've seen pretty much all.  It was an fair substitute, but not something that we would do again.

Sailed Seaside when she came out, not as good as Royal but at about 1/3 of the price i was very happy with the experience for what we paid.

Considering that for thanksgiving last year the pricing was thirty percent of what it would have been on Royal, I’d definitely give Seaside or Meraviglia a try. The pools on Meraviglia were  more numerous than in most royal ships, and we never had a problem getting chairs. 

As stated above....pricing. That's what got us to try MSC on the Divina. Nice aft balcony for half the price of the same aft balcony on the Navigator (both ships out of Miami for a New Years sailing). Enjoyed the ship very much.
We then tried a YC cabin on the Seaside when it came to Miami. That is a different ball game. RCI came out later with the classes of suite cabins on bigger ships, but the pricing was too high for us. If you want to give it a try, get a YC interior cabin(yes, they do have them) and see if you like it, that's what we did. Then see if you want a YC balcony suite vs. an RCI Sky or similar. We have sailed in Grand suites and Junior suites, we wanted to try the YC "experience".
At about $190 a day PP + tax, it was very nice, and on their newest ship. We have a YC booked for a 7 day Mediterranean sailing on the Seaside in the late fall 2021. Price is about the same, just under $200 a day PP + tax. With a different port every day, I won't miss the balcony. RCI wants $250 a day PP just for a lead in balcony on a Med sailing.
We still sail with RCI mostly, but without wearing blinders..........
And, YES, YC is a ship within a ship..........

Not a stupid question at all.... 
If I remember the points tiers correctly... the Sapphire only gives 1 point for anything outside of its bonus/restaurants/travel categories of purchases. The Chase freedom card gives a flat 1.5 points on everything. So, the freedom card is kind of my default card if a purchase does not fall into a special category for more points on the sapphire or discover IT cards. 
That... plus it had a decent sign up bonus at the time.... so I figured why not. :-)
Example for this month.... Discover has 5% back on restaurants... so 99.9% of my discover charges this month are restaurants. (Typically I would use the Sapphire otherwise at 2%)
Sapphire is 2% on travel and restaurants normally, but lately they have added gas and groceries as a bonus category. So this month all my gas and groceries are on the sapphire. (worth 2.5% if redeemed for travel thru their portal)
And the Chase freedom has been for everything else, such as amazon and any other random purchases for 1.5%. 
Lately I have not been keeping the points and just redeeming cash back, which has been getting us anywhere from $15-$30 dollars back a month. 
And yes.... we ALWAYS ALWAYS pay off our cards each month. I was a slave to Credit card debt in my 20's and early 30's.... NEVER AGAIN! I do this to try to get back some of that interest I gave them over the years! LOL (I'll most likely never get it all back, but every little bit helps!)
And to be honest... rotating 3 cards and remembering each can be a chore sometimes, but i'm also the kind of person that picks up that penny on the sidewalk too. So, why not take the free money. :-)
~Cheers

I rotate between the Chase Sapphire preferred, Chase Freedom Unlimited, and Discover It cards. As mentioned above about the Sapphire reserve, it has a large annual fee, while the preferred has a more reasonable annual fee. It includes a decent points structure for purchases and redemption, and also provides travel insurance. So it is my go to for booking travel. Plus they have a dedicated travel site that you can book thru, and sometimes find deals... but not always. 
I stack that with the freedom unlimited card for other purchases to gain points that can be transferred to the sapphire card if needed. 
I use the discover card for their 5% cash back category purchases when they don't apply to the Chase cards.

Flying with Delta airline one way,  and Alaska Air coming back.  
If the cruise is canceled we can change our flights and rebook them for another date is how the agent explained. 

I just pulled the trigger on flights to and from Sea-Tac for our July 2nd cruise on Ovation. We had credits with the airline(s) from our cancelled cruise/flights from earlier this year. The rates were so low right now that we actually will have some decent credit left over with one airline. Plus they are still offering no change fees for flights booked thru the end of the month. So, while I would typically wait to book, I think more and more carriers are going to start winding down there grace and generosity, so wanted to take advantage of a benefit that I hope we dont need!
With all that being said, we are coming from the east coast and split our trip between using Delta and Alaska air. Better flight selection by doing that, otherwise the stops vs. the cost were getting a little out of hand. What I found is that since we are travelling right around the 4th of July holiday, prices really spiked the closer we got to the 4th. So our game plan is to fly in on Wednesday and hang out in seattle on thursday, cruise friday - friday. Then when we get back to Seattle, we are opting to stay overnight and then leave on Saturday morning and catch a non-stop back. All other flights on friday were either too early, or overnight with huge layovers. And they only would get us back home a couple of hours earlier then catching the saturday flight anyway. 
I mention ALLLL that just to say that perhaps with all the unknows right now... dont rule out staying an extra night and flying saturday. ?

Everyone is different and there is no right or wrong answer! 
If you decide to do as above and tip $1 every round or every drink thats your choice. 
Same if you decide just to hand over $5 , $10 or even $100 to your favourite bar person at the end of cruise.
Or you may decide youve already paid the 18% gratuties so they are not getting anymore.
Its your choice and you do what you feel is right for you ? 

I'll echo some of the responses already posted here....the short answer is... typically no time limit, and getting a bottle of H2O is usually no issue. 
The long response and recommendation is to get to know your bartenders. Find a couple of your favorite spots and hang out with them there. They will take care of you, give great service, and look out for you. 
Case in point.... last year on Harmony for a guys cruise, we would frequent the Schooner Bar. After a couple days our lovely bar tender would see us coming, and have bottles of water ready and basically have the vodka bottle handy and ready to pour. But more importantly... there was 'one night'... where our group was having fun... but one person in particular was having a LOT of fun. And the sweet bar tender basically let us know to slow him down, and made him drink at least 2 bottles of water before she would serve him again. And she did it in such a great way as to not embarrass anyone... and still kept everyone having a great time. She let us know that if he got officially 'Cut-off'... he would be cut off for 24 hours and she didn't want him to ruin his next day. We made sure to thank her for that... and in fact did have a great time the rest of the week. We made sure to tip her out at the end of the week with a nice envelope of cash. 
Point being... have fun and enjoy your drink package. Don't go crazy... and if you have a night that you plan on getting plastered... do it at a bar where you have gotten to know your bartender well. 
Cheers.
~KCCO~
Keep Calm and Cruise on  
 

I'll echo some of the responses already posted here....the short answer is... typically no time limit, and getting a bottle of H2O is usually no issue. 
The long response and recommendation is to get to know your bartenders. Find a couple of your favorite spots and hang out with them there. They will take care of you, give great service, and look out for you. 
Case in point.... last year on Harmony for a guys cruise, we would frequent the Schooner Bar. After a couple days our lovely bar tender would see us coming, and have bottles of water ready and basically have the vodka bottle handy and ready to pour. But more importantly... there was 'one night'... where our group was having fun... but one person in particular was having a LOT of fun. And the sweet bar tender basically let us know to slow him down, and made him drink at least 2 bottles of water before she would serve him again. And she did it in such a great way as to not embarrass anyone... and still kept everyone having a great time. She let us know that if he got officially 'Cut-off'... he would be cut off for 24 hours and she didn't want him to ruin his next day. We made sure to thank her for that... and in fact did have a great time the rest of the week. We made sure to tip her out at the end of the week with a nice envelope of cash. 
Point being... have fun and enjoy your drink package. Don't go crazy... and if you have a night that you plan on getting plastered... do it at a bar where you have gotten to know your bartender well. 
Cheers.
~KCCO~
Keep Calm and Cruise on  
 

I'll echo some of the responses already posted here....the short answer is... typically no time limit, and getting a bottle of H2O is usually no issue. 
The long response and recommendation is to get to know your bartenders. Find a couple of your favorite spots and hang out with them there. They will take care of you, give great service, and look out for you. 
Case in point.... last year on Harmony for a guys cruise, we would frequent the Schooner Bar. After a couple days our lovely bar tender would see us coming, and have bottles of water ready and basically have the vodka bottle handy and ready to pour. But more importantly... there was 'one night'... where our group was having fun... but one person in particular was having a LOT of fun. And the sweet bar tender basically let us know to slow him down, and made him drink at least 2 bottles of water before she would serve him again. And she did it in such a great way as to not embarrass anyone... and still kept everyone having a great time. She let us know that if he got officially 'Cut-off'... he would be cut off for 24 hours and she didn't want him to ruin his next day. We made sure to thank her for that... and in fact did have a great time the rest of the week. We made sure to tip her out at the end of the week with a nice envelope of cash. 
Point being... have fun and enjoy your drink package. Don't go crazy... and if you have a night that you plan on getting plastered... do it at a bar where you have gotten to know your bartender well. 
Cheers.
~KCCO~
Keep Calm and Cruise on  
 

I'll echo some of the responses already posted here....the short answer is... typically no time limit, and getting a bottle of H2O is usually no issue. 
The long response and recommendation is to get to know your bartenders. Find a couple of your favorite spots and hang out with them there. They will take care of you, give great service, and look out for you. 
Case in point.... last year on Harmony for a guys cruise, we would frequent the Schooner Bar. After a couple days our lovely bar tender would see us coming, and have bottles of water ready and basically have the vodka bottle handy and ready to pour. But more importantly... there was 'one night'... where our group was having fun... but one person in particular was having a LOT of fun. And the sweet bar tender basically let us know to slow him down, and made him drink at least 2 bottles of water before she would serve him again. And she did it in such a great way as to not embarrass anyone... and still kept everyone having a great time. She let us know that if he got officially 'Cut-off'... he would be cut off for 24 hours and she didn't want him to ruin his next day. We made sure to thank her for that... and in fact did have a great time the rest of the week. We made sure to tip her out at the end of the week with a nice envelope of cash. 
Point being... have fun and enjoy your drink package. Don't go crazy... and if you have a night that you plan on getting plastered... do it at a bar where you have gotten to know your bartender well. 
Cheers.
~KCCO~
Keep Calm and Cruise on  
 

Research and planning ahead will pay off huge!
Great source of info is also past Cruise Compasses. Matt has a link to a bunch on this site. 
While it may seem very overwhelming due to the size of the ship, once you learn to navigate to and from the different areas, you'll realize that the bulk of the ship is cabin space, and there are only a handful of areas that you really utilize. And each person's utilization rate of those areas will vary greatly. i.e. some people may never leave the solarium when on the upper decks, while others may never step foot in there more than once. 
PS... one trick of the trade... if you need to go from one end of the ship to the other quickly.... the jogging track is GREAT for that. (Just mind the correct direction)
Enjoy!

Research and planning ahead will pay off huge!
Great source of info is also past Cruise Compasses. Matt has a link to a bunch on this site. 
While it may seem very overwhelming due to the size of the ship, once you learn to navigate to and from the different areas, you'll realize that the bulk of the ship is cabin space, and there are only a handful of areas that you really utilize. And each person's utilization rate of those areas will vary greatly. i.e. some people may never leave the solarium when on the upper decks, while others may never step foot in there more than once. 
PS... one trick of the trade... if you need to go from one end of the ship to the other quickly.... the jogging track is GREAT for that. (Just mind the correct direction)
Enjoy!