sea island yacht club reviews

Sea Island Yacht Club

Photos & videos.

See all 7 photos

Location & Hours

Suggest an edit

2438 Sea Island Yacht Club Rd

Wadmalaw Island, SC 29487

Recommended Reviews

• 1 star rating Not good
• 2 star rating Could’ve been better
• 3 star rating OK
• 4 star rating Good
• 5 star rating Great

Select your rating

Overall rating

Sea Island Yacht Club is a wonderful organization that puts on several exciting events during the year open to members and non-members. Their hall, grounds, dock, and boat ramp are well-maintained.

This place is a little slice of Heaven. Private Club most of the year but famous for their Rockville Regatta that happens once a year. Tons of boats on the water and their membership comes out and supports like no other. The views from their location are what I think are the best views anywhere in or around Charleston. If you ever get the chance to drive down there on regatta weekend it is worth it. You can walk the banks of the Bohicket and take in the sights and sounds of this memorable place.

'+n.contentRating+"

"+n+" "+t.config.saAria.shownText+"

"+e.config.saAria.closedText+"

Yahoo Local Web Search

Search results.

Phone: (843) 559-1410

Cross Streets: Near the intersection of Sea Island Yacht Club Rd and Maybank Hwy

2438 Sea Island Yacht Club Rd Wadmalaw Island, SC 29487 6091.69 mi

Is this your business? Verify your listing

• Find Nearby: ATMs ,  Hotels ,  Night Clubs ,  Parkings ,  Movie Theaters

Yelp Reviews

5.0 2 reviews

Sea Island Yacht Club is a wonderful organization that puts on several exciting events during the year open to members and non-members. Their hall, grounds, dock, and boat ramp are well-maintained. More

This place is a little slice of Heaven. Private Club most of the year but famous for their Rockville Regatta that happens once a year. Tons of boats on the water and their membership comes out... More

Write a review

More reviews on Yelp.com

• Suggestions
• Privacy Dashboard
• About this page

How MSC’s private island experience is different for cruisers in suites

Do you enjoy large cruise ships but still want to feel like you're in the lap of luxury? Passengers booked in MSC Cruises' Yacht Club cabins and suites have access to high-end amenities – both on the ship and off.

Butlers, exclusive dining and a private pool delight guests on board, but perks also await on MSC 's private island, Ocean Cay Marine Reserve , in the Bahamas. You can expect dedicated trams, towel service and a chance to book the nicest cabanas on the island, among other extras.

Read on to find out how the MSC Yacht Club Ocean Cay experience differs from that of the average cruiser.

For more cruise guides, news and tips, sign up for TPG's cruise newsletter .

MSC Ocean Cay Yacht Club beaches vs. regular beaches

MSC's Ocean Cay Marine Reserve private island is home to seven (soon to be eight) beaches, and all are public, except one — Ocean House Beach, which is the Yacht Club's exclusive swath of sand. Beyond its exclusivity, the beach has a few other differences from the island's regular beaches.

There, use of lounge chairs and umbrellas is free. Chairs at the other beaches are also free and available on a first-come, first-served basis; however, umbrellas come with an extra cost.

Passengers must sign out towels on board the ship before heading ashore to Ocean Cay's main beaches. Yacht Club passengers can skip that hassle and ask for towels at the towel tent found on Ocean House Beach.

Interestingly, I found that several of the public beaches were less crowded than Ocean House Beach. At the latter, chairs were positioned much more closely to one another. If you're willing to walk or hitch a ride on one of the island's trams, you'll find fewer crowds on the farther beaches than if you stick close to the ship.

MSC Ocean Cay Yacht Club food vs. regular dining

Free lunch is included for all cruisers who visit Ocean Cay. For Yacht Club travelers, the Ocean House Restaurant — an exclusive waiter-served dining venue where passengers enjoy their meals on a shaded porch — exudes upscale beach vibes.

During my visit, the menu included starters like crab ceviche, charred octopus and a salad with romaine, tomatoes, jicama, a poached egg and candied bacon in a citrus dressing. Mains featured locally sourced blackened mahi-mahi, lobster roll, carne asada, a grilled portobello mushroom sandwich and one of the best burgers I've ever tasted during a cruise — a blend of Angus chuck, short ribs and grilled brisket with red onion jam and Monterey Jack cheese. Desserts consisted of creme caramel, mango cheesecake and chocolate cake with coffee sauce.

The meals at Ocean House are definitely superior to the fare found at the Seakers buffet, which is where cruisers not staying in the Yacht Club can go for a beach barbecue that serves hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, macaroni and cheese, red beans, roasted potatoes and a slew of salads, drinks and desserts.

The food is tasty, but lines can be long. An alternative is to head to one of several food trucks throughout the island. Some are free and dole out the same items offered on the buffet but with shorter lines. Others sell entirely different menu items — lobster grilled cheese, fried calamari, shrimp with watermelon, Caribbean ceviche and octopus salad — with the cost charged to cruisers' onboard accounts.

Additionally — and also for an extra fee — a stand near the ship offers specialty coffee and ice cream. (If you're a coffee lover, trust me when I say you won't want to miss the Coco-Nilla Latte.)

MSC Ocean Cay Yacht Club cabanas vs. regular cabanas

There are three types of cabanas on Ocean Cay: Ocean Cay Beach Cabanas, Ocean View Yacht Club Cabanas and Beachfront Yacht Club Cabanas. All three types are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

They can hold up to six people each and include cold water, beach towels and chairs, as well as floating mats for use in the water. As the prices increase, so does the number of inclusions. The last two types are only available for booking by Yacht Club passengers.

Ocean Cay Beach Cabanas, found on South Beach, North Beach and Bimini Beach, are the most affordable on the island at $250 for the day. They've got walls on three sides, and they're outfitted with cushioned couches. They include the basic amenities mentioned above, and anyone can rent them.

Next up are the Ocean View Yacht Club Cabanas, which cost $400 for the day and also entitle you to free lunch and drinks, as well as fresh fruit skewers, four sets of snorkel gear and four floating mats. They're found on the Yacht Club's private Ocean House Beach, so they're off-limits to non-Yacht Club guests.

The most expensive, however, are the Beachfront Yacht Club Cabanas, located in a different section of the Ocean House area. They carry a $450 price tag but offer all the same extras as Ocean View Yacht Club Cabanas.

The draw? They're closer to the water and, therefore, have better views. Although they aren't on the main part of Ocean House Beach, they are still in the exclusive area, near the restaurant, so you don't have to go far to grab food.

Ultimately, the only thing being in the Yacht Club affords you in this case is the option to book more expensive cabanas.

MSC Ocean Cay Yacht Club trams vs. regular trams

At 95 acres, Ocean Cay is sizable. If you're fit, you can walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes, but if you don't have great mobility or if you're easily overheated, reaching some of the island's more remote beaches can be difficult on foot. That's why MSC offers tram shuttles.

Passengers in standard cabins will find tram stops with shaded waiting areas throughout the island. However, waits can be long, especially if many other people are also in need of a lift.

Yacht Club cruisers can take advantage of trams exclusively for the Yacht Club. They run between a special tent (with free cold water to sip while you wait) set up just inside the entrance to Ocean Cay and the Ocean House beach and restaurant area.

You can make special requests for stops, which the regular trams usually won't accommodate. For example, you might ask to go straight from the tent to South Beach for a volleyball game without stopping anywhere else first.

MSC Ocean Cay Yacht Club activities vs. regular activities

This is the one category where the island's public spaces beat the Ocean House area by a mile. If you're looking for something to do other than eating, drinking or lazing by the beach, you'll have to head back toward the ship because there's not much going on in the exclusive areas.

Everything from massages, lighthouse tours and water sports equipment rentals to beach parties, volleyball games and shore excursions takes place elsewhere. However, perhaps that's by design. The Yacht Club is generally quiet, even on board, and the line likely prefers to keep the raucousness to other locations.

Bottom line

The MSC Yacht Club experience is more exclusive than the standard one at Ocean Cay, with extras like butler service, dedicated trams, towel service, access to pricier cabanas and a private beach and restaurant with better food and shorter waits.

However, all of the action — shore excursions, pickup volleyball games, beach parties, the lighthouse show — happens in the areas that are accessible to everyone, which significantly levels the playing field.

Additionally, items like specialty coffee, ice cream and for-fee food truck orders cost extra for everyone — even Yacht Club passengers.

Overall, Ocean Cay offers a great day for anyone who enjoys the beach, regardless of cabin type.

Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:

• The 5 most desirable cabin locations on any cruise ship
• A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
• The 8 worst cabin locations on any cruise ship
• The ultimate guide to what to pack for a cruise
• A quick guide to the most popular cruise lines
• 21 tips and tricks that will make your cruise go smoothly
• Top ways cruisers waste money
• The ultimate guide to choosing a cruise ship cabin

Jersey Shore Banquet Hall Wedding Venues

Looking for a venue with outdoor space? Yes, show me

Windows On The Water

Located in Rumson, New Jersey, Windows on the Water is a wedding venue. Its gorgeous premises enjoy unsurpassed views of ... Read more the Atlantic Ocean and the Shrewsbury River. Surrounded by water on both sides, this venue offers a blank canvas for an elegant and dramatic wedding celebration. Facilities and ...

Branches Events

Newly Renovated, Available dates in 2024! Branches Events is an upscale wedding and event venue in Jersey Shore, New ... Read more Jersey. This beautiful property features stylish interiors, delicious cuisine, and top-tier customer care. Expansive and versatile with a warm and inviting atmosphere, it offers the ...

The Ocean View Restaurant

The Ocean View Restaurant is a restaurant wedding venue located in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. It is situated on the ... Read more famed Seaside Heights Boardwalk, making this a stunning setting for celebrations. With awe-inspiring views and plenty of room to host festivities, the venue makes it simple to host ...

the Gramercy at lakeside manor

The Gramercy at Lakeside Manor is a wedding venue located in Hazlet, New Jersey that has been family owned and operated ... Read more for over 20 years. Celebrate your wedding in vintage style at the Gramercy with an exciting boutique atmosphere as your backdrop. Facilities and CapacityThe Main Banquet Hall has ...

Smithville Inn

Smithville Inn is a small but stunning wedding venue in Absecon, New Jersey. This historic dining hall was built circa ... Read more 1978 and has been serving the Absecon community ever since. The rustic interior coupled with beautiful gardens and cobblestone walking paths makes for perfect portrait backdrops. ...

The English Manor

Located in Ocean Township, NJ, The English Manor is a wedding venue offering couples the opportunity to celebrate their ... Read more special day in style and comfort. This quaint and romantic location will give you the “experience of a lifetime!” The group of professionals that work at The English Manor will ...

The Crystal Point Yacht Club

The Crystal Point Yacht Club is a waterfront wedding venue in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Its stunning views of the ... Read more Manasquan River, coupled with a beautiful venue space and exceeding service, make the Crystal Point Yacht Club an ideal place for both intimate weddings and grand affairs. This yacht ...

Cape May Convention Hall

Cape May Convention Hall is a waterfront wedding venue situated in Cape May, New Jersey. This stunning beachfront ... Read more ballroom sets the scene for magical and memorable celebrations. The elegant and modern ballroom features full-length windows that overlook the Atlantic Ocean. You can host a series of ...

Park Loft is a brand new wedding venue located in Oceanport, New Jersey. This full-service luxury wedding venue is ... Read more situated in the heart of Monmouth County. Originally constructed in 1941 as a dance hall on historic Fort Monmouth, this property has been carefully restored and reimagined as a ...

The Sunset Ballroom

The Sunset Ballroom is a wedding venue located in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Situated on the spot where the ... Read more striding Manasquan greets the mighty ocean, this waterside property invites you to leave behind the torpor of the everyday. Imbibe the invigorating spirit of the ebullient water, and ...

South Gate Manor

South Gate Manor is a stunning wedding and reception venue located in Freehold, New Jersey. The team can plan any aspect ... Read more of your wedding, from your ceremony to the cuisine that you and your guests can enjoy at the reception. All of the venue's weddings are custom designed and tailored to express the ...

Park Pavilion

A beachside oasis overlooking the Atlantic, Park Pavilion is an oceanfront wedding venue offering elegance and ease in ... Read more the heart of Seaside Park, New Jersey. Here, you can start a new chapter on pristine sands before diving into a memorable celebration in a spacious oceanview banqueting hall. Just ...

The Grand Marquis

The Grand Marquis is a family-owned banquet hall and wedding venue located in Old Bridge, New Jersey. It features ... Read more contemporary spaces that can easily be adapted to a couple’s vision. For more than three decades, partners have been celebrating their love and commitment in the hall’s refined and ...

Jacques Reception Center

Jacques Reception Center has been delivering sophistication and excellence from our beginnings. It is a luxurious and ... Read more modern venue located in Middletown, New Jersey. Numerous tastes are accounted for with beautiful outdoor spaces to imported Italian floors and crystal. From one generation to the ...

The Spring Lake Manor

The Spring Lake Manor is a wedding venue located in Spring Lake, New Jersey that resides in a tranquil seaside ... Read more community. This historic building dates back to 1901, recently restored to preserve its original character and ambience.Facilities and CapacityThe Manor provides both indoor and outdoor ...

The Mill Lakeside Manor

The Mill Lakeside Manor is an elegant wedding venue located in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey. With new renovations, ... Read more this space is not only known for having new facilities, but also having exceptional views. You and your partner can choose from a variety of menu choices. The Mill Lakeside Manor is ...

Windows on the Water at Frogbridge

Windows on the Water offers a truly unique setting for an unforgettable day. Precious moments are created at our award ... Read more winning, pristine 86-acre lush private resort with spectacular lake and sprawling views. Experience the wedding you've always dreamed of with our beautiful luxury wedding tent and ...

Clarks Landing Yacht Club

Our team is excited to share our recent renovations and upgrades with you - schedule a tour to get a sneak peek! Clarks ... Read more Landing Yacht Club is a stunning wedding venue in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Sitting on the banks of the Manasquan River, just five minutes from Jenkinson’s Boardwalk, this ...

Merri-Makers at Mallard Island Yacht Club

Merri-Makers at Mallard Island Yacht Club is a waterfront wedding venue in Manahawkin, New Jersey. This idyllic property ... Read more provides a classic chapel, outdoor plaza, and spacious ballroom to accommodate any couple’s wedding vision. The elegant interior matches with the panoramic view of the Barnegat ...

TillingHouse

TillingHouse is coming soon! — a breathtaking event venue on the grounds of the Suneagles Golf course in Monmouth ... Read more County, NJ, soon making its debut as THE luxury event space everyone has been waiting for. TillingHouse has a rich history, especially dating back to the 40s, when its beauty served the ...

Palace Hall

Palace Hall is a wedding venue located in Toms River, New Jersey. Boasting a spacious ballroom with a neutral color ... Read more palette, this venue will blend seamlessly with the theme of your wedding.

Lake Terrace

Lake Terrace is nestled on the edge of Lakewood, New Jersey. Their venue can offer an ideal and versatile setting for ... Read more your special occasion. The majestic building maintains the perfect balance of charm and splendor, creating the ultimate environment for your wedding event. Their design includes ...

Touch of Elegance Ballroom & Catering Services

Touch of Elegance Ballroom & Catering Services, a catering business based in Waretown, New Jersey, offers couples custom ... Read more created menus for their bridal shower, engagement party, wedding ceremony, and wedding reception. Chef Joe Dringus, owner and executive chef, can provide you with a touch of ...

The Channel Club

Overlooking the deep waters of Shrewsbury Bay, The Channel Club is a sophisticated wedding venue in Monmouth Beach, New ... Read more Jersey. This waterfront setting combines a prime location, just over an hour from New York City, with serene waterfront views. The club offers couples a private get-away in which ...

Banquet Halls in Jersey Shore with Real Weddings published

Local banquet halls in jersey shore.

• Asbury Park 4
• Point Pleasant Beach 4
• Long Branch 3
• Toms River 3
• Spring Lake 2
• Eatontown 1
• Middletown 1
• Monmouth Beach 1
• Oceanport 1
• West Long Branch 1
• Beach Haven 1
• Hammonton 1
• Manahawkin 1
• Ocean City 1
• Sea Isle City 1
• Landisville 1
• Atlantic City 1
• Millstone Township 1
• Seaside Heights 1
• Seaside Park 1

Other vendors in Jersey Shore for your wedding

Wedding venues.

• Barn & Farm Weddings
• Hotel Weddings
• Winery Weddings
• Country Club Weddings
• Restaurant Weddings
• Rooftop Weddings
• Mansion Weddings
• Church & Temple Weddings
• Museum Weddings
• Boat Weddings
• Park & Outdoor Weddings
• Historic Weddings
• Beach Weddings
• Garden Weddings
• Waterfront Weddings

The Town of Rockville was incorporated as a municipality in 1996, however, the community is much older, with settlements having occurred in the late 1600s. The date of 1784 is typically given as the established founding point and some of the resident families trace their lineage, in the Town, to this time.The area, comprised of approximately 1.5 squaure miles, is located on the North bank of the Bohicket River and the southern end of Wadmalaw Island.

Through the centuries Rockville has played host to the many families that have comprised its charming, yet fragile southern character. The historic district is hallmarked by live oaks and the many antebellum houses built by wealthy planters who sought to escape the miasma of Summer conditions in and around Charleston.

Large shrimping fleets, now greatly reduced, once called on the docks of Rockville and marked the Town as a haven of maritime commerce. Today the Town and its Government seek to pleasantly, but firmly, conserve and preserve the delicate aesthetic that defines our coastal enclave. The private community has two commercial shrimp docks, a marine repair and moorage facility, P.M. Kings/HUM Grocery Store, and no public land.

The Rockville Regatta

The Rockville Regatta: The “races” are a long tradition in the Town of Rockville but ironically the Town itself has little to do with hosting the oldest continually held regatta in North America. The Rockville Regatta is actually a private sailboat race held annually on the 1st weekend in August and is officially hosted by the Sea Island Yacht Club.

For further information you would contact the Yacht Club’s Commodore or a member of its Board of Directors. Call  (843) 559-1410.

The Traveling Steve's

Our traveling adventure blog.

The Steve’s Review of MSC Seaside’s Yacht Club

Steve (DOS) and I sailed MSC’s Seaside cruise ship for the first time this past week; October 15 – 22, 2023 for a 7 night cruise to MSC’s Ocean Cay (MSC’s private island in the Bahamas), Costa Maya, and Cozumel Mexico. As this was a new cruise line for us, I’ll detail my/our experiences here in a bit more detail, similar to what I did when we first sailed Virgin Voyages this past July. Warning: this is a long post with lots of photos! (Sorry in advance for any typos!)?

First some quick ship stats: for the MSC Seaside (per Wikipedia)

• 153,516 Gross Tons
• Length: 1,059 Feet
• Beam: 141 Feet
• Total Cabins: 2,067
• Passenger capacity: Max 4,961
• Entered Service: December 2017
• Cost when built in 2014: €700 million Euros
• Country of Registry: Valletta, Malta
• Current number of cruise ships in MSC fleet: 23

DRIVE TO THE PORT: As we live in the Orlando, FL suburbs, the Port of Cape Canaveral (where the Seaside is currently sailing from) is only an hour drive from our house, which make it super convenient. Not only that, but Cape Canaveral, in my humble opinion is one of the easiest embarkation/debarkation points we have sailed out of. It is not the closest port, however, to the airport as it’s an hour’s drive via car or shuttle bus, unlike Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) which is a short distance from the FLL airport terminal.

ARRIVAL AT PORT CANAVERAL: MSC currently leaves from terminal 10, which is the former Royal Caribbean (RCL) Cruise terminal. We saw RCL’s Wonder of the Seas docked further down the terminal channel, so I guess they needed bigger space for their mega series of ships.

We arrived at Port Canaveral Terminal 10 around 10:45am, and the luggage drop off and parking were a breeze, thanks to the good signage and uniformed port staff providing directions. There was very little car traffic at this hour, and the tour buses coming from the airport had a drop off point just for them, so they weren’t interfering with the flow of traffic. We parked on the ground level of the garage (shaded area), took a photo of where we parked, and walked the short distance to the terminal with our carry-on luggage, taking a selfie along the way of us with the giant ship behind us. One huge thing that at least the Port Canaveral Terminal Garage 10 does, is collect the parking fee upon entry via credit card. This really expedites the traffic flow upon debarkation, something other port garages such as Miami do not do, which caused lengthy exit delays when we sailed out of there in late July on Virgin’s Scarlet Lady. Ideally Miami’s garage should at least have an EPAS exit, as their garages handle multiple cruise lines out of the same garage, with various lengths of cruises, so pre-paying is perhaps not an option there.

Once at the terminal, we quickly found the Yacht Club (YC) tent area where we were verified for YC, and then sent thru a quick security check line. From there we were directed to a dedicated large conference-type room in the terminal, where we would then check-in for our cruise. We had already completed the paperwork and had downloaded the MSC app, but we still printed out our travel documents per MSC’s website guidelines, which makes it easier should the phone need re-charging or an update when you’re trying to check-in. (I’m old fashioned I guess, but I always print my boarding pass for the airport for the same reason; don’t always trust the phone and/or app when I need it most.)

The check-in process was very quick and we were given a glass of champagne as we entered the room. We then received our room card key which indicated YC access. They did not have the blue wrist bands available at check-in, (which will also allow you to open your stateroom door), but we picked up our complimentary bands two days later onboard at the photo gallery. While we waited a few minutes for our boarding to commence, we sipped our glass of pre-boarding champagne together with the other YC guests, and toasted to an awesome cruise ahead!

After a short wait in the pre-boarding area, we were escorted in small groups aboard the ship where we were led directly thru the main lobby atrium. Here we met our personal shipboard Butler Agus, who assisted us from there. Agus helped us with our carry-on luggage and escorted us from deck five thru a few public areas, until we reached the forward elevators which took us to our “ship within a ship”, the Yacht Club section. The Yacht Club occupies the forward third of the 16th, 18th, and 19th decks aboard the Seaside. (There is not a deck 17 on this ship as it is an Italian ship, and 17 (like 13 in the US) is considered an unlucky number.)

Once in the Yacht Club, we had a seat in the Top Sail Lounge, which is the huge main cocktail lounge exclusive to the 200 Yacht Club passengers. We had yet another glass of the complimentary Champagne in the Lounge (actually Prosecco to be technically correct), and met some of our fellow passengers, while we again sipped our Bubbly. (And it’s not even 11:30am yet!). There was a nice assortment of snacks, nuts and pastries as well, but we skipped over those for now as lunch was in the near future for us. In a few minutes, we were gathered with a few other guests for a quick orientation of the Yacht Club’s services, amenities, meal hours etc, which was lead by the lead Concierge staff person, Raj. After the 10 minute or so orientation, we went to our cabin, which was just down the hall, also on deck 16. We knew from the moment we boarded that the Yacht Club was truly special, and this would be an awesome cruise!

STATEROOM : After the orientation in the Top Sail Lounge, DOS and I headed to our stateroom which was just down the hall. Our room was 16014, with 16 being the deck number, and 014 the room number. The room was quite comfortable, and categorized by MSC as a “Superior Yacht Club Suite”. While our room was not what I would consider a full suite, it was a nice sized Jr. Suite in size, similar to those on other cruise lines and quite spacious enough for us. We had a King sized bed, half open-sided wall adjacent to the bedroom, dividing off the living room sofa, a large bathroom (no tub) with decent sized shower and a large single sink vanity. Robes were provided for use onboard, and the large towels and bed linens were of very good quality.

The outlets for electronic devices were a bit lacking as they weren’t located on either side of the bed, but on the long table with pull out drawers. We brought a cruise-allowed power adapter (not a surge protector which are banned on all cruise ships) we bought on Amazon which is cruise-safe, and handled our other devices, such as our iPhones, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac Book. The is also a European power outlet under the TV, as well a couple USB outlets.

FIRST MEAL ABOARD: LUNCH! After briefly settling into our cabin and unpacking our carry-on items, we headed up to Deck 18 (only one level up due the “skipping” of the 17th floor per Italian superstition) to the Yacht Club (YC) Dining Room. I’ll talk at length about the Yacht Club further down in this post, but for now the relaxing lunch with wine made for quite a friendly welcome aboard and literally a taste of what was to come over the next 7 days. We met our waiter and assistant waiters, who would expertly serve us throughout the cruise.

EXPLORING THE SHIP: After lunch in the Yacht Club, it was time to venture out of the YC exclusive area, and explore a bit of the rest of this mammoth ship. I say “a bit” as even by the end of the cruise we felt like we had only seen some of the major ship venues, and never quite learned our way around the ship, even with the lighted ship maps located near the elevators and elsewhere.

The layout in some places could be a bit strange, such as on Deck 16 towards the mid/aft of the ship, where you needed to go down or up a deck to cross all the way to the back of the ship (due to a galley blocking part of the passageway) or the plethora of mirrors aboard in some corridors that had us saying hi to the “other people” coming towards us, only to realize we were saying hi to ourselves! LOL! ?

Part of the fun of going on a new ship, however, is getting lost finding your way around; it really is a beautiful ship with so many sectional venues that it will take some time to explore even the main parts of the ship by day and night.

MAIN LOBBY : At the centerpiece of the ship are the beautiful Swarovski decorated crystal staircases located in the ship’s main atrium. These staircases lead to several levels, and flank either side of the multi-level stage areas that are used for various musicians throughout the day and evening, as well as on the main open air bottom level of the lobby. The backdrop of the atrium is an ever changing myriad of colors and scenes, depending on the occasion.

There is a huge semi-circular bar which is visible from the staircases and overlooks surrounding them, and serves as a focal point entertainment venue for the numerous onboard events and parties. We even saw Elvis, and Michael Jackson one night!

ELEVATORS: The ship has two primary banks of elevators; one towards the forward of the ship; and one a bit past the middle of the ship. The main elevators are “smart” elevators, although I would say the “smart part” needs a bit of tweaking to them. The idea in theory is great, provide more efficient elevator access by matching groups of passengers going to the same floors, although at peak times that doesn’t work the best. Basically by each elevator there is a mini iPad type device where you select your floor, which is also indicated by the deck’s name; i.e, Miami Beach deck.

The elevator then calculates which elevator will be the quickest, and tell you the elevator (via letter and number, i.e. G5) and the approximate wait time. During slow periods, these worked fine, but when several hundred people got out of a show at the same time or returned from a busy port of call, things got a bit more hectic. Ideally each person in their group, say four people, should enter the floor number, not just one person from the group, so the elevator can calculate the capacity as 4 riders instead of 1. Unfortunately this is not obvious, and I don’t recall seeing signage to tell people to do this which at busy times can be quite crowded and confusing with multiple groups of people trying to ride as a single passenger, instead of their actual group size.

Busy periods aside, though, I really love this concept, as busy elevators on these mega ships in general (most other lines included) face the problem of over-crowded elevators, and people riding up to go down, and not getting off at the correct top or bottom floor; instead just getting on to secure their space in the crowded elevators. These “smart” elevators do not have any floor buttons once you are on board so you can’t change your mind or better yet, don’t have kids pushing every floor button of the elevator!

There is also one small bank of two elevators in the aft area of the ship by the aft pool, which are not the “smart elevator” type. There is also an elevator inside the Yacht Club for exclusive use of the YC passengers, but it only operates on the YC floors 16 – 19.

LOUNGES/BARS: According to the MSC website there are some 19 bars and lounges onboard! And, no we didn’t try all of them out on our seven day cruise! While we primarily used the Top Sail Lounge in the Yacht Club, as well as the YC’s pool bar, we did go to several of the other bars and lounges in the main part of the ship as well. We were concerned the main bars/lounges outside the YC would be jam packed all the time, but that really was not the case most of the time. While many were busy, with the exception of the large main atrium bar, and main and aft pool bars, we didn’t have trouble finding seats or barstools at some of the other bars and lounges. We tried the Sports Bar, which had a large selection of drafts (but oddly no IPAs such as Lagunitis here or elsewhere on the ship I could find), the Seaview Lounge, and the Haven Lounge, both of the latter offered live entertainment, as well as the main atrium lounge.

We didn’t try out the Champagne Lounge on the upper level of the main atrium, but walked by it several times as well as the Chocolate Bar; both of which looked nice but not overflowing with crowds.

There is also a small bar (more of a to-go bar) in the buffet area on deck 8 which is open late while the late night buffet is being served until 1am, which is fine for grabbing a brewski or drink to your table while munching on the midnight food and snacks.

GAME ROOM: We didn’t utilize the game room, but did pass thru the Game Room Arcade a few times when walking towards the back of the ship. There was a Formula One Race Car simulator, complete with an actual size car that can be “driven” around the large virtual screen track directly in front of it. It looked pretty realistic, and we watched a man probably in his early 40s having a ball with his racing skills!

There is also a two lane bowling alley in the arcade room, but we never saw anyone bowling, although we weren’t there very much other than just passing thru. I was hoping to video someone bowling as it must be quite tricky on a moving ship; I’m sure there’s lots of curve and gutter balls even from experienced bowlers!

There are also other video games as well, all of which required payment or a game pass of sorts via the ATM like kiosk or pre-pay on the cruise card.

SPA Area: We’re not spa kind of people (i.e. don’t get massages, use the treatment rooms etc) so we can’t speak for the Spa, other than it was quite large, and people we spoke to really enjoyed their massage and even the “mud treatment”. (I’ve always wanted to try that seaweed wrap treatment but DOS says “that’s phooy”, you’ll gain your weight back as soon as you drink water or alcohol! Possibly, but it does sound like fun!)

Any passenger on the ship can book the “The Thermal Suite Pass” (which is complimentary for Yacht Club Members), and provides access to the Thermal Suite area and and spa deck area; a private section of deck 16, just prior to entering the YC section. We did not use the Thermal Suite on this trip as we seemed to be too busy on this cruise (not sure what we were doing other than relaxing, but we seemed busy all the time!) We did walk thru the spa outdoor deck area on our daily walks around the ship for exercise, which is shown in the next couple of photos, which never seemed to be busy, and was a nice wide area of the deck as well.

We did like the cold towels the Spa staff handed to all guests when they came back from port, on the dock area near the entrance to the ship. The white washcloths were chilled (like Celebrity Cruises and Princess does), but also sprayed with an exotic Eucalyptus mixture that smelled divine. Of course they sell the bottled mixture in the Spa if you like it!

POOL FUN : The main (non Yacht Club) portion of the ship has several pools, divided into different sections. There is an adventure pool area that has a kiddie pool and other water activities, while there are 2 racing water slides that go out over the starboard side of the ship, while on the port side there is a similar, but larger twisting water slide that uses a raft to ride the slide down to the bottom. Scrunched in-between, in the center of the Adventure Club area, is another twisting slide that finishes on the bottom deck of the Adventure Club pool area. None of the slides were overly busy and were complimentary, although you had to sign a waiver and get a wrist band prior to riding them. Adults as well as kids seemed to be enjoying themselves! I’m sure in peak summer or holiday periods there would be hundreds more kids using these facilities, though on our mid-October sailing it was not overwhelming.

SAIL-AWAY PARTY: Sure enough, as quiet and empty as the ship was when we first got on and started exploring the ship, it quickly filled up by sail-away time. There was a big sail-away party at the aft pool deck area, but it was a bit too busy to see the entertainment staff, and a bit too noisy for us to enjoy, so we retreated back to the quite calm of The Yacht Club. I told Steve (DOS) at times leaving some of the crowded main areas of the ship was like being in a busy airport terminal, and then suddenly entering the calm of an airline’s international First Class Lounge! Not really an exaggeration either, as a couple of fellow Yacht Club passengers said something similar.

SHOPPING GALLERY : As expected for a ship of this size, there are several shopping areas aboard the ship, ranging from logo items, to duty free liquors and other items, to Swarovski crystals, jewelry, cosmetics, to men’s face creams to make you look ten years younger. Maybe I should have bought two of the face cremes to shave 20 years off my age!?

We’re not big shoppers except for souvenir type items, but we did purchase the ship’s Seascape model (which I try to collect of ships we have taken), which was priced at $56, and was a nice quality metal model on a wood base. I wanted an MSC cap, but oddly enough they were out of them, and I didn’t see any nice logo T-shirts that I cared for, so we settled for just purchasing the ship’s model.

We had the same issue on Virgin Voyages recently where they were out of their logo caps, and like on MSC, this was only on the second night. Don’t know if ships are having supply-chain issues or people are gobbling them up right away (I think the former as you they would want to advertise their product), so if you see something you want in the gift logo shop, I would buy it early on in the cruise.

CASINO: While we’re not gamblers, we did stroll thru the casino after the theater shows let out, as it was a passageway towards the mid to the aft of the ship, and you really couldn’t avoid it. Although MSC allows smoking in the casino, it really was very well filtered, and this comes from someone who is very sensitive to second-hand smoke. There were definitely plenty of slots for every type play you like, as well as many table games as well.

The huge bar served as a functional and aesthetically pleasing circular sports bar as there were TV monitors mounted from the ceiling pointed down to the bar below.

YACHT CLUB EXPERIENCE: Wow oh Wow! What can I say about this? The Yacht Club (YC) is an exclusive area for 200 or fewer passengers, which makes up only 5% of the ship’s capacity, yet offers the best service, food, and amenities aboard. The YC occupies the forward 1/3 of decks 16, 18, and 19, with YC cabins on decks 16 and 18 (there is no deck 17 on these Italian ships due to superstition of the number 17). The YC offers mostly similar “Superior Suite Balcony” cabins, although there are 2 Royal Suites, and a few inside cabins as well, all which receive the same Yacht Club service, although the Royal Suites do get a reserved onboard pool-side cabana and much larger suite. (There are other cabanas in the YC available complimentary to YC passengers, on a first-come basis, and can be reserved onboard.)

Note there are actually several categories of larger suites aboard the Seaside that are not in the Yacht Club area, and these do NOT include the 5 star Yacht Club admittance and perks; they are basically larger cabins located throughout the ship among the masses of other passengers. Even though we’ve had very large suites on other lines, the room on MSC was almost secondary as the service and amenities in the public Yacht Club areas were far superior than being in a large suite in a non-Yacht Club area, although the larger space would be good for families needing extra space. All of the rooms in the Yacht Club are in the same key-only accessible area, and it was like being at a Country Club as it was such a small group of passengers with such a high staff to passenger ratio. It was easy to meet most of the fellow YC passengers over the course of the cruise, and it really was like a family between the staff and passengers by the end of the cruise.

The Yacht Club is entered via a key-carded entry door, where the 24 hour Concierge desk and staff are located, and glad to answer any questions, assist with shore excursions, specialty dining, and any type special request you may have.

The long hallway internal to the YC is mirrored on both sides, a common design theme used throughout the ship; lots of mirrors everywhere! On the starboard side where our cabin was located, there is also another keyed entrance door which bypasses the Concierge, and lead down a couple hallways to our room.

At the end of the hall on deck 16, is the Top Sail Lounge, a large and elegant cocktail lounge exclusive to the YC passengers. It faces the front of the ship and has plenty of seating on chairs, sofas, and at the bar area as well. It is here where (well actually anywhere in the YC) you can truly relax away from the mass market crowds of passengers in the main parts of the ship. No loud music and shouting, although there is a piano player/singer who entertains in the evening and special events such as the Captains cocktail party, High Tea, etc, and one night there was a saxophone player entertaining as well.

During other times of the day and night there is light and soft jazz or supper-club type music piped in thru the speakers, which makes a subtle background effect, without being overwhelming, even in the pool lavatory! There are always plenty of staff serving the YC, and there is never a wait for a drink, be it bottled water or your favorite cocktail, wine, or beer, and all but the most premium wines and liquors are included both here and throughout the ship (with two exceptions, the chocolate bar and the gelato bar in the main areas of the ship.)

Meals Aboard: Unlike the main part of the ship which has 3 seatings in a couple of dining rooms, which require a reservation time, the YC is open seating, and offers 3 waiter-serviced meals a day, in addition to the YC buffet which is available until 7 -10 am for breakfast and normally 12 – 3pm for lunch. We usually ate at the outdoor buffet for breakfast and lunch as the service hours were later and longer than the restaurant, and it was quite an extensive buffet you could enjoy around the pool, or outdoor seating area.

We did have lunch in the Yacht Club Dining Room the first day, and breakfast in the Dining Room on Debarkation Day; both of which were leisurely and wonderful, but we preferred the casual poolside buffet most days for breakfast and lunch. (The YC buffet is not open for dinner, although they have hors d’oeuvres in the Top Sail Lounge for a pre or post dinner snack.)

We always had dinner in the YC Dining room, which was truly a treat! Dinner is served nightly from 6pm to 9pm, and is open seating with no reservation required for whatever time you like to dine between the posted hours. We requested the same section each night so we had the same wait staff, and normally dined around 7:30pm. The menu selections changed each night with the evening’s theming, but they always had a few classics you could order from if nothing was to your liking, which including a Filet Mignon, Salmon, Cesar Salad etc.

Unlike other mainstream US cruise lines, there are 3 courses offered instead of the usual four on RCL, Celebrity, Princess and others. The portion sizes are also a bit small than other lines, but we thought this was actually a positive thing as many times cruise lines oversize their portions, although that too has changed since COVID in serving size portions. MSC offers a choice of several starters, entrees, and desserts (including selections from the cheese cart which I loved.). If you wanted another entree or like Steve (DOS) another or different starter, the wait staff was only too happy to oblige. As drinks were included, we tried several different wines with different food pairings over the week cruise, and one night the sommelier surprised us with a Beaujolais to try with our starter. We never would have guessed what it was (he didn’t tell us initially) as it was quite complex; like a more full-bodied Pinot, than a Beaujolais which is usually a young and more simple wine. Our wine of choice however, was the French Medoc they freely poured, or the Oberon Cabernet Sauvignon.

The food, presentation, and service were truly outstanding in the YC, and the Chef visited us table-side a couple evenings, while the Maitre D’ always stopped by to check on us. Our waiter and assistant waiter were absolutely some of MSC’s best!

Outdoor YC Pool Area/Bar/Buffet: On deck 19 was the YC Sun Deck, pool, and bar/buffet and outdoor seating area and cabanas. This was a large area, although most of the lounge chairs were not shaded unfortunately. As the YC’s sundeck was in the very front of the ship, umbrellas would probably not work due to the wind, although the area was quite protected by full length window panels, which mostly blocked the wind. On the downside, the large window panels created a bit of an obstacle for taking photos, although for sunset photos or in-port photos such as MSC’s private island, we could get good and unobstructed photos from our room’s balcony, as the window panels did not block the view as they did on the sundeck.

The YC saltwater pool was deeper than it looked, at around 5 feet deep, although the sign said 4’8″. The pool was a fun place to socialize and cool off, and we used it most days due to the great weather.

There are also two whirlpools located a bit further forward of the sectionally partitioned YC club, which are on the forward part of the YC sundeck.

Little extras mean a lot: The Yacht Club includes so many little extra touches with attention to detail, which makes it so extra-special. Your choice of daily newspaper: Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, and others, which are condescended versions of the papers, and printed daily on site.

Evening chocolates on the pillow, and some type of surprise treat each evening, such as white chocolates in a plexiglass box, a bottle of Prosecco one evening, a box of 4 sampler chocolates in a gift box the last night, replenishment of your mini-bar beers, water, sodas per your request etc.

Butler Service is included along with your room attendant, and the Butler will escort you anywhere on the ship and even to the exit for port days and debarkation. This was a huge benefit, especially being led to the reserved Yacht Club section for the Theater production shows. The High Tea service was especially nice and classy, and served in the Top Sail Lounge.

Production Shows: There were FIVE Production shows on this 7 night cruise! (Most 7 and even 10 night cruises only have a maximum of three, filled in with other acts on the other nights). Each show was different and some were better than others, but were all energetic with 4 main singers and 9 dancers, with additional specialty-act performers on some of the shows, such as the Peter Punk and Michael Jackson show.

The show theater itself while very large with two aisles and a center section (with stadium type seating allowing for great views), seemed a bit under-sized for a ship this large, sailing with 4,300 passengers on our sailing, so a couple of the most popular shows actually had 3 seatings (7:30, 9:30, and 10:30pm) instead of two most nights, due to the capacity requirements.

Unlike most other cruise lines, the Cruise Director did not make an announcement forbidding photography or even video taping at each show, and it seemed like quite a few people discretely videoed some of the performance number highlights, including myself, which I have included a few short segments below of some of the shows.

We enjoyed all of the shows, although we did not go to the two comedy shows on the non-production show nights, with the Circus Spectacular and the final night’s Michael Jackson show really extra well-done.

PORTS OF CALL : MSC OCEAN’s CAY was without a doubt our favorite port stop on this cruise. Like other cruise lines, MSC has their own private island in the Bahamas, however on our itinerary we were docked at Ocean Cay overnight, allowing for two full days on their private island, something other cruise lines do not do.

The island is also reachable via a dock area, so there is no need to tender to the port. As our cabin was on the starboard (right) side of the ship, we had an awesome view of the private island, including the landmark lighthouse, which has a light show at night, overlooking the beach party there.

We absolutely loved MSC’s Ocean Cay, and as DOS and I both agreed, it reminded us of Royal Caribbean’s (RCL’s) Coco Cay, before they turned the quiet island into a “theme park” with gigantic waters slips, a hot air balloon, zip lines etc. Not that there’s anything wrong with that if you want a bit of adventure for the whole family, but we much prefer the more pristine and natural look of a tropical island without all the added frills which we could do onboard or at a waterpark back home if we wanted to.

As there is no tendering required, it’s quite easy to debark the ship, and quickly explore the island. Our ship was the only ship in port both days, so it really did feel like a private island without the crowds. As passengers in the Yacht Club, we were escorted down to the exit, and once on land directed to a golf-cart tram, which transported us to the other side of the island, to the exclusive Yacht Club compound on the private beach.

The Yacht Club section includes the only air-conditioned passenger building on the island for the club house bar. There was really no reason to access the bar most of the time though, as the service was exceptional, both on the beach as well as at the adjacent Yacht Club Ocean Restaurant. We did go in there a couple times for a quick bottled water or drink if we were passing by there for a restroom stop or to cool off a bit.

As lunch the first day was from noon to 2pm, (11:30am – 1:30pm on the second day), we were a bit early for lunch, so headed to the gorgeous private beach just steps aways from the restaurant/bar area. The private beach area was huge, and offered plenty of lounge chairs with umbrellas (complimentary). We had read that the beach itself could be a bit rocky, so we brought some waterproof beach shoes which were great for not only the water, but walking on the hot beach.

In addition to the complimentary beach chairs and umbrellas, beachside cabanas could be pre-reserved as well for a fee. As the service was so good to everyone, we really didn’t see a point in getting a cabana, and were quite comfortable with our beach chairs and umbrellas, as servers were constantly coming by on the beach to provide us beverages. The beach chairs were actually closer to the water as well. The Bahamian water was so crystal blue and clear, it invited most passengers in for a refreshing dip.

Snorkeling was not offered at the Yacht Club beach, possibly as there was no protective netting there (more in a moment – yikes! ?), but it was offered at the non-Yacht Club main beach areas for a fee.

We went to lunch around 1pm at the Yacht Club outdoor Ocean House Restaurant, which is covered in most areas, along with ceiling fans to cool off. The food has different menus both days, and unlike a Buffet for the non-Yacht Club areas we passed on the way in, the YC section has full waiter service. It is served by the same wait staff on the ship, so it’s nice they know you, and you know them for the service they provide with a smile.

Steve (DOS) had always wanted a lobster roll (served on the second day on the island) but doesn’t like mayonnaise, so he told that to the waiter, who in turn talked to the chef, and DOS got his lobster roll without mayo and loved it! Later on in the cruise, the chef actually came by our table one evening at dinner and asked him how he liked the lobster roll without mayo! Outstanding service, and passenger memory preferences as well!

After a leisurely lunch, we headed back to the beach to relax for a while and enjoyable the beautiful mid-October day in the Bahamas. We actually got more than we expected, with some “wildlife” viewing, swimming around in the water. Yes, we saw a few sharks really close to the shore! ? These were sand sharks, and I guess when everyone was at lunch and the water was empty of beach goers, they decided to swim close to the shore and feed on the tiny needle or other fish. I could not believe how close the sharks got to the shore; literally in a foot of water! ????

We, along with most our fellow passengers at the beach took photos and video of the sharks swimming around, although I don’t think anyone else got back in the water that afternoon. There is a lifeguard, and he cautioned people about the sharks, but it didn’t take much caution for us to avoid the water after lunch!

The next day, we didn’t see the sharks though, and it seemed safe to go back into the water. I looked up sand sharks when we got back to the ship and Wikipedia had this article on them. They are normally “docile” to humans and are not aggressive unless provoked. They are usually more active at night, so I guess we “got lucky” by seeing them in the afternoon!

In the evening of our first day at MSC’s Ocean Cay, there were two lighthouse shows, and a huge beach party on the sand. We intended to get off the ship and go to the party, but after a big dinner and a few drinks we felt a bit lazy, so watched the show and party from our 16th floor balcony; actually probably the best view from anywhere.

The beach party was adjacent to the lighthouse, and in full view for us as seen from our balcony, looked lively and fun as well. The beach party, and island “curfew” lasted until 11:30pm, at which point everyone rebounded the ship until the next day, while the “island people” who live there freshened up the island overnight.

There were two different light shows; one at 9 and one at 10pm, and in between the shows were rotating light effects; i.e. MSC logo, different color lights etc, and coordinated with music as well.

The second day on Ocean Cay was basically a repeat of the first day, but without any shark sightings.? It was nice to sleep in a bit, have breakfast aboard the ship, and then head back to the Yacht Club Beach Resort; it had a feel of staying at a nice Caribbean land resort. DOS had his lobster roll for lunch, while I had the lunch tournedos of beef, and an ahi tuna salad.

We sailed from Ocean Cay on our second day there, at 5:30pm for our next port, Costa Maya, which we would arrive in two days, after a day at sea on the way there.

COSTA MAYA, MEXICO: This is a newer Mexican port as far as tourism goes, but already it has gotten quite popular, and unfortunately crowded. The day we we docked here, there were a total of 4 mega ships in port, (RCL’s Adventure OTS, Allure OTS, Carnival Pride, and our ship MSC Seaside) and as the ships shared the two long dock areas, it was quite busy just walking down the long perpendicular dock ramps to the Costa Maya cruise entrance.

Once there, it felt perhaps a little less busy than Mardi Gras, with most passengers wandering around aimlessly watching the free show in the town square, going to the many bars there, shopping, some even swimming in the huge pool there, or like us heading down to the “swim with the dolphins” area to have a look.

We skipped on doing Costa Maya’s “Spa Treatment”, which consisted of women (and even some men) soaking their feet in an aquarium filled with tiny fish. Supposedly the fish gently chew on your dead skin, and somehow this “reduces stress” and “makes skin smooth and soft!”. I don’t know, but I got stressed just watching these ladies with their feet getting chewed on by those little fish! To each his own I guess; hey they’re in Mexico enjoying themselves. (At least the lady on the right. The lady on the left kept looking at her watch, like “how much longer do I have to have my feet in this horrible tank!”

We did not do a shore excursion or tour here on our own, as we stopped here last year in March 2022 on a Princess cruise and had gone into town on that trip. While there were mega ships in that day as well, as it was still the trailing part of the COVID pandemic, most of the ships were only sailing half full then, so while the port was busy in places (such as the taxi stand), the port itself was more like a ghost town compared to this trip’s visit to Costa Maya. The one part that was busy then was when we took a taxi into town, and it was a bit of a free-for-all getting a cab. The town itself wasn’t as busy as the hectic cruise port, and offered massages on the beach next to one of the many ocean front beach bars and souvenir shops. The town was worth a look if you hadn’t been, and it had much more of a feel for the “real” Mexico with its rustic sea-side village. You can view our stop in Costa Maya last year on this Princess post if you want to see the village town of Costa Maya.

COZUMEL MEXICO: We’ve been to Cozumel several times over the years, and always enjoy the stop there. While there were three or four ships in port the day we were there, Cozumel has several docks which are spread out by a couple miles, so it’s not nearly as overwhelming with crowds compared to Costa Maya, where the docks are all in the same area. We were docked at the International Cruise Port Terminal, which is the preferred terminal as it’s in town and the port area has some of the fun places to visit; i.e. Margaritaville and Señor Frogs among others. We had no excursions booked here, so basically wondered around the port area and into town for some exercise and bought a souvenir hat, being the big spenders we are!?

I first went to Cozumel in 1987 on my very first cruise, Bahama Star Line’s Veracruz, when Cozumel was not a well known port of call, and the ships that did stop there were much smaller than today’s mega-monsters. That first 5 day cruise on the Veracruz, got me hooked on cruising for life, and I have fond memories of the 3 cruises I took on her the first two years alone, eventually expending my cruise repertoire to now over 75 cruises on various cruise lines with different cruise lengths and regions of the world That tiny ship, the Veracruz was only 10,000 tons or so with perhaps 700 passengers, and there were no balconies, specialty dining, internet (Internet! ??? It wasn’t even invented yet!???), but it brings back great memories to this day, and many former passengers and staff have commented on my Veracruz post from a few years back with their stories down memory lane on her as well.

Anyway, sorry I digress down memory lane. What reminded me of Cozumel and the Veracruz, was the Hotel that you see in port, at the International Terminal where we were docked on the MSC Seaside. That Hotel has been there for years, although has undergone many renovations (even now) due to hurricanes and general upkeep and modernization.

It was formerly called “El Sol”, Spanish for “The Sun”. I never stayed there, or even visited the property, so DOS and I toured the lobby of the hotel and grounds, which although under partial renovation, looked very nice. Even though it was so close and just across the dock area from the cruise ships, it had a secluded feel to it, with a nice pool facing our ship, a nature walk with outdoor spa, whirlpool, bar etc, and was tropically landscaping as well. DOS even went to inquire on room types and rates at the Front Desk before we left, which is now called “El Cid La Ceiba”.

In my younger, “Veracruz” days, (pre-DOS) I would take the old Fiesta party boat as a shore excursion to a private beach, with unlimited rum punch and a piñata party and dancing on the way back to the port.

I’m sure they have something similar to the Fiesta boat now, but we skipped the party scene on this return trip to Cozumel, although did have a look in at Margaritaville and Senior Frogs. I settled for my souvenir cap from Ron Jon’s Surf Shop in Cozumel, and we made our way back to the ship for lunch. It was a beautiful day in Cozumel while we here on the MSC Seaside in mid-October 2023.

MISC/OTHER Onboard Experiences : On MSC Seaside, there were several other optional tours and events, wine tastings, backstage tours, Bingo, Slot Pulls etc you could signup and pay for, although we did not do any of them; not so much out of lack of interest, rather there were so many other activities to do, and hanging out by day at the Yacht Club pool area was one of them! ?

Behind-the-Scenes Tour: I would have loved to have taken MSC’s Behind the Scenes Tour, but it was quite an extensive tour and required lots of walking up stairs and other areas of the ship (per their description) and as I’m still recovering from my heart surgery last year and I didn’t want to over-exert myself, although I’m doing fine walking on level surfaces. The backstage tour includes off-limits areas to guests including the Engine Room, Galley, Bridge, and Backstage of the Main theater among others. The Backstage Theater tour was always my favorite on Celebrity Cruises, and I’m sure this all inclusive Behind-the-Scenes tour would fail to disappoint as well.

Wine Tasting Events: Another event that sounded promising was one of the wine tastings. We walked by the display table for the wine tasting event that was setup adjacent the Butcher Cut (Specialty steak dining venue), and it looked quite elegant with various size Riedel glassware and fine wines. We’ve done many ship wine tastings on many different ships, and have always enjoyed them, so from the descriptions of the wine tasting it sounded very nice; again it was more of a timing thing for us. We enjoyed one wine tasting event on Celebrity Cruises years ago, that got us hooked on the Riedel glassware and use it to this day (after breaking a few glasses over the years and replenishing them obviously!)? A proper wine tasting with Riedel should include a different type glass for each varietal tasted, noting the differences and shapes in the stemware, paired with the appropriate wine for the glass from which you are sampling.

Caviar Tasting : We did not do this, but met a couple of ladies in the Yacht Club who did, and loved it! I believe the cost was $50 for this tasting, which is held at Butcher’s Cut Steakhouse at various times.

Specialty Dining : There are several Specialty Dining venues on board, including the Butcher’s Cut, an Asian Restaurant, and a Seafood Restaurant. The Butcher’s Cut especially looked wonderful for me Steve (UNO) as I’m a steak and potatoes kind of guy, and the cuts of beef (and wines) are on display adjacent to the Specialty Restaurant’s Lounge and worth at least having a look. /

We actually enjoyed the Yacht Club Restaurant so much we didn’t even make it to one of the Specialty Dining’s Restaurants aboard (although I would have chosen The Butcher’s Cut if we had gone) as we had an included complimentary Specialty Restaurant dinner with my (status match) Diamond status on MSC. Passing up on a complimentary meal at Butcher’s Steakhouse tells you how much we enjoyed The Yacht Club’s restaurant. (Actually though, I was getting a bit Filet Mignon’d out by the fourth day!)?

Optic Eye: This was unique to us, and again we didn’t do this, but it was interesting, at least in concept. According to MSC, “it’s all the rage in Europe”, although we’ve never heard of it there either. Basically they scan your eyes with a device similar to one at an optometrist office, and it creates a colorful artwork design of your eyes, enlarged to make a poster, photo, canvas etc. I don’t know maybe it’s me, but I don’t think I would want my eyes staring at me all the time at home in the living room, but it is a unique conversation piece.?

BINGO! Everyone knows Bingo and if you play it, you know it! Onboard every cruise ship.

Zip Lining! This is one activity I definitely wouldn’t do, but was hoping to watch. They only offer it certain times of day, and unfortunately the last sea day was a bit windy so it was closed. I just wanted to video the brave souls that soared high over mid ship’s top deck toward the aft pool area. The zip line, (after you sign your life away waiver) costs $11 a zip. No thank you from the Steve’s, although it’s probably a blast if you’re an adventurer type.

I’m sure there are many other paid events and experiences aboard, but these caught my “eye” so to speak, out of interest even though we didn’t do them. There were plenty of free activities as well such as trivia, karaoke, dance classes, beach parties, pool parties, sail-away parties, etc, etc, etc. Whatever you do, you won’t be bored or run out of things to do, and you certainly won’t go hungry.

Farewell Day at Sea: The last day of the cruise is traditionally sad for us, as you have to pack up and realize the cruise is ending early the next morning. On this cruise, most likely due to the Yacht Club service, accommodations, easy itinerary and mostly casual clothes, we were really able to relax the last day.

Traditionally the first and last night of a cruise are very casual with the idea being passengers just arrived and/or have not unpacked their luggage, or on the last day have already packed up their luggage for the trip home. On MSC in the YC at least, about 50% of the passengers dressed up in semi-formal attire for the farewell Italian dinner on the last night of the cruise. This was the only night I wore shorts to the dining room as we had already packed and were only traveling an hour home to Orlando the next day. I felt a bit uncomfortable although quite a few other Floridians and others were wearing shorts as well. Some of the passengers also wore shorts to dinner on the port days, but mostly it was dress casual aboard except for the one formal night, which was not the last night of the cruise.

We spent a good part of the day by the pool area, having lunch as usual at the outdoor YC buffet. As a nice afternoon treat, the waiters come by and pass out your choice of ice cream too!

For dinner, it was Italian night, and all of the waiters were dressed in tuxes with the Italian flag colors for the tie and vest. Even the tables had alternating colors of red, white, and green of the Italian flag.

Disembarkation: We had our farewell breakfast in the YC Restaurant at 8am on disembarkation day, as the regular pool-side buffet breakfast was not served on the last morning. Having the full breakfast and not being rushed on Debarkation Day was especially nice vs the normal Continental Breakfast you get on some lines as you’re in a hurry to get off the ship and avoid crowds.

After breakfast, we waited for a bit with the other YC guests in the Top Sail lounge as we waited to be called; rather escorted down to the exit one last time. The “walk off” guests were called first; i.e. those passengers aboard the ship (everyone, not just YC) who were carrying their own luggage off the ship (as opposed to checked luggage), which must have been a few hundred passengers. No rush for us though as we were comfortably seated in the lounge area.

We disembarked around 9:10am, and were escorted all the way to the exit, following a roped off line so the passenger mix wouldn’t get in with our flow of YC traffic. Our luggage was waiting for us in the terminal, and we got a porter to assist us (very smart move!), who wheeled our luggage thru Customs and all the way to our parking spot in the parking garage. We were on our way home by 9:30am, and home by 10:35am; quite an easy disembarkation and trip home. Welcome Home!

Final Thoughts on the MSC Seascape after our first sailing:

• Certain areas of the MSC Seascape (more so than allowed on most other cruise lines) allow smoking. This seemed to be the main pool on the starboard side, but even the YC allowed smoking on the front portion (away from the pool though) starboard side. I don’t recall anyone smoking in the YC area however, so it wasn’t a problem for us, although on the main pool area starboard side there were quite a few smokers. The casino allows smoking but it is really filtered well, so wasn’t terrible just walking thru it, as we don’t gamble.
• YC is truly a class by itself, and is so worth it if you can afford it. Compared to booking a suite on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, or Princess, it’s quite a bit cheaper as well, and RCL doesn’t include the drink package with all but the very top suites, nor their Beach Club access on their private island (an extra $200 a person for the one day there!)
• The production shows in the theater do not allow you to bring a drink into them. Not a huge deal though as the shows are typically 30 -35 minutes. There were actually 5 production shows on this 7 night cruise, plus two comedy shows. The shows were shorter, except for the Michael Jackson show which lasted about 45 minutes vs 30 minutes for the others.
• YC service includes Butlers who will escort you anywhere on the ship, and for disembarking in port as well as final debarkation. While we normally only used this service for the theater shows and going off the ship, it really does save lots of time, and makes it much easier to attend the shows, as you don’t need a reservation for the reserved YC seating area. Main passenger guests need to make reservations for the shows and queue up, while YC passengers are escorted by a butler 10-15 minutes prior to show time in a dedicated seating area which always had seats for us and others, even on the full shows.
• YC guests do not need a reservation for dinner as it’s open seating in the YC Dining Room. Other guests must make reservations for dinner, and depending on the fare level you paid, you may not be able to pre-reserve your dining preference at one of the three seatings.
• To us it seemed a bit of an oddity, but there are ATM-like credit card verification kiosks several places aboard the ship, where you needed to verify your credit card to enable charging on your account. We just thought it was a given to charge your credit card on file, but I guess some people put down a cash deposit, and need to have a card cover their excess charges on board. We just provided a credit card and “activated” (that’s what MSC calls it) when we boarded, and we were good to go for any incidentals.
• The YC covers all meals, 2 internet devices per person, virtually all alcoholic and other drinks, Butler and Room Attendant services, complimentary room service (you can even order a whole pizza to your room!), dedicated Concierge service, nightly turn down service (with chocolates!), daily choice of newspapers, pillow menu, etc: so worth it all! Best of all are the dedicated spaces for it’s own restaurant, lounge, private pool and sundeck area, and the YC Beach section at Ocean Cay, as well as complimentary access to the Spa Thermal Suite.
• The YC does NOT include daily staff gratuities, shore excursions, spa, or gift shop items.
• MSC will “status match” their frequent quest program to another cruise line or an elite Frequent Flyer or Hotel Program. I got status matched with Hyatt Globalist which gave me Diamond status with MSC. It’s not a huge benefit, but provides a 5% discount, and one specialty dinner aboard. The YC restaurant itself was so good, however, we didn’t even go to one of the specialty dining venues, even though we had a complimentary meal at the speciality restaurant of our choice.
• At least on the Seaside out of Port Canaveral, the shipboard announcements were not as many in quantity as we expected. It’s possible these (except for emergency or Captain’s announcements) were muted in the YC area, but we didn’t hear any more than you would on a Princess or RCL ship. This would be different in Europe I imagine due to the many nationalities boarding there, as well as the different length of cruises, even within the same 7 or 10 day itinerary (people may disembark in one port, vs taking the whole roundtrip cruise like on the Seaside out of Port Canaveral).

Finally, If you’re still here reading this; thanks for sticking around! I’ll finish this lengthy post with the finale the MSC singers and dancers concluded the Michael Jackson show with on the final night of the cruise. This song was a fitting sendoff to everyone, and in effect the ship itself is a bit of the United Nations itself with the multiple nationalities from both crew and passengers, that make up this floating city. The video is taken from the back of the theater, so it’s not the best quality, but it gives a happy and bittersweet moment for the end of show and cruise. Thanks for reading, and God bless the crew members here and worldwide that work so hard for us, and are away from their families for months at a time, so that we may enjoy our cruises. Take care everyone, and safe and happy travels!

• ← Welcome Aboard the MSC Seaside’s Yacht Club!
• Happy Birthday to Steve DOS from DISNEY SPRINGS! →

6 thoughts on “ The Steve’s Review of MSC Seaside’s Yacht Club ”

Steves, thank you so much for taking the time to write this exhaustive description of your experiences. It is chock full of useful information that I will make good use of.

My pleasure! We enjoy sharing our experiences and tips with others. Thanks for your comments!

Hi both We are booked on MSC SEASHORE which I presume is mostly identical in October. Yacht Club….. I can’t wait for this top notch experience. Your review brought it to life especially the private island. Your writeup of the boarding experience was very informative and will mean hopefully we wont wait in the wrong queue with no fizz! Excellent and thanks

Hi Graham, glad you enjoyed my post on the Yacht Club. While we haven’t taken the Seashore, from what I’ve read (as it’s based in North America) it should be a very similar experience. As the Yacht Club is such an intimate and enhanced experience, you’ll meet many of your fellow YC passengers there, and everyone we met said they would only do the YC on MSC again it was so wonderful! Enjoy your trip on the Seashore!

Thank you so much for this really detailed review. We were suggested Yacht Club by our travel agent but we haven’t yet made a final decision based on so many negative reviews of both MSC and the Yacht Club. Your review makes me much more likely to give it a try this coming October!!

You will love the Yacht Club if you do it. Yes, MSC itself has had some negatives; mainly due to the ‘nickel and diming’, required reservations for shows etc in the basic MSC lower, non YC cabins.. The Yacht Club, however is in a totally different league. There are only about 200 passengers in the YC, and it feels like a “country club” setting. You are free to explore the ship ship anywhere, however it feels so special coming back “home” to the YC. I really think you will like it. We’ve sailed many cruises on many lines, and we were quite impressed with the level of service and attention to details. Enjoy!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Cruise Podcast

The MSC Meraviglia Yacht Club Experience Review

Doug Parker

• February 3, 2024

Doug talks with Mark and Rocky of TheCruiseLife this week about their nine-night cruise aboard MSC Meraviglia.

They dive into their bougie MSC Meraviglia Yacht Club experience, from exclusive embarkation to dedicated amenities like a butler, private lounge, dining room, and sun deck. They discuss the superior dining options, including specialty dishes and a unique cheese trolley, and the benefits of their status-matching loyalty program status.

One of MSC Cruises’ larger vessels , Mark and Rocky also touch on the onboard entertainment, the ship’s atmosphere, and ports of call, including a visit to MSC’s private island, Ocean Cay.

Find Rock and Mark’s coverage of MSC Meraviglia :

• ThisCruiseLife YouTube channel features their cruises across all lines.
• The MSC Meraviglia playlist has several videos from their sailing.
• Read the MSC Yacht Club experiences on ThisCruiseLife website .

MSC Meraviglia Review Transcript

Doug (00:01:01) – Mark and Rocky had just returned from a nine-night cruise aboard MSC Maravilla. It was out of New York City, in the Bahamas, Florida area, and staying in the yacht club. They join us on the line right now. Hey, guys, how are you?

Guest (00:01:16) – Good, Doug.

Doug (00:01:17) – I’m excited to talk about this because we haven’t had an MSC Yacht Club experience in a long time. We’ve had the ones that were like three-nighters and were fast, but I’m excited to hear what it’s like spending extended time beyond seven nights in that yacht club. So what we’ll do here before we get started, we’ll get some pre-cruise thoughts. You’re in the Phoenix area. What made you want to take this nine-niner out of New York City.

Guest (00:01:40) – Honestly, it was just the idea of getting to check out a new cruise line. We’ve been looking at MSC for a long time, and the idea that sailing out of New York in the heart of January, when it is very cold outside, uh, the pricing was very lucrative to get ourselves onto that ship, as well as to fly across the country to New York.

Guest (00:02:01) – So all the stars aligned and just made it worthwhile for us.

Doug (00:02:04) – Now, there were some, uh, a little bit of weather going through the country about the time when you all boarded. It might have missed you by a day or two. Did that impact your flights going into Manhattan?

Guest (00:02:14) – It did not impact the flights at all. It did impact sail away a bit. Um, as you can imagine, uh, the storms, uh, it was pretty rocky on the seas. Uh, it was really cool because it was the first time ever.

So we’ve been to Alaska several times, but it was the first time ever we’ve actually seen snow on a cruise ship. And so to see the crew, it was the first time many had seen snow on a cruise ship. And they were out running out, uh, TikTok ING and taking selfies. It was a really special experience, uh, being able to see that snowstorm.

Doug (00:02:48) – That is so cool.

Doug (00:02:49) – So did you any pre cruise time in the city before boarding in Brooklyn?

Guest (00:02:57) – You know, we always suggest that the best way to do it is to fly a day ahead of time. Uh, this time we flew in two days in advance to take some time and explore Brooklyn, because that’s where the cruise terminal is for MSC. And then we also took the subway into Manhattan and just kind of hung around Times Square, went to a couple of bars, a couple of restaurants, and, uh, just kind of got ourselves situated in New York before we set sail. We met up with we met up with one of, uh, the solo’s that I met on board, uh, Norwegian Cruise Line. So I did a Norwegian cruise line earlier in 2023. Uh, we met a bunch of solos in our solo cabins, and we actually met up with them to hang out, and they showed us New York, which was a ton of fun.

Guest (00:03:36) – You see.

Doug (00:03:36) – You never know what connections you’ll make on a ship, right? Right.

Guest (00:03:39) – Exactly.

Doug (00:03:40) – Yeah. It’s it’s so awesome. So you make your way to Brooklyn the following day and you go to embark MSC Maravilla. How was that embarkation process? And, did you get any kind of special treatment embarking since you were in the Yacht Club?

Guest (00:03:54) – Goodness gracious. It was an embark like none that I’ve ever experienced. We’ve all been through embark. We know the lines, we know the queues. We know all of the seating areas. Um, the moment that we got there, immediately there was signage for yacht club. And so the, the, the porter, the luggage porter whisked us over and tagged our bags with yacht club tags and pointed us to his colleague standing at the door with a yacht club sign. They literally escorted us through the terminal to our own dedicated security line for yacht club. Um, they didn’t have a they didn’t have us waiting in the general queue.

Guest (00:04:28) – And so we went through that security queue, uh, very quickly. And another, yet another Yacht Club representative whisked us to our private lounge, where they did one on one check ins with us, um, and then handed us glasses of champagne and canapés and sparkling water. Um, and it was a private area, very quiet, very secluded from the rest of the terminal. And we enjoyed mimosas and, uh, sparkling water, uh, that as we waited to board the ship.

Doug (00:04:57) – How long did it take you from curb to ship, then?

Guest (00:05:00) – It took us about an hour and a half. So unfortunately the the sailing before ours was the New Year’s cruise. And so they had a lot of passengers to disembark from that ship. So they were slightly delayed on clearing the ship down to zero counts for us to start the embark process. So yeah, about an hour and a half from when we arrived. Fortunately, the lounge was great. We had butlers in there waiting on us, so it was a really pleasant experience getting to stand around and wait until the ship was ready.

Guest (00:05:28) – Literally. Butlers, butlers, refilling our champagne glasses, walking around with bottles of champagne, saying, oh, would you like a refill on your champagne? Well, okay. Yes, we would love that.

Doug (00:05:38) – It’s like being stuck in an airport and being able to be in an airline lounge instead of in the regular common area, right? Just kind of, uh. Yeah, yeah, living it up in there. So you make your way on board the ship. You’re mentioning this was your first time on the ship. So what were your first impressions of MSC Meraviglia?

Guest (00:05:54) – So it’s kind of funny you ask that we didn’t actually get to see the whole ship for the first four hours that we were on board when they when the yacht club boards, we get priority boarding service. So they bring us into the main atrium, and that’s about the most of the ship we get to see. From there, we walk down a corridor of rooms to the very forward of the ship, where they have elevators that they can badge in, giving you priority access to the elevator.

Guest (00:06:21) – They loaded us into these elevators and took us up to the 16th deck where the topsail lounges, which is the exclusive lounge space for the top or the yacht club. Uh, and they put us in there with, again, more champagne and more canapés and live music that was being performed for us. So we spent most of the first four hours on board in that topsail lounge. Well, they took us from the Topsail Lounge. Then they opened up the Topsail Restaurant, the exclusive restaurant for yacht clubbers. And so we literally went from canapés and champagne up to the lunch in the Topsail restaurant.

Normally we run around taking pictures and exploring the ship. We literally were just kind of in the lap of luxury those first several hours onboard. Oh, we met our butler as well during that time. And so we didn’t actually leave the yacht club as Rocky mentioned, until about four hours after boarding.

Doug (00:07:12) – So a lot to unpack here. So I want to actually take a step back.

Doug (00:07:15) – And I want to ask, um, we were chatting before we started recording here, and you mentioned you had an upgrade offer. So how much of a premium, um, once you accept that upgrade, is it for the yacht club against just staying in a regular balcony cabin?

Guest (00:07:29) – So that’s exactly what we had booked. We booked a balcony cabin and received an offer to bid on an upgrade. Now, because we had already booked that balcony and paid for a balcony, the upgrade amount was not wildly expensive. I think it was. We we could have started the upgrade process offer at $300 per person. Wow. And Rocky was like, okay, should we just start there? And I was like, how often will we get to stay in the yacht club? We are maxing that bit out. And so I think we each maxed our bid out at about $600. So for another $1,200 or so plus tax and all of that stuff, um, we could move from the balcony we had into.

Guest (00:08:09) – We actually dug and bid for an interior yacht club cabin because we were like, okay, we’re just gonna make sure we get into this thing. Well, they were they must have been sold out because our dreams were answered. We got the upgrade and they put us into a deluxe suite.

Doug (00:08:24) – I love it. Let’s discuss that deluxe suite in the yacht club and give us all the details.

Guest (00:08:30) – As you walk in, the first thing that meets your eye is the size of this cabin. I would say that this cabin is the same depth as your standard balcony cabin that you find on any cruise ship. However, the width is probably equivalent to one and a half to anywhere up to two times the width of a standard balcony cabin. Huge space, um, between the foot of the bed and the credenza and wall units that they had where all of the minibar was located. There was probably a good 4 to 5ft of space between those two areas. Um, inside the bathroom, it was upgraded amenities.

Guest (00:09:05) – You had marble tile throughout, a very large, spacious walk in shower with a rainfall head, uh, or the rain shower head. Um, the balcony was the same width as the room, so it was a pretty sizable balcony. They only put two chairs and one side table out there, but you could have easily had another two. Uh, very large and spacious room.

Doug (00:09:29) – So the question is, how do you use the butler on your cruise? Well.

Guest (00:09:33) – You know, because we often have butlers on our cruises. Uh, I kid, um, it was the first experience. And so literally the butler introduced himself. We were in the room. He he knocked and came in and he said, what questions do you have for me? And we said, well, we don’t even know what questions to ask. And so he’s like, well, let’s start with your pillow selections. Are your pillows up to your liking? And Rocky joked, he’s like, well, we’ll sleep on him tonight and let you know.

Guest (00:09:59) – Um, but but the. Butler took care of our minibar, so he asked us specifically for our preferences in terms of sodas, juices and beers.

He asked for our liquor selection because the yacht club comes with a bottle, comes with bottle service, a single bottle. And so we, uh, we shared our, uh, bottle selection with him, and then he just let us know that he would be the person that would escort us to dinners if we wanted. He would escort us to the theater for shows.

He would arrange our bookings if we wanted to go to any specialty restaurant. And so it was, you know, Rocky and I asked as we were getting ready, we’re like, is this just going to be an upgraded room steward, like a room steward that wears a suit? Um, and no, it was it was significantly more than just a room steward. In fact, we had a junior butler as well and, and a third person who helped service the room.

Guest (00:10:50) – So there were three people servicing the room. But that Butler experience was really unique and new to us. Yes, I love it.

Doug (00:10:58) – So you were on there for nine nights. Was there enough space in your room to put everything?

Guest (00:11:01) – Yeah, there was um, I think one of the challenges that we discovered when we were unpacking our room was the closet space was a little bit smaller than what we’re used to on some of the other balcony rooms that we’ve had in the past. Um, the way it’s set up, you walk in and the, the closet space is your entrance to the bathroom.

And so it’s kind of a strange layout. We discovered that there were some challenges with that. However, there was a three-drawer storage space in the main room area that was part of the main. I don’t know what you call it. Credenza. Yeah. And so that actually made up for some of that lost space. And fortunately, these beds were designed to hold luggage under or suitcases under them.

Guest (00:11:41) – It was easy to unpack our room and get moved in for those nine days. Oh, and don’t forget both of the nightstands next to the bed. So there were additional storage tables next to the bed as well. And so there was plenty of storage. But to Rocky’s point that the closet seemed to be a little bit smaller than than other rooms.

Doug (00:11:59) – ThYacht Club is like Norwegian’s Haven, a ship within a ship concept. So outside of your room, what amenities did you have within your ship?

Guest (00:12:07) – I’m telling you, they design it so you don’t have to leave the yacht club. They tell you when you’re going through the booking process. They say it’s exclusive and it’s private. And that is very true. And so the entrance to the yacht club on each of the floors are glass doors. Truly. They look out into the elevator bank. I think MSC has designed it so that people can see in and you can see out, but you have to badge in and out to get in.

Guest (00:12:33) – And so the spaces are beautiful. They’ve got those crystal staircases. What are those crystals? The Swarovski, Swarovski, uh, staircases, the spiral staircases. So we would leave our room and take the staircase up to the next deck. Uh, the 16th deck, which is where the concierge was at the Topsail lounge. Topsail lounge was windows all at the front of the ship.

The view of of New York, we commented that was probably the best view of New York we’ve ever had in that topsail lounge. Oh yeah, the canopy. Like, there’s just so much to unpack in that, um, the full bar.

And then again, you take up another spiral staircase and you are there at the exclusive restaurant, and then one more spiral staircase up, and you are at deck 19, which is your dedicated, uh, lounging space, pool, and hot tub. There’s a daily buffet that they put up there for, for just yacht club guests, along with a bar.

Doug (00:13:23) – Let’s talk about some of the food on MSC Maravilla.

Doug (00:13:26) – Once you get out of your haven complex and go to the buffet with the common folk, how was the buffet and the food throughout the nine days?

Guest (00:13:34) – So we didn’t discover the buffet area until that first night. It was the second day that we discovered it. Yeah. Uh, now that I think back on the experience, um, we like to refer to those areas as Jen and Pop. And, uh, as we walked in to the buffet, we were we kind of felt like we were in someone else’s place. We didn’t feel like we knew that our way around, because we had spent so much time on the ship before we found the buffet. But once we did find it, I’ll tell you, Doug, we spent a good amount of time there, especially for late-night buffets. Uh, this was the first time that we’d really seen a cruise line dedicate a late-night buffet to its passengers consistently. Every night from midnight until 2 a.m..

Guest (00:14:14) – They served food. And we’re not just talking about just, you know, a quick little grab here and there. They have their pizzas available. They have little small sandwiches that you could grab. They had burgers and hot dogs. They sometimes had nachos. Sometimes, they would do a breakfast with some scrambled eggs and bacon every night. I think I got scrambled eggs and bacon every single night of the cruise.

They had the healthy corner like they had salads. And so it wasn’t even just that fried stuff that you sometimes find on the late night buffet. They had salads in a healthy corner. I mean, it was the largest. So we’ve seen late night buffets right on Carnival. We’ve seen it on, uh, we’ve seen it on the other lines. This was the I mean, it was the size of a regular buffet at from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m.. It brought me back to old days of cruising.

Doug (00:14:57) – Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds like it. So for your main. You were mentioning.

Doug (00:15:01) – You had your dining room in the topsail area. So how was the dining in the yacht club, and was there much of a selection like, do they rotate the menus? How does that play out?

Guest (00:15:12) – Very much a dedicated menu for the, uh, those that were in the yacht club. Um, the options that they, they had on the menu, there was some mirroring that happened to the main dining rooms on the ship, but they were elevated to a different level with the offerings and the types of food. Uh, there was a selection of classics that were served every night.

For example, you could get your classic filet mignon, or a salmon would be available. And I think they also had a lobster on that classics menu. On the classics menu, you had lobster and filet mignon. I mean, this is this is next level here. Right. And then uh, for the regular offerings every day they had a rotation of several different items. Usually there was a daily result of that was available.

Guest (00:15:53) – There was also a different daily lamb that was on the menu. Uh, so definitely a higher caliber of food offerings on the menu. And the way that they were prepared and plated were very beautiful. Uh, you had, of course, your main waiter and then you had your, your waiters’ assistants and they would all work in harmony together to deliver your breads, appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

Speaking of desserts, don’t forget that the maitre d would flambé the dessert. So we had cherries jubilee one night where he flambé and served that, um, they, they did the cheese trolley where they would literally, they literally had a cheese trolley where you could choose the cheeses and, and jams and jellies that you wanted as part of your dessert option. It was it was definitely. Where do you find a risotto on a cruise on the difficulty to actually prepare that correctly for the masses. Um, you can’t do that. But you can in a private small restaurant that’s dedicated to a subset of your passengers.

Doug (00:16:53) – And how were the lines up there?

Guest (00:16:57) – We don’t know what you mean by lines.

Doug (00:17:00) – Fair enough.

Guest (00:17:02) – Yeah, because there was such a small capacity within the yacht club itself on the ship. Right. And because you only have those people that have access to it, our dining times for dinner was available from 6 p.m. until 830.

That was when you could get seated, and it was open to your time. Whenever you wanted to go in, you would show up. There was one knife that I can think of, and I believe it was the second gala night. We had to wait maybe three minutes, maybe get seated. Yeah. Um, overall, the amount of seating that they have both in the lounge and the restaurant are ample for the number of people that are in there, and they know that they’re going to turn over tables throughout the evening from guests that are doing early versus later dining.

Doug (00:17:42) – Did you enjoy any specialty dining on board this one?

Guest (00:17:45) – So this sailing specifically, we chose to stick to the yacht club so that we could capture each of the menus and actually record some reviews each dinner. We actually are right now looking at booking, uh, another MSC cruise, we committed to ourselves that we would do a yacht club and we would do non-Yacht Club. And so that is where that’s sailing, where we plan to actually explore some of those additional, um, upstairs upcharge specialty restaurants. But for this sailing we literally stuck to the Yacht Club restaurant. That exclusive restaurant.

Doug (00:18:16) – I meant to ask you, before you sailed, did you do the status match with them?

Guest (00:18:20) – Yeah, both of us actually ended up doing status match. Um, with Mark having diamond status with Carnival and I have platinum status, we were both able to match into their gold status or gold level with the Voyagers club.

Doug (00:18:33) – So you stepped right into gold. So do you know, like what that gets you compared to just being a first-time MSC cruiser?

Guest (00:18:39) – Great question.

Guest (00:18:40) – Because, uh, MSC is not known for their loyalty program having the strongest perks, but what it did get us is it it got us a welcome back reception where they had cocktails, which when you’re in the yacht club, it doesn’t really have a huge impact. Uh, because we had champagne up and up in our private lounge.

We also got a little gift. It was a little backpack or drawstring backpack that we got. There’s also when you’re part of the when you’re part of the loyalty program, you get a discount on sailings with MSC, and on future sailings with MSC. And so I think it’s a 5% discount that you get as, as a member of that level. And so there are some perks.

They don’t actually do priority. Like many lines have priority boarding and don’t do that until you hit their very top level, which is diamond. And that’s the only group with priority boarding and demarcation. So that’s our goal. My goal is to hit Diamond on Carnival and MSC.

Guest (00:19:36) – We’ll see how long it takes.

Doug (00:19:37) – Double diamond. There you go.

Guest (00:19:39) – I like it I like.

Doug (00:19:40) – That. How about around the ship like you mentioned Carnival. So we’ll stick with that. Uh, they have the guys burger joint, which is complimentary dining. Does MSC have anything like that around the ship? Kind of a grab and go type place. Yeah.

Guest (00:19:52) – So, uh, it was kind of surprised. And that was one of the conversations that we had at Post Cruise is the fact that there really aren’t those. Types of grab and go quick serve restaurants on board. You do have the buffet, which is very well divided. They have their ethnic corner and they have their pastas, and they have a pizza spot and some burgers, but it’s really only confined to that area as well as the main dining restaurant restaurants. Aside from that, everything is upcharge. They have a Mexican place that’s an upcharge. They have, uh, I can’t remember all of them. There’s a there’s a couple other ones.

Guest (00:20:27) – One thing that I would call out that was unique, that I’ve never seen before on any of our sailings, is they had a kid’s buffet, a dedicated buffet for the kids so that they didn’t have to be in the main area of the buffet. And then the only other kind of separate areas that they had were out on the lido deck.

They had that kind of they had like side buffets. It was the same buffet food on the inside of the buffet, but it was just right outside on Lido, so you didn’t have to go in. But there was no you know, I think about even Celebrity Apex had the burger and fries station and Carnival and all of their side restaurants that they have that are included. None of that. It is focused on the buffet and their and their main dining room for the included options.

Doug (00:21:10) – Let’s discuss the entertainment on board Maravilla. I know that MSC gave up the Cirque partnership located at the back of the ship. What’s going on back there now?

Guest (00:21:22) – So I will say that we were pleasantly surprised with the show performances that were put on in the main Broadway theater, which is their main theater in the forward of the ship. We actually attended one of the Meet the cast type of, uh, presentations, if you will, and we had a really great interaction with them.

We found out that all of the shows in that forward lounge were designed specifically for that cast and this ship. So in all, we were very impressed and enjoyed all of the shows we saw in that forward lounge. Now, going to your question about Cirque du Soleil partnership, you can see that there still is some residual, um, design with the shows that they have in that back lounge that does still exist, they still do aerial acts, and we very much enjoyed those performances. But one thing to be aware of is MSC still continues to consider that an upcharge and add-on type of experience.

Guest (00:22:20) – So if you buy it on the ship, it’s $18 a person to get into one of those shows. The nice thing is they sweeten the deal because they throw a drink at you that you can enjoy during the show, but it’s definitely a bit different of an experience than what we’ve seen on most of the other cruise lines.

Doug (00:22:37) – Gotcha. And did you guys, uh, like, what kind of show was you mentioned? It was like an acrobatics thing, but it was just an MSC-branded show.

Guest (00:22:47) – Yeah. So they put on a magic show. Houdini is the name of the show. And so there’s a lot of singing, dancing, acrobats flying through the air, and a little juggling and jumping out into the audience. And so definitely had, I would say Cirque vibes, but just not with the branding. But to Rocky’s point, they’re still charging that upcharge for the Cirque like show.

Doug (00:23:10) – Gotcha. Okay. Historically, MSC Cruise Entertainment is more visual and less like comedians because of the international audience. Is it like this on MSC Meraviglia?

Guest (00:23:22) – Actually, no. I feel like there was a lot, a lot of the presentations that we saw were done primarily in English, surprisingly. Okay. Uh, the one thing that caught us off guard was the overhead announcements.

Anytime the captain would make his announcements, it would always be done by the captain. Again in Italian. Uh, during the safety briefings when we were on the embark day, they were doing announcements in both English and Mandarin. For safety reasons, there were so many Mandarin-speaking passengers on board. But overall, most of the shows were done and performed in English leading up to the show’s start.

They would do a couple of announcements in Mandarin and Italian and English and German. So they did do several pre-calls for those shows. But overall the actual shows themselves were primarily in English, if there was any speaking at all. Yeah, it turns out it turns out those songs are universal. You know, the journey is universal across all languages.

Doug (00:24:19) – Let’s talk about the sea days. As far as crowds and congestion, I know that you were up there in the yacht club for probably most of it, but as you made your way further south, you mentioned the snow on the sail out, but that it eventually warm up once you got around the Carolinas or Florida.

Guest (00:24:36) – Warmed up is relative. Uh, it was warmer than than the snow, but we there weren’t a lot of folks spending time out on deck or making use of of the water slides. Um, it was still pretty chilly until, honestly, the nicest day we had was in Nassau. And so it took us, uh, five days into the cruise before the weather was, was to a point where you would want to actually be out on deck or layout, you know, you could be out. I mean, we were like, jackets and jeans, uh, throughout the sailing. Uh, but but it wasn’t it didn’t get really warm until we got down into the Bahamas.

Doug (00:25:07) – As far as the crowds and congestion around the ship, was there any of that since everyone was inside?

Guest (00:25:16) – Really? Honestly, the only crowds we experienced were in the Meraviglia Galleria Meraviglia, which is a domed area. If you deck six and deck seven, it’s a two-story area. They’ve got a beautiful dome, similar to the Fremont Experience in Las Vegas, where they’ve got that led that runs almost the entirety of the ship. That’s where they would do many of their dance parties and events, because it was too cold up on deck to do it.

We didn’t feel that space was designed to host those parties. And so it’s a throughput for traffic on the ship. And so you’ve got people trying to make their way throughout the ship and people dancing and singing. And that was really the only time we felt like we were crowded, or that we were kind of annoyed a little bit by the traffic flow of the ship. Otherwise I would I would tell you, we didn’t feel crowds, even the buffet, the buffets, were sometimes a little bit busy, but but not to the point where we’ve seen it wear on other lines.

Guest (00:26:12) – What did you think of that promenade area with the ceiling that lights up?

Guest (00:26:15) – Beautiful. Uh, we were stunned by the design and how gorgeous that space was, and they really maximize the usage of those LED screens throughout the sailing, including on Embark day, when they’re showing you where all of the different muster stations are located. But overall, that space was beautiful.

It was definitely wide enough to walk through it when there wasn’t an event happening, you could easily take yourself up onto the next deck up and look down from the mezzanine and really enjoy the sights and the and sounds and even the smells coming from the chocolate factory. As you were sailing along, so it was very enjoyable.

Speaking of speaking of those multi-use screens, remember, even on the welcome back party, they played the Welcome Back video that that that MSC sizzle reel. They played the video thing. Welcome back. I appreciate your loyalty. They played that up on those screens. And so literally everyone at the Welcome Back party headed to the sky watching them talk about what a great experience MSC is.

Doug (00:27:11) – The casino. How was that as far as the smoking situation in and around it?

Guest (00:27:17) – They had a smoke-free casino. It appears that it was an afterthought based on our conversations with the other passengers on board. The smoke-free casino was nice. However, they didn’t have any gaming tables for the smoke-free gamblers.

Now, the exciting thing was the placement of the Cirque theater. You have to walk through the smoking casino to get to the theater, which was kind of a strange setup, but the way the casino was set up. They put the main bar in the center of it. So you’re not diving into the main casino itself. Overall, the casino seemed like a pretty ample size, comparable to what we’re familiar with on some of Carnival’s Vista ships .

Doug (00:27:59) – Okay. Very cool. So, let’s talk about the ports of call you hit on this nine-night cruise. And what we’ll do here is hit the first one, give us a highlight, then we’ll go to the next one and so on.

Guest (00:28:10) – The first cruise port we visited was the exotic location, Port Canaveral in Florida. We had something else arranged. We have some really good friends that we’ve also met through going on cruises who live in the Orlando area, they ended up picking us up, and we had a fun day at SeaWorld for the day. So, it’s definitely a little bit different. We didn’t book anything through MSC because we’ve been to Port Canaveral before, so we wanted to check it out through the locals.

Doug (00:29:01) – So what was after Port Canaveral?

Guest (00:29:04) – Next was Miami and the day was unexpected. Icon of the Seas was scheduled to arrive in Miami the day before.

However, due to the weather, they kept her out for an extra day. And so we literally got to see icon of the seas sail. And we did a live, uh, we did a YouTube live where we streamed her sailing into Port Miami for the first time. We watched her turn around in the basin, return, and dock at the Royal Caribbean Terminal. There.

We got off the ship, and we hiked our excursion that day. We hiked about a mile up to the Royal Caribbean Terminal, climbed up to the very top of the parking garage, Royal Caribbean parking garage, and we just took pictures and filmed a bunch of stuff up there because it was like such a wow moment for for a couple of cruise nerds.

Doug (00:29:53) – Yeah. No, definitely. So after Nassau, you headed over to the Bahamas. Uh, what was the first Bahamas port?

Guest (00:29:59) – We first stopped at MSC’s Private Island, MSC’s Ocean Cay Marine Reserve. It’s a beautiful private island destination.

You can tell that MSC put a lot of thought and consideration when they were designing this port. It’s huge. It is massive, huge. And it’s nice because the ship can dock directly onto the port there, instead of you having to do a water shuttle taxi service to get in.

It is a very large and sprawling island, with tons of places for people to go out and lounge and layout, grab food, and have a nice relaxing day. Now. Now they don’t have, you know, big water parks and they don’t have hot air balloons that go up in the air like some, you know, private islands do. But but I mean, it had everything that you could want.

Guest (00:30:48) – It had many different beaches. Uh, to Rocky Point food trucks, uh, included food trucks throughout the island, as well as some upcharge food trucks where you could get, you know, seafood, you could get your lobster rolls and some of that fresh seafood.

Doug (00:31:00) – You were in the yacht club, right? So I know they have that yacht club area on the other side of the island, like on the other side from where the ship docks. How was that space, or I guess, did you utilize that space? And would you think of it if you did?

Guest (00:31:12) – Yeah, we actually, uh, as soon as we got off of the ship via escort from our butler. It’s just fun to say that. I’m sorry. Uh, we were escorted over to the yacht club’s meeting point, where they picked us up by golf cart and drove us to that exclusive area. It just made it a little bit easier to get there so we can maximize our time. Uh, the area is referred to as the Ocean House.

And so that’s actually where they serve lunch. And it’s a lovely, large colonial-style building. Uh, the lunch there included amazing bites from a lobster roll to crab ceviche. The ceviche was so good. The beach was delicious. Uh, they also had your standard fare of burgers on the menu, and then a couple of salads and other options.

Overall, it was a great area. As you approached it, there was signage, so you knew it was reserved for the yacht club guests. Uh, there was a private beach. And that’s the one downside that I would say about the exclusive area is the Yacht Club’s Ocean House. The beach is probably the least nice of the beaches that are found on the island.

It’s a little bit rough. Uh, there’s some larger sand bits, if you want to call them that. Uh, so getting in the water makes it a bit tough. And due to the weather that we encountered, we really didn’t even touch the water because we touched the water.

We just didn’t get into the water. It’s it’s rocky, says sand. But I would say sharp rock. So the folks that had been there before had water shoes and were in the water. That was a that’s a great tip. If you’re going to Ocean Cay and in the yacht club, make sure to bring water shoes because. It will make your day better.

Doug: .That’s a good tip. There are a lot of beaches around the island so you get to explore most of them?

We did. We met people on the cruise, as we always do on cruises. And so we went out and we got to explore a little bit with them. In hindsight, I wish we had done the exploration first because it started to pour. Uh, it started to downpour and it was a cold downpour in the Bahamas. And so we we didn’t get to explore as much as we’d like, but we got to see several of the lagoons.

Guest (00:33:15) – We got to see the lighthouse. We got to enjoy one of the food trucks. We did eat at one of the food trucks just so we could say we, you know, ate with our friends. Um, Rocky. Rocky always says we ate with the common people. Um, and so we enjoyed the food on the mainland. And then there’s shops, there’s shops, there’s you can buy ice cream cones and various things on land as well. Before we headed back to the ship. And, and unfortunately, that was the only we were this point spoiled us, Doug. Um, we were looking for our butler escort back onto the ship, but but there was not one on to the ship. And so we had to wait in the rain with the rest of the ship that had all run back to get onto the ship as well.

Doug (00:33:55) – Oh, no. Horrible. Did you get to stay at night to see the lighthouse lit up? Yeah.

Guest (00:34:01) – Back on board wasn’t scheduled until 8:00 that evening. Uh, most of the passengers had embarked on the ship by about 330 or 4 due to the weather, but we stayed docked there, and we were wondering about that lighthouse show because we’d heard about it. And so we went to the concierge, who gave us a great recommendation on where to go to view it, so we could also hear the music playing through the show.

Uh, and so we had the opportunity to watch it and it was impressive. We enjoyed it. And hopefully, we’ll be able to return to Ocean Cay again in the future, where we won’t encounter poor weather. We can be on the beach and see the light show from the ground.

And because of the concierge tip, we know the crew smoking area on MSC Meraviglia. And so it was a great tip and we got to hang out with crew as they watched the light show.

Doug (00:34:54) – He probably know this, but if you’re ever feeling energetic or you want to work out, you can climb that lighthouse. It’s like $15 or 20 maybe, but you got some great views up there and there’s quite a few steps, so, uh, yeah, pack your energy. Yeah.

Guest (00:35:06) – No. And that’s another reason why we want to go back. You know, I don’t think, uh, the weather was really in our favor to be able to do that type of an excursion, but definitely in the books for us to do it again.

Doug (00:35:16) – So your final port of call was Nassau. How was your day there?

Guest (00:35:19) – Nassau was great. Uh, as Mark had mentioned, it was the best weather that we saw on the entire cruise, and we were a little bummed that it was our final port day, but we made the most of it. We were docked in Nassau with four other ships. So a standard busy Nassau day. Uh, nothing unusual there.

Guest (00:35:36) – Uh, we have a tradition whenever we’re in Nassau, where we go visit a rum distillery in a little bit deeper into town. And so we decided to do that at this time. We took the trek and walked around and checked out the updates that they made to the port of Nassau, because that was our first time there since they did all the construction since they finished the construction.

Yeah, we’ve been several times during. Yeah. And then from there we walked up to the distillery and enjoyed a little tasting up there before returning to the port and getting on the ship. It was a pretty quiet day, but we’re looking forward to the opportunity to get to lay out on deck on the cruise ship before sail away took place.

Doug (00:36:12) – Yeah, perfect day for it. So you leave Nassau for a couple of days and you head back to Brooklyn. How were your sea days going up?

Guest (00:36:19) – The weather, I will say, was more cooperative on the way back, but. So it wasn’t as bumpy and rocky, but there were times when you would sleep at night and roll on or you would.

Guest (00:36:31) – You knew you were on a ship. You know, when Rocky and I first boarded, one of the things we commented as we were sitting in, I think it was the topsail restaurant. After spending time in the lounge, we said, we don’t feel like we’re on a cruise ship, but you just felt like you were almost at an all-inclusive resort.

We knew we were on a cruise ship on the sea days out and on the sea days back. The weather was left, the ocean a bit rocky. We had some. You saw some gale-force winds. There were some swells, but they had the magnetic, uh, bags out, the thick bags out in the elevator banks. They had those out for, for all of the passengers. We did talk to several folks who said they might not sail again in January, but but we liked it. But I know the sign us up.

Doug (00:37:18) – So it’s time to get off the ship in Brooklyn.

Doug (00:37:20) – Was the process as smooth and bougie as that embark?

Guest (00:37:25) – I love that you say the bougie because it continued through. Uh, we always go for a very relaxed, dark morning. We try to stay on the ship as long as possible.

We book later flights knowing that there’s always the possibility that a ship could be delayed returning to port. Uh, and fortunately for us, the ship did arrive on time, however. We didn’t end up disembarking from the ship until much later.

We we decided to go down and have breakfast down in the main restaurant, the topsail restaurant, in the yacht club area. And once we were done eating there, we went down to the lounge and enjoyed a quick beverage and a couple of little canapés. You know, just trying to get our last bits in and chatted with the bartenders.

The bartenders were tremendously friendly the entire sailing, and we just hung out with them and enjoyed some coffee and drinks. Yep. And then once we were ready to get off of the ship, we went to the concierge and actually, we ended up seeing our butler at the concierge desk, and he offered to help us get off the ship.

Guest (00:38:26) – And so he took Marc’s two suitcases that he was carrying from his hands and wheeled them to the elevator, took us down to the lower deck, and wheeled us over to where they take you off the ship. Or they scan your card to say you are officially disembarked from the ship. So we continued that experience as long as we could.

And the cool thing about the luggage program, if you decide to put your luggage out the night before the cruise ends, all of the yacht club luggage gets delivered to one specific spot, so you’re not rushing to get off.

You’re not rushing to go find where your luggage was placed. When it’s in that terminal building, it’s very easy to locate and get to pick up your suitcases and you’re on your way. Once again, those yacht club signs. Right this way. Um, a dedicated area, even for your luggage.

Doug (00:39:16) – Awesome. Very cool. Does Brooklyn have facial recognition for the dark?

Guest (00:39:21) – Yes they did. We were very excited when we saw that we’re getting off the ship.

Doug (00:39:25) – Yeah. It sure makes a difference. Looking back here as first-time MSC cruisers and in the yacht Club, do you have any first-time tips to offer anyone sailing MSC or sailing out of Manhattan?

Guest (00:39:39) – Uh, goodness gracious. If you get that upgrade offer and it’s within your means, you bid that upgrade offer up. Suppose you can get into the yacht club from a balcony. That would be my biggest tip because not only does it include all of those amenities that we’ve talked about. They grant you into the premium drinks package as well.

So the premium drinks package on this sailing would have been 790 a person, a person. We paid less for the entire yacht club experience, including those premium drinks. It included Wi-Fi on each of our devices, and it included all of those exclusive amenities that we’ve talked about.

And so that would be my number one tip is if you get that offer to upgrade to the yacht club, really look at what it would cost you to have that experience and just individually and take that for serious take.

Guest (00:40:29) – Be serious about that. And if you can get that upgrade and it’s in your means, do it. Yeah, absolutely. And then I would also say the other thing is that this cruise ship departs out of the Brooklyn terminal.

So instead of paying the 60 plus dollars that it would cost to get an Uber or a lift, you could take the subway, and the train system, all of which will be super easy to get over there. And there’s a water taxi or ferry. Ferry, I guess it is, uh, that takes you from Wall Street.

If you were to go into Manhattan and stay the night out there, you can quickly get onto the ferry from Wall Street over to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. Easy. And it’s quite cost-effective.

Doug (00:41:09) – Yeah, that’s one thing I’ve heard over the years is that a lot of people who are doing cruises out of either Brooklyn or Manhattan, they kind of get taken by surprise how much it actually cost to get from the airport to the cruise port.

Doug (00:41:20) – But a little extra research can save you quite a few bucks, and it’s not that bad. I think it’s.

Guest (00:41:25) – Scarier being in New York traffic. Quite honestly. When we the Uber, we took an Uber from the hotel to the cruise terminal. I think that was scarier than the subway was, you know, the night before when we had flown in. And so, yes, I think it’s great.

Doug (00:41:41) – Well, looking back, what was your biggest highlight of this cruise?

Guest (00:41:56) – I would say the biggest highlight was probably being in the yacht club. What a treat it was for us to be able to experience that. Um, it was so exciting walking into the Topsail Lounge in that exclusive yacht Club area, no matter how many times a day we walked in there, we always discovered new canopies that were waiting for us to try.

Guest (00:42:17) – The bartenders and servers in the topsail lounge were all very friendly. They started to get to know us, what drinks we enjoyed the most, and they would start making recommendations based on the spirits we were drinking to make our journey that much more enjoyable. I think for me, um, one of the best bites of food I’ve had on a cruise ship was, uh, in the Eden restaurant onboard Celebrity Apex.

And I would say fast forward. That was a couple of years back now for Thanksgiving. But fast forward to this. To have that daily rotating risotto to me was a surprise and delight that menu in Topsail restaurant. You just don’t see food like that on a cruise ship. And it was fantastic.

And it was included in that experience. It wasn’t we weren’t, you know, dropping 150 for the meal. It was included in that yacht club experience. That, to me was a surprise and delight.

Guest (00:43:10) – I did not expect how good and high-quality that food would be.

Doug (00:43:22) – Well, uh, in closing here, your final thoughts of MSC Maravilla.

Guest (00:43:27) – the MSC Meraviglia is a gorgeous ship. MSC did a great job in designing and developing this class of ship. The size of it was great. We did have a lower capacity on the ship during our sailing, but we still managed to have a great time. We met a lot of great friends.

We found places to call our own that maybe we’re not in the yacht club specifically. Still, we discovered the Sky lounge as a great place to meet people and to be able to enjoy the company of others that were not a part of the yacht club, and really just kind of put ourselves with the rest of the population that was sailing. Very good. The Champagne Bar was another one of my favorites. That the Edge bar.

Guest (00:44:09) – The champagne bar, you know, that looked out over the water as the ship was sailing. That was great. Those champagne cocktails were excellent. And that’s the beauty, right? When you have. We would flash our yacht club bracelets and I will tell you, I joke. I’ve made this joke now lines would disappear and people would just randomly appear.

Servers would appear, you flash that yacht club bracelet and it didn’t matter what bar we were at, if we were at the horizon bar, after the champagne bar, or at the Sky lounge, they just showed up and took such great care of us. You can tell that even the rest of the ship is trained to pay attention to yacht club guests, because it was just such a fantastic experience.

I’m excited to go back on MSC Meraviglia in in the in the standard amenities in the non-yacht club amenities to be able to experience it truly and compare and contrast to be able to talk about what does that value look like and how it feels to sit down in the main dining room each night for dinner versus in your dedicated restaurant? And so I am excited to get back on the ship.

Guest (00:45:10) – We’ve looked we’ve booked on the inaugural on MSC World America, World America. And so it was it was a great experience and great sailing. And so MSC gets a lot of bad rap out there. There’s a lot of negativity about people who love or hate it. And I will tell you from our experience where we’re looking at booking two more already. So it was it was in it was in a really good category for us.

Doug (00:46:34) – Awesome. We’ll link to it also in the show notes at Cruise Radio dot net. Mark Rocky, thank you all so much.

Guest (00:46:40) – Thank you so much, Doug.

Recent Posts

Safety experts condemn 2019 cruise following blackout issue, three cruise passengers jump ship during a port stop in british virgin islands, fire-damaged funnel causes carnival to cancel future sailings, margaritaville at sea’s islander cruise ship will offer longer itineraries, share this post, related posts.

MSC Cruises Faces Sixth Man Overboard Incident in Just Four Months

First Look at Royal Caribbean’s Newly Announced Beach Club in Cozumel

Bringing you 15 years of cruise industry experience. Cruise Radio prioritizes well-balanced cruise news coverage and accurate reporting, paired with ship reviews and tips.   

Quick links

Cruise Radio, LLC © Copyright 2009-2024 | Website Designed By   Insider Perks, Inc

• United States

Best Outdoor Dining Restaurants in Cooper Island

5 restaurants available nearby, 1. sugarcane restaurant, 2. saba rock, 3. the clubhouse at bitter end yacht club, 4. nova restaurant at oil nut bay, 5. the buoy room at bitter end yacht club.

Explore OpenTable

• Cooper Island
• Oyster Pond
• Isla Verde / Carolina
• Hato Rey Norte
• Simpson Bay
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Saint Lucia
• Rio Grande / Loiza
• Dining Rewards
• Private Dining
• Reserve for Others
• Restaurants Near Me
• Delivery Near Me
• Restaurants Open Now
• OpenTable for iOS
• OpenTable for Android
• Affiliate Program
• OpenTable.jp
• OpenTable.de
• OpenTable.es
• OpenTable.ca
• OpenTable.hk
• OpenTable.ie
• OpenTable.sg
• OpenTable.nl
• OpenTable.com.mx
• OpenTable.co.uk
• OpenTable.com.au
• OpenTable.ae
• OpenTable.co.th
• OpenTable.it
• OpenTable.com.tw
• OpenTable.fr
• Restaurant reservation software
• Industry insights
• Hospitality resources
• Marketing resources
• Operation resources
• How to open a restaurant
• For restaurants
• For restaurant groups
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Cookies and Interest-Based Ads
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Cookie Preferences

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest and greatest in luxury, delivered to your inbox.

Recibe nuestros últimos artículos, eventos, promociones e invitaciones.

We are committed to respecting your privacy. Click here to view our Privacy Policy .

Estamos comprometidos a respetar tu privacidad. Lee nuestra Política de Privacidad para más información.

• Cruises, Trains
• Curated Trips
• Destinations
• HOTELS & RESORTS
• Local Attractions
• CHEFS & RESTAURANTS
• Food & Drink
• Gourmet & Organic
• Specialty Stores
• TIPS & RECIPES
• SPORTS & OUTDOORS
• Accessories, Parfums
• Designers, Boutiques
• Watches & Jewelry The best jewelry and watches in the world, with news about the latest collectible pieces and their stories.
• Personalities
• Philanthropy
• ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
• FURNITURE & DÉCOR
• Real Estate
• Smart Living
• Health & Fitness
• Personal Growth
• Spas & Retreats
• Events The best events of international high society, its guests, behind the scenes details and photos.
• Books & MOVIES
• FAIRS & EXHIBITS
• Performance Arts

Local Attractions / Travel

The best golf clubs in moscow: luxury, exclusivity, and entertainment.

By Walter Raymond

February 24, 2015

• The Best Golf Clubs in…

In Russia, the western concept of building architecturally beautiful golf courses filled with modern and luxurious amenities has found fertile ground. What was considered a frivolous pastime during the time of the Soviets has become the latest trend for the stylish set. These days, there are countless options around Moscow to practice golf, polo, ski, yachting, and other sports alongside 5-star hotels, luxurious country houses, and magnificent villas.

The game of golf is a sport that requires passion and expertise. It is also part of a culture that considers this pastime a synonym of social prestige and exclusivity. In recent years, the new Russian elite has turned to golf as a vehicle of integration in the era of globalization. Golf courses are also meeting and socializing spaces where Muscovite tycoons can relax and also seal business deals.

Golf Courses in Russia

The Moscow Country Club, Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club, Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club, and Zavidovo Golf Club, PGA National Russia are some of the most exclusive and elegant golf courses in Russia. Some of them have made it to the list of Top 15 golf clubs in the world, a source of great prestige for the country.

Moscow Country Club Moscow Country Club

The first 18-hole golf course built in Russia, Moscow Country Club, hosts the exclusive PGA European Tour. Located just eight miles from the city center, this luxurious facility was created by architect Robert Trent Jones Jr . The design takes advantage of a typical Russian birch and spruce forest to provide a natural environment of extraordinary beauty.

Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club

The Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club is 18 miles from the heart of Moscow, close to historical monuments from the 17th and 18th centuries. Designed by famed architects Paul and Dave Thomas , this 18-hole course is part of a complex that includes a yacht club, an equestrian center, and a health and wellness facility. Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club is Russia’s version of a classic country club with multiple attractions.

Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club

This park is among the best in Eastern Europe and was awarded the 2014 World Golf Award as the best golf course in Russia. Located 25 miles from Moscow, it is part of a vast complex featuring an 18-hole golf course, designed by Jack Nicklaus , a polo club and a mountain ski club with four tracks. The design combines classic Scottish, Alpine, and English features in a dreamy landscape.

Zavidovo Golf Club, PGA National Russia Zavidovo Golf Club, PGA National Russia

Less than 60 miles from Moscow, this golf course with a definite Scottish design is the only one in Russia recognized as a PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) from Britain and Ireland. Located in an ecologically pristine area on the banks of the Volga River, the Zavidovo Golf Club embodies the spirit and appearance of the legendary Scottish golf courses. Its many springs and streams, hills, forests, swamps and lakes justify its reputation as a very demanding circuit. Last year, it entered the exclusive club of the 15 best golf courses in the world.   ■

Related posts

Geneva is a magical place with its snowy alpine peaks, perfect sights, and on the shores of one o...

One of Europe's finest luxury hotels is located on the bank of the Maigue River in Limerick Count...

Enjoy amazing spa treatments at The Bahia del Duque Hotel nestled in the island paradise of Tener...

Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club

About novy bereg hotel yacht club.

• Resort Room Enjoy the many amenities of the resort
• Freebies This stay includes Wi-Fi for free

Photos of Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club

Latest deals for novy bereg hotel yacht club.

* Total includes estimated local taxes & fees payable on check out.

Prices are based on 1 night including GST, excluding local taxes and fees.

Amenities at Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club

Parking and transportation

Reviews of Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club

All reviews are collected from real users with a verified booking made with KAYAK or one of our trusted external partners.

Learn how KAYAK collects reviews.

What's nearby

• All-Russian Exhibition Centre 16.1 km
• Museum of Cosmonautics 17 km
• Monument to the Conquerors of Space 17 km
• Ostankino TV Tower 17.6 km
• Tchaikovsky Concert Hall 23.3 km
• Patriarch's Pond 23.9 km
• Bolshoi Theatre 24 km
• Moscow Zoo 24.2 km
• State Historical Museum 24.6 km
• GUM Shopping Centre 24.6 km
• Red Square 24.6 km
• Lenin's Mausoleum 24.7 km

When to book a room at Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club

Faqs when booking at novy bereg hotel yacht club, where is novy bereg hotel yacht club located.

Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club is located at Verhnyaya Pribrezhnaya 10, 25.9 km from the centre of Moscow. All-Russian Exhibition Centre is the closest landmark to Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club.

When is check-in time and check-out time at Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club?

Check-in time is 5:00 PM and check-out time is 3:00 PM at Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club.

Does Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club offer free Wi-Fi?

Yes, Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club offers free Wi-Fi.

How far is Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club from the airport?

Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club is 15.8 km from Moscow Sheremetyevo.

Does Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club have a pool?

Yes, Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club has a pool on-site.

How does KAYAK find such great Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club hotel deals?

KAYAK scours the web for all room deals available at Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club in Moscow and lets you compare them to find the best rate for your stay. Many different travel sites will offer discounts or deals at different times for rooms at Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club and KAYAK will provide you with prices from a huge range of travel sites. That means that you can always find a great deal for Novy Bereg Hotel Yacht Club.

Nearby hotels and places to stay

Most recommended, good to know.

Ferretti Yachts and Riva to attend Moscow Boat Show 2013

• Inspiration

Related News

Popular news this week, popular news this month, latest news.

• Yacht Charter & Superyacht News >

Written by Zuzana Bednarova

To be represented by Premium Yachts, Ferretti Yachts and Riva , two prestigious brands of the Ferretti Group, will be present at the Moscow International Boat Show 2013, displaying motor yacht Ferretti 530 as well as Riva Iseo yacht tender.

Luxury motor yacht Ferretti 530

Luxury yacht Ferretti 530 was very keen to undertake in collaboration once again with AYT – Advanced Yacht Technology, Ferretti Group Engineering Division and Studio Zuccon International Project . The compact dimensions, 16 meters long and almost 5 meters wide, allow the 530 yacht to deliver grand Italian luxury and cruising immersed in such comfort until now unheard of in a yacht of this size.

Ferretti 530 yacht boasts three revolutionary innovations: the full beam master cabin with chaise longue and two large open view windows that make it a real suite at sea level bathed in light, tones and the natural essences of teak. Moving the galley from the center to the aft section creates a unique open space that includes the saloon, galley, cocktail bar and the dining area, the cockpit area continues thanks to the tilting window. The roll bar free sky lounge and the spoiler allow the 530 a sporty appearance combined with elegantly formal lines.

Ferretti 530 Yacht - Interior

Riva , the iconic Ferretti Group brand, presented a new model at the historical Lake d’Iseo shipyards in July 2011. Featuring elegance and ease of transportation as its distinctive characteristics, Iseo superyacht tender , a 27 foot runabout, is destined to become a must-have for those who love cruising on both lakes and the sea, and, most importantly, design enthusiasts. It is also perfect for anyone wishing to enhance their yacht with an exclusive tender that will never go unnoticed.

Riva Iseo superyacht tender

Due to its ease of manoeuvrability and size, Iseo yacht tender is also ideal as a tender for large yachts. Innovative and elegant, it can also guarantee comfort in bad weather conditions. Besides the electrohydraulic bimini top, it was also designed with a waterproof, automobile-style soft top which protects those on board against water and the wind during cruising.

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "Ferretti Yachts and Riva to attend Moscow Boat Show 2013".

• Charity & Fund Raising
• CharterWorld News
• Classic Yachts
• Coronavirus
• Cruise Ship
• Ecological Yachts
• Expedition Yachts
• Expert Broker Advice
• Feature Superyachts
• Interior Design
• Legal & VAT Yacht Issues
• Luxury Catamarans
• Luxury Gulet
• Luxury Phinisi
• Luxury Trimarans
• Luxury Yacht Design
• Luxury Yachts
• Marinas & Harbours
• Marine Ecology
• Marine Electronics
• Marine Equipment
• Mega Yachts
• Modern Yachts
• Motor Yachts
• New Launch Yachts
• New To Charter
• Open Style Sports Yachts
• Private Jets
• Sailing Yachts
• Social Media
• Sports Yachts
• Superyacht Crew
• Superyacht Photographers
• Superyacht Products & Supplies
• Superyacht Refits
• Superyacht Reviews
• Superyachts
• Uncategorized
• Yacht Builders
• Yacht Charter
• Yacht Charter Destinations
• Yacht Charter Picks
• Yacht Charter Specials
• Yacht Delivered to Owner
• Yacht Designers
• Yacht Events & Boat Shows
• Yacht Fashion
• Yacht Industry News
• Yacht Photos
• Yacht Racing
• Yacht Racing & Regattas
• Yacht Safety Equipment
• Yacht Support Vessels
• Yacht Tenders
• Yacht Videos
• Yachting Associations
• Yachting Awards
• Yachting Business
• Yachts For Charter
• Yachts For Sale

Quick Enquiry

Superyacht news:.

Email Your Yachting News to: news @ charterworld.com

Ferretti Yachts

Ferretti Group announces its presence at Moscow Boat Show 2013

Ferretti Group attending Hong Kong Gold Coast Boat Show 2014

Ferretti Group Days 2013 to be marked by premiere of Ferretti 960 Yacht

Ferretti Group to deliver first Ferretti 960 superyacht and Riva 86 Domino yacht to Hong Kong by mid-December

Ferretti Custom Line Navetta 30 series motor yacht GINDUNGO hits water in Italy

50m luxury motor yacht BEL1 launched in Pisa by Rossinavi

Luxury yacht UNIQUE S is brand new to the charter market in the Western Mediterranean

44m superyacht EXTRA TIME new to charter around the Western Mediterranean

Baglietto announces the launch of 41m luxury yacht ASTERA

Another great special offer on board 36m motor yacht CALYPSO I

Superyacht KISMET – the 122m Lurssen motor yacht the charter market has been waiting for

37m luxury yacht LEGEND offering unparalleled comfort on charters in the Western Mediterranean

Discover our Top 10 brand new yachts available for charter worldwide this year

Florida charter yacht REAL SUMMERTIME offering 10% discount

Looking ahead to the 2024 MYBA Charter Show in Genoa

Discover summer in New England aboard a luxury charter yacht: Escape to this beautiful northeast corner of the USA

Westport announce the first hull of their 36m W117 range is nearing completion

Last minute yacht charter deals in the Bahamas

49m sailing yacht ANIMA MARIS is offering discounted rates for the remaining summer weeks in Croatia

Take advantage of the exceptional 15% discount by 44m charter yacht BLISS in Greece