Smurfies Latest Adventure

[Onelife]

Hi David, I could excuse one quick glance at your phone ‘in a dinning situation’ but irrespective of the age demographics anything more than this then I would be asking to move tables…or I would be required to move tables because having told the person that they are being bloody rude.

[Ray B]

On a cruise at dinner in the restaurant, is there ANY need to consult your phone. It can wait till after dinner or politely excuse yourself and take the call outside the resturant.
Nothing worse than having to listen someone else's call or persistent texting.

[Meg 50]

On a cruise at dinner in the restaurant, is there ANY need to consult your phone. ......

but you HAVE to photograph the food ( while it gets cold ( or melts!))

[Stephen]

No Meg, I can never understand why people do that and then post on social media what they are eating.

Who cares what they're eating.

[Meg 50]

No Meg, I can never understand why people do that and then post on social media what they are eating.

Who cares what they're eating.

exactly, I agree

[Ranchi]

On a cruise at dinner in the restaurant, is there ANY need to consult your phone. It can wait till after dinner or politely excuse yourself and take the call outside the resturant.
Nothing worse than having to listen someone else's call or persistent texting.

I’m afraid that I spent my last cruise consulting my phone. The table was so dark (& I didn’t have my specs) so I took a pic of the menu & zoomed in.
In general though, I agree with your statement.

[Ray B]

Ranchi, in a situation like that I don't think I would have a problem if you just mentioned it.
I was referring to normal use of a phone.
Having someone read it to you may help, but it's nice to peruse the menu and make your choice.

[oldbluefox]

No Meg, I can never understand why people do that and then post on social media what they are eating.

Who cares what they're eating.

I quite like seeing what the food is like especially if it's a cruise line I've never tried before or an outlet I have never used. Nice to know what's on offer.
Also nice to look back on your cruise and some of the wonderful food you have eaten.Dining is as much part of the holiday as the cruising is.

[david63]

Well almost over now - heading back to Southampton to disembark tomorrow morning (hopefully!)

Yesterday we had Cheryl Baker (of Bucks Fizz fame) onboard talking about her life (well just a small part of her life). This was much better than the sit down and be interviewed style as she was alone on stage and interspersed her talk with a few songs.

Tonight is Friday so will need to keep an eye out for any murders. Still no sign of Kate and Jack.

Will post some final thought when I get back home

[david63]

Well we got home yesterday - eventually!! Thanks Mr Lorry Driver who decided to overturn his truck on the M6 and closing it for most of the day (or at least the part of the day we were in the vicinity). Instead of four and a quarter hours to get home it took six and three-quarters

Disembarkation was interesting. MSC, in their wisdom, say that you can disembark from 07:30 so there ends up with a queue literally twice round the ship by 07:30 - but not to worry as we were in YC so we were escorted off the ship by our butler who ignored all the queues and too us to the front of the queue, into the baggage hall, loaded our luggage on a trolley, took it out to the car and loaded it in the car for us (after all it is part of the service that we had paid for)

[Stephen]

I’d have shouted out…’Oy there’s a queue here and your at the back of it’

[david63]

I’d have shouted out…’Oy there’s a queue here and your at the back of it’

... or you would have been going up and down the queue handing out compo forms

[Stephen]

I’d have shouted out…’Oy there’s a queue here and your at the back of it’

... or you would have been going up and down the queue handing out compo forms

You know me too well David

[Meg 50]

we have friends onboard Virtuosa at the moment - parents in their 40s, grandparents about 70s and 2 children 10 and 8ish.
Be interesting to hear what they say about it.
Daddy - the 40 something has already won MasterChef at sea - and they only sailed on Saturday!

[oldbluefox]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading Smurfy's adventures on MSC in Yacht Club. No chance whatsoever that we would follow in his footsteps but nevertheless it made for an interesting read. Many thanks.

It will be interesting to compare top end MSC with lower end Ambassador. I'll put on a review but as there will be no WiFi included you'll have to wait and be patient especially as I'm getting a cataract done soon after our return.

[Stephen]

Didn't even know you owned a cat Foxy. Hope the op goes well for it.

[oldbluefox]

My wife's not speaking to me cos I put ginger in the curry.

She loved that cat.
(You started it Stephen!)

[Onelife]

My wife's not speaking to me cos I put ginger in the curry.

She loved that cat.
(You started it Stephen!)

I think I ate one Saturday night

[Mervyn and Trish]

I think you backed one at the races.....

[Stephen]

My wife's not speaking to me cos I put ginger in the curry.

She loved that cat.
(You started it Stephen!)

[Onelife]

I think you backed one at the races.....

They run a lot faster than some of the donkeys Pompey backs

[david63]

Some final thoughts and comparisons (many of which will be subjective)

I am comparing P&O Britannia (suite), Sky Princess (suite) and QV (Queens Grill) with MSC Virtuosa Yacht Club). Comparing prices is somewhat difficult but MSC was £80pppn less that Cunard last year (possibly slightly more this year). P&O was three years ago and allowing for prices rises I would estimate that MSC is about 25% more expensive and Princess is probably about the same - this is based on total cost (cruise fare, onboard spend, travel etc.)

Surprisingly when I checked Virtuosa is only one metre longer overall than Britannia/Sky Princess but has a maximum capacity of 6.7k compared to 3.6k.

Ship
Virtuosa is a typical American style ship with lots of "shiny" surfaces but is, in my opinion, one of the better laid out ships. All the shops, speciality restaurants and entertainment venues are around the two deck (6&7) Gallery with reception on deck 5. The upper decks (15, 16, 18 and 19) have the outdoor facilities and main buffet.

Apart from embarkation day the ship never felt crowded - although there were a lot occupying the sun beds (many just towel).

There is then the "ship within a ship" Yacht Club which is a totally self contained area (card access required) at the front of the ship on decks 14 - 19 containing accommodation, restaurant, lounge, sun deck with pool, bar and grill and its own concierge (mini reception). One of the things that we were impressed with in the YC was how we were made to feel special - far more so that in QG on Cunard with a butler escorting us around the ship.

Overall the ship was probably one of the cleanest that I have been on, not a sign of dust anywhere and very rarely did you see anyone cleaning the public areas.

Suite
The accommodation that we had was called a suite but was more akin to a balcony cabin on most other ships - although it was considerably larger meaning that we were not walking into each other! The MSC YC suite was certainly no smaller than some suites that we have had on other ships.

Food & Drink
The food in the YC was only surpassed by that of QG on Cunard but in its own style was as good (the daily fresh pasta was some of the best that I have had). Fillet steak was available every day. Yes there were some meals that were not as good as others, but applies on all ships.

The included drinks package meant that whilst in the YC there was no limit, or checking, on the amount we could have and at meal times your wine glass was just topped up as required.

Crew
This was one of the happiest and helpful crews that I have encountered - they all (well nearly all) smiled and nothing was too much trouble - you could ask any waiter in the restaurant for anything, even if that waiter was not serving your table.

Dress Code
Now here is one of the downsides - there effectively is no dress code and what little there is is not enforced.

Many were dressed at night in what could be described as Mediterranean beach resort wear to others with jacket and tie (I had jacket but no tie). Overall the women were better dressed than the men. There were two formal nights on the cruise and what surprised us, based on previous nights, was the number that were appropriately dressed - something around 75%. Then there was the famous MSC "White Night" where everybody wears white. OK we thought there may be a few but lo and behold 95% were in all white!

The bottom line here is that it did not matter and nobody bothered about what anyone else was wearing.

Excursions
Having been to all the ports on the itinerary we had done most of what was on offer, which was not very much, so we did not partake of any - and they were expensive.

Downsides
The number one downside was the chaotic safety drill which upon having just boarded the ship and tired from the travelling and trying to find our way about did not start off giving us a good impression.

The other downside that we encountered was the number of children onboard as it was the start of the school holidays. There was no major problems with the behaviour of the children that we were aware of but the take up space. It was explained to us that there are the same number of cabins but the cabins have more occupants resulting in there being more passengers in restaurants, theatres, on shuttle buses, taking up sun beds etc. The only way that we were affected was with getting a table at dinner where if the restaurant was full you were given a pager. After a couple of nights I assessed how long we would be before wanting to dine and just popped upstairs asked for a pager for a table in 20 minutes - it worked all the time.

Conclusion
We enjoyed the MSC YC experience, possibly because it was so different from any other cruises that we have had recently.

Would we cruise MSC again? Definitely - if the itinerary and price were right and we were in YC and it wasn't during school holidays.

Overall I would rate MSC YC almost as highly as Cunard QG - Cunard have the edge on food and talks. MSC have the edge on service, and price.

If I have missed anything - just ask.

[Onelife]

Hi David, thanks for this very informative review. I’m sure it will serve as a good starting point for anyone wishing to try MSC.

[Ray B]

Nice one David,the important thing is YOU enjoyed it. May be a lot different going by your report if you were on the other side.
If you cruise during the school holidays then you should expect a lot of children, we will be cruising before they go back to school ,so not to bothered if only they don't hog the pools.
Anyhow, nice to have you back alive.

[Stephen]

We always try and avoid school holidays when booking a holiday, be that a cruise or land based. You’ll never avoid them completely but it reduces the number of noisy ankle biters about.

Thanks for the reviews and final report David. I’m still on the fence with MSC.