MSC’s Yacht Club: Cruising With a Purpose
Cruising is the single greatest traveling experience anyone can have. There is no greater feeling than being surrounded by water and feeling free from the stresses of everyday life. Cruising in MSC’s Yacht Club is a cruising experience no one can top.
The European style cruising experience coupled with being treated on an up close and personal level makes every MSC cruiser feel like being on top of the world. From embarkation, to ports of call, to disembarkation, the Yacht Club atmosphere is top notch. Further, it’s an experience well worth every written postcard.
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Every MSC Yacht Club experience begins on a high note. The adventure begins on sailing day. Guests check in their luggage in designated curbside area. Having dropped off their luggage with the longshoremen, guests are escorted inside the terminal. Guests are then escorted through the terminal security checkpoint. Next, they’re escorted to the private boarding lounge. In the private boarding lounge, guests are treated to special treats including chocolate chip cookeies, complimentary mimosas, and champagne. Using remote tablets, the shore staff checks each of the guests in. Once successfully checked in, guests are issued their special stateroom key cards. The key card has the official ship information on one side with the Yacht Club logo on the other. Yacht Club guests are also issued complimentary wrist bands. The wrist bands are dual function, for opening their stateroom doors and making purchases. The top notch treatment in the boarding lounge already has guests feeling as if they have the world at their fingertips.
After much anticipation, the boarding process commences. Yacht Club guests are the first to board the ship. As always, guests are instructed to keep their stateroom key cards for the ship security staff. Upon entry to the ship, their key cards are scanned. Next, guests are escorted to the MSC Yacht Club lounge. The Yacht Club lounge is an experience like no other. Until the staterooms are ready for occupancy, guests are entertained and treated to special appetizers. Not only are guests treated to special appetizers, they’re also treated to complimentary drinks. No matter what the drink on the menu, it’s free. It is a vacation starting off not just on the right note, but on a high note. Next, guests are then escorted to the Yacht Club restaurant for a private luncheon. Just like in a cruise ship’s main dining room, the menu varies night to night. In the Yacht Club, it’s an up close and personal experience. If a guest has specific likes and dislikes regarding entrees, the head waiter and the staff will do everything in their power to make sure its prepared in the very way requested. In the Yacht Club restaurant, dining is an experience without skipping a beat. Further, in MSC’s Yacht Club, there is no set dining time (i.e. early and late) as opposed to the main dining room. Yacht Club guests are free to dine at their leisure.
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Soon enough, the moment of truth arrives. The staterooms are ready for occupancy. Guests are shown to their staterooms. Upon entry to their staterooms, guests are greeted by their butler. With every butler is accompanied by a stateroom attendant. The stateroom experience particularly is where guests wish they don’t ever want to go home. A Yacht Club stateroom is well beyond a “home away from home”. It’s a Pacific Ocean home in Malibu and a Newport, RI mansion rolled into one. Who can’t live without a mini fridge? When it comes to the mini fridge, everything inside is complimentary. Should guests need the alcohol, the sparkling water, or fruit juices restocked, the butler makes it happen. Should guests want more or less of certain items, the butler too makes it happen. If a guest likes one type of beer, the butler makes sure it’s well stocked each and every day. An MSC cruise can’t start any better than that. Each guest gets a Yacht Club bathrobe and a set of bath slippers. Should a guest request a certain size, the butler will make it happen. Each and every ‘I’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed. Not one single detail is missed. The Yacht Club is the Concorde on water.
Dining in MSC’s Yacht Club is a treatment to be spoken highly of. As previously mentioned, there is no assigned dining time. Guests have a preference of when they wish to eat. Upon entry into the Yacht Club restaurant, guests are asked if they have any food allergies, should the executive chef needs to make any accommodations. Guests are welcome to request any dish they wish to have on any day, particularly the risotto. Aside from featured dishes, optional dishes are available. The dessert selections each night are absolutely sinful. From freshly made sorbets, to Grandma’s Chocolate Cake, to Tiramisu, each dessert is made is with pure 100% attention to detail. Unlike the main dining room, the Yacht Club dining experience is the “Wow” and ‘x’ factors combined. Breakfast and lunch in the Yacht Club is an experience all on to themselves. MSC’s Yacht Club features a private breakfast and lunch buffet.
Breakfast is served until 11 am, with the lunch buffet being set up shortly thereafter. Just like in the dining experience, guests are treated to complimentary specialty coffees, along with complimentary breakfast drinks including mimosas. Should guests want their omelets cooked a specific way, the cooks are sure to make note of it. If guests request to see more grilled shrimp than other items on the lunch buffet, the chef will make it happen. Yacht Club breakfast and lunch is an experience with a magic touch. With just a wave of a wand and everything is made just right.
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MSC goes to great lengths to make guests feel they are treated like royalty. In MSC’s Yacht Club, guests have their own private pool area. Yacht Club guests have their own private pool known as the One Pool. Undoubtedly, MSC guests are treated as if they are #1. Yacht Club guests have their own private saltwater pool and Jacuzzi. On top of that, the bar staff is always present offering to take a drink order. No matter what time of day, the One Pool is as pleasant of a social area as anyone’s rec room. In addition, Yacht Club guests are provided special pool towels with the official Yacht Club logo. At best, the cooler of lemon water is always kept replenished.
What is an MSC cruise without stopping at its private island port-of-call Ocean Cay? When stepping off the vessel, all guests must have their stateroom key cards in hand to be scanned by the ship’s security staff. Of course, Yacht Club guests are treated one step above all the rest. With their key cards scanned, Yacht Club guests are escorted to a private waiting area for their special tram. The tram takes them to their private eating area. At Ocean Cay, Yacht Club guests are treated to their own private restaurant called the Ocean House. Again, drinks are complimentary. Guests are welcome to order anything on the menu as they wish. No matter what they wish to do at Ocean Cay, Yacht Club guests are treated with #1 priority. Upon their return to the ship, Yacht Club guests are escorted back on board the ship. What better treatment could a cruiser get anywhere else? No matter where guests go, it’s having the “Welcome” mat laid out each and every step of the way.
An MSC cruise vacation is a cruising experience like no other. It’s a vacationing experience with an exclamation point. MSC’s Yacht Club is beyond the exclamation point. It’s what they calle “a ship within a ship”. Above that, the Yacht Club is a cruise vacation with italics, quotation marks, and tildes combined. It is a vacation with an attention to detail which no cruiser can put to words. From a private lounge in the terminal, to an escorted boarding, to up close and personal dining, to a specifically detailed stateroom experience, Yacht Club guests are the VIPs of all VIPs. From the moment Yacht Club guests step into the One Pool, their private breakfast and lunch buffet, to having an escort at ports-of-call, to the Ocean House at Ocean Cay, Yacht Club guests get the above and beyond the special treatment. It is a cruising experience well worth writing home about. It is a picture-perfect written postcard worth receiving in one’s mailbox. Ultimately, MSC’s Yacht Club is the perfect cruise experience with the perfect setting set to the perfect music set to the perfect pitch. It is a well-coveted dream vacation with a high expectations exceeded on all parameters. No matter what the itinerary, the Yacht Club is never-ending ‘welcome’ for all valued cruisers wherever its ship may sail.
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