Cabin Review

Our suite: Y1: Yacht Club Deluxe Suite 15030

This is one of the 4 larger Penthouse style suites on deck 15. It has a large walk-in closet with safe, marble bathroom with tub/shower combination and large bedroom area with a comfortable sofa, chair, and table, writing desk/makeup area and a large balcony with 2 chairs and an ottoman. We found it to be an ideal size for 2.

The negatives:

1. The worst thing about this suite (which honestly is not all that bad) was that there was no separate tub and shower, but a tub shower combination in a configuration that reminded me of the Golden Princess mini-suite's bathroom. While I'm certain this is luxurious by European standards, by American standards, this bathroom is just too small for a suite. I think it is hard for Europeans to realize how much larger American bathrooms are so I would suggest MSC look at the suite bathrooms on NCL's newest ships (Getaway, Breakaway, Escape) to get an idea of what normal expectations are for a suite bathroom. My husband and I also noticed that the bottom of the bathtub is quite slippery. In future ship designs, I suggest that MSC increase the size of the bathroom for all suites and add a large, walk-in shower with sliding glass doors instead of the single half wall of glass towards the shower part of the tub (hard for my husband to use without getting water all over the bathroom) or alternatively, remove the tub and just make the space a walk in shower with sliding glass doors. In addition, the suite bathroom should always include 2 sinks and more storage for passenger's items. The fixtures were luxurious and high quality. Honestly, I hate to complain about the suite bathroom at all because all the other amenities were so great, however, to be fair to all other cruise lines, the bathroom design is where MSC is the most lacking in suite accommodations. One puzzling thing about the bathroom. There was an ashtray installed on the wall next to the toilet on a ship that is almost completely non-smoking except for the cigar lounge and somewhere out on deck that I never ran across. Yes, that's right - there is NO SMOKING in the casino either!

2. Underpowered hair dryer, very slow to dry my hair, which usually I can dry it in under 10 minutes, but here, 20 minutes was the norm.

3. The beds were not joined with a foam insert to smooth the gap, so we tended to roll into the crack between the beds while sleeping.

4. Not enough plugs for technology. There were 2 110 volt plugs located on the desk/makeup area. We had with us 2 computers, 2 iPads and 2 cellphones, and 1 digital camera so having some USB plugs by the bedside table would have been appreciated.

5. Slamming door - I think maybe it was on 14? But we could hear a door slamming often starting around 7am - 9am. I suspect it was a door to a crew area. Perhaps something could be done to make this door more quiet. Other than that our cabin was very quiet.

The positives:

The positives far outweigh the negatives, IMO. The room is large and beautifully decorated in appealing shades of brown, taupe and cream with a touch of red in the marble in the bathroom. The bed is comfortable, neither too hard nor too soft. The sofa is very comfortable (hard to find in a sleeper sofa). The blackout drapes actually blackout - which is not the norm on most ships. There is a nice flatscreen TV. Mirrors are effectively placed to make the room look larger. The balcony is wide. The sliding glass door was nice. There was a mini bar with all complimentary items including bottled still and sparkling water, soda pop and alcohol. MSC provided shampoo, conditioner, bath gel and lotion in individual bottles in the bathroom. The ONLY touch missing from our other cruises in suites was a fresh flower arrangement.