Ever wondered whether upgrading to a cruise suite is truly worth it? In this episode of Luxury Cruising, Dr. Krystal Sodaitis welcomes experienced cruiser Genna to share her firsthand experience sailing in the luxurious MSC Euribia Yacht Club Duplex Suite through Northern Europe. From butler service and private Yacht Club amenities to booking strategies and insider tips, discover what makes this premium cruise experience unforgettable.
Is booking a luxury cruise suite really worth the extra cost, or is it simply a bigger cabin?
In this episode of Luxury Cruising, host Dr. Krystal Sodaitis sits down with experienced cruiser Genna to explore her unforgettable voyage aboard the MSC Euribia in one of the ship's most exclusive accommodations: the two-story Yacht Club Duplex Suite. Sailing through the breathtaking fjords and ports of Northern Europe, Genna shares why this suite, with its private balcony Jacuzzi, two full bathrooms, panoramic forward-facing windows, and dedicated butler service, completely elevated the cruising experience.
The conversation also dives into the unique advantages of MSC's Yacht Club experience, including private restaurants, dedicated lounges, personalized concierge and butler services, premium excursions, priority embarkation, drink packages, and exclusive dining options. Genna compares MSC's luxury offering with Royal Caribbean's suite program, highlighting where each cruise line excels depending on a traveler's priorities and budget.
Listeners will also hear practical advice for planning European shore excursions, balancing independent exploration with cruise-sponsored experiences, maximizing cruise loyalty programs, and deciding when paying for a suite truly delivers exceptional value. Whether you're planning your first luxury cruise or searching for your next unforgettable voyage, this episode offers practical guidance for creating a premium cruising experience without unnecessary expense.
Episode Highlights:
About the Guest:
Genna is a seasoned cruise enthusiast who enjoys independently researching, planning, and booking cruises around the world. Having sailed on numerous cruise lines, she specializes in maximizing value through thoughtful planning, loyalty benefits, and premium accommodations. In this episode, she shares her firsthand experience sailing aboard the MSC Euribia Yacht Club Duplex Suite, offering practical advice on booking luxury suites, comparing cruise lines, planning European itineraries, and making informed decisions that elevate every voyage.
About the Host:
Dr. Krystal Sodaitis is a pediatrician, executive, and life coach for neurodiverse physicians—and the passionate host behind Luxury Cruising. She brings expert insight and honest excitement to every interview, helping curious travelers elevate their adventures at sea.
📍 Website: luxurycruising.net
📧 Email: luxurycruisingpodcast@gmail.com
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/krystalsodaitis
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to Luxury Cruising. I'm your host, Crystal Sarditis, and I've got a real treat for everybody today. Jenna is here, and she is going to tell us about the most amazing suite in the MSC Yacht Club on what people know is one of my favorite itineraries, Northern Europe. Jenna, please tell the audience anything you would like them to know about you.
Hi, everyone. I'm Jenna. I've cruised, many times, fortunately. and this trip we were able and fortunate enough to go on the MSC Euribia on a two-story duplex suite in the Yacht Club, which was amazing, and it was our first time in that type of room. so I'd love to tell you about that. and then we'll talk about anything else that you wanna discuss.
awesome. So take us back to the decision-making process. What made you decide on this ship, this room, this itinerary,
Great [00:01:00] question. So I am one of those what I call, like, a do-it-yourself, plan my own vacation, especially when it comes to cruising. I've cruised many times, and so I like to, look for cruises constantly.
One of the things I do and one of the things I tell people is so that you don't get overwhelmed, 'cause it's really overwhelming, all of the cruises, is to just pick your date. Pick the weekend or the week you're gonna go away. Find that time, and then when you start searching, really narrow down.
Only look at those dates. Because if you look at everything and beyond your dates, you'll just be confused, and those won't even be available to you anyway. So find your dates, and then go on one of those broad sites. I'm not linked to any of them, so I'm not, beholden to any of them. But go to one of those broad sites that's gonna search all the cruises, and put in your month, and then start, again, [00:02:00] narrowing down on those dates.
And you may start searching regions. I wanna look up Alaska, I wanna look up Europe, I wanna look at regions of Europe. Obviously, the Caribbean's a big one, and then you've got Western, Eastern, and Southern Caribbean. So start looking at different regions, and maybe you have a region in mind you wanna do, like I just went to Europe.
You wanna go to a region in Europe, so you start narrowing that down within your dates. And then what I like to do is, again, start looking up all the cruise lines at once, and I narrow it in further and further until I find what I think I might want. And the more you cruise, the more, of course, you're gonna be familiar with that cruise line or their ships.
But you may not be familiar with all of them because they're constantly making new ships, so you may not know. So a couple things I like to do is once I narrow it down to what I think might be my cruise, a key factor, especially if you're looking for some of these premium rooms, is [00:03:00] you wanna put your data in and see if those rooms are even available.
Because if you get really excited about a cruise and that room's not available, then move on, okay? You're gonna look for a different ship in the timeframe that you're looking for. So that's the process I start with. I go, "Where do I wanna go, and when do I wanna go?" And then I narrow it in from there.
And then I start looking for those rooms that I'm really excited about. Maybe it's a room type I haven't tried before. Maybe it's a ship type I haven't tried before. So in this case, I was able to narrow that down I'd find the MSC Euribia, had a duplex, a two-level, a Yacht Club suite. one of the benefits to that, it's one of the few rooms...
MSC, I find, does not prioritize your room size, so their rooms tend to be, compared to some other lines, a little bit smaller. And in this case, I had four people in the room, so it was nice to have more space. But it also is one of the few [00:04:00] rooms in MSC that has two bathrooms. It had a full bathroom upstairs and downstairs, which was really nice, especially again, when you have more people in your room.
we were able to sleep two people downstairs, plenty of room for your things, a bathroom, and then another bed upstairs with a full bathroom. And then you had those two-story views with those big windows, looking in the front of the ship, which was really wonderful. And one of the nicest features of the ship, which again is very unusual, is you had a Jacuzzi on your balcony, which was really great.
You don't get that a lot, and not all the cruise lines do that. so even though there were Jacuzzis for Yacht Club, like there was one Jacuzzi on the Yacht Club deck, there are Jacuzzis on the ship, this one you could just sit in yourself, and it was really, really wonderful.
That sounds great. Yeah, I wanna get into the details of the room-
Mm-hmm
in just one [00:05:00] second. But- Yeah ... before I do, just diving in a little deeper about the process, and I know there's one particular of these sort of larger websites that- they just have all of the inventory across- ... all ships, and you can narrow it down
pretty tightly to the specific- ... dates that you wanna travel- ... the region you wanna travel, cruise lines to consider, cruise lines not to consider. Like when I'm using it, and I'm in there too all the time, I'm just playing around to see- Mm-hmm ... what's available and-
Mm-hmm
you know, I'm usually traveling with my kids, so I don't wanna see Virgin. I don't wanna-
Right ...
see Viking. Like that's not gonna help me.
Correct.
You can even sort by like cheapest available, suites available, when there's a suite available. So, I love those kinds of sites.
Now, after you go on that site-
...
do you book it through that site, or do you then go to the, MSC site and book?
Great question. So a whole combination, and I've booked through many places.
so again, my loyalty is not to the one [00:06:00] cruise line or the one booking site. I like to find what the best thing is for that trip. So a couple more things. When I'm narrowing it down, so I went over what I did for this trip, but when I'm narrowing it down and I'm not really familiar with that room category, I'll keep that site open that I'm looking at all the cruises, and then I open a couple more.
There's the one that's really gonna give you details on the ships. The cruise lines- it's getting harder and harder to find when the ship was built, when it was refurbished. So there are those sites that really dive into that cruise line, the-- really dive into that ship in particular. So you can search for that, get all the details on the ship.
Is it good for families? What are the pros? What are the cons? What are people's reviews? How many people are sailing on that ship when it's full? So I'll do that, especially when I'm not familiar. And then the other really good thing I love to do is I love to go to a site like a YouTube. Someone has videoed your room or a similar room, I promise you.
And you're gonna go to that site, [00:07:00] you're gonna type in the name of your ship, and you can type in "suite area," "full tour of ship," "on MSC Yacht Club area." And then you can, search for the type of room you're looking for, and someone will literally walk you through the room. And so you can see, is this gonna work for me?
Am I gonna like this? Is this big enough? Does it have what I want? Versus the teeny-tiny picture that they tend to give you on the cruise sites. So after I've done that and I've think, "Okay, this is really it," to book it, what I like to do is I'll look at those larger sites because they're all travel agents, obviously, and there's pros and cons.
So the travel agent, if you have changes, you're gonna have to call back to that site and always go through that travel agent. That's not necessarily a bad thing. They've helped me very much, with trips. And then if you book it through the cruise line, you're gonna call the cruise line, and they'll talk to you about changes.
But [00:08:00] the cruise line is usually gonna give you some levels of discounts. And then those separate sites, whether it's your Costco, your American Express, your cruising sites, they like to give you the discount the cruise line gives you, plus something extra. Maybe they're gonna cover the gratuities. Maybe they're gonna give you a shipboard credit.
Maybe Costco will give you a Costco card. So when it comes to MSC, that's an exception. I find that these sites don't give you a lot of extra bonuses. MSC tends to have a pretty good value already. So if they're not gonna give me extras, often I will book direct through the cruise line, because again, I don't need that third party.
I can go direct. But if they're gonna give me a lot of extras and give me value, then it may be worth using those travel agent third-party sites.
Yeah, Those are really, really good tips. So tell me about the MSC Euriboa. Mm-hmm. what is the [00:09:00] age of the ship, the layout?
What makes it unique?
So I believe it's part of the, if I say it right, the Meraviglia class, so it's not their newest of ships. You can usually tell, especially when you've cruised a lot, when ships are refurbished or redone. So they have redone it in their style of not their newest ship, their newest line is the Worlds line, the World America, World Asia.
They're coming out with that line. but they've done it in the style more like, the Seashore, the Seaview, if you're familiar with those MSC ships, where what I really like is the whole yacht club experience. So when you're going for that suite-level cruise and you want that great service, which I find MSC does a really excellent job with, it's all in the front of the ship.
It's a ship within a ship kind of experience. So what you'll have is you'll have a floor with a lounge. You'll have a floor above that with your [00:10:00] restaurant just for yacht club, and what you can't see from there is you'll have a floor above that with a pool, a jacuzzi, an outside deck, and more food upstairs, more like outdoor buffet style, and they'll even make you things that you don't even see up there all for the yacht club.
So they have redone this ship in the style of those Seashore, Seaview, whereas if you go on one of their older ships, like the Divina, which I've been on as well, and I loved the Divina, but it didn't have that layout. And you can tell they retrofitted the yacht club restaurant so it's at the back of the ship.
So it's not quite as the same experience where everything is together in the front, which I find really nice.
this may be like a super cruise nerd level of detail, but it sounds also like the rooms are physically vertically separated from the common areas, [00:11:00] so you don't have to worry that you're gonna be right below the pool deck and people are gonna be like-- or below the restaurant, and you're gonna be hearing like noise and footsteps and pounding, at all hours.
So I can tell you, I mean, I have read some reviews on some of the cruises you mentioned, like a Virgin-type ship where there might be, bigger, louder parties and so you might be bothered by noise. I have found on some of these, most of the ships I've been on, that not only has not been a bother, but I more hear sort of the lulling of the engine and it just puts me right to sleep, which is great.
so no, I have not been bothered by noise. I can tell you on the Euribia, and again, the retrofitting portion, so the duplex suite I was in, I think there were maybe six or so of them on the ship, maybe eight. They are not in the yacht club proper. So they are also in the front of the ship because you get those front-facing views.
But what you do when you come out of your room is you'll [00:12:00] walk down the hall just a short way, you'll take the elevator, and you'll get to the yacht club area. Whereas in their newer ships, the World ships, I noticed those have all been placed inside the yacht club proper area. So yeah, you're even more enclosed and always in that area.
Fabulous. Okay, so now do tell us about the room, the decor. You told us in general the sort of like layout, but what was, like I said, like what was the decor like? were there any specific amenities that came with the room?
Okay. So I would say, on many of the MSC ships, if you've been on them, you'll see the Swarovski crystals inside the staircases, and they had all of that as well.
Inside the room it was more of a gray, off-white kind of color scheme and artwork on the walls. I would say the whole ship, other than the crystals, I would say it was decorated but not [00:13:00] overly decorated. We're not talking like French Renaissance type of ordainess. Maybe a little, pared down from there.
But I found it, you know, clean and very, very nice. One of the things I like about the MSC suite experience, and also I've cruised actually on a lot of lines, so there are many I've taken, which is makes it nice to compare. But Royal Caribbean, for example, with your family, is also a fantastic line. But you may have realized that if you've been on them a lot, that Royal used to have a butler with your suite, and I believe it was around COVID that disappeared.
So they don't have that anymore. Well, MSC still does that, so you not only have your room steward and your, yacht club concierge desk, so you don't have to go down to the main desk, but you also have a personal butler for your room, which it just takes it over the top. Instead of going to the main desk or even the concierge desk, which is so easy, [00:14:00] you have your butler who, you know, if you want them to meet you each night and walk you to dinner, they'll do that.
If you want anything booked, they'll do that. And they'll get back to you. they really spoil you, which I find just, you know, when you're wanting to get away, you're spending a lot of money on these trips, it's really nice. It's really wonderful.
Yeah. And on Royal, so on their highest suite class, which is Star Class, they still have- Yes
the Genies.
Yes.
Which it sounds like- And
you get the wristbands as well ...
crossed over a lot. Yes.
Yes.
Yes. But yeah, they don't have any kind of a butler when maybe at one point they did when you were in Star Class, they had butlers and- I
was never in Star Class. So I usually am in Sky Class on Royal, and I haven't wanted to splurge for the Star Class as of yet, and I don't know that I will anytime soon.
Sometimes I bid up for the room, but usually they're full anyway, so you know, But yes, I have noticed that they have the wristbands on Royal Star Class, and so MSC gives you those as well in the Yacht [00:15:00] Club. But yeah, they took the butler service away, and they do have the Genie on Royal, but that's really just in their very highest end suites.
In the Sky Class on Royal, you're still getting if you have a ship that has the restaurant, you're still getting breakfast, lunch, dinner in the restaurant, but you're not getting the band, you're not getting the butler
I mean, I think you're also not getting a drink package.
Correct ... Wi-Fi. Correct. is that included
yep. So on Royal, I'm really selective about my ships, okay? You're right. it is much harder to get a drink package on Royal included, and until you get to the diamond level on Royal and they start giving you drinks every day, which is also wonderful by the way, you don't, mostly don't need a drink package unless you're gonna drink more than, four drinks every single day.
if you're gonna drink a lot more than that, they consider the package still. But once you get to diamond, but it takes time to get to diamond, so if you're gonna buy a suite and you're not at the diamond level yet, it's gonna be expensive to [00:16:00] get that drink package on Royal. And on MSC, the yacht club rooms all come with the drink package, all the yacht club rooms.
So you're gonna get that. You're gonna get the butler, you're gonna get the wristband, you're gonna get that restaurant included. Whereas on Royal, again, I'm very selective about my ships. I'm talking about the Oasis class or newer. If you're on the Freedom class or earlier, you're not gonna have the restaurant.
You're gonna go probably to Chops Grille, the steakhouse, for breakfast, but you're gonna be in the regular dining room for dinner. And that may work if you're with a big family and most of them don't want to do a suite. We've done that as well, and you feel like, "Well, I'm gonna spend all this extra money and wanna eat with my family."
That may work, but if you're all gonna be in suites, then it's really nice to have that restaurant. It's like having your own specialty restaurant, and it really is wonderful.
Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. And I agree with you. It's [00:17:00] funny, we have Our New Year's Eve cruises on Mariner of the Seas-
and we have connecting staterooms.
And I have my husband and I in a junior suite, and I rarely anymore will do junior suites with my kids, only because they don't eat at Coastal Kitchen. And I'm like, "Well, that's sort of one of the biggest benefits.
And so there's no Coastal Kitchen on Mariner- Right
so I'm like, "Yep- Right ... I'm gonna go for my junior suite." They're connecting in a regular balcony, and I don't have to worry about losing out on my suite restaurant.
Correct. and I've done the same we've gone everything from two of us, my husband and I cruising together, all the way to 30-some people, and it's hard to get 30-some people on the same page to all spring for the suite level.
They might not cruise a lot, and they may not wanna do that. So I agree that you may wanna say, "On this one I'm going to do, you know, choose a little bit differently," because you're gonna wanna be with them, versus if you're all in the suite level, you may wanna splurge a little more and really take advantage and be on a ship that has those perks.
[00:18:00] Yeah, Exactly. Well, getting back to- Mm-hmm ... MSC. Mm-hmm. Um, tell us about the food on the Yoruba. This is a little bit of an older class of ship- mm-hmm ... than their newest class. So- how was the food in Yacht Club, and did you participate or partake in any specialty restaurants?
So we did get to do a specialty restaurant this time. I will give you an insider tip there. If you do reach their Diamond level, you do get a specialty restaurant. Um, so that was very nice. and a little bit Interesting, I'll call it. So Royal, we all have the same class, but on MSC, at least what they used to do is when you'd book the cruise, you would get points, and then you would get points for your spending on the ship.
So in this case, I had reached the Diamond level, but my husband had not. But fortunately, you get a specialty restaurant and you can take someone with you. So that still worked out anyway. If we were both Diamond, for instance, you could either take your kids, you [00:19:00] could take another couple with you.
So that was really nice.They had hibachi, but I find the hibachi on the cruise, whereas it's very entertaining, it may be end up a little overcooked, let's say, which can happen with hibachis, especially when they're not really amazing at them. So we went to the sushi instead, and it was such a large meal.
There was no way we could even consume all of the food, and it was really wonderful. So that was great. We could have gone to the steakhouse as well, but we found that we can go to those and we wanted more of an experience. And so, the sushi was really nice, so we were able to do that. And then I always say that having a suite restaurant is really like having your own specialty restaurant on the ship.
So I don't tend to do a ton. Again, if you don't have a suite restaurant, if you're on a smaller, older ship and you've paid a little less for that room, it may be worth it to you to book those specialty restaurants ahead of time and really do [00:20:00] that as far ahead as you can, because one of the downsides with Royal is if you don't book everything by the day you enter the ship, they're gone.
The reservations are over. So if you are not a pre-planner and you wanna do things as you go, you're probably gonna get locked out of those, so just be aware of that. But again, if you don't wanna be in the main dining room and maybe you paid a little less, go to the specialty restaurants and the food will be elevated.
But back to the MSC, the Arabia. I found the food on many actually very good. You know, we were not disappointed. I don't know that I would say I was blown away by the food, but I wasn't disappointed by the food. And then there are things that you may not even realize. You can go up to that restaurant on the pool deck, and if you don't like what's up there, you can ask them for more things.
You could say, "Can I get this? Can I get that?" And if they can accommodate you, they absolutely will. so just don't limit yourself to necessarily what's there. Ask questions and they will, get you whatever they [00:21:00] can if they can. So that's a nice thing if you've never even thought to do that, to just ask.
It can't hurt to ask. And because you have that drink package they were bringing us bottles of champagne, which was wonderful, but it's all included too in your cruise, so it was hard to even drink as much as they had. I'll tell you another downside of MSC compared to Royal particularly on the ship.
If you want Every single specialty drink under the sun. You're away, you want every kind of margarita, every kind of daiquiri, that was not the ship for you. They just don't have them. They don't feature them. They don't have blenders and make every kind of ship. It's more of a menu with drinks that they have.
so Royal's gonna do a better job for you on that on types of drinks. and like I said, even if you get a drink package or you're in a suite or you get drinks with a diamond package, they just have more variety. So it just depends what you're looking for. But if you're wanting champagne or [00:22:00] prosecco or, very straightforward drinks, they have all of those.
Yeah. That's really good to know. It's just like, straightforward, give me like a regular mixed drink. I don't need- Yeah ... something fancy. Like, Royal has every specialty bar has its own specialty menu with- Yes ... your smoky whatever, whatever- Right. ... old fashioned, whatever it is, bubble drink.
Yes.
that leads me to my next question, which is standouts around service. You mentioned a little bit about the butler- Mm-hmm ... but being in the Yacht Club, did you notice anything else, um, in particular about the service?
So the butler, like I said, was wonderful, and because I tend to be so type A in planning I would say we could have probably utilized the staff for so much more than we did, but we've cruised many times and we're used to doing things and, uh, sometimes I almost feel bad being spoiled so much.
They spoil you so much. It is nice to even just ask them, what they do, what they can help you with, because you might be amazed and you wouldn't have even [00:23:00] have thought of what they do. On top of that, even our room steward, we've had a whole range of ones that really go over the top and ones that are just, do what they need to do.
But, you know, it's been maybe my daughter's birthday and I brought some decorations and we came back to the room and the room steward went and took it upon himself to just totally decorate the room, which was really nice. And in this case, I have a son and I have a daughter, and they are of teenage years.
So getting enough space on the ship, like I was mentioning, is kind of key for us so that we can have those spaces for both of them as well. And because they are a girl and a boy, when they were young, that was pretty easy. They could both be in the sofa bed, right? But as they get older, it's harder. MSC has not the biggest rooms,
And many of their ships basically have the duplex suite in the Yacht Club, and they maybe have one or two of the royal suites. [00:24:00] And that's it. So we were lucky to find a larger category that they had. But our room steward in this case, for example, when he realized that after the first night, he actually was able to create and sort of make a divider down the bed for them, which was really nice.
So again, going above and beyond, noticing those little things, that was really nice.
That's beautiful .
I mean, I don't even have a boy and a girl. I have two girls, and they can't seem to manage to sleep in their own, like in the same bed together um, I feel you.
Yes. And having the two bathrooms, it is also really difficult to find a duplex suite that for some reason also has two full bathrooms.
yes.
And some of the larger suites, even like the grand suite, the one-bedroom suite- Mm-hmm ... ... but there's still only one bathroom. And that's something that my husband's- like, "I'm Not paying all this money to share a bathroom."
Correct. When you have three or four of you, you just need to think about how your day goes. You know, a big thing on cruising is [00:25:00] obviously getting breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and when you come back from those things, often one, two, three, or four of you might say, "I'm gonna use the bathroom."
Okay? That's just reality. So having that second bathroom, even if it's a half bathroom, goes a long way. If it's a full bathroom, even better. on Royal, I've been able to find those on occasion. We've had two bedroom, two bathrooms, which have been absolutely amazing. But you're right, their grand suites are often you know, most of them are just one bathroom.
It's hard to find a two. They do have some where they have the large window but no balcony, and I've been able to find some one and a half bathrooms. So you have to get creative. You have to look around. You have to look ahead of time. The further ahead is better. Alaska, for example, books up so far in advance and gets so full.
So if you're really looking for a certain room type, again, working with someone if you're not that [00:26:00] type A personality and having them help you find it- That can help, and really just giving yourself time ahead of time to find those rooms, because if you really want a certain room type, it just can be hard to find.
And when you find it, put that deposit down because- Absolutely ... it'll, it will disappear.
Absolutely. And I am big proponent of booking as far ahead- Mm-hmm ... as you can because then you get the room-
Yes ...
and room type that you want, and you're gonna get the lowest price, Correct
I totally agree. Northern Europe, and without going into, you know, details of every single stop, was there anything in particular about the excursions that either you decided to uplevel yourself or that because you were in Yacht Club, it was upleveled for you?
So you may notice that I already am a little particular
And I tend to do things on my own. So when it comes to excursions, there's no change there. So my view on [00:27:00] excursions is the following: if you find one that the cruise line does and you really love it, I'll give you a good example, and it's hard to even find this anymore, but if you're going up to Alaska and they do a fishing trip and someone on your team really wants to do it, book it as soon as you can because not only will it fill up, but it's impossible to get a fishing trip once you get up there.
So that's a good one to do. But there are many others where you can do it just as easily on your own for half the price that the cruise line is charging you. So you have to weigh all those things. What is the convenience factor to you? What is the luxury factor to you? So what's nice about MSC is they not only do excursions, but they actually have separate Yacht Club excursions, which, yes, will cost a little more money, but will give you a smaller group and a more premium experience.
So it's definitely good to, again, look far ahead. As soon as you put that deposit down, start looking at the excursions. [00:28:00] See what you're interested in if you've never been there, and just see the kind of things you like to do. So there's a whole variety. Yes, you can do it yourself. Yes, you can book through the cruise line.
We did a combination on this one where we booked some, like the train experience in Flam up in Norway. And yes, I could have gotten off the ship and bought the train tickets, but it just gives you a more seamless and nice experience. They bring someone on the train with you. They give you tips and tell you what's coming up.
So it's nice to also have them help you with it, help you book it or book it ahead, but book it through them, whereas you can also get off the ship and do your own thing. and I've done both, and I do both all the time.
Was that train experience a yacht club specific experience?
That one was not.
And in fact, sometimes I book ahead and sometimes we book so late. That's a great example. I think I booked the day or two before while I was already on the ship, [00:29:00] and they had such an early start time, so that was all that was left. So we jumped on it and took it. And sometimes with your cruises, yeah, you want to really pre-plan every detail, and other times you wanna see how it goes and see what you feel like doing and add things on as you go.
And both are good approaches.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think especially when it comes to Europe, because often you're close to either a city or there's a seaside, village that's often-- I mean, we've just been surprised so many times by these amazing seaside villages that we port near, that you can have some, pre-planned excursions with the cruise line, or you plan things yourself, or you just decide to, like, get off and walk around and see what comes up.
Exactly. Do some research. Again, go back on those YouTube sites. All you have to do is look up that town, that city, say, "I'm cruising there. What do I do?" And I guarantee you, people will give you their opinions and [00:30:00] tell you, which is really nice 'cause sometimes you know what's there before you get there, and you're ready to go and do these,
You know, we saw on this trip, for example, I wanna say Geiranger, hopefully I'm saying that right, in Norway. There were these tiny two-person vehicles and you can rent them and... But I had looked that up ahead of time and we did that, and we saw a bus driving up the exact same street that they had honestly probably paid a lot more for, and we were getting our own personal experience.
So both have pluses and minuses and both were great. Now I can tell you the other factor is weather. You may be booking ahead of time a trip, it may be hiking, walking, and you may get there and realize it's gonna be rainy that day. Something you don't like, it's gonna be really hot that day.
We had that on this cruise as well. You may have seen Europe's having a heat wave, and our day in Germany was excessively hot. So I was actually happy we didn't have an excursion. We could do as much or as little as we wanted because it was oppressively hot off [00:31:00] of the ship. So you have to think of all those things too.
You can pre-plan a lot, but it's hard to necessarily back out of it and then if you don't wanna go. So sometimes last minute works as well for those issues.
Yeah, Absolutely. Do you recall any of the, Yacht Club specific excursions at all?
I would say not on this one. I can tell you I'm looking ahead for next year when we head to the Mediterranean, and I've already looked ahead at those and, they do have Yacht Club, trips as well on that one, and I'm looking at those too because again sometimes the excursions can be really large and it's nice to have a smaller group.
Yeah. Incredible. I agree totally. Awesome. Anything else about this trip, Yacht Club, MSC Reba, that we haven't covered that you would want people to know about?
Again, first of all, the ship was wonderful. The service was wonderful. I highly recommend whether it's Yacht Club or the suite level on any of these [00:32:00] cruise lines.
If you haven't done it yet and you're just saying, "Let me try it," it's really worth it, and I think you'll just have an amazing experience. and I wanna say that's for many of these cruise lines. So they really up their game with that extra level of service. Be a little bit wary. Just because it says suite does not mean you're getting a different experience, so it really depends on which cruise line you're booking.
So you really wanna make sure if you're paying that extra money that you're getting the service at least let's say you expect from that. A suite may just be a larger room, so you wanna see what kind of amenities you're getting with that. And again, you can look those things up.
You can call and talk with an agent and say, "What do I get for this?" On Royal, They may have a specialized restaurant, but if you're in C class in that junior suite, you may not get the all-day meals in that restaurant. Whereas if you move up to a Sky Class, go to a grand suite, and you'll get all [00:33:00] day, food in that restaurant.
So if you're not familiar with it, just look it up ahead of time so that way you don't wanna be disappointed certainly. You wanna get all the things that you wanna get. But I highly recommend this upper level of service, whether it's a lot of cruises that you do or just that once in a lifetime cruise, because it really will make it just that added experience.
The food will be better. The service will be better. You won't be waiting in that hour-long line once you're on the ship. You get express lines and questions for things. It really is just a whole different experience.
Yeah. I mean, it could be that a suite experience, if you are somebody who just wants to be on the boat and is happy with, Deck three inside stateroom.
Yeah. One of these suites might be the equivalent of four or five of those- ... cruises, but
it's also a different kind of experience, and maybe it's worth it. Maybe it's not once in a lifetime,is it worth it for that maybe you trade five [00:34:00] weeks for one week, but what an amazing week that is.
Something really memorable
you may be flying around the world and you have to, pay to do that anyway, and so you're really looking for that amazing experience. And believe me, I have done the run of the ship, the inside cabin, I have done that, too. And like you said, you just wanna be on the ship, and being on the ship is wonderful.
So I don't wanna tell you, you know, not to go on the ship and get what you can afford, because you do. You just wanna be on the ship. It is wonderful. but once you've done that a few times, I can tell you once you do move up, it is very hard to go out of that experience. So once you experience that suite level, you're gonna wanna keep it.
But there are ways to find those things. Oh, another good tip is if you can get off of the school calendar- Totally ... if you can cruise not on the school calendar, so I'm talking September, October. I have looked for cruises for [00:35:00] people. They wanted to go to Alaska at the very end of August, and I told them, "You sure don't," because I knew they weren't bringing kids.
I said, "Go less than a week later," couple days after Labor Day, it was half the price. Right. So those are really good. Once you get off that school calendar, you really open up a lot of possibilities, and it may be affordable, whereas in July, that's gonna be probably your most expensive month. it's gonna be more money.
I agree totally. And I feel like there's also kind of a sweet spot in early June, like that first week of June when some kids are already out of school, some aren't, but you can still find really... like our kids are already out of school. And so you can still find a pretty decent price, and especially if you're going to Europe, it's not as oppressively hot yet as if you were going like- Correct
mid-July or August.
Correct. July if you think about it, the entire United States, which is most [00:36:00] of your cruisers for actually most of the world, maybe not Europe and Asia and all of the cruise lines, but certainly anywhere in the US it's gonna be mostly Americans. That's just the demographic. But if you think about our school system in the United States, every child is off the entire month of July.
Some are off in June, some are off in August, but they're all off the entire month of July. So that month is going to be packed. It will probably be prime weather up in Alaska, so the weather can still be variable, but it's probably gonna be one of your warmest months, and probably August as well. But I agree,
If your kids are off as of Memorial Day and you can do late May, right after Memorial Day or early June, you may get some rooms available and some lower prices. You'd be amazed, the same suite you can get a few weeks apart can be thousands of dollars different.
Agree. So stepping back a little bit from this particular [00:37:00] cruise I wanna ask you some questions that I ask everybody.
The first question is: how do you define luxury?
Great question. So for me, I would say more than I get on a regular basis. So that may be that someone's cooking for me, cleaning for me, cleaning up my room. That may be that every time I step out of the room, I come back and it's done. I didn't even have to remind them that they took care of it.
For some people, it might be that laundry service or pressing your clothes. it may be the booking things ahead of time, the treating you or surprising you with things in your room. It might be meeting the captain, which in the suite level, often they'll do a separate meet the captain, which they took away during COVID, but some of them are bringing them back and you're getting to meet the captain again.
So that may be. So anything that I don't normally get and is an elevation of my, every day is, I [00:38:00] feel like when they're spoiling me, that's luxurious to me.
Oh, I love that. And did this experience on MSC Reba meet that definition of luxury for you?
Absolutely. Yes, it did. And I would say in comparison for the various cruise lines, like I've mentioned, I love Royal as well, have status with them too, but at the suite level, you know, maybe the star class on Royal, but most people, even book suites are not gonna book the star class.
I would say MSC overall, value for money and the experience they give you, they do a better job.
Wow. Good. Awesome. Do you have a dream cruise?
My dream cruise, I would say, would be a longer cruise. So because my husband and I are still working, we haven't done a very lengthy cruise. I think my husband's dream cruise would be for me to work on the ship and him to be a [00:39:00] ship husband.
He would love that. but no, I would like a longer cruise where I got to see more and be on the ship for longer. We always do at least a week. Three or four days is super tight. I love getting on the ship, unpacking once, and being on the ship for the week so that you really just get to relax. if you start leaving your phone in your room and just forgetting about your day-to-day things, you're probably doing it right.
You're probably being spoiled. But I would say a longer cruise, maybe places I haven't been, maybe places I have. The Mediterranean is a wonderful cruise, especially when it's not oppressively hot. Hawaii and the Pacific Islands are a wonderful cruise. And really, I tell everyone, it depends what you want.
Are you looking to hike and do very outdoorsy activities? Are you looking to sit around and relax? It, there's so many options that are good for you. Just, it just depends what you're looking for and what kind of ship and experience you're looking for, [00:40:00] because they really vary. Do you want that rock climbing wall?
Do you want that the bumper cars or do you want a jacuzzi and a drink? So-
Yeah ... they're
very
different. Exactly. And lots of lectures.
Yes.
Yes. You know? Yes. Lots of enrichment-
Mm-hmm ...
lectures. Correct. And when you say longer, do you mean like a world cruise, 180 days, or more like a transatlantic, transpacific 12, 15, 17 days?
Tra-
Transatlantic is a whole, um, experience in itself 'cause it's more about the cruising and you have fewer stops. Uh, but I would just say even two weeks, three weeks, four weeks would be just pretty amazing for me. That would be wonderful. I don't know that I would wanna give up six months or a year or longer esp- you know, especially certainly still working and all of the things.
But just even a couple weeks at sea would be wonderful, and just enjoy the sailing aspect of it. You're on a luxury ship and you're sailing around find a seat on a deck and just sit there and watch while you're sailing, and it's really wonderful.
It [00:41:00] really is the best to just look at the vast-
Mm-hmm
ocean. It's amazing. Mm-hmm. So what's coming up? any cruises planned, luxurious or otherwise?
Of course. There's always cruises in the works or cruises planned. That's never even a question. everyone at work knows that I tell them I work to travel, so that is for sure. So next, March should be on MSC World Asia, so maybe we can talk about that after that.
that'll be their newer, larger line. Should be in a similar room with the duplex, again the two bathrooms. But on this one, there's an outdoor staircase in addition to the indoor staircase, and an upper deck. So outside of your upper bedroom there's a deck. So again, the Euribia was a little bit retrofitted, and this is their new design.
So I'll have updates on that.
the World Asia, will be the Mediterranean, and it will be your traditional I believe the, west side. Your Italy, France, Spain, Sicily type of [00:42:00] itinerary.
The east side is also lovely, going over to Greece, which I've also done. Again, just the really hot summer months are-- can be oppressive. This will be March, so I'm really looking forward to going when it's less hot. And then next summer back to Alaska with Royal. So I'll be doing MSC and Royal next year.
And because I'm going with other family members and they're not going in a suite, again, we talked about that earlier, finding that balance. So that one doesn't have a suite restaurant, but that's okay with me that time because I wanna eat with my whole family. So, finding those balances and those Royal suite prices can be quite high.
So again, always doing a balancing act. Get what you want, get on a ship that you want, get what you can afford, and get the highest level of luxury that you can get, because it's so worth it.
I agree. Well, yes, I would definitely love to have you back to hear about your experience in World Asia.
Thank you for taking the time to tell us about MSC Euribia. and to the listeners, thank you [00:43:00] for being here as always. And until next time, I wish you safe and luxurious cruising.