It’s Sunday, October 27th as I write this and we are sailing for the next week on the MSC Seashore, departing from Cape Canaveral. We sailed the MSC Seaside in early October last year, and had such a good time, we wanted to sail MSC in the Yacht Club again this year. The Seashore is a slightly larger ship than the Seaside, which was the first ship in this class and was launched in 2017. The Seashore is newer launched in 2021 and is 169,000 tons vs the Seaside launched in 2017 and is 154,000 tons.
We headed out to Port Canaveral from our home in the Orlando suburbs around 10;30am, for our quick one hour drive to the port. It’s so convenient living near a cruise port!
We first dropped off our luggage curbside with the porter, before parking in the terminal garage. As I write this, parking in one of the Port Canaveral garages is $20 a day, payable in advance. Paying in advance makes exiting after the cruise much quicker, and the garage is a short walk to the terminal; so taking a shuttle bus is not necessary (at least for Terminal 10).
Port Canaveral has modified the incoming parking flow to the terminal, at least temporarily while a new and additional garage is being built at this terminal 10 location, and it’s quite easy to drop off your luggage and then park, with all of the many staff giving directions or answering your questions. Steve (DOS) dropped me and our luggage off at the baggage drop off area, and while we were sailing in the top level “Yacht Club” (YC) and there is a section for that, dropping off baggage with any of the porters will send it to the YC for expedited service, so there’s no need to drop it at the YC tent.
After DOS parked in the garage, and taking a photo of the level and area he parked in, he headed over to meet me, where I was waiting near the YC tent area for onboard check-in. (After dropping off your luggage at any of the porters, you then do want to head to the YC tent, assuming you are in the Yacht Club), and check-in with the YC staff there, with just your carry-on bag with you for convenience.
Like last year, the onboard check-in was super quick and efficient, and while I can walk a fair bit, I still have trouble with walking long distances, stairs, and ramps, so Steve DOS pushed me in the wheelchair to the Yacht Club seating area inside the terminal. I would soon be assisted by our Butler after a short wait in the terminal. The YC area is in a separate location at the end of the terminal, and with a quick scan of the documents we were invited to sit in the area with champagne and other non-alcoholic beverages and snacks awaiting our indulgence. Actually the wait was less that 10 minutes until our assigned Butler arrived, so we just chatted with the friendly staff for a bit, skipping the drinks and nibbles as there were soon to be many onboard.
Among other things, being in the YC offers some really nice benefits such as early and escorted embarkation (and debarkation at the cruise’s end), which this being a mega ship of over 4,000 people is really a huge deal as we passed the masses of people waiting in the terminal still to check-in for the cruise.
We were escorted aboard (and I was pushed on my wheelchair) by our wonderful Butler Divyadeep, which to help us remember his name, told us to call him “Divi” which he said rhymes with TV; a nice way to remember it!
Once onboard the ship, Divi made one quick stop for us at our muster station where we were counted for, and reminded to watch the safety video in our cabin, followed by dialing a dedicated number indicating we had watched it. Easy-peasie compared to the old days of attending the muster drill with our life jackets and the masses.
Next we went to the Yacht Club itself, and the Top Sail Lounge, where we were offered a drink and Hors d’oeuvres while we had a short wait for our room to be ready. It was around 12:30pm by this point and we didn’t wait more than 5 minutes while Divi checked with our room steward “Bruno” to make sure everything was ready for us to move-in for the week. As our room was ready, DOS and I took our unfinished Coke Zero’s with us, while Divi helped us with our carry-on bags to the room.
We had a Deluxe Verandah room which was slightly wider and larger than the other rooms in this category, on the Starboard side of the ship; preferable for the view of the MSC Island port-of-call we would be at the next couple days. (MSC is the only cruise line we know of that docks overnight at its private island on many of their Caribbean cruises.)
The room was quite spacious, with a large living area/bedroom, plenty of closet space, mini-fridge and bar setup, large bathroom with plush robes hanging on the door, large shower area (no tub though) and plenty of vanity space on either side of the bathroom sink, and large outdoor balcony with 2 chairs and foot ottomans (unfortunately no lounge chairs though).
The bed was large and had a hard plastic cover on it temporarily the first day so we could place our luggage on it to unpack.
The only complaint I have about the room is the lack of power outlets; specifically there are none by either side of the bed. The power outlets are located by the closet and bedroom vanity area, which is fine for charging phones, tablets, laptops etc, although you will still want to bring a non-powerstrip adapter for additional devices. The downside is if you need a CPAP or other medical device that needs to be placed by and powered be the bed, as there is no outlet available by the bed for this.
Steve (DOS) had corresponded with MSC a couple weeks prior to the cruise and notified them about this CPAP requirement (as well as my wheelchair we were bringing on – the push type, not the electric scooter type), and the need for distilled water daily for my CPAP machine. The lack of bedside power outlets was a bit surprising as most new ships have these, but Divi knew about our requirements and soon had a long outdoor type (orange) extension cord run to our bedside, and taped down for identification and safety, which served us well the whole cruise. Also a bottle of distilled water was delivered daily for our machine, clearly labeled as opposed to the bottled still water (Acqua-Panna) that was provided each day as well.
After Divi gave us a room tour and explained hours and Yacht Club benefits, we settled in briefly with our carry-ons, put away the wheelchair, and headed up to have our first lunch in the Yacht Club. The Seashore has a wonderful outdoor buffet everyday except for embarkation day, so we headed to lunch in the sit-down YC restaurant, which served lunch until 2pm.
We had a really nice lunch in the YC Restaurant, and even had a couple glasses of Cabernet with it, which we normally only have with dinner. But hey, all the beverages are included in the YC, so why not?
We don’t normally have dessert with lunch either, but again it’s all included, and it’s readily there, so why not?
After lunch, we headed back to the room and were surprised to see our checked luggage had already arrived to our room, so we unpacked and settled in. We watched the in-room muster drill on our TV, and then dialed the designated number indicating we had watched the mandatory video. We had already been to the actual muster station in person to get counted for at embarkation via our Butler Divi’s assistance.
Later we headed up to the YC pool deck area for the 4:30pm sail-away. We walked around the Yacht Club outside section on forward deck 20, which felt like a private yacht with such a big area, and only a few other passengers outside in this area.
We watched as Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas mega-cruise ship sailed out of Port Canaveral shortly ahead of us. We actually have some friends on that sailing; a couple we met on the Mariner of the Seas a couple years ago. We both said we’d wave at each other as our ships passed! Surprisingly we didn’t see each other among the crowds! LOL!
As we sailed down the channel towards the sea, we passed the waterfront bars, the Observation Tower, Ron Jon’s Resort, other hotels in the distance, and ultimately Cocoa Beach before heading out in the wide open Atlantic Ocean.
Now, we are officially on our way for the next 7 days. Bon Voyage!
