MSC World Europa Yacht Club -October 2024

We just returned from a seven day Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona and here is my honest opinion. I was never a big cruise person, so my experience in this area is limited to two prior cruises. This was our first MSC cruise so we didn’t really know what to expect. Based on other cruisers’ experience, we opted for a Yacht Club category cabin. The embarkation was smooth and easy. We showed up at the YC tent in the MSC cruise port in Barcelona, dropped our luggage and were escorted to the YC lounge where we waited for about ten minutes. Our butler met us at the lounge and walked us onto the ship and into the Top Sailors lounge reserved for YC members only. The entire WE ship was spacious, beautifully designed and extremely clean and beautiful. The YC area was elegant and very relaxing. Our suite was ready in about twenty minutes and the luggage was delivered to the cabin in about thirty minutes. Our cabin was spacious and comfortable and I especially enjoyed the extra space for clothing and in the bathroom/shower area. The bed was very comfortable and there was a pillow menu available upon request. Our butler was always available when we needed him via phone or What’sUp. We ordered room service a handful of times and the food was always delivered within thirty minutes. The food was really good in every restaurant, especially all YC restaurants. We also had one dinner at Chef’s Garden Kitchen at an extra cost and it was amazing. We didn’t try the buffet so I can’t say anything about the food being served there. Every person we had a contact with was friendly, professional and very polite. Here are the ports we stopped at and our favorite experiences: -Marseille was our least favorite experience mostly because of how we were treated by the waiters at the Le Miramar restaurant on the pier (the waiter mocked our French to his coworkers thinking we didn’t understand him standing next to our table). We did enjoy the food though. The next time we will stay on the ship and skip this port altogether. -Genoa was great-we rented a taxi in the port and for 70 euros per person, they took us to Santa Margherita for a coffee and pastries stop and then to Portofino for three hours to walk around, do some shopping and have lunch. The ride back to the ship was about 45 minutes. -Naples was our next port, so we walked out of the ship and hired another taxi to Positano and Amalfi. We spent one hour in each town and it was perfect. The ride from Naples to the Amalfi Coast was over one hour each way but it was perfect. The cost of that ride was about 60 euros per person. -In Messina, we walked out of the ship into town, walked around for about one hour and took a taxi to Taormina. It was a lovely experience walking around, eating gelato and shopping for souvenirs. I believe the cost was about 40 euros per person round trip. -Malta was absolutely amazing. We bought tickets for the sightseeing tour (hop on hop off bus) for 20 euros per person and rode the bus across the island (blue route and yellow route). We stopped in Mdina and got off the bus to walk around, take pictures, get some coffee and try local pastries; we also bought some gifts from local boutiques.

Overall, we loved every experience with the exception of Marseille. We found MSC to be a great cruise line and will definitely return for another Yacht Club experience. I have to add that while the Yacht Club area was quiet and serene, the rest of the ship was extremely crowded at all times. Having stated this, the service was still fast, efficient and amazing. We travelled with our friends who sailed in the non YC category so we had several dinners with them in the non YC restaurants, we found the food in Les Dunes to be great quality and good taste. We visited the spa area as well and liked having access to different treatment rooms (sauna, spa, etc.) this area was pretty crowded as well, so we only used it once. When we arrived back to Barcelona on the last day, they instructed us to leave our cabin by 8 am and our luggage had to be left outside our cabin door the night before by 1 am. We had breakfast in the YC restaurant and our butler walked us out of the ship to the luggage area at 8:30 am. Big shout out to our favorite service staff: Susi Marlena Alexo Rodrigues