I recently sailed on MSC Seascape out of Galveston and I think it might be my last cruise for a while. Since 2023, my husband and I have done 8 cruises across Royal Caribbean and NCL, and this was our first MSC experience. We were excited to be upgraded from an Aurea balcony to a Yacht Club interior.
Food and entertainment were both great with no complaints there. However, the Yacht Club experience made me very uncomfortable and has made me rethink cruising entirely.
The butler and junior butler were extremely attentive to the point where it felt unnatural. I felt like I had to manage their emotions during the trip as much as my own.
For example, they decorated our room for my birthday, which was a nice gesture. Later, when we followed their instructions and removed the decorations and placed them outside the door before bed, they returned looking upset because they thought we disliked it and believed their supervisor would be angry. They even called our room multiple times during the night afterward.
Overall, I felt uncomfortable with how intense the service level was. It felt like living in a fishbowl, where staff attention became overwhelming and transactional rather than natural.
While I know many people love Yacht Club, my experience made me question cruising in general. I left feeling more guilty than relaxed.
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