DisneyDatknee

23 hours ago, misand said:

I liked the daytime food on the Sunrise but didn’t find much at dinner.  The ship seemed so cramped in the buffet and by the Mexican and guys burgers.  We did love the steakhouse on Carnival just as we loved Butchers cut on Seashore.  And yes the buffet did repeat a bit on the Seashore. Sunrise was pretty close to capacity when we went so it felt packed. Which sailing on the Sunrise? We were dec 18 

I sailed on the 9th! I think it was probably less busy on my cruise since you were more in peak holiday time. It's a flaw in the "Triumph Class" (Sunrise, Sunshine, and Radience). The buffet area has always been pretty tight. It's better on the newer ships. Thanks for your comments 🙂

My close friend is on the Conquest, everyone was ordered to their room so they can do a head count. Didn't someone just jump off the Horizon? Crazy. Feel sorry for the family.

I don't think it looks dated. Carnival's new cabin style "sunshine" I think is great. The rooms feel nice and clean. I've been on other lines like Celebrity, Royal, and MSC. Their newer ships have very modern rooms, but they are usually smaller. Carnival's rooms are large, comfortable, and always clean. I enjoy the design of the newer cabins like on the Sunrise, Radiance, Breeze, Horizon, Vista, Elation, Paradise etc.. I'm not sure if they are going to refurbish any of the other ships. 

1 hour ago, Oxo said:

What did you pay for the dining pkg? We are going on Seashore in July.

TIA

These are the packages available on my booking:

$155 for Hola!, Butcher's Cut, the Teppanyaki, & Ocean Cay (16% savings)

$110 for Hola!, Butcher's Cut, Ocean Cay (23% Savings)

$99 Butcher's Cut, the Teppanyaki (20% Savings)

From what I have seen online, the dining experience per person without the package is as follows:

Hola! : $18

Butcher's Cut : $59

Ocean Cay: $59

Teppanyaki: $44 (If you select Sencho)

How did you like it compare to the Sunrise? I went in August on the Mere, Sunrise in December as well as the Freedom of the Seas.

I liked the Sunrise the best out of the three.

I was disappointed in the food on the Mere in August, the buffet was only one side and everything seemed to repeat everyday. We purchased the dining package for our upcoming cruise on the Seashore.

2 minutes ago, ready2cruzagain said:

If that is what is on your documents then they changed it after you purchased it.  I would have asked to speak to the manager or whoever is in charge of the restaurants and demanded what is in my documents (I always print them out and take with me).  

 

No, they are NOT consistent at all.

Annoying. I'm disappointed in the change up in packages too. 

6 hours ago, ready2cruzagain said:

  

Drink package, when you upgraded on the website it states cannot be used in Specialty restaurants or Venchi's.

*Drinks can be consumed in all onboard bars as well as the self-service buffet, restaurant and Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve. Bars on Ocean Cay may not have the entire selection available on the island. Excludes specialty restaurants and cannot be consumed in specialty restaurants or other signature venues such as Venchi 1878 establishments, Lavazza Coffee Shop and Jean Philippe Chocolate, Coffee, Crepes & Gelato and Starship Club. Onboard currency applies. 

 

 

It's funny because my drink package on my booking says " ALL BEVERAGES PRICED UP TO S9! CHEERS TO BOTTOMLESS BEVERAGES ALL DAY LONG! THE EASY PLUS PACKAGE INCLUDES YOUR FAVOURITE FROZEN AND CLASSIC COCKTAILS, WELL SPIRITS, LIQUORS AND CORDIALS. THEN THERES YOUR CHOICE OF A SELECTION OF WINE BY THE GLASS, A 10% DISCOUNT ON BOTTLED WINES PURCHASED ONBOARD AND A WIDE VARIETY OF DRAFT AND BOTTLED BEERS, NON-ALCOHOLIC COCKTAILS, SOFT DRINKS, MINERAL WATER, COFFEE DRINKS (LATTE, ESPRESSO, CAPPUCCINO, ETC.), HOT CHOCOLATE AND HOT TEAS. THE EASY PLUS PACKAGE COVERS ALL THE ABOVE SERVED AT OUR BARS, BUFFET, MAIN RESTAURANT AND SPECIALTY RESTAURANTS. WHATS MORE, IT ALSO INCLUDES OCEAN CAY AND OTHER EXCLUSIVE DESTINATIONS, BUT DOES NOT COVER THE SIGNATURE VENUES, INCLUDING VENCHI 1878 ESTABLISHMENTS, LAVAZZA COFFEE SHOP, JEAN-PHILIPPE CHOCOLATE, COFFEE, CREPES & GELATO."

They aren't consistent at all 😑

3 hours ago, deliver42 said:

Miami is now $28.00 per day. It just went up.

This is only the snazzy Royal Caribbean garage for parking 5 nights or less.

When I sailed in August on the Meraviglia, Teppanyaki was not an option but the Sushi Bar was. We did the Sushi bar and enjoyed it. I'm not sure if the Seashore will have the "Conveyor Belt Sushi" as one of the Diamond Card options. 

I did not have the best experience on MSC last year, but booked the Seaside again because price. Did you feel the premium upgrade was worth it? I know how much our drinks were in August, but I have a feeling they changed it to make the Easy Plus different. 

I have a cruise in 63 days. Could I change the cruise to a date like at the end of 2022 and decide to cancel later and get my money back?

Hi all -- just got back home in Miami from the ship and just wanted to provide my thoughts on the Meraviglia. This is my second time on MSC and my secnd time on the Meraviglia as I sailed her from Rome in 2019. I just recently sailed on the Celebrity Summit from Saint Maarten three weeks ago.

Pre-Cruise: We booked with the healthcare hero's discount and my voyager's club discount. For the two of us in a fantastica balcony, the cruise came out to just under $450, so pretty good deal. We added a Premium Drink Package as well as the Browse + Stream Package. I received an email to bid for an upgrade to the Yacht Club and submitted a bid. My card was charged three days before the cruise and I called to get the documents changed but they said they needed 24 hours to update them. I assumed I got the upgrade, but the day of sailing I got an email saying I was denied with the e-mail saying "I will not be charged". The charge disappeared days later. 

Embarkation: They changed our check-in time a couple of days before to 12:30, vs 3:30. It said we had to be there within the hour, but I arrived about an hour late as I wasn't quick ready to leave the house yet and no one said a thing. If you want to park at the Port, you have to drive down all the way to Garage G and then take a shuttle back. The shuttle was quick, just found it inconvenient when there were several other garages nearby, but filled by Carnival passengers. If you're a Black Card (well diamond now) holder, there was no priority lines, only for Yacht Club guests. We took our COVID test and waited in a group with other passengers and then proceeded to check-in to get our room keys and boarded. We were provided with a band to show that we were vaccinated as well as a MSC for Me band to track exposure and to use it as a room key. 

Ship: The Meraviglia is a beautiful ship, probably the nicest I've sailed on, but I find it difficult to navigate, especially around the top decks. Deck plans are not easily displayed throughout the ship and the MSC for Me app does not show a deckplan at all. 

Dining: I was really disappointed with the food on MSC. The quality was ok, but it just never seemed to really change. It was very repetitive and the buffet was not very large at all. They didn't utilize a good portion of the buffet, which was not the case on my pre-covid cruise. I was stuck eating pizza pretty much every meal at the buffet as nothing else was really appetizing. The main dining room was slow, bread hard (except the "cheese" bread). I think I drank more than ate on this cruise. If I sailed MSC again, I would probably buy the speciality dining package. We ate at the sushi bar one night and it was really delicious. 

Cabin: We had Cabin 14168. It was one of the "slant" balconies, so we had a lot of space. The room even had a bathtub instead of a shower. However, I'm 6'1 and my head barely touched the ceiling and it was hard to avoid getting water on the floor due to the "half shower door", common in Europe. There wasn't anything I could complain about the room except VOD was a premium and most of the TV channels were not working. 

Service: Everyone on the ship was pretty friendly, but not overly friendly like on other American Lines, which is fine. The only staff I encountered that were pretty rude was a bartender at the Sports Bar and the staff on Ocean Cay. Cabin steward was nice, but found it strange there was no way to contact him without seeing him physically. 

Ocean Cay: Really nice, but found it disappointing that umbrellas were not free. This island will burn you to death as all the vegetation is pretty fresh. You can find a palm tree and move some chairs to it, but we just found an umbrella some guests left behind to use. Some of the beaches were not open as the ship wasn't too full. The lighthouse show wasn't memorable. The food was the same both days, only hamburgers hot dogs and veggie burgers. My friend thought the hamburgers tasted fine, but made of some alternative meats. We really enjoyed the lagoon area with the floating platforms in the water. Beach was kinda rocky in some parts, but for the part, it was very relaxing. The first day of Ocean Cay everyone went to the lagoon area and the second day everyone seem to go to the lighthouse beach.

Disembarkation: 7:00 AM is the walk off express. We got in line at 6:40 AM and were in our car in the parking garage by 7:30 AM. They were getting mad at guests for not social distancing, which was not something they pushed at all during the entire cruise. 

Wifi Package: I'm glad I got the package because it worked really well. We were watching Hulu every night. If you buy the package, make sure you logout when you leave the ship to Ocean Cay and do the same when you leave Ocean Cay. 

Overall Thoughts: I think MSC is a good value, but the food would probably have me looking at other lines for now. 

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Happy Sailing 🙂

I know you got the Easy package. What drinks did you order? We are sailing next week and chose the next package up. What internet package did you have? I don't want to purchase the streaming package if it doesn't actually stream. 

Thanks! I love your pictures. I sailed on this ship April 2019 in the Med and enjoyed it, except I found the service to be lacking. They gave away our room when we got on board and put us in a different one the day of boarding and didn't do anything to make up for it other than print our cruise contract and highlight where they could change our room at anytime.....

3 hours ago, abbydancer said:

On the form, air or air sea?  Somewhere I read click air only.  Is that correct?

Celebrity site said Air only, but I thought that was weird.

53 minutes ago, citruscruiser said:

DisneyDatKnee: did you tell Walgreens it was for travel or possible “symptoms “ in order for the fast turnaround. Thanks. 

Nope! Just said I wanted to get my results quickly. 

Get your testing done at Walgreens. They overnighted my free test and I got the results back the next day. 

EHSA form you just upload a copy of your vaccine card, a copy of the PCR test (72 hours before) or antigen test (48 hours before), and your details. I got the approval QR code within 5 minutes of applying at 7 PM at night yesterday.

Super excited!! I'll let you know if I run into any issues on the Summit tomorrow 🙂

I was freaking out I wouldn't get my PCR test in time. Got my EHAS approval within minutes of submitting my info. Hope all goes well tomorrow!

I would not travel right now if unvaccinated. Not even for the sack of falling ill, but your experience will be poor. I would imagine it would be very challenging to have one vaccinated and one not vaccinated traveling together.

Choice Air quote was $1700 a person from Atlanta. No way would I sail for that price to get there. 

We tried Princess and never will go back. Liked Carnival a lot more, although we liked Holland America more than Princess. I don't think you will find Princess upscale in the food department. Probably just a bad time, but we thought the food was terrible on the Star Princess and then Norovirus came and it was a mess. We just didn't have fun on the cruise and that's what we missed about Carnival. Even though we aren't party animals or anything, my 80 year old mother still wants to smile while she's on vacation and Carnival does that for us!

We have been on Holland America twice and for us, the food was a major upgrade. The buffet was actually really good and we liked it more than the dining room as you basically have service at the table and you are just in charge of getting your food. 

We are sticking to Carnival and Holland America from now on.

Thank you for the responses. I booked the cruise, but with low expectations of sailing!

I can't find anything on Carnival's site. My mother wants to go on the Horizon at the end of August and it's a stellar deal, but she's over 70 and I've heard other cruises lines are requiring a physician's note. I'm not sure if my mother would pass as she has several stents in her heart as well as AFib.

Does anyone know any information? We are fine with booking a cruise in August as we live in South Florida, so pretty flexible if it comes to cancelling/rebooking.

Seward to Vancouver. Vancouver is an excellent place to stay after and enjoy. We have done it twice.

Just booked. The videos looked great. They only had guarantees for Interior & Oceanview, but I just went for the interior.

I've read horrible reviews from last year when the ship launched, but has it gotten any better with time? We want to sail next March.