Notch8

When I was on the MSC Meraviglia in July, there was a permanent station for (free) soft serve at the main pool. It was only open for a few hours in the afternoon. It was not self-serve; they had cups and cones. (Most of the time, anyway. Sometimes they ran out of one or the other.) On our trip, they only had two flavors available at a time. I recall only vanilla and chocolate, but I didn't go every day. They also had some sprinkles that you could add. I'm not into sprinkles on my ice cream; I don't think it adds anything flavor-wise. (If they had had chopped peanuts, on the other hand, I'd be all in on that.) Whatever formula they used for the soft-serve was fantastic, in my opinion! I've recently sailed on Carnival and their soft-serve is terrible. MSC's was worlds better than Carnival's. (My opinion only.) AGAIN - this was FREE. As was mentioned already, there are options to pay for frozen desserts elsewhere on the ship. -Jim

This comment must have been referring to my post. 1) In July, when I took my trip, the room keys were handed out at check-in. 2) The card had the word "UNASSIGNED" where the dining room/time is supposed to be. 3) I did, in fact, ask what action to take. I was told to go to the restaurant manager to get a dining assignment. 4) When on board, I asked how this happened. They said it's rare, but it does happen sometimes that a passenger/passengers don't get a dining assignment. This additional irritation was not due to any action or act of omission on my part; it was an unfortunate and rare situation that in my mind shouldn't have happened. I am suspecting that they have since changed the process for distributing keys since July; I am presuming that they are now made available in one's room instead of being handed out during check-in? This results in another source of confusion/dissatisfaction among new cruisers... people read reviews and fail to understand that processes/procedures/menus/etc. change from time to time; what was true for one may not be true for all.

I've sailed MSC before and have another trip scheduled to sail on them again in May. (Both times MSC Meraviglia.) This means I enjoyed my first trip and feel it's a good overall cruise value - I'm spending my money with them again. That being said, there are valid complaints that people have. Some of it, in my mind, should never happen. For example, when we checked in, we weren't given a dining time... it was "unassigned." WHAT?? So this means the first thing we need to do when we get on the ship is to stand in a line at the dining room to get SOMETHING assigned. Not good. Later in the cruise, when we were in Nassau, we wanted to go on the waterslides. Per the program, it opened at 2 PM. So at 2, we were there... nope, not open. Staff told us just a few minutes. We waited for an hour; still nothing. Story kept changing why... weather, not enough staff, maintenance, etc. Meanwhile, we're watching the ships parked next to us... Carnival, Royal Caribbean... all of their top deck activities were open. Of course, they're all looking at the MSC ship that has NO activity going on. Not sure that this was a good look for MSC; I'm sure the passengers on the other ships were making fun of MSC. I'm not going to get worked up if you truly can't open, but get your story straight. Better yet, tell us the truth. Although the bar service was good, I was puzzled about one experience when getting a drink. It wasn't crowded, and as I approached the bar, the bartender asked for my order. I noticed a gentleman at the other end of the bar who had been waiting; I pointed him out to the bartender and said "he was here first." The bartender said that he doesn't work THAT end of the bar. Poor guy heard all of this and I swear I heard him roll his eyes. Not sure why they couldn't be flexible enough to just do the right thing and take care of him first; there wasn't a line behind either of us. On the other hand, we enjoyed the food. We had great service. The room was serviced twice per day (although that may change in the future. Not a deal breaker.) And there were other little things that added a touch of class, such as ice water waiting on the pier when you returned to the ship in ports. (It was something that DW enjoys about some of the more premium cruise lines that Carnival and RC don't do.) And the free ice cream was the best - by far - of any ice cream I've had on a cruise ship. In summary, some complaints are valid. Question is really about what's important to each of us as individuals; read each review and throw out all of the ones that say everything is perfect or everything was awful. Look only at those that are balanced reviews. Nothing is ever perfect and there's rarely a situation where "everything" truly goes wrong. Finally, separate the issues that are caused by the cruise line (e.g. slow service in the dining room) and those that are outside forces (e.g. weather, other passengers' misbehavior.) When you do, you'll see that MSC may do things differently than some lines, but it is still an enjoyable experience.

DW and I will be on this cruise too. @Jamman54 - I've read your previous reviews... gives me great feelings about this trip; thank you for your upbeat assessments of each trip! We will be traveling with another couple who will be cruising for the very first time together; we are all very excited.

@JamieLogical : Please do submit photos. On our recent trip aboard MSC Meraviglia, my daughter stayed in a studio inside. It was cozy when the sofa was a sofa, and it was TIGHT when it was made up as a bed. (Except the bathroom... she had a full-size bathroom.) And, of course, since it's a sofa bed, you can't store anything underneath it. I'm curious if the studio balcony rooms also use a sofa bed? ALSO - one thing to mention - MSC does twice daily service of the room (so the morning service the steward made it into a sofa, and the evening service he turned it back into a bed.) BUT... our room steward told us that they are being trained to do only once-daily service. So I am pessimistic that MSC will succumb to this practice that is now becoming more widespread in the industry. Which basically means that if you have a bed (e.g. sofa bed, pullman bed) in your room, it will stay a bed for the duration of the cruise, since there won't be anyone to change it back & forth as necessary. (Maybe not as much a problem with a sofa bed, but definitely a problem with Pullman beds.) Many thanks for your previous review of MSC Meraviglia; your pointers were very useful in helping the three of us prepare for the trip. And we had a fantastic time! -Jim

My gang made the decision to avoid bowling. It's something that we can do at home, and it's not something that can be done spontaneously. So they stuck to the F1, Rollercoaster, and XD Cinema, with a bit of air hockey (@$3.50 each!!) sprinkled in to use up our Fun Pass. -Jim

Surf & Turf! But I also like the Caribbean Salad as well. Just depends on my mood. -Jim

I just got off the MSC Meraviglia on Sunday, July 23. Below are the shows that we had on our trip. My comments: 1) The three music shows I saw (Cool, One Day More, and Journey) were good, not great. 2) I didn't like the comedian. Later in the cruise he also did an adult show. I didn't watch the adult show; I don't like that kind of comedy. 3) Born to Rock was cancelled. The ship had audio issues that night. All three showings were cancelled. 4) The Conjurors were far and away the best show on the ship. This was a world-class pair of magicians! They did another show later on (I think it was Saturday) where they also demonstrated how to do some simple tricks. They were two incredibly talented people. 5) The Crew Variety show was fun! This one was the cruise staff (not the regular entertainers) putting on a show. Obviously this isn't their "day" job but despite this they demonstrated that they had talents beyond facilitating trivia games. (etc.) -Jim

Just got off the MSC Meraviglia on Sunday, July 23. Attached are the prices for the activities in the sportplex/arcade. I bought a fun pass in advance and paid $80 for $140 worth of use. I put the $$ on my (adult) son's card since he was the one most likely to be there to use it. -Jim

Lunch menus. In order. Lunch was served for 1 hour every day in one of the dining rooms on 5 of the 7 days. (Waves on Deck 5.) No dining room lunch on embarkation day, disembarkation day, or on the day we were in Ocean Cay. On the days we were in Port Canaveral and Nassau (arrival at 1:00 PM at each of these ports), dinner was 11:30 - 12:30; on the other days it was served 12:00 - 1:00. NOTE: Page 2 of each day's lunch menus listed the desserts; I neglected to get screen shots of these. Sorry. ALSO - note that the FIRST lunch (Monday) and the LAST lunch (Saturday) have the EXACT SAME menus. (Which was nice; I wanted to try both the fajitas and the fish & chips. I liked the fajitas better.) Including them both here regardless.

Friday and Saturday menus. Grilled swordfish (Friday) was tasty but dry. Penne all'Amatriciana was salty to me; I much preferred the pasta bolognaise that I had earlier in the week.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday menus. Thursday was Caribbean night. Caribbean salad was really good.

Dinner menus... first night (Sunday) and gala night (Monday.) Gala night was on the first sea day. They would give us as many lobster tails as we wanted. We each asked for one extra. (There is a second page to each dinner menu that was unchanged every night; I'm including it here but not on every day. There may have been some minor variations day to day on this second page, but I didn't notice.)

I just got off the MSC Meraviglia on Sunday and wanted to share the menus with this group. Hopefully this is useful to some; I was poking around prior to my own cruise and couldn't find anything recent. Maybe I don't know where to look? Attached here is the breakfast menu. (First page, anyway. I don't recall that there was anything significant on the second page.)

I just got off the MSC Meraviglia on Sunday. I saw at least one tent on the beach; I commented to the guy that this was a great idea! The tent appeared to be a three-sided tent designed as a beach shelter rather than a full-size sleeping tent. I think anything larger than a 2-person tent would raise eyebrows. -Jim