Kdafons

You are correct in understanding the lines for each station. However, be aware that one "station"'s line may run so long that it goes back into 3 or 4 other stations. This particularly happened on the one day they had shrimp. As far as how easy it is to find a seat, for us, it varied. On the 6-day to bermuda that left 11/27/23, at times finding a table was a bloodbath. I think some folks were sitting there beyond the time it took for them to eat, kind of oblivious to the fact that all the tables were full and people with food had nowhere to sit. I saw a family try to "reserve" a table by putting water glasses and a food plate there, but that wasnt effective. Another family came and asked staff to clean the table... i stopped it only because I had just seen the first family try to reserve it for themselves. By the end of that sailing, they had put signs out on all the tables asking people to leave the table when they are finished eating so others may sit. But Im not sure that made a huge difference. On the bahamas trip that left 12/2/23, tables were much easier to find. I dont think it was because the number of guests were any different. I think it was more due to a change in culture. I think more people used the MDR and fewer people sat at buffet for hours. But, I think some of what MSC does can compound the problem: 1. Only 1 MDR is open for lunch and it only seats people for 1 hour:12-1. For breakfast, only one MDR open and only seats till 9am. For these meals, the MDR is packed and chaotic. Getting a relaxing breakfast or lunch is not very likely. 2. Meal options in MDR are limited, particularly for lunch and dinner. Pretty seafood-heavy for dinner. I could see the menu not appealing to a cross-section of people. 3. At the buffet, Ive seen many people post that the food from the each side of the buffet is repeated at the back end. But that's not exactly true. Most items, yes, are available in at least 3 places (once on each side and once at or near the back). But not true for everything. Breakfast: scrambled eggs were only available on the sides. The back only had hard-boiled eggs. Drinks: each drink station (i think there are around 6) could have something different. Ice machine may be down at 1 or 2 (or all), mango juice may be available at one, while iced tea may be available at another, and a third station may be all out of juice. Water tastes terrible at one station. They may be our of hot water and tea at 1 or more stations, or out of cups. "Waffle and pancakes" breakfast station. This may be the same at all three spots, but I dont think they ever actually had waffles. I only saw either pancakes on some days or french toast on other days. French toast in the back is cooked on grill, not a griddle, so the toast will have grill marks, where the two side stations dont have those grill marks. They had diffeerent flavored jam in different spots of the buffet, so you may want to walk around to see if they have your preferred somewhere. They may have only salted or only unsalted butter out at different points of the buffet. Breakfast: i think they only had sticky buns at the back. And i think that means that something else was missing from the back, but I dont recall what. Also, i saw different types of hash browns out on the same day, depending on location. Lunch/dinner: if they have mashed potatoes or a rice option, it may only be offered at 1 or 2 sections, not all 3. Some of the bread sections have more limited options. There was a section labeled "vegan" only for lunch and dinner, and only on our bahamas sailing. I usually only felt like id seen everything if i saw the front (hamburgers/fries/pizza-type food and the fruit section across from the pizza), the back (which includes the back end of each side), at least one side(the front end of at least one side). The "kids" section is another section. By the time we got off on 12/9/23, they had signs up in 6? languages saying that the section is for children only. I saw some adults ( who I dont think had children) taking food from there, but Id seen before I boarded that MSC strictly enforces the Kids section, and there was usually staff there, so I didnt try to take any food from there.

We were on Meraviglia 2 sailings starting 11/27/23. Id say that "hit and runs" at buffet are fine. However, on our 1st sailing in particular, there was a LOT of straight up line-cutting. Basically, if you werent nearly touching the person in line in front of you, others would quickly swoop in as if there wasnt a line of people waiting. The excessive line-cutting led to some tension over time that we heard eventually resulted in a minor physical altercation at the last-day chocolate cake area. By the second sailing, the line-cutting decreased down to "normal" levels and "hit and runs" were more common and tolerable. It may be best to note your plans to the people in the line around your targeted "hit and run" spot in case line-cutting tensions are high. Lines overall werent super well-managed on the ship, even outside of the buffet, so the crew didnt help much. By the second sailing, some crew were starting to point out lines to people who seemed oblovious to them, but I still saw blatant line-cutting at the last-day chocolate cake area that went unaddressed by crew. Pretty annoying when you have waited in a poorly laid-out line for 15 minutes. I hope that helps!!!

We just got off the Meraviglia. Were on for 2 sailings. 1. Fries were available every day, lunch through midnight at the main entrance of the buffet. Fries also available when the South Bar at the pool when it was open. I believe fries are on the daily menu in the MDR. Note that once with the fish and chips at lunch in MDR, they added paprika? to the fries. If that is an issue, you may want to specify regarding any flavoring on the fries when you speak with the staff. Otherwise, the fries were pretty standard. 2. Chicken tenders, not chicken nuggets, were available some days at the South Bar at the Atmosphere pool. I saw fish sticks at that bar and the designated kids section of the buffet almost every day. But i never saw chicken nuggets anywhere, but my spouse says he saw chicken nuggets sometimes in the kids section of the buffet. 3. Grilled cheese, i never saw anywhere. 4. Ketchup was not readily available at the buffet on our first sailing, but by the second one, they had ketchup out with the fries all the time. It was in a pump. In the MDR, they bring catchup to you in a dish and they spoon it out on your plate, then they take the dish of ketchup back with them. Breakfast and lunch is super busy in the MDR, so if you will need ketchup at those times, you should mention to them upfront. We asked for extra barbecue sauce at lunch once and the waiter basically told us it wouldnt come out from the kitchen fast enough to eat with our meal, and we never received it. 4. MDR only seated people for lunch between noon and 1pm. Then it closes and buffet is the only option. Also short window for breakfast in MDR. Both meals are super chaotic for staff in MDR. It seemed like on-the-spot "special requests" werent accommodated much. During breakfast: Juice options were limited to what came around on a tray, and they werent clear about what the juice was when they gave it to you. Same with pastries. 5. Hamburgers are available at the buffet and South Bar of the Atmosphere pool daily with the fries. Hamburger (or cheeseburger) is on the dinner menu in MDR daily. Hamburgers appeared to be from frozen patties. Depending on the day, they appeared more or less browned on the outside. To us, they did not look appetizing, but they actually tasted better than they looked. We expected to bite into grizzle, but we didnt... we ate only 2 burgers though. The hamburgers were pretty basic, no unusual flavoring from our perspective. 6. If you have any specific drink needs, you should be clear about that upfront with staff. Particularly if you arent buying a drink package. "Free" drinks fluctuated daily in both MDR and buffet and sometimes only water was available. Milk was out in the buffet at breakfast, near cereal.In larger cartons or serving pitchers that you will need to pour from. I saw mostly whole milk initially, then the last couple of days, I only saw 2% milk. Milk is also available in a large silver-y urn near the coffee all day. I dont know what kind. Though I wouldnt be surprised if it is empty sometimes. No single-serve milk cartons at all. No flavored milk at all. Ice machines in buffet were not always working, and the water and juices didnt really come out of the dispensers cold. Juices in the buffet, when available, varied between: pineapple with little pulp, orange with little pulp, tropical mango, lemonade with pulp, cranberry, iced tea (unsweetened), strawberry kiwi (i could be wrong about this flavor), apple. The juice dispensers were often empty. It got slightly better during our second sailing, but still.... some ice and juice machines were "out of order" for our entire 13 days. One water dispenser seemed to dispense bad-tasting water. If you are facing the back of the ship and entering the buffet from the door on the far left of the ship, this water dispenser was the first you will encounter from that entrance. In the MDR, during dinner, with no drink package, we were rarely told about what besides water was available to drink. But towards the end, we were given 1 or 2 options from the above. I hope that helps!!!!! Have fun!!!