Input Needed: Switching from Seaside to Meraviglia

[jkrislc]

Looking for some input from the MSC experts regarding our first MSC cruise.

 

We are currently booked on the MSC Seaside (12/30/17) sailing out of Miami. While I am thrilled by the idea of sailing a new ship, the itinerary, especially with the absence of Ocean Cay, is lackluster. We've sailed all of these ports before as recently as this year with the exception of Ocho Rios, which we have little interest in visiting. I'm also concerned that the Seaside will have the same "growing pains" in the first 30 days as the Meraviglia.

 

After pricing the Meraviglia, it's actually cheaper for us to sail to the Med even with the added airfare costs. While I know the winter weather won't be as pleasant as in the Caribbean, these will all be new ports for us that we are quite interested in visiting. The only downside is that we'll be on the Meraviglia again in July 2018 for the Norway/Arctic Circle cruise.

 

What would you do? I'm leaning towards the Meraviglia, but being an the newest ship in the fleet is quite enticing. That said, the Meraviglia is quite nice and also new.

 

Thanks!

[Beamafar]

To say that the Winter weather in the Med won't be as pleasant as the Caribbean is an understatement! Also, a lot of attractions may be closed during the Winter months. You may end up staying onboard due to bad weather. Problems I've found on doing this is that the ship can be very cold as the exit doors are open while the ship is in port so it's not even very pleasant staying onboard! At least on Seaside in the Caribbean you can enjoy the ship if the POCs don't hold any interest for you.

[SNJCruisers]

Tough call since you picked a week that has the increase in price since it's the NYE cruise as well as no promotions attached to it like all of the cruises starting on January 6 have. I would flip it to a Seaside sailing in late February or early March that would be cheaper and also offer you promotions. With the savings, you could also upgrade you cabin to Yacht Club, but they are more than likely all gone.

 

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[70054609]

Medetarainian in December not a good idea. I have just come off this ship and we had two days of bad weather and they do not provide any activities to occupy you. Stick with the sunshine in my opinion.

[sidari]

Meraviglia is just a larger Divina, stick with Seaside which is a newer class of ship.

[Beamafar]

Dave .............. it really isn't. Meraviglia is quite different to the Fantasia class ships and is in a class of its own.

[sidari]

Bea ... On the outside it does for sure, I accept the interior is different, the Fantasia class is a larger version of the Musica class and to me Meraviglia is a larger version of the Fantasia class.

Seaside is a totally different class.

 

Just my opinion.

[jkrislc]

Thanks for the feedback so far. We're pretty limited to when we can go and have taken quite a liking to Europe. I'm less concerned about the weather as I am the ports and the experience on the ship, which might be impaired by it being a completely new ship and design given the early and mixed reviews of Meriviglia.