Meraviglia November 10 Cruise

[mamaneedsavacay]

Did you dock or tender in Roatan?

Do you know if we need a regular tender ticket for Belize if we book an excursion through the ship? 

[Kruizin'Kath]

On 11/17/2019 at 5:13 PM, CruisinMaterial said:

Did they still have a sanitizing person at the entrance to the Marketplace Buffet on your sailing? Also, did they finally provision all staterooms with tissues?

How ridiculous is the tissue thing?? We were on the 13 day sailing with you. My husband came down with pneumonia and we were told we couldn't get tissues! And it's not like they sell them on the ship! No wonder everywhere you went people were coughing and sniffling! But to be fair, they did give us 2 boxes after I inquired at customer service desk!

[CruisinMaterial]

2 minutes ago, Kruizin'Kath said:

How ridiculous is the tissue thing?? We were on the 13 day sailing with you. My husband came down with pneumonia and we were told we couldn't get tissues! And it's not like they sell them on the ship! No wonder everywhere you went people were coughing and sniffling! But to be fair, they did give us 2 boxes after I inquired at customer service desk!

I got a sinus infection out of it and my mom fared a bit worse. It was the most silly thing. We went hunting for tissues while in port. We bought a box before anyone got sick in our room too because it was just silly not to have them. I came down with the sinus issue in Curacao but luckily I travel with a small pharmacy so I had the stuff to treat it and kept it at bay for the rest of the voyage.

 

I hope your husband has a speedy recovery! It was such a beautiful ship but such a silly decision to dampen the cruise for so many.

[Kruizin'Kath]

7 minutes ago, CruisinMaterial said:

I got a sinus infection out of it and my mom fared a bit worse. It was the most silly thing. We went hunting for tissues while in port. We bought a box before anyone got sick in our room too because it was just silly not to have them. I came down with the sinus issue in Curacao but luckily I travel with a small pharmacy so I had the stuff to treat it and kept it at bay for the rest of the voyage.

 

I hope your husband has a speedy recovery! It was such a beautiful ship but such a silly decision to dampen the cruise for so many.

Hope you and your Mom have recovered as we head in to the holiday season! My husband has recovered although we both seem to have residual coughs!

[cellfree]

Roatan - docked. 

Belize Tender if on Ship Excursion - will be told where/when to meet on ship. 

[sfaaa]

2 hours ago, CruisinMaterial said:

This is excellent news. On the repositioning cruise they didn't have tissues in the stateroom (YC had them but no other category rooms did) and the sanitizing person didn't pop up until Day 4 in St Maarten. I only asked because I really hoped MSC listened as our sailing had a large amount of people contract an upper respiratory / sinus infection bug. It spread like wildfire on the ship since no one had tissues to use (and used their hands... gross)!

I saw one guy using the blue cloth napkin at buffet to blow his nose. I just about freaked out.

[mamaneedsavacay]

1 hour ago, cellfree said:

Roatan - docked. 

Belize Tender if on Ship Excursion - will be told where/when to meet on ship. 

Thanks for the fast answer!

[cruceriantes]

cellfree.....Thanks to much for the information.  Looking forward to our February 23rd cruise.    

[trainbuff]

The tissue ppolicy is just plain stupid and increases the spread of illnesses on the ship. I have allergies and was able to get tissues after the cabin steward got permission from his supervisor. I did tell the cabin steward who was very good by the way, that if the supervisor denied the request, I would speak to him myself. After that I had more than enough tissues, but this is a ridiculous policy.

[CruisinMaterial]

On 11/18/2019 at 7:48 PM, Kruizin'Kath said:

Hope you and your Mom have recovered as we head in to the holiday season! My husband has recovered although we both seem to have residual coughs!

It's the cough she can't shake but she's recovered quite a bit. I hope the both of you are able to kick your cough by Thanksgiving!

 

All: I want to be clear, the ship is stunning. The crew were great. This was a corporate decision regarding the tissues, not the ship itself. Either they didn't have enough to provision all the rooms when the ship came to North America or the corporate policy was to not provision anything outside of Yacht Club. For that, I'm not happy with MSC about it. The crew were great, the ship was stunning and the party scene on this ship was amazing! Theme parties practically every night! Go find my review for the full break down of it all!

[mamaneedsavacay]

46 minutes ago, CruisinMaterial said:

Go find my review for the full break down of it all!

 

Do you have a link to this, or keyword I can search. I thought I was pretty savy on CC but I haven't been able to turn it up. Thanks!

[GreenSmoothieCruiser]

On 11/17/2019 at 2:40 PM, cellfree said:

Just off the ship, loved it, would definitely sail her again. Crew and Staff excellent, always smiling, always say “hello,” great service. Found ship fairly easy to navigate. Interactive screens throughout the ship easy to use. Food fine and have no complaints but would say I liked the pastas on the Divina better. Had dinner in Butchers Cut (diamond perk) and it was superb. We did try the Fish n Chips in the Brass Anchor Pub $5.00 and was great. Also tried hamburger and fries from Pub $5.00 and just okay for me. Three nightly shows very well attended. There are six different dinner times, three dining rooms. We had the “easy package” and it was more than adequate for us. We had an Interior Cabin on Deck 14, really spacious, only negative would be lack of drawers. Sorry these few quick comments are all over the place but wanted to write a few quick notes before I do laundry - yikes! Oh yes we did get $100 credit on our account due to no private island, Cozumel added, and from the letter we got upon arrival on board we will get a discount on the next cruise we book - the amount is 20% of what we paid for the Mera cruise so not a flat amount and will be different amounts depending on what you paid for your cruise, fine for us, we will sail MSC again, this was our 7th cruise with MSC. 

Thank you for your review and replies to many questions, here are two more. 🙂

 

Do you recall if passengers are allowed to bring bottled water on board (24 pack of bottled water)?

 

Also, did you use the walking track? I saw on the website that the walking track is on one of the upper decks with minimal shade. Is there another area/walking track that is shaded?

[cellfree]

1)  No bottled water (or soda or wine, etc.) is allowed to be brought on board.

2) The walking track is very nice, it is on an upper deck, early in the morning best time to walk it, five times around = 1 mile.

[CarolinaQC]

On 11/19/2019 at 2:10 AM, cellfree said:

Belize Tender if on Ship Excursion - will be told where/when to meet on ship. 

 

Sorry if it is a silly question (first time cruiser), but without a ship excursion, how do you get on land in Belize then? Do I need some kind of ticket? Does it cost extra?

[cellfree]

Belize is a "tender" port so without an excursion you need to go to the "TV Lounge on Deck 7" (that is where we had to go) to get a Number and when your Number is called you can catch the tender and get to Belize.  Or you can wait until all numbers are called, enjoy a liesurely breakfast and relax, and they will eventually say something to the effect that it is "open" tender time and anyone can come  down and get onto a tender.  Tender trip is 30-40 minutes.  There is NO cost involved.

[perakcruiser]

Let me add that you always get priority tender tickets if you have Gold or Black status (the biggest perk of Gold in my opinion). Otherwise if you want to leave the ship early, just line up before tender tickets distribution starts. Then you should get "Tender 1". If you are not in a hurry, do als @cellfree said and wait for you number or the "open tender" time. 

 

Belize City is very compact to walk around, three hours time is definitely enough. 

[CarolinaQC]

Good to know! Thank you so much!
I actually have an excursion booked with cavetubbing.bz so I believe I have to get to Belize as early as possible... So I better line up before distribution starts as you said!!
Thank you so much for all the information, had no ideia!! 

[Até]

On 11/20/2019 at 8:27 PM, mamaneedsavacay said:

Do you have a link to this, or keyword I can search. I thought I was pretty savy on CC but I haven't been able to turn it up.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=670126

[jdvmd]

8 hours ago, CarolinaQC said:

Good to know! Thank you so much!
I actually have an excursion booked with cavetubbing.bz so I believe I have to get to Belize as early as possible... So I better line up before distribution starts as you said!!
Thank you so much for all the information, had no ideia!! 

Just so you know, tendering in Belize does take some time. All ships have to tender because of the reef system. One way is usually 30-40 minutes by tender.

[CruisinMaterial]

2 hours ago, Até said:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=670126

Thanks for posting the link... I didn't have a chance to get on here since Wednesday PM!

[blueslily]

On 11/18/2019 at 6:44 PM, CruisinMaterial said:

This is excellent news. On the repositioning cruise they didn't have tissues in the stateroom (YC had them but no other category rooms did) and the sanitizing person didn't pop up until Day 4 in St Maarten. I only asked because I really hoped MSC listened as our sailing had a large amount of people contract an upper respiratory / sinus infection bug. It spread like wildfire on the ship since no one had tissues to use (and used their hands... gross)!

 

Hello, I am new to the MSC boards as I am new to considering MSC. I have sailed other lines. The comments about tissues in this thread are interesting to me. CM - when you said people used their hands because there were no facial tissues in the cabins, what were they using their hands to do?  Blowing their noses in their hands? Really? That is not a lack of tissues issue. That is a much bigger issue. I wonder if those same people did have access to tissues, would they actually wash their hands after using tissues.

 

I sympathize with the people who report that they got sick during their sailings. But really, if there were or were not tissues the hygiene that people use when they are sick impacts sharing the illness with other people on tge ship. It's not just about whether or not you have access to facial tissues. Also there are other more appropriate options on the ship to use for covering a cough and blowing a nose if there are no tissues provided in rooms.  You don't have to use your hand because there is no facial tissues. That's just ridiculous. What happens if you are anywhere else during life and needed a tissue that was not available. It sounds like bad decision-making and bad hygiene overall.

 

Again, I certainly have sympathy for people who did get sick. And I glad that people were either able to get some tissues from staff on the ship or purchase some in port. I will continue to travel with tissues and other hygiene products.