My View: A Merry Meraviglia Christmas in a Fantastica Balcony

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 6 - At Sea

[APDMOM]

Room Service:

It has definitely been fun to enjoy room service breakfast on the balcony.  However, it has been a bit hit or miss on the orders.  The first day, the order was perfect and we received milk cartons for our cereal.  The second day, we received a glass of milk only - not enough for 3 boxes of cereal.  The next day, we received no milk at all.  On the first two mornings, our order showed up exactly at 7 a.m.  On the following two mornings, the order was early - one even 20 minutes early.  They do not give you a call to let you know your order is on the way.  I think this is something they can improve on, as it helps to make sure you are ready to receive the order.  I know on some other cruise lines they will give you a call as a heads up that the order is on the way.  

 

Thankfully, I am an early riser and was ready to receive the order for our family.  On a positive note, the baked goods from room service are much better than the ones served in the Marketplace.  The Croissants are baked the way I like them and the wheat rolls are so good I could probably make a whole breakfast by just eating those.

 

Have I mentioned enough times that the room service coffee is the BEST free coffee at sea?  By the way, we received two carafes of coffee today.  🤷‍♀️ I’m not complaining about that 😂

[APDMOM]

Since it was a sea day, I took some early morning pictures of the ship. 

 

Sky Lounge:

This was the venue for the Cruise Critic meet and mingle, as well as he Diamond party.  At night, it is a jazz bar for 21 and over only.  We tried to spend some time there today when the sun was too hot on our balcony, but it was closed for a wedding.

 

The Sky lounge reminds me of the Freedom and Voyager class diamond lounges on RCL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for a wedding:

[APDMOM]

Crew Drill:

Something I forgot to mention about yesterday:  they had an extensive crew drill in Costa Maya.  We were amazed at the professionalism during this drill.  We were sitting at the top level of the Bamboo pool and one gentleman was assigned to stand right in front of us.  He had to stand there for at least 20 minutes and he remained professional throughout the drill.

 

Bamboo Pool:

 

Upstairs they have 2 Foosball tables and Table tennis:

 

 

 

 

We love these loungers that look out over the water.  However, the area can get very noisy with the roof closed and lots of children in the pool.

 

There are two whirlpool tubs at the upper level:

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Sea Day for us means lunch in the MDR:

 

DS and I really loved our meal.  The lamb was the best yet today.  DH did not really like the Asian salad as it did not have much dressing and was therefore dry.

 

 

 

 

Pan Seared Lamb Chops (Excellent):

 

Asian Salad (Dry):

 

Grilled Grouper: (DS loved it)

 

After lunch, we had about 30 minutes before our appointment to book a next cruise, which we spent in Jean Philippe:

 

We booked 2 future cruises - new territory to us.  I have LOTS of research to do for our first European cruise adventures. I have been to Europe 3 times, but never in the Med.  Really looking forward to start my research!

 

[APDMOM]

Jean Philippe Menu:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Preziosa]

Do They have free small food, crussaints etc in the Sky lounge. Different to what time in the Day you are there.....

[Norwich Cruiser]

We have read many reviews in our time on cruise critic and think your real time totally unbiased blog is definitely the best ever we have enjoyed our daily reading and your photography is superb.

Thank you so much.

 

[alicat58]

Enjoyable review as usual. What a wonderful European cruise you are going to have. Are you on Seaview from Civitavecchia? We did the cruise with my brother and part of his family.

 

You'll have such fun with the planning and will be able to do your own thing in all of the ports. Some walkable and others not. Lots of info on the port boards on CC.

[APDMOM]

3 hours ago, Preziosa said:

Do They have free small food, crussaints etc in the Sky lounge. Different to what time in the Day you are there.....

@Preziosa Yes, they do.  I saw it for the first time yesterday.  I did not think to ask if they are free.

[APDMOM]

2 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

We have read many reviews in our time on cruise critic and think your real time totally unbiased blog is definitely the best ever we have enjoyed our daily reading and your photography is superb.

Thank you so much.

 

Thank you so much, @Norwich Cruiser!  🙂

[APDMOM]

28 minutes ago, alicat58 said:

Enjoyable review as usual. What a wonderful European cruise you are going to have. Are you on Seaview from Civitavecchia? We did the cruise with my brother and part of his family.

 

You'll have such fun with the planning and will be able to do your own thing in all of the ports. Some walkable and others not. Lots of info on the port boards on CC.

Thank you @alicat58!  Glad to hear we can do a lot on our own - it is a bit difficult to budget when you don’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by the reasonable prices even for Europe on MSC.  We priced cruises with RCL and NCL at about 150% to 200% of these that we booked.  So, we are happy with the price.  Obviously, we are enjoying this cruise also, which is why we are sticking with the more affordable MSC option. 🙂

 

[Preziosa]

Thank you, I hope you Will enjoy the small free food with a Nice drink in the Skylounge on your last Day. Thank you so much for everything you have been written about This Cruise. Our Cruise the 5 th of april is not totaly the same route, We Will visit Cayman Island, Jamaica, Mexico and the Ocean cay. We were on the first sailing with Meraviglia so We look forward to do another Cruise on This wonderful ship. Enjoy your last Day on the ship.

[APDMOM]

Another Dome View:

[APDMOM]

Dinner in the MDR:

 

Menu:

 

 

 

Our Verdict on Dinner:

DH and DS have fallen into a routine - sticking to their favorites tonight:

DH with Caesar Salad, Salmon, and Brownies with Ice cream

DS with Shrimp Cocktail, Chicken, and Brownies with Ice cream

 

APDMOM: 

Crab cake - Very good.  It has a potato base, so it is different from what I am used to, but it will definitely be “a repeater” on our list.

Shrimp Ravioli - Excellent, but a very small serving.  There were 6 small ravioli’s.  DS ate two of them and decided that will be his next choice on Seaside in May/June.  🙂

Confit Apple - Good - on a bed of shortbread.  It was not as sweet as expected, but was very good when I added some of DH’s Vanilla Ice Cream.

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

The Show: Meraviglioso Amor

 

Another stellar performance by the dancers and good vocals by most of the singers.  Although I do not enjoy opera, the beautiful red-head of Meraviglia has unbelievable breath control and just the right amount of vibrato.  The sound control was much improved today and there was perfect balance between the live band and singers.  

 

Although there was one “just plain awful“ song, the majority of the show was amazing and enjoyable, with a few crowd favorites like “Gloria”.

 

At the end, several staff and crew members joined the throng, representing the face of Meraviglia, “We work with love”.  That has certainly been our experience with the staff and crew this week.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a bit partial to the pianist from South Africa 😉

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

My View: End of Day 6 - At Sea 

I love the detail in the Christmas trees.  Mine at home will never look like this - another excuse to book Christmas cruises 😂

[APDMOM]

This is definitely a first for me... I am up to date with my review on day 7!  😄

 

Part of the reason is that internet speeds have been very consistent.  The other part is that I take my iPad everywhere and draft my review as the day goes on.  It has been more efficient and fun! 

 

Thanks again for all the positive feedback and contributions!  We are waiting to get off the ship in Ocean Cay.

 

Are you ready for too many pictures of Ocean Cay?  Stay tuned - hopefully will have some posted by tonight. 

[sprath]

3 hours ago, APDMOM said:

Thank you @alicat58!  Glad to hear we can do a lot on our own - it is a bit difficult to budget when you don’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by the reasonable prices even for Europe on MSC.  We priced cruises with RCL and NCL at about 150% to 200% of these that we booked.  So, we are happy with the price.  Obviously, we are enjoying this cruise also, which is why we are sticking with the more affordable MSC option. 🙂

 

We did this itinerary a couple of years ago on a different ship. We were surprised at how reasonably priced everything was, on ship and in the ports. The only place where we felt like we got gouged was in Marseilles. I don't even think we really got gouged there, I just think it is an expensive place.

[alicat58]

Not wanting to hijack APDMUM's post but I agree with sprath about Marseille. On par with Palermo which we don't particularly like either. We are boarding the Grandiosa in Marseille(French strikes allowing) on 10/1.

[sascruise]

5 hours ago, APDMOM said:

This is definitely a first for me... I am up to date with my review on day 7!  😄

 

Part of the reason is that internet speeds have been very consistent.  The other part is that I take my iPad everywhere and draft my review as the day goes on.  It has been more efficient and fun! 

 

Thanks again for all the positive feedback and contributions!  We are waiting to get off the ship in Ocean Cay.

 

Are you ready for too many pictures of Ocean Cay?  Stay tuned - hopefully will have some posted by tonight. 

 

Good luck with Ocean Cay, hopefully it doesn't get 'Ocean Canceled' like last week (Dec. 22)! They canceled on the day of and therefore we ended up having 2 sea days back to back until we got back to Miami.

 

Gene promised they would have jam packed activities and performances throughout the whole day to make up for it but there wasn't anything extra at all (just your usual activities that were already scheduled and performances). The 'Virtual' theater performances were also all canceled on the first day due to technical difficulties (they could have at least added that on the Ocean Cay day). 

 

The sea day was handled very poorly overall and left a lot of North Americans pretty pissed off. The only reason we had booked this cruise/line was for Ocean Cay as we were looking for a nice day of relaxation on the private island. They promote Ocean Cay (a big selling point point for us and I'm sure some others as well), and then to have it cancelled it is very disappointing. The day of Ocean Cay, wasn't very windy at all when we were anchored near it, they didn't want to take a chance at docking. It did get windier throughout the day so maybe it was indeed safer not to dock. The ship just did circles to kill off time until the scheduled time to head to Miami.

 

Thanks for your in-depth review as well, I've been following for a few days and it's been great reliving the cruise we were on last week through your pictures!

[APDMOM]

 

5 hours ago, sascruise said:

Good luck with Ocean Cay, hopefully it doesn't get 'Ocean Canceled' like last week (Dec. 22)! They canceled on the day of and therefore we ended up having 2 sea days back to back until we got back to Miami.

@sascruise We were so sorry for all of you when we heard Ocean Cay was cancelled last week.  We were following events during that storm system and I know it must have been very disappointing.  I must say, after seeing the tight turn the ship has to make to dock with the assistance of a tug boat, I was not surprised that even the slightest stormy forecast would be approached cautiously.  Hopefully, you will be able to experience the island at another time.  

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 7 - Ocean Cay for a Perfect Day (See what I did there? 😉)

 

Although, since MSC knows how to correctly pronounce “Cay” as “Key”, maybe it should read “Ocean ‘Key’, how perfect could it be?”

 

[APDMOM]

Time Lapse of our arrival (Hopefully the video loads and works):

 

[APDMOM]

Somewhat stormy weather:

Although it looked calm from our perspective, there were somewhat stormy seas.  We could not tell until we saw a small boat going by, bouncing off the waves.  One beach was closed with no swimming allowed due to the rough waves.  I know from living at the beach that the waves can look harmless, but be filled with rip currents.  Therefore, I trust that the beach was closed for our safety.  They also cancelled several excursions, including deep see fishing and scuba diving.

 

Sunrise from our balcony: