First time cruiser booked on MSC Meraviglia needing advice

[Amion68]

Hi all, family of 4 first time cruisers booked on MSC Meraviglia cruise of Western Caribbean in March.

We are booked in to a Fantastica balcony package with the standard Fantastica benefits.

 

Looking for any advice and recommendations from any experienced MSC cruisers on what we need to consider booking in advance.  For example...

 

-Drinks package:  Should we book up the advanced drinks package or 'pay as we drink'.  We're a family with kids aged 8-14 so its not going to be a 'booze cruise'...however as a Brit I do like my beer 🙂

 

-On board experiences:  Cirque du Soleil seems to be a must do based on reviews and appears to get fully booked. However I can't see anything on the MSC website about booking this (only the meals/cocktails packages).  Also any other must do experiences whilst on board that need booking in advance?

 

-Excursions: Not surprisingly MSC recommend booking these through them...however as a savvy traveller I am mindful of there being alternative options.  We are doing the western caribean itinetary....so Isla do Roatan, Belize city, Costa Maya and Ocean Cay.  Any recommendations on what we simply mus'nt miss (and how to book) appreciated.  My wide really wants to see the Mayan ruins while me ands the kids are more in to the beach/watersports experiences

 

Any advise, tipson the above and/or any other bits we might not have considered very much appreciated 🙂

[jkgourmet]

My standard advice to a first time cruiser:

 

Arrive the day before the cruise debates (exceptions if you drive from a location maybe less than 6 hours away.)

 

Pack one-half of what you think you need.  

 

Kids?  Be aware of the extra cost items - certain beverages and activities. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

 

I highly recommend that you start researching your destinations here:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/456-caribbean/

[Amion68]

15 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

My standard advice to a first time cruiser:

 

Arrive the day before the cruise debates (exceptions if you drive from a location maybe less than 6 hours away.)

 

Pack one-half of what you think you need.  

 

Kids?  Be aware of the extra cost items - certain beverages and activities. 

Thankyou for your advice. We fly in to MIA 2days prior and I’ve booked us in to a mid town hotel near to the POM

[GOLDENBONNY]

1 hour ago, Amion68 said:

Hi all, family of 4 first time cruisers booked on MSC Meraviglia cruise of Western Caribbean in March.

We are booked in to a Fantastica balcony package with the standard Fantastica benefits.

 

Looking for any advice and recommendations from any experienced MSC cruisers on what we need to consider booking in advance.  For example...

 

-Drinks package:  Should we book up the advanced drinks package or 'pay as we drink'.  We're a family with kids aged 8-14 so its not going to be a 'booze cruise'...however as a Brit I do like my beer

🙂

Well to get a good beer you will need a premium package . for two people its almost 900$ How many beers you have per day ? Do you math .

 

-On board experiences:  Cirque du Soleil seems to be a must do based on reviews and appears to get fully booked. However I can't see anything on the MSC website about booking this (only the meals/cocktails packages).  Also any other must do experiences whilst on board that need booking in advance?

 

You Can book in advance by calling MSc or just go right after you step onboard and book your show. don't do dinner too expensive for food they serve. 

 

-Excursions: Not surprisingly MSC recommend booking these through them...however as a savvy traveller I am mindful of there being alternative options.  We are doing the western caribean itinetary....so Isla do Roatan, Belize city, Costa Maya and Ocean Cay.  Any recommendations on what we simply mus'nt miss (and how to book) appreciated.  My wide really wants to see the Mayan ruins while me ands the kids are more in to the beach/watersports experiences

I would do ship only excursions on Roatan and Belize . I would not go ashore on belize even I saw it once it was enough for me. 

 

1 hour ago, Amion68 said:

Any advise, tipson the above and/or any other bits we might not have considered very much appreciated 🙂

 

[perakcruiser]

No drinks package needed for you.

 

Cirque du Soleil is the only on board activity you can book in advance. Note that Americans like it a lot, Europeans usually not so excited about it and name it a waste of money, don't know about Brits 🙂

 

Costa Maya itself is very bad, this is the place to do a trip to the Maya ruins. We found the prices very high "outside", this is together with Belize maybe the place to simply go with MSC. While on Roatan I would just go to the west of the island for excellent breach life by taxi (you need proper negotiation skills), no use to book excursion. You even can earn a lot of street credibility by taking a colectivo, but for this you need to walk to coxen hole centre. No colectivos pass the harbour even the map would indicate they need to.

[sidari]

We did this cruise over Xmas although Roatan and Costa Maya were reversed while Belize remained on Xmas day.

In Roatan we went to Big French Key which is next to Little French Key, the ship has tours to both.

For the Belize stop we went horse riding which was a first for me but my partner is a long time horse rider.

Costa Maya was our third time there and we decided to book the Mayan Kingdom with it's zip lines and water slides, a short distance from the port and a great day out. Videos on YouTube.

We personally didn't like the ship as much as Seaside but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it.

 

[mamaneedsavacay]

11 minutes ago, sidari said:

For the Belize stop we went horse riding which was a first for me but my partner is a long time horse rider.

 

 

Sidari, did you book this excursion through the ship? Was it the Bacab eco park? Any tips/ reviews on that? 

 

OP- Anything you might want on ship is cheaper to book in advance. We booked the digital photo package (~$150.) We're also going to book some Ocean Cay umbrellas, maybe floats. (Easy drinks came with our reservation already.)

 

You can't get Cirque tickets outside of the meal/cocktail packages. Most reviews I've seen recommend getting the cocktail package over the meal package. You can search for Viaggio/Sonor on this board and find youtube links, etc. I've seen enough mixed reviews that we're going to pass. 

 

For excursions, we love Maya Chan in Costa Maya and book that on our own, but the Costa Maya discussion board has great discussions on other private beach clubs. It's not hard to book those on your own and meet your driver outside the port area. We've never felt unsafe. On the Roatan discussion board, you'll find discussions on Sloth and Snorkel tours and we're going to try one of those based on tons of good reviews. Again, you book with outside company and they give you instructions to meet right outside the port. The one port we've booked through MSC is Belize, because it's already a tender port and folks tend to say they felt unsafe navigating outside the port area on their own. It's our first time there and we'd rather just get on an excursion tender.

[sidari]

mama ... Yes it was the Bakak one booked prior to the cruise, there was food included plus a swim pool.

Riders are matched to horse depending on experience.

[Amion68]

40 minutes ago, mamaneedsavacay said:

 

Sidari, did you book this excursion through the ship? Was it the Bacab eco park? Any tips/ reviews on that? 

 

OP- Anything you might want on ship is cheaper to book in advance. We booked the digital photo package (~$150.) We're also going to book some Ocean Cay umbrellas, maybe floats. (Easy drinks came with our reservation already.)

 

You can't get Cirque tickets outside of the meal/cocktail packages. Most reviews I've seen recommend getting the cocktail package over the meal package. You can search for Viaggio/Sonor on this board and find youtube links, etc. I've seen enough mixed reviews that we're going to pass. 

 

For excursions, we love Maya Chan in Costa Maya and book that on our own, but the Costa Maya discussion board has great discussions on other private beach clubs. It's not hard to book those on your own and meet your driver outside the port area. We've never felt unsafe. On the Roatan discussion board, you'll find discussions on Sloth and Snorkel tours and we're going to try one of those based on tons of good reviews. Again, you book with outside company and they give you instructions to meet right outside the port. The one port we've booked through MSC is Belize, because it's already a tender port and folks tend to say they felt unsafe navigating outside the port area on their own. It's our first time there and we'd rather just get on an excursion tender.

Thanks for the feedback. 
 

Your excursion feedback is loosely what I was expecting and it is interesting to hear there are external excursion options ashore. A navy frien of mine warned us about Belize also so noted. 
 

we will probably do one of the cirque shows as I’ve read they tend to sell out...deciding between Sonor and Viaggio is the next challenge!

[mamaneedsavacay]

10 minutes ago, Amion68 said:

Your excursion feedback is loosely what I was expecting and it is interesting to hear there are external excursion options ashore. A navy frien of mine warned us about Belize also so noted. 

 

This is the one we do in Costa Maya, highly recommend: http://costamayabeachresort.com/ We learned about it here on CC and had a great time. 

 

This is the one we are trying in Roatan, comes recommended here on CC: https://monkeyandslothhangout.com/home/

 

Both let you reserve online and then send you instructions on where to meet them just outside the port. They monitor the ship arrivals and know when you meet you- it's all in the instructions they send. Pretty standard for those tourist spots and they get you back to the ship in plenty of time. 

[NeedToVacation]

Hi 

For excursions on your own, I would highly recommend:

 

in Roatan:  Manawakie Eco Park.  They have different packages to choose from on their website. The owner will answer any questions through email very quickly.  We visited them in Nov and had a blast! The driver was reliable and van was comfortable. 

  (My second choice would be to look at Gumbalimba Park, then walk out to beach, as it is on the West end)

  ** These are both if you want to experience the animals - birds, monkeys, sloths, etc.

 

in Costa Maya:  We spent the day at Hayhu Beach Club. The food was delicious and the service was terrific! The beach is beautiful - and they provide stand-up paddle boards, kayaks, there was a lady doing massages for $30. And NO vendors.

 

in Belize:  We have done the Cave Tubing once, but it wasn't my favorite thing to do. I prefer sun and warm water!! I would suggest a snorkel tour since the huge, awesome reef is right there. We've always gotten rained out or it's been too windy to get to go, but I've read good reviews about Goff's Caye. And I agree that you should get preference for an early tender boat to shore if you already have an excursion booked for Belize, which is nice. Just show someone a printed copy of your confirmation for any private excursion you may have booked, and they should still give you earlier tenders than people w/out excursions.

 

Ocean Cay was great! I was just there last week. Water will still be chilly - but worth it to dip in and swim to the floating platforms. I grabbed a burger & fries for lunch (included in your cruise price) at one of the many food trucks. Delicious! (The line at the lunch pavilion was too long for me.)

 

Have fun!! We are looking at cruising on the Meraviglia out of NYC in late Oct.