MSC Meraviglia Review - 4 Night 08/16/21

[DisneyDatknee]

Hi all -- just got back home in Miami from the ship and just wanted to provide my thoughts on the Meraviglia. This is my second time on MSC and my secnd time on the Meraviglia as I sailed her from Rome in 2019. I just recently sailed on the Celebrity Summit from Saint Maarten three weeks ago.

 

Pre-Cruise: We booked with the healthcare hero's discount and my voyager's club discount. For the two of us in a fantastica balcony, the cruise came out to just under $450, so pretty good deal. We added a Premium Drink Package as well as the Browse + Stream Package. I received an email to bid for an upgrade to the Yacht Club and submitted a bid. My card was charged three days before the cruise and I called to get the documents changed but they said they needed 24 hours to update them. I assumed I got the upgrade, but the day of sailing I got an email saying I was denied with the e-mail saying "I will not be charged". The charge disappeared days later. 

 

Embarkation: They changed our check-in time a couple of days before to 12:30, vs 3:30. It said we had to be there within the hour, but I arrived about an hour late as I wasn't quick ready to leave the house yet and no one said a thing. If you want to park at the Port, you have to drive down all the way to Garage G and then take a shuttle back. The shuttle was quick, just found it inconvenient when there were several other garages nearby, but filled by Carnival passengers. If you're a Black Card (well diamond now) holder, there was no priority lines, only for Yacht Club guests. We took our COVID test and waited in a group with other passengers and then proceeded to check-in to get our room keys and boarded. We were provided with a band to show that we were vaccinated as well as a MSC for Me band to track exposure and to use it as a room key. 

 

Ship: The Meraviglia is a beautiful ship, probably the nicest I've sailed on, but I find it difficult to navigate, especially around the top decks. Deck plans are not easily displayed throughout the ship and the MSC for Me app does not show a deckplan at all. 

 

Dining: I was really disappointed with the food on MSC. The quality was ok, but it just never seemed to really change. It was very repetitive and the buffet was not very large at all. They didn't utilize a good portion of the buffet, which was not the case on my pre-covid cruise. I was stuck eating pizza pretty much every meal at the buffet as nothing else was really appetizing. The main dining room was slow, bread hard (except the "cheese" bread). I think I drank more than ate on this cruise. If I sailed MSC again, I would probably buy the speciality dining package. We ate at the sushi bar one night and it was really delicious. 

Cabin: We had Cabin 14168. It was one of the "slant" balconies, so we had a lot of space. The room even had a bathtub instead of a shower. However, I'm 6'1 and my head barely touched the ceiling and it was hard to avoid getting water on the floor due to the "half shower door", common in Europe. There wasn't anything I could complain about the room except VOD was a premium and most of the TV channels were not working. 

 

Service: Everyone on the ship was pretty friendly, but not overly friendly like on other American Lines, which is fine. The only staff I encountered that were pretty rude was a bartender at the Sports Bar and the staff on Ocean Cay. Cabin steward was nice, but found it strange there was no way to contact him without seeing him physically. 

 

Ocean Cay: Really nice, but found it disappointing that umbrellas were not free. This island will burn you to death as all the vegetation is pretty fresh. You can find a palm tree and move some chairs to it, but we just found an umbrella some guests left behind to use. Some of the beaches were not open as the ship wasn't too full. The lighthouse show wasn't memorable. The food was the same both days, only hamburgers hot dogs and veggie burgers. My friend thought the hamburgers tasted fine, but made of some alternative meats. We really enjoyed the lagoon area with the floating platforms in the water. Beach was kinda rocky in some parts, but for the part, it was very relaxing. The first day of Ocean Cay everyone went to the lagoon area and the second day everyone seem to go to the lighthouse beach.

 

Disembarkation: 7:00 AM is the walk off express. We got in line at 6:40 AM and were in our car in the parking garage by 7:30 AM. They were getting mad at guests for not social distancing, which was not something they pushed at all during the entire cruise. 

 

Wifi Package: I'm glad I got the package because it worked really well. We were watching Hulu every night. If you buy the package, make sure you logout when you leave the ship to Ocean Cay and do the same when you leave Ocean Cay. 

 

Overall Thoughts: I think MSC is a good value, but the food would probably have me looking at other lines for now. 

 

If you have any questions, please let me know!

 

Happy Sailing 🙂

 

[styles27]

All in all sounds like you had fun! 
 

Over the years we have found cruise food has declined a lot (unless you eat at the specialty restaurants.)

I’ve saved paperwork from every cruise we’ve been on going back to 1989. 
It is surprising to see that the rates we pay now haven’t changed much since 1989 so something had to give. 
In our experience it’s obvious one of the areas they cut back on is the quality of the food in the MDR and buffets. 

We aren’t faithful to any one line we sail whichever line has the best deal on the region we want to cruise. We’ve noticed the food decline on all of the lines we’ve sailed. MSC, NCL, RC, Carnival, Princess, HAL, Celebrity and Regent (although the last two have not declined as much as the others.) 
We eat in the specialty restaurant at least a few nights on a 7 day cruise now. 
 

So it sounds like you didn’t witness a whole lot of social distancing on board. How about the nightly shows was it difficult to find a seat in the vaccinated guests only shows?

[quattrohead]

To be fair, I think all eating establishments land and sea based have declined over the years. Race to the bottom.

Last visit to Outback Stakehouse was indeed the last ever, it was pitiful.

[MarkusToe]

Uhhhh, Outback is my must if I'm in the US.... really sooo bad?

[back-at-it]

2 hours ago, DisneyDatknee said:

Service: Everyone on the ship was pretty friendly, but not overly friendly like on other American Lines, which is fine. The only staff I encountered that were pretty rude was a bartender at the Sports Bar and the staff on Ocean Cay. Cabin steward was nice, but found it strange there was no way to contact him without seeing him physically. 

I would hope the staff would be more happy to be working and serving, hoping for the tips.  

We have a Sept 10th cruise and hope things get a little better with each cruise they go out on.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, MarkusToe said:

Uhhhh, Outback is my must if I'm in the US.... really sooo bad?

Yes. 16-20 years ago it was our favorite. And then the quality subsided, the prices went up, portions shrunk, and we switched to Longhorn Steakhouse instead.

[kilkoyne]

I remember seeing pictures of my mother's and father's cruise 30 years ago. Lobster and king crab legs every night along with other seafood at the buffet. 

 

Now the food on most cruises feels like I'm eating at HomeTown or Old Country Buffet. MSC is my least favorite for food but the breakfast is ok and the pizza is their savior.

[jules815]

23 hours ago, MarkusToe said:

Uhhhh, Outback is my must if I'm in the US.... really sooo bad?

 

21 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

Yes. 16-20 years ago it was our favorite. And then the quality subsided, the prices went up, portions shrunk, and we switched to Longhorn Steakhouse instead.

Agree. Not as good as it used to be, but not horrible. If we go to Outback, it's for a meal, not because it's a great steakhouse. Sort of like Olive Garden. Consistent, you know what you're going to get. We don't go there because they have great Italian food, but sometimes you just want Italian and breadsticks.