MSC Meraviglia - November 6th - Hopefully Live - Trip Report

[misguy]

I am going to try and update our trip on a daily basis   We are in the final stages of packing and getting everything ready for our upcoming trip.  My wife and I have sailed twice with Royal Caribbean and once with Carnival since July, and after we move down the pier a berth or two and board the Celebrity Summit.  We will be in a good position to compare products, this is our second MSC cruise, we were on the Armonia, the week before cruising stopped.

 

I have a YT channel that focuses on disabled travel and so you will see my wife and I around the ship videoing things that most people don't like accessible toilets and looking for what will work and what won't on the ship in a wheelchair.  The same on Ocean Cay, the first trip to Ocean Cay the wind was so bad, the captain said it was the worst docking of his career, and the island was mostly shut down.  I did tour around it, but none of the food trucks were open, and most of the bars were shut down.  So I am looking to see what has changed in the 18 months since we were there.

 

Right now the only excursion we have planned is Mr. Sancho's in Cozumel, and I am still thinking about Costa Maya, the challenge there is the need for accessible shore excursions.  I also have the shipwreck dive and lighthouse climb scheduled for my self on Ocean Cay.

 

We are flying down the day before, and we leave home tomorrow for a park and stay near the airport. For $149 I have the room for the night before we fly, we have an early morning flight and parking for 14 nights.  This would be typical for us when we travel, you can almost always find a Stay and Fly or a Stay and Cruise rate that is better than airport or cruise terminal parking.

[sojodave]

See you on board.

[misguy]

5 minutes ago, sojodave said:

See you on board.

Looking forward to it.  As I said, we are easy to find woman in a wheelchair using camera with another camera and husband pushing wheel chair with a camera.

[joeyancho]

We will be on this sailing also.  Can't wait. 

[Native Floridian 26]

I'll be looking forward to seeing dinner menus as well as the new Easy Plus drink menus.  Please post pictures!

[deliver42]

Have a fantastic cruise.

[TomNorth86]

Will be onboard as well. Any guesses as to what the occupancy/passenger count will be? Would love a non-crowded ship. 

[sojodave]

Someone on FB said there will be a 1,000 people on board.

[joeyancho]

We got our covid-19 tests and are ready to sail.    

[thesnoopster2]

I'll be on board too.  I have a baby and its the GFs first time on a cruise for the two of them.  We should be easy to find as we have a collapsible blue wagon we got from Walmart.  We tried to decide between the wagon and a stroller and figured the wagon would give us more autonomy in ports.  It can hold a car seat incase we do an excursion or take a taxi so the baby is safe and it has wide wheels so it can handle beach sand.  The stroller seems to get bogged down in the sand.

 

Question:  If there is truly really low capacity, will they do on board upgrades cheaper than the email offers we got??

 

To anyone not on this sailing, is there anything you would like us to check into for you?  

 

Things I'm interested in is Duty Free Pricing on some items and I'm going to see if we can hotspot or bluetooth tether share the internet connections.

[Morgsmom]

33 minutes ago, thesnoopster2 said:

Question:  If there is truly really low capacity, will they do on board upgrades cheaper than the email offers we got??

From my experience, no.  

[travelwide]

Can someone post who the Hotel Director is. Thank you.

[joeyancho]

1800 passengers 

[travelwide]

And the hotel director?

[Native Floridian 26]

Drink and main dining room menus please!  Bon Voyage!

[kompera]

Looks like they removed a second day at Ocean Kay and added Nassau! 

[misguy]

So here is the first of my onboard posts.  It is now late afternoon, and I will say that so far the things that I don't like, out number the things I do.  When you board the are two food choice for lunch. The buffet and the grill on deck 15.  Our first meal in the buffet left a lot to be desired, the only thing my wife found that was very good, was the veggie burger.  The fruit was good and the guacamole as well.  Everything else we tried was mediocre to meh.  They had chips and what they said was salsa, but it was more Ketchup than any thing.

 

The bad news started when we got to the room.  They said our itinerary was supposed to have been Ocean Cay, sea day, Cozumel, Costa Maya Sea Day, Ocean Cay, and then Miami.  I booked an itinerary that was supposed to have been Ocean Cay, Ocean Cay, Sea Day, Cozumel, Costa Maya, sea day and Miami.  Which meant we would have had an overnight on the Island and full days.  

 

What we are getting is a sea day, then Cozumel, Costa Maya,  Sea Day, Ocean Cay (9-6) so we miss all of the evening activities on Ocean Cay.  And again, we didn't find out any of this until we boarded the ship.  

 

The wifi plan is different than any of the others I have used in that if you have a one device plan it literally means one device.  I set it up on my phone, expecting to be able to swap to my computer, but no, I had to purchase another device so that I can use two different devices.  I can't find polite words to describe my aggravation.  

 

That being said the ship is beautiful and the crew has been very friendly, and boarding was a breeze.  I have already filmed most of the ship.  

 

From an accessibility perspective, there are no lifts for the hot tubs or pools.  So if you need one, you won't be able to get in the pools.  Our accessible balcony, is a normal Fantastica Balcony with a wooden ramp to access the balcony.  the balcony is so small that it is a challenge to get my wife's wheelchair out and onto the balcony.  

[misguy]

Total on board is about 1450.  Cruise director is Sarah and she is really good, the entertainment was good tonight.  Dinner in the MDR was good, service has been great.  Menu and pictures coming tomorrow.

[TomNorth86]

Same issue with the wifi, so I had to shell out another $97 in order to be able to use my laptop (have a couple remote days) in addition to my phone. The only saving grace is that I got the pre-departure rate versus the on-board. I’ve been telling myself I’m going to win it back in the casino…
 

Ship is beautiful, crew have been very friendly. 

[cruzlover]

Wondering about the drink package prices. I’m thinking it will be cheaper to wait till we get on board due to the Canadian exchange rate. The CDN website shows Easy $357/pp and Easy Plus at $469. That’s $51/day and $67/day CDN. Also, is gratuity added on to the package or on each drink? Thanks so much! Boarding Saturday and can’t wait!!

[travelwide]

I am looking for the Hotel Directors name not the cruise director. 

 

Sarah is very nice.🥂

[misguy]

53 minutes ago, travelwide said:

I am looking for the Hotel Directors name not the cruise director. 

 

Sarah is very nice.🥂

I will find his name, but the post about Sarah was for everyone.

 

[misguy]

It is early morning on Sunday, we sailed by Cuba on the way to Cozumel just past daylight this morning.  You could see Havana easily, and now we are sailing Along the Cuban coast.  You can see the mountains in the distance.  Today is off to a much better start, breakfast in the buffet was very good, and there is a patio all the way aft that is a great place for coffee as the sunrises and breakfast a little later.

[misguy]

Dinner on the first night was ok.  One thing I noticed with the menu is that things that are free in the main dining room on most lines are additional chare on MSC.  Carnival and Royal Caribbean always have shrimp cocktail and steak on the menu as free standard items.  On MSC, there is an extra charge.

 

Here are the first nights menus from the the MDR.  I will share what we chose and what we thought in another post.

 

[misguy]

My dinner choices were the Bay Scallop Ceviche, which I thought was a little bland.  It could have used a little more citrus and more chili  The scallops tasted good, and fresh.