10/13 MSC Meraviglia total disaster

[GOLDENBONNY]

4 hours ago, gramy said:

didn't you read your Email!

did you read email? what did it say?

 

[no1talks]

2 hours ago, GA Dave said:

"Sometimes when everyone else is zigging, you need to zag."  😁

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, no1talks said:

I work for one of the better known Wall Street firms, and while I am very limited in terms of any online advice that I can provide, broadly speaking, I like this strategy and way of thinking (zagging while others are zigging and vice-versa).

Edited October 17, 2022 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

5 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

This truly blows my mind.  That customer relations reps do not have the autonomy they need to resolve an issue staring them right in the face without first consulting headquarters in Italy is enough to make me cruise elsewhere.  Fortunately, we had a good experience on or first MSC cruise but there are just too many mainstream lines to choose from to battle such illogical management practices.  Should we ever encounter a situation like this, we simply wouldn't go back.  I hope our cruise with MSC next month has improved results.

I've mentioned this issue many times, particularly in my MSC Comedy of Errors thread.  The shoreside customer service folks are pleasant enough, but in many instances, they are not empowered to fix problems as they arise.  So they contact Italy who might do something, in time, or might simply ignore the request.

A couple of examples.  They erroneously showed that I had an early dining and I told them it was supposed to be late dining.  Just changing the dining raised the price by many hundreds of dollars and it took multiple requests to Italy to sort it out.

Another example.  I wanted to change to a promotion that had a drink package.  I was assured that I could keep my unobstructed mid-ship veranda cabin.  But instead, I was moved to an obstructed cabin at the front of the ship.  It took many calls and  messages between the MSC U.S. and Italy to sort things out.  And I never did get my cabin back, but at least I finally got something unobstructed.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Stockjock

[slk1000]

5 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

What a great perspective, GA Dave!  So if I may, I have a few questions...

1.  How did you find the interior stateroom and more specifically, how was the a/c?  We have booked one in the YC for next month and picked interior because I'm hoping the a/c may be better than it was last time in our balcony stateroom....

2.  Did you visit the casino?  if so, was smoking allowed?

I did not see any smoking in the casino.  Also, they did not have a craps table this time which was surprising.  

[USC-UVIC]

15 hours ago, slk1000 said:

My family just got off the Meraviglia and it was a total nightmare.  We were in line for 4 1/2 hours just to get on the ship.  An older women in front of me actually passed out.  We got there at 1:30 and finally boarded at 6:00. After boarding, I went to the MDR and waited for it to open at 6:30.  People were still in line outside.  It took 30 minutes and asking 3 people to get a glass of water and one hour later at 7:30 we had still only had one piece of bread.  By the third night we ended up going to the buffet because dinner took so long.  This is my 5th cruise with MSC and I can't believe our experience.  I understand there are issued but it was really upsetting that they didn't seem to care at all. Eventually they ended up giving a $50 obc on the 3rd day.  The clincher for my husband is when he went to get my son soft serve ice cream near the pool and was told they no longer offer free ice cream unless you have the drink package . Other issues included not getting the proper OBC and waiting hours in line to resolve that and trying to get on the internet. I've never seen so many unhappy customers on one cruise which even as we were trying to put the on-boarding experience behind us made it hard. Getting off the ship was unbelievable as well.  We were walking off carrying our own luggage and  the line was huge.  It took 1 1/2  hours to disembark. I feel badly for those people that were on for their first cruise.  I don't won't to write off MSC for good but hope no one else has this bad of an experience.  The ship was full and they were maybe staffed for half that many people.  The guy in luggage said for the people boarding today there will only be 2500 on board so it shouldn't be a problem.  I hope they have a great experience.

This kind of review is pretty much useless. It does not mention the anything at all about the embarkation port, which part of the world the ship is cruising etc. Unless the thread starter wants everyone to look up that date and the ship for its itinerary, not going to waste my time.

[perakcruiser]

7 hours ago, Stockjock said:

The shoreside customer service folks are pleasant enough, but in many instances, they are not empowered to fix problems as they arise.  So they contact Italy who might do something, in time, or might simply ignore the request.

This is a cultural business gap. The anglo-american world is giving local staff the rights to decide things, in southern Europe and all of Asia everything has to go thru HQ. EVERYTHING in Malaysia, the local branch of a business cannot make the smallest decision without approval from HQ.

 

9 hours ago, GOLDENBONNY said:

was it first cruise after Europe? no surprise here. always a mess by US customs

It is the same thing in the other direction. Had this a couple of years before, we were told better just drop the luggage and go sightseeing in Venice and come back late afternoon when the chaos has ended. Which we did, had a great day in Venice and in the evening we could more or less walk directly on the ship. Sure MSC is to blame here, but definitely also the port authorities. I know that some ports are far away from everything and leaving is not really an option. But Venice or Genoa or Napoli are perfect.

[sealynx]

I read that on many cruises and many cruise lines have these problems after repositioning to the US (and also the other way around). That makes me wonder whether it would help if they would insert a day between the two sailings, to fix things. Anyone any ideas?

[MsTabbyKats]

@StockjockYou need to do the "cancel and rebook" dance that I do.  It's just easier.......

 

As far as this sailing....if I'm reading correctly it was a 3 day cruise.  If one day is messed up, that's a third....if two days are messed up, then it's more than half of the trip.  If it were a longer cruise....the "messed up" days would have been forgotten by the end.

 

Sounds like a very aggrevating 3 days........

[gramy]

12 hours ago, GOLDENBONNY said:

how would you possibly know that.

Talked with one of the lead singers. He said some of his staff would not be allowed off ship until their documents came. Captains letter said they had to hire many new staff. No, Email never came to us. It was supposed to say boarding to start at noon.

[Georgia_Peaches]

4 hours ago, USC-UVIC said:

This kind of review is pretty much useless. It does not mention the anything at all about the embarkation port, which part of the world the ship is cruising etc. Unless the thread starter wants everyone to look up that date and the ship for its itinerary, not going to waste my time.

I knew which port because I was following a live thread posted by someone who was doing the crossing on the cruise before the OP’s. The final destination was Port Canaveral. From there, the Meraviglia is engaging in a series of 3 and 4 night cruises. The op’s cruise was the first of the 3 nighters after the TA crossing. IMO leaving this info out of the original post has little bearing on the experiences of the op or others who chimed in. But that’s just me 😊. 

[1kaper]

4 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I knew which port because I was following a live thread posted by someone who was doing the crossing on the cruise before the OP’s. The final destination was Port Canaveral. From there, the Meraviglia is engaging in a series of 3 and 4 night cruises. The op’s cruise was the first of the 3 nighters after the TA crossing. IMO leaving this info out of the original post has little bearing on the experiences of the op or others who chimed in. But that’s just me 😊. 

 

 

I had seen a number of posts on Facebook so I was well aware of where it happened. Lots of chatter on this one. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

3 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

 

 

I had seen a number of posts on Facebook so I was well aware of where it happened. Lots of chatter on this one. 

Yeah I don’t think it was too difficult to figure out. 

[HikingPete]

Makes me a little concerned about my upcoming trip on Virtuosa to be honest.

 

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

2 minutes ago, HikingPete said:

Makes me a little concerned about my upcoming trip on Virtuosa to be honest.

 

 

Is your cruise going to be the first after an overseas repositioning?  If so, I encourage you the follow suggested boarding times for this one. If not, then I wouldn’t worry too much. 

[perakcruiser]

12 minutes ago, HikingPete said:

Makes me a little concerned about my upcoming trip on Virtuosa to be honest.

 

You are on the 4th November cruise? As far as I know the ship is at least empty before it starts it´s winter schedule from Southampton. 

[GA Dave]

One more thing to understand about this cruise.  I spoke to many people on this cruise who said it was their first-time cruising MSC, and many more that said it was their first time ever on a cruise.  It appeared to me that everyone's expectations were set way too high. 

I actually saw one woman tie up the sole bartender at one of the pool bars for at least 15 minutes with all kinds of special drink orders for her whole entourage.  When he finally finished with her, there were at least 15-20 people waiting to be served.  He started working his way down the bar when she had a guy run up to her and ask her to get him another drink.  She started yelling to the bartender "hey, hey, I need another".  He told her he was working on the other guests' drinks and would get back down to her, and she threw an absolute fit.  She even called him an "a-hole" and stormed off, yelling "I will never cruise MSC again!!"

Hopefully, she will follow through on that threat.  There is no need for that kind of behavior on a mass-market megaship.  If she wants constant special service, she needs to rent her own yacht instead of paying $170 for three days.

[shipgeeks]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Yeah I don’t think it was too difficult to figure out. 

Well, it was difficult for me, as I didn't know it was a first US cruise.  Having sailed 45+ cruises, a couple of which were first US, I now understand.  Without that fact, I just read it as a bad cruise.  I completely get it now, with that information in mind.  The moral:  Don't book the first cruise after a major repositioning.

[JAGR]

6 hours ago, USC-UVIC said:

This kind of review is pretty much useless. It does not mention the anything at all about the embarkation port, which part of the world the ship is cruising etc. Unless the thread starter wants everyone to look up that date and the ship for its itinerary, not going to waste my time.

You are kidding aren't you??  The post would have been of great interest to the audience the OP intended it for: those of us sailing on Meraviglia on the 16th, 23rd, etc.  If you are not sailing the Meraviglia in the near future, and don't know where she was sailing, you can exercise your right to not read it.  Looking forward to your review of your next cruise!  Not!

[JAGR]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

From there, the Meraviglia is engaging in a series of 3 and 4 night cruises.

Actually, I hope not!  Our cruise next Sunday on Meravglia is 7 nights, as is the 16th.  I'd hate to miss a few days at sea!😉

[Georgia_Peaches]

4 minutes ago, JAGR said:

Actually, I hope not!  Our cruise next Sunday on Meravglia is 7 nights, as is the 16th.  I'd hate to miss a few days at sea!😉

oops...I hope you don't either. 😁 We are booked next month and I know through out the month of November, it's a bunch of 3 and 4 night itineraries.

[MsTabbyKats]

58 minutes ago, GA Dave said:

instead of paying $170 for three days.

$170 for 3 days.....sign me up and I won't complain!

[mt234]

everything i’ve ever heard about MSC is bad. our TA will not even book this line and neither will many others. 🤮

[perakcruiser]

14 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

$170 for 3 days.....sign me up and I won't complain!

Actually this is a quite normal price for these first cruises. Believe it or not, even the first 4 nighter on the brand new World Europe after the World Cup costs only $139 for inside or $259 for balcony (with 100 OBC, so it´s a steal for 159).

 

People just need to understand that this is a TEST RUN and they are not cruising almost for free because MSC made a pricing mistake 😉

[CampNCruise74]

9 minutes ago, mt234 said:

everything i’ve ever heard about MSC is bad. our TA will not even book this line and neither will many others. 🤮

I am sorry for your bad experience.  As a side note, I believe there is hardly any benefit to a TA booking a room for you on MSC maybe even no benefit.   Quite a difference if a TA books you on another publicly traded cruise line however.