10/13 MSC Meraviglia total disaster

[rdslone]

1 hour ago, blueslily said:

Sorry that you had an unpleasant cruise experience. I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but that cruise experience does not represent every experience that everyone will have. I sail MSC and have not had the experiences you report. I learned from this thread not to choose the sailing you all were on. I will certainly take that into consideration when planning, like other people have also stated on here. But, I'm not giving up on MSC totally. That doesn't make sense to me since I've never had a horrible experience on land or on sea with them.

 

I sail with various cruise lines and have seen really bad experiences from time to time posted here about those lines as well. I would never cruise if I chose not to cruise on a certain line based on postings on here. I just learn what to do different.

 

Hope your next cruise is much better. Enjoy! 

Thanks for your feedback I hope everyone has a great cruise no matter the line they choose. I have learned a valuable lesson today and will no longer share information on this site. I thought this site was a great place to get accurate accounts of peoples experiences on their cruise. I posted with only the intent to inform I did not start this thread only added on to the topic with my experience. I now question this forum since it seems to be a place for people to question and disagree  and do a little name calling when negative comments on their favorite line are shared. I will get my information elsewhere if I cruise again. I was a newbie here   never posted before and have not cruised in four years. I thought you leave a comment and move on. I wish MSC was as interactive on my issues maybe then they could make changes in the future. I cruised MSC before and had a great time but this was not their best showing and you can find many posts about it all over the internet, thousands of people were impacted.To all again have great cruises and thanks for all your input.

[Tierun]

1 hour ago, travelberlin said:

Diamond member means priority at check in, so you go straight in front the line. More or less as if you were on yacht club.

Ivi

Diamond and Aurea are grouped together for embarkation at PC. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

39 minutes ago, rdslone said:

Thanks for your feedback I hope everyone has a great cruise no matter the line they choose. I have learned a valuable lesson today and will no longer share information on this site. I thought this site was a great place to get accurate accounts of peoples experiences on their cruise. I posted with only the intent to inform I did not start this thread only added on to the topic with my experience. I now question this forum since it seems to be a place for people to question and disagree  and do a little name calling when negative comments on their favorite line are shared. I will get my information elsewhere if I cruise again. I was a newbie here   never posted before and have not cruised in four years. I thought you leave a comment and move on. I wish MSC was as interactive on my issues maybe then they could make changes in the future. I cruised MSC before and had a great time but this was not their best showing and you can find many posts about it all over the internet, thousands of people were impacted.To all again have great cruises and thanks for all your input.

I think it’s natural for people to offer up counterpoints to those who make posts. Happens to me all the time and honestly, I’ve learned a lot because of it. I wouldn’t take any of it too personally. We are all here for the same reason… a love of cruising. Let it roll off. I hope you come back. 😊

[Georgia_Peaches]

59 minutes ago, solorzanorafael said:

In case on any emergency your As Good As Dead! 

Wow. 

[no1talks]

24 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

"Wow."

You can say that again, G.P. 

 

How does one still manage to use "your" for "you're," with so many grammar police on the Internet all these years???
🤣

[blueslily]

2 hours ago, rdslone said:

Thanks for your feedback I hope everyone has a great cruise no matter the line they choose. I have learned a valuable lesson today and will no longer share information on this site. I thought this site was a great place to get accurate accounts of peoples experiences on their cruise. I posted with only the intent to inform I did not start this thread only added on to the topic with my experience. I now question this forum since it seems to be a place for people to question and disagree  and do a little name calling when negative comments on their favorite line are shared. I will get my information elsewhere if I cruise again. I was a newbie here   never posted before and have not cruised in four years. I thought you leave a comment and move on. I wish MSC was as interactive on my issues maybe then they could make changes in the future. I cruised MSC before and had a great time but this was not their best showing and you can find many posts about it all over the internet, thousands of people were impacted.To all again have great cruises and thanks for all your input.

 

Good luck

[perakcruiser]

10 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Kinda curious about this comment...do the Italians have a reputation for bad service like the French do for being rude?  I've known many French people and they weren't rude and had nothing but great service when we visited Italy.  

Here it is about something else. MSC follows the Italian tradition of start something not fully prepared and just hope the best. The ship is not ready, the crew is not ready? No problem, after some time things will improve. A German or UK line definitely would cancel or delay. Just a few weeks before MSC had real troubles with the Seaside but tried to continue. Finally they gave up and put the ship out of service for some time.

[morpheusofthesea]

"Saying what one really thinks can be a serious error, since one risks being misunderstood." Oscar Wilde

[asalligo]

Taking my first MSC cruise and an experience like this would likely make it my last. Just 4 hours getting on the ship alone might be enough to keep me from returning. Cruise lines should have a contingency policy for these eventualities. Staff reassuring people, explaining what is happening and why, handing out water bottles and finding shaded waiting areas for the lines. Not expensive stuff, but an indication that they understand this should not be occurring and are trying to help. 

[shipgeeks]

asalligo, Just remember that the cruise that has been referred to was the first sailing after an ocean crossing, and is not typical of any other cruises. We've been there, done that, on other cruiselines, and have stood outside the terminal in hard rain and more, with no explanation, no apologies.  It's just the way it is.

We loved our MSC cruises, and plan to do more.

[morpheusofthesea]

Did anyone ever post a picture of Capt Kate when she was helping to hand out water to waiting passengers trying to board one of the first sailings back to cruising in 2021 as there were delays in boarding her ship ? I tend to recall she was masked up had body guard assisting and her apologies went a 'long way' in quelling any mutiny. "Never let a serious crisis go to waste." Rahm Emanuel

Edited October 18, 2022 by morpheusofthesea

[travelberlin]

12 hours ago, HughMann said:

Does diamond have more priority over aurea? Or is everyone with "priority" mixed together?

As a Diamond member, I was always able to skip the lines and go to the priority line, which is usually shorter. As far as I recall we were all together in the priority line. Now Yacht Club passengers have a line of their own but if there was no one there, those of the priority line could go to the counter for Yacht Club passengers.

Ivi

[BklynBorn47]

On 10/16/2022 at 4:07 PM, luvavacation said:

GP, You just beat me to it.  We have done a couple of first-cruise-after-a-crossing, and they were just like that.  So many factors come into the whole process.

For those of you who were affected, I'm sad to hear of all the problems you had.  It can happen on any line, though, and I hope you won't give up on MSC.

 

Just off the Meraviglia TA crossing and was finally going to post about our GREAT experience when I began reading about the disaster of the following short Caribbean cruises.

Your explanation makes sense.

 

As for boarding problems, the only time we experienced anything remotely similar we realized that the boarding procedure is handled by an outside company (at least in NYC) and wasn't much the cruise line could do about it except complain after the fact.

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, BklynBorn47 said:

Just off the Meraviglia TA crossing and was finally going to post about our GREAT experience

Yes, please post a review!  Would love to read about your experience.

[Gatordad1967]

13 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Wow. 

my good as dead what?

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

2 minutes ago, Gatordad1967 said:

my good as dead what?

 

LOL...I'm gathering English wasn't first language but regardless, I found it to be a little melodramatic.  But who am I to judge?  Regarding your morning read, you can always hope for a good internet connection to get your fix.  That's what I did when I found nothing appealing on the list.

[Gatordad1967]

2 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

LOL...I'm gathering English wasn't first language but regardless, I found it to be a little melodramatic.  But who am I to judge?  Regarding your morning read, you can always hope for a good internet connection to get your fix.  That's what I did when I found nothing appealing on the list.

agreed, but I am an old fart.  I miss reading an actual newspaper.... The internet was pretty good on the ship.

 

[styles27]

Well this sounds like a horrible way to start a cruise. 
 

Note to self….never book the first cruise after a TA. 
(We already won’t book anything shorter than a 7 day as we’ve found them to always be lacking no matter what line we’ve been on.) 
 

 

Sorry you guys had a bad experience. 
 

 

[no1talks]

3 hours ago, styles27 said:

"We already won’t book anything shorter than a 7 day as we’ve found them to always be lacking no matter what line we’ve been on."

I'm aware the two and three-day cruises can be problematic, with more "rowdies" among the passengers. However, I would have thought a five or six-day cruise would be pretty much business as usual.

Although I'm not one to seek out an almost-one-week cruise, I'll keep your observation in mind. Can you elaborate on what you've found to be the flies in the ointment with those cruises? Thank you, in advance, for your thoughts.

[joe1741]

Sept 25th wife and I boarded the Meraviglia in Marseille, France for the Trans Atlantic trip to Port Canaveral. We've had atleast 30 cruises over the years and we're both casino players. This was our first MSC cruise and 2nd cruise on that vacation. Ship was beautiful and clean, crew staff was extremely friendly and attentive however as mentioned the authority to make decisions at lower levels is a problem. The food menu was terrible,  we regretted spend additional money for the Japanese and Mexican specialty restaurants. It truly felt like the main concern of MSC is budget and not passenger. 

We've never boarded a ship without handing out bags to a porter and continuing to a check in line. This trip we carried bags to the first check in station and placed them onto a security machine. Guess they do things a little different, just thankful that we only had 1500 on board for the crossing. 

Sept 25th wife and I boarded the Meraviglia in Marseille, France for the Trans Atlantic trip to Port Canaveral. We've had atleast 30 cruises over the years and we're both casino players. This was our first MSC cruise and 2nd cruise during the vacation. Meraviglia is a beautiful ship and it's very clean, the crew staff was extremely friendly and attentive however as mentioned the authority to make decisions at lower levels is a problem. The food menu was terrible and duplicated itself several times,  we regretted spending additional money for the Japanese and Mexican specialty restaurants. It truly felt like the main concern of MSC was budget and not it's passengers. There was no lack of staff trying to sell packages like the drink, meal, photo, shows. I know that's the norm but they all were lacking. I looked at some of the pictures taken by their photographers and they really need to do better.

We've never boarded a ship without handing our bags to a porter and continuing to a check in line. This trip we carried bags to the first check in station and placed them onto a security machine. Guess they do things a little different, just thankful that we only had 1500 on board for the crossing. 

[BklynBorn47]

4 minutes ago, joe1741 said:

Sept 25th wife and I boarded the Meraviglia in Marseille, France for the Trans Atlantic trip to Port Canaveral.

Hi Joe, (My husband's name is also Joe)
We also boarded in Marseille.  What was most surprising to us was how this cruise was like a ferry with people boarding and disembarking in each port of our itinerary which continued all the way thru the Caribbean
As we cruised it, a regular question became "where did you board?"
We also handed over our bags at the first check in counter.  I didn't even notice that the procedure was different than we were used to.  Perhaps because there were relatively few passengers boarding in Marseille?  The distance from our curb drop off to the check-in point wasn't very far.  The sign said baggage drop off and check in. We did exactly that.

One little glitch:  There were 2 MSC ships in port in Marseille.  Although we are veteran cruisers, this was our 1st MSC which we booked as an alternative to flying home after B2B on Windstar. We handed in our baggage on the WRONG SHIP!
Yep, totally our fault.  As the staff checked our documents - all in order EXCEPT we should have dropped our bags on the other side of the terminal.  The staff leaped into action, found our luggage, took it to the correct drop off point and put it on the conveyor for the Meraviglia. 

 

After that rather inauspicious start, we had a great cruise home. I hope yours was good was well.

[TheSoccerCoach]

We were on this sailing. 9th for me with MSC, 10th for my wife. And, we had a wonderful time; sad that it appears so many did not. There, clearly, were challenges with being the first "return to US" cruise for the ship, and, there were certainly a large group of pax who were new to the line and did not know how to navigate the experience. 

 

But, at embarkation, as Diamond guests, we were through the terminal in under an hour and on board quickly. We know to use the kiosks to register credit cards once on board. We saw some bar staff we know and made friends with others, so we rarely had to wait for drinks. 

 

We had another lovely Butcher's Cut dinner, but witnessed horrible behavior from fellow guests - calling the manager names, getting angry, having to have security called on them. I am sorry, but if you are eating at a steak restaurant on board a luxury liner, and you act so poorly that you need security called on you - whomever those folks were need serious help. (counseling, therapy, etc.)

 

We did not get our Diamond perks right away the first day in the cabin, so we simply reminded the cabin attendant, and he had all the perks to us by the second afternoon. No worries. We even gave some positive feedback to guest services and they sent some treats to us as well. 

 

We love this line! We are always bummed out when people do not have a good experience. But, there is also so very much that would be mitigated for people if they would do more research about the experience. It is truly a cruise like no other, and for that we are grateful. 

 

 

 

 

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, TheSoccerCoach said:

We had another lovely Butcher's Cut dinner, but witnessed horrible behavior from fellow guests - calling the manager names, getting angry, having to have security called on them. I am sorry, but if you are eating at a steak restaurant on board a luxury liner, and you act so poorly that you need security called on you - whomever those folks were need serious help. (counseling, therapy, etc.)

 

Would these people behave that way at Ruth's Chris or Fleming's Restaurant?  Even at "top drawer" restaurants, dining perfection is not always 100% to a guest's satisfaction.  But, such behavior of guests on not only MSC but other cruise lines when "they are dissatisfied" says a great deal to me about them and not about their dining experience.  

[GA Dave]

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Would these people behave that way at Ruth's Chris or Fleming's Restaurant?  Even at "top drawer" restaurants, dining perfection is not always 100% to a guest's satisfaction.  But such behavior of guests on not only MSC but other cruise lines when "they are dissatisfied" says a great deal to me about them and not about their dining experience.  

Unfortunately, I have seen this type of behavior at many different venues since the pandemic.  I've been on many cruises, been to multiple land resorts, and several of the theme parks in the Orlando area many times since things reopened in 2021 and it seems this is the "new" attitude of many people.  No matter how small the issue or how insignificant the quality slip, they feel totally entitled to a free meal, free passes, and people being fired to satisfy their idea of restitution.  It's become completely out of control.

[rkacruiser]

8 minutes ago, GA Dave said:

Unfortunately, I have seen this type of behavior at many different venues since the pandemic.

 

Covid has not been just a virus affects one health.  It has also been a disease that is a sociological one as well.  

 

Has our civilization ever experienced such a situation?