My View: From Mazda to Meraviglia

[APDMOM]

Quick notes before I explain the title:

 

• I will post as ‘live’ as possible between events on our cruise.
• If you are not into the ‘details’, I will post “TIPS” in bold red so that you can skim-read.
• I will try to post menus and dailies at the end of each daily rerport for anyone interested.
• If you have questions or requests, I will try my best to find answers.  We are NOT Yacht Club, so I will not be able to help with any questions about that.

 

About the Mazda

It has been 1,057 days since our last cruise!  “You know what” interfered with that, but it also brought us some new adventures.  Due to our addiction to travel, we made a plan and bought a landship in August 2020… our Mazda CX9.  We had many fun adventures during the 1,057 days ‘in exile’, some of which I will share at the end of this trip report for anyone interested.

 

BUT NOW,  we are able to cruise again and we are about to board this beauty.  Ironically, our last cruise was also on MSC Meraviglia.  So, we will leave our landship behind in Port Canaveral to regain our sea-legs. 

 

Come Cruise Along!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by APDMOM
Fix pictures

[coscab]

Can't wait to keep up with your posts, going on Meraviglia Nov. 27th. 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise and that it lives up to your Mazda adventures.

If you think of it when checking in could you ask if they are requiring proof of a covid test for unvaxxed, seems requirements just changed but not all embankment employees have been notified.  I know it's a lot to ask so I understand if you can't.

[APDMOM]

50 minutes ago, coscab said:

Can't wait to keep up with your posts, going on Meraviglia Nov. 27th. 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise and that it lives up to your Mazda adventures.

If you think of it when checking in could you ask if they are requiring proof of a covid test for unvaxxed, seems requirements just changed but not all embankment employees have been notified.  I know it's a lot to ask so I understand if you can't.

 

Let’s just say, if I am on the ship tomorrow night, no testing is required 😄

Will let you know if they even ask for any proof of anything.

[coscab]

1 hour ago, APDMOM said:

 

Let’s just say, if I am on the ship tomorrow night, no testing is required 😄

Will let you know if they even ask for any proof of anything.

Thank you so much, someone posted on another site that they are on now and unvaxxed need test, I am thinking they are on the a 3 night that left Thurs. so maybe new rules were not in effect when they got on.

I am afraid there will be no one at embarkation that has a clue about the new requirements, I am holding my breathe til I hear that you are on board with a beverage in hand!

[APDMOM]

Our Itinerary:

Excursions:

Only the lighthouse on Ocean Cay for APDMOM (to take pictures) 🙂 We missed cruising so much that we will mainly spend time on the ship.  This is cruise #37 for us, so we have been to all these ports.  We will walk Ocean Cay to see what it looks like 3 years later and will probably walk around in Cozumel to practice a bit of Spanish.

 

Cabins:

We booked 2 large aft balconies on deck 12 for the 3 of us - hoping they will open the connection on the balconies - will report back. Keep watching this space for pictures.  2 Balconies on Meraviglia were cheaper than 1 balcony on Royal Caribbean, so this was a great option.  Our son recently turned 18, so the 2 cabins will be great for extra space and privacy.

 

Check-in time: 10 AM according to our tickets… hopefully this will be reality.  

 

Pre-Cuise Stay: TownePlace Suites in Titusville for $160

We are glad we booked early because that price kept going up until it was well over $300 last week. We have 2 queen beds, a large bathroom and a nice kitchenette (including dishwasher).

 

 

[cruzccl]

Following….Sailing on Mera during NYE and soaking up all the intel I can get.  Enjoy your cruise.  

[APDMOM]

Boarded the Mazda aka LANDSHIP at 9 AM from hotel:

 

First closer up glimpse of Meraviglia at terminal 10:

 

[APDMOM]

To test or not to test…

 

Moment of panic!!  Almost denied boarding…  We dropped our luggage at 9:53 AM and smoothly entered through security.  We walked straight up to the check in counter.  The lady asked for our passports, boarding docs, health questionnaires and vax cards or test.  We told her we did not have tests because they changed the rules on Wednesday. 

 

Her response went something like this…  “Sorry! We can not check you in without it.  You will need to go to number 38.”  

 

We walked to the empty counter at 38 and waited less than 5 minutes to be directed to a different counter.  The gentleman there checked us in with, “Passports, boarding passes, heath questionnaire, DNA sample, please!”  -he was clearly just joking about DNA 🤣 I would have gladly provided it to get on this ship though!

 

Now we are checked in and ready to board. 

 

[coscab]

So excited for you!!!

Edit... just saw that you boarded, can't thank you enough for putting us at ease, have a blessed cruise!

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by coscab

[APDMOM]

11 minutes ago, coscab said:

So excited for you!!!

Edit... just saw that you boarded, can't thank you enough for putting us at ease, have a blessed cruise!

 

Thank you!  We are still waiting to get on, but at least we have our boarding number and our key cards!!  Several others from our social media page had the same issue and had to be checked in by a supervisor.  Hopefully, it will be ‘old news’ and ‘smooth boarding’ next week when you get here.  

[mawvkysc]

Got off this morning. I’ll be starting on my review later today. Have fun!

[quattrohead]

Mazda CX9 is indeed a fine land ship, almost as beautiful as MSC ships !!!

Going on Meraviglia for a 3 dayer on December 15th. Could not take more time off 😬

[cms2001]

What time was your boarding group? 

We are sailing in December, and got a 1030am time.  But we want to spend time at the beach and get to the ship around 1230pm

[APDMOM]

3 hours ago, cms2001 said:

What time was your boarding group? 

We are sailing in December, and got a 1030am time.  But we want to spend time at the beach and get to the ship around 1230pm

We had 10 a.m. check in time. There was a slight delay with clearing the ship, so we boarded at 11:30.  We were in the third group after the diamond/aurea boarding.  You should be fine at 12:30. 

[coscab]

Glad your fun has begun!  We have a boarding time of 10:30, hoping to not be put in the naughty line if we arrive at 11:30.  We are diamond so maybe they will forgive us, lol

We are in an aft facing cabin on deck 11, it looks like it has a pretty big balcony, it has bunk beds as well as king bed but there is just the two of us, is that the kind you are in? 

[9876]

18 hours ago, APDMOM said:

Our Itinerary:

Excursions:

Only the lighthouse on Ocean Cay for APDMOM (to take pictures) 🙂 We missed cruising so much that we will mainly spend time on the ship.  This is cruise #37 for us, so we have been to all these ports.  We will walk Ocean Cay to see what it looks like 3 years later and will probably walk around in Cozumel to practice a bit of Spanish.

 

Cabins:

We booked 2 large aft balconies on deck 12 for the 3 of us - hoping they will open the connection on the balconies - will report back. Keep watching this space for pictures.  2 Balconies on Meraviglia were cheaper than 1 balcony on Royal Caribbean, so this was a great option.  Our son recently turned 18, so the 2 cabins will be great for extra space and privacy.

 

Check-in time: 10 AM according to our tickets… hopefully this will be reality.  

 

Pre-Cuise Stay: TownePlace Suites in Titusville for $160

We are glad we booked early because that price kept going up until it was well over $300 last week. We have 2 queen beds, a large bathroom and a nice kitchenette (including dishwasher).

 

 

Hotel prices are insane.  I am glad you locked in your rate early.

 

[mackfam]

We were on the Nov 6-13th sailing in the YC. Had a great time and loved the ship.  Very interested in hearing about the non YC experience as considering booking a family cruise on the Mera for next year which would not be in YC. 

[APDMOM]

44 minutes ago, coscab said:

Glad your fun has begun!  We have a boarding time of 10:30, hoping to not be put in the naughty line if we arrive at 11:30.  We are diamond so maybe they will forgive us, lol

We are in an aft facing cabin on deck 11, it looks like it has a pretty big balcony, it has bunk beds as well as king bed but there is just the two of us, is that the kind you are in? 

That is what we have too. Will post pictures later or tomorrow.  🙂

[coscab]

39 minutes ago, APDMOM said:

That is what we have too. Will post pictures later or tomorrow.  🙂

You are the BEST!!😺

[APDMOM]

Document received at Boarding:

 

 

Buffet:

TIP: When you get to the buffet, don’t just grab the first empty table you find.  Walk all the way to the back.  We enjoyed our lunch there for almost an hour without anyone sitting at the neighboring tables.  Even at 3 PM when we went back to get water, the front half of the buffet was packed while the back had tables empty.

 

Rooms were ready at 1:30 PM.  Our luggage arrived soon after and we were unpacked and ready to cruise by 3 PM (Nap for DH, taking pictures for me)!

 

TIP: If you purchased the wifi package, you can find the internet ID on your seapass card.  Go to www.mscwifi.com and follow the instructions to create your login. No need to stand in line at guest services to find out where your wifi package is. 

 

CHANGE in wifi:  I am disappointed to see that the ‘one device’ wifi no longer means “one device  at a time”.  In the past, you could log out of one device and log into another device.  Now, only the first device you register can be used.  So, I will need to air drop my review drafts to my iPhone.  

[APDMOM]

Well, posting from Notes is not looking too good. 😬🙈Will try a different way next time. 

[APDMOM]

A few views from our walk after lunch:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Muster Drill:

 

TIP: Make sure you get to your cabin before the scheduled muster drill time (ours was 5 PM).  You have to watch the safety video in your cabin.  As soon as it is done, you have to dial a specific number from your cabin phone to confirm that you watched the video.  You will then be directed to your muster station to just get your card scanned to ensure you know where to go.

 

I must say,  although it sounds like this should be very easy and without glitch, the muster ‘drill’ was a hot mess.  The way they had it planned caused a bottle neck in the stairwell, something they wanted to avoid by having you in the cabin for the video. Problem is, they called from the top decks first to go to the stations - Since all the stations are on lower decks it caused everyone to show up at deck 10,9,8 stairwells at the same time.  Talk about a crowd!!  Tip for MSC (If you are reading this)…Just call from the lower decks first and this will fix the bottleneck problem.  I do love the idea of watching the safety briefing on the TV though.  It is much easier to hear and pay attention.

 

[APDMOM]

Dinner: Day 1

 

We love that we were assigned a table for 3, since I have hearing loss that makes it very hard to socialize in such a noisy venue.  We have an amazing wait staff team.  We enjoyed all our selections tonight. 

 

DH usually helps finish half of my main course, since it is just too much food for me.  He says he liked the salmon better than the grouper.

 

DS opted for the shrimp without the horseradish cocktail sauce.

 

Our Selections:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

MDR Menu Day 1:

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by APDMOM
fix pics