JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 4/9 (semi-B2B)

[ksuljem]

Did you attend any of the specialty shows? Looking to go to one while on board and wondering which one we should schedule. 

[AstoriaPreppy]

Jamie, I want to offer thanks for sharing your experiences... we've ended up booking the Meraviglia for the 11 day down to Cozumel next January. Living in NYC, we've been inundated with advertising for the line/ship, but had reservations about sailing MSC. We're not loyal to one line at all, but your trip reports helped encourage us to try something new!

 

 

[JamieLogical]

3 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

There were so many negative reports here and on the other social media page about MSC and the Meraviglia that I also questioned my booking in October.  Now after Jamie's blog I feel confident we will have a great cruise.  My only worry now is getting to and back from the port from here in East Brunswick which is in central NJ.  Some Ubers won't go out of state and parking for 11 days is much too expensive.

 

Are you on the October 25 sailing? Several people from this cruise are now booked on it.

[CruizinSusan70]

3 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

 My only worry now is getting to and back from the port from here in East Brunswick which is in central NJ.  Some Ubers won't go out of state and parking for 11 days is much too expensive.

The best option would be a black car service from your area.  We'll be parking at the lot since our cruise is 7 days in July.  Kinda bummed about the daily increase from 30 to 45 a day, but what can you do.

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday feels like a long time ago now. Let me see what I can remember… I believe I did room service breakfast, but didn’t do anything else for breakfast. I typed up my blog and was slow to get ready. I then made it down to Edge for a couple of Mimosa Blossoms. I ran into Craig from my roll call and solo meetup. I told him about our plan to do lunch at the sushi place at 12:30 and asked if he minded keeping an eye on my stuff while I ran over to the reservations desk in Ocean Cay. The were not able to get us in for lunch at either sushi or Hola!, but they said they could get me in ay Hola! for eight people at 8:30 for dinner. I decided to book it, despite their warning there would be a $5/person charge for any no-shows. I figured the worst case scenario, I would be out $35.

 

I went back to Edge and told Craig and I also ran into both Emellie (I had been spelling her name all week) and Ted and let them know the plan. Ted still wanted to dinner in the MDR as well, though, because they were having fried calamari that he was looking forward to all week. We hatched a plan to do the 7:30 dining time in Waves (7 of the people in our “group” were now legitimately assigned to the table) and just get appetizers/desserts and then go to Hola! for additional food. Emellie would join us as well, even though she and I weren’t assigned to the table. I didn’t plan on eating anything there anyway.

 

Since we had all initially planned to meet up for sushi at 12:30, we had to get the word out to meet up at Waves for lunch instead. That proved mostly effective. We ended up with a decent group for lunch, including Craig, Cheree, Ted, Debbie, Emellie, Betty, Gia, and myself. Only Elise and Ed weren’t there to inform about the dinner plan yet.

For lunch I had the soup of the day, which was white bean, the meatball sandwich, and the strawberry-kiwi sorbet. The soup was really good and the meatball sandwich was better than the first day of this sailing, but not as good as the one I had on the previous sailing.

 

After lunch, we all went our separate ways for naps and such. I first went to Ocean Cay to see if I could change our reservation from eight people to 10 people. They told me they were full up, so I figured I would take my chances with Henry. I went up to my room for a nap and woke up around 3:30 and headed to Edge for coffee. Debbie soon spotted me and told me several of them in the Champagne Bar in line for the Future Cruise desk. Things were going very slowly there because the satellite signal was going in and out with the terrible weather we were having. Eventually, everyone from our group who was trying to book a future cruise was done and we all agreed to meet up at 7:30 at Waves for “first dinner.”

 

I headed back to my room to get my casino tickets and went to he casino to cash them in. Then I packed what I could that I didn’t need for the rest of the night and the morning. Then I went to Edge for a mojito and to say goodbye to all my crew at the Edge bar before heading up to the Champagne Bar to say goodbye and get my to-go French 77 for dinner at Waves.

 

We explained to the waiter at Waves that we needed to leave by 8:30 and were just getting appetizers and desserts. Gia still ended up ordering a steak and mashed potatoes? The rest of the group got fried calamari and antipasti. Debbie got the Limoncello cake. I didn’t get anything, because I felt guilty about being the 9th person at a table for 8. Emellie had take my occasionally spot as the 8th.

 

At about 8:25, I led the charge down to Hola! to check in and see if we could squeeze in two extra people for dinner. To my shock and dismay, they had me in the book as a reservation for 1!!! How that happened after the whole conversation about how I would pay for any no-shows for the reservation for 8 people, I have no idea. Luckily, Henry was there and he soon had things figured our so we could squeeze in all 10 of us. We had a fantastic time and Henry was as wonderful as usual. It really was a ton of fun. Henry took a picture for us and then he took a picture WITH us and then he gave me a huge hug on the way out.

 

After our second dinner, some of us agreed to meet up at 6:00am at Panorama dining room for breakfast. Some of us headed over to Edge. I was just going to get a bottle of water, but Gia asked me to get her a Hugo Spritz, so I ordered one for myself as well. But, I couldn’t hang. I was really tired by that point and worried about the early morning. Plus I hate goodbyes!

 

I headed back to my room, but it turned our I couldn’t sleep at all. Between stressing about traveling today and the storm causing all sorts of creaking and banging in my room, I just could not sleep except in fits and starts. My watch says my sleep score for the night was a 29 out of 100…

 

This morning, I got up at 5:30, 15 minutes before my alarm. The plan was to put the clothes I had worn yesterday back on, go to breakfast, then go back to the room to shower and finish packing. However, when I got to Panorama at 6:00, it was clearly still closed and they told me I was a half hour early. Debbie and Betty showed up and we decided to split up and reconvene at 6:30. So, I went back to my room and quickly showered and dressed. Then back down to Panorama where Debbie, Betty, Emellie, Cheree and I had breakfast together, before all hugging goodbye. Worth noting that I accomplished toast!

 

I headed back to my room and packed up the rest of my things, then just lingered until 8:00, when we were supposed to be out of my rooms. I quintuple-checked my safe to make sure I had my passport, cash, and jewelry to avoid a repeat of last March. Then I wandered a bit to find a good spot to plop until they kicked me off the ship. My flight wasn’t until 1:50 and I was in no hurry to sit at JFK for 5 hours.

 

I found that the barrel tables and barstools outside of the Brass Anchor were still out, while the rest of the tables on the piazza had been tucked away. I sat there and poked my phone and read my book until around 9:30 when they called the final luggage tags and started herding the stragglers off the ship.

 

Fortuitously, I ran into Debbie, who had luggage tag number 46 (the second to last) in line on Deck 5. She lives in Brighton Beach and her son was picking her up in her car. I had been checking Lyft prices periodically and they were up to $100 to get to JFK. She offered to take me to the airport!!!! That was so awesome! I told her that next cruise the drinks are on me!

 

Debbie is now scheduled to go on the Oct. 25 sailing on the Meraviglia out of Brooklyn along with Ed, Ted, Cheree, and myself. I can’t wait for another reunion cruise!

 

It took us almost a full hour to get to JFK, so I got checked in around 11:30. By that time, my flight had been delayed to 2:22. I got through security quickly and found my way to the Virgin Atlantic lounge, which I had access to through Priority Pass through my credit card. It was pretty swanky with a pool table and interesting furniture. I had a couple of vodka lemonades as well as some soup, hummus, and a couple of dark chocolate sea salt cookies. To my surprise, around 1:20, they announced the lounge would be closing in 5 minutes! Guess I should have checked the hours!

 

I packed up my stuff and headed across to the Air India lounge, but they were full up thanks to the Virgin closure. They at least had a QR code to scan to join a waitlist and by that time my flight had been delayed again. So I waited outside the lounge for ~40 minutes before I got a text that I could come inside.

 

The lounge is a sad comparison to the Virgin one, but it does have Tikka Masala, cheese, fruit, Cheetos, and a make-your-own cocktail bar. I have now consumed all of those things, including several self-made vodka & ginger ales. My flight is now delayed until 5:35 and I am starting to believe I may not get home tonight. I will try to post back and let you know!

 

Day’s Drinks (4/48): Mimosa Blossom x3, Americano w/ Bailey's, French 77 X2, Mojito, Double French 77, Classic Margarita, Hugo Spritz
 

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by JamieLogical

[chipperberg]

Safe travels home!

[JamieLogical]

58 minutes ago, chipperberg said:

Safe travels home!

 

I am now delayed until 7:45.

 

 

[JAGR]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

It took us almost a full hour to get to JFK, so I got checked in around 11:30. By that time, my flight had been delayed to 2:22. I got through security quickly and found my way to the Virgin Atlantic lounge, which I had access to through Priority Pass through my credit card. It was pretty swanky with a pool table and interesting furniture. I had a couple of vodka lemonades as well as some soup, hummus, and a couple of dark chocolate sea salt cookies. To my surprise, around 1:20, they announced the lounge would be closing in 5 minutes! Guess I should have checked the hours!

The Clubhouse doesn't really close for everyone at 1:30 p.m.  For Priority Pass, the access ends at 1:30.  It is open until 1:00 a.m. (although it goes into clean-up mode around 10:30, since the last Virgin flight is at 11:00 p.m.

[nycfa]

18 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I am now delayed until 7:45.

 

 

Airports are a hot mess today with the weather. 

 

[JamieLogical]

4 minutes ago, JAGR said:

The Clubhouse doesn't really close for everyone at 1:30 p.m.  For Priority Pass, the access ends at 1:30.  It is open until 1:00 a.m. (although it goes into clean-up mode around 10:30, since the last Virgin flight is at 11:00 p.m.

 

Is there a separate entrance? The main entrance is definitely closed now.

[wetcoast]

On 4/27/2023 at 8:13 AM, Homosassa said:

MSC's pizza meets the standards of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana.  

 

While  pizza on Meraviglia is very good, i dont think it qualifies as true Neapolitan. True Neapolitan needs to be cooked in a high heat, wood fired oven 450+ C. When i was on Divina they had a proper oven for their pizzas

[JamieLogical]

Made it home last night. We landed just after 9:00. Picked up some Taco Bell on the way home, which cost twice as much as my Hola! orders. Straight to sleep after I ate. Will try to take some time today to post my final impressions and overall thoughts on my cruises.

[JAGR]

15 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Is there a separate entrance? The main entrance is definitely closed now.

That's odd.  No special entrance other than taking the steps up from near Gate A5.  I only use the club 2-3 times a year when using DeltaOne or Upper Class on VS.  Posted hours are 5 - 8:30 am, and 2 pm to 1 am, with the time in between held for Priority Pass.

[Craiglk]

On 4/29/2023 at 9:01 AM, EllieinNJ said:

There were so many negative reports here and on the other social media page about MSC and the Meraviglia that I also questioned my booking in October.  Now after Jamie's blog I feel confident we will have a great cruise.  My only worry now is getting to and back from the port from here in East Brunswick which is in central NJ.  Some Ubers won't go out of state and parking for 11 days is much too expensive.

I was just on the meraviglia as well and I took an Uber to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal from Old Bridge NJ and it cost me about 94 dollars so it may be around the same price for you as well.

[Craiglk]

On 4/27/2023 at 10:35 AM, JamieLogical said:

 

 

 

 

I have some pics to share of ocean cay

[MsTabbyKats]

On 4/29/2023 at 12:44 PM, CruizinSusan70 said:

The best option would be a black car service from your area.  We'll be parking at the lot since our cruise is 7 days in July.  Kinda bummed about the daily increase from 30 to 45 a day, but what can you do.

We're on the meraviglia right now.  It should have taken about 30 minutes to get to the port bt Lyft; it took well over an hour.  The traffic by the ship was a nightmare and the rain/wind were "hurricanish".  Got dropped off near the entrance and went to the YC area.  The cost of the YC was worth it just to bypass the chaos of the "regular line".

Moral of the story....arrive early.  I hope they figure out a way to avoid yesterday's mess.

[JamieLogical]

17 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

We're on the meraviglia right now.  It should have taken about 30 minutes to get to the port bt Lyft; it took well over an hour.  The traffic by the ship was a nightmare and the rain/wind were "hurricanish".  Got dropped off near the entrance and went to the YC area.  The cost of the YC was worth it just to bypass the chaos of the "regular line".

Moral of the story....arrive early.  I hope they figure out a way to avoid yesterday's mess.

 

I agree! Disembarkation/Embarkation yesterday were a mess. The weather certainly did not help. As we were leaving, people on your sailing were arriving and it was all just chaos. I am not sure the terminal is meant to handle as many passengers as the Meraviglia typically has. Hopefully they will smooth out the process with better traffic flow and maybe enforced arrival times? They are definitely still working out the kinks of the new (to them) terminal.

[MsTabbyKats]

@JamieLogicalDid you have a problem getting an Uber/Lyft/cab from the terminal?  What time did you actually get off the ship?

[JamieLogical]

21 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

@JamieLogicalDid you have a problem getting an Uber/Lyft/cab from the terminal?  What time did you actually get off the ship?

 

I got off when they kicked me off at about 9:30. A Lyft would have cost ~$100 at that time, but I was super lucky in that I ended up in line to get off the ship with Debbie who lives in Brighton Beach and her son was coming to pick her up in her car. She offered to drive me to JFK! It took an hour, because not only was traffic bad near the terminal, it was bad everywhere due to the terrible weather.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

1 hour ago, MsTabbyKats said:

We're on the meraviglia right now.  It should have taken about 30 minutes to get to the port bt Lyft; it took well over an hour.  The traffic by the ship was a nightmare and the rain/wind were "hurricanish".  Got dropped off near the entrance and went to the YC area.  The cost of the YC was worth it just to bypass the chaos of the "regular line".

Moral of the story....arrive early.  I hope they figure out a way to avoid yesterday's mess.

Jamie had posted for me the champagne by the glass menu from the champagne bar. Can you let us know what is available by the glass within the yacht club bar/restaurant. We will be onboard in July. Thanks. Hope you enjoy your week.

[AtSeaWithChris]

30 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Jamie had posted for me the champagne by the glass menu from the champagne bar. Can you let us know what is available by the glass within the yacht club bar/restaurant. We will be onboard in July. Thanks. Hope you enjoy your week.

Pretty much most everything. Up to $16 a glass. 

[JamieLogical]

Okay, here are some of my final thoughts about the overall experience on the MSC Meraviglia over my semi-B2B sailings:

 

Buffet

I never had dinner in the buffet, but I had breakfast there several times and lunch a few times. I also had many late night snacks. Breakfast was pretty much the same selections every day. The stations repeated all the way around, but there were a few items, like cottage cheese, that would only be at one or two stations, so I sometimes had to search. I was generally happy with the breakfasts. I don't eat breakfast in my real life, so I was always able to find a few bites to eat and was happy.

 

Lunch had more variety from day to day. I appreciated the pizza, the fresh mozzarella, the kids buffet, and the "ethnic" food. There wasn't as much Mexican as I am used to, but I could always find Indian and Asian options. I was also impressed to see shrimp on the lunch buffet in various forms.

 

Late night snack was very limited, especially if you went very late. There were usually pre-made salads, pizza, hot dogs, fries, and a really random assortment of hot foods that sometimes included scrambled eggs, pastas, meets in sauce, and other eclectic items. On my first sailing, my husband, who is obsessed with cookies, would line up just before 10:00pm to get some cookies off the one tray they would put out right at 10:00. They would be gone within minutes and others would line up as well. Not sure why they were so stingy with the cookies! Late at night, only pizza was available and I believe there was nothing available past 2:00am?

 

As for the space, I really enjoyed the outdoor seating on the aft, but it was often hard to find a table out there. I never had a challenge finding a table inside, especially towards the back or way in the front near the kids' buffet.

 

I was a little disappointed that the bar in the buffet only served wine and beer. Most mornings, there was a little Bloody Mary station set up there for anyone who likes those. Otherwise, there were the usual water and juice dispensers as well as coffee and tea at stations all the way around.

 

Main Dining

Breakfast in the main dining room is only available in Waves, which is the single dining room on Deck 5 aft. The other three dining rooms are on deck 6. The menu was the same every day. The challenge we had there was toast. Getting anything toasted was difficult. Then once you had toast, you weren't always guaranteed to have butter and or gym. I often had to ask several times for both. I always asked for them when placing my order and then again when my toast was delivered. But I usually ended up waiting until the end of my meal to actually be able to eat my toast with both butter and jam. Also, weirdly, at breakfast they didn't bring water by default. I had to ask for it. They had servers bringing around juice and coffee, but no water. The food was generally good. I did have once incident where it tasted like my hash brown had been cooked in rancid oil, but that was only the one time.

 

I did lunch in the MDR a lot. Again, lunch is only available in Waves, but there is a different menu every day (they do eventually repeat). I enjoyed all of my lunches in the MDR (thus why I wend back so often). There is a hamburger available on the menu every day, but I ended up only having that once, as I usually found other things I wanted to try. There is also a soup of the day every day, but it was way too often "cream of peas." I hate peas. The lentil soup and white bean soup I tried were both good. Desserts are the same each day, but there are different sorbet flavors available daily.

 

Dinner in the MDR was different from what I am used to on other lines. "Anytime" dining is only available to Aurea guests. I was in Aurea the first sailing, so we dined in a designated section of the Panorama dining room. I also had the specialty dining package and ate several times in Hola! on that sailing, so I thing I actually only ate in the MDR for dinner 3-4 times on that sailing.

 

Anyone who does NOT have the Aurea Experience is assigned a dining room, seating time, and table. This information is printed on you key card when you board. It is potentially possible to change your seating, especially if you are willing to do a sharing table, but you are definitely not guaranteed your preferred dining time. I chose early dining for my preference on my second sailing, but was initially assigned an 8:30 dining time. I spoke with others who had selected early dining and were assigned 9:30!

 

Another weird aspect of the MDR experience on MSC is that only wine is readily available, if you want alcohol. It's theoretically possible to get cocktails and beer, but the service is slow as they only have a few bar servers coming around and the drinks need to be delivered from a bar far away from the dining room. The dining room does not have its own bar. So bar service was very slow and unreliable. I usually just stopped somewhere and picked up a drink on my way into dinner so that I could have alcohol with my meal. I also resorted to Prosecco many times, since it was easily available as one of the "wine" options.

 

As for the dinner food in the MDR, I thought it was quite good overall. Some of the items were excellent. I was happy to see lobster and a lot of seafood available. MSC makes their own pasta onboard, so that was always special. The menus were unique night-to-night. There were several "Signature" items available each night, so you always had something to fall back on. I found the Chef's Selection to always be really good whenever I ordered it. I definitely didn't have anything that was inedible or even terribly disappointing. Overall, I would rate the MDR dinners as slightly less good than Celebrity, better than NCL, and about 10x better than Princess.

 

The desserts in the MDR were always excellent. I love that they aren't ever super sweet. They have plenty of flavor and richness, but were never pure sugar. I genuinely never had a dessert that I didn't absolutely love.

 

Specialty Dining

I had the specialty dining package for my first sailing. It cost $71 and included 3 meals (there are other plans available). I had been warned that the specialty dining package did not cover everything on the menu in the specialty venues. Butcher's Cut and Ocean Cay have a "tastings menu" from which you can choose one appetizer, one entrée, and one dessert. Teppanyaki is a $10 upcharge if you use a specialty dining credit there. However, with the costs at all three restaurants, $71 was a good deal by my math.

 

I didn't struggle at all with selections from the tastings menu at Ocean Cay and Butcher's Cut. However, if you *do* want to sub in an item from the regular a la carte menu at either restaurant, you can get it for 50% off the list price using the specialty dining credit.

 

I found Butcher's Cut and Ocean Cay to both be very good. The baked goat cheese at Butcher's Cut and the the crab cake at Ocean Cay were both EXCELLENT. I was disappointed with Teppanyaki, especially with the $10 upcharge. You certainly got a ton of food, but you were limited to one of three set menus and none of them were ALL things that I really wanted. I will say, the salmon was incredibly good. I could have lived without the rest of it, though.

 

For drinks, Teppanyaki was completely out of saki. We ended up having plum wine there. The special cocktails at Butcher's Cut that we ordered were excellent. They were a slight upcharge from what was covered by our Easy Plus package. I don't recall having any cocktails at Ocean Cay.

 

We chose to do both Kaito Sushi and Hola! out of pocket. My husband LOVED the sushi. He is pretty about sushi and he was very pleased. I don't really eat rice, so I did a noodle dish and the "tempura" shrimp. I was disappointed that my shrimp were just breaded and fried, not tempura style at all, despite the fact they were clearly capable of tempura frying because one of my husband's sushi rolls was tempura fried. The noodle dish was delicious, though.

 

Hola! was BY FAR our favorite restaurant on the ship. We made the mistake of paying $18 per person for the "all you can eat" option on our first trip there. Turns out, with their ridiculously low prices, no human can actually eat $18 of food there. I quickly learned my favorite items and we could easily keep our orders to less than $10 per person. I didn't eat a single thing there that I didn't like, just some of it I truly LOVED. My favorites ended up being the El Chapo bean and cheese dip and the Chipotle Carnitas taco. The classic margarita there is covered under the Easy Plus package there, so that was always my go-to drink. I believe that, between the two cruises, I ate at Hola! a total of 7-8 times for both lunch and dinner? I could probably have had lunch and dinner there every day and been happy!

 

Bar Service

What can I even say about the bar service? It was always completely amazing. I had the Easy Plus package for both sailings and had no issues finding drinks that were covered. In fact, I had difficulty finding something OUTSIDE of the drink package to order "for science," since some followers of this blog wanted to know exactly what happened if/when you order something priced over what is covered by your package (you pay the difference).

 

Bar service was consistently SUPER fast and the servers and bar tenders were all friendly and amazing. There were several times where I would select a table, head over, and would be intercepted by a server before my butt was even in the chair asking me for my drink order.

 

My favorite hang-outs were the Edge bar and the Champagne bar, but I received excellent service everywhere. Obviously, when things were busy, it was a little slower, but it was never painfully slow.

 

As someone who drinks a LOT on cruises (as evidenced by my daily drink logs) I was very very happy with the bar experiences onboard.

 

I also really liked that espresso-based coffee was available at all of the bars and included in the drink package. The coffee generally on the ship (even in the buffet and room service) was really really good.

 

Main Theater

I only attended one actual show in the main theater, so I really can't comment at all on the shows. The one show I attended was a visiting comedian who I enjoyed, but that is not one of the main production shows. My overall impression of the main theater is that it is VERY small for the size of the ship. I heard many complaints about all of the shows being "sold out." I guess it is similar to the NCL Breakaway and Breakaway Plus class ships in that regard. However, unlike NCL, they don not repeat shows multiple nights of the sailing. They will do an early and a late show on a single night, but if you can't make it into either of those on that one night, you are out of luck. They will have complete different shows the other nights of the cruise. At least that was the case for both of my sailings.

 

My other "complaints" about the theater are accessibility and drinks. There are no handrails for the stairs, so people with mobility and balance issues will definitely be challenged sitting anywhere except for the very back (there are only entrances to the theater on Deck 6). If you sit on the ends of the rows, you will constantly have people grabbing onto your seat back to make their way down the stairs. And, worst of all (for me at least), not only is there no bar in the theater, you aren't even allowed to bring your own drinks in!

 

One good thing I can say is that the shows are short. They are only 45 minutes each, so for people like my husband who can't sit still for too long, they are an acceptable length.

 

Carousel Lounge

I only saw the Rock Circus show here, but I will say that it was AMAZING. It was one of my favorite shows I have ever seen onboard a cruise. The lounge itself is set up in a very interesting way so that the stage and the contraptions around it become integral parts of the show. I believe it is $18 if you book onboard. It is $12 if you pre-book online. And someone told me it's only $5 if you have the specialty dining package, but I am not confident of that, since I don't really see what it has to do with dining? There is no food involved, but you do get a cocktail included, even if you don't have a drink package. The cocktail options are limited to pre-made drinks.

 

Live Entertainment

The rest of the live entertainment throughout the ship was good. There were pianists that regularly played in the Infinity Lounge and Sky Lounge. There were two live bands, Latin Trio and Ocean Five, who regularly played in the Meraviglia Lounge. There was a saxophonist who often plated in Infinity and the Sky Lounge. There was a lounge singer with a piano accompanist who played in the Sky Lounge. There was a bass guitarist/singer who played with a backing track in the piazza and Infinity. And there was a guitarist/singer who played in the Brass Anchor. My only complaints about the live music onboard is that it was often too loud for the venue (especially in Brass Anchor) and that it wasn't listed in the daily planner. Well, it was kind of listed in the daily planner. There would be an entry like "Latin Trio/Ocean Five at Meraviglia Lounge beginning at 6:00". But you didn't know which would be playing when throughout the night and when they would be on breaks. So it was hit and miss when you would think to yourself "maybe I'll go up to the Sky Lounge for the lounge singer for a bit."

 

Stateroom

For my first sailing, I was in a Whirlpool Balcony Suite, so I got pretty spoiled by the space. It was a little weird and surprising that the bathroom was identical to the one in a normal balcony room. But the living room area added a lot of square footage and came in handy when my husband woke up earlier than me. It was also really nice having two closets, especially since it was an 11-day sailing. The couch was very uncomfortable as a couch. I don't know if it was at all comfortable as a bed.

 

The balcony was, of course, amazing. It was huge and we got great use out of the hot tub. The only real downside was that the railing was solid steel instead of glass so you couldn't see through it, you could only look over it. That was because it was so far forward on the ship and all of the balconies on the front of the ship are that way. Being so far forward also meant more noise and turbulence from rough seas.

 

The bed in both of my staterooms was very firm. I was happy with that, as my husband likes to joke that I prefer to sleep on concrete slabs. However, we have a Sleep Number bed at home for a reason. He would prefer to sleep on a bean bag, I think.

 

The bathroom was identical in both rooms and was perfectly serviceable. We didn't have any issues with a lack of storage, even with both of us sharing for an 11-day cruise. I found the shower to be big enough, but the angles created a challenge at times. I did love that it had a door, instead of a curtain I needed to for a life partnership with. I also loved that it had a built in foot rest for shaving my legs, so I didn't have to bring my suction cup one.

 

I loved that MSC still has nightly turndown service. I often nap in the afternoons and like to come back to a re-made bed. Of course, every day in our whirlpool balcony, fresh towels in the evening were awesome. Also, my day in Ocean Cay on my solo sailing, I took a shower after I came back onboard to get the sand and sunscreen off of me, so the fresh towels were appreciated.

 

Both of our room stewards were fantastic! They kept the room immaculate. Both brought extra hangers at our request on the first day of the sailing. Both cleared out the minifridge at our request as well.

 

Ship

This is the largest ship I have ever been on. I was actually surprised to realize it is larger than the Breakaway and Breakaway Plus class ships that I have sailed so many times on NCL. To me, while it felt large when walking from one end to the other, it didn't feel "big" in the way the NCL ships are where things are crowded. While some areas were crowded at certain times for certain things, I often found myself to be one of only a handful of people in a venue.

 

The ship is very beautiful. The decor is not really to my taste, but I could see where if you like that sort of thing, it's very well done. I would say that I often encountered form over function, especially in a lot of the seating. I do wish there were more comfortable seating in some of the venues. I literally avoided the Infinity Bar because I just could NOT sit in those chairs. And as much as I loved the Champaign Bar, the chairs there were ridiculous. You couldn't use both of the arms. You could either sit fully encased in the chair or you could kind of sit sideways and use one of the arms?

 

Most of all, the ship was just immaculate. It was impeccably maintained and immaculately clean. You couldn't walk 3 feet without tripping over someone cleaning. With all of the chrome and glass, it was especially impressive. Most of the public bathrooms had a full-time attendant/cleaner. There was no rust anywhere that I could find. In ports, there was always a team painting the hull. It was a DRASTIC contrast to my Princess sailing in December when the ship was a mess and in terrible disrepair.

 

It was mostly easy to navigate the ship. There were a lot of elevators, but it was a bit of a shame that there were no public aft elevators. The "aft" elevators were really more mid-ship, so if you 

 

Activities

I honestly didn't participate in many of the ship's activities. I did trivia one time. I went bowling three times. I did the F1 racer one time. I went to the White Party on my second sailing. I went to several of the solo cruiser meet-ups on my second sailing. Mostly, I never even looked at the daily planner, though I did save them all and will try to take pictures and post them.

 

I didn't do any of the water slides or the ropes course. I was super impressed that there is an indoor sports court. I know they had pickle ball there in the mornings and there were people laying basketball in there a few times when I went by.

 

WiFi

The WiFi was excellent for being included in my booking. It was definitely faster than the included WiFi on my Celebrity and Princess sailings. Unlike NCL, it is not limited by minutes. I was very very pleased with it. I was able to place/receive several WiFi calls while at sea. I was able to post to Cruise Critic, I was able to read/send email, I was able to check the news, etc. I was not able to access/stream YouTube, but I wasn't expecting to be able to anyway. I will say that there were a few times the ship lost internet altogether, due to bad weather, but that could happen on any ship.

 

Future Cruise

I was a little sad there was no way to purchase deposits at a discount or with extra perks associated with them. However, there are some decent perks to booking onboard. Double points on your future sailing, reduced deposits, onboard credit, and 10% vs. the usual 5% from Voyager's Club. While onboard, I booked two future cruises, the Divina with my husband in February and another solo sailing on the Meraviglia out of NYC in October.

 

Shops

I didn't spend much time in the shops. My husband bought some sunglasses onboard and I bought a lanyard. I will say that I was impressed by the Pharmacy area of the one shop. If you forgot your over-the-counter medications, they had you covered. If you really needed some chips or M&Ms, they had you covered. They had an Effy store, which was no surprise. The boutique with clothing actually had little fitting booths, which I thought was pretty nice.

 

Casino

I lost a lot of money in the casino, so I can say the slots were pretty tight. The smoke wasn't too bad in the non-smoking section and there was a decent selection of machines to play in that are. There were several times throughout the cruise though where the entire casino was so packed, you couldn't even find a free machine to play.

 

I liked that you could just use your normal key card to play and didn't need a separate player's club card. I *really* liked that the machines printed tickets when you cashed out instead of sending the credit to you onboard account. With the way I budget my gambling, it's important for me to be able to keep one day's winnings/losses separate from the next day, so I hated that about the Princess casino. They did maybe make it a little TOO easy for you to draw credit against your room. A couple of times I really really should have stopped for the night after losing the cash I had budgeted and made the very bad decision to pull credit out to continue playing.

 

The rewards were pretty straightforward. You earned a point for every dollar you gambled. 500 points got you $5 of freeplay. 1000 points got you $10. If you got 1500 points, you could get a 10% discount on a future cruise. If you got 5000 points on my 7-day sailing, you got a "free" cruise. On my 11-day you needed 9999 points for a "free" cruise.

 

Itinerary

The itinerary on my 11-day was great, since it went to Aruba, Curacao, and Dominican Republic. I could have lived without Nassau and Ocho Rios, which is why I didn't get off the ship in either of those. The 7-day itinerary was pretty lame. Port Canaveral doesn't have anything to do without taking ground transportation. Nassau is lame and most people are over it after their 19th visit there.... Ocean Cay was the only stop where I got off the ship and I will talk more about that later since it is MSC's private island.

 

I think the itineraries out of NYC leave a bit to be desired overall. I dislike that the Bermuda sailings are only 6 days. The 7 day sailings like the one I did are very unexciting. The only interesting itineraries are on the longer sailings. Generally speaking, I find most of the itineraries on MSC out of the US to be less interesting than some of the other lines. Maybe things will improve if/when MSC spreads to additional home ports.

 

Embarkation/Disembarkation

Embarkation at both Port Canaveral and Brooklyn left something to be desire. In Port Canaveral, too many people were checked in before boarding began so they had to stop check-in altogether for a period of time, because there was no more room in the seating/holding area. At Brooklyn, the line for security extended outside the building, which could be very unpleasant in bad weather (like those embarking yesterday probably experienced). I don't know what the seating/holding area was like, because boarding had already begun by the time I was through security and checked in.

 

Both of my disembarkations were in Brooklyn. Both were delayed, though the first sailing was more delayed. Both took a very very long time and involved standing in long lines. On the first sailing, the line on the ship was the real bottleneck and things were quick through customs. On my second sailing, things were slow both on the ship AND through customs. I would say MSC and the Port Authority really need to work on streamlining the embarkation AND disembarkation process at the Brooklyn Terminal. I am not sure it was meant to handle a ship with so many passengers, so they are going to need to figure out how to manage the load and reduce the bottlenecks.

 

Ocean Cay

Ocean Cay was beautiful. The island is beautifully manicured to seem both "natural" and well-maintained. If you like the beach and the sun, you will have no complaints. There were also many shady areas. I think the buffet area is not set-up well to handle the number of passengers trying to eat there. I also think they need to make it more obvious that the food trucks are free. There were no lines at the food trucks when there were hour-long lines at the buffet. They also need to better stock the bars on the island. Both of the bars I went to were out of basic things like soda and bottled water. I was thrilled by the number of bathrooms all around the island. The bathrooms all had drinking fountains and outdoor showers, so that was also really nice.

 

Passengers

I liked that there were so many international passengers onboard. I didn't experience many rude passengers on either sailing. I met many wonderful people and had great conversations. Most of the people who I talked to about the cruises themselves really loved the ship and the experience. I heard very few negative comments. The only real issues I had with other passengers where the unattended children running around the buffet late at night, the table of solo cruisers I was initially assigned to on my second cruise immediately talking about politics with strangers, and the family that had squatted in our reserved cabana on Ocean Cay.

 

Crew

I found all of the crew to be friendly, helpful, and eager to please. I felt like there was a bit of a language/communication issue with some crew at some points, especially in the MDRs. But generally, crew always greeted my with a "good morning" or a "how are you" and a smile. My room stewards were fantastic. I made genuine connections with many of the bar and restaurant staff and had great conversations with many of them. I am looking forward to seeing many of them in September and made a point to find out if they will still be onboard then so I can bring them some gifts. It was clear that everyone was hard-working. The cleaning staff clearly took great pride in their work.

 

Overall

I loved both of my sailings on the Meraviglia. I cannot wait to be back onboard and September and October and I am excited to try out the Divina in February. The service, food, and condition/maintenance of the ship FAR surpassed all of my expectations based on the negative reviews I had read on these forums. The few things that I found bothersome were things I could easily adapt to (like bringing my own drink to dinner). There were definitely no major deal-breakers like inedible food or slow service. I love that MSC still offers evening turn-down service, free room service breakfast, different menus in the MDR every night, and a full buffet for dinner when other lines have cut those things.

 

I would probably put the overall MSC experience just slightly lower than Celebrity, well ahead of NCL, and lightyears ahead of Princess. And when Celebrity and MSC have such extremely disparate price points, the choice is really easy!

 

I will obviously continue to consider other cruise lines based on itinerary and price, but for right now, I don't see any need to book anything other than MSC over the next year or two.

[CruizinSusan70]

Are reservations available for Hola! before you embark or not until you get on board?  On their website, whose reputation precedes it, it was difficult to interpret whether you could do it or not.  And were they open each day or only on sea days.  We would probably do lunch on our sea days in the MDR, do it in Hola! if available on two port days and the buffet the other two days.

[AtSeaWithChris]

27 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Are reservations available for Hola! before you embark or not until you get on board?  On their website, whose reputation precedes it, it was difficult to interpret whether you could do it or not.  And were they open each day or only on sea days.  We would probably do lunch on our sea days in the MDR, do it in Hola! if available on two port days and the buffet the other two days.

You have to wait until you’re onboard to make any dining reservations.