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

[KarenGretz]

On 5/1/2023 at 1:03 AM, BeeeJay said:

 

But the foot fetish dude in the key lime shirt seems pleased! 🙂

I'm onboard now and starting to think MSC retires read CC because there's a notice on the front page of all the dailies reminding people to not do this! Kudos @JamieLogicalfor calling it out!

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, KarenGretz said:

I'm onboard now and starting to think MSC retires read CC because there's a notice on the front page of all the dailies reminding people to not do this! Kudos @JamieLogicalfor calling it out!

 

Let's see if anyone actually heeds it.

[davy jones]

Thank you for the blog.  We are booked on the October cruise, but were considering cancelling due to the poor ship reviews.  Your experience has convinced us to keep the reservation and give MSC a try.  We are OK with most of the "European" aspects of MSC and some of the other quirks. 

 

One potential show stopper is dining assignments.  We typically choose whatever form of my time dining that the cruise line offers.  Here we booked the Fantastica experience which allows us to choose an assigned dining time and chose early.  (We typically go to dinner between 6 and 7 PM).  I see some reports that people pay for Fantastica, request early, and still get assigned 9PM dining times.  We are pretty much low maintenance cruisers, but this would be a deal breaker.  If you charge extra for a preferred sitting, you should honor the request.

 

Does anyone have any experiences and/or thoughts on this?

[shipgeeks]

davy, if you get a dining time you don't like, just go to the dining room on the afternoon you board, and see the head waiter there to request a change.  We sail as Bella, and we were able to easily get re-assigned.  If there are a lot of non-Americans aboard, early should be easy to get, as many of them will want to eat as late as possible.  I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[Buckeyefrank100]

55 minutes ago, davy jones said:

Thank you for the blog.  We are booked on the October cruise, but were considering cancelling due to the poor ship reviews.  Your experience has convinced us to keep the reservation and give MSC a try.  We are OK with most of the "European" aspects of MSC and some of the other quirks. 

 

One potential show stopper is dining assignments.  We typically choose whatever form of my time dining that the cruise line offers.  Here we booked the Fantastica experience which allows us to choose an assigned dining time and chose early.  (We typically go to dinner between 6 and 7 PM).  I see some reports that people pay for Fantastica, request early, and still get assigned 9PM dining times.  We are pretty much low maintenance cruisers, but this would be a deal breaker.  If you charge extra for a preferred sitting, you should honor the request.

 

Does anyone have any experiences and/or thoughts on this?

That is the same situation as us.  We were on the Mera under Bella and we received late dining at 8:30.  I ran into quite a few Bella that were assigned to the dining option they didn't want.... coincidence or not?  There was a big sign outside the dining room that said early dining is full..  No switching.  We're booked in Fantastica in a couple weeks and requested early dining.  We were able to put in a special needs request for early dining due to some medications my wife is on.  I have been confirmed early dining for this cruise.  

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, davy jones said:

Thank you for the blog.  We are booked on the October cruise, but were considering cancelling due to the poor ship reviews.  Your experience has convinced us to keep the reservation and give MSC a try.  We are OK with most of the "European" aspects of MSC and some of the other quirks. 

 

One potential show stopper is dining assignments.  We typically choose whatever form of my time dining that the cruise line offers.  Here we booked the Fantastica experience which allows us to choose an assigned dining time and chose early.  (We typically go to dinner between 6 and 7 PM).  I see some reports that people pay for Fantastica, request early, and still get assigned 9PM dining times.  We are pretty much low maintenance cruisers, but this would be a deal breaker.  If you charge extra for a preferred sitting, you should honor the request.

 

Does anyone have any experiences and/or thoughts on this?

 

On my second sailing, I was Fantastica and had selected Early Dining as my preference when booking. I was assigned an 8:30 dining time when I boarded. I went to the desk outside of the three MDRs on Deck 6 an they had signs up everywhere saying that the early seating was full. I still went up to the desk and asked if there was any chance I could change because I was sailing solo and was willing to do a sharing table. They were able to move me to a 6:00 seating. So, if you are willing to do a sharing table, you might get lucky. I doubt that if you are a large party or unwilling to share that they will be able to move you on a max capacity sailing.

[noshoobie]

19 hours ago, smokeykat said:

What was the address that MSC said to use?

Brooklyn Terminal

210 Clinton Wharf

Brooklyn, NY

[DCGuy64]

3 hours ago, davy jones said:

Thank you for the blog.  We are booked on the October cruise, but were considering cancelling due to the poor ship reviews.  Your experience has convinced us to keep the reservation and give MSC a try.  We are OK with most of the "European" aspects of MSC and some of the other quirks. 

 

One potential show stopper is dining assignments.  We typically choose whatever form of my time dining that the cruise line offers.  Here we booked the Fantastica experience which allows us to choose an assigned dining time and chose early.  (We typically go to dinner between 6 and 7 PM).  I see some reports that people pay for Fantastica, request early, and still get assigned 9PM dining times.  We are pretty much low maintenance cruisers, but this would be a deal breaker.  If you charge extra for a preferred sitting, you should honor the request.

 

Does anyone have any experiences and/or thoughts on this?

The only thought I have is that one of the "European aspects" of MSC is that 9 pm is a perfectly normal time to have dinner. I've never had dinner in Europe at 6 pm, that's pretty much unheard of. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat at 6, it's your vacation, after all. But that's a very early time to eat dinner. We typically eat no earlier than 8:30 on a cruise.

[JamieLogical]

I found out this morning that yesterday my brother booked the YC on the Meraviglia for tomorrow!!! They are driving to NYC from Ohio right now. I am sooooooo jealous!

[gizfish]

I don't remember seeing this in your review...to clarify is free soft serve ice cream available?  Do you know where and what times it was offered.  I've read some info saying it was not free and others saying it was but was not self serve.  I can't imagine that MSC would expect us Americans to go without our cruise ship soft serve.

[CruizinSusan70]

On 5/4/2023 at 1:12 PM, DCGuy64 said:

The only thought I have is that one of the "European aspects" of MSC is that 9 pm is a perfectly normal time to have dinner. I've never had dinner in Europe at 6 pm, that's pretty much unheard of. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat at 6, it's your vacation, after all. But that's a very early time to eat dinner. We typically eat no earlier than 8:30 on a cruise.

Back in the day we used to eat at 815, had late sitting and had a few drinks beforehand.  At 1000 post dinner there wasn't a whole lot to do except see the late show, maybe grab or drink or go to the casino, which we didn't do since we don't gamble.  With the ships getting larger over the past 15-20 years, there are many more options post dinner and we prefer to take advantage of these options starting around 700 instead of 1000.  

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, gizfish said:

 I can't imagine that MSC would expect us Americans to go without our cruise ship soft serve.

When it comes to MSC, never assume.  They have been sailing on this side of the pond for 10 years and they still don't understand all of the nuances on this side of the pond to please Americans and many that love to cruise on them like it that way.  They like that it's different and European skewed.

[ChattTenn]

5 hours ago, gizfish said:

I don't remember seeing this in your review...to clarify is free soft serve ice cream available?  Do you know where and what times it was offered.  I've read some info saying it was not free and others saying it was but was not self serve.  I can't imagine that MSC would expect us Americans to go without our cruise ship soft serve.

On our December 2022 sailing (7 days).  As you walking away from the Marketplace toward the pool outside on the right there was a soft serve ice cream place, the ice cream had good flavor and very smooth and free too. 

On our sailing it was available for 2 days then it broke down and the rest of the days only served hand scoop ice cream.

[travelwide]

On 5/6/2023 at 7:17 PM, JamieLogical said:

I found out this morning that yesterday my brother booked the YC on the Meraviglia for tomorrow!!! They are driving to NYC from Ohio right now. I am sooooooo jealous!

How was he able to get a YC room so close to sailing. Not easy to do here in Miami. Most fill up early.

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, travelwide said:

How was he able to get a YC room so close to sailing. Not easy to do here in Miami. Most fill up early.

Cruising from NY is similar to cruising from Galveston in that the majority of people on the ship drive to the cruise.  Because of this fact, the ship might not be at full capacity year round or if it is will fill up with last minute sales.  There are only so many retirees that can drive to one of the ships embarking from Miami, Ft Lauderdale or Port Canaveral, so many cruisers fly to these embarkation ports and since they're flying they reserve their cruise further out than those that drive.

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, travelwide said:

How was he able to get a YC room so close to sailing. Not easy to do here in Miami. Most fill up early.

As a follow up.  I just checked the inventory for our 7/16/23 sailing of the Meraviglia.  There are 37 YC1 cabins sold and 41 currently available.

[MsTabbyKats]

8 hours ago, travelwide said:

How was he able to get a YC room so close to sailing. Not easy to do here in Miami. Most fill up early.

Could be a last minute cancellation by someone else.  Just got off the ship yesterday in a YC interior....the cabin next to ours was unoccupied.  Maybe the person missed the ship (embarkation weather was extremely awful) or maybe just canceled.  But the YC was "sold out" for the sailing.

[JamieLogical]

8 hours ago, travelwide said:

How was he able to get a YC room so close to sailing. Not easy to do here in Miami. Most fill up early.

 

YC were the only option when he was looking (he would have booked YC anyway, as he always sails Haven on NCL). All other cabin types were sold out.

[Craiglk]

On 5/3/2023 at 3:54 PM, smokeykat said:

What was the address that MSC said to use?

210 Clinton wharf I forget the exact address but don't use Bowne street.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Craiglk
Found exact address for Brooklyn Cruise Terminal that msc told me to use

[MsTabbyKats]

15 minutes ago, Craiglk said:

210 Clinton wharf I forget the exact address but don't use Bowne street.

I used the 210 Clinton address...Lyft had no trouble finding me yesterday.  Wait time was about 5 minutes.  

[travelwide]

On 5/8/2023 at 1:39 AM, CruizinSusan70 said:

As a follow up.  I just checked the inventory for our 7/16/23 sailing of the Meraviglia.  There are 37 YC1 cabins sold and 41 currently available.

You are tempting me!

[sbcs5390]

3 hours ago, travelwide said:

You are tempting me!

You won't regret it! I am so excited to come back with my family. I did 4/22 solo as a tester - the family travel agent! We are doing 10/25/23 and 5/4/24.

[JamieLogical]

Finally got everything sorted out with my bookings and my Voyager's Club account so I can see my future bookings. Somehow (I think when I booked my solo cruise for October while onboard), my Voyager's Club account had gotten updated to include my middle name as part of my first name field. That booking showed my middle name on it, so it was the only one I could see. My other two bookings just had my first name in the first name field, so the website didn't think my Voyager's Club matched the name on the bookings and wouldn't let me link them.

 

I called MSC customer service and they updated the name on my solo cruise to just have my first name, so I couldn't see that booking on my account anymore either. I then had to email Voyager's Club and ask them to update the name on my account to remove my middle name from the first name field. That did the trick and I can now see all three bookings.

 

Weirdly, though, I don't seem to be able to make final payment on either of the sailings I booked onboard. Both the solo Meraviglia sailing in October and the Divina sailing in February with my husband allow me to go straight to the Web Check-in and give me no options for payment. I suspect I am going to have to call MSC customer service and pay over the phone as those final payment dates approach.

[Craiglk]

47 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Finally got everything sorted out with my bookings and my Voyager's Club account so I can see my future bookings. Somehow (I think when I booked my solo cruise for October while onboard), my Voyager's Club account had gotten updated to include my middle name as part of my first name field. That booking showed my middle name on it, so it was the only one I could see. My other two bookings just had my first name in the first name field, so the website didn't think my Voyager's Club matched the name on the bookings and wouldn't let me link them.

 

I called MSC customer service and they updated the name on my solo cruise to just have my first name, so I couldn't see that booking on my account anymore either. I then had to email Voyager's Club and ask them to update the name on my account to remove my middle name from the first name field. That did the trick and I can now see all three bookings.

 

Weirdly, though, I don't seem to be able to make final payment on either of the sailings I booked onboard. Both the solo Meraviglia sailing in October and the Divina sailing in February with my husband allow me to go straight to the Web Check-in and give me no options for payment. I suspect I am going to have to call MSC customer service and pay over the phone as those final payment dates approach.

Glad you got that all cleared up and squared away.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

On 5/6/2023 at 7:17 PM, JamieLogical said:

I found out this morning that yesterday my brother booked the YC on the Meraviglia for tomorrow!!! They are driving to NYC from Ohio right now. I am sooooooo jealous!

Jamie,

Any feedback from your brother about the YC? Food, drinks, butler, stateroom?