MSC Meraviglia Live Yacht Club 6/11-6/18

[Greygooser]

Hey folks. I always appreciate when other people share their experiences on here so I figured I’d give it a shot. I’ll do my best to provide pertinent info as I go.

 

Getting to NYC and the ship-

Took an Acela Amtrak from Boston to NYC (the morning of the cruise). It was only 10 mins late arriving in NYC. Grabbed a Revel rideshare (all electric rideshare company) to get down to the Wall St Pier 11 ferry, then took the ferry to Redhook. It’s only a 3 minute walk to the Brooklyn cruise terminal.

Got there at about 12:40pm. Line was very long. Apparently the check in computer system crashed. When it started back up again, it was taking 1.5 minutes in between each guest to check them in (should be instant). Because I was in the YC, we were whisked though every giant line. I understand I paid for it, but I still feel bad. I only heard a few displeased murmurs. We were brought to the YC lounge. Not much direction was given after that but that’s fine. Room was open, dropped off my backpack. Bags arrived probably about an hour later.

 

My first time sailing with MSC. I’m staying in a YC interior cabin. It’s been documented pretty extensively at this point, but it’s a pretty nice room IMO. My only complaints are: it’s two twin beds put together. You simply cannot sleep in the center of the bed or you’ll sink in the crack. And when using the shower, you set a temperature but it gets hotter and colder throughout the shower. I would guess that’s a ship wide issue. Regarding storage: It’s fine for one person, but you’d probably be pretty cramped with two.

Mostly hung out on the deck 19 until we left. Sail away was pretty cool, it was high tide so we were very close going under the Tappan Zee (I think) bridge.

 

Had an excellent dinner at the YC restaurant. Everything was great, and the filet was excellent. Going to be hard for me not to order that every night. A note on the dress code: there was none being enforced. Several people wearing t-shirts, shorts, sandals, baseball caps. Personally, I don’t care but I figured it was worth mentioning. My guess is they’ll be more strict on the gala night.

 

Checked out the Brass Anchor pub, which was nice. There was progressive trivia going on. Then went to watch karaoke. Some talented people for sure!

 

Today has been interesting. It’s been extremely windy and overcast. Breakfast on the YC pool deck was difficult, everything was blowing all over. It’s even windier now as they start to set up for lunch. I would have gone to the YC restaurant for breakfast, but it closes at 9 so I didn’t make it. Maybe tomorrow.

 

Please feel free to ask my any questions. I’ll do my best to answer when I can. 

[mnpurple]

Thanks for the review. Just a tip, it won't help completely, but ask your Butler to put another pad on the bed and that will help a little with the space between the two beds. It made it better for us, but like I said, it was still a little noticeable.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[JUSRN]

Say Hi to my daughter Kate please.

She too is in an inside cabin on the Meraviglia this week!

[jcpc]

@GreygooserThanks for posting.  I'll be following along as I'm sailing Meraviglia Yacht Club from Brooklyn in September.  I'm a very seasoned cruiser (probably close to 200 cruises during my lifetime) but I've never sailed MSC and I'm very anxiously awaiting my sailing.  I'm grateful for any and all info you can post.  Have fun!

[LImom]

Thank you for doing a live review. I will be sailing in a few weeks in YC so Im looking forward to hearing all about your vacation.  BTW the bridge you went under is the Verrazano Bridge and it is a really cool sight to be on deck while you pass under it!

[travelwide]

Can you post who the YC and HD  are. TY

[Greygooser]

2 minutes ago, travelwide said:

Can you post who the YC and HD  are. TY

I will ask and get back to you

[lovemycruisetoo]

Alin Tocu is the YC manager. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

Following...thanks for taking us along.

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Thank you for your reports. Enjoy!

[sbcs5390]

19 hours ago, Greygooser said:

My only complaints are: it’s two twin beds put together. You simply cannot sleep in the center of the bed or you’ll sink in the crack.

Definitely mention to the jr butler ASAP. I was on in April and solo. They explained most of the mattresses are tied together but they don’t always get retied after having been used as separate beds. It takes the butler and junior working together to do it. I guess it is mostly an issue when solo like I was.  Anyway, after they did that it was much better. They seemed to not have any mattress pad which I had suggested. Have a good time!

Edited June 13, 2023 by sbcs5390

[Greygooser]

A beautiful morning as we approach Cape Canaveral. Took the time to explore the rest of the ship yesterday. Happened to go through the buffet at peak lunch time, insanely crowded. Night and day compared to the YC. Pool/hot tub areas were just packed.

Lunch at the YC restaurant was very good. Some amazing Parma ham and truffled mozzarella pearls w/ caviar to start, and some Udon noodles as the main. Spent the afternoon in the YC lounge. They make excellent espresso martinis.

It was gala night on the ship yesterday. Several people were dressed to the nines but it was completely optional. Half the people (including myself) wearing shorts without an issue. Maybe there used to be a dinner dress code in the YC restaurant, but as of now it’s non existent.

Had a seafood bisque to start which was excellent. For a main, I had some fresh pasta with a mushroom sauce. Lacking a bit on flavor, but overall very good (and rich)

Didnt do much after that, just observed the silent disco from above the promenade. Very strange IMO, but people seemed to be enjoying it.

Woke up early enough for the YC restaurant breakfast, waiting for eggs benedict (my favorite) as I write this. Curious to see how many people end up getting off the ship in Cape Canaveral. Might be a good time to check out the water slides if enough people do.

Thanks to all with the tips for the bed. I will talk to the butler today. Can someone tell me what the HD is? Is it hospitality director? One of the channels on the TV lists all the officers, I didn’t see that one listed, but would like to answer the person who asked me earlier. And yes, Alin Tocu is the Yacht Club director.

 

[Bgwest]

@GreygooserThanks very much for taking the time to do this. following and enjoying!

[jean87510]

Thanks for posting.  I'm taking my youngest daughter next June on this ship and we are staying in the YC interior as well.  

[sbcs5390]

14 hours ago, Greygooser said:

Alin Tocu is the Yacht Club director.

Do you know how long Alin will be on? I know he’s just joined a couple weeks ago. We’re back for 10/25 and wonder if he will still be on. 

[Greygooser]

On 6/13/2023 at 11:14 PM, sbcs5390 said:

Do you know how long Alin will be on? I know he’s just joined a couple weeks ago. We’re back for 10/25 and wonder if he will still be on. 

I’m not sure. I will ask him next time I see him.

[Greygooser]

Ok I’m long overdue for some updates. I am not going to continue getting into the nitty gritty of each meal at the YC restaurant. Everything has been great. I am forced to make a decision every night whether I want to try something new or have the filet, which is fantastic every time. Regardless, I’m going to get whichever risotto is available 🙂

I’m a big fan of stand up comedy. It’s very hard to do, so I appreciate people that are good at it. I had enjoyed both of the two comedians on my most recent NCL cruise (one better than the other, but still both good). So we decided to go to the comedian on this ship. I’m not going to name him, but he was really not good. We stayed for 10 minutes, and several people had left before us. It’s not like he was offensive, his written material was very basic and generally lacking humor. The only time he got a good “pop” from the crowd (that I saw) was when a woman in the front row yawned. He riffed a funny thing about forgetting she wasn’t wearing a mask these days so you’ve got to be more careful yawning. Also I will say he’s good at physical comedy. Not Jim Carrey level, but obviously good in his act outs. But comedy is subjective, so what do I know?

We did end up going to the waterslides while in port at Cape Canaveral. They have a pretty nice area down below for little kids with cool looking decorative splashing devices. Now on to the waterslides-

My last cruise with NCL on the Getaway was pretty different. It seemed like a much more regulated/tighter operation. Not that I don’t have faith in MSC that the slides are safe, just seems lackadaisical in comparison. First things first. You sign a piece of paper for liability and they give you a wristband. They don’t read it, I could have made up a room number and said I was Abe Lincoln and it would have made no difference. And when I returned to the slides this morning, they just asked if I had filled it out before and gave me a new wristband. Not a problem in my eyes, just worth noting.

There are 3 slides. Two require using a tube and appear basically identical. They aren’t crazy fast/steep, but a good amount of the ride is in darkness so that adds an element to the thrill.

The third slide is the bowl slide. We saw a few small kids before us come out of the bowl without much velocity, and thought us full grown adults might not make it out! So, ignoring rudimentary physics knowledge, we really launched ourselves into the tube, laid back and tried to keep that speed up. Each of use came rocketing out into the bowl, making nearly 3 rotations before being able to sit up and exit. It was great! Overall, slides were good but not as good as ones on the NCL getaway. Maybe just because I’m a fan of the ones that drop you straight down.

Perhaps I’m spoiled by the pristine YC deck, but all the loungers in the water park area had black tar-like specs on them. I also noticed my hands had black staining on them after using the handrails to get up to the slides. I would assume it’s a product of the smoke stacks, but I’ve never seen it on any other ship.

So on to Ocean Cay. It was excellent. Worth noting is if we wanted to get set up for the YC beach area, we had to wait until the staff got everything set up. Maybe an hour after we arrived.

I’m not going to go into the various beaches since it’s been discussed so much, but yes, the YC beach/ocean is rocky. The way I look at it, it’s the price you pay for plenty of loungers with umbrellas, and drink service on the beach. If you want to walk a few mins there’s the big Lagoon and another beach with less rocks.

The restaurant was great as well. Had the lobster roll I’ve read so much about. Quite tasty. So much props to the YC crew for the hustle they show on that island. The job is hard enough on the ship, but you add in the extreme heat and it’s got to be exhausting. Final thoughts on Ocean Cay. The lighthouse show was underwhelming. We watched from the ship though, so maybe if you’re right in front of it it’s more impressive.

Nassau might be a place every cruiser has been on, so I won’t say much. It was hot. I like new set up to get from the ship to the street. Got a few souvenirs and some cold drinks, and retreated back to the ship.

 

Getting back to the YC and its perks. Everyone is great, but the bartenders in the lounge are stupendous. So accommodating, friendly and cheery. It’s become our favorite spot to hang. The pool deck is fine but the waiters have a lot of people to take care of so you frequently need another drink but have to wait. Or maybe I just drink too fast? 🙂 
Final two things for now. It’s dangerous that you can order pizza to your room through midnight. It’s quite good and hot, only complaints is it’s greasy. But that could be because I order sausage and pepperoni every time.

I’m currently on the thermal suite. A little confusing at first, was hoping someone would show me around but the woman at the front was on the phone. I stumbled into enough rooms to figure it out. I love the idea of the ice room to cool off after you have a steam session. Speaking of which, I’m off to get in the whirlpool tub. Hope you enjoyed the update. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll do my best to get you an answer!

[magnetique]

Thaks for your review.

 

Could you please post a picture of the departure information tomorrow? I am interested in the NYC excursion (ending in JFK airport). However, if it leaves the ship too early, I can skip.

[Greygooser]

6 hours ago, magnetique said:

Thaks for your review.

 

Could you please post a picture of the departure information tomorrow? I am interested in the NYC excursion (ending in JFK airport). However, if it leaves the ship too early, I can skip.

Hope that helps. Maybe you could find more general details on the MSC but that’s a guess

[travelwide]

Hi there! HD stands for Hotel Director. A very high position to hold. Hope you can find out. 

[Greygooser]

34 minutes ago, travelwide said:

Hi there! HD stands for Hotel Director. A very high position to hold. Hope you can find out. 

It’s Andreas Kontogeorgis

[magnetique]

On 6/17/2023 at 5:32 AM, Greygooser said:

Hope that helps. Maybe you could find more general details on the MSC but that’s a guess

 

 

 

Thanks!

[MaggieNY]

I'm going to piggy-back onto your thread. My husband and I were also on this cruise. We've only ever been on NCL so we were curious about MSC. 

 

Port: We were not a fan of Brooklyn. Manhattan is so much easier for us. We're not very familiar with Brooklyn and had to watch the GPS because it wanted us to take the tunnel, which we managed to avoid. Then Google Maps didn't know that the entrance to the port parking lot was not accessible from the one side. We asked 3 different guys whose only English seemed to be "go right, go left". After circling 3 times, we finally figured out that you had to go ALL the way down, loop to the next street over, then you could get into the parking lot. No signs anywhere. The NYPD officer we asked was useless.

 

Parking was steep at $315. The cheapest garage we could find online was about $145 but was about 5 miles away and would have cost over $50 to Uber each way, making it $250. My husband complained but I thought it was worth the extra money for the convenience of parking at the port. It was great on debarkation. We did the self-walk off, crossed the street into the parking lot, loaded up the car and drove off.

 

Cabin: We decided to do this on the cheap and took an interior cabin. We realized we're almost never in the cabin so why pay hundreds extra for a window or balcony. The TV was opposite the bed and we set it to the port or starboard channel (depending on which one would show us the sunrise) and left it on all night. We could have used a couple more drawers but we managed. Our cabin steward was great. I'm pretty sure she serviced the room 3 times a day. And even though MSC's website strongly discouraged direct tipping, she gladly took the extra money we gave her at the end of the trip.

 

Ship cleanliness: On past trips, I've heard other passengers make fun of the washy-washy ladies outside the buffet on NCL, but I love that they make sure everyone is washing up. (It's like LOTR: "You shall not pass!") MSC made no effort to make sure people were washing before entering. I would say 90% of the passengers were walking in without washing. There were some sinks nearby but it was hit or miss as to whether you got any soap and the paper towels were so jammed packed it was difficult to get one out. I was a germophobe before the pandemic, now I'm a germ lunatic. There was a lot of open coughing in the buffet area. Yuck. 

 

We did the 9:00 stretch and 9:30 aerobics on the pool deck most days. Since it was pretty early in the day, you would think it wouldn't be too dirty. There was always hair and garbage swirling around as we exercised. It didn't look like the deck got a good scrubbing at night. Most of the landings at the stairs were pretty wet, like there was some kind of leakage going on.

 

Buffet: The buffet was okay but the menu almost never changed. We were usually up for breakfast by 7:00 - 7:30, so the crowds weren't bad. I wish that MSC let you get a freshly made omelet or fried eggs to order (like NCL). You could get custom omelets in the dining room but we preferred the convenience of the buffet. I would fill my travel mug with tea and my husband would fill his water bottle. We didn't like that you had to carry around your silverware. The napkins looked ragged. I like that NCL has them on the table because it forces staff to come around and fill them then clean the table. There didn't seem to be much staff cleaning tables. A few times we sat at tables that had been cleared of dishes but not cleaned.

 

We were ready for lunch by 12:00 and found a lot of people towards the back still working on breakfast. Lunch was never too crowded. There were quite a few people who would just shove into the line to grab what they wanted. The pizza was really good. The desserts looked pretty but tasted bland. There wasn't much in the way of sugar free desserts. I liked that the ice cream was served by staff outside by the pool. The ice cream machines on NCL can get a little dirty with people self-serving. There was no hard ice cream like NCL. We never ate dinner at the buffet.

 

MDR: We weren't fans of the assigned seating. We had to make sure we planned our time carefully. We were assigned an 8-top at 5:30 at Waves. We only met 1 other couple, the other 4 people never showed up. The other couple was very nice but I had trouble hearing them with their accents, my hearing problem, and the loudness of the MDR. The meals were okay - we had some really good meals and some that were meh. My husband had surf and turf and turf on Gala Night. I would happily marry the pastry chef who made the Royal Cake that night. I had swordfish that was good but blackened fish that was pretty white and bland. The other couple at our table frequently had a couple of appetizers and entrees most nights.

 

Our waiters were great. We had hot tea the first night and it tasted heavily of coffee (my husband and I hate coffee). We had to leave for a show and didn't get to tell the waiter there was a problem. The next night, he asked if we wanted tea (he remembered what type we each wanted). I mentioned the problem with the water. He brought water in a carafe that hadn't been used for coffee and made sure he did that for the rest of the week.

 

The dress code is not enforced. We went to Waves at 5:30 when we were in Port Canaveral to see if we could get a later seating. We were sweaty and obviously had bathing suits under our clothes. They would have seated us as we were, but we went back to our cabin to shower and change into dress clothes. We like to dress up for dinner. It just makes it feel more special.

 

Shows: We pre-paid for both of the carousel shows before sailing at $12 each. It was $18 on the ship. We figured since we didn't get the drink package, the $12 was for the drinks. The drinks were not great and the shows were okay. Not as much with the acrobatics as we thought there would be. A lot of the acrobatics were repeated in both shows. Singing and dancing were pretty good. We could NOT use the app to book the time we wanted (you only pre-pay but you can't schedule). We had to stand in line 45 minutes to schedule our shows.

 

There was a different show each night, as opposed to a few better quality shows as on NCL that were repeated. The shows were pretty good but I thought they were a little lacking. The musicians (piano, guitar, bass and drums) were AWESOME. I noticed them in the first show. Then in one of the later shows they were featured during a costume change and we were blown away. The Conjurers were okay. I liked the comedian - he wasn't bad. His show in the carousel was funnier. We loved the guest and crew talent shows. The audience was super-supportive of all the performers. The dome shows were hit or miss. I missed the Silent Disco! I wanted to do it but my husband pooh-poohed it. I was hoping they would repeat it. I've seen posts that they sometimes do it twice but they didn't.

 

The MSC for Me App: This is where MSC came out a little bit ahead of NCL for us. I loved that we could pre-book our shows (except carousel). I loved that we got a reminder about 30 minutes in advance for shows we tagged. There were nice descriptions of most of the events. The ship map, however, didn't work at first. It finally started working a few days in - after we already knew all the nooks and crannies in the ship. I wish they had PDFs of the daily program - there were some things listed in there that weren't on the app.

 

Ports: We hated that Port Canaveral was at 1:00. We wanted to see Kennedy Space but would have only had 3 hours or so to see things. We opted to take a shuttle to Cocoa Beach. Ocean Cay was very nice. We went to the buffet early and the line wasn't too long. The food was pretty good. There was someone making sure that guests didn't try to cut in front of other guests on line - which almost happened to us. The lighthouse show was underwhelming. They made such a big deal about it but we could have given it a miss. We've been to Nassau before and were not really looking forward to it again. The new port is nice but it looks like they pushed out some of the local stores. 

 

Internet, specialty dining and drinks package: We opted not to take the internet. We had a few times that we regretted that. I understand that it's unlimited, not by the minute like NCL. A lot of my push notifications still came through on my phone when I had on Wi-Fi for the app. We never take specialty dining or drinks packages. I like that NCL lets you bring wine on board. I used to hate the $15 corkage fee but I missed it this trip. I usually buy $10 - $15 bottles of wine. We ended up paying $40 for a bottle of wine.

 

Games/activities: We found the cruise director's staff to be a little less warm, welcoming and engaging as NCL's staff. The activities started exactly on time and ended on time. There was no buffer between if you wanted to run to something else. The TV studio was too small for some of the events. The Love and Marriage show was similar to NCL's Not So Newlywed game, but they only interviewed the women - not the men. The gym isn't as big as NCL's. 

 

Library: The "library" is just a small area with seating, lots of shelves and (I kid you not) 3 books. There were also 2 jigsaw puzzles, 1 which said there was a piece missing. That's it. Boo.

 

Final thoughts: We didn't love the cruise but we didn't hate it. It was pretty nice but we kept saying, "This is good, but Norwegian does it better." We might go MSC again if we get a good price like we did for this one.

[Morgsmom]

@MaggieNY Thank you for your comments.  From my perspective you can't compare one cruiseline directly against another.   They each have their own pros and cons.  However going into this you were aware that there was fixed dining times, that you docked at Port Canaveral at 1:00pm, and that you didn't buy the drink package.  $40 for a bottle of wine really isn't that much more than $15 corkage and $15 bottle.  As far as the library, all libraries were shut down during Covid on the ships.  Once books are restocked guests take them (there is no control tag as it's an honor system); at some point they cut their losses and make it a guest exchange library only.  As far as lack of warmness of Cruise Director's staff and the punctuality of events - I wouldn't expect anything different from MSC.  To be fair, I haven't been on NCL (but we sail on the Joy in September) but I won't compare it to MSC.  I'll just take it the way they do things.

[Greygooser]

Ok, a little late but final update. Continued to enjoy the YC and it’s perks through the end of the cruise. One minor detail about the stateroom I forgot to mention and I received conflicting info about on this forum. ONLY the MSC keycards will work to operate the lights. I tried a few myself and spoke to others who confirmed. For me, it didn’t matter because it only powers the lights. My only concern was keeping the outlets/AC on regardless of whether I’m in the room. If you wanted, I’m told you could ask for an additional keycard to leave in there all the time.

 

Disembarking was painless. Weren’t in a rush, leaving at 8am. Whisked through by a butler again, customs took 30 seconds. Caught the ferry to Brooklyn and avoided all the crowds getting taxi’s/rideshares. Plenty of time to catch our 10am Amtrak to Boston. You could easily catch the 9am. If you self disembarked and caught a taxi/rideshare you could take the 8:20a Acela. I wouldn’t want to risk it. Overall, I wouldn’t hesitate to take a cruise out of NYC again.

 

Thanks for following. To sum it up as someone that’s never cruised MSC, the YC experience was excellent. I wouldn’t stay outside of YC if I cruised MSC again. Not to say I wouldn’t have had a fine time, but now that I know how good it is I just don’t think I’d be interested.