Hopefully Semi-Live: MSC Meraviglia - YC - July 30, 2023

[Qc-Mtl-To]

First attempt at a live review… so please be indulgent.

Premise:

36 yo here who was lovingly invited by his sister to “join” (read: organize, plan & book) her, her husband and their 5 (yes 5!) kids aged 11-15 (yep.) on the July 30 2023 Meraviglia sailing.

 

I typically split my vacations between active cultural immersive EU/Asia, and what I call a “brainless” trip each year, with the cruise in the latter bucket. Travel addition is funded by a rewarding but demanding job in finance which makes me appreciative of my time off. I don’t mind paying for the better things, but always seek to extract as much value from each of my trip. I’m fairly go with the flow and easy going otherwise.

 

Long story short, I’ve been cruising for a little while as my “brain off” vacation. Been alternating between Celebrity (yep another rescue puppy) and MSC yacht club since 2015. Dabbled a bit with HAL for some specific itineraries, fully channeling my inner 100 years old. I’ve recently skewed towards MSC in the last 5 years, all in Yacht Club. For reference I’ve sailed the Divina (1x), Seaside (2x) and Meraviglia (1x) before and have a booking in November on Seaside with my partner and a few friends.

 

First time travelling with teenagers and kids since I was one myself. I typically travel with my partner, but vacations constraints prevented him from joining this trip. This is my sister’s first cruise since 1997 (Costa Romantica…), and her husband and kids’ first.  I live in Toronto and my sister is in Montreal.

 

Booking Story & What Wine Makes Me Do:

We originally booked in late spring when my sister called to brainstorm on idea for her annual family vacation. Mentioning in passing the Meraviglia relocation to NYC we quickly determined that this could be a solid option for her family, ensuring that everyone’s vacation is actually a vacation.

 

One thing leading to another, she convinced me to join the party noting that 8 people is a lot easier than 7 to plan around…. Got a fairly good deal on 3 Aurea balcony cabins inclusive of a healthy onboard credit, easy plus drink package (non-alcoholic for kids/teenagers) and wifi. 3 per cabin but I was to be only with my goddaughter in our cabin (perk of planning for everyone!)

 

I was looking forward to test the non-yacht club waters with a premium plus beverage package upgrade (for adults) booked (my sister and I can be difficult on our wines and liquors… blame that on the French blood) and had flirted with unlimited specialty dining package for all when I noticed a few duplex yacht club cabins opening up…

 

Calling up our travel agent after a few glasses of wine, she managed to reallocate 2 of the kids in my cabin so we could max out the duplex suite at 4 (but with 2 bathrooms this is a win for everyone!), and upgraded the remaining 2 cabins (2 pax each) to regular yacht club balconies.

 

The upgrade turned out to be relatively cheap all things considered (less than what yacht club was going for, at the time of the original booking on an all-in basis) and MSC credited the upgraded beverage package against the cost of the yacht club upgrade so I didn’t “lose” anything. None of them should be expecting Christmas presents from me this year.

 

Pre-Cruise Plan:

I’m flying into LGA on the morning of the 29^th and my sister and family is driving that morning from Montreal. We booked the Seaport 33 Hotel across the street from the Brooklyn Bridge, and plan on taking the ferry at Pier 11 in the morning of the 30^th. I’m fortunate enough to work for a bank that has an office downtown NYC so managed to leverage a colleague’s parking pass for the week for my sister’s car.

 

Trip of Firsts:

As mentioned previously, it’s a trip of firsts for most.

·         I’ve never traveled with kids/teenagers (they’re very well behaved and if I considered myself has an old soul, those kids are well past retirement age)

·         First cruise (or been a loooong time since last) for most

·         First type of any type of Caribbean vacation for the kids

 

Planned activities:

·         For Port Canaveral:

o   Kennedy Space Center – went when I was a kid and remember it to be fun. It’ll be a fast one, but it’s better than nothing.

·         Nassau:

o   The kids have been re-watching pirates of the Caribbean and replaying Assassin’s Creed Black Flag (game is set in the pirates' golden age era and features a fairly accurate reconstitution of Nassau based on 17^th blueprints) on a loop since they know about the vacation. We plan on touring the historical part of Nassau: Queen’s Stairs, Parliament Area, Botanical Garden etc… (see? Old Souls…) and potentially finish the day on the beach)

·         Ocean Cay:

o   Snorkel, and roasting like a bunch of well fed, crispy suckling pigs on the beach.

·         Sea Days:

o   Each kid comes equipped with a Fun Pass.

o   Water slides.

o   Premium Drink Package.

o   Food.

o   Nuff said, y’all get my drift.

 

At this point, I’m opened to advice, to dos, not to dos, thoughts and comments… I’m well-traveled in a lot of ways, but group/family/kids travels is a first…

[jules815]

This sounds like a fantastic family vacation. They're lucky to have you! 

 

I'll be following along.  

 

[Qc-Mtl-To]

IT Surprises and new cabin #s!

1 week to go, 1 week left dealing with MSC infamous IT surprises!  Woke up to cabins being reallocated across the Yacht Club following last night IT update… My and the girls cabin (YC duplex deck 12) stayed as is, but my sister, husbands and sons were moved across the deck 18 vs. side by side cabins on deck 14.

Called back the travel agent, and they could accommodate 2 side by side on deck 14 anymore, but managed to get 2 on deck 18 on the port side, away from the smoking section. Side by side was the most important thing so that my sister can let the boys bunk together and have her husband sneak in her cabin at night 😉, and still be able to maintain discipline. They boys are very well behaved, but buys will be boys, so opened balconies will be good to keep the family unit together.

Just a quick parenthesis to ask people to be extra nice to their agent when dealing with this… Mine told me she had a lot of those requests today, and while people are rightfully angry in some cases, getting the TA to eat crap isn’t nice… TAs have to call back MSC directly to make changes each time so that takes a long time, when they could be spending their time booking new cruises and make commissions. This is a lose lose for everyone… but not a reason to be rude or for anyone to consider their trip “ruined” and swear off MSC as some have…

I’ll take MSC’s prices with the IT issues over RCCL/Celebrity fares (and remember that Celebrity’s IT was not far from being hot garbage not so long ago…).

 

T-1 week…

With the 1-week countdown, and a crazy busy work schedule, packing has started as I’ll likely only have a few hours Friday night to finalize everything before an early flight Saturday into LGA. Not a fan of airports in summers (crowds, occasional travelers, delays, thunderstorms, post-COVID issues, US customs in Toronto, etc..) so earlier is better, at least the plane overnight in Toronto… I fly enough for work; I don’t want to deal with issues for my personal time…. Thank God for Nexus/Global Entry… that usually makes the stuff I don’t control a bit more controllable!

At this point I’ve turned my guest bedroom into a packing disaster, with snorkel gear, water shoes (along with the sand from the previous trip (woops… forgot to rinse them last time! – my significant other isn’t happy with the sandcastle I can now build in the other room).

Sunblock has been purchased in industrial quantity, I somewhat fit in most of my summer clothes, and I’m pretty much done figuring out which menus in the YC’s restaurant I feel “meh” about and the specialty restaurant I plan on booking instead….

In short, planning is going well. I think. Especially considering that I usually am a spur of the moment person on vacation, but with 8 of us, it’s a bit hard to be spontaneous…

Edited July 23, 2023 by Qc-Mtl-To

[woostergirl]

Following along! You're an amazing brother!! I'm considering a YC MSC cruise for my family.

[sofa.king]

If you’re a non smoker, how are you finding this ship in terms of smell of tobacco?  I’ve heard mixed reviews about even areas that are off limits to smokers, will still have a smell of smoke. 

[lumofny]

Are you sailing on her now? Would love to hear about the activities for the younger teens.