JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 9/24

[JamieLogical]

15 hours ago, HLR said:

Just wondering....at breakfast is there smoked salmon at the buffet? Or is it only in the MDR?

 

Howard

 

No smoked salmon at the buffet this morning. Just pickled herring: everyone's favorite!

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was our port stop in Sydney, Nova Scotia. We decided we weren’t going to try to do too much on shore, so we could have a lazy morning. As we were having our room service coffee and pastry and taking our showers, there were many many announcements made for specific individuals to report to the Carousel Lounge for Canadian immigration. I assume these were people who had not completed the customs forms we had to complete much earlier in the cruise in preparation for our stops in Sydney and Charlottetown? It was pretty clear the Canadian officials were not going to cleat the ship until these people reported in. Eventually the announcements subsided, but I never did hear the official announcement that it was okay to go ashore.

 

We decided to do buffet breakfast. For me, that was the usual cottage cheese and jam, along with a couple of slices of other cheese. The two bowls of cottage cheese on the entire buffet were empty. I don’t understand why they only ever have cottage cheese on two stations and why one or both of them are always empty. Cottage cheese is super cheap and clearly demand for it is high on this cruise. I finally broke down and asked one of the workers who was just standing behind the counter if he could refill it. He checked the tub of cottage cheese that was sitting on the counter behind him and it was empty, so he ran off to find another and I eventually achieved cottage cheese with mixed berry jam.

 

After breakfast, we headed up to the Sky Lounge to play some games and enjoy some mimosas. I initially asked for a Mimosa Blossom, but was served a mimosa and I just stuck with that. We played 7 Wonders Duel again as well as Skip Bo. Then it was time to start thinking about going onshore for some lunch.

 

I had scouted out our food options onshore and we had settled on a place called 7 by 7. Getting off the ship was pretty easy, except they had people both coming and going on the narrow gangway, which was really only one person wide. It made for a bit of a traffic jam right there. I am not sure why they didn’t have separate gangways for entering and exiting. I was also a little surprised at how many people were already coming back onto the ship.

 

Charlottetown is a tiny little town. I think we at least tripled the population of the town with our arrival. It seems they are mostly a Scottish settlement? Kilts and bagpipes were all the rage. The locals had a really weird accent that was a combination of what I think of as “Canadian” (probably mostly Ontario, since that’s the province I live closest to) and Scottish.

 

We walked around a bit. There was road construction going on along the main street through “downtown,” which made the sidewalks pretty tight, but meant we didn’t have to contend with vehicle traffic.

 

We found our lunch spot and were able to get a table right away. We were handed something like seven menus (maybe that’s where the 7 by 7 comes from?). There was a Fall cocktail menu, a regular cocktail menu, a mocktail menu, a brunch menu, and a regular food menu. It was a lot of options! They apparently do various flights of beer, cider, mimosas, mojitos, and more, but we decided on individual cocktails. I had the Pear Vanilla Cider and my husband ordered the Sage Berry Smash. We both liked each other's cocktails so we ended up both just drinking from both of them. I put them in my drink log as ½.

 

Food was equally difficult to decide on, as there were many options. I ended up ordering the Brunch Burger with regular fries instead of home fries. My husband got the Nashville Chicken Sandwich or something along those lines. Service was maybe a tad slow, but we were in no hurry and they were quite packed with locals and cruise passengers alike.

 

My burger was delicious and I ate way too much of it. My husband loved his chicken sandwich. He said the Nashville Hot was better than he’s had in Nashville!

 

After lunch, we stopped at a comic and game store called The Local NPC. Anyone who plays video games or dungeons & dragons will get how awesome that name is. They didn’t have quite the selection of the store we stopped in in Saint John, but they were still a nice find. We didn’t end up buying anything there.

 

We also stopped at the local drugstore and picked up a few medications. The woman behind the counter recommended a candy bar that is quite popular with the cruise passengers and crews, but we restrained ourselves from buying one. I think being so overfull from lunch helped with our self-control.

 

We headed back toward the ship. Getting back onboard was also quick and easy. They seemed to have corrected the traffic routing issue so we weren’t having to swim upstream to get up the gangway.

 

Back onboard, we went to our room to change and grab some games and we headed down to Edge for some coffee. We ended up hanging out at Edge the whole afternoon. We ran into one of our favorite servers from our April cruises. He used to work at Edge, but apparently mostly works at Meraviglia Lounge these days. Since only one bar per deck can be open in port in Canada and Edge was the bar of the day for Deck 6, he was working there. It was nice to catch up with him and it sounds like he will still be aboard for my October cruise as well. He doesn’t go home until December.

 

After spending the entire afternoon playing games and drinking at Edge, we decided to get ready for dinner, so we dropped our stuff back at our room. It was a beautiful sunset, so we hung out on our balcony for a bit before heading to dinner in the MDR.

 

Four of our six table-mates showed up. Those that were there mentioned that the wife in the other couple hadn’t been feeling well at dinner the night before (we had gone to Brass Anchor), so I hope they are both okay! For dinner I had the gumbo for my appetizer, the pasta bolognese for my entre, and the “flourless chocolate cake,” otherwise known as sacre torte for dessert.

 

My husband got the gumbo, the pot roast, and the Grandma’s Chocolate cake. He enjoyed all of his meal for once. He had been having bad luck with the MDR, so it was nice that he enjoyed everything. We were having such a nice time chatting with our tablemates that they basically had to kick us out after dinner to clean up for the second seating.

 

Oh, I should have mentioned that my husband and I made the mistake of ordering Prosecco with dinner again and once again, our waiter tried to pawn the whole bottle off on us. So, once again, I was basically in a coma after that. We made a valiant try to go to the Sky Lounge and drink some water, but we didn’t last long and I ended up back at the stateroom and just went to bed. My husband stayed up long enough to try for some cookies at late-night snack, but no luck.

 

Day's Drinks:

Mimosa x3 from Sky Lounge
½ Pear Vanilla Cider from 7 by 7
½ Sage Berry Smach from 7 by 7
Americano w/ Bailey's from Edge
Mojito from Edge
Absolut Cosmo from Edge
Hugo Spritz x2 from Edge
Prosecco x3? from L'Olive Doree
 

Edited October 1, 2023 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

Photos reminded me that we got our Gold Member gifts, a couple of drawstring backpacks, and an invitation to the Gold Party on the 2nd in our room before bed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by JamieLogical

[Sakura Tomoe]

27 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

We also stopped at the local drugstore and picked up a few medications. The woman behind the counter recommended a candy bar that is quite popular with the cruise passengers and crews, but we restrained ourselves from buying one. I think being so overfull from lunch helped with our self-control.
 

Just out of curiosity, was that candy bar called a Palomine?  I recall that being pretty popular when I cruised to Canada last year.

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Sakura Tomoe said:

Just out of curiosity, was that candy bar called a Palomine?  I recall that being pretty popular when I cruised to Canada last year.

 

 No, it was something from Nestle with "coffee" in the name. Coffee Crisp, maybe?

 

Edit: yep, I just looked it up and that was it.

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by JamieLogical

[Homosassa]

17 hours ago, HLR said:

Just wondering....at breakfast is there smoked salmon at the buffet? Or is it only in the MDR?

 

Howard

From my experiences on various MSC ships, smoked salmon  (not lox as that is a specific product that many would not like because of is texture) and bagels are offered in the MDR at breakfast. The platter comes with condiments  such as cream cheese, red onion, capers, and tomato.

 

However, the buffet can be a gastronomic journey into the variety of fish eaten at breakfast around the world.

 

Many times, depending on the international groups on board, specific items will be found in the buffet in the small section that offers typical breakfast food for that culture. 

 

There is usually a section does have a variety of  fish (grilled, smoked, pickled, cold acid and herb processed) available. Fish species may include chubs, herring,  and trout ).

 

In this case, given the cruise itinerary of New England and the Maritime provinces, I would expect there to be plenty of herring, especially pickled,  because of the its popularity in the Maritime areas of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (New Scotland).

[HLR]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

No smoked salmon at the buffet this morning. Just pickled herring: everyone's favorite!

 

So many different responses.... Thanks Jamie for checking for me! 

 

From a previous response...of course I know that I can buy smoked salmon...but it is expensive. It is a treat I enjoy on cruises and the occasional Bar Mitzva. 

 

to Homosassa  Grilled Yes! Smnoked Yes! Pickled...NO!!!!!

[Homosassa]

1 hour ago, HLR said:

 

 

 

to Homosassa  Grilled Yes! Smnoked Yes! Pickled...NO!!!!!

 I enjoyed the grilled kippered herring that MSC usually has somewhere on the breakfast buffet.

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, Homosassa said:

From my experiences on various MSC ships, smoked salmon  (not lox as that is a specific product that many would not like because of is texture) and bagels are offered in the MDR at breakfast. The platter comes with condiments  such as cream cheese, red onion, capers, and tomato.

 

However, the buffet can be a gastronomic journey into the variety of fish eaten at breakfast around the world.

 

Many times, depending on the international groups on board, specific items will be found in the buffet in the small section that offers typical breakfast food for that culture. 

 

There is usually a section does have a variety of  fish (grilled, smoked, pickled, cold acid and herb processed) available. Fish species may include chubs, herring,  and trout ).

 

In this case, given the cruise itinerary of New England and the Maritime provinces, I would expect there to be plenty of herring, especially pickled,  because of the its popularity in the Maritime areas of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (New Scotland).

 

I went back and checked my menu pics and the MDR definitely has a smoked salmon, bagel, and cream cheese.

[rxlowry]

Hope you’re enjoying 7 Wonders Duel!  

[catgirl411]

5 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Yesterday was our port stop in Sydney, Nova Scotia. We decided we weren’t going to try to do too much on shore, so we could have a lazy morning. As we were having our room service coffee and pastry and taking our showers, there were many many announcements made for specific individuals to report to the Carousel Lounge for Canadian immigration. I assume these were people who had not completed the customs forms we had to complete much earlier in the cruise in preparation for our stops in Sydney and Charlottetown? It was pretty clear the Canadian officials were not going to cleat the ship until these people reported in. Eventually the announcements subsided, but I never did hear the official announcement that it was okay to go ashore.

 

We decided to do buffet breakfast. For me, that was the usual cottage cheese and jam, along with a couple of slices of other cheese. The two bowls of cottage cheese on the entire buffet were empty. I don’t understand why they only ever have cottage cheese on two stations and why one or both of them are always empty. Cottage cheese is super cheap and clearly demand for it is high on this cruise. I finally broke down and asked one of the workers who was just standing behind the counter if he could refill it. He checked the tub of cottage cheese that was sitting on the counter behind him and it was empty, so he ran off to find another and I eventually achieved cottage cheese with mixed berry jam.

 

After breakfast, we headed up to the Sky Lounge to play some games and enjoy some mimosas. I initially asked for a Mimosa Blossom, but was served a mimosa and I just stuck with that. We played 7 Wonders Duel again as well as Skip Bo. Then it was time to start thinking about going onshore for some lunch.

 

I had scouted out our food options onshore and we had settled on a place called 7 by 7. Getting off the ship was pretty easy, except they had people both coming and going on the narrow gangway, which was really only one person wide. It made for a bit of a traffic jam right there. I am not sure why they didn’t have separate gangways for entering and exiting. I was also a little surprised at how many people were already coming back onto the ship.

 

Charlottetown is a tiny little town. I think we at least tripled the population of the town with our arrival. It seems they are mostly a Scottish settlement? Kilts and bagpipes were all the rage. The locals had a really weird accent that was a combination of what I think of as “Canadian” (probably mostly Ontario, since that’s the province I live closest to) and Scottish.

 

We walked around a bit. There was road construction going on along the main street through “downtown,” which made the sidewalks pretty tight, but meant we didn’t have to contend with vehicle traffic.

 

We found our lunch spot and were able to get a table right away. We were handed something like seven menus (maybe that’s where the 7 by 7 comes from?). There was a Fall cocktail menu, a regular cocktail menu, a mocktail menu, a brunch menu, and a regular food menu. It was a lot of options! They apparently do various flights of beer, cider, mimosas, mojitos, and more, but we decided on individual cocktails. I had the Pear Vanilla Cider and my husband ordered the Sage Berry Smash. We both liked each other's cocktails so we ended up both just drinking from both of them. I put them in my drink log as ½.

 

Food was equally difficult to decide on, as there were many options. I ended up ordering the Brunch Burger with regular fries instead of home fries. My husband got the Nashville Chicken Sandwich or something along those lines. Service was maybe a tad slow, but we were in no hurry and they were quite packed with locals and cruise passengers alike.

 

My burger was delicious and I ate way too much of it. My husband loved his chicken sandwich. He said the Nashville Hot was better than he’s had in Nashville!

 

After lunch, we stopped at a comic and game store called The Local NPC. Anyone who plays video games or dungeons & dragons will get how awesome that name is. They didn’t have quite the selection of the store we stopped in in Saint John, but they were still a nice find. We didn’t end up buying anything there.

 

We also stopped at the local drugstore and picked up a few medications. The woman behind the counter recommended a candy bar that is quite popular with the cruise passengers and crews, but we restrained ourselves from buying one. I think being so overfull from lunch helped with our self-control.

 

We headed back toward the ship. Getting back onboard was also quick and easy. They seemed to have corrected the traffic routing issue so we weren’t having to swim upstream to get up the gangway.

 

Back onboard, we went to our room to change and grab some games and we headed down to Edge for some coffee. We ended up hanging out at Edge the whole afternoon. We ran into one of our favorite servers from our April cruises. He used to work at Edge, but apparently mostly works at Meraviglia Lounge these days. Since only one bar per deck can be open in port in Canada and Edge was the bar of the day for Deck 6, he was working there. It was nice to catch up with him and it sounds like he will still be aboard for my October cruise as well. He doesn’t go home until December.

 

After spending the entire afternoon playing games and drinking at Edge, we decided to get ready for dinner, so we dropped our stuff back at our room. It was a beautiful sunset, so we hung out on our balcony for a bit before heading to dinner in the MDR.

 

Four of our six table-mates showed up. Those that were there mentioned that the wife in the other couple hadn’t been feeling well at dinner the night before (we had gone to Brass Anchor), so I hope they are both okay! For dinner I had the gumbo for my appetizer, the pasta bolognese for my entre, and the “flourless chocolate cake,” otherwise known as sacre torte for dessert.

 

My husband got the gumbo, the pot roast, and the Grandma’s Chocolate cake. He enjoyed all of his meal for once. He had been having bad luck with the MDR, so it was nice that he enjoyed everything. We were having such a nice time chatting with our tablemates that they basically had to kick us out after dinner to clean up for the second seating.

 

Oh, I should have mentioned that my husband and I made the mistake of ordering Prosecco with dinner again and once again, our waiter tried to pawn the whole bottle off on us. So, once again, I was basically in a coma after that. We made a valiant try to go to the Sky Lounge and drink some water, but we didn’t last long and I ended up back at the stateroom and just went to bed. My husband stayed up long enough to try for some cookies at late-night snack, but no luck.

 

Day's Drinks:

Mimosa x3 from Sky Lounge
½ Pear Vanilla Cider from 7 by 7
½ Sage Berry Smach from 7 by 7
Americano w/ Bailey's from Edge
Mojito from Edge
Absolut Cosmo from Edge
Hugo Spritz x2 from Edge
Prosecco x3? from L'Olive Doree
 

I think you had a typo?  You were in Sydney not Charlottetown, right? 

[catgirl411]

3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 No, it was something from Nestle with "coffee" in the name. Coffee Crisp, maybe?

 

Edit: yep, I just looked it up and that was it.

 

Most of us Canadians believe that all of our chocolate bars are better than American ones. We use very different chocolate.  Probably just a matter of personal preference though.

[JamieLogical]

34 minutes ago, catgirl411 said:

I think you had a typo?  You were in Sydney not Charlottetown, right? 

 

You are correct. Yesterday was Sydney, today is Charlottetown. Sorry for any confusion.

[killsport]

56 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Sorry for any confusion.

You must be punished for the one error in your detailed blog. Your punishment is…

One additional Mimosa Blossom! 😜

[JamieLogical]

44 minutes ago, killsport said:

You must be punished for the one error in your detailed blog. Your punishment is…

One additional Mimosa Blossom! 😜

 

Oh no! However will I survive?

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

10 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

All of the prosecco-based cocktails are covered and you can ask to have the champagne-based cocktails made with prosecco to get the price down to where they are covered.

I asked about this on my April 29th sailing and they wouldn’t do it. Even after I tipped $5 for two blueberry lavender drinks that were covered. 

[JamieLogical]

43 minutes ago, Ottawa_Cruiser said:

I asked about this on my April 29th sailing and they wouldn’t do it. Even after I tipped $5 for two blueberry lavender drinks that were covered. 

 

I have had no problem getting French 77s made with Prosecco and not being charged for them.

[JamieLogical]

21 hours ago, Laurab23 said:

Are there a lot of things at the champagne bar that are covered under the easy plus package?

 

Laura

 

Here is the Champagne Bar drink menu:

 

 

QR_N_CHAMPAGNE-BAR_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1696198779.pdf

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I have had no problem getting French 77s made with Prosecco and not being charged for them.

I will try again in December! 😀

[DaKahuna]

21 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Here is the Champagne Bar drink menu:

 

 

QR_N_CHAMPAGNE-BAR_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1696198779.pdf 428.59 kB · 1 download

 

 Can I assume the bar in Piazza Del Doge is the closes thing to a Champagne Bar that MSC Divina has?

 

 I can't wait to do a live comparison between the French 75, 76, and 77.

 

[ellenw]

11 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

No smoked salmon at the buffet this morning. Just pickled herring: everyone's favorite!

On a recent NCL cruise, I was at the "cold" bar in the buffet for breakfast. I see capers, onions, cream cheese and tomatoes. Can't wait to see the salmon! Next up - pickled herring. Well, I do like pickled herring, but it doesn't go with any of those salmon fixings!

[Essiesmom]

Every time we would visit a military museum that covered WWl, my father would say ‘I didn’t see any French 75s.’  Apparently that was a gun they had in ROTC in the 1920s.  I think he was cavalry because he rode a horse.  EM

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, Essiesmom said:

Every time we would visit a military museum that covered WWl, my father would say ‘I didn’t see any French 75s.’  Apparently that was a gun they had in ROTC in the 1920s.  I think he was cavalry because he rode a horse.  EM

 

And apparently the the Germans used 77s, which is why a French 77 uses St. Germain?

[gizfish]

13 hours ago, HLR said:

 

So many different responses.... Thanks Jamie for checking for me! 

 

From a previous response...of course I know that I can buy smoked salmon...but it is expensive. It is a treat I enjoy on cruises and the occasional Bar Mitzva. 

 

to Homosassa  Grilled Yes! Smnoked Yes! Pickled...NO!!!!!

Keep an eye out for packaged smoked salmon "pieces" or lox ends.  Same taste but not as pretty, and about half the price.

[Mark_T]

12 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Can I assume the bar in Piazza Del Doge is the closes thing to a Champagne Bar that MSC Divina has?

 

 I can't wait to do a live comparison between the French 75, 76, and 77.

 

Piazza Del Doge is closer to the Celebrity Café al Bacio, as it combines light snacks, gelato, milkshakes etc. with a full bar service as well. A wider menu than Café al Bacio though.

 

There isn't really a direct equivalent of the MSC Champagne Bar on Divina, but probably worth checking out La Luna on deck 7 as that is the piano bar with a special Martini menu and may be the best bet for champagne cocktails outside of the YC, but perhaps someone else with Divina experience can comment on that...