10/04/23 (04/10/23) Meraviglia Sailing - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[New2Cruise76]

Great pictures! Please tell me you "took care" of the Spotted Laternfly in the 13th image, very destructive and invasive species.

[wikoffclan]

On 12/12/2023 at 11:05 PM, optimusprime82 said:

Some pre-cruise photos and one post-cruise photo from New York City. Some assorted subway shots, exploring the flower district near our hotel, graffiti in Soho, and the Statue of Liberty when we returned to Brooklyn.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOVE your eye for composition... and timing! Truly fascinating to see

[optimusprime82]

13 hours ago, New2Cruise76 said:

Great pictures! Please tell me you "took care" of the Spotted Laternfly in the 13th image, very destructive and invasive species.

 

I didn't actually. At the time I didn't know what kind of bug it was. Then, throughout the trip, we saw people stomping bugs constantly. I don't think during our last trip to NYC in 2019, they city was grappling with them. We just assumed the bug stomping was par for the course, sort of like seeing someone using the street as their bathroom - just something we see at least once every trip to New York lol.

 

34 minutes ago, wikoffclan said:

LOVE your eye for composition... and timing! Truly fascinating to see

 

Thank you!

[AstoriaPreppy]

21 hours ago, New2Cruise76 said:

Great pictures! Please tell me you "took care" of the Spotted Laternfly in the 13th image, very destructive and invasive species.

 

I almost made the same comment but didn't want to be the insane NYer screaming "YOU MUST KILL THESE BUGS AT ALL COSTS" on a cruise message board. 

[optimusprime82]

Photos from exploring Newport, ME. We walked around, had lunch with my parents who were also visiting Newport when we docked, and then took a lobster boat tour. 
 

 

 

[optimusprime82]

Not that there’s too much interest but I’ll keep posting for the few that are interesting.

 

Below are a few of dinner menus and photos of what we had. I think the MSC food is a lot better than many people’s photos make it out to be.

 

I think we forgot to take photos of dessert on night one. 

 

 

[optimusprime82]

Night two dinner photos. 
 

[tammyjw305]

Interested! Thanks for sharing

[jaxdog315]

Wow amazing photos gallery quality!

[Benthayer Gonbak]

On 10/20/2023 at 8:17 PM, optimusprime82 said:

Well, we’re finally on the road to recovery. Both my wife and I have been fighting the flu (tested negative for Covid) since we returned home and have been pretty sedentary aside from working (we both work from home).

 

Overall, we had a very good time but we did not book another cruise with MSC while onboard like we had originally planned. Some of the service was exemplary, some was just okay. We never met our original cabin steward, on the fifth day a new steward stopped by with our Aurea room diffuser, some slippers, a box of tissues and said that some robes would arrive later. The robes never arrived and that was the second to last time we saw him for the rest of the cruise aside from when our laundry was delivered.

 

Our head waiter was friendly but quiet and never outgoing. The assist waiter was wonderful, as was the hostess, they were the dining room highlights as far as the staff goes. We were always happy with the food aside from one Caprese salad that had a half inch of water in the bottom - otherwise we were very happy at dinner in the MDR. 

 

Breakfast and lunch in the MDR was a lot more hit or miss. Rarely could we get a table by ourselves, which was never an issue at dinner, and the service was chaotic at best. One day at lunch it took seventy minutes for us to get a lunch that consisted of nothing but two Caesar salads and one bowl of ice cream. At another lunch during the last sea day we had to leave prior to our dessert being served because of our wine tasting was starting soon in an adjacent dining room.

 

The buffet was like the Wild West without gunfights. I don’t know if it’s a change with me or a change with cruisers but it’s gotten pretty cutthroat. We went up to the buffet for lunch on prior to sailing away in NYC and an older lady was already giving one of the dining room managers an earful about the staffing. That set the tone for the buffet for the rest of the cruise. In terms of food, we always thought the buffet food was decent. It wasn’t terribly noteworthy, buffets typically aren’t, but it was perfectly fine if you could tolerate the behavior of the other guests around you and find a table.

 

We managed to see all the stage shows, including both shows of the The Conjurers (who sat next to us at dinner twice). The Conjurers were lovely and put on an entertaining show. The rest of the stage shows were a bit of a disappointment mostly because the music was geared towards such an older crowd. Two nights in a row we heard the same song, “The Lady is a Tramp” from two different performers. Then a few nights later we heard “September” from Earth, Wind, and Fire in two different shows. I counted eight total songs that were sung in the theater during the entire cruise that were released since my birth in 1982. The entertainment felt like it was almost exclusively geared towards retirees, more so than we were expecting versus our previous MSC cruises.

 

The only major issue we had, which is a design flaw of the Meraviglia that we knew about from our last sailing, is the location of the Guest Services and its proximity to live music. I don’t understand how MSC reps, many of which are bilingual, are meant to effectively communicate with so many international guests who can barely hear them and vice versa. If the music played there was more background piano music it would probably be okay, but it’s not, for much of the cruise it was reggae. It’s frustrating trying to communicate a billing issue with someone when reggae music loudly plays from behind you.

 

Like I said in the beginning, we had a good time but we feel that the MSC experience has changed. They don’t feel like the same company we fell in love with in 2017. If we sail with MSC again it will likely be from Europe so the US influence is less pronounced.

You clearly haven’t been on the older RDL ships.  I almost took to writing notes to the future cruise people they were 6 feet from the performance area! 😱  seriously I don’t know why anyone would tak those jobs at times! 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Benthayer Gonbak