JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 10/25

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

Connecting is easy, but you cannot change between devices.  If you want to use two devices, you need a two device plan.  EM

 

This is correct. If you want to connect multiple devices, you need to either pay for a multi-device plan or you need to have a phone that is capable of hotspotting wifi. Most phones cannot. No iPhones can and only some android phones can.

[joeyancho]

6 hours ago, benjaminnicholas said:

I'm just shocked at how much you overpaid for nachos in MX.

 

They really do hit the gueros hard.

I have been going to Mexico for over 40 years.  It never used to be like that.  Things used to be very reasonably priced.  Not any more.  Prices are listed in pesos.  However prices have gone up bigtime and they give a horrible exchange rate on top of it.   So they make money on both ends.  I  now ask for the price in US dollars.  If I think it is unreasonable,  I have no problem with saying no way.   I just wait until I get back to the ship,   where it is free, or at least paid for.   I don't mind paying for what I want, but I don't like getting ripped off.   Bon Voyage.  

[jcathers1]

Appreciate the copious review. You may have (likely have 🙂 ) covered these topics throughout the review, but a few questions from me:

 

1. This will be our first cruise from a cold weather port. At what point did the weather warm?

2. Does Hola Tacos have any "all you can eat" pricing? It did last summer on Seashore.

3. Were there plenty of college football and NFL games on in the sports bar? Or where would you recommend us trying to watch these on Saturday night and Sunday?

 

We leave on Sunday, so trying to get some last minute details squared away. Thanks in advance!

[rikitikitavii]

20 minutes ago, jcathers1 said:

Appreciate the copious review. You may have (likely have 🙂 ) covered these topics throughout the review, but a few questions from me:

 

1. This will be our first cruise from a cold weather port. At what point did the weather warm?

2. Does Hola Tacos have any "all you can eat" pricing? It did last summer on Seashore.

3. Were there plenty of college football and NFL games on in the sports bar? Or where would you recommend us trying to watch these on Saturday night and Sunday?

 

We leave on Sunday, so trying to get some last minute details squared away. Thanks in advance!

We were on the October 4 Meraviglia cruise to NE/Canada. Hola does have all you can eat, for about $18 or so. College and NFL football was on in the Anchor Pub and TV Studio. Sometimes also on the big poolside screen. NFL games were also in cabin, channels were added on Sunday only. In the Anchor bar, they sometimes had two games on, other times only one.

 

[JamieLogical]

45 minutes ago, jcathers1 said:

Appreciate the copious review. You may have (likely have 🙂 ) covered these topics throughout the review, but a few questions from me:

 

1. This will be our first cruise from a cold weather port. At what point did the weather warm?

2. Does Hola Tacos have any "all you can eat" pricing? It did last summer on Seashore.

3. Were there plenty of college football and NFL games on in the sports bar? Or where would you recommend us trying to watch these on Saturday night and Sunday?

 

We leave on Sunday, so trying to get some last minute details squared away. Thanks in advance!

 

1. It was 70 degrees in New York the day we left, so the weather was never cool.

 

2. You can do all-you-can eat for $18 at Hola!, but good luck eating $18 of food. My largest bill so far there has been about $11.

 

3. I don't know about college football, but all NFL games have been available. They add all of the games as separate 'channels' to the TVs in the rooms, so even if the game you are looking for isn't being played at the casino, Brass Anchor, or pool deck, you can watch it in your room.

[buffet24]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

good luck eating $18 of food

I don't need luck... but I will need more tacos and salsa... 😂

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was our port stop in Costa Maya. I decided pretty early on that I would not be getting off the ship. Instead, I had my room service breakfast, typed up my blog, and headed to the Bamboo Pool to use the hot tub. I had the starboard side upper-level hot tub all to myself for the whole 45 minutes I was there. It was lovely. I would have stayed longer, but some repair person started hammering something nearby and it disturbed the peaceful atmosphere. Plus I wanted to get back to my room, showered, and dressed at a reasonable time for my room steward to get in and do his morning cleaning.

 

I was out of my room around 10:00 and headed down to Edge for some morning mimosa blossoms. Cheree joined me there and we hatched a plan to go to Hola! for lunch. Ray was at the spa but said she would shower and join us after if we could wait a bit. Ed let us know that his knee was the size of a cantaloupe and his ankle was sore from his fall the day before at the Bar Hop. Neither of those had even been hurting after the fall, just his busted toe had been a problem, but I guess he had hurt them and they stiffened and swelled up as he was sleeping. He didn’t join us for lunch.

While we waited for Ray, I had reached my limit of three mimosa blossoms (I had two doubles, so I guess that is four?), so I ordered a strawberry mojito, which is my new favorite drink on this sailing.

 

When Ray arrived, we headed to Hola! where I asked about how much it costs to upgrade to one of the other margaritas on the menu. Did I have to pay the full price of the drink or just the difference? Ever, our waiter every time we go there now, told me I just had to pay the difference, so I ordered a Mangorita on the rocks. He said if it is on the rocks it is covered, so I didn’t have to pay extra at all? Maybe he was just being nice. This was about the seventh time he’s waited on me in the past month. I also love that every time he waits on me, he still does his introduction spiel about being “Ever Gomez from Hondouras.”

 

I had my chipotle carnitas taco and small nachos this time. Ray and Cheree each had a taco and shared some chips and guacamole as well as a small nacho, so by the end we were all very stuffed.

 

I was also pretty drunk at this point, being six drinks into my day with a bit of a late start, so I decided to go take my nap. I got back to my room around 1:15 and napped until about 3:20. Then it was time for my afternoon coffee, so I headed down to Edge for an Americano w/ Bailey’s. I didn’t see any of my crew. I assumed Cheree and Ray were off the ship and who knew where Ed was? I ran into Andy, another solo cruiser who is a lurker on CC and who I had met at the first solo meet-up and have chatted with several times since. He was with Susan and Sandy so we all four drank our drinks and chatted for a while until they needed to go get ready for dinner. I decided I needed my afternoon snack since I once again had a very late dinner time.

 

I headed up to the buffet and had a couple of slices of pizza and discovered a station way at the back that was serving hand-scooped ice cream. They only had two flavors: rum raisin and mango. I opted for the mango and it tasted like orange sherbet, which wasn’t a bad thing. I spied on the Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships docked near us while I ate. At this point, it was getting close to all-aboard time AND it started pouring down rain, so I watched everyone running back to the ships.I had hoped to watch for pier runners from my balcony, but everyone needed to go past our ship to get to the two others, so it was impossible who to tell was a passenger on which ship.

 

I headed down to Edge and sat at the bar because all the tables were full of people waiting until their 5:30 and 6:00 dining times. Ed found me there and we had some drinks. We must have had a few stragglers back onto the ship as they announced the names of three missing people and we left the port late. We were supposed to sail away at 6:00 and I think we stayed docked until at least 6:30.

 

Ray found us at Edge and hung out with us for a bit, but left to go change for dinner. Once she was back, we decided to take a little walk and see what was going on elsewhere on the ship. We walked to the front of Deck 6, then up the elevator and then to the back of Deck 7, but just off the elevator on 7, my phone rang. It was my dad. He had forgotten I was on a cruise this week, even though I know he knew that because he and my mom are on vacation this week too. They are at a ski resort (minus the skiing this early in the year) in Virginia.

 

There was loud dance music coming up from the Meraviglia Lounge so I ducked into the TV Studio Lounge, which is usually dead. Well, Carrie, our cruise director, was filming her nightly show dressed as a Barbie still inside her box. Not wanting to interfere with the filming, I quickly moved through to the Champagne Bar, but of course, Ed had to stay and cause trouble.

 

I chatted with my dad a bit, we had more drinks, and eventually, it was time for dinner. We had all agreed to try to get to dinner a little bit early because we had made reservations for the 9:30 comedy show in the Broadway Theater. Cheree met us there, Jen was a no-show, and Jim (our new tablemate as of yesterday) didn’t get my text about eating early, so he had just come FROM the earlier seating of the comedy show.

 

He was a good sport about it though and didn’t order dessert, which made me feel a bit bad. Our servers stayed right on top of it though and they got us through dinner in a hurry! I had the gumbo, the seafood linguini, and the “flourless chocolate torte,” which they REALLY need to just call Sacre Torte because everyone sees the current name on the menu and thinks it will be gross. I had to convince everyone they should order it and they all did and they were all glad I had made them.

 

We left dinner at about 9:15 and everyone except me needed to stop at the bathroom. Fortunately, unlike the regular music acts, the theater wasn’t sold out for this one, so they didn’t give our seats away. Of course, Ed left dinner with a nearly full drink, so he had to suck that down outside the doors since you can’t bring drinks into the theater (the main reason I never go to shoes in the main theater).

 

Prior to the show starting, they made an announcement in six different languages that I gathered was to inform the audience that the show would be in English. Despite this, about two minutes into the show, people started leaving in droves as soon as they realized they couldn’t understand any of it. It has got to be so hard to be an American comedian on a ship with so many international passengers. Even the passengers who understand English well enough probably won’t get all the cultural references.

 

I thought the show was funny enough. He is the same comedian that was on the ship for my April 8 sailing, but he told a lot of different jokes from that time. We also learned he will be doing another, Adults-only, show in the Carousel Lounge later in week, so I will try to make it to that. Carrie explicitly pointed out that the bar will be available for that one.

 

We had found out on our way out of dinner that the clocks were moving forward one hour overnight, so I decided to call it. I stopped by the casino very briefly (still no revival of my luck from earlier in the cruise), got a late-night snack, and headed off to bed.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that during my nap, Ted texted that he had missed his flight home! He was supposed to have flown out at 3:15, but was rescheduled to 9:00 and wouldn’t be home until after midnight. I will try to get a hold of him today and let you know if he made it home safely.

 

Day's Drinks:

 

Double Mimosa Blossom x2 from Edge

Strawberry Mojito from Edge

Mangorita from Hola!

Americano w/ Bailey's from Edge

Hugo Spritz from Edge

Blueberry Lavender Sparkler x2 from Champagne Bar

French 77 from Champagne Bar

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by JamieLogical

[benjaminnicholas]

Last night the comic, Dave Konig, was superb for doing mostly cruise humor and had a good late crowd that didn't leave ' in droves.'

 

I look forward to seeing him in the Carousel later this iten.

[benjaminnicholas]

10 hours ago, joeyancho said:

I have been going to Mexico for over 40 years.  It never used to be like that.  Things used to be very reasonably priced.  Not any more.  Prices are listed in pesos.  However prices have gone up bigtime and they give a horrible exchange rate on top of it.   So they make money on both ends.  I  now ask for the price in US dollars.  If I think it is unreasonable,  I have no problem with saying no way.   I just wait until I get back to the ship,   where it is free, or at least paid for.   I don't mind paying for what I want, but I don't like getting ripped off.   Bon Voyage.  

 

I've lived in CDMX, which is one of the most expensive cities in MX and even they wouldn't have the gumption to charge this much for simple street food.

 

Always know your money conversion rates.  It's easy and quick.  It'll save you from making these kinds of decisions.  Multitude of apps that can do this in real-time, immediately.

[JamieLogical]

6 minutes ago, benjaminnicholas said:

Last night the comic, Dave Konig, was superb for doing mostly cruise humor and had a good late crowd that didn't leave ' in droves.'

 

I look forward to seeing him in the Carousel later this iten.

 

They only left in drove at the very beginning when they realized the show wasn't on English. For those that stayed and comprehended, I think everyone enjoyed the show!

[ajoneen]

1 hour ago, benjaminnicholas said:

Last night the comic, Dave Konig, was superb for doing mostly cruise humor and had a good late crowd that didn't leave ' in droves.'

I hope he stays on for the next cruise- which I'm on

[gizfish]

20 hours ago, jcathers1 said:

Appreciate the copious review. You may have (likely have 🙂 ) covered these topics throughout the review, but a few questions from me:

 

1. This will be our first cruise from a cold weather port. At what point did the weather warm?

2. Does Hola Tacos have any "all you can eat" pricing? It did last summer on Seashore.

3. Were there plenty of college football and NFL games on in the sports bar? Or where would you recommend us trying to watch these on Saturday night and Sunday?

 

We leave on Sunday, so trying to get some last minute details squared away. Thanks in advance!

This time of year, you will probably have warmer weather around the time you get to the Carolinas, sometime during your first full day at sea.

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was a sea day and Halloween! We had lost an hour overnight, so I set my room service breakfast to be delivered between 8:30 and 9:00. I typed up my full blog out on my balcony and then I was actually a bit rushed to try to get out of my room by 10:00. They were teaching everyone the Thriller dance for a flash mob later in the evening and I wanted to try to learn it.

 

My “costume” for the early part of the day was a headband with blingy cat ears. I wore that down to the Galleria where the dance lesson was happening. They had put up large inflatables of a werewolf and gargoyle. I am sad I didn’t take pictures of those, since they took them down right after, presumably to put them up elsewhere, but I never saw them again.

 

I felt like I was doing pretty well learning the first part of the dance, but I was already sweating from the rush to get ready and the physical activity did not help. By the time we got into the third part of the dance, I had to give up. I was too hot and it was too much for me to try to remember.

 

What I REALLY needed to improve my dance abilities was a drink! I headed to Edge and had a mimosa blossom. Ray joined me in time for my second drink. She had just come from the spa and the pool, so she was still in her swimwear. We checked out the MDR lunch menu and decided it sounded good, so she went off to change into her first costume of the day. Cheree joined me at Edge while I waited fro Ray to come back.

 

Ray came back in a full witch costume and looked AMAZING. She had brought a bag of candy and handed it out to all of the MDR staff as we walked in. She was very popular. I could tell all of the staff were genuinely excited about receiving candy.

 

For lunch, I had the soup of the day, which was pumpkin, the samosa with mango chutney, the muffuletta sandwich, and no dessert. We decided we were going to go up to the buffet for dessert because they had made a very fancy cake display. The lunch might have been the best meal of the cruise so far. The soup was delicious and the mango chutney for the samosas was ridiculously good. I told our waiter they should just sell it in jars on the ship.

 

The cake display at the buffet was very popular and it was tough to actually get a piece with everyone taking pictures and the long line, but we managed. I had something that was chocolate with orange frosting. It was pretty good. Ray and Cheree didn’t really like their desserts.

 

After lunch, it was off to nap for me. I saw my room steward in the hallway and wished him a happy Halloween and even told him I was going to take a nap. Well, I was sound asleep when I heard a knock on my door. I was very disoriented, as this was not room service breakfast time. It was my room steward delivering a letter that our itinerary was changing. We would be going to Miami instead of Nassau on our final port day. Why my room steward felt the need to hand this letter to me instead of just putting it on/under my door, I have no idea. It was so unnecessary to wake me up from my nap!

 

I tried to go back to sleep, but by this point, my solo crew were trying to coordinate with each other to meet up for drinks and such, so my texts were pinging away on my phone. I put my phone on do not disturb but then they were still coming through on my watch because we use WhatsApp and apparently those go to my watch no matter what. I took my watch off and threw it on the table. Then as soon as I was finally going back to sleep, the captain came on the cabin PA to make the announcement about the itinerary change in six different languages.

 

I gave up, got dressed, and headed down to Edge for my coffee. By this point, Cheree had put on her much-talked-about octopus costume. It was super cute. Ray had done a costume change and was now in a black witch hat and some more casual clothes. Ed hadn’t changed into his costume yet. I was still just wearing my cat ears. We hung out at Edge all evening, people-watching and each leaving at various points for costume changes. An AMAZING cellist played down in the Atrium at the Infinity Bar.

 

Ed changed into a Hugh Hefner costume (VERY appropriate for Ed!). Ray went for her third costume change and came back as a “she-devil” (VERY appropriate for Ray). Cheree just struggled to figure out how to use the bathroom in her octopus costume. Jen showed up as Grogu (Baby Yoda). Once it started getting a bit dark, I went and changed into my light-up headband. It was a good thing Ted wasn’t around because that thing should have come with a seizure warning, it was so strobe-y! Too soon for that joke? Nah, I already told it to Ted when I sent him the pictures!

 

At some point in the evening, Ed met the perfect playboy bunny to his Hugh Hefner and I got some great photos of them together. Then it was off to dinner. I had the vegetable samosas with mango chutney again as well as the scallops, the butter chicken, and the cheesecake. We were all a big hit at dinner with the wait staff with so many people in costumes. They all wanted to have their pictures taken with us.

 

After dinner, I went to bed. The itinerary change means we are only in Ocean Cay from 8:00 to 2:00 and I paid $255 for our cabana, so I want to get my money’s worth. That means we are meeting up at 9:00 to go off the ship to the cabana. I missed the costume contest, but hopefully some of my friends got pictures of that.

 

Day's Drinks:

 

Double Mimosa Blossom x2 from Edge

Vodka and Ginger Ale from Edge

Americano w/ Bailey's from Edge

Strawberry Mojito from Edge

Blueberry Lavender Sparkler from Champagne Bar

Vodka Ginger Ale x2 from Edge

Hugo Spritz from Edge

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by JamieLogical

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Great Halloween Pics!

[buffet24]

Looks like you guys are pulling away from Ocean Cay???🤷‍♂️

 

But yeah... tomorrow... looks like the winds will be howling as much as the wolves did in your Promenade.. so best to take safe harbor in Miami... 

 

 

[JamieLogical]

25 minutes ago, buffet24 said:

Looks like you guys are pulling away from Ocean Cay???🤷‍♂️

 

But yeah... tomorrow... looks like the winds will be howling as much as the wolves did in your Promenade.. so best to take safe harbor in Miami... 

 

 

 

Yes, the announced this morning that we are skipping Ocean Cay altogether and heading straight to Miami. I am pretty disappointed. I called it an early night and missed the costume contest for no reason! At least I am getting my $255 back...

[buffet24]

9 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

At least I am getting my $255 back...

That's the good part!!!  Now it's time to upgrade your Mimosa Blossoms to something stronger!!!

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, buffet24 said:

That's the good part!!!  Now it's time to upgrade your Mimosa Blossoms to something stronger!!!

 

I think I will just eat at Hola! every meal for the rest of the cruise and still go home with some extra cash!

[buffet24]

40 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I think I will just eat at Hola! every meal for the rest of the cruise and still go home with some extra cash!

[Cruzinforpeace***]

Do you happen to know if they show any soccer games onboard (cabins and/or bars)?  We’re cruising Mera in February and my husband is a HUGE Premier League fan.

[JamieLogical]

6 hours ago, Cruzinforpeace*** said:

Do you happen to know if they show any soccer games onboard (cabins and/or bars)?  We’re cruising Mera in February and my husband is a HUGE Premier League fan.

 

I have definitely seen soccer games on the TVs in the casino and Brass Anchor, but not knowing anything about soccer, I have no idea what league or teams they have been showing.

[graphicguy]

@JamieLogical...what a great live review.  Thank you!

 

Please send my well wishes to Ted.  Glad to hear he's "OK"!

[ecslady]

@JamieLogical Now that you have settled into your solo balcony room for a few days, I'd like to know how you are finding it? Is the sofabed set up as a twin comfortable?  Do you have enough storage? How is the bathroom space and also the balcony space? Would you book it again?