Post Mortem Meraviglia Review—First Timer MSC!

[Cruzinforpeace***]

The last day of any cruise is sad for me.  Back to reality (que the Queen song) but I thank God we have the opportunity to cruise so often.  We are blessed.  
 

The morning and seas were calm although I could feel the chill in the air starting to return (boo).  One last walk on the walking track, one last duck to hide and one last sea day to enjoy.  Or should I say, partly to enjoy, as some of that sea day involved trying to jam everything I brought and bought into our suitcases.

[Cruzinforpeace***]

A deck chair difference I noticed on MSC.  Now I don’t know if this is just because our sailing was not at full capacity, but the deck chairs are not all jammed together like sardines.  There were actually spaces every 2 deck chairs!

 

 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

Loved the “hockey pucks” (hash browns) each morning at the breakfast buffet.  Tip:  if they’re out of them (they’re super popular) on the main buffet lines, check out the family/kids area of the buffet.  We always found more there.

[Cruzinforpeace***]

Couldn’t resist a picture with the MSC Mascot.

[Cruzinforpeace***]

And the chocolate!  Delicious.  We customized ours to have Oreo cookies inside.

[Cruzinforpeace***]

Welcoming us back to NYC.  There were a lot of cakes like this in the buffet line throughout the cruise and they were yummy.  Lady Liberty looks like she put on a few pounds during this cruise (lol)!

 

 

 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

Why does pulling into NYC at the crack of dawn at the end of a cruise feel like such a “downer”?  I don’t know why I continue to take photos of this practice if it makes me feel glum.  But here ya go anyway…

 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

One last breakfast in the buffet.  All my favorites were there.  LOVED the raspberry filled iced donuts and chocolate croissants; so deadly for the waist line.  By the way, the watermelon had black seeds.  I haven’t seen “real” watermelon since I was a kid!  AND it tasted like watermelon.

 

soooo

sad

to

leave!!!!!

 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

NOW this is EXTREMELY important for the MSC newbies and anyone who may have not known this before…

 

Disembarkation was going quite smoothly for us.  We went to our meeting spot, waited for about 10 minutes and then quickly we were escorted to the gangway area. The wait was a bit longer there; about 15-20 minutes. Still, we were pleasantly surprised because we had heard horror stories of long waits to disembark.

 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

HERE COMES THE WHAMMY…

 

We got up to security to have our cruise cards scanned to leave the ship, the final step.  We were then told that we had a balance on our account and could not disembark until we went to Guest Services to settle the bill. 
 

I was puzzled as we set up our account with a credit card and was the under the impression that all charges would be linked to the credit card.  I had also been checked out charge the entire trip on the app. Always been like this on other cruise lines. BUT this is MSC!  

Ok.  So continuing to go with the flow and trying not to panic I went down to Guest Services to solve the mystery.  There of course was a lengthy line that took about 30 minutes to get through.  There were many other guests in this line with the same issue.

 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

Finally got to the front of the line and was told that my son had additional charges to his account. I was puzzled because I bought him an $80 fun pass pre cruise and also set a $30 limit for his onboard spending.  Apparently he had a $28 balance for going above his fun pass account amount.  Thank God I set a limit because the only way you know if your child has used their fun pass account limit is if you go to the reception desk upstairs on deck 16 by the bowling alley.  If they go above that limit, it will spill over to the regular cruise card account.  
 

You have been warned and “you’re welcome”.😀

 

The fun did not end there.  I was then told

to go to the kiosk to pay the balance.  Another line (not as long thankfully). When I tried to pay the balance the machine would not recognize my stored credit card.  I then attempted to get the attention of another Guest Relations crew member.  I know she heard me because I have a very loud voice that carries (being a singer).  She literally ignored me!  I persisted and then she got REALLY nasty and said in a really condescending manner something like  “if you would stop talking I might be able to help you”. I wish I could remember exactly what she said but it was not nice what she said and how she said it.  I was literally in a state of disbelief at this point.  Everyone working on this ship had been so kind and accommodating and now this?  So out of character.  I asked for her name and she yelled at me “don’t take my picture!”  I said I just wanted her name.  She slammed her name tag down in front me.  I did photograph that.  I don’t want to embarrass her by showing her name; I hope she gets the re training she needs and goes on to have a successful career in customer relations, I truly do. I reported her on my post cruise survey.  She definitely needs some further training, especially if MSC wants to corner the North American market.  This experience almost ruined my whole cruise and it was the last impression given to us for the week.

 

I was then redirected back to the Guest Relations area and had to contend with passengers yelling at me to get to the back of the line but I calmly explained “been there, done that” and they seemed to accept that answer thankfully.  Finally I was able to settle the account and disembark.  Hallelujah!

 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

Now, I don’t want to leave this review on a sour note for sure!

 

We had a FANTASTIC cruise!  I wholeheartedly recommend MSC cruises to anyone considering something different than the usual “big guys” (X, Royal, NCL etc).  It was a great value for our money.  We honestly enjoyed the food better than any of the other cruise lines we’ve traveled and we’ve traveled inside cabin to suite class.  It’s a real European feel.  They’re finding their way with the North American market and I believe they’ll get there in no time.  
 

I was very upset after the disembarkation fiasco and told my mother on the way home from the pier that I was going to cancel our July cruise on the MSC MERAVIGLIA that we booked on board.  I was that “traumatized”. 
 

Then my sensible mother talked me off the cliff and said “But you had such a great cruise!  Don’t let one bad experience with one person ruin your whole cruise”.  Mom’s always right in the end, no matter how old you get!

 

So, we’re looking forward to our next adventure on the MSC MERAVIGLIA in July.  It should be very different in the summer and hopefully we’ll get to Ocean Cay this time.  We even booked the same exact cabin and Aurea experience. We feel better prepared to enjoy the next cruise, living in the moment and (trying) to let things go…

 

 

 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

Thank you for joining me on our adventure!
 

Until our next MSC Cruise…

[JamieLogical]

I am really happy to hear you had such a great overall experience with MSC! I hope your review will inspire others to give it a try.

[bridgenorthbrooks]

Thank you for your review!  We will be on the March 10 sailing of the MSC Meraviglia and our situation is very much similar to yours.  This will be our first time on MSC but have travelled other lines previously. We will be travelling with our 17 year old and have purchased the Fun Pass in her name.   I have done the online check-in and put in our credit card.  I'm just wondering how to avoid the situation that you encountered upon disembarkation.   If we have a balance, I just assumed that it would be charged to our credit card.  What would you do differently next time? Thanks in advance!

[Mom2B&Z]

Thanks for the amazing review! We sail March 10 with a 16 year old and will definitely be using your tips for making sure we can disembark without any surprises. 
I do believe you can check your online account through the MSC and ME app, though I may go visit guest services the evening before we disembark to make sure we have no surprises. Better to wait in line then than when we are trying to get home!

[Cruzinforpeace***]

5 hours ago, bridgenorthbrooks said:

Thank you for your review!  We will be on the March 10 sailing of the MSC Meraviglia and our situation is very much similar to yours.  This will be our first time on MSC but have travelled other lines previously. We will be travelling with our 17 year old and have purchased the Fun Pass in her name.   I have done the online check-in and put in our credit card.  I'm just wondering how to avoid the situation that you encountered upon disembarkation.   If we have a balance, I just assumed that it would be charged to our credit card.  What would you do differently next time? Thanks in advance!

Definitely put a limit on your 17 year old’s cruise card (that’s different than the fun pass account).    You can always change the limit if they need to spend more.  I only put a limit on it because he wanted to buy some soft drinks and we weren’t with him to buy them.  He did not have a drink package.  It was more convenient to let him use his card on his own.  We told him to use up his fun pass because it was the last day and he had not spent much of the $.  Like I said, he had no way (and us also) of knowing what was left on the fun pass card as far as a balance. The only way you find out is to go to the amusement area reception.  We found this out at disembarkation.  Again thank God we set a limit on his card because he was just playing everything on the last night to use up the balance.  It was not showing up on our account that night when I checked on the app.

 

In the future he won’t be able to charge.  He’ll be 18 for our July cruise so he can put cash on the account himself (lol). If we cover his soft drinks he’s just going to have to hang out with us to snag a soda.😀. If he has to be linked to my card I will disable his spending if possible.  He’s old enough to know not to buy things frivolously but it just keeps it simple.  He will not have a fun pass on the next cruise.  Edit:  just checked with MSC.  He will still be linked to my credit card but I can still set a limit which is good.

 

My advice would also be to not buy anything the last night of the cruise to be safe. It appears they may say you have a balance when you disembark; there were many people in the same situation like us.

Edited February 18 by Cruzinforpeace***

[Cruzinforpeace***]

4 hours ago, Mom2B&Z said:

Thanks for the amazing review! We sail March 10 with a 16 year old and will definitely be using your tips for making sure we can disembark without any surprises. 
I do believe you can check your online account through the MSC and ME app, though I may go visit guest services the evening before we disembark to make sure we have no surprises. Better to wait in line then than when we are trying to get home!

I agree!  Check your balance the night before at the GS desk in person and don’t use your card after checking your balance.  

[nferr]

6 hours ago, bridgenorthbrooks said:

Thank you for your review!  We will be on the March 10 sailing of the MSC Meraviglia and our situation is very much similar to yours.  This will be our first time on MSC but have travelled other lines previously. We will be travelling with our 17 year old and have purchased the Fun Pass in her name.   I have done the online check-in and put in our credit card.  I'm just wondering how to avoid the situation that you encountered upon disembarkation.   If we have a balance, I just assumed that it would be charged to our credit card.  What would you do differently next time? Thanks in advance!

 Always check your balance the night before and clear up any discrepancies. Hopefully that would avoid that type of situation. But things do happen.

[Cruzinforpeace***]

12 minutes ago, nferr said:

 Always check your balance the night before and clear up any discrepancies. Hopefully that would avoid that type of situation. But things do happen.

Yup.  But we still checked it and had an issue.  Just expect it to happen and you’ll be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t 😀

[jdevine]

Great review. We are leaving on MSC in April. It was great to read more about the cruise line since this will be our first MSC cruise. 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

8 minutes ago, jdevine said:

Great review. We are leaving on MSC in April. It was great to read more about the cruise line since this will be our first MSC cruise. 

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Have a great cruise!🛳️😀🌴

[jimbri]

Thank you for your great review and photos.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Enjoyed your review very much. Great pics and info.

[jotjot]

Great review.