MSC Meraviglia Review -- March 2024
MSC Meraviglia Summarized Review -- March 10-17, 2024
Embarkation
Check-in was fast and MSC workers courteous, except one New Yorker port worker at security (but I'm a Texan in New York). We had a 10-10:30 am check-in time. After a subway and a bus, we arrived just a few minutes after 10am, dropped our luggage, and then we had to show passport and boarding passes before entering the security. After security was check-in, getting a boarding card, and sit and wait. The port had restrooms and a cafe with coffee and snacks for sale. They called the boarding card numbers quickly; though had people coming up too early because they kept announcing to only come up when your number was called. They were enforcing the numbers.
Onboard they encouraged everyone to go to their cabins first just to get their keycards off the door. At this point, and we were onboard very early -- before 11am, 3 of our 4 bags had arrived. Also, MSC does not collect a credit card during online check-in or at in-person check-in, so you need to do it at a kiosk on deck 6 or 7. We tried on the app, which had to send a verification text (trying to get back to the regular US cell system to get it), but still with trying on two phones, it just hung and never completed. So, we used a kiosk. The Cruise Director was still announcing the last night to be sure to add a credit card, so that you can get off the next day. I would think that one could not buy anything until they added a card, but I guess not and I guess they don't want to lose that revenue. But, having to deal with it on the disembarkation day when they have 10am new check-ins coming seems crazy.
Buffet
Despite it being a big ship with lots of passengers capacity and being over Spring Break with a lots of kids, we always found a spot to sit in the buffet, particularly in the far front or far back. This has not been true on other ships. The ship overall did not feel very crowded.
Pizza was very good; the pasta, including mac & cheese was bad, and this is an Italian cruise line. Overall, the buffet had a good and tasty selection.
We were sad that the buffet closed at 9pm -- we like an after dinner extra dessert; this did not work well for an 8:30pm, 45 minute show. It did reopen from 12-2am, but ha, we were not going to stay up that late.
The Asian food in the buffet was really good; my favorite was a Mongolian meatball. Travis also liked the Indian food, but it was not available every day. However, he noted that it was not very spicy in the buffet or MDR.
The annoying part about the buffet is that ice and/or water dispensers at different stations were frequently not working. The lemonade on the ship was not very good (buffet and MDR) -- not very sweet or lemony-tarty. It was good on the Ocean Cay. The pulled pork was very good on Ocean Cay, and Travis commented that the jerk chicken also was. The mac & cheese was also bad on the island. There was sadly no chocaholic buffet in the buffet at lunch on the last sea day like I had read about.
The stations to watch the mozzarella, bread, pasta, etc. being made were not running; I was looking forward to seeing this unique experience. I finally found mozzarella available to try on the 2nd and 3rd to last days. It was good; though one day it was pesto mozzarella and not as much to my liking.
Outside by the pool, there was also pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, and other good pick up food. Outside I also found cookies sometimes and sometimes inside and at Ocean Cay. I never found a chocolate chip cookie (the best cookie), but the peanut butter cookies were good. Across from it was the ice cream. It was frozen yogurt, good, but only open from noon to 5pm. The paid gelato store was open until midnight. No soft service machine like other cruise lines have.
MDR
This was our first time experiencing fix time dining with the same waiters, table, and time. We had awesome waiters, Ramon and Carlos, and were assigned a table by ourselves. We picked early dining and were assigned 6pm in the Panorama restaurant. It was a little bit of challenge to make it back on time from Port Canaveral, but we made it. We skipped the MDR on the Ocean Cay day to see the comedian at 7pm and see the lighthouse show on the island from our forward window since the ship was facing this way. Travis ordered a wine to compliment his seafood on formal night, and every night after they brought him the same complimentary glass of the same wine -- so sweet! Formal night desserts were the best -- the Baked Alaska and Royal Cake!
Ship
The ship was pretty and clean. It held its passenger load well, never feeling very crowded for long periods of time.
The MSC for Me app worked well and the included chat feature was very nice for not losing your family. Though we found out that our child that was still a minor was not allowed to use the chat. That's reasonable since you can connect with anyone on the ship. However, keeping up with them could also be important, so allowing them to chat with just those in the same cabin or on the same booking would have been good.
We were disappointed that the Library had been turned into a non-smoking slot machine area. The library was not making them enough money...
Also, disappointing was the almost non-existing promenade walking area. It had only two small areas to actually see out on each out and was blocked off from walking at the front and back on both sides. The rest of the view was obstructed by lifeboats.
All the crew were great!
Cabin - room: 10001
We had a forward facing oceanview. We have not experienced a forward facing before, and we enjoyed it. The other plus was that the kids had bunks that were out of the main room path, so did not obstruct walking around the room. We did not meet or see our room steward until day 3 or 4 and were given no way to call the team; I have not had that before. We saw him a lot after meeting him; I'm not sure how he hid so well the first few days. Hopefully, he was not sick. We had an ice bucket and tray in our room, but we had not gotten any ice. I tried a note on a cruise paper that he missed and threw away. I tried to leave the bucket open to show it was so empty. When we meet him, I requested the ice. He asked if we wanted it morning or evening, so be prepared. We got only one towel animal on the day that we met our room steward. MSC still does twice a day cleanings, which is nice, and a cutback of many other cruise lines.
Our room could have used more storage. We only had 2 drawers in the closet and the kids had 2 drawers under the bunks. Our 2 drawers were in the closet with 2 shelves and the safe with hanging space behind the other door. The doors would auto-close, and we could have only 1 side open at once with the 2 sliding doors, making the closet hard to use. The kids also had half closets, which was nice, though we did not have enough hangers, so they more piled stuff in them...boys. Some additional shelves around the room would have been good. So, an ice tray with no ice taking up space is also not good. The cabin and location was very quiet; though we heard some foot noise and probably luggage movement the last two nights, but overall very quite. I worried about being all the way front and sea sickness, but it was not bad. I did take sea sick meds twice. There was no nightstand on my side, which drove me crazy. I never had a cruise cabin without one on both sides. So, I had to put my stuff on the floor, which was close to the wall. I noticed that our bed was not lined up with the headboard, so each day I would move it over to give myself more room to find my stuff on the floor, and each day, he would move it back. Moved to align with the headboard, there was enough room for a second nightstand. I asked, but he only talked about finding someone else who was not using there and taking it. I said no, thinking who would not be using their nightstand? Maybe I'm just weird about a nightstand though.
The TV had expensive on demand movies that we did not try, Travis found an included old movie channel that he frequently picked, and I found HGTV to pick. I believe there were 2 cartoon channels. We had a sofa in room, which was nice, and a desk on the other side. It was a good sized room. For the lack of storage, I put stuff in the window sill, which was closed behind the big curtain overnight and some during the day when the sun warmed it too much. One day it was not getting cool in the room with the A/C at the lowest setting, so we closed it then and preventatively a few other days for part of the day. We also had a tub in the bathroom; I have never had a full tub (because we have never had a suite). So, this was in interesting surprise. I guess we had it because we had the kid's bunkroom. Our youngest and I tried it the first night. I found it a little too narrow. My youngest is skinnier, so he was probably fine. The tub though resulted in the shower door just being a half door that let water onto the floor. I also wondered if we did not have the tub if the sink/vanity area would be larger, as ours was pretty small, and I would have taken more space. So, if I was picking, I would probably pick that room without a tub.
Our bathroom also suffered from flooding on two days, twice one day and once the other. I called guest services both days before we headed to dinner. The flooding would soak the floor and leave behind grit and sand under the toilet. Travis saw it happen once while in the shower; it came from the drain under the toilet. It stopped after that, but we did not know if it was really fixed or just had not happened again. I stopped leaving the bathmats on the floor to keep them from being soaked.
We had four pillows on our bed, which was good, and the kids each had one. However, three of our four were super flat (even by my stomach sleeping standards), only one was decent. Each day we had to figure out who was chosen by the room steward to get the best pillow.
Some pictures of the room: 1) the tub, 2) sink and more tub, 3) desk and window, 4) the bunkbeds, and 5) desk, closet, and entry.
Entertainment
We watched shows 5 of the 7 nights; more than we would normally go to. We booked them the first day at lunch in the buffet on the MSC for Me app. Shows were 7pm, 8:30pm, and 10pm. You book a spot, not a seat, and needed to arrive 5 minutes before the show because they begin giving away seats to non-reservations then. I was surprised that they let people in late, as this system could prevent that. There were two lines -- one for reservations and a waiting line for those without. The system worked well. We saw: the multiple musician magic show, Encore (segments and songs from different Broadway shows), Ken Boyd (the comedian), Journey (second Broadway show which showed traveling to different countries), Crew Talent Show (this was very good, but only featured two crew members who were not from the cruise director's staff. Though they were all very good; I would have liked to see additional talent from people that we do not always see entertaining), and Live From (which featured entertainment from the week, including a Cirque performer that is normally only available in the paid show in the Carousel lounge). All were very good. I wish though that they were not so loud; I took earplugs from another recommendation that I read. Though I found our Broadway show in NYC to also be very loud. Travis said that the shows were better than NCL and Carnival with better tune and pitch. They were all very talented!
They had trivia on the pool deck too much, using the pool movie TV for the questions. I did not like it here because it was either an already full pool deck of people lounging by the pool that had no room for more people to come and play trivia or was cold and windy. They made pool people into trivia people when normally I don't think those at the pool are big trivia fans, and we are not pool people. We did one trivia that was inside on deck 6, which was nice.
The ropes course and aqua water park required signing a waiver and getting a bracelet. The slides were a lot of fun; they have 2 that use an innertube that you carry up and a "toilet bowl" body slide. My favorite was the righthand innertube slide. The lefthand side one went over the side of the ship, but you could not see down from the slide while sliding and not being transparent enough, though that would have made it more special. Travis's favorite was the toilet bowl. My family liked the rope course. I did it once around, but it is a little scary to me.
Disembarkation
Disembarkation was quick. We did the luggage walk off published for 7:30 am, but allowed at 7am or earlier. Our MDR waiter said to target 7am for less crowds. We did not quite make that and went after they called it around 7:30 am. We waited in a line on deck 6, which was really just a line to a line on deck 5. Though it did not take too long. I have seen pictures where the full Meraviglia Gallery is full of lines, and it was not like that. Though maybe it was because we were earlier. In the terminal, we just needed to have our facial recognition picture taken for passport control, and we were out. There were no restrooms on the way out, and Travis wanted to use the port wifi to renew his cell phone plan, but we were hesitantly pushed away from the terminal by the police. They wanted to focus on the new people showing up for the next cruise.
Great cruise, great to try a new cruise line, and let the kids see NYC. My dread of a big ship over Spring Break being insanely crowded turned out to be unfounded, and the ship, especially the buffet, handled the passengers very well.
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