JamieLogical

Wifi has been good so far, btw. I only have whatever was included with our booking. Didn't upgrade at all. No issues checking email, sending text, or posting to cruise critic. I don't get wifi in my bedroom or on the balcony. Only place I can use it in our stateroom is the living room, but that's been fine.

Had to connect to the onboard wifi and then go to login.mscwifi.com, then just follow the instructions. Did not have to put my phone into airplane mode like other cruises.

Had two mimosas and a mimosa blossom before I remembered I have a job interview at 1:30. I am cut off for the rest of the morning!

He is doing MUCH better today we slept in until our room service breakfast was delivered just before 7:00, which is crazy late for him. Really hoping the extra sleep will help for today. So far the cruise has been great. I keep looking for all the things people complain about on MSC and haven't found them yet. It's the exact opposite of my Princess sailing in December when I kept looking for all the things people love about Princess and couldn't find one.

It is a scent diffuser and I think it was included with the Aurea experience. It smells nice. We put it in our living room area.

I assume the room steward filled it for us? It does have a faucet, so I had just intended to fill it myself, if it weren't filled already.

Well, yesterday was overall a great cruise experience! The only downer was that my husband wasn't feeling great. He has a migraine and ended up feeling pretty nauseous between that and the rough seas once we got underway. We had lunch in the buffet. I felt like the selection was more than adequate and pretty much the same as I have experienced on other lines. Nothing was glaringly missing for me. I had a slice of pizza, some cheese, some chorizo, and some beef stir fry. I would say the stir fry was my favorite of those choices. Not surprising. I have always found the Asian and Indian foods on the buffet to be among the best options in terms of flavor and quality. We followed the tips of many bloggers and vloggers before us and went straight to the back. It was definitely less crowded and the outdoor seating was practically empty. So we had a nice, quiet space to avoid the madness. After lunch we headed to the Edge bar for our first drinks of the cruise. We sat at the bar next to a solo traveler who was on her second cruise. She had been dragged onto a Virgin Voyages cruise by a friend and caught the cruising bug, so I hope she really enjoys this one. Bar service was decent. Certainly not any worse than I would expect to see on embarkation afternoon on any cruise. Especially since the Edge bar has a lot of seating and is one of the first spaces you encounter upon boarding. I am sure we could have found even better service had we explored and gone to a more remote location. We managed to drink three drinks each there, so certainly not bad! Also, for anyone curious about drink pricing and the packages, we have the Easy Plus package and were not charged extra for any of the $10 drinks listed. The prices *were* updated on the PDF versions of the menu we downloaded with the QR codes at the bar. That reminds me, I was able to get on the wifi without much incident. Guess I was lucky because every time we walked by the internet desk there was a long line. After some drinks, rooms were ready, so we went to finally drop off our carry-ons and take some pictures/video of our room. The hot tub on the balcony had been filled, but it was not up to temperature yet. Being only about 69 degrees outside, it did not seem appealing to jump bright in. We decided to let it keep warming up. We met our room steward, Dewa, and he was fantastic. I had left him a note about needing extra towels and hangers, as well as unlocking and emptying the mini fridge so we could store water in there. He came right back with a little bag on a cart to empty the fridge into and then right after that he came back with hangers and towels. After checking out the room and dropping off our stuff, we checked out another bar. The Meraviglia Lounge. The bar service there was great. It even came with a show! Our 12 year old bartender did all sorts of tricks while mixing our drinks. Certainly rivaled the performances at the Martini bar on Celebrity. I met another solo traveler while sitting at this lounge. She had been on MANY cruises. By this time, my husband wasn't feeling great, so he decided to go lay down until muster drill, which was supposed to begin at 4:30. Muster definitely works a little differently on MSC than other lines I've been on post COVID. Everyone needs to go back to their staterooms and tune to Channel 5 on their TVs. You pick a language. There is an announcement over the PA and then you watch a video on the TV. At the end of the video, there is a number on the screen that you need to dial from your stateroom phone. Then, they call people deck by deck to go down to their muster stations to have their cards scanned. My husband slept through all the pre-muster announcement and the video, but I dragged him out of bed to get his card scanned when our deck was called. For the duration of the drill, the elevator are locked out, so I was very glad out room is only on deck 9 and our muster station was the theatre on deck 6. Only had to climb three flights to get back to our room. After muster, we decided to check out the hot tub, which was now at least up to "warm bath" temperature. It was great! It was a bit overfull, so water and foam splashed all over our balcony, but it was still really really nice and I can't wait to get back in there! We did eventually get out and get dressed for dinner. I remembered reading that there is no real bar service in the MDRs and only wine is available. So we stopped back by the Meraviglia Lounge for drinks on our way to dinner. There was live band in there by that point and they sounded really great, playing some classic rock. We brought our drinks with us to the Panorama dining room, which is the assigned MDR for Aurea. We got a table for two right up against the window, right at the exact rear of the ship, which was awesome for sailaway, which was scheduled for 7:00. It was about 6:40 when we were seated. Our waiter, Siva, was awesome and he told us he would save this table for us every night and just to let him know ahead of time when we were going to be using our specialty dining. They had a special Easter dinner menu, see pics below. I ordered the scallops and the poppyseed puff pastry for appetizers. My husband ordered the cream of asparagus soup. For our entrees, I had the ravioli and he had the lamb. We shared the Grandma's chocolate cake for dessert. For me, the appetizers and dessert were excellent. The ravioli was just okay. The cheese and spinach filling was very dense and dry. My husband loved his lamb. We sailed away during dinner, but it wasn't very pretty. It was a dreary, cold day in Port Canaveral and the port is pretty ugly, so not too great a sail away, but still happy to have the table we did! My husband was really feeling poorly by the end of dinner, which did take a little longer than we would have liked, but was still WAY faster than any of our MDR meals on Princess. I stayed for my coffee, but he headed back to the room. After dinner I went to the casino for a while and paid my tithes to the Sun God. Was very happy to see they do have my Sun God machine onboard and it's even in the non-smoking section! That was it for the night. I will post photos below. Day's Drinks: Mojito, Mimosa Blossom, Bailey's Alexander, Moscow Mule, Mojito X2

We are on the ship! Got to the terminal around 10:45. There seemed to be a lot of people still coming off the ship and boarding busses and shuttles to leave, so it was kind of a mix of embarking and disembarking passengers outside. No line outside. No line to speak of for security. Check-out had a line, despite us being Aurea. And right as we were literally the next ones in ones in line, they stopped checking people in, because the seating area was completely full. We didn't have to wait too long though, maybe 8-10 more minutes because they started boarding people and the seating started clearing out. We got checked in and we're boarding group 15. We sat down at 11:20 and then stepped into the ship at 11:47. So just about exactly an hour to board. Once onboard, we checked one of the onboard credit terminals and verified my credit card was linked up. Then we went to Ocean Cay and made out specialty dining reservations. Then it was off to the buffet for lunch.

It's cruise day!!!! Last night we went the The Florida Mall to get some walking in, to get some food in, and to search for swim bottoms. Both my husband and I stupidly packed out swim shorts into our bundles, which as I have discussed before, aren't really tailored to unpacking until you are unpacking for real. Our bundles are in the larger bags we plan to check with the porters at the cruise terminal, so we won't have access to them until whenever they get delivered to our room. Meanwhile, we paid a whole lot of extra money for a room with a hot tub on the balcony. So we definitely want to be able to take advantage of that sooner than later. So we both bought some swim shorts at the mall so we can keep them in our carry-on backpacks and use our hot tub as soon as we get access to our room. Will post photos from ship once we are onboard!

Got our bags without much incident other than a bit of a long wait for any of the luggage to show up from our flight. Lyft to the hotel was quick and easy. Very happy to see MCO doesn't make you walk 8 miles it takes a bus to get to the rideshare pickup area. We literally got picked up right outside the door by our baggage claim. Grateful for not having to hike, since it's 90 degrees here!

Landed safely in Orlando. Now to retrieve our luggage!

Sitting on the plane now, ready to take off. Just a three hour flight and we will be in Orlando.

Oops! I forgot the picture of my spanks and 2 swimsuit bottoms! Those were also in the bundle.

Well, I managed to JUST squeeze my bundle into my carry-on sized roller bag with the extension extended. Not sure it will actually meet the carry-on dimension requirements with the extension, but I am checking the bag on our Frontier flight down to Orlando anyway, because a checked bag only cost $55, but a carry-on would have cost $65. I did weigh it to make sure it was under Frontier's 40 pound limit. I'll worry about my Delta flight on the way home later. Worst case, I just pay to check it. Here is everything that went into the bundle: 6 pairs of wide-legged pants: 2 maxi dresses with sweaters: 3 pairs of yoga pants: 2 pairs of moisture wicking trail pants: 1 swimsuit cover-up: 5 long-sleeved linen shirts: 2 cotton t-shirts: 2 moisture wicking t-shirts: 11 camisoles: 12 pairs of underwear, 12 pairs of slipper socks, 2 pairs of cotton socks, 2 pairs of moisture-wicking socks: 1 pair of shoes: Outside of the bundle, around the edges of the suitcase were the following: 4 collapsible storage cubbies: A collapsible hamper: 1 collapsible foot stool: The end result:

The major downside is that you can't live out of your suitcase and just pull out what you want when you want it. It means that if I am staying overnight somewhere the night before a cruise, I have to put my clothes for that next day in my backpack and leave them out of my bundle. It also means I have to complete unpack as soon as my luggage shows up to my room. Can't procrastinate and just pull out what I need for dinner or the pool or whatever.

Last night was non-stop cruise prep. I did all of my laundry. I bundled my husband's clothes. Man, he brought a lot this time! The bundle almost didn't fit inside the suitcase! It was a close thing. Not sure how he is going to have room to bring back any bottles of rum he decides to purchase... Might have to sacrifice some Tommy Bahama shirts! I spent 1.5 torturous hours dealing with my toenails. They don't look amazing, but I don't think they will make anyone vomit if I wear open-toed shoes, so that's a win. Today, I found out I have a pre-screening call for a potential new job on Monday, so I will be doing that from the ship docked in Nassau. That should be interesting! Tonight I get to pack my bundle and work on cleaning the house so it doesn't get to be too much of a disaster while I am gone. Tomorrow we fly to Orlando!

It has changed my life!

I don't see where to buy OBC either. Just see excursions, beverages, spa, specialty dining, and "internet, photo, and laundry", which doesn't list anything about OBC or the service charge.

I always keep a drink log on my phone and post it in my liveblogs. Let's just say it's going to total up to a pretty big chunk of change I hadn't budgeted for on my 11 day sailing that starts Sunday....

"One full size suitcase" it a little vague. Luggage comes in all shapes and sizes. Do you know the approximate dimensions of yours? I find that, when cruising, it's always best to keep my medications, toiletries, electronics, cash, and jewelry in a backpack that I carry onboard myself and leave my carry-on sized roller bag with all in my clothes in it with the porters.

Finally started some packing last night! I got everything packed that isn't clothes and isn't an item I will need access to between now and Saturday (like my comb). Tonight I plan to do all of my laundry and paint my toenails (that is an onerous and time consuming task). I will also likely bundle my husband's clothing for him, because he has not yet mastered the bundle on his own. He got all of his clothes set out for me last night, so that shouldn't be too bad. If anyone doesn't know about the magic of bundle packing, here's a link:

The drink prices went up a couple of weeks ago. There have been reports of this issue on multiple ships.

Thank you for this! I was wondering what the current situation is on the Meraviglia, as I am sailing on Sunday. I had tried posting in the roll call for the current sailing with this question and no one replied. It really is disappointing that we got the Easy Plus package with the expectation it would cover the drinks it says it does on the MSC web site only to find out that it won't. Not cool to change all the prices and not honor the packages accordingly. I know it's only a dollar a drink, but it's more the principle of the thing.

Thanks for the review! This is perfectly timed, as I sail on the Meraviglia this Sunday!