Hello!
I'm fresh off the short 3/day Meraviglia sailing on March 30. Since I loved reading the reviews prior to my sailing, I thought I'd create one of my own. I will go ahead and say that after reading many of the reviews, this avid cruise (20+), was a little nervous about what to expect. I'll probably have to break this down for post length, plus I have an almost two-year-old that requires constant attention. 🙂
Before I begin, I'll give you a little background:
First sailing on MSC
Matched Diamond status (thank you Hilton Honors)
Bella Balcony, Deck 8
Purchased the three dining package ($71)
Solo traveler with a co-worker and her husband
No drink package
Unless there's real interest, I'm skipping the trip down from NC. It was uneventful and I spent the night in Savannah airport area hotel then finished my trip the next morning.
EMBARKATION:
My boarding time was 1:30 PM but I wanted to make sure I got the reservations we wanted for dining so I took my chances and arrived to Port Canaveral at 11:15 AM. This was my first worry about reading some of the horror stories on here. I walked right in and after a quick security check-in, I was separated into the Diamond line, checked in and started walking to the ship...less than 15 minutes. Even the line for non-Diamond wasn't long and moving rather quickly.
EXPLORING THE SHIP AND LUNCH:
You board right on to Deck 6 and WOW, the ship is absolutely stunning. The LED galleria lighting is very impressive. I enjoyed the nightly light shows...short but fun to watch nonetheless. I carried on my one suitcase but didn't want to haul it around while waiting for rooms to be ready, so I took my bag to the luggage drop-off area next to the Broadway theatre.
After glancing around a bit, I made a bee line for Ocean Cay Restaurant on Deck 6 where you can make reservations for specialty dining. No problem making reservations we wanted. Here's what we reserved and yes, food reviews to come: Night One: Butcher's Cut, Night Two: Teppanyanki, Day 3: Lunch - Hola's, Dinner - Butcher's Cut. The Butcher's Cut on Day 3 was my free Diamond meal.
I start exploring the ship and decided to head up to the pool area and check out the Marketplace Buffet. Apparently, no one reads the reviews like I do BUT like others have said, ignore the front area and go straight to the back...same food and no one there. There's even a nice outdoor to enjoy your meals.
There were three pools (Main, Bamboo w/retractable roof, and the Horizon - adults only). Yes, there's one for Yacht Club but no photos of it obviously. Were there people at the pool on embarkation and Day 3 when we left Ocean Cay? Yes. Could you find a chair somewhere? Yes.
Back to exploring...I visited the Aquapark and ropes course area. I'm going to assume it was all working but both times I was back there, there was no water running in the splash pad area, no one on slides, and no one on the ropes course. In any event, it looked like it would be a lot of fun when it was operating.
The area with the Formula 1 simulator, bowling alley, full court basketball always seemed to have people having fun. There is a bar in there but it looked like the don't ever open it.
The multi-tiered Horizon adults only pool area was nice and had one of the smoker's area. I'm not a smoker but saw the ashtrays. The bar here always seemed to be packed. Yes, drink service can sometimes be very slow. However, I always found getting a bar service person walking to take my order, the wait time was cut in half. As many have said, this is an area MSC needs to improve. My first drink was a mango trooper and it was absolutely delicious.
After quite a bit of walking around, taking photos and waiting on my friend and her husband to arrive, it was time to head to the cabin to check out my room. Room review in my next post.
If you have any questions, let me know.