How many passengers were on your MSC Cruise?

[cruiseguyinorl]

Currently 1118 guests booked for this Sunday's 02/27 Meraviglia.

Bret

[PhotoFlo]

19 hours ago, cruiseguyinorl said:

Currently 1118 guests booked for this Sunday's 02/27 Meraviglia.

Bret

my group is 120 of those guests!

[CampNCruise74]

On 2/24/2022 at 11:57 PM, cruiseguyinorl said:

Currently 1118 guests booked for this Sunday's 02/27 Meraviglia.

Bret

1435 on 2/24 3 night on the Divina

[Morgsmom]

1240 being reported onboard the 2/27 Meraviglia 

[Petersnow]

Me and my wife were on MSC Grandiosa  YC on January 3 of 2022.

About 1,200 passengers including Yatch Club. Very safe to walk and have fun in a more quiet atmosphere!!!!

We were tested 2 times on board, and the day before boarding in Genoa.

Had a wonderful time!!!!

[vogt5059]

I would love to see this thread keep going.  Anyone have numbers for cruises the past couple weeks?

[hapytobehr]

MSC Divina 03/06-03/13   1500 Passengers

[Markanddonna]

Over 3,000 on Meraviglia March 13-17. Sooooo many children. The MSC planners seemed unprepared for this despite having control over bookings. No milk cartons left after day 2. The kids club was so confusing for many parents and was very crowded. They let Unvaxxed kids onboard and then they are restricted from tonight's pool party. The dancing is pathetic. All little kids spinning around on the dance floor. The seven o'clock show was fully packed. 9:00 is for vaxxed only. No theater show tonight. We made it to Ocean Day but the staff didn't put our enough chairs.

[Markanddonna]

4 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

Over 3,000 on Meraviglia March 13-17. Sooooo many children. The MSC planners seemed unprepared for this despite having control over bookings. No milk cartons left after day 2. The kids club was so confusing for many parents and was very crowded. They let Unvaxxed kids onboard and then they are restricted from tonight's pool party. The dancing is pathetic. All little kids spinning around on the dance floor. The seven o'clock show was fully packed. 9:00 is for vaxxed only. No theater show tonight. We made it to Ocean Day but the staff didn't put our enough chairs.

Btw, the staff is trying so hard but are severely understaffed. They are pleasant but many newbies are probably shocked by the overwhelming number of children. 

[cruiseguyinorl]

As of this morning, 2355 booked for 3/17 Meraviglia.

Bret

[JT1962]

1 hour ago, Markanddonna said:

Over 3,000 on Meraviglia March 13-17. Sooooo many children. The MSC planners seemed unprepared for this despite having control over bookings. No milk cartons left after day 2. The kids club was so confusing for many parents and was very crowded. They let Unvaxxed kids onboard and then they are restricted from tonight's pool party. The dancing is pathetic. All little kids spinning around on the dance floor. The seven o'clock show was fully packed. 9:00 is for vaxxed only. No theater show tonight. We made it to Ocean Day but the staff didn't put our enough chairs.

Based on other posts I have seen, this is an issue on many cruise lines currently. They seem to have not prepared & staffed for going from sailing at 30-60% capacity to having ships almost full with a large number of children aboard.

[ineed-a-vacation]

Definitely keep this thread going.

[Gatrcruzer]

16 hours ago, cruiseguyinorl said:

As of this morning, 2355 booked for 3/17 Meraviglia.

Bret

Hello Bret, do you know how many are booked for Meraviglia for 3/20?

[Markanddonna]

The ship isn't packed out by an means except with policies that don't make sense anymore. The first theatre show allows anyone and was totally full at 7:00. The 9:00 is vaxxed only. They didn't set up many chairs to accommodate the passengers on Ocean cay, so that is stressful.That said, my granddaughter went up the water slides thirty times yesterday morning. active but okay since most probably went to the beach. The mdr lines at lunch were crazy long. You will have fun by adjusting expectations. We usually travel on longer cruises during the school year so we are traumatized.😂

[juancarlosgarciasanchez]

With the NCL ESCAPE disabled for the next two weeks and all those who had their NCL ESCAPE cruise cancelled at the last minute, cruise companies such as MSC are fighting for their business offering these cancelled NCL guest an opportunity to cruise this weekend on their ships at a reduced fare. Appears that MSC Meraviglia, Seashore and Seaview may get a pump-up in passengers for this weekend. Any idea how filled these ships will be this weekend? 

Edited March 16, 2022 by juancarlosgarciasanchez

[cruiseguyinorl]

3 hours ago, Gatrcruzer said:

Hello Bret, do you know how many are booked for Meraviglia for 3/20?

 

Unfortunately, no. I only inquired with my contact for 3/17 since I am on that sailing. I hate to ask my folks for another favor. They have to go to some other folks and have a report run. 🤔

 

Bret

[Gatrcruzer]

5 minutes ago, cruiseguyinorl said:

 

Unfortunately, no. I only inquired with my contact for 3/17 since I am on that sailing. I hate to ask my folks for another favor. They have to go to some other folks and have a report run. 🤔

 

Bret

No worries - just figured I'd check in the event that you had some inside information. 🙂 

 

[Markanddonna]

The consensus on our roll call was that MSC really blew it with the surge in passengers without proper p!anning. They ran our of milk cartons after day two and heard they ran out of food on Ocean Day on day one. Lots of furious people. The bar tenders were swamped. Our granddaughter had a great time but she's eight. Many issues and overworrked staff. We have dozens of cruises under our belt and this was the worst for many reasons. 

[caffeine_demon]

Magnifica last week had just under 1,000 at le havre and zeebruge, but did seem to get a bit busier at hamburg (maybe 13-1400 on board)

[FrostyJoe]

Anyone have thoughts or inside info on number of passengers expected on the 3/27 mera sailing?

[blueslily]

On 3/16/2022 at 8:55 PM, Markanddonna said:

The consensus on our roll call was that MSC really blew it with the surge in passengers without proper p!anning. They ran our of milk cartons after day two and heard they ran out of food on Ocean Day on day one. Lots of furious people. The bar tenders were swamped. Our granddaughter had a great time but she's eight. Many issues and overworrked staff. We have dozens of cruises under our belt and this was the worst for many reasons. 

 

Sounds unpleasant. But, I hope most cruisers know that most front line crew on the ship have little authority on the number of passengers for spring break sailings. Officers have decisions to make to accommodate the increased passengers on sailings. That passenger count is managed by staff not on the ship. Sadly it's a learning experience at the cost of some unhappy passengers this week. Hopefully some changes will be made given some learning experiences this week for next week which will be another spring break sailing. Glad my last sailing was in February when passenger count was awesomely low 😁. Not sailing in March and April due to various different spring break dates throughout those 2 months. Spring break plus relaxing some COVID safety protocols that some people kept owning about  in my book is not a good mix for a pleasant and relaxing cruise 🤣 until things get sorted out for the increase in passenger counts. All the best to folks who are sailing right now, especially on the newer, bigger ships that will attract more bookings for now.  Wouldn't be me on ships with increased kids and all that. 

[Markanddonna]

I haven't heard about experiences on other cruise lines this week. MSC made a huge error in going from about 700 to  3100 in one week. It wasn't the fault of anyone on the ship. It was corporate. The biggest problems were food and supplies. No milk in cartons after day one and then of course their favorite fake juices ran out. Cur up hotdogs at the buffet instead of link sausage. Pizza that was mostly crust with about 1/2 cup of cheese on the entire pizza. Unvaxxed kids were restricted from so many activities but the theater was packed out. I will write an extensive review in a few days. There were some positives. I probably should have consumed more alcohol so that the experience seemed acceptable (as long as I kept the alcohol tank full.)

[momrox1]

On 3/16/2022 at 8:55 PM, Markanddonna said:

The consensus on our roll call was that MSC really blew it with the surge in passengers without proper p!anning. They ran our of milk cartons after day two and heard they ran out of food on Ocean Day on day one. Lots of furious people. The bar tenders were swamped. Our granddaughter had a great time but she's eight. Many issues and overworrked staff. We have dozens of cruises under our belt and this was the worst for many reasons. 

We were on the Meraviglia 3/13 also. 3500 guests I was told.  Now I am a big fan of cruising with my gfs but this time was with the hubby.  I felt bad for him having to experience so many things gone awry...where do I begin?  Ok, the good.... yes there were tons of kids but it was spring break.  I forgot that when I booked.  But we mostly enjoyed watching them pre dinner as they got their pics taken etc.  The staff were absolutely amazing to us.  The MDR head waiters and staff are fabulous.  We were in a balcony but encountered the head butler in the YC who allowed us a tour when everyone else had said no.  We fell in love with it and will book it in the future.  So the staff makes up for the following...No food!  How do you run out of milk/cream/hot dogs/syrup for french toast and dare I say it...eggs! lol  That to me is inexcusable.  (with that being said the service is super slow and it seems as though alot of the wait staff were new and  did not know  too much about the menu etc. but mostly at bfast.  This we can live with...no biggie just a mention)  The thermal spa, which we looked forward to each day, was never working as it should.  It was always a complaint by numerous people that the two whirlpools were too cold...the dry/wet sauna was cold...the steam wasn't on etc etc.  The only warm place was the salt room which is nice but not exactly what you pay for. The complaints were always met with the same give me 5 minutes to reset it or that is the correct temp.  I knew this to not be true as I had been on in Jan and everything was fine.  However, the manager was very helpful and did all he could for us.   I saw numerous people at numerous times get up from a bar stool because they couldn't get waited on .  I really believe they were slammed and did not know how to handle it.  Someone onboard mentioned they had not had this many people since pre covid.  I am back on with the gfs in a couple weeks and hope things are better, although I do recall them telling us in Jan, when there were 500 onboard that they had run out of half and half.  My summation is that corporate is slacking off...from their horrible website to the every day operation coming from headquarters someone needs to step up or they are going to lose alot of customers.  Once again, if it wasn't for the staff I wouldn't book again.  They are the best!  

[momrox1]

One thing I forgot....On the upside, first cruise I have ever taken where I didn't gain weight 😄

[juancarlosgarciasanchez]

Does anyone have any idea how many passengers will be on the MSC ships leaving this weekend from Florida ?