Just off the meraviglia on 3/31

[FrostyJoe]

Quick review/updates for those that may be interested. This is based on 3/27 to 3/31 on the Meraviglia:

-sailing was booked for 950ish passengers but only 750 ish made it on board. Surprisingly, it felt super busy at times at couple of shows I stopped by at but other than that it was like having a private ship!!!

-Did not have to do another test at embarkation

-Embarkation probably took less than 15 min from the time we walked over to terminal from parking

-I did not wear my tracker entire time and just left it in the room nor did I disable it. But no one said anything about it. 
-room steward service was excellent and we had a whole laundry of extra requests (more towels, drain and refill tub daily, extra duvet each day, empty mini fridge) and all were happily accommodated. We showed our appreciation by giving him extra $20 a day 

-Bar tenders were very good. I didn’t drink a lot nor spend a lot of time at any bars but most of the bar tenders remembered my room number by day 2. And I only tipped a dollar or so per drink so was pleasantly surprised at the personal service. 

-I thought I saw security folks scan folks wrist bands when entering a show but no one checked 5-10 min afterwards

-I walked in the magic show and it was packed. Left shortly afterwards so I don’t know how it was. I also went to the rock show at the carousel lounge and it too was packed full. I thought that show/concert was excellent 

-disembarkation took less than 10-15 min tops from the time we got to deck 6. It was no waiting anywhere and just the time to walk back to car…Tipped porter $40 for like 5 bags to our car in the parking lot and asked what typically people tip and be said $20. $40 was apparently a good tip

 

 

food: buffet on ship and oc is self serve now. 
I also think MSC may have overcorrected various folks complaining about “seasoning”…of course this is subjective but we thought the food would’ve been much better had they not use salt liberally. We thought the food was consistently too salty except for the pizza and some of cold salads like couscous salad.  That being said, we definitely did not lose weight on this cruise. 
 

i think the ice cream machine on the pool deck is busted so they were giving out gelato instead. We had two different kinds. Lemon and strawberry. We were happy about that but some folks were complaining
 

diamond perks:

-50 dollar on board credit hit the system maybe day 2 or 3 

-guest services said they don’t do late checkout for disembarkation anymore. But we asked our cabin steward whom agreed to allow us to stay till 8:30 am

-guest service said they don’t give out chcocolate ships anymore for 3 or 4 night cruises anymore. I just said oh well and said thanks and hung up…But 30 min later two chocolate ships and some snacks magically showed up to our cabin. And only one of us is a diamond. I was happy!!

free photo was on medeterian night in the dining room which was Nassau for us. 

 

Covid protocols: definitely felt much looser rules/enforcement than what I’ve read in the past. Lots of maskless folks walking around ship and in vaccinated only shows pretty much no one had a mask on. One or two times we forgot to put on ours, no one said anything to us.   They did not scan my card (and I didn’t wear my tracker) anywhere on the ship besides on the gangway. But that may also be because I only went to two shows/concerts after it started. 
 

ocean cay:

very relaxed and nice. Perhaps due to passenger load also. Sand on lighthouse was more like a regular beach sand. One on south beach felt more like quick sand type. Sunset beach felt more like a beach sand also.   Walked over to the end of sunset beach first night there with minimal moonlight or clouds but star gazing was not great. Still too much light pollution from the ship/island at the end of sunset beach. I did not cross the bridge to go to YC side though… 
we had ceviche and octopus salad at OC and definitely recommend the seafood truck (it was parked near seakers) for folks. I think it was well worth the extra $. 
 

butchers cut: bone marrow was good, salmon and filet was eh. Service on the ship id say were excellent all around but At butchers cut it was eh at best for us. Perhaps they just had a bad night. 
 

overall I thought it was an excellent cruise and crew were really good.  This was our first MSC cruise but I’d for sure take MSC cruise again.   Fellow passengers were mixed crowd and friendly and I didn’t notice any boisterous obnoxious type.
 

Not sure if we’d say the same thing about sailing again with MSC if MSC sails at full capacity though. Because it doesn’t seem like it can handle full load well based on what we saw with only 750 passengers. 
 

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by FrostyJoe

[wdowns9]

Thanks for the update, our 1st MSC cruise leaves on Sun and we are staying in the YC. I'm suspect it will be a ghost ship also as its the last voyage before heading to dry dock.

 

[saradow]

1 hour ago, wdowns9 said:

Thanks for the update, our 1st MSC cruise leaves on Sun and we are staying in the YC. I'm suspect it will be a ghost ship also as its the last voyage before heading to dry dock.

 

We will be joining you as well on Sunday in YC.  See you there!

[JT1962]

Thanks for the review. Your experience was similar to mine in January. There were less than 600 on my sailing, so it definitely felt like a private cruise most of the time. I enjoyed it enough to book a 19 day cruise on Divina in October, although I know passenger counts will be much higher.

[FrostyJoe]

I forgot to mention the diamond gift was a room scent/diffuser which I just opened. Now our living room smells exactly like the ship. Nice and pleasant. They also gave us a small backpack/daypack