MSC Meraviglia Feb 19, 2023 Fantastica Balcony Trip Report (with photos)

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Cheesecake which was offered every night with a choice of toppings

 

Arroz com Leche (rice pudding)

 

Grandma's chocolate cake

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After dinner, my father and I went to the Horizons pool area to watch the 9:00 lighthouse show. There were about 25 other people there. We waited until 9:15 but the show didn't start. We decided to go to the Broadway theatre since we all had reservations for the comedian and didn't wait to lose our reservation for the 9:30 show. My husband and son were there already.

 

The comedian had a few good moments. We laughed a bit. In truth, I preferred the dancing and singing shows of the previous two nights.

 

After the show we followed our normal evening activities of live music in the Sky lounge and a late night snack in the buffet. The evening buffet had some fruit, excellent pizza, premade sandwiches, and a few small desserts. The food was good quality. I have seen some complaints that the buffet lacks selection. Quite frankly, it was enough for us.

 

The disappointing part of the buffet was that no one was directing people to clean their hands upon entering. I would prefer if everyone washed their hands or used sanitizer. It just makes sense to try to stop the spread of germs. I will be adding this to my cruise survey comments.

 

Drinks in the Sky Lounge

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Wed February 22, 2023

This was our first day at sea. I set my alarm for 7:40 so I could go to the gym before breakfast. After hitting snooze a couple of times, I made it to the gym and then back to the rooms to wake everyone up for breakfast.

 

We learned quickly that the best, least busy place in the buffet to eat in towards the back. Here is were less people crowd the food stations, and we could always find a table to eat at.

 

After breakfast, my father and I went to trivia into the tv studio and then Master Chef at Sea. We were mediocre at trivia, but we enjoyed Master Chef at Sea. I thought it was fun and engaging. During this time, my husband went to guest services since his key card was not working to enter our cabin. He had also lost his internet connection on Tuesday. So he sorted that out, too.

 

Lunch was at Kaito Sushi bar. It was a nice quality meal. I really liked the noodle dish. My son had sashimi which was ok, but he really liked the chicken skewers.

 

Noodle dish

 

Nigiri

 

Rainbow sushi

 

An empty place setting. Why did I take this picture? Who knows.

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After lunch, we had a lazy afternoon. We read a little on the balcony and then bought gelato on deck 6. My son and I walked all over the highest decks before dinner.

 

Gelato prices

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Tonight was Gala night. The menu was elevated compared to other dinner menus. The lobster was a cold water tail. I ate a salmon dish with spinach and feta. My husband had the lamb chops. My father enjoyed his meal more than any other cruise meals. He has been on ten or twelve cruises before this one.

 

After dinner, we had a couple of photos taken by the crew photographer. The show in the theater was Broadway tunes. It was the best show onboard thus far. And the audience gave them a standing ovation for tunes from Cats, Les Mis and Phantom amongst others.

 

We again finished up the evening at Sky lounge.

 

(Looks like I forgot to take pictures at dinner that night. Maybe my teen was relieved. He asks me "why do you have to take pictures of the food?" I tell him it's because people on cruise critic want to see!)

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Thursday, February 23, 2023

We were supposed to dock in Costa Maya today, but the wind conditions forced the port to close. I had prepaid Maya Chan for an all inclusive beach day. This owner emailed us that we will get full refunds which was posted quickly to Paypal.

 

I was disappointed that we missed Maya Chan. They have such good review online. And they communicated very clearly during the reservation process. We'll go another time.

 

So it turned it into another sea day. After breakfast the pools were packed so we found some loungers along the deck on the side of the ship. The buffet was fully open for lunch. Every station was open. I had fish and roast beef from the carving station.

 

Since we are gold card members, my son and I went to the spa after lunch to use the free one hour of thermal suite time. It was fun trying the different rooms. We liked the traditional Finnish sauna and the salt room the best.

[Match Game 72]

Tonight was Butchers Cut for dinner. Because my husband has diamond card status, he got two meals from the $59 menu for free. Dinner was delicious. I started with the hearts of palm salad. Then had the filet mignon, and finished with the lava cake. My father had the best dessert...peanut butter chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

 

We watched some music trivia in the Merovingian lounge, and then saw the 9:30 show. The theme was rock and roll music. Afterwards we went to Sky lounge, but there was no live music that night.

 

Hearts of Palm Salad

 

Chop salad without egg

 

Filet Mignon

 

Baked potato

 

New York Strip steak

 

Four steak sauces and asparagus

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Lava Cake

 

Strawberry Cheesecake

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie 

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Friday, February 24, 2023

Today we visited Cozumel Mexico. I had pre booked a chocolate tour at KaoKao. We left the ship around 10:10, walked by shops, and then stood in line for about ten minutes to get a taxi. The taxi cost $15 plus tip to get there. It was just $10 plus tip to return. The neighborhood was not touristy, and I probably wouldn't hang out there at night. But it was neat and clean. We had no problems.

 

Th chocolate shop was nicely decorated. The stained glass windows were beautiful. The tour ($25 each) was fun, informative and interactive. There were three families including us. The tour guide Stephanie did a really nice job of explaining the chocolate making process and giving us several samples as she spoke. Then we got the chance to grind chocolate beans and make a cinnamon flavored hot chocolate disk. I would definitely recommend this tour. It was really fun.

 

We bought a couple of chocolate bars in the gift shop for 10% off because we took the tour.

 

 

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Stephanie, our tour guide

 

Some Stained Glass windows

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Back at the port area, we shopped in several jewelry shops. We ended up buying my son his birthday gift, a silver curb link bracelet. And I bought a silver ring with two zultanite stones that change color in the sun. It will remind me of this trip.

 

Back on the ship after four hours in Cozumel, everyone was hungry so we made the buffet our first stop.

 

Some pictures from our balcony

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That evening went the same as several before it with dinner in the main dining room.

The piano player in the atrium was quite good

 

Coq au Vin (very tasty)

 

Swordfish

 

A cream dessert which was so good I was nearly willing to lick the bowl.

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The show was a hypnotist instead of singing and dancing. We all really enjoyed the show. I recommend getting a reservation for it if you happen to have the opportunity.

[FSHLOT]

Threads like these make me even more excited about our December'23 cruise out of NY. This will be our first MSC cruise ever, and i really like the food pics!!

 

Thanks for posting!!! 👍

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Match Game 72 said:

I love the anticipation part of the trip nearly as much as the actual trip.  🙂

That is exactly one of Immanuel Kant's 3 keys to happiness. "Having someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to ."

[KarenGretz]

2 hours ago, Match Game 72 said:

Thursday, February 23, 2023

We were supposed to dock in Costa Maya today, but the wind conditions forced the port to close. I had prepaid Maya Chan for an all inclusive beach day. This owner emailed us that we will get full refunds which was posted quickly to Paypal.

 

I was disappointed that we missed Maya Chan. They have such good review online. And they communicated very clearly during the reservation process. We'll go another time.

 

So it turned it into another sea day. After breakfast the pools were packed so we found some loungers along the deck on the side of the ship. The buffet was fully open for lunch. Every station was open. I had fish and roast beef from the carving station.

 

Since we are gold card members, my son and I went to the spa after lunch to use the free one hour of thermal suite time. It was fun trying the different rooms. We liked the traditional Finnish sauna and the salt room the best.

Quick question..... Did someone come find you at the one hour mark or did you stay at your leisure in the thermal area? 

[B_A_H]

I'm really enjoying the style in which you're writing your review.  It's coming across as fact based and balanced where some can have so many adjectives and so much emotion they bury the lede. 

 

MSC has always been dinged for their food.  Some of the pics you've posted show portions that are a little on the small side but the quality of the proteins, freshness of the vegetables, and presentation seem above average.  I was on Divina (but in YC) and noticed the same thing.  Ironically, MSC seems to be stepping up their food game just as other lines are diminishing theirs.

 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.  

[Match Game 72]

12 hours ago, KarenGretz said:

Quick question..... Did someone come find you at the one hour mark or did you stay at your leisure in the thermal area? 

No one came to get us. I wore a watch and kept an eye on the time. I really don't know what would have happened if we overstayed the hour.

[Match Game 72]

11 hours ago, B_A_H said:

I'm really enjoying the style in which you're writing your review.  It's coming across as fact based and balanced where some can have so many adjectives and so much emotion they bury the lede. 

 

MSC has always been dinged for their food.  Some of the pics you've posted show portions that are a little on the small side but the quality of the proteins, freshness of the vegetables, and presentation seem above average.  I was on Divina (but in YC) and noticed the same thing.  Ironically, MSC seems to be stepping up their food game just as other lines are diminishing theirs.

 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.  

Thank you. I write the majority of the review while we are on the ship.

 

Since we cruised MSC during covid restrictions, we have seen a nice return to more selection and good quality food. During covid, the main dining room had few beef selections. Now there was plenty of diversity to choose from. The vegetables were consistently fresh.

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I'm going to reverse direction for a moment and go back to our day at Ocean Cay. After much technology frustration, we just managed to download photos from the GoPro I used that day.

 

Looking at Meraviglia from Lighthouse Beach. The ship was turned around from how it came into port on our previous two visits. They were testing lifeboats this day.

 

The Lighthouse

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Let's play find the fish. Do you see it? Most of the fish I saw were small. There were a couple of schools, too. Colors ranged from gray to yellow to blue and purple.

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Saturday, February 25, 2023

This was our final full day on the ship, and it was a day at sea. We had a lazy day that started by sleeping in. There was lunch and reading and napping.

 

Before dinner we packed up most of our bags to get them ready to put in the hall. Dinner was Italian night. To be honest, we had tried to get a reservation at Hola, the speciality Mexican restaurant. All specialty restaurants were booked the last night.

 

Three of us ordered the chicken parmigana, and it was probably the best version of that dish I had ever eaten. The spaghetti side was excellent. And the tiramisu for dessert was so good!

 

After dinner and the theater show (which was really very good...Journey), we went back to the room, changed our clothes and put the bags in the hallway. Then we went to Sky lounge for a drink and then got our last bite of pizza.

 

Sorbet. They offered a different flavor every night.

 

Tiramisu

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Sunday, February 26, 2023

Today was disembarkation day. My husband just earned Diamond status so we used that set of four tags for our bags. My dad and I had breakfast in Waves restaurant. It was very nice. Folks always seem rushed on the last day. We got our selves and carry on bags out of the room just before 8 am.

 

Then we waited just a few minutes in Broadway theater until our number was called. Finding our bags and going through passport control was very easy.

 

We had a car rental reservation planned. Budget rental car had two shuttles servicing the port. We got on the second one and then waited about 40 minutes at the counter. The full size car we had rented ended up being a Mercedes which really needed a good exterior washing. The interior was fine.

 

We drove to Seaworld and arrived around 10:40. The park was very busy with lots of people in the walkways, but the rides had very little wait. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes per ride. It seemed like people were there for the food festival or the concert that evening.

 

I drove my dad to the airport in the early afternoon, and then the three of us finished up the day at Seaworld by 6 pm. We fueled the car rental and stayed the night at Fairfield by Marriott near MCO.

The hotel was very clean. I would stay here again.

[Match Game 72]

Monday, February 27, 2023

 

We had an early morning flight (7 am) out of MCO to BOS. One month earlier when I booked our Delta flights, flying home Monday morning was the best I could do. We had no problem returning the car rental at 4:50 am. Then we waited in Delta's line to drop off one checked bag and then waited in TSA precheck. By the time we got to the gate, it was only 5:30 am. So even though there were lines at the airport, it really didn't take us very long.

 

[Match Game 72]

So that's the end of our trip report. We had a great time. 

 

If you have any questions, I will try my best to answer them.

 

Thanks for reading along!