JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 4/9 (semi-B2B)

[Crazy planning mom]

Beautiful pictures in Puerto Plata but sorry to hear about your negative experience with the taxi drivers.

That mimosa blossom sounds delicious.

[JGmf]

Enjoying the read.  Thanks, as always, for sharing your adventures.

 

(Re: Taino Bay and that enormous enclosed tourist area: the Disneyland kind of vibe is kind of weird, at least to me.  It's like a cruise ship had super-sized its amenities and unfurled them on land).

[Av8tor]

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

For breakfast, my husband deliberately ordered scrambled eggs and an English muffin this time and asked for butter. I ordered and omelette with white toast, butter, and jam. We got our butter right away, but I had to wait a little for my jam. I did ultimately end up with white toast with butter and my husband ended up with a toasted English muffin with butter, so it was a major win. That may have been the pinnacle of the cruise for us. 😋

 

 

Thanks for reporting your experiences and thoughts on the cruise, I've enjoyed them all.  So happy that you both finally got the breakfasts you've been so diligently trying to obtain!!! 😋

[DGP1111]

On 4/17/2023 at 10:09 AM, JamieLogical said:

 

 

 

That description of the classic favorite French Onion Soup definitely got my attention, as I've never once dined anywhere that included the addition (even a 'splash') of liquor.  Interesting variation on a theme. 😀

Edited April 18, 2023 by DGP1111

[AtSeaWithChris]

1 minute ago, DGP1111 said:

That description of the classic favorite French Onion Soup definitely got my attention, as I've never once dined anywhere that included the addition (even a 'splash') of liquor.  Interesting variation on a theme. 😀

I hadn’t seen liquor in French Onion soup either. It apparently does affect the taste. I’ve seen mixed reviews of likes or dislikes when people try it. I’m sure it would make a difference. I personally like it and order it most times I see it on the menu. I will definitely try it at least once on our next cruise. 

[CruizinSusan70]

6 hours ago, AtSeaWithChris said:

I hadn’t seen liquor in French Onion soup either. It apparently does affect the taste. I’ve seen mixed reviews of likes or dislikes when people try it. I’m sure it would make a difference. I personally like it and order it most times I see it on the menu. I will definitely try it at least once on our next cruise. 

My DH will have it all 7 nights on our upcoming Mera cruise in July.

[EBONI325]

Thanks so much for this live report, I'll be on Meraviglia on May 14th, and looking forward to it. I'm so glad you could request butter, can't imagine having dry toast. Finally caught up and now I can go to bed, it's 2am. LOL Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[shipgeeks]

4 hours ago, EBONI325 said:

Thanks so much for this live report, I'll be on Meraviglia on May 14th, and looking forward to it. I'm so glad you could request butter, can't imagine having dry toast. Finally caught up and now I can go to bed, it's 2am. LOL Looking forward to the rest of your review.

I imagine butter is not standard because toast is not standard in European cuisine. Baguettes, croissants, and best of all, MSC's sticky buns, are so much better.  Be sure to try them.  (But you can always request butter if you need it.)

[sammee]

Great review Jamie. I love reading this type of review before getting ready to sail too, especially the food and different spots around the ship. And than you outdid yourself with the menus, driving me nuts having to wait now.

 

I remember reading your reviews on NCL. I would have sailed with you Mar. 15, 2020? out of NYC, the day the earth stood still, lol.

 

I'm scheduled for this ship May 14 with a fantastica balcony on 10. I was emailed about an upgrade bid for this Aurea suite. How are you liking it? I still haven't decided whether to bid or not, but it looks great. My fear is getting the wrong side of the ship for Ocean Cay and the light show. I'm in a perfect spot right now. 

[JamieLogical]

59 minutes ago, sammee said:

Great review Jamie. I love reading this type of review before getting ready to sail too, especially the food and different spots around the ship. And than you outdid yourself with the menus, driving me nuts having to wait now.

 

I remember reading your reviews on NCL. I would have sailed with you Mar. 15, 2020? out of NYC, the day the earth stood still, lol.

 

I'm scheduled for this ship May 14 with a fantastica balcony on 10. I was emailed about an upgrade bid for this Aurea suite. How are you liking it? I still haven't decided whether to bid or not, but it looks great. My fear is getting the wrong side of the ship for Ocean Cay and the light show. I'm in a perfect spot right now. 

 

I love love love the whirlpool suite. My hesitation on a cruise out of New York might be the air temperature the first and last days. It was chilly when we left Port Canaveral for this cruise, which made getting into and out of the hot tub a little unpleasant.

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was a full sea day and it started off pretty lazily. We didn't make it out of the room for breakfast until 9:30. We headed up to the buffet for something light to tide us over until lunch. I tracked down the cottage cheese and then tracked down some jam to put on top of it. It was a lot of effort for a few bites of food, but worth it.

 

While at breakfast, we checked the MDR menus for lunch and dinner. We were booked in Ocean Cay for dinner, but wanted to see if there was anything on the menu to tempt us away, since it was Gala Night. Nothing really spoke to us on the dinner menu, but we were excited about the lunch menu, because it included both konch fritters and mozzarella sticks as appetizers.

 

After breakfast, we headed down to Edge for some mimosa blossoms. I typed up my review of Puerto Plata and posted 100 photos, so that took quite a while. Finally we were able to play some cards.

 

I had learned the other day that 3 mimosa blossoms is my upper limit before lunch, so I got a 4th to take with me TO lunch. We were a little later to lunch than normal, since we didn't get there right at noon. Instead of being seated at the close together two-tops, we were seated at a six-top with three other people: a couple and a solo traveler.

 

We were disappointed to find that the actual lunch didn't match what was on the app. It was the same menu we had our first time having lunch in the MDR. This time I got the meatball sandwich, which was pretty good.

 

We had a great conversation with our tablemates. Everyone at the table had clearly been on a lot of cruises. The solo guy had been on 11 MSC cruises and said it's his favorite line. The couple said their favorite was Cunard.

 

The solo traveler is is from New York, but currently lives in the Dominican Republic and runs a car service there. I told him I wished we had met him a couple days earlier! He was actually able to go back to his house to pick up some stuff and drop off some dirty laundry while we were in port. Thought that was pretty funny.

 

After lunch, our grand plan was to get some drinks for the hot tub at the Bamboo Bar. Despite being a pool bar on a sea day, we had no wait for drinks again. I asked for a strawberry daiquiri with a lot of rum in the largest glass he had. He definitely did NOT skimp on the rum. It was about an inch and a half deep in that giant blender they use. He ended up making more than could fit into their largest cup, so he gave me the rest in a smaller cup. My husband ordered the same deal, but with a mudslide.

 

We took our drinks up and got into the hot tub. We stayed in there a long time. We could see we were heading into some weather and we did eventually get caught in pouring rain. My husband didn't want to be in the rain, despite already being wet from the neck down, so he got out. That was actually lucky for me, because he was able to put my towel and robe just inside the door. They definitely would have gotten wet had I left them out on the lounger.

 

I really really enjoyed being in the hot tub while it poured rain. I couldn't see a foot past the railing of my balcony. It was like I was in my own little water cocoon.

 

Eventually I got out and got dry. I promptly took a nap and this is where things went sideways. Apparently the amount of rum and sugar in my giant daiquiri caused an instant hangover. I woke up from my nap around 5:00 feeling like death warmed over. I tried to drink some liquid IV and we headed down to Edge for some coffee, but it was too late. Once the hangover has set in, you really just have to ride it out.

 

I rallied enough to do dinner in Ocean Cay. We had heard a lot of negative reviews, especially about the limited tasting menu, but I thought everything was great. We both had the crab cake as our starter and I am pretty sure it was the best crab cake I have ever had. It was so flakey, yet had a nice toast on the crumb exterior. It was served with some kind of mustard aioli that was very delicious.

 

For our mains, I had the squid ragout and my husband had the tuna. The server asked him how he wanted the tuna cooked, which caught him off guard, having never been asked that question before. She recommended something and he went along with it. Our server was fantastic, by the way.

 

We both enjoyed our mains. Mine was a little "raw tomato-y" for my taste. I prefer a red sauce that is richer and more cooked down. But it was still good. My husband really liked his tuna.

 

For dessert, I got the creme brulee and my husband got the tiramisu. They were also both good. In all, I had no regrets about using one of our specialty dining credits there.

 

After dinner, my headache was in overdrive. I went back to the room to take some Excedrin, but it didn't help. I ended up just laying in the darkened bedroom with the curtains drawn for hours trying not to throw up. I did eventually fall asleep sometime after 11:00. But it was a very unpleasant night.

 

Day's Drinks: Mimosa Blossom x4, Giant Strawberry Daiquiri or Doom

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by JamieLogical

[PTC DAWG]

20 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Mango vodka, galliano, prosecco, and orange juice.

👍

[JAGR]

14 hours ago, DGP1111 said:

That description of the classic favorite French Onion Soup definitely got my attention, as I've never once dined anywhere that included the addition (even a 'splash') of liquor.  Interesting variation on a theme. 😀

Interesting.  I've always had it with sherry and/or white wine mixed into the broth, so it has alcohol, but not liquor.  I wonder if that is a translation issue on MSC's part.

[Woody14]

loving all the faces they put on / build in to the food.

[Nashna]

Jamie, you are a hoot!  I'm glad you are getting your money's worth from the drink package and putting that jacuzzi to good use.   Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.  Cheers!

[Nclcruise1415]

Incredible review. Thank you kindly for taking so much time out of your vacation to share with us. 

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Nclcruise1415 said:

Incredible review. Thank you kindly for taking so much time out of your vacation to share with us. 

 

No worries! I enjoy it and I think it's so nice to have something to look back on. My husband was getting caught back up on the blog just a few minutes ago and he had already forgotten about the solo traveler we sat next to for breakfast on our Dominican Republic port day. So he was grateful I've been documenting it as well.

Edited April 20, 2023 by JamieLogical

[pirate4me2]

"Giant strawberry Daiquiri or DOOM"......love it. Not that you felt so bad, but the drink name made me LOL. 

[JamieLogical]

Sorry for such a late post. After getting off the ship this morning, we had a very busy day and are just getting settled in for the evening.

 

Yesterday was the final day of my first MSC cruise. We aimed to get to the MDR for breakfast, so scheduled earlier room service. After showering and dressing, we headed down to the MDR a little on the late side being late seemed effective, because we got seated at a two-top right next to a window. A woman who was waiting for her husband was seated next to us.

 

We were still recovering from our rough afternoon/evening from the day before. I decided to try the cheese tray and also ordered my omelette to order and some white toast with butter and jam. My husband decided on the fast breakfast with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and a toasted English muffin.

 

My breakfast was great and I got both butter and jam for my toast. My husband's english muffin was white as a sheet and he told the server he asked for it toasted and the server said it WAS toasted! Oh well, he did not starve.

 

After breakfast was our traditional mimosas and cards at Edge. I was very responsible and only had three regular mimosas. I wrote up my blog and we played cards and we hung out there until it was time to get ready for our bowling reservation at 11:30.

 

We got to bowling about 2 minutes late, but that turned out to be no big deal. A German family of 5 was also getting there at the same time as us and initially we were worried their 3 tiny children would cause an issue, but they were just fine. We were assigned Lane 2 and did our first round of bowling without incident. In the second round, things got weird. Random pins kept falling down when it re-racked. Eventually, it gave up on re-racking altogether. We had to request help from with one of the attendants. They got it all reset and credited us some time back on our 30 minutes and it all worked out fine.

 

After bowling, we decided to stop by Hola! to see if we could get in for lunch. We could not, but we were able to make a reservation for 6:00pm for dinner. We then went up to the buffet for lunch.

 

I checked out the kids' buffer to see if they had mac & cheese and they did! Unfortunately, I had to stand in line behind a woman who filled two plates with fish sticks picking them up one at a time. Right as she finally finished and walked away, one of the staff came and and took the tray of mac & cheese away! They were just refreshing it with a new one, but I had to wait for them to take the plastic wrap off and transfer the serving spoon over from the old tray.

 

Once I had my precious mac & cheese, I had to get some meats to put on top of it. I went for the shrimp curry and the spicy beef. The spicy beef was a big hit! I also got a slice of pizza and some fresh mozzarella. Everything was good. They also had all sorts of chocolate desserts out. We tried a few and they were all great!

 

After lunch we headed back to the room for some hot tub time, but the hot tub heater had konked out again. This time, no amount of futzing got it working again, so we gave up on that dream, especially since it would have taken hours to get back up to temperature anyway. We then tried to head back to Edge, but it was packed, so we went down to the Meraviglia Lounge where some arts and crafts were happening, but most of the lounge tables/chairs were free and the bar was open.

 

We hung out there until some sort of trivia was a out to start and it got packed. By that time, Edge had cleared out and we got a nice table by the window. I eventually went to the casino for a bit and then we met up at the champagne bar for a couple of French 77s before dinner.

 

At dinner, had a fantastic chat with a young couple next to us. They had previously sailed on Royal Caribbean a few times. They had had a great cruise.

 

We also chatted a bit with our server. We had had the same server all three times at Hola! and I mentioned I would be back on the ship Saturday. He told me he was going to be unable to get off in NYC and asked if I could maybe bring back a couple of magnets for him. I said of course!

 

Our a la carte dinner ended up costing $18.58 and we still had WAY too much food. You really cannot beat the prices at Hola!

 

After dinner, we hung out at Meraviglia Lounge again and listened to Ocean Five. When they took a break, I went to cash in my casino tickets and my husband headed up to the Sky Lounge where I met him because the lounge singer was there. We hung out there for a while and the Peter and Maryland, the couple we had sat next to at Teppenyaki came in and sat with us and we had a great chat and a couple of drinks.

 

Finally it was time to head up for our last late night snack. 10:00 rolled around and there were no cookies! My husband was disappointed. I just enjoyed my pizza.

 

We made the very unwise decision to put off packing and just get up early. That may have been due to alcohol consumption....

 

Day's Drinks: Mimosa X3, Rum & 7up, Americano w/ Bailey's, French 77 X2, Margarita, Vodka Sour, Hugo Spritz x2

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by JamieLogical

[CruizinSusan70]

Would you recommend going to Hola for lunch or for dinner?  It seems like the all you can eat option is a bit much for lunch, but then again, on a port day, the buffet is your only option for lunch as compared with multiple options on every other line.

I assume making a reservation on day one for whichever day we choose would be the way to go.  Thanks.

Did all of the dinners on the app line up with what the actual menus were?  

[JamieLogical]

8 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Would you recommend going to Hola for lunch or for dinner?  It seems like the all you can eat option is a bit much for lunch, but then again, on a port day, the buffet is your only option for lunch as compared with multiple options on every other line.

I assume making a reservation on day one for whichever day we choose would be the way to go.  Thanks.

Did all of the dinners on the app line up with what the actual menus were?  

 

I am not sure whether all of the dinners on the app lined up with the actual dinners in the MDR, because I only went to the MDR for dinner a few times. I did have one lunch that did NOT line up with what was in the app.

 

As for whether to do Hola! for lunch or dinner, I think both are good options. I wouldn't waste a specialty dining credit on Hola! since it is so cheap. You would be better off saving those for the more expensive restaurants. Also, not sure how wither it it is to do the all you can eat option there. We did it our first time there, because we wanted to try a lot of things, but I think you would be hard pressed to actually get your total bill above $18 per person ordering a la carte. Like I mentioned, our last dinner there, our total bill for two people was $18.58... That was with chips & salsa, the bean and cheese dip, two tacos for me, a taco and a tostada for my husband, and a tres leches dessert to share.

 

When I go back next week, I think I will be able to get away with just ordering the bean and cheese dip and one taco for myself. That would put be a smidge over $6 I believe?

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was disembarkation day. I woke up around 4:30, because I could feel the ship slowing down to enter the Hudson. I tried to sleep a bit more, but couldn't and since my husband was similarly restless, we finally just gave up and got up. We had a LOT of packing to do. I am not sure what possessed us to put off packing until the morning. I started with packing my husband's bundle. We had at least laid out all the clothes for our bundles on Wednesday night. It took me pretty much the entire time he was in the shower to finish that.

 

Then I had to pack my own bundle. I really cannot fathom how I made everything fit the first time around. It was a real struggle to get everything back in there and the entire time I was just thinking of how I would have to do it all over again once I did laundry at our friends' apartment. I took my shower and my husband was getting antsy about missing breakfast, because he had already finished packing his backpack, so I told him to just go without me. He did and I finished up the rest of my packing as best I could. It was really impossible. I am hoping that when I repack after doing laundry, I can figure out how I made it work the first time.

 

I texted my husband that I was coming up to breakfast just as he was about to make some coffee to bring down to me. I told him I would just meet him there. I had planned to go down to 7 and then across to the back of the ship and up to 15, but on 7 I was told the deck was closed and I would have to go down to 6. 6 was where people were lining up for the express walk-off and it was a madhouse. The line was the full length of the ship. They had announced that due to it being the ship's first time disembarking in Brooklyn, we were delayed getting clearance.

 

I made it up to the buffet and was surprised to see how many people were up there, since it looked to me like everyone on the ship was down on 6. I was also a bit surprised to see how packed the buffet was since one of the MDRs was actually open for breakfast as well.

 

I just had some coffee and a chocolate croissant. I didn't want anything heavy. We hung out there for a bit and people watched and killed time. I believe at some point while we were there they announced that people doing the self walk-off could begin disembarking. However, shortly after we got back to our room, they announced that there was a medical emergency and so disembarkation was being halted temporarily.

 

According to the disembarkation instructions we were provided, we were supposed to be out of our rooms by 8:00, but my husband and I stayed in ours until 8:30. By that point, the express walk-off had resumed, but no luggage numbers had been called. We decided to at least go get in line. We lined up right at the front of the ship, starting in the Meraviglia Lounge. The line moved very slowly all the way to the aft of the ship and then curled back around towards the elevators. Turns out, disembarkation was actually on Deck 5, so one of the major bottlenecks was getting people from 6 where they were lined up down to 5 with their luggage. They just had to wait for elevators or lug everything down a flight of stairs.

 

We opted for the flight of stairs. We also learned that part of the slowness was due to there only being one working gangway. Apparently there was an issue with getting a second one set up by the port? Hopefully that will be resolved for embarkation on Saturday.

 

The last stretch of the line was through a residential hallway on 5 and I suspect that was also part of the delay. The hall was very narrow, especially with people all having their luggage. They were sending some people back onto the ship, because their onboard accounts weren't settled. So then those people had to swim upstream in the hallway with their luggage.

 

At some point, when we were very nearly off the ship, they called the first two luggage groups. BTW, the couples ahead of and behind us in line both had no luggage with them, despite being in the express walk-off line. Unless they managed to pack for 11 days in a shoulder bag, they were about to be very disappointed when they made it down to the terminal. The couple behind us had luggage tag 32! I noted, when we got into the terminal, that the entire 32 section of the luggage collection area was still empty. Why would you get off the ship when you know your luggage won't be ready. You like standing on hard concrete for extended periods of time?

 

Once we were off the ship, everything was super quick. There was no real line for customs. They had facial recognition, so customs was moving very quickly. I did feel bad for the couple directly ahead of us in the customs line. The facial recognition didn't work for either one of them. When the customs officer asked them for their passports, I got the impression they didn't have them? How did they board without passports? This was not a closed circuit cruise, so an license and birth certificate were insufficient. I know our passports were checked at embarkation....

 

Once out of the terminal, we had to head to the left, down to a sheltered area where taxis and ride shares could pick people up. I couldn't get Lyft to work on my phone. It said it only had "E" signal. What does E even mean? I had to restart my phone and once I did, I had 5G. I ordered our Lyft and we were on our way. We got to our friends' apartment at 9:50.

 

I really hope they get some of the kinks worked out for the next sailing. It was definitely a mess and I felt bad for anyone with an early flight. My advice is, if you have an early flight, do the self walk-off. I have a 1:00-something flight next Saturday out of JFK, which I still feel like should be okay.

 

See you all in a couple of days!

[EllieinNJ]

How long did you wait for the Lyft?  Did you have to tell the driver where you were going before you got in the car?  I ask because I need to return to NJ and some drivers may refuse.