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

[gizfish]

Sooooo appreciate your posts!  If it's not too much trouble, would you possibly be able to post pics of the dailies?  Thx.

[JamieLogical]

 

6 hours ago, gizfish said:

Sooooo appreciate your posts!  If it's not too much trouble, would you possibly be able to post pics of the dailies?  Thx.

 

I have been saving all the dailies and intend to take and post pictures of all of them when I get home.

[JamieLogical]

As you know, yesterday was embarkation day for the second leg my B2B. This one is a 7-day out of Brooklyn that goes to Port Canaveral, Ocean Cay, and Nassau. I already posted about the embarkation itself and my first impressions of the room.

 

My bag was already at my room by the time I got there after my first drink and lunch. So I thought I would unpack some while muster was going on, since we had to be in our rooms for that. However, I discovered I only had a total of 8 hangers. 4 with clips for pants and 4 without. Now, this is not enough hangers just for me on a cruise. I can't imagine how people with two or more in a stateroom would fare with that few hangers!

 

I found my room steward and let him know that I needed more hanger. I then also ended up leaving him a note asking to unlock and empty the mini fridge so I could store water in there.

 

I unpacked everything from my backpack, but left my roller bag with my bundle for later, once I had hangers. I went down to my muster station at the required time and then back up to the room for a little bit to kill time until muster was over. I was grateful my room is only on the 8th deck and my muster station is on 6, since the elevators don't work while muster is happened.

 

After all the decks had been called and they repeated the message about muster being mandatory several times, I figured the bars would be reopened soon, so I headed down to Edge. The bar was still closed, so I chatted with one of the bartenders about it and he told me they need at least 75% of passengers to have completed the drill before anything can reopen. I hadn't known that before.

 

While I waited, I figured I would check to make sure my key card was linked to my credit card for onboard spending. I had done it online ahead of time, but I saw/read so many complaints online about that not working, that I wanted to double-check. Just like the first sailing, it was linked as expected, so I didn't have to do anything.

 

I did meet a lovely older gentleman named Tony while I was in line and we chatted for a bit about cruising. He told me he had been on 3 river cruises and highly recommended them. He also told me not to wait until I retired, because he had a friend who had a lot of grand plans for retirement and then died at 64. Good life advice!

 

After my chat with Tony, I headed back over towards the bar and way down at the other end, I spotted @ESCARGO! I ran over and hugged him and turned around and there was our friend Ed as well. I was so excited! I also met a young woman named Megan who they had befriended who is sailing on her first cruise ever and is solo.

 

We hung out at Edge for a while. Got our drinks and the. Sat at one of the tables that had quickly cleared once muster was over. Oh, it was just so nice to see Ed and Ted again! The ship started sailing away right at 3:00 and we had talked on our roll call about meeting up at the Brass Anchor for/after sailaway. So the three of us headed up there.

 

We were all by ourselves for quite a while, but we met a nice young couple who we had a good chat with. They were from Niagara Falls and it was the woman's first cruise ever. She seemed to really be enjoying it already and I added her as a contact in the MSC app so I could send her a link to my blog.

 

The solo cruisers eventually started to trickle in and find us. Cheri came in with two other solos, Deb and Betty. Then Jennifer came in. Then it started getting out of control with us all gathered around the bar, so we found a big corner to sit in. Joann led the crusade to get us all to move.

In the end, I think there were 10-12 of us gathered. I decided to head back to my room to finish unpacking before dinner. When I got back, I had a ton of wire hangers and a few wood ones with pants clips waiting for me, as well as an empty mini fridge. While I was unpacking, my dad called and I had a nice chat with him and told him all about how great MSC is. Wifi calling seems to work just fine on the included wifi plan. That was my 3rd voice call while onboard and at sea.

 

I got unpacked and changed  just in time for my 6:00 seating at D’oro. Things were pretty chaotic in the MDRs from what I could tell. I knew the early seating was fully booked and they weren’t lying because every table was occupied. I was excited to be taken to a table right next to the window. When I sat down, there were three men at the table and we were soon joined by another woman, so there were 5 of us total at a table for 6. Not sure if the other seat was unassigned or the other person just didn’t show.

 

This was my first negative experience ever with a shared table. The conversation very quickly turned to politics. Everyone knows that you don’t talk about politics or religion with strangers! Or so I thought! These were all solo travelers, so it wasn’t like these were all people who knew each other and were comfortable talking politics with each other. These were all strangers who just met! I won’t get into any of the specifics of what was said, other than just to say that I just kept my mouth shut (quite a feat for me!) and resolved to either try to get my table changed or just not eat in the MDR for the rest of this cruise, I cannot imagine suffering through another meal with these people!

 

Dinner itself was good. I had kind of expected the same first night menu as last sailing, but it was completely different. I had the French Onion Soup finally. For my entree I had the Dal, which was as good as I expected, being Indian food on a cruise ship. For dessert I had the Grandma’s Chocolate cake. In all, it took just about an hour and half for all three courses. Not bad considering it was the first night and we got a bit of a late start.

 

After dinner, I headed to the Champagne Bar for a French 77 and I texted Ted to find out if there was any sort of plan. He said he had done a light dinner in the buffet and was in the casino, but he would come meet me. He tried a French 77 and didn’t like it. He’s not a fan of Prosecco. Since the Champagne bar only has Prosecco and champagne, we decided to head over to the Meraviglia Lounge and see what live music was playing. It was the Latin Trio and everyone was having a good time dancing to their music. I saw a couple that had to be pushing 90 dancing together and decided I wanted to be them when I grow up, because they still had some serious moves for their age!

 

Unfortunately, the music was SUPER loud and I couldn’t hear myself think, much less hear Ted, so we decided to head up to the Sky Lounge. When we got there, the saxophonist was just setting up, but I decided I could endure and we sat at the bar and had a couple more drinks. It was pretty late by that point, so I headed to the buffet for some late night pizza and then off to bed.

 

Day’s Drinks: Mojito, Margarita, Moscow Mule X2, French 77 x3, Absolut Cosmo, Hugo Spritz, Bailey's Alexander
 

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2023 by JamieLogical

[CruizinSusan70]

21 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did the Jack Daniel's in the French Onion soup throw the taste off for you or did it enhance it?

[JamieLogical]

14 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Did the Jack Daniel's in the French Onion soup throw the taste off for you or did it enhance it?

 

I thought it was good. I had the disadvantage of having just had the best french onion soup I had ever eaten on Thursday at french restaurant in Brooklyn, so it wasn't a fair comparison.

[KKB]

Enjoying your review @JamieLogical!

We had a nice turn out for our solo cruiser meet up on Divina as well--ironically there was a couple where we ended up meeting & they enjoyed the conversation. I ended up hanging more with them than anyone that cruise!

 

WHAT is it with green & orange carpet on MSC?

No, it doesn't make or break a cruise.

But seriously--Meriviglia was built in 2015, and green carpet was definitely NOT a thing!

(Orange carpet wasn't a thing in 2011 when Divina was built either...)

I get the feeling they got a close out deal....🤣

 

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, KKB said:

Enjoying your review @JamieLogical!

We had a nice turn out for our solo cruiser meet up on Divina as well--ironically there was a couple where we ended up meeting & they enjoyed the conversation. I ended up hanging more with them than anyone that cruise!

 

WHAT is it with green & orange carpet on MSC?

No, it doesn't make or break a cruise.

But seriously--Meriviglia was built in 2015, and green carpet was definitely NOT a thing!

(Orange carpet wasn't a thing in 2011 when Divina was built either...)

I get the feeling they got a close out deal....🤣

 

 

Yeah... The carpet color is definitely not to my taste, but they do keep it clean and the rooms are quite comfortable, so I can live with it. I will say, the "downgrade" from my whirlpool suite last sailing to just a normal balcony on this sailing hasn't been bad at all. I miss the hot tub, of course, but I don't miss the extra space for just myself. The bathroom is identical to the one we had on the last sailing, so plenty of storage in there for just my things.

[CruisnDeb]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

While I waited, I figured I would check to make sure my key card was linked to my credit card for onboard spending. I had done it online ahead of time, but I saw/read so many complaints online about that not working, that I wanted to double-check. Just like the first sailing, it was linked as expected, so I didn't have to do anything.

Jaime do you happen to know if you can link a different credit card for each person in the same cabin? I’m sailing with my adult son in October and it would be great if we could. Thanks for the live review and information—I’m really enjoying it and taking lots of notes 🙂. 

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, CruisnDeb said:

Jaime do you happen to know if you can link a different credit card for each person in the same cabin? I’m sailing with my adult son in October and it would be great if we could. Thanks for the live review and information—I’m really enjoying it and taking lots of notes 🙂. 

 

Not sure if you can do it through the website in advance, but you can DEFINITELY do it at the kiosks onboard. When my husband and I checked our cards at the kiosk on our first sailing, his was linked to my credit card, but it gave him the option to change that.

[CruisnDeb]

8 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Not sure if you can do it through the website in advance, but you can DEFINITELY do it at the kiosks onboard. When my husband and I checked our cards at the kiosk on our first sailing, his was linked to my credit card, but it gave him the option to change that.

Nice. Thanks so much!

[Essiesmom]

 my sister and I always linked different cards.  EM

[JamieLogical]

Random side note: I have seen a huge number of young crew members wearing braces. It seems that MSC has good dental coverage for the crew!

[JamieLogical]

On 4/22/2023 at 3:01 PM, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Looking forward to another week! You had posted the menu of champagne cocktails for me. Does the menu have the different champagnes by the glass?

 

Here is the menu of by the glass options.

 

[Joiseymom]

On 4/18/2023 at 10:13 AM, JAGR said:

You are not seriously listening to and believing what a land-based MSC adviser is telling you, are you??!!

 

Well, not many other options. You look at reviews and you get 20 or more different ones. If you call to speak to a rep...geez..you are lucky if they can spell MSC.  LOL

[Joiseymom]

On 4/18/2023 at 6:59 PM, 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. 😀

Many are made with wine. YOu can't taste it (well shouldn't be able to).

[cruisebeachgirl703]

9 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Here is the menu of by the glass options.

 

Thanks Jamie! Appreciate it. 

[umpisoccer]

Thank you for your review.  We just booked the June 18th Magavilia cruise which will be our 1st MSC cruise.

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday, I had my room service breakfast/wakeup knock at 7:30. One thing I will commend MSC for on this sailing is that they are very punctual with the room service delivery. In both of my cabins, delivery was always right at or shortly after the early end of the half hour delivery window.

 

Unfortunately, my chocolate croissant was replaced with some sort of raisin-y thing. I still enjoyed my coffee out on the balcony and worked on my blog.

 

Once that was all done and posted, I showered and dressed and headed up to the buffet for lunch. It was past 9:00, so no chance of going to Waves. The buffet was really a madhouse. It was much busier than I had seen it on the previous sailing. I have definitely felt the increase in capacity in some of the public spaces of the ship. I fought my way to the back where it wasn’t *quite* as busy, but still busy, and got myself some cottage cheese and a premade omelet.

 

Surprisingly, despite there being a lot of people in the aft outdoor seating area, most of them were standing along the railing, taking pictures of the wake, not actually occupying the tables, So I was able to get a pretty good seat. At breakfast I ran into two of our solo cruisers and informed them about our planned lunch at Waves.

 

After breakfast, I headed to Edge with the intention of reading my book a bit, but I never actually got around to that. I talked to the staff quite a bit and I poked my phone a lot. After three mimosa blossoms, it was time for lunch. I dropped my unused Kindle back at my room and headed down to Waves where people had already started to gather. We had a nice chat in the hall outside while waiting for others to join us. I told them about my dining table situation and Joann mentioned she had had plenty of extra seats at her table the previous night and that I should ask to be switched to her table. She gave me the info and I headed into Waves to find Ace, they head waiter, who my husband and I were introduced to the first night of the the previous sailing and who always said hi and was friendly to me the multiple times I have seen him every day since. Ace came through and got me moved to Joanne’s 6:00 seating in the Panorama dining room.

 

I rejoined the group and we gave up on waiting for any stragglers. There ended up being 8 of us, but we asked for a table for 10 in case anyone else showed up late. It was a good group and we ended up having a really nice lunch together. The meatball sandwich was a bit of a disappointment this time. But the mango sorbet was delicious!

 

After lunch, it was naptime. I was really tired and, while others planned to go to the solo trivia in the TV Studio, I just wasn’t up for it. So I headed back to the room for a nap. I slept to long, waking up at about 4:00. My body had reached the point where it thought this was going to be a 6-8 hour deal, so it did not appreciate me getting up after only 3 hours.

 

I managed to get dressed for dinner (Gala night) and make my way down to Edge for some much-needed coffee. Then there was the MSC advertised solo meet-up in the Brass Anchor, which we had talked about attending at lunch. The only person there that I recognized was Ed. I was happy to see he was alive. He hadn’t shown up to lunch and no one had seen him since the previous night. Turns out he had partied WAY too hard the first night and slept right up until it was time to meet up!

 

The group was mostly made up of people I already knew from our cruise critic roll call, but there were a few new faces. I met a young girl from Alberta and we had a nice chat. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay too long, because Joann and I had our 6:00 dinner seating.

 

Since it was gala night, it was also lobster night. Joann’s table was a table for 8, but there were only 5 of us, all women. The others were Bella, Donna, and Carol. All were also solo cruisers. We had a nice time. Carol ordered the “Surf & Surf.” She wanted an extra lobster tail and no filet. I thought that sounded like a great idea, so I did the same. I also ordered the lobster bisque and the cheesecake.

 

I was shocked when they brought out my entree and it was a whole lobster! Well, rather, two halves of a lobster. It was nuts! It still had all its legs and one really long antenna. It was quite good, but I had expected tails like we had on the lobster night on my previous sailing. It was a lot of food!

 

After dinner, I decided I needed a little break from the socializing. I headed back to my room to change out of my dress and into my cruise uniform. I knew most of the other solos had dinner at 7:30 or 8:00, so I wouldn’t be seeing them for a while. I got a drink at Meraviglia Lounge, hoping to catch a band playing there, but no luck. I then went to the casino for a while where I did okay for a while and then managed to lose all my daily casino budget.

 

I also visited the champagne bar a few times, once before dinner just to grab a drink to bring in with me and then once after dinner sometime. I am a little fuzzy on the order of my post-dinner bar visits!

I know I ended up at the Sky Lounge for a bit where there was no live music happening. So I took the relative quiet in there as a chance to call my husband and wish him a happy birthday. It was definitely a little sad that I didn’t get to spend his birthday with him, but he was able to go out for sushi with some of our friends, which was good, because I don’t usually like sushi, so he doesn’t get to do that often.

 

After our chat, I went to the buffet for my late night pizza. This was the second night in a row that there was no pepperoni pizza on offer. All last cruise, there was pepperoni pizza available. This week there is only plain cheese. Not sure what the deal is there. I am hoping the pepperoni makes a return at some point.

 

I had planned to go to bed right after that, but I got a text from Ted that they were down in the Meraviglia Lounge, so I decided to join them for a bit. We moved over to Edge at some point, but I really could not hang, as I was so tired. I ended up calling it a night. Hope they all made it to bed safely and aren’t paying the price tomorrow!

 

Day’s Drinks: Mimosa Blossom X3, Mimosa, Americano w/ Bailey's, French 77, Prosecco, Mojito, French 77, Hugo Spritz, Absolut Cosmo
 

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by JamieLogical

[CruizinSusan70]

Is it just me or are you a little fuzzier on those days where your alcoholic consumption hits 10+?  😁

[floor13]

What if any specialty restaurants were open for lunch on port days? My cruise is 6 nights to Bermuda so we'll be in port 3 days there and the rest are sea days. I realized that the surprisingly reasonably priced "unlimited" dining package might be priced that way because none of the specialty restaurants will be open the 3 lunches in port. I know it can vary from sailing to sailing and can depend on the ports visited, as well, but I'm curious what the lunch options will be for specialty restaurants with the package.

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, floor13 said:

What if any specialty restaurants were open for lunch on port days? My cruise is 6 nights to Bermuda so we'll be in port 3 days there and the rest are sea days. I realized that the surprisingly reasonably priced "unlimited" dining package might be priced that way because none of the specialty restaurants will be open the 3 lunches in port. I know it can vary from sailing to sailing and can depend on the ports visited, as well, but I'm curious what the lunch options will be for specialty restaurants with the package.

 

Today is a port day, though we don't dock until 1:00pm. According to the Daily, Hola!, Kaito Sushi, and Butcher's Cut are all open for lunch. On embarkation day, Ocean Cay and Hola! was open for lunch. Will try to remember to note which ones are open over the next couple of days, as we are in port tomorrow and the next day.

[JamieLogical]

48 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Is it just me or are you a little fuzzier on those days where your alcoholic consumption hits 10+?  😁

 

You might be onto something....

[kelleherdl]

On 4/10/2023 at 3:43 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

It went easily and smoothly. The morning of the cruise, I received a text from them saying to be in the hotel lobby at 9:30. Shortly before 9:30, two Go Port employees showed up in a car, ahead of the bus, and put color coded tags on our luggage to designate which ship we were on (Wonder of the Seas was also in port yesterday). They checked our names off the list and then the bus showed up. We were the bus' first stop. The two people who had tagged our bags and taken our names, then drove ahead of the bus to the next hotel. We stopped at 4 more hotels iirc, all near our own. Then we got on the freeway and had about a 45 minute ride to the terminal. The bus dropped off the RCL passengers first, then took us to our terminal and dropped us off. It was all easy and we got off the bus at about 10:45.

 

Our ship isn't returning to Port Canaveral, but I did listen to the driver's instructions for the RCL passengers. They can get on any Go Port bus between 7-10 when they disembark. The shuttles run continuously to MCO.

One thing to add. The GoPort busses depart Terminal 10 at Port Canaveral from the left side terminus as you exit Customs/Immigration. There is a sign directing you to the left. All other shuttles and MSC shuttles are to the right as you exit the terminal.