My thoughts on Meraviglia from Brooklyn 5/7-5/14

[noshoobie]

Hi all. We disembarked the Meraviglia from Brooklyn yesterday. This was only the 3rd sailing from Brooklyn so if anyone has any questions let me know. We really enjoyed out trip and didn't have any complaints (except for the way some passengers behaved) -more on that later. We usually cruise on Royal and there were 3 things that we really liked better then RC. 1) We thought the food was much better. 2) The drinks were cheaper (example-2 glasses of wine at dinner was $11.80. On Royal it was $18. 3) The tips were cheaper too. They were $14.50 per day per person. On RC they were $16 per day per person. 

 

We were in a deluxe balcony forward BELLA and only went to one show Rock Circus at $18pp. It was good but I don't think it was worth the extra charge. We did not do a drink package, wi-fi package, or specialty dining package although we did eat at Hola's one night and it was VERY good. I will post more info about embarkation, debarkation and the ship and islands later.

[skipsaur]

Can't wait to read more! Really looking forward to the Bella POV. It feels like I've read mostly YC reviews, so the variety is much anticipated! (No shade to YC, the offerings just don't appeal to us)

[JamieLogical]

Looking forward to this report. My brother was on this sailing, but in the YC, so a very different perspective/experience. I was on the 4/22 sailing (the first one out of Brooklyn) and am interested whether they worked out some of the kinks with embarkation/disembarkation yet.

[JamieLogical]

10 minutes ago, skipsaur said:

Can't wait to read more! Really looking forward to the Bella POV. It feels like I've read mostly YC reviews, so the variety is much anticipated! (No shade to YC, the offerings just don't appeal to us)

 

I wrote a liveblog of my 4/9 and 4/22 sailings on the Meraviglia. The 4/9 was the repositioning and the 4/22 was the first cruise out of Brooklyn (I was Fantastica). Here's a link to the first post about the 4/22 sailing.

 

 

[skipsaur]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I wrote a liveblog of my 4/9 and 4/22 sailings on the Meraviglia. The 4/9 was the repositioning and the 4/22 was the first cruise out of Brooklyn (I was Fantastica). Here's a link to the first post about the 4/22 sailing.

 

 

 

I read your whole report and loved it, thank you! It was very detailed and I really appreciated that, especially as we were considering an upgrade bid for a whirlpool room. I'll probably reread your post between now and our saildate. 😁

[noshoobie]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I wrote a liveblog of my 4/9 and 4/22 sailings on the Meraviglia. The 4/9 was the repositioning and the 4/22 was the first cruise out of Brooklyn (I was Fantastica). Here's a link to the first post about the 4/22 sailing.

 

 

I KNOW! I read every word of your review and loved it. I thought of you every time I walked by the Champagne bar and went to Hola based on your review. Thank you so much. 

[rikitikitavii]

3 hours ago, noshoobie said:

Hi all. We disembarked the Meraviglia from Brooklyn yesterday. This was only the 3rd sailing from Brooklyn so if anyone has any questions let me know. We really enjoyed out trip and didn't have any complaints (except for the way some passengers behaved) -more on that later. We usually cruise on Royal and there were 3 things that we really liked better then RC. 1) We thought the food was much better. 2) The drinks were cheaper (example-2 glasses of wine at dinner was $11.80. On Royal it was $18. 3) The tips were cheaper too. They were $14.50 per day per person. On RC they were $16 per day per person. 

 

We were in a deluxe balcony forward BELLA and only went to one show Rock Circus at $18pp. It was good but I don't think it was worth the extra charge. We did not do a drink package, wi-fi package, or specialty dining package although we did eat at Hola's one night and it was VERY good. I will post more info about embarkation, debarkation and the ship and islands later.

Looking forward to your review, we embark from Brooklyn in October!!

[NYcruzzer]

Welcome home. I'm on this Sunday's sailing. Looking forwrad to the rest of your report.

[optimusprime82]

Can I assume that you commute to Brooklyn the day of the cruise from South Jersey? We've sailed from the Manhattan cruise terminal several times staying in a few different areas in and around Manhattan. We're sailing on the Meraviglia in October again but haven't decided where to stay yet. We're probably flying in on Sunday for a Wednesday sailing. Right now we're leaning towards Chinatown or the Financial District since it seems like an easier Uber ride to Brooklyn versus staying further north.

[mackfam]

How were the beaches and water at Ocean Cay? Any seaweed or sea lice?

[Joiseymom]

What time did they start embarkation and what time do you have to be off?

[noshoobie]

17 hours ago, optimusprime82 said:

Can I assume that you commute to Brooklyn the day of the cruise from South Jersey? We've sailed from the Manhattan cruise terminal several times staying in a few different areas in and around Manhattan. We're sailing on the Meraviglia in October again but haven't decided where to stay yet. We're probably flying in on Sunday for a Wednesday sailing. Right now we're leaning towards Chinatown or the Financial District since it seems like an easier Uber ride to Brooklyn versus staying further north.

Yes. We commuted same day. Because of the 5 borough bike race that day we decided not to drive. We took a train to Penn Station and ubered to Brooklyn. We saved a lot of money by doing so and probably would have saved more if we ferried over. I'm going to write a separate post on the Mera board about our commute and how we saved $$ and aggravation by not driving to the terminal.

[noshoobie]

15 hours ago, mackfam said:

How were the beaches and water at Ocean Cay? Any seaweed or sea lice?

The beaches were beautiful. No seaweed or sea lice. 

[noshoobie]

12 hours ago, Joiseymom said:

What time did they start embarkation and what time do you have to be off?

I'm not sure what time embarkation started as our check in time was not until 1pm. Here is the timetable regarding debarkation.

[noshoobie]

Our check in time was scheduled for 1pm. We never had a check in time that late. It just so happened that we arrived at the pier at 1pm on the dot. It was very crowded and we did not see a place where we could drop off our luggage. I don't know if we just missed it or because of the timing they stopped collecting luggage. Although the line was very long it moved constantly. From the time we walked in to the time we got on the ship it took about 45 minutes. What we liked was the fact that they gave us the room cards at the check in desk and we were able to board and walk right up to our room.

 

For disembarkation we did the express walk off. We left our room at 7:15am and, again, the line was very long but it kept moving. The Uber/Lyft/taxi area was really packed. It took us about 20 minutes to get an Uber. From the time we left our room at 7:15 it took an hour and a half to get to Penn Station. Our train was at 8:55 and we got to the station at 8:45.

[noshoobie]

We were assigned early dining and I thought I may have to get our time changed because we don't like to eat too early. To my surprise we were assigned 7:30 in the Waves dining room which was perfect for us. There are two main dining rooms - Waves and Panorama. If you do not like your assigned time (which is printed on your seapass) then you can change it when you get aboard by going to the restaurant itself. Here is a list of the times available. We really enjoyed the food in the dining room. The pasta they serve is freshly made so it is so delicious. 

[noshoobie]

On to the Marketplace Buffet. There was a big variety and we thought the food was good. We enjoyed the fresh mozarella and the variety of italian meats and cheeses. We had breakfast there everyday and also enjoyed our late night pizza. The best way to navigate the buffet is to go to the back. Just when you think you can't go any farther...you can. Keep walking. The lines in the back of the buffet were very minimal everytime we were there. They also have outdoor seating at the back. The only thing about the buffet which was troubling was the ignorance of people. People butting in line, taking piles of food, taking way too much time filling up hugh personal water bottles or standing in front of something WAY too long. The coffee, tea, juice areas were the worse. Pour your coffee and your cream and then GO!! Is is necessary to linger over the sugars when sugar is on the table? Or linger over the choice of 5-6 teabags? Grab a teabag and get out of the way!! Sorry, I'm starting to ramble. You'll see what I mean. Well, hopefully, you won't. 

 

We went to Hola's one night. I don't know if you needed a reservation but we went there around 5pm and made a reservation for 7:30. There was no problem getting in and that night it wasn't even crowded. My husband had a burrrito and I had the enchiladas. They were both very good along with the chips and salsa. 

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, noshoobie said:

We were assigned early dining and I thought I may have to get our time changed because we don't like to eat too early. To my surprise we were assigned 7:30 in the Waves dining room which was perfect for us. There are two main dining rooms - Waves and Panorama. If you do not like your assigned time (which is printed on your seapass) then you can change it when you get aboard by going to the restaurant itself. Here is a list of the times available. We really enjoyed the food in the dining room. The pasta they serve is freshly made so it is so delicious. 

 

There are actually four main dining rooms.On the same deck as Panorama there are La Olive Doro and La Olive Doro or something like that. They are on either side of the hallway leading to Panorama.

Edited May 16, 2023 by JamieLogical

[noshoobie]

My thoughts on the ship. It was beautiful and immaculately clean. We spent our pool time at the Horizon pool on deck 18. It is adults only and much quieter then the Atmosphere pool. We never had any issues waiting too long at any of the bars. There is plenty to do on the ship to keep you busy. We are casino people so we did spend a lot of time there. My husband (not me) did very well. We both agreed that the slots seemed a lot looser then on RC. As stated previously, we only saw the Rock Circus show. My husband does not care for magicians so we did not book the Houdini show. Most of the other shows appeared to have been singing shows. There were no comedy shows. We played Bingo once and there always seemed to be music playing somewhere on the ship. We also never made it to deck 16 where they had the bowling, F1 simulator, flight simulator, or the ropes course.

 

At Cape Canaveral we ubered to Cocoa Beach pier and rented beach chairs and umbrellas. At Nassau we walked to Junkanoo beach and did not like it. It was a good 20 minute walk and once you get there the pushy people are in your face to rent beach chairs and umbrellas. It was $40 and we were packed in. Then you have the vendors constantly asking you if you want food or drink. One of the guys seemed to be getting annoyed that we were not ordering anything. Finally, we decided to order a pina colada and a beer. $25 later and the pina colada was the worst I ever had. It had little flavor and I really don't think it had alcohol in it although I definitely said I wanted alcohol. We really should have stayed on the boat.

 

On to Ocean Cay. I really LOVED it. It was beautiful. The loungers are free but you have to rent an umbrella. We did not rent an umbrella only because we did not want to carry it around.  There were plenty of palm trees you could sit under. Lighthouse beach is right off of the boat. We did not want to go there because they only had adirondack chairs and we don't like them. We walked to Sunset beach but BEWARE. Do not even attempt to go there if you do not have beach shoes or a good flip flop that you can go in the water with. It is very rocky along the edge and once you get in the water. We stayed there for a little bit and then changed to the lagoon's south beach. The lagoon was crystal clear with calm water. The crowds were really at north beach, I assume, because there is a beach umbrella rental there and the food court is there. The food court line was very long when we got there so we went to a food truck which had hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, french fries, and brownies. We enjoyed our time there. Don't be upset if you miss the lighthouse show at night which you can see from the ship.  I think they called it a spectacular. Trust me it was not spectacular. 

 

I hope you have as great a time as we did! We both agreed that we would cruise with MSC again.

 

 

[noshoobie]

19 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

There are actually four main dining rooms.On the same deck as Panorama there are La Olive Doro and La Olive Doro or something like that. They are on either side of the hallway leading to Panorama.

Oops! I saw them but for some reason thought they specialty dining rooms. 

[NCMtnBoys]

Thanks for your review, we leave this Sunday on Meraviglia. This will be cruise #33 for me, fourth on MSC. Sailing with two friends who have never cruised. Sounds like it should be a great week on a great ship!

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, NCMtnBoys said:

Thanks for your review, we leave this Sunday on Meraviglia. This will be cruise #33 for me, fourth on MSC. Sailing with two friends who have never cruised. Sounds like it should be a great week on a great ship!

 

I hope you love it! And I really hope your friends enjoy their first cruise ever!

[ncklhaus]

Can you tell me if the main dining rooms are open on debarkation for breakfast or if it is buffet only?

[JamieLogical]

Just now, ncklhaus said:

Can you tell me if the main dining rooms are open on debarkation for breakfast or if it is buffet only?

 

You won't be aboard before 11:00, so definitely no breakfast available. The MDR is not open for embarkation. Your only lunch options are the buffet and Hola.

[cruiseguyinorl]

36 minutes ago, ncklhaus said:

Can you tell me if the main dining rooms are open on debarkation for breakfast or if it is buffet only?

 

Per one of the photos above, the Panorama restaurant is open 6:30 - 8 AM.