MSC Meraviglia Live Cruise 6/18 Yacht Club

[miched]

Thanks for taking your time away from your honeymoon to share your experience and observations

 

Wishing you many years of happiness together. 😍🥰

[ConnieTact]

Just caught up with your posts as we’ve been away to Ireland for a few days. Congratulations on your wedding. Beautiful photographs. I’m also enjoying your review. I’d love to know about any entertainment onboard too.

[snmathe]

Monday

 

Today was our was our first morning on the boat. And I was so excited to try out the breakfast. My husband on the other hand, wanted to sleep in. I was just going to skip breakfast and just wait for lunch. But then I decided I would just go up to the buffet on the pool deck and bring some breakfast back to the room. Instead trying the sit down restaurant. Well as soon as I came back down with my food, my husband then decided he did in fact want breakfast 🤦🏽‍♀️🤣 so we both went upstairs to the pool deck and ate.

 

the breakfast on the pool deck was AMAZING! I’m going to go more in depth with it for my Tuesday post because I took more photos. But they have freshly squeezed orange juice and that is to die for! 
 

after breakfast, we decided to see what small bites the top sail lounge had for breakfast. Nothing really interested me, but my husband got this tart snack. I then got a mimosa and he got an espresso martini

He thought the tart was just okay. I don’t think he likes tarts because his response when I asked if he liked it was that it had too much of a tart taste 🙄😂 so if you like tarts you will probably enjoy this! The topsail lounge is very useful if you just want a light breakfast and not be overwhelmed with options.

 

After breakfast, we went back to our room. We got a letter the previous night saying we’d been invited to a Captains Welcome Celebration in the Yacht Club Topsail Lounge

 

I was so excited! The invite said smart casual, but people wore whatever they wanted. I’m someone though when I get a theme, I rock that theme! So my husband and I dressed up and headed up there. We got there right at 1045. But they had some good appetizers and drinks for everyone. We then got a special performance from dancers and got to meet all the directors and captain of the vessel. We were right up front so it was pretty awesome. 

 

afterwards we went into the yacht club hot tub and relaxed for a little. We then wanted to check out the casino. We love doing slot machines. Especially the ones that give you free games. We only had $50 to gamble and we pretty much used it on the slot machine that gave you free games. We were doing real well at first. We were up 8 dollars and we got 10 free games. And then we got cocky and lost all of our winnings 😂 it was still so fun. The casino area is full of smoke though. Even the nonsmoking section. So just be aware of that. 
 

The menu in the Yacht Club for lunch didn’t look too good. So we decided to go up to the pool deck. We do love the pool deck the most when it comes to food. I got steak, shrimp, scallops, salad and corn chowder. It was delicious. I also asked for a screw driver with freshly squeezed orange juice and that was a game changer!

Everything was delicious. We then went to the topsail lounge to see what finger foods they had and I got a sandwich bite. Also very yummy.

 

After the topsail lounge we decided to go in the hot tub again. I started getting so sleepy and we went back to the room for a nap until dinner.

 

It was Gala Night tonight, which is also formal night. I will say in the yacht club, I did see everyone dressed up. It was kind of nice to see. The food was really good, but the service in the Yacht Club restaurant is very slow. It takes a while to get a drink. We normally go to the top sail lounge before hand and grab a drink for dinner. And the food comes out slow. But we didn’t mind too much. For an appetizer, we both got burgundy escargot. Or snails, and they were delicious! My husband got the Williams Salad and he thought it was just okay. We both shared the champagne risotto and it was AMAZING! And then we got the lobster tail. My husband did get cheesecake, but we didn’t have time to actually eat it because we had to get ready for our show. I think because it was gala night and the yacht club is at capacity, they had more people than expected. And the service was just a little slower. The lobster tails though were huge! I was so shocked at how huge they were.

 

After dinner we rushed to our room to get ready for our show. Now we saw a paid show. Go down to concierge and your butler can escort you to the show and get you good seats. You also get to skip the line.

 

House of Houdini. Before I review this show I want to start off by saying, know what cruise lines are great at and keep that in mind when you’re on board. It frustrates me when people want to see good entertainment and then go on a ship that is not known for their entertainment and complain. I want to preface this and say, if you want a broadway level performance…book ROYAL CARIBBEAN. They have the BEST shows at sea. MSC is not known for the shows. So do not expect a top tier broadway level performance.

 

Now knowing this, my expectations were low and they were surpassed with this performance. I would give it a 9/10. Solely based on the abilities of the performers. I thought the story was just eh. It some things were not great. However, the singing was AMAZING! And so were the acrobatic acts. I was so impressed. Especially with the singing. I’ve been on a cruise line where all the entertainment was singing and the people the chose couldn’t sing…it was horrible. It was well worth the $18. I don’t think I’d pay for it again. But I’m glad we experienced it

 

Afterwards it was late and we headed back to the room. We were met with a wonderful surprise. We got macaroons and a cake for our honeymoon. They also sent the cheesecake my husband couldn’t finish at dinner. It truly was amazing

 

My husband ended the night watching tv and ordering pizza. And I went straight to sleep 😴

 

[snmathe]

7 hours ago, ConnieTact said:

Just caught up with your posts as we’ve been away to Ireland for a few days. Congratulations on your wedding. Beautiful photographs. I’m also enjoying your review. I’d love to know about any entertainment onboard too.

Yes my post from Monday reviews one of the shows!

[PTC DAWG]

Is Craig back on board as the YC Director?  

 

Sailed Mera out of Canaveral in the YC..your experience is bringing back nice memories.  

[jcpc]

I’m blown away by your review.  So much detail.  It’s one of the best I’ve ever read.  And it’s making me so excited about my September sailing (Well except for all the smoke in the casino.  I’m a “casino person” but won’t be able to stay in there if it’s really smoky.). I’m looking forward to your next post.  Again thank you for doing this!

[sbcs5390]

4 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Is Craig back on board as the YC Director?  

 

Sailed Mera out of Canaveral in the YC..your experience is bringing back nice memories.  

Craig left for vacation just a couple weeks ago. Alin is on now as YC Director. 

 

5 hours ago, snmathe said:

I thought the story was just eh.

I am glad you enjoyed the show - I thought the same about Houdini, that it wasn’t strung together real well but the singers were talented and I enjoyed the format. Rock Circus had a much better theme and story to me. In the future I’d probably only do Rock Circus. 

[PTC DAWG]

17 minutes ago, sbcs5390 said:

Craig left for vacation just a couple weeks ago. Alin is on now as YC Director. 

 

Gotcha, I saw the card she posted about 10 minutes after I posed my question…thanks. 

Edited June 20, 2023 by PTC DAWG

[liz13]

@snmathe Thank you so much for such an honest and thorough day by day review.  I’m sailing in Nov and what you are sharing is making me so happy to have booked the Mera in YC.   Love the pics!  You and your hubby are such a cute couple ❤️

[LouChamp]

Aloha . First of all…happy and blessed honeymoon. May you have years of good health and fun!  Thank you for taking the time to post about your cruise and food pictures which I love.  Enjoy!

[Mark_T]

22 hours ago, snmathe said:

But they have freshly squeezed orange juice and that is to die for! 

One of the small things that makes a huge impression for us as well...

 

On Celebrity, even when you can track down the secret supply of the real thing, it never tasted this good. (... and most of what they offer is frozen. not fresh).

 

We enjoyed the OJ on Divina a couple of weeks ago and decided to book another cruise almost on that alone 🙂

[RosieRoo]

@snmathe, I’ve been following your travels.  Congrats on your wedding. You mentioned that you booked a Yacht Club interior. I’m curious what your thoughts are on the cabin now that you’ve been in there a couple of days. Does the room feel super small and is the bathroom big enough to move around? I’ve never stayed in an interior cabin, but I am considering it on the Meraviglia. 

[alyssamma]

@snmathe, I heard you went to a special place today to make your own wine? How was that?

 

I hope you didn't sample your own product too much 🙂

 

[skipsaur]

Love the detailed review and all the photos, especially of the food! You're such a cute couple, wedding congrats!!

[snmathe]

Tuesday

Today was our first Port day! I was so excited. At first, I didn’t know how I felt about not arriving to port until 1pm. All my previous cruises we got to port early and left kind of early. As soon as I woke up, I realized that arriving later and leaving later truly is the way to go. We got to have breakfast and TWO lunches (because we are greedy and love food lol) onboard. We also didn’t have to rush. We got to wake up and pack our bag we were taking with us, shower and do everything we needed to do. It was nice.

 

we started off with breakfast on the yacht club pool deck. This is our favorite spot. Breakfast doesn’t really change, but I still wanted to show you all everything they typically have.

 

I typically get the same thing every day. The croissants are to die for! I feel like I’m eating in a French Bakery every time. They also have mini jam jars for you to choose from. The first day they had a lot of options. And they seem to slowly be running out. 

 

They also make any kind of eggs you want. I got sunny side and my husband got an omelet. They will also make pancakes. These items, you have to request. And it’s fresh. We really love the breakfast on the pool deck!

 

After breakfast, we wanted to try and see us dock since the yacht club is the front of the ship. It was too windy on the pool deck so we went to top sail. Truly an amazing experience watching us dock. Also just seeing vast array of blue and then slowly seeing land pop up.

 

we also had to grab some food lol. The finger food in the top sail lounge is always a must. And remember they rotate the food about 5x a day. 

 

I love the olives and pistachios. So this was a nice little snack. After, we we went back

to our cabin to get ready for our day and for lunch. Lunch opened right at 1130, and we wanted to be there right when it opened.

 

The lunch for today was pretty good

 

We got the king crab compote and the lobster ravioli 

 

We were watching the captain navigate to Port Canaveral while eating and it was really cool. After we finished we decided to go to the Pool deck to get a better view

 

I recommend watching the boat dock at least once. We then decided to get a little snack before our excursion. Or what we like to call, second lunch!

 

We love the lunch on the yacht club deck. i normally get the same thing. But it was a nice meal before heading out.

 

When you are in Yacht Club and you book and excursion through the cruise, you will be asked to wait in the Top Sail Lounge to depart. This lead us to believe we were getting escorted off the ship and getting priority. They have bottled drinks and other things for you in the yacht club which we thought was nice. We didn’t want to have to pay for drinks on our excursion so this was amazing

 

It even started raining so they put out free ponchos for everyone!

 

we were headed to Disney springs and I always believe that a rainy day at Disney is always better than a rainy day anywhere else! We were ready to go!

 

I love Disney so much and this was a last minute decision from us to book this excursion! We thought it was better than trying to go to one of the parks. We also thought it was good to make sure we had transportation that would definitely take us there and back. Because Disney is an hour away without traffic. 
 

So a butler escorted us to a theatre room where there were a lot of people waiting for excursions. This is where we learned that we will not be escorted off the boat if we book an excursion through the ship. We were late to dock and so we had to wait in the theatre for a while. Then in line for 15 mins to get on the bus that was taking us to Disney.

 

Once we made it to Disney Springs, we had an amazing time! We shopped and ate at Earls Sandwich! There’s so much to do at Disney springs. You have bowling, shows, performances, great places to eat. And so much more! I was so happy we went on this excursion 

 

After, we came back on the boat and RUSHED to dinner. We got there just in time to be seated and eat. We were sat right next to our friends we made at the captains lunch, so it was real nice to see them again.

 

We ordered quick so we wouldn’t hold the kitchen up. We both had the shrimp cocktail and surf and turf. It was amazing! We split the ice cream pyramid which was good too.

 

Our friends talked us into going to the comedy show. This was a free show that we got escorted into and special seats being in yacht club. We decided to try it out. 
 

when being escorted and getting to the front of the line, just be prepared to hear snarky comments. People asked us why we were cutting and things like that. There’s a special yacht club section in the theatre. I will say, this was not my cup of tea. And I’m not going to rate the free shows bc once again this isn’t a ship known for entertainment. And you can walk out at anytime, you aren’t paying money. But it just wasn’t my type of comedy.

We were also sat right behind really rude people who were making fun of the comedy and saying rude things instead of just getting up and leaving. The yacht club section is in the back. Which is the best place to sit in case you want to leave a show. It was just really annoying.

 

afterwards, we went back to the room and to bed. We had a big day for Wednesday and wanted to get some rest!

 

[snmathe]

On 6/21/2023 at 10:46 AM, RosieRoo said:

@snmathe, I’ve been following your travels.  Congrats on your wedding. You mentioned that you booked a Yacht Club interior. I’m curious what your thoughts are on the cabin now that you’ve been in there a couple of days. Does the room feel super small and is the bathroom big enough to move around? I’ve never stayed in an interior cabin, but I am considering it on the Meraviglia. 

Yes I’m going to do an in depth review on an interior room on Sunday or Monday! With lots of pics❤️

[sbcs5390]

6 minutes ago, snmathe said:

So a butler escorted us to a theatre room where there were a lot of people waiting for excursions. This is where we learned that we will not be escorted off the boat if we book an excursion through the ship. We were late to dock and so we had to wait in the theatre for a while. Then in line for 15 mins to get on the bus that was taking us to Disney.

Bummer - I had heard such good things about this part of YC. I didn’t do any excursions in April so wasn’t sure. Did they explain if this is the case everywhere or?

[Tralfie]

Really loving this review! I spent a day on Meraviglia as part of a press/travel agent event a month or so ago and was SO impressed with the ship in general and the yacht club in particular that I immediately booked YR for next May. It's quite a few months away, but I'm getting to experience things vicariously through y'all. (I love how much you guys love food. "We ate... and then we ate... and then we grabbed snacks... and then we had second lunch." MY KINDA PEOPLE!) 

Richard 

[mesci14]

What is the musical entertainment like in the top sail lounge?  Is it instrumental or a singer?  Genre of music?

[snmathe]

Hello everyone, I’m so sorry. Things are taking a little longer but I will be updated with all my posts by Saturday.

[mchin]

Congratulations on your wedding and am loving following your review.  I am considering trying MCS yacht club suites for a large family vacation but have not sailed MCS before.  Any idea what the largest suites are on Caribbean based MCS ships?  Any can sleep 8-10?

[alyssamma]

4 hours ago, mchin said:

Congratulations on your wedding and am loving following your review.  I am considering trying MCS yacht club suites for a large family vacation but have not sailed MCS before.  Any idea what the largest suites are on Caribbean based MCS ships?  Any can sleep 8-10?

I don't believe any can hold this amount, but the size varies by ship.

[Nashna]

5 hours ago, mchin said:

Congratulations on your wedding and am loving following your review.  I am considering trying MCS yacht club suites for a large family vacation but have not sailed MCS before.  Any idea what the largest suites are on Caribbean based MCS ships?  Any can sleep 8-10?

I don't know of any ship that can take 8 to 10 people in a stateroom.  The most I have heard of is 7 in a family suite, which was not in the Yacht Club.  Our family cruised on RCCL and had all the younger members in balcony staterooms while we had a Master Suite for the group to gather.  

[mchin]

1 hour ago, Nashna said:

I don't know of any ship that can take 8 to 10 people in a stateroom.  The most I have heard of is 7 in a family suite, which was not in the Yacht Club.  Our family cruised on RCCL and had all the younger members in balcony staterooms while we had a Master Suite for the group to gather.  

We sailed in the Presidential Suite (maybe called Villa Suite - 6414) on Freedom of the Seas in 2019.  It slept 14 people.

Edited June 28, 2023 by mchin
spelling

[Nashna]

Wow.  I had no idea that there was a ship that would allow 14 people in a room.  That's amazing.