JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 9/24

[JamieLogical]

Well... we boarded the flight for what looked like the promised 9:35 departure, but the captain came on as soon as we taxied to the runway and told us we are being held until at least 10:00. I have tried calling our hotel to warn them of our late arrival several times, but after initially having it just ring and ring, it now goes straight to a busy signal. I am not confident there will be anyone there to check us in when we arrive.

[JamieLogical]

Just landed at JFK. Have not been able to get a hold of the hotel. Still going straight to a busy signal.

[JamieLogical]

Made it to the hotel and there was actually someone there to check us in! Keycard didn't work at first so I had to go back down to get that fixed and then once in the room, we realized there was only one towel, so my husband had to go get a second towel.

 

On the way to the hotel we drove passed the NCL Escape and I the Emerald Princess moving up the river. I didn't realize the Emerald Princess was supposed to be back to NYC so early and I thought the Escape was supposed to have docked this morning. Will have to look it up tomorrow.

[nycfa]

Glad you made it in last night!!  See ya in a few hours. 🙂

[JamieLogical]

Good morning everyone! Really happy we made  it NYC and the hotel last night. I didn't sleep super well, but at least I slept! The plan for today is to head over to our friend's apartment in Brooklyn, drop our bags, have brunch with them, then head over to the cruise port. But first, coffee!!!

 

Edit: forgot to mention both our upgrade offers were declined.

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by JamieLogical

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Glad you made it. The fun begins! On an aside, would you recommend the hotel due to location?

[Mark_T]

12 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

They say it's due to wind, not rain. Also, fun fact, TSA at the Rochester airport closes at 8:30. I had no idea and we barely made it through! We were the last ones.

I've flown out of Westchester (HPN) a lot and it is the little things like this you just don't even think about at larger airports, that along with the cascading delays once things go wrong about 4 steps back in the flight plan for the day as they really do make those crews work hard on the regional jets.

 

Happy to hear you got there in the end though and once again it proves the wisdom in planning to be there at least a day early.

[DaKahuna]

@JamieLogical Sorry to hear about the issues you encountered on your trip to NYC but happy to hear you and you DH arrived safely and were able to get some rest.  

 

 I am looking forward to following along on the rest of your adventures.  

[JamieLogical]

We are onboard! Our friend dropped us off at the cruise terminal at 12:15, after we enjoyed brunch with them, which was lovely. We were on the ship at 12:38 so security and check-in were much faster. Made a reservation for dinner at Hola! at 6:30 after waiting in line behind a woman who seemed to be booking shows and specialty dining for every night of the cruise and frequently changing her mind. Now we are waiting at the Champagne Bar (which is closed so has available seating) until our rooms are ready.

 

The rumors I heard about them turning the library into a casino are true!!

 

 

 

 

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Glad you are on board. Weather looks rough. Enjoy Holas!!! What deck is the pic of the slots?

 

[Kevin79]

15 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

The rumors I heard about them turning the library into a casino are true!!

 

That's interesting, and I guess goes someway to help for those who want to play but don't want to spend time in the main casino which can get very smoky regardless how much the AC is on. If it takes off / increases revenue, I won't how long before other ships get a small sub-casino. Assume games only on after left port.

[JamieLogical]

47 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Glad you are on board. Weather looks rough. Enjoy Holas!!! What deck is the pic of the slots?

 

 

Deck 7 across from the Champagne bar. That area used to be the Future Cruise desk and the library.

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by JamieLogical

[cruisebeachgirl703]

3 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Deck 7 across from the Champagne bar. That area used to be the Future Cruise desk and th library.

Thanks

[JamieLogical]

Here is the all-important bar menu:

 

QR_K_BAR-LIST-GENERIC_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1695578852.pdf

[JamieLogical]

5 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Glad you made it. The fun begins! On an aside, would you recommend the hotel due to location?

 

The hotel was okay. It was very sparse and the sink was ridiculously and needlessly small. It is definitely fine for just crashing for a night. I just don't get why the sink is so small and why there can't be more hooks and hangers. Also there was only one towel? Why?

 

 

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Looking forward to your today's drinks!!!

[mcmomny]

47 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Here is the all-important bar menu:

 

QR_K_BAR-LIST-GENERIC_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1695578852.pdf 1.33 MB · 21 downloads

 

Thank you for this! I do have a question for you,

 

If we book the Easy Plus deal what happens if we order a drink that cost more than $9 allowance, do we pay the difference in price?

 

I know that on NCL we were able to do that as we had the basic beverage package.

 

Thank you and following along with your review! 

 

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

26 minutes ago, mcmomny said:

 

Thank you for this! I do have a question for you,

 

If we book the Easy Plus deal what happens if we order a drink that cost more than $9 allowance, do we pay the difference in price?

 

I know that on NCL we were able to do that as we had the basic beverage package.

 

Thank you and following along with your review! 

 

The drinks on easy plus cover up to $10 now. MSC changed their policy in April 2023 and now you only may the difference on drinks greater than your allowance. 

[coscab]

On 9/12/2023 at 5:13 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

We are booked in a Fantastica angled balcony on deck 10 right now. Might put in an upgrade bid when the time comes, but the angled balcony allows for a lot of space, so I am sure we will enjoy it if we don't win an upgrade.

Looking forward to your review, loved the aft facing balcony on Meraviglia but didn't like the looks of the aft facing on Seashore, we are booked on Seashore in an fantastica angled balcony next to a  whirlpool balcony cabin, if your angled balcony has a whirlpool next to it on Meraviglia could you please report back if it was noisy at night when in use, we are light sleepers🤪

 

On 9/12/2023 at 5:13 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

We are booked in a Fantastica angled balcony on deck 10 right now. Might put in an upgrade bid when the time comes, but the angled balcony allows for a lot of space, so I am sure we will enjoy it if we don't win an upgrade.

 

[mcmomny]

57 minutes ago, Ottawa_Cruiser said:

The drinks on easy plus cover up to $10 now. MSC changed their policy in April 2023 and now you only may the difference on drinks greater than your allowance. 

Thank you!

[NYcruzzer]

4 hours ago, Kevin79 said:

 

That's interesting, and I guess goes someway to help for those who want to play but don't want to spend time in the main casino which can get very smoky regardless how much the AC is on. If it takes off / increases revenue, I won't how long before other ships get a small sub-casino. Assume games only on after left port.

Carnival Venezia (sailing out of NYC) has a small "annex casino" near their main Casino. It has slots and table games and is smoke free. I'm pretty sure a few other Carnival ships have the smoke free annex casino as well. To me this is a great way for cruise lines to accommodate both smokers and non smokers who want to enjoy the casino...

[Anastas617]

13 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Deck 7 across from the Champagne bar. That area used to be the Future Cruise desk and the library.

 

Interesting. I found that area to be terribly congested during photo nights and wonder how this will possible make things worse (?) (one of the few complaints I had on my Meraviglia cruise was the disruption to the flow of foot traffic on the photo nights).

 

Thanks for doing another report @JamieLogical. I found your previous Meraviglia trip report very entertaining and helpful prior to my July cruise. I'm actually booking a repeat NYC/Bahamas cruise for March on this ship that I loved.

[newtocruiseinblue]

How does msc compare to celebrity? I see you’ve done several celebrity cruises. Thank you and happy cruising! 

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

Did @JamieLogical have too many mimosa blossoms and forget to update us? 😜

[JamieLogical]

Sorry for getting my post about yesterday out so late. I didn't have time to finish typing it up this morning so wasn't able to post it until now that we are back onboard, fed, and recovered from our tenderization experience. Here you go!

 

Yesterday was Cruise Day!!! We woke up in the Baltic Hotel in Brooklyn. This was a very spartan hotel with few frills. There was a bed, a little table/desk attached to the wall, four hooks on the wall on which to hang jackets/coats, a senselessly tiny sink, and an enclosed bathroom with a shower that had no door and a toilet. It was fine for just sleeping for the night, but not exactly comfortable for spending an extended period of time in. The staff was nice. I had dealt with them over the phone a couple of times prior to arriving and they were very friendly at the desk when we checked in. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to answer the phone after 8:00pm or so? At least not external calls. I had tried calling them around 8:30 to warn them our flight was delayed and we wouldn’t be checking in until after midnight, but it just kept going straight to a busy signal. Another couple of unfortunate things from checking in were that our keycards didn’t initially work and once we were inside the room, we realized they had only provided one towel, so my husband had to go back down to the desk to ask for another towel when we were both just completely exhausted.

 

But, we made it through the night. Neither of us slept very well, but I don’t blame the hotel for that. The bed was perfectly comfortable and there were no weird noises or anything. I think we were both just overly tired, anxious about the day ahead, and in a strange place. We didn’t really fully wake up until after 8:00, which is SUPER late for us. The person at the front desk told us there would be coffee available in the lobby until 9:00, so my husband took a quick shower so he could go down and fetch us some coffee while I took my shower. The coffee was very strong and thick, but it was serviceable.

 

We got a hold of our friends who live in Brooklyn and with whom we intended to meet up for brunch. We agreed to meet up at their apartment at 10:00 so we could drop off our luggage and walk over to the diner down the street from them for food. We have never been to this diner because we had previously been warned that it was way overpriced and had terrible food. Well, it is now under new management and is now reasonably priced and the food is good, but the service is a bit slow. We didn’t mind the slow service as it gave us time to catch up with our friends without feeling rushed through the meal.

 

After brunch, we stopped back by the apartment to use the restroom and say goodbye to the world’s greatest and most lovable dog, and then our friend drove us to the cruise terminal. We arrived at the terminal at 12:15, handed our luggage to the porter, and hurried inside to get out of the rain.

 

The line for security was MUCH shorter than what I had experienced for my 4/9 sailing. I would say there were fewer than 20 people in the line once we wended our way through the rat maze ropes and actually made it up to the line to come to a stop. The line moved quickly and efficiently. We got through security and then went over to the line for check-in, which was also much shorter than I had experienced in April. Thank goodness SOMEONE was paying attention, because I managed to walk away from the security area and just leave my backpack on the x-ray conveyor! One of the security workers ran over to me in the check-in line and asked if I had left a big blue bag. I can’t believe I did that!!!

Check-in was quick. The main challenges were having to have our photos re-taken and having a little difficulty scanning our passports with the tablet. I don’t even know why they bother with letting you upload them in advance. I have had to have my photo retaken for all three of my MSC cruises now. Still, that didn’t slow us down much. Boarding had already started so we were straight on the ship after check-in. We were onboard at 12:38.

 

By this point, my husband was feeling migraine-y. He had dug out one of his migraine pills from his luggage before turning it over to the porter and once on board, we were in search of water for him to take it with. We went to the closest bar on Deck 5 where we boarded and aquired two bottles of water. We did run into one of the servers from the Egde bar from our April trip and she immediately recognized us by our morning drink order: Mimosa Blossom. We went up to deck 6 and found a spot for my husband to sit and drink his water while I went off to Ocean Cay to try to make a dinner reservation for Hola! At Ocean Cay, there was only one person ahead of me in line, so I thought it would be quick. Well, that one person was apparently making dinner reservations for every night of the cruise, as well as reservations for both Rock Circus and House of Houdini. She kept changing her mind about which night to do what, especially when factoring in the shows.

 

I finally got my turn and was in and out in about 2 minutes, since I was just making the one reservation. The people behind me in line seemed grateful! I made our reservation for Hola! For 6:30 and finally headed back to my husband, who was ready to move. We tried to go to Edge, but it was packed, so we headed up to the Champagne Bar which wasn’t. We discovered that the rumors were true. The half of the Champagne Bar seating that had included the Future Cruise desk and the library was now additional slot machines. Honestly, this seems like a better use of space, since the Champagne bar was not very popular and the library was just sad. If I remember correctly, it just contained a few puzzles that were likely missing pieces, some print out of word searches and crosswords, and maybe 5 books. I never saw anyone there. The Future Cruise desk has moved over to the side of the whip that has the actual Champagne bar, but doesn’t take up too much space.

 

My husband decided he needed something sweet, so we headed up to the buffet to try to get him a little dessert. The buffet was pandamonium. We could barely move through there, especially with my giant backpack on. I was worried I was going to accidentally kill someone by just turning around too quickly. He grabbed two tiny slices of some sort of cake-looking thing and then we tried to find a seat. That seemed completely hopeless until we got all the way forward on the starboard side were there are no food stations. There were a couple of empty tables there. We moved on as soon as he finished his snack, not wanting to take up precious table space when others were still trying to eat. I think the main issue was that with it being cold and rainy outside, there just weren’t a lot of indoor places for people to kill time before their rooms were ready. So people just kind of parked at the buffet after finishing their lunch. There were a LOT of people just sitting there, but no longer eating.

 

We headed back down to Deck 7 to see if we could scope out any good place to hang out until rooms were ready. From the overlook, we spotted an open table at Edge, so we rushed down to grab it. We intended or order drinks, but didn’t get any service before the announcement came on that rooms were ready. My husband was hoping to take a nap, so we went straight up to our room. I wrote up a note for our room steward asking for an extra towel, a washcloth, extra hangers, and to unlock and empty our room fridge. I left a $20 bill with the note and then left my husband to sleep.

I headed back down to Edge, which was much less crowded now that people could get into their rooms. I FINALLY had my first alcoholic beverage of the cruise, a Mojito. I also had a glass of water, because I am trying to be responsible. After my Mojito, it was time for some afternoon caffeine, so I had an Americano with Bailey’s. While I was drinking that, I was surprised to have my husband walk up and sit down next to me. Apparently, he couldn’t get to sleep. So he sat with me and had a Bailey’s Alexander in the hopes that would make him sleepy.

 

After we finished our drinks, we went back to the room because I had forgotten to put on my rebound patch. The new version of the Rebound Patches just plain suck. They are bulky, way too noticeable, and don’t stick well. I ended up giving up on mine partway through the day and just switching to an off-brand type we had gotten. I can’t wait for the Rebound “Classic” to become available so I can switch back.

 

While back at the room, there was still no sign of our room steward or any of our luggage, but I had the brilliant idea to put the Make Up Room switch on so they would be more likely to find my note. We then headed to the Meraviglia Lounge for another round of drinks.

 

Eventually, we ended up back at our room where the room steward had found my note and had provided the requested extra towels and washcloths (four even though I had specified one), and had cleared out our minifridge. The only things we were still missing were hangers. My husband’s main suitcase had arrived with his bundle of clothes in it, so he attempted to start unpacking that, but was hindered by the hanger shortage. Most of the hangers we DID have were the kind with clips, which are the ones I need for all of my cruise pants. So he used the hangers he could and meanwhile, I got to unpacking my backpack as best I could.

 

While we were unpacking those things, the room steward knocked and had the extra hangers with her. We introduced ourselves and I asked if we could have just a few more hangers. We had done the math and knew how many we needed and with the 7 she brought us, we were still going to be short. She came right back with more and at roughly the same time she came back twice with bags. Once with my bundle suitcase and our “big” shared suitcase, then shortly after with my husband’s backpack. We unpacked while all the muster announcements and video-watching were happening.

 

We finished our unpacking just before it was time to physically walk down to our muster station. It felt really good to have all that done! Muster was a mess, as usual. Fortunately, our room is on Deck 8 and muster station was on Deck 6, so we didn’t have to do too many flights of stairs. We were able to get down and back to our room pretty quickly and escape the crowds who were waiting for the elevators to come back on.

We hung out in our room for a while after muster and I finally put on my cruise uniform and felt properly cruisey. We had decided earlier that we would try to go to the future cruise desk, which opened at 6:00, before our reservation at 6:30. We were the first people there right as they opened and we quickly got booked for the April 18 sailing. Unfortunately, there were no Balcony Suites with Whirpools still available. We had really hoped to snag one of those. We also found out that we CAN book cruises for other people while onboard, so I may go back and try to book my parents for the 4/18 sailing later in the cruise.

 

We headed over to Hola! where we enjoyed a delicious meal. I got a Classic Margarita and my husband got one made with Mezcal. Both included in our Easy Plus package, since they were under $10. I got my beloved El Chapo bean & cheese dip along with a Chipotle Carnitas Taco. My husband decided to try the nachos, which we hadn’t done before. The “small” was alarmingly large. I would be scared to see how big the large is. He also got the Barbacoa taco. It was all way more than enough food and we left much of the El Chapo and Nachos uneaten. As we were signing our bill, I asked our server about Henry and found out he had disembarked just that day! I am devastated. I had brought him a couple of magnets from Rochester for his collection and had hoped to give them to him while onboard. I am happy he was able to go home and see his family, though. I’ll hang onto the magnets just in case I run into him again on a future sailing.

 

After dinner, we went up to the Sky Lounge, thinking that would be a good place to watch sailaway. Apparently, a lot of others had the same idea as it was more packed than I have ever seen it. We asked a couple if we could join them near the windows on the starboard side, since I figured that would have the best view as we spun around to head south. It did have the better view, but that view still wasn’t very good as it was rainy and foggy and there just wasn’t much to see. I was sad that we didn’t have better weather because we have only ever had one other nighttime sail away from NYC and it was beautiful. This time, everything was just smudgey and blurry.

 

We hung out at the Sky Lounge for a while and a band called Blue Note Trio set up and started playing. Jazz isn’t my thing, but it was pleasant enough. At least there was no saxophone! There was a female singer accompanied by a piano player and a bass guitarist. We decided to wander and see if we could find any music playing anywhere else onboard.

 

There was no one in the main atrium area on Deck 5 and Name that Tune was going on in the Meraviglia Lounge, which was packed. We checked the Daily and saw that there was some sort of performance going on in the Carousel Lounge called “Chris Clark in Concert” or something along those lines. We decided to check that out. When we got the Carousel Lounge, there was a sign in front that said “Rehearsal in progress. Do not enter.” I could hear a singer and an acoustic guitar and we decided to ignore the sign and go in anyway. There was a young man from South Africa performing on stage alone. He had just started “Yesterday” by the Beatles and was quite good. There were only a handful of other people, but there was an army of bar service people waiting to take drink orders. It seems they had been expecting a larger crowd. And I bet they would have had one if that sign weren’t outside. During a break, we went to tell them about the sign, but someone else had let them know and they took it down. Poor Chris. He was awesome and performing to an audience of about 12 people in a huge and really great venue!

 

We stayed until his second-to-last set when we decided we needed to get late-night snack before my husband crashed for the night. We needed to be sure to be at the buffet at 10:00 for when they put cookies out. The cookies of the day were shortbread, not my husband’s favorite, but he still grabbed a couple.

 

After I had a slice of pizza, I went down to the casino to pay my tithes. I played in the new annex area by the Champagne Bar. I lost my daily budget quickly, but at least there was no smoke. Then it was off to bed.

 

Day's Drinks:
Mojito from Edge
Americano w/ Bailey's from Edge
Mojito from Meraviglia Lounge
Classic Margarita from Hola!
Hugo Spritz from Sky Lounge 
Vodka Sour x2 from Carousel Lounge