JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 9/24

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamieLogical]

Okay, finally got the Dailies posted. Sorry I had to break them up into separate posts, but I was having a really hard time getting them to load in order otherwise.

[buffet24]

9 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I believe that if you do a dining package, you can only do Butcher's Cut once and Teppanyaki is an additional $10 charge. We did a 3-meal package on our first MSC sailing and used it a Butcher's Cut, Ocean Cay, and Teppenyaki. They were all good, though Teppanyaki was WAY too much food. At Butcher's Cut and Ocean Cay, we were limited to one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert from their "tastings menus," which was plenty of selection for us. If you want something off the a la carte menu in place of a tastings menu item, you get a 50% discount from the a la carte price.

Many thanks for your reply Jamie! 

Quick follow up... so for our cruise as shown in the picture below, the 3 dining package doesn't list Teppanyaki as a choice... but do you mean we can skip the HOLA and go to Teppanyaki instead? (of course, we will have to pay the $10pp upcharge)  Thank you again!

 

[JamieLogical]

20 minutes ago, buffet24 said:

Many thanks for your reply Jamie! 

Quick follow up... so for our cruise as shown in the picture below, the 3 dining package doesn't list Teppanyaki as a choice... but do you mean we can skip the HOLA and go to Teppanyaki instead? (of course, we will have to pay the $10pp upcharge)  Thank you again!

 

 

Hmm... looks like maybe they changed it from when I had it on my April sailing? At that time, we could use the credits at any specialty restaurants with the caveats being you could only do Butcher's Cut once and Teppanyaki was a $10 upcharge.

[gizfish]

2 hours ago, buffet24 said:

Many thanks for your reply Jamie! 

Quick follow up... so for our cruise as shown in the picture below, the 3 dining package doesn't list Teppanyaki as a choice... but do you mean we can skip the HOLA and go to Teppanyaki instead? (of course, we will have to pay the $10pp upcharge)  Thank you again!

 

This offer is also different from what was available to us just three weeks ago.  The dining packages we could purchase were the pick what you want with the Butchers Cut one time limit and the $10 upcharge for Teppanki.  It's also odd that this package and the other package that says what specific restaurants it is for has the UK spellings for certain words when I am assuming you would be accessing the USA site.  I highly doubt any substitutions would be allowed when the plans are so specific. Also, before you buy, make sure you look at the dining experience menus for each restaurant as they are quite restrictive.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Jamie,

Sounds and looks like you enjoyed yourselves. Did you find you missed the hot tub on the balcony? Worth the extra $?.

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Jamie,

Sounds and looks like you enjoyed yourselves. Did you find you missed the hot tub on the balcony? Worth the extra $?.

 

With the cold weather, it's hard to say whether I would have gotten as much use out of it as on our April cruise, but we bid nearly the max for an upgrade and were disappointed our bid was rejected. I really really really loved that hot tub. We were also disappointed to learn that here are no Whirlpool Suites left on the sailing we booked for NEXT April while onboard, as we had every intention of booking one.

[JamieLogical]

10 hours ago, buffet24 said:

Many thanks for your reply Jamie! 

Quick follow up... so for our cruise as shown in the picture below, the 3 dining package doesn't list Teppanyaki as a choice... but do you mean we can skip the HOLA and go to Teppanyaki instead? (of course, we will have to pay the $10pp upcharge)  Thank you again!

 

 

I just looked at the Specialty Dining available for my 10/25 cruise and I am now seeing the same thing. It appears the three-meal plan includes Butcher's Cut, Ocean Cay, and Hola! only. The four-meal plan adds Kaito Sushi. And the five-meal plan adds Teppanyaki.

 

That's definitely different terms than what it was when I had the three-meal plan back in April.

[buffet24]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I just looked at the Specialty Dining available for my 10/25 cruise and I am now seeing the same thing. It appears the three-meal plan includes Butcher's Cut, Ocean Cay, and Hola! only. The four-meal plan adds Kaito Sushi. And the five-meal plan adds Teppanyaki.

 

That's definitely different terms than what it was when I had the three-meal plan back in April.

OK Thanks Jamie.  so it looks like they did change the terms...  So how does it work if we skip these dining plans and simply want to go to the Teppanyaki on our own?  How much is the upcharge and the meals...  Do you recall how that works out?

[buffet24]

10 hours ago, gizfish said:

Also, before you buy, make sure you look at the dining experience menus for each restaurant as they are quite restrictive.

Hi there, do you know where I can find the specialty dining menus???  PDF menus in the MSC App is completely broken.. 🤷‍♀️

[JAGR]

17 minutes ago, buffet24 said:

Hi there, do you know where I can find the specialty dining menus???  PDF menus in the MSC App is completely broken.. 🤷‍♀️

Some caveats:  This is more information than what you want (more a detail of a lot of available things), and it is limited a bit to Meraviglia (other ships may have one or two extra restaurants). Start at about page 38:  https://www.cruisehabit.com/daily-programs-menus/meraviglia-msc-cruises-msc-meraviglia-bar-restaurant-menus-2021-08-20-000000

[buffet24]

54 minutes ago, JAGR said:

Some caveats:  This is more information than what you want (more a detail of a lot of available things), and it is limited a bit to Meraviglia (other ships may have one or two extra restaurants). Start at about page 38:  https://www.cruisehabit.com/daily-programs-menus/meraviglia-msc-cruises-msc-meraviglia-bar-restaurant-menus-2021-08-20-000000

Thank you JAGR!!!  And my god... do you think they have enough drinks on their menus???  😁

[cruisebeachgirl703]

5 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

With the cold weather, it's hard to say whether I would have gotten as much use out of it as on our April cruise, but we bid nearly the max for an upgrade and were disappointed our bid was rejected. I really really really loved that hot tub. We were also disappointed to learn that here are no Whirlpool Suites left on the sailing we booked for NEXT April while onboard, as we had every intention of booking one.

Jamie, how does the fare for April 2024 compare with the fare you paid April 2023?

[Kim_KS]

17 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Okay, finally got the Dailies posted. Sorry I had to break them up into separate posts, but I was having a really hard time getting them to load in order otherwise.

Thank you so much!

[JamieLogical]

3 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Jamie, how does the fare for April 2024 compare with the fare you paid April 2023?

 

Well, it's a little apples to oranges. Our sailing in April 23 was a 12-day repositioning cruise. Our sailing for April 25 is a 10-day closed circuit from NYC. In April 23, we were in an Aurea Whirlpool Balcony Suite and for our April 24 sailing, we are just in a Fantastica Balcony. The April 23 cruise was $2,171.68 more total. I believe that, had we managed to book a Whirlpool Suite before they sold out, the price would have been pretty close to the same, so higher per day for the April 24 sailing.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

12 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Well, it's a little apples to oranges. Our sailing in April 23 was a 12-day repositioning cruise. Our sailing for April 25 is a 10-day closed circuit from NYC. In April 23, we were in an Aurea Whirlpool Balcony Suite and for our April 24 sailing, we are just in a Fantastica Balcony. The April 23 cruise was $2,171.68 more total. I believe that, had we managed to book a Whirlpool Suite before they sold out, the price would have been pretty close to the same, so higher per day for the April 24 sailing.

Thanks. Just trying to see if MSC is figuring out people are booking and have started to increase. Not a complaint because I believe the product is a good value. Thanks for your all of your insight. 

[Hunter2]

On 9/11/2023 at 6:28 PM, Slyfox16 said:

Looking forward to hearing about your upgrade bid. We are on the 10/25 sailing of the Meraviglia and the upgrade for the whirlpool balcony suite is almost 1/2 of what our BL3 balcony is, including the drink package.

Do you have to get an email to bid on an upgrade or is there another way to do it?

[Hunter2]

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.

How do you put in for an upgrade bid?

 

[Essiesmom]

You get an email.  EM

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Hunter2 said:

How do you put in for an upgrade bid?

 

 

I received an email inviting me to bid.

[buffet24]

On 10/8/2023 at 5:22 PM, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Just trying to see if MSC is figuring out people are booking and have started to increase.  

definitely their Dining Packages have increased in price in just a few months time...  I firmly believe this trend will continue with MSC as they gain more market share...

[Terry in NJ]

Hi Jamie.  Loved following this sailing’s blog, I already put your next one with your solo friends into my calendar! (I’m sailing solo on 11-13 to Bermuda so want to see more tips.)

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. Lots of fun to follow!