JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 10/25

[kruisingkitty]

On 10/31/2023 at 9:14 AM, JamieLogical said:

Yesterday was our port stop in Costa Maya. I decided pretty early on that I would not be getting off the ship

Jamie, May I ask if there was a particular reason why you didn't want to get off the ship here? I only ask because I will be at that port in about 2 and a half months, and wonder if there are safety concerns or you just simply had no interest in getting off the ship? I was interested in booking excursions in both the Mexico ports, but they have vanished for Costa Maya for the time being at least.

[joeyancho]

3 hours ago, kruisingkitty said:

Jamie, May I ask if there was a particular reason why you didn't want to get off the ship here? I only ask because I will be at that port in about 2 and a half months, and wonder if there are safety concerns or you just simply had no interest in getting off the ship? I was interested in booking excursions in both the Mexico ports, but they have vanished for Costa Maya for the time being at least.

Can't speak for Jamie but in my experience Costa Maya is as safe as any Mexican port.  Maybe even safer considering it is a rural part of the country. 

[gizfish]

Geez they really take Halloween seriously.  On the topic of desserts, keep an eye out for the chocolate pana cotta at the buffet.  It will look like a plain boring brown thing in a foil container.  Do not be fooled by its appearance.  It is delicious.  Generally I found the buffet desserts appearances deceptive.  They all looked like the usual tasteless things found on other cruise buffets but turned out to be quite yummy.

[JamieLogical]

13 hours ago, ecslady said:

@JamieLogical Now that you have settled into your solo balcony room for a few days, I'd like to know how you are finding it? Is the sofabed set up as a twin comfortable?  Do you have enough storage? How is the bathroom space and also the balcony space? Would you book it again?

 

The bed is the main issue still. It is not incredibly comfortable made up as a sofa. Fortunately, I am still "young and spry." I don't think I would be able to tolerate it if I were older and more inclined to aches and pains or mobility issues. The balcony is WONDERFUL and definitely makes the room worthwhile. The bathroom is also nice. As weird as the tub is, it is nice having the extra room when showering. I also haven't had a problem with storage space even with this being an 11-day, once I got extra hangers. I would say, besides the bed situation, the only complaint I have is that it is soooooo far from the "aft" elevators. It's 160 steps from my door to the closest elevator bank, which makes it pretty annoying to "run back to my room" to grab something or drop something off.

 

I would definitely book the room again, but I really wish they had one of the daybed-type beds that they have in the studio interiors. Those beds are slightly larger than twins, but not so large that they block the closet and mini-fridge. I have to assume they are more comfortable, since they are meant to permanently be made up as beds. I am not really clear why they didn't put those same beds into the studio balconies.

[JamieLogical]

12 hours ago, kruisingkitty said:

Jamie, May I ask if there was a particular reason why you didn't want to get off the ship here? I only ask because I will be at that port in about 2 and a half months, and wonder if there are safety concerns or you just simply had no interest in getting off the ship? I was interested in booking excursions in both the Mexico ports, but they have vanished for Costa Maya for the time being at least.

 

No no. I am just lazy and hate the sun and the heat. Unless I have an excursion or some plan for these Caribbean ports or it is a port that I have never been to and I just want to be able to say aI was there, I always stay on the ship.

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was supposed to be our port stop at Ocean Cay, MSC’s private island. I had rented a cabana to share with my solo crew and was very much looking forward to it. We had arranged to meet at Edge at 9:00  to go off the ship together, because we learned on our last sailing in April that you don’t find out your cabana number until you check in at the cabana desk on the island and many people have difficulty with the island wifi, so it is tough to communicate if you are split up on the island.

 

I received my room service breakfast at 7:15 and was working on typing up my blog when I saw a text from Ray that it was going to be another sea day. I was very confused, but it turned out that I had missed the announcement since I was out on my balcony with the door closed. Due to the impending weather, the captain had decided to skip Ocean Cay altogether and head straight for Miami. I saw no evidence of this weather all day, but apparently several other cruise lines skipped their private islands as well.

 

Now that we had another sea day, I decided to take my time getting showered and out of my room. I poked my phone for a while and just enjoyed the wake of the ship. We had slowed way down at this point, so the wake was fairly small.

 

Eventually, I got showered and dressed and made my way down to Edge for my mimosa blossoms. Ray had already gone to the spa and Cheree had gone back to bed after breakfast in the MDR, so I was there on my own for a while. At some point, while I was working on my second mimosa blossom and feeling especially drunk already, I realized I had forgotten to eat the pastry with my room service breakfast, so I was drinking on a completely empty stomach. I decided to head up to the buffet for some sort of snack.

 

It was during the transition from breakfast to lunch, so only the back section of the buffet was still open and the pickings were slim. I mostly just ended up eating a few slices of cheese.

 

After my snack, I went back down to Edge and met up with Cheree. Ray joined us shortly after and we discussed lunch plans. Since it had been supposed to be a port day, the Panorama did not have a menu posted, though they did update their hours to show that lunch would be served there in the app. Ray was going to meet one of her YC friends at the YC restaurant. Cheree and I decided to do sushi.

 

We had no trouble getting a table and I got a samurai roll and the macha tea ice cream. It was very good as usual. Unfortunately, Ray came back partway through our meal. She had been unable to get into the YC because it was a sea day, which makes sense, but was still a disappointment for her. You have got to think that on a sea day, pretty much every seat in the restaurant is taken for lunch, whereas on a port day, it is emptier and guests are welcome. We were almost done eating already by the time she stopped by, though, so it was too late her to join us.

 

After lunch, it was nap time and I napped pretty hard. I didn’t get up until after 4:00 and then I headed down to the Edge for some coffee. Before I even got my order in, Ed showed up so we ordered coffee together. We had reservations for our Diamond dinner in Butcher’s Cut. Ray had decided to join us and just pay out of pocket. So after our coffee, Ed went up to get changed while I stayed and enjoyed a drink with Cheree. Once everyone was back at Edge, we chatted about what we might do in Miami. No one really committed to anything. Ray had gone up to shower and change and wasn’t back by the time Ed and I felt we needed to check in for dinner. We decided on a table inside the restaurant and were looking over the menus when Ray arrived. I got the Bee’s Knees to drink. I told both of them they really needed to try the baked goat cheese. Ed ordered it, but Ray decided to just have some of mine and ordered the deviled eggs. I asked if it would be okay for me to skip steak and just have multiple appetizers with my dining credit and the waiter said yes, so I got the baked goat cheese, tomato soup, and deviled eggs, along with the chocolate peanut butter cookie for dessert. The soup came with a whole grilled cheese sandwich, so I am not really sure how that qualified as an appetizer!

 

We all loved our food and we had a really nice chat about how lucky we all are to have met each other and to get along so well. We are definitely a strange group, but we have a strong bond. Ray’s son, who was in Miami a couple of weeks ago, put together an entire itinerary for her with times on it and everything! I am not sure we will do everything on the list, but I may try to do some of it.

 

After dinner, we rushed down to the Carousel Lounge to see the comic perform his “PG-13” set. The place was PACKED. I have never seen Carousel Lounge full before. I have attended both Rock Circus and House of Houdini in there, plus a couple of musical performances, a different comedy show, and the Diamond party. None of those even came close to packing the house. But Ray and I had a hard time even finding seats! The show was funny and there wasn’t much adult content in there, thankfully, because a lot of parents still brought their children despite the PG-13 warning.

 

We received instructions in our rooms about the immigration procedure. I predict a huge cluster. Everyone needs to be OFF THE SHIP by 9:30, whether they intend to go into Miami or not. Then no one is allowed back on the ship until everyone has cleared customs. So basically, it’s like a normal disembarkation day with no one actually disembarking. I was surprised they are making us go down into the terminal. I liked how they did it in Portland on my September cruise better. On that sailing, they had customs and border patrol agents come onboard, set up the facial recognition scanners in the Carousel Lounge, and made everyone go through those before they let anyone off the ship. At least with that method, people who wanted to stay on the ship didn’t have to physically disembark! I will let you know how that all goes when I post tomorrow.

 

Day's Drinks:

Double Mimosa Blossom x1.5 from Edge

Vodka and Ginger Ale x2 from Edge

Americano w/ Bailey's from Edge

Hugo Spritz from Edge

Blueberry Lavender Sparkler from Champagne Bar

Vodka Ginger Ale from Edge

Blind Russian from Edge

Bee's Knees from Butcher’s Cut

Edited November 2, 2023 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by JamieLogical

[buffet24]

38 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

the only complaint I have is that it is soooooo far from the "aft" elevators. It's 160 steps from my door to the closest elevator bank, which makes it pretty annoying to "run back to my room" to grab something or drop something off.

 

There are two elevator stacks (Marked in RED)... one in the front and then the other one.... But it's hilarious MSC would call that an "Aft" elevator.... It's definitely more like a "Central" Elevator... with nothing in her back end...  😜

 

(Thanks for the steps... now I know our cabin will be about 80 steps from the "Central" elevators... 👍😁👍)

[buffet24]

56 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Everyone needs to be OFF THE SHIP by 9:30, whether they intend to go into Miami or not. Then no one is allowed back on the ship until everyone has cleared customs.

This, I did not expect at all... so thank you for the heads-up on this...  We were planning to sleep in on our Miami arrival but I guess not... 🤷‍♂️

[JamieLogical]

6 minutes ago, buffet24 said:

This, I did not expect at all... so thank you for the heads-up on this...  We were planning to sleep in on our Miami arrival but I guess not... 🤷‍♂️

 

It's because we visited a foreign port before visiting a US port. We weren't supposed to even stop in Miami. It was a similar situation on my September CA & NE cruise because we went to Saint John and then back to Portland, ME.

[buffet24]

7 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

It's because we visited a foreign port before visiting a US port. We weren't supposed to even stop in Miami. It was a similar situation on my September CA & NE cruise because we went to Saint John and then back to Portland, ME.

Ahh good point!   So we may not have to do this in Miami since it's our first port after leaving NYC...

 

For you, I suppose you may not have to go through this again in NYC on Sunday morning?  Saving a few minutes of your time...

[JAGR]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

Unfortunately, Ray came back partway through our meal. She had been unable to get into the YC because it was a sea day, which makes sense, but was still a disappointment for her. You have got to think that on a sea day, pretty much every seat in the restaurant is taken for lunch, whereas on a port day, it is emptier and guests are welcome. We were almost done eating already by the time she stopped by, though, so it was too late her to join us.

 

True, except when the port day is Ocean Cay, the YC dining room is closed.  Only the buffet/grill on the sun deck is open for meal service.

Edited November 2, 2023 by JAGR

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, buffet24 said:

Ahh good point!   So we may not have to do this in Miami since it's our first port after leaving NYC...

 

For you, I suppose you may not have to go through this again in NYC on Sunday morning?  Saving a few minutes of your time...

 

Right, if Miami is your first port stop, you won't have to do this. You can go from one US port to another without going through immigration. It only becomes an issue if you visit a foreign port in between. For example, our first port stop out of NYC was Port Canaveral and that was a non-issue. You are correct that we should not have to go through immigration again in NYC, but with facial recognition in NYC, it never takes more than a few seconds anyway. So it won't save us much time there, but here it is taking forever, because it is so chaotic.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

13 hours ago, kruisingkitty said:

I was interested in booking excursions in both the Mexico ports, but they have vanished for Costa Maya for the time being at least.

we love going to the beach in Costa Maya. It's safe and cheap.

 

People who cruise a lot sometimes choose not to do anything in a port they've been to many times before, but we don't cruise often and LOVE going to the beach in every port, unless there is a particularly fun non-beach excursion available.

[ajoneen]

looking forward to your adventures in Miami! 

I still have no idea what I'm going to do there. If you could post Ray's son's suggestions that would be great. TIA

[JamieLogical]

55 minutes ago, ajoneen said:

looking forward to your adventures in Miami! 

I still have no idea what I'm going to do there. If you could post Ray's son's suggestions that would be great. TIA

 

This is the itinerary he put together for her:

 

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

Little Havana and Wynwood Walls are definitely worth exploring. We also did South Beach.

[Mark_T]

8 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

This is the itinerary he put together for her:

Thanks, I may borrow that as we will arrive a couple of days before our Feb cruise out of Miami.

 

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

Thanks, I may borrow that as we will arrive a couple of days before our Feb cruise out of Miami.

 

Perhaps a good thing for you would be the hop on/hop off bus. You can get a one or two day pass. It's a great way to see Miami!

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Jamie, it is probably somewhere already, but what is in a mimosa blossom?

[JamieLogical]

9 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Jamie, it is probably somewhere already, but what is in a mimosa blossom?

 

Galliano, Absolut Mango, Orange Juice, and Prosecco.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Galliano, Absolut Mango, Orange Juice, and Prosecco.

Oooh. Wow. Nice

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Oooh. Wow. Nice

They are the "Long Island Iced Tea" of mimosas, so exercise caution.

[buffet24]

Hi Jamie,

Back to the question for WiFi access...  How do they give you the sign-on code?  Do they give you a slip of paper with all the codes (one per device purchased) listed?   And I assume they will give this to you when you check-in at Brooklyn?

[cruisebeachgirl703]

2 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

They are the "Long Island Iced Tea" of mimosas, so exercise caution.

Got it!