MSC Meraviglia's MDR "Best" Dinner Evenings

[AlmiranteChurruca]

Hello fellow CC members! Writing from Spain here. Not new to cruising (started back in 2010) but fully new to this site. Embarking next May on the MSC Meraviglia for an 8 night USA/Canada itinerary. Although I know pretty well how things on MSC ships work, I have a question somebody on this forum may be able to help me with. As Diamond member benefit we have a complimentary dinner which we intend to do at Butcher's Cut. We also would like to make an extra reservation to try Ocean Cay as well. I am well aware of the fact that making reservations for specialty dinners early after embarkation is strongly advised. Apart from these two specialty restaurants we intend to have dinner every other evening at the complimentary MDR (we are not buffet people). The thing is, we would not like to miss the "best" complimentary menus (e.g. gala/elegant night) if we have that very same evening booked at one of the specialty restaurants. So my question is, which evenings do you consider to be "a must" at the main dining room and which other two do you feel we could do without and therefore book at the specialty restaurants those days. Also would like to know if one the MDRs is open for lunch on embarkation day. On our last Xmas cruise on the World Europa they would always direct us to the buffet without any mention of the MDR being open. Since we have some experience, we headed directly to the MDR just to find it open and were seated without any issues and had a very relaxing meal away from the buffet mayhem. Wonder if this is just for European itineraries. Thanks in advance for your answers!

[Mediterranean_Honeymooner]

I’m sure it’s very subjective, but my personal favorites were Italian night and Caribbean night.

 

And MDR was not open for embarkation lunch on my May 2023 sailing from NY.

Edited January 18 by Mediterranean_Honeymooner

[buffet24]

I'm sure you will get more great ideas from others but here's an outside-the-box idea you might consider... and we did this for ourselves on Mera back in November...

 

We did the Sushi and Teppanyaki restaurants for two separate lunches instead of doing it as dinners.  They serve exactly the same menu at the same price for lunch as they would for dinner...  Good thing doing it this way is that we get to skip out on two buffet lunches while never missing out on any of the MDR dinners for the entire cruise... 

 

Look, you've already prepaid for MDR dinners... so why would you skip out on those!!!  Just a thought...🤷‍♂️😉

[pirate4me2]

I loved Italian night on my Seaside cruise last year, it was so good! I can't remember off the top of my head what night it was, I think it was one of the last nights onboard. It's probably in my review which night it was, but I am too lazy right now to go check lol. 

[JamieLogical]

When you go to make your dining reservations on embarkation day, the reservation staff should be able to let you know which night is Elegant/Gala night at least. If you want lobster, that is the one you should not miss. I agree that Italian Night is also usually very good, but it may be harder for you to find out which night that is from staff.

[AlmiranteChurruca]

4 hours ago, buffet24 said:

I'm sure you will get more great ideas from others but here's an outside-the-box idea you might consider... and we did this for ourselves on Mera back in November...

 

We did the Sushi and Teppanyaki restaurants for two separate lunches instead of doing it as dinners.  They serve exactly the same menu at the same price for lunch as they would for dinner...  Good thing doing it this way is that we get to skip out on two buffet lunches while never missing out on any of the MDR dinners for the entire cruise... 

 

Look, you've already prepaid for MDR dinners... so why would you skip out on those!!!  Just a thought...🤷‍♂️😉

 

Thank you very much for everybody's input. Buffet24's piece of advice is a really interesting one. IMO a very good alternative. Appreciate it! 

[oceans.calling]

On Meraviglia 7 nighters the last few times, Gala was the first sea day and Italian was the last night.