MSC Meraviglia May 14 - 21-2023

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MSC Meraviglia 
May 14 - 21, 2023
Embarkation/Disembarkation Port: Brooklyn Terminal

We just completed a 7 Night Bahamas cruise. We have cruised numerous cruise lines and wanted to have  first-hand experience. I have read a lot of negative MSC reviews and I will tell you that we had a very positive overall experience. There were a few “hiccups” and I will discuss them in this review.

Let’s start with what was great:
Getting on the ship was very easy (once we went through check in - I will discuss that later)
The ship was beautiful and actually is what is represented on the website. The Swarovski staircases are absolutely stunning. 
The Central Promenade  has a LED sky screen that changes throughout the cruise. The “shows” last approximately 5 minutes and are listed in the daily planner. If you have ever been to Fremont Street in Las Vegas, then you will understand what the screen looks like. 
The shops are located here and, like all cruises, there are daily shopping specials.
There is a Jean Phillip chocolate cafe onboard and you can watch them make chocolate and, of course buy some. It was delicious.
The diverse makeup of passengers are one of my favorite things. I love meeting people from all over the world.
We were in a balcony stateroom and our stateroom attendant was fantastic and attentive. Our room was a little small and the furniture was a bit worn.
 There are not many outlets in the room. I always bring an adaptor so I would advise clients to do so.
The staff ensured that all areas of the ship was spotless.
This ship is excellent for families - plenty of activities for kids and families, both. I love that there is a family dining area in the buffet with “Kid Friendly” food options. There is a Sports Complex and for additional costs you can go bowling, enjoy a race car simulator, video arcades and other things.
There is a ropes course, water slides and a water park (these are complimentary). Plenty of seating in this area as well.
There are also children’s playrooms: Baby Club, Mini & Juniors, Young & Teens and a Lego Family Fun area.
Gym was a good size and overlooked the pool. It was used by many on most days.
Activities on board are typical of many cruise lines although I was impressed to see that they had Arts & Crafts on sea days. On our cruise, guests learned origami and made photo frames. 
There is plenty of seating on the deck areas (even on sea days!) We found there were great “quiet spaces” as well as being in the heart of the entertainment.
Pools are small but there are a number of pools throughout the ship. The solarium pool (Bamboo Pool) has a retractable roof. This was utilized during one of sea days as it poured rain!!!
The MSC App is excellent and doesn’t require an Internet Package. I purchased the 2 device package as I knew I would be working. The connectivity was great.
Onboard the ship there is a No Food or Beverage policy at the main pool (although on one sea day I noticed it wasn’t being enforced). I like this policy (I know some may not)
They also do not allow any food or drinks in the theatre during shows. I definitely like this because having bar staff walk in front of you while trying to watch a show is disruptive (again, some may not like this)
The staff onboard is friendly but not “over the top”. There is definitely a European feel on board.
Bar service was good overall but there were moments of inconsistency. 

Here’s what could be better:
Communication…when booking the cruise, it was very difficult to determine where in New York Meraviglia was sailing from as it is not stated on the website. When I called to inquire, the agent had to “GOOGLE” because she didn’t know either. 
I had her add round trip transfers (reasonably priced and I knew that they would get us to the right port! Online Check in was easy but when I didn’t receive any information about my documents being ready, I called to inquire. The original agent entered the transfer incorrectly. Once all was corrected, I could retrieve my documents.
Our transfer from the airport to the terminal was an adventure. The representative was all excited to tell us that he has been in “the business” for over seven years and is excellent at his job. I can assure you - he was not!!! He escorted us outside the terminal and told us our bus was on its way. There was already bus waiting and we asked if that was ours and he said that wasn’t. After 15 minutes, we were put on a bus and headed off. In speaking with the driver, I kept telling him that we were to go to Brooklyn and he said he had Manhattan but he would take us to Brooklyn. He received a call and told us he had to take us back so we could get on the right bus  UGH!!! (Thank goodness this wasn’t a client!!) Turned out, the original bus was already there.
At the terminal, it wasn’t very clear on where the porters were so we carried our luggage with us (I do pack light!)
We were given a 12:30 arrival time at the terminal but it didn’t matter as we all got in line to “wait”. The line moved quickly and we reached the desk. I think our agent was new - she was having technical difficulty getting our pictures and this went on for about 15 minutes…she finally asked for assistance. She also never gave us the required “group boarding number” or newsletter. (I didn’t know I needed this until were sitting amongst the crowd and heard them announce Now Boarding Group # 21). I went to the agent and asked how do we get a boarding group number and she said they must have run out but we will get on the ship…HMMM?  After a few minutes I went back to the desk and asked about this and was told I should have received it when I check in so they gave me a number…
One thing to note - in order to use your ship card as a credit card onboard, you must activate the card and link it to a credit card (there are machines located throughout the ship - although many were out of order). Guest Services was not too  accommodating with this as were were told to “go to the machine”.

Our disembarkation was easy until it came to the shuttle…we sat on the bus for over an hour and one passenger had a flight to catch so they told her to take a taxi and then file for a refund!!! It tool my husband and another passenger to convince the driver that we needed to be on our way.

Food:
Marketplace Buffet had a variety of food stations and the food was very good. 
Family & Kids, Mediterranean, Indian, British, Grill (although hamburgers and hot dogs are all ready made and ready to go), cold cuts and cheeses (the fresh mozzarella is excellent), pizza (probably the best pizza we had on a cruise) and, of course, desserts.
I did find the buffet are to be very chaotic and I found myself just grabbing things because I didn’t want to wait on long lines.
Outside dining area was a bit claustrophobic to me. Not a big open area.

The Main DiningRoom (WAVES) was a bit disappointing so we only ate there twice for dinner. We requested a table for 2 and, while it was a table for 2, we were so close to the other tables that it felt like we were in a school cafeteria. That I didn’t like at all. 
The menus can be view on the app.

Around the pool you could grab pizza and burgers and ice cream!!!
I purchased the Premium Beverage Package so I didn’t have to worry about a  price point.

I purchased the 3 meal dining package and we ate at Hola’s Tacos, Butcher’s Cut and Kaito Teppanyaki. The Premium Beverage Package works in the Specialty restaurants.

Holas! Tacos was excellent. They make fresh guacamole and the tortilla soup was probably the best I have ever had. 

The Butcher’s Cut Steak House was OK. I am not a meat eater so I had salmon and it was good but my husband likes steak and he said it was underwhelming. (I will always find food anywhere to be subjective)

The Teppanyaki was good. It is like most teppanyaki restaurants. One thing to note, that there is an additional upcharge for this restaurant and there were three different options to choose from (they are not very flexible with substitutions either).

There were very limited dining hours during the day for most places. The Main Dining Room was open for breakfast and lunch for about an hour. Otherwise, it was back to the buffet.

Bars:
We primarily stayed in the Sky Lounge (opened at 6 PM) and the Meravigia Lounge.
Both had an attentive staff (although it was sometimes a challenge to get wine in a proper glass. I am a white wine drinker, yet I was forever getting “fishbowls” as my glass. It took sone time before our waitstaff knew it was me and made every attempt to get the proper glass)

We stepped into the Brass Anchor Pub and didn’t stay. They only serve beer (I don’t drink beer) so my husband didn’t want to drink alone. There was not really a “vibe” in there and never seemed to be busy.

The Horizon Bar at the back of the ship felt very closed in. It also becomes the Attic Club in the evening. Went out one night and left - too crowded.
Not being a Champagne drinker, we did not visit the Champagne Bar.

Entertainment:
The bands that played in the various venues were great. 
We saw a comedian (Darryl Joyce) and he was a fantastic. We went to a few shows and they were good. You must make reservations for all shows and they will scan each guests’ card. Without reservations, you will wait in line to see if there is availability.

They show movies on the big screen at the pool. Movies are listed in the daily planner.

The Casino is quite large and very nice.. 

Their private island, Ocean Cay is beautiful. We stayed on the Bimini Beach side (beautiful crystal clear water).

The final show was absolutely fantastic; between the opera and them showcasing on the screen all of the MSC ship christenings, it was beautiful.

The island features bars, food trucks and shopping. The complimentary food trucks have the usual burgers, hot dogs and fries. There are also food truck that serve Lobster Rolls and calamari. These are extra charges. I got the Lobster roll and it was good (not over the top). The Beverage Package works on the island. 

They brag about the lighthouse and the evening show. The Lighthouse Bar has a very limited food menu (additional cost) and was a bit quiet - no vibe. As it is at the very end, I felt that there could have been a food truck closer and that the venue would have been a bit more lively. The evening show was nice (we watched it from our room).
They are at the island for the whole day so there is a lot of activities going on. 

Things to note:
There are formal nights and themed parties. Advise clients to pack accordingly. There is a dress code but I didn’t see it being enforced consistently. There are no ATM’s on board so be prepare to have cash on hand before boarding.  There are plenty of elevators and they were usually pretty quick

All in all, we truly enjoyed our time on MSC Meraviglia and I feel more confident on what the right clientele would be for this cruise.. We now are looking at sailing on the Seaside.