We sailed on the MSC Meraviglia for a 5 night cruise the week prior to Christmas 2022 (debarkation was on December 23rd). The ship was at full capacity.
I wasn't too sure as to what to expect other than it being a European cruise line. What exactly that meant, I did not know. My first cruise was on Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) when it was still traditional cruising, and every cruise since has been on Carnival so that's what I know and am used to. With that being said, I went onboard the Meraviglia with a very open mind.
Embarkation Process:
Lets start with the embarkation process. When we sailed, the Meraviglia was at Port Canaveral (Orlando). When you arrive at the terminal, after dropping off any checked luggage with the porters, you must go upstairs. Being that I had the girls in a stroller, I was lucky enough to be directed to a small line for an elevator. Everyone else was lined up in a super long line that wrapped around the building to enter.
Once upstairs, there are 3 lines. One for Yacht Club and other VIPs. One line for those arriving within their check-in time and another line for those arriving outside their check-in time. They don't actually check your boarding pass for your check-in time. We were told to go into the line for arriving outside our check-in time despite the fact that we were indeed still within our time. This line weaves back and forth until you get to an agent while the within check-in time line is a straight line along the perimeter. When we got to the middle, I was a bit upset and thought we entered the longer line. Although physically it is a longer line, it actually moves along much quicker as there are 3 agents compared to the 1 agent for the arrived on-time line. Once they verify your travel documents you then go thru security and into the terminal.
Inside the terminal, you'll enter another line and wait for your turn to check-in. At the check-in counter, you again present your travel documents and then they take a picture of each person prior to retrieving your cruise card and boarding zone sign. We had a boarding zone 11 however they were calling zone 24 so we went straight to the line to get on the ship. An extremely rude woman stopped us and said that they were boarding zone 24 so we could not enter. When I showed her our zone 11 sign she said that we missed our time to board and we need to wait. Of the 20 cruises prior to this one, not once have I ever heard or seen such a thing! Of course you do not let later boarding zones enter, but any prior number has the right to board. Once zone 24 concluded and zone 25 was called, I tried to board and once again she tried to not let me board. There were several other passengers who were standing around as well waiting for this woman to let them know when it was ok to board. I entertained her for maybe 10 minutes then told her we were boarding and walked past her. The other passengers followed us. It took just under 1 hour from the time we arrived to the port to the time we stepped onboard the ship.
The Ship:
Now lets talk about the ship. The Meraviglia is absolutely beautiful! The upkeep of the ship's public areas is outstanding. You would think it's a brand new ship. You enter into the Infinity Atrium which features several Swarovski crystal staircases that connect the three main decks of the interior public spaces (decks 5-7).
Deck 5 features the lobby area with a bar, reception and excursion desk. One of the main dining rooms is down the hall. Up one level takes you to another bar, the shops, photo gallery, 3 main dining rooms, the Galleria Meraviglia which features additional shops, some specialty restaurants, the theatre bar & lounge, and then the Broadway Theatre.
This is where you'll find the electronic Dome ceiling which projects different scenes and has special 2-5 minute shows several times a day.
Going up one more floor to deck 7, you'll find the Champagne Bar, the spa, casino, and the Carousel Lounge at the aft of the ship.
The majority of the specialty restaurants are also found on deck 7.
Decks 8-14 are cabin decks. Deck 15 has Yacht Club cabins, the Bamboo Pool featuring a retractable roof, two hot tubs, solarium, Atmosphere Pool (main and largest pool) with day beds on the pool deck and large screen TV, and the Marketplace Buffet.
Between the Atmosphere Pool and the entrance to the Marketplace Buffet is where you'll find Ice Cream and Pizza. Both pools and the buffet have their own dedicated bars which makes long lines non existent. I found that the Bamboo Bar had the best system in place.
They would make you line up along the length of the bar and each person would get to order when they got to the end where the register is located. Then you would step aside and wait for your order. Similar to ordering coffee at Starbucks. The Atmosphere bar has stools so people were often sitting at the bar and then you would have to walk up and wait to be noticed to place your order. The Marketplace Buffet Bar was very limited in selections. Mostly waters, soda, wine and juice. If you wanted frozen drinks or liquor, you're better off finding another bar.
As you enter the Marketplace Buffet you'll find several sink stations on both sides so that you can wash your hands prior to entering the buffet. The crew would direct you to them on the first day but then I never saw them again after that.
The ship as a whole appears to be very clean aside from the Marketplace Buffet area. I'm used to being on Carnival ships where a crew member is clearing your table (sometimes before you're done eating) and as my dad jokes, "spraying you in the face" as they're cleaning and sanitizing the table. It was like this pre-covid and is the same now. I did not experience this on the MSC Meraviglia. We ate at the buffet for breakfast and lunch every day and each time we sat at a table it was dirty. Spilled drinks, sauce, food... The only time I would see crew members cleaning the tables was when it would empty out and they would close sections off to clean everything at once. There's plenty of seating in the Marketplace Buffet. We never had a problem finding a table to sit at. There's also a small section at the aft of the ship with tables outside.
Deck 16 features the 2nd level of the Yacht Club, the Walking Track, gym, video arcade, Sportplex which is an indoor basketball court/soccer field, F1 Simulator, 4D cinema, flight/roller coaster simulator, sports bar, two bowling lanes, and then the adult-only Horizon Pool at the aft of the ship.
We purchased two FunPasses prior to the cruise which I regret doing. I paid $80 for $140 of credits (x2). We still had about $80 left on one and the second pass wasn't even used. So really I lost quite a bit of money. The reasons being:
We only got a chance to go bowling once. You can only reserve it the day prior. We got to do it once in the beginning and then were never able to get a reservation again as it was always fully booked.
The F1 Simulator, Flight Simulator and 4D Cinema can only be reserved the day of and many times had very long waits.
The arcade was not what we were expecting. When I think arcade, I think lots of games where you win tickets that can be redeemed for prizes. Instead it was more riding games, shooting games, air hockey, etc. So we never went there. It's also not very big and was always super crowded.
My son did the roller coaster simulator several times (flight simulator would have required a adult with him and I couldn't leave the girls alone). He did easy, medium and hard and had so much fun! There's a "panic" button inside so if you ever feel too scared or like you're going to get sick, you can push it and end your ride early. I did the F1 Simulator once. Boy was it hard!!! I never even made it around one lap! 🤣
Deck 18 features the third level of the Yacht Club, the Sky Lounge, children's clubs and then a sundeck and Horizon Bar at the aft. The Sky Lounge is a posh lounge over looking the main pool. At times there was live music. I really wanted to come enjoy a drink here but I wasn't super sure if it were adult only. There's a sign indicating alcohol is for passengers 21 years and older and I never saw any children here so it kind of led me to thinking it were adult only.
Deck 19 features the final level of the Yacht Club and then on the aft of the ship you'll find the water park, rope bridge course and the Top 19 Exclusive Solarium (aka small sectioned off sun deck) which is for Aurea guests.
Although this is a large ship with a high guest capacity, it's very easy to navigate and didn't feel very crowded most of the time. The buffet, theater and dining rooms were the only areas where I experienced long lines to enter an area.
Fun fact: There are 2 scenic view elevators located mid-ship. Our stateroom was close by so we used them quite a bit, however the wait can be quite lengthy! During the day you get a beautiful view of outside from within the elevator as it has glass walls.
Each elevator lobby had a different style. Some even had a posh lounge area! The maps found by each elevator lobby were quite detailed and helped tremendously.
Muster Drill:
The muster drill on the MSC Meraviglia was a bit different than what I've experienced both pre and post-covid. Around 4:30pm an announcement was made that every passenger was to report back to their cabin. Once there, they needed to turn on a specific channel on their TV and watch the muster drill video (on loop). Once the video finishes, they made another announcement asking you to dial a number from your cabin phone to confirm that you've watched the video. Then, they start calling passengers staying in cabins on particular decks to proceed to their muster station. You then have to go to your station and scan your card. As you can imagine, it got quite crowded!
App:
The MSC for Me app is where you can make reservations for the Broadway Theater shows, can view the daily activities, check the weather, view the photos you took, etc. I found it slightly hard to navigate. For example, often times I wanted to see what time breakfast or lunch stopped being served in the buffet but I couldn't seem to figure out where to get that information. I absolutely loved the weather feature! Booking theatre shows was convenient but you couldn't do it from the daily activity screen which meant we missed a show one night because I thought adding it to my agenda was enough. I also found that the app seems to be missing quite a bit of daily activities on it. One day I got a hold of a paper agenda and there was SO much more on there than what I could see on the app.
Theater Shows:
We only got the chance to see one of the shows in the Broadway Theater as I accidently didn't make a reservation one evening. As previously mentioned, adding a show to your agenda in the app does not actually reserve your spot. You have to make a proper reservation either thru the app or at one of the MSC for Me Kiosks around the ship. You have up to 5 minutes prior to a show to make your reservation. When you arrive at the theater, they will scan your card to make sure that you do indeed have a reservation. If not, they will not let you enter.
The one show we attended was titled "One More Day" which was a compilation of various Broadway musical numbers. We found it entertaining but many people walked out about half way through or complained about it on Facebook afterwards. I'm not really sure what they were expecting? If you're looking for something more entertaining with acrobatic acts, magic and singing, definitely check out the Carousel Lounge!
Carousel Lounge:
The Carousel Lounge features two Circle de Soleil type shows: Houdini and Rock Circus. You can purchase tickets ahead of time for $12 per person, otherwise, they are $18 onboard. Purchasing a ticket ahead of time does not reserve your seat. You'll still need to make a reservation onboard regarding the day and time of your show. Your ticket price includes one specialty drink. They have 3 available to choose from; 2 alcoholic and 1 non-alcoholic. The selection was different when we went to the Houdini vs Rock Circus show. All were delicious though!
I highly recommend going to both shows! We sat in the upper level with tables and I found these seats great as we had a great view of the entire stage. I've heard some complaints about sitting in the main seating area and not being able to see everything that's happening.
Onboard Activities:
As previously mentioned, I'm used to Carnival therefore I'm used to there being SO many activities scheduled throughout the day, especially on Sea Days. I found the offerings lacking on the MSC Meraviglia. Via the app, what I could see was bingo at the main pool, dance class at the main pool and "games" at the main pool, whatever that may mean. The last evening of the cruise I was talking to a crew member that is part of the entertainment team and when I mentioned there's nothing going on during the days he was so upset and said that he's out there 4+ hours a day with the entertainment team. So perhaps there IS entertainment but the app is not communicating the fact very effectively.
The Galleria became very lively at night with music, lights and dancing.
If you're into gambling, there's a beautiful casino onboard, however it's not very big. It doesn't look like this ship attracts many gamblers however as it was mostly empty any time I tried my luck at the slot machines.
Shopping:
I was quite impressed with the retail onboard. There's an MSC shop (with many LEGO products), Swarovski, a jewelry shop featuring mostly Effy, a boutique with clothing, shoes and high end accessories (Gucci, for example), and then your standard shops with sunglasses, bags, liquor, conveniences, etc. There's also a Jean Phillpe chocolate shop with really neat chocolate sculptures!
Internet (Wi-Fi):
I got the basic internet package and it was amazing!! I thought I would only get access to social media apps but I had full access to the internet with my Chrome app. This came in super handy as there was a winter storm that was going to hit the day we were to fly back home. I ended up changing my flight, booking a hotel and rental car while onboard with ease. It's not the fastest connection but nonetheless I WAS connected. A total win in my book!
Drink Package:
I got the Easy Plus drink package (and minor package for my son) and it was absolutely worth it! The Easy Plus gets you any drink up to $9 which was basically everything except top shelf selections. It's super easy to use and there are no drink or time limitations. I would walk up to a bar and get 4 drinks at a time with no issues whatsoever (alcoholic and non). I'm a big margarita drinker but the lower quality tequilas give me a migraine. I noticed they had 1800 tequila so I would often order a margarita with 1800. It would ring up as a $9 margarita and an $8.50 shot of 1800. So without the drink package, my margarita would cost $17.50. We absolutely saved money by going with MSC's drink package. Also at dinner, they would pour bottled water into our cups (without asking) and then would bring us a full bottle of water to take with us. Those without the drink package did not experience this.
Food:
The buffet was mostly a selection of healthy foods, with some meat selection and then pizza, hot dogs, burgers and fries. Lunch and dinner was the exact same menu, every single day. There was no variety. There's also a family buffet section at the very beginning if you enter the buffet going to the right of the pizza counter. Again, the food selection here was the same for lunch and dinner for the entire cruise. Breakfast was the same each day as well with more of a European selection and then pancakes (which were constantly running out and people would form a huge line waiting for the next batch).
There are no buffet line separations, instead you have station after station after station of food. The idea is for you to walk up and grab what you want and walk away. However, I feel that Americans are more used to buffet lines where you start at one end, and check the entire selection grabbing what you want along the way, then exit on the other side. This mentality and the lack of a crowd control system caused these massive lines. If you arrived at the right time, you'd be able to simply walk up and grab whatever it is you wanted. Otherwise, you'd have to join the long line and walk past every item you didn't want to eventually get to the food that you're interested in. This caused quite some conflict between passengers at times when someone didn't choose to join the long line and tried to cut in to grab something.
The crew also contributed to the long lines as they would often shut down one side and send everybody to the other side to get food. So instead of having 3 areas with the same selections, everybody would be sent to 1 area at the same time. Going from 3 lanes to 1 lane is never great for vehicle traffic control; I'm not sure who thought it would be a good idea to implement such a system with hungry humans... 😅
There are 3 main dining rooms for Bella and Fantastica guests. You are assigned to one dining room and are to dine at a dedicated time. There is a 15 minute grace period. If you do not arrive within 15 minutes of your assigned time, you'll be turned away. They actually shut the doors to the dining rooms so you cannot enter. There is staff waiting at the door that will turn you away.
Aurea guests get to eat any time they want and so do Yacht club guests. The Yacht club also has its own restaurant. I'm not 100% sure but my guess is that if a Yacht club guest wished to dine in the main dining room, they would join the Aurea guests' dining room. (If you know the answer to this, please comment below!)
We were assigned to the L'Olive Doree restaurant for 6:30pm dining. I can't speak for the Waves or Panorama Restaurants, but ours (and L'Olive D'Oro) was extremely loud at times. I believe it was due to the dining room not being very big. In terms of food, I found the selections lacking. I'm used to finding 2-3 appetizers that I want and often a tie between 2 entrees that I need to choose between on Carnival. It was almost hard to select just 1 appetizer and entree on the MSC Meraviglia. There was nothing that I ate that I found absolutely delicious. It was all edible, but I didn't find it equal to what I normally eat on Carnival. I did later find out that there was a staffing issue and most of the crew were new so it could be due to that. Overall, I wasn't super impressed by the food on this ship. And the Maryland Crab cake looked to be made with imitation crab meat. Let me tell you, that is NOT how Maryland makes its crab cakes!
The kid's menu changed nightly and half of the nights there was nothing that the girls wanted to eat so we would end up at the Marketplace Buffet after dinner for French fries.
They do provide Chicco high chairs for little ones that are automatically waiting for you at your table. You have the option of using the high chair as a normal high chair with its table, or they can remove the table and push the chair in so that your little one can eat off the same table as you.
I did hear that the specialty dining restaurants were amazing. We unfortunately were never able to get a reservation. I'm not sure if you can reserve at the very beginning or it's on a daily or day-before basis, but when we tried to eat at a specialty restaurant on the last day for lunch we were told there was no availability whatsoever for the rest of the day or evening.
The table service was a bit slow at times and we would get cold food that had been sitting there for a while. We had a reservation for the Carousel Lounge on the second night and had to walk out prior to getting dessert. Our waiter asked us to please let him know in the future so they could adjust. On the last night, we had another reservation at the Carousel Lounge, we informed our server when we first sat down and were told there are many people here tonight, he can't guarantee anything. We had the best service on the 4th night but that was because every table around us got very upset on the 3rd night with the super slow service (we had decent service on the 3rd night but I think it was due to use walking out early the night before) and none of them showed up on the 4th night. As previously mentioned, many crew members were brand new on their first contracts, and this was the first sailing at full capacity since the covid restart. Quite simply put, they were not at all prepared.
Room Service:
The MSC Meraviglia still has the breakfast menus that you hang on your door to order room service for the next morning! We sailed on the Carnival Legend over Thanksgiving and I was sad to see this service no longer offered. One thing to note, the menu indicates a 30 minute window as to when you'd like to receive your order. The first morning I called when it didn't arrive within 15 minutes past that window and I was told that my order was on the way but running late. It arrived 30 minutes past when I wanted it and this was consistent the entire cruise. If I selected 6:30-7:00am delivery, it would arrive at 7:30am. After the 2nd late delivery, I moved my desired delivery time up by 30 minutes and then it always arrived when I actually wanted it since it was routinely late.
Housekeeping:
I was pleasantly surprised that housekeeping on the MSC Meraviglia still services your stateroom twice a day. Post covid it seems all the cruise lines are cutting back on this service and only cleaning once per day. I honestly cannot tell you who cleaned our room though as I never saw them.
There's a cool feature inside your stateroom where you push a light switch type button to indicate that you want your room cleaned, or you wish to not be disturbed. There are no signs to put on your door, you simply click the button which illuminates a light above your door.
Stateroom:
We booked the Fantastica experience and stayed in a Deluxe Balcony stateroom - 11135. This particular cabin had a bigger balcony than most staterooms in this category due to the ship's design and the location of this cabin (we were on an angle). It was functional but I felt it lacked the storage space that I'm used to. It was also a little tight.
We unfortunately had a leak in our cabin that was never remedied. I reported it to guest services multiple times and all we got was the water wet-vacuumed a couple times and a plate of free chocolates. I noticed it on the 3rd morning of our cruise and by the end you couldn't walk between the bed and closet without stepping in water. I hope they've fixed it since, but I wasn't super impressed with the lack of urgency to fix an active leak in the cabin.
For a full review of this stateroom, please click here. (In Progress)
Ocean Cay:
A big reason why I booked this cruise was to visit MSC's private island in the Bahamas, Ocean Cay. Unfortunately, we we not able to dock due to strong currents... We had woken up and got ready to go but noticed we still weren't docked. A good hour after we were supposed to arrive an announcement was made regarding the currents and that our captain would make a second attempt in an hour. Apparently three attempts were made and then by noon, they made the announcement that we weren't going to make it and we're going straight to Costa Maya. This was a super disappointment, obviously. I had no idea that this was even a possibility as it's not a tender port. So that's definitely something to consider prior to booking an MSC cruise with Ocean Cay as a port. Unless it's an overnight stay, there is that risk that you'll miss it all together.
Debarkation:
On the final night, we received a letter indicating what time and where to meet in order to debark the next morning. In reality, there were super long lines extending the entire ship and up several decks. It was a complete mad house and many people were in foul moods. We witnessed quite a few fights between passengers and some passengers yelling at crew.
We got lucky as a crew member saw me with the girls in their stroller and I got ushered to the Yacht Club line and was able to debark the ship in a timely manner. I did hear a crew member asking for all handicapped and small children to be given priority over other passengers. I was quite thankful for this, but fully expected to wait in those long lines. We also had all of our luggage with us (self-assist).
My advice would be to go enjoy breakfast and take your time to debark in order to avoid the mess of the masses trying to get off at the same time.
Overall / My Opinion:
I didn't know what to expect coming into this cruise. I did start to compare it a lot to my past experiences on Carnival and was upset about missing Ocean Cay on the second day. I quickly checked myself and decided that I shouldn't compare and instead I need to experience it for what it is and enjoy my vacation. In the end, it turned into a very relaxing 5 days with not much to do where I got to spend some quality time with my children, I didn't have to cook or clean, we watched some pretty amazing shows, and got to visit the Aviary in Costa Maya. When we got home, I booked a 7 night cruise on the MSC Seashore for August 2024 in an Aurea Suite. I have a feeling we'll have an even better time - stay tuned!
Tip: The Swarovski staircases in the lobby are a picture perfect spot!
Cheers and Happy Cruising!
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