Notch8

6 hours ago, dns20 said:

How is the water at Bimini Beach?  Is it rough?  How is the snorkeling, compared to Sunset Beach?

We didn’t snorkel at Sunset Beach, so can’t compare.

We didn’t find the water to be rough at Bimini Beach.  Water was mostly clear, especially in areas near the rocks (fewer people) - and that’s where all the fish are anyway.

TIP:  bring a roll from the buffet with you to feed the fish.  You’ll quickly be surrounded by hundreds of “Sergeant Major” fish!

1 hour ago, NJsharon said:

Okay, just a question about Bimini Beach & the island.
How long a walk is it from the dock to Bimini Beach?
Just trying to judge if I would need the tram or can walk it.  I have a bad back, but if a short walk I would like to walk & enjoy the scenery.  Long.  Use the tram if in doubt.

What time are the food trucks & buffet open?  Buffet was 11:30 - 2:00.  Food trucks opened earlier and closed later.  Can’t remember off top of my head.
What does the food truck have available? Are there more choices at the buffet?  NO!  Food trucks had cheeseburgers, hot dogs, fries, and (at additional cost) lobster rolls.  That’s it.  Oh, yeah, cookies/brownies.

 

Can or does the tram pick you up from the bridge to go to the buffet?  Yes… they’ll announce the stop as “South Beach” but that stop is close.

 

How is Sunset Beach? Does that get busy? Is it any nicer or worse than Bimini Beach?  I did not visit Sunset Beach.
What is Paradise Sands? Is that a private area or open beach? Is that more secluded & less busy?  Dunno; looks like it’s the beach for the spa area?

 

Trying to think which beach to head to that is more quiet, but not too far from buffet & some greenery.

 

Thank you so much!

Hope my answers in bold are helpful.

1 hour ago, NJsharon said:

@Notch8 thanks so very much for the review & tips!!  And a few others for chipping in!

I noted that people said about a seat stick for the security line at NY, thank you for that tip.  I cannot stand for long or I get light headed.  I do have this 'bucket stool' I may take then.  We sailed through security so fast this would have been unnecessary.  But no guarantees for other sailings.

Okay, silly questions - do you get prizes for trivia? Not sure.  They did give out prizes for games.

Did they have talent night for guests, if so could you do karaoke & read lyrics or have to sing with no lyrics (I can sing, but memory of lyrics is bad!), I think it would be fun!  I didn’t recall seeing this in the daily planners.  I may have just missed it.  Note that I posted daily planners in a separate thread.

Did you go to bingo? No.  Wondering how the prices were for sheets & prizes?  Can’t help you with this.
Were you easily able to get a chair by the pool?  Is there just the one main pool (we are fantastica) or do they have an adult pool?  Never a problem to get a lounger by the adult pool at the stern.  (Yes, there is an adult pool, plus two other pools that are accessible by all passengers.)

Did you see your room steward often?  We bumped into him about once per day.

Did you ever order food to the room (we are fantastica, so think we can get continental breakfast for free, or it has to be paid)? Continental breakfast is still free for fantastica, but we didn’t use it.  They use the door hangars to order.

Did you get the wristband for charging things to the room?  If so, where did you go & were there enough (I heard it is first come, first served & they run out)?  We didn’t get one - we did see others with them and they made an announcement about them, so definitely were available.  I think they were $5.  One of the shops should have them.

 

Thank you again, so excited!!!

See answers above in bold.

36 minutes ago, tofubeast said:

Never explored Bimini Beach so I think we’ll head that way this next visit. 
 

Does the tram take you there, or does it stop at the bridge and you walk from there?

 

Is there still a food truck over there for lunch? 
 

TIA

Tram stops just short of the bridge.  Walking across the bridge, bear to the left for Bimini Beach.  To the right is the entrance to the Yacht Club area.  (See map on post #3 above.). You can’t accidentally (or “accidentally”) wander into that area; as @Jeal noted there’s a staff member present to prevent such.

There is one food truck and there are two bars at Bimini Beach.

Hope this helps.

23 minutes ago, Jeal said:

No - it hasn’t changed. If you face the water and look to the right you will see the Yacht Club area. It is along the same coastline. I think we are both saying the same thing - Bimini Beach is not exclusively for Yacht Club. 

Yacht Club has Ocean House beach as its exclusive beach.  It is separated by rocks from the entirety of Bimini Beach.

Bimini Beach faces north; Ocean House Beach faces east.  The two are separated by rocks.

You can’t easily access one from the other.

At least, that’s the way it was this past Thursday.  We swam the entire length of Bimini Beach.

58 minutes ago, kad56 said:

When was the buffet open at ocean cay?

11:30 - 2:00 at the Seakers buffet.

Food trucks had longer hours.

I have a separate thread with the daily planners; the information in them might be helpful (although you might have to dig.)

Jim

11 hours ago, Jeal said:

There is a portion of Bimini Beach that is only for guests staying in Yacht Club. However, there is a very large portion of Bimini Beach that is open to everyone. We have gone there several times. The only place we have ever seen a staff member for the Yacht Club portion is off the pathway where the Yacht Club passengers enter. No one has ever stopped us on the bridge. There is also a tram stop for everyone located near the bridge as well as food trucks. Enjoy Bimini - we think it is the most beautiful beach. 

That’s not what I noticed; we were not Yacht Club and were able to use Bimini Beach in its entirety.

Yacht Club has their own beach.

Maybe something has changed?

10 hours ago, BazingAu said:

Thanks Jim. Did you see or use a separate check in during embarkation for Diamond/Aurea? I heard the security lines can be loooong if you aren’t in Yacht Club, but there is also a separate line somewhere for Diamond/Aurea. I have never seen any photos or videos of this, so not sure if that’s just an urban legend. 😆

What @JamieLogical said is what I saw.  And they boarded first.

6 hours ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

There is someone at the bridge but that is to limit access to the Yacht Club areas. If you don't want to cross the bridge, you can swim across the lagoon. 😁

When we were at Ocean Cay on Thursday, the sign for Beach House was far enough away from the main walkway to not deter people from going to Bimini Beach.  I didn’t notice anyone at the bridge.  (Doesn’t mean someone wasn’t there; only that it didn’t grab my attention if there was.)

I wondered that too.  I boarded MSC Meraviglia last week and learned that it meant your check-in process was basically complete… “fast-tracking” us through the check-in process at the port.

Guessing they’ve simply assigned a name to online check-in process.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN THE BACK OF THE DESK DRAWER!!

I guess we need to stop ragging on MSC for not providing facial tissues!!

But they lose points for not putting them in an obvious place!!  🤣

28 minutes ago, kad56 said:

Which production shows were the best? I don't always go, and I like know what the highlights are so I can pick and choose.

Well, everyone has different tastes.

I personally liked “The Journey” and “Encore” - the former was more classical type music (vs. dance pop - not “classical” like Beethoven.  For example, it opens with the song “Danny Boy”) and the latter was show tunes.  I did enjoy the two magic shows too.  Comedian was also good.

I guess the only one I could have skipped was Dejah (singer.)  She is talented, but it’s not my favorite kind of music.  We aren’t attending her second show tonight for that reason.

All of the acts were well done; their entertainers have a lot of talent.

Hopefully this gives you enough information to make a decision about what shows to attend.

Jim

Last day on the ship!  And another beautiful day at sea.  The Atlantic Ocean is again very smooth, and the temperature is cooler than yesterday.

Last night we enjoyed the show “Wonderville the future of magic” which was similar to the earlier Magic show with different tricks.  Same four magicians.

Tonight is the same singer we had three nights ago.  She was talented, but the music she sang isn’t really my type.

One disappointment on this trip vs. July is that in July there were cream puffs available in the buffet for dessert; I haven’t seen them all week.  I’ve made up for it by eating more of the (excellent) ice cream.

Very enjoyable trip!  As MSC keeps tweaking their product, I see them being a very formidable competitor to the “big 3” (CCL, RCCL, NCL.)  They have a few nice luxuries that the others don’t, and they seem to be recognizing where they need to improve.

Jim

26 minutes ago, Cruzinforpeace*** said:

Could you please tell me if they have a passenger talent show on your sailing? We did in February but I was too exhausted and lazy to sing.  Thinking I might dust off some of my old show-tunes for our July cruise.  If not, I’ll hit the Karaoke.

I didn’t see anything about a passenger talent show.  There is a “Crew Staff Variety Show” tomorrow (Saturday).

Day 7 (Saturday)

30 minutes ago, luckyinpa said:

ive never been on the island but the 2 lines for buffet sound horrible.  im spoiled by coco cay. at least 4 or 5 'food islands' and never waited behind more than 3 or 4 people on any trip ive been there.

 

im assuming YC is much better on the island

For the difference in price?  It better be!

On MSC Meraviglia now.

On this ship anyway, the answer is yes.

Jim

Today is a sea day, so MSC scheduled some events such as the “returning cruisers” party.  They introduced the officers, but other than that there wasn’t any interaction.  Surprisingly, it was held in the theater - you know, the one where you can’t bring in drinks for shows - yet they were handing out flutes of sparkling wine or fruit punch to the guests.

Brunch this morning (vs. separate breakfast and lunch.). We were fortunate to have our evening waiter as our server; he got me the fresh pressed orange juice.  Table next to us (different server) was told they had to go to the bar on deck 15 to get.  🙄

The Atlantic is smooth as glass today as we head north so we’re spending the day exploring the ship and relaxing.  Maybe later we’ll take a slide down the water slides.

Jim

3 hours ago, michelle028 said:

Thanks for  posting the pics and your review! Besides burgers/hotdogs what other food did you have at the buffet?

 

Did you have to pay for food at the food trucks? 

So at the beginning of the buffet line, there are various salads (bean salad, pasta salad, Greek salad, etc.). Then there are breads.  Then desserts.  Then hot sides (corn, red beans and rice, etc.). Then a couple of entrees (jerk chicken, bbq ribs) and finally the pre-made cheeseburgers and hot dogs.  (Cheeseburgers have some sauce of some sort along with onions, lettuce, and tomato.  If you want something different on your burger, be prepared to wait.)

Food trucks are free except for lobster rolls; you have to pay for those.

Jim

Day 6 (Friday)

When we got back on the Meraviglia yesterday in Nassau, the couple ahead of us had THREE bottles of liquor (I presume rum?) that they put through the x-ray.  The security guy looked them over and picked one up and said “be careful sending this through; they’re fragile!”

They didn’t seem to care.

15 minutes ago, ajoneen said:

@Notch8 were the Food Truck gone?? 

 

They’re still there in a few places.  Comparing an old map with the current one, it looks like one or two moved though.

I just learned of another (good) change since July… bar service is now available in the dining room at dinner!

In July, you could get wine but no cocktails.

Nicely done, MSC!

17 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

If you are in the YC, why eat in the Market Place Buffet ? MPB is a zoo embarkation day and every sea day as well. Enjoy the sublime YC Restaurant always open for 3 meals except lunch on Ocean Cay day or the OnePool Deck buffet every day for lunch or breakfast. Unless I misunderstood your post. Also OC Day  and embarkation day Hola Taco is open "all you can eat" $18 pp. if you miss lunch hours in YC. (I still would not venture into the MPB at noon except maybe Ocean Cay day with most on the island).

I answered the question @dmc94 asked assuming the reference was regarding Ocean Cay lunch, not the ship lunch.  Apologies if I misunderstood.

2 minutes ago, dmc94 said:

Thanks. Snorkeling equipment is extra right?

Yes.  That’s why we brought our own.

May be included for Yacht Club though.  Not sure.

Jim