Swin-2-win

Just back from our first MSC cruise on Meriviglia 2/18-2/25.  For us (family of 48M, 48F and 16F that has sailed 12 times prior - Carnival/NCL/RCL), we won't return to MSC and can't in good faith recommend them to others.  The lower cost of the trip was great, but just not worth it in the end due to all of the add-ons and inconsistencies.  Reading reviews of the Yacht Club for this same sailing seems like they were on a completely different ship so it definitely seems worth paying more for that experience.  Honestly, even if we were offered a casino comp cruise and it was a non-school vacation week, I think we would pass.

I would blame most of our dislikes on the full capacity due to February school vacation, but I think that's a poor excuse on their part for not being better staffed.  We've done other school vacation weeks on other lines and had minimal issues.

We enjoyed 'most' of the buffet food (Pizza was the best on any boat we've sailed) but found the MDR to be unbelievably inconsistent.  Some great - the filet mignon on Gala night - and some barely edible - Italian night - shouldn't they get this one right?.  Just about all desserts were good to fantastic.

Understaffed lines for Bingo (40 minutes to get 3 cards), changing MDR dinner time (over an hour to not actually have the time changed - that was fun), and countless other lines we walked past wondering what on earth people were waiting for.

Super clean ship, although many of the floors had odd smells going on in the hallway and our room also had weird smells on multiple days.  Great staff that looked overwhelmed and awfully overworked.

For what it's worth, their private island was one of our favorite stops ever.  Really beautiful, low key island for relaxing.

Apologies for the late question regarding the Brooklyn port.  Is the entire check-in process inside the building or are there lines where one has to wait outside first?  Just trying to plan ahead for whether or not to wear heavy coats for our February trip.  Thanks in advance.

We were also on this sailing and share many of your pros and cons for the Prima.  Here are a few more thoughts...

Room:

We also were a party of three (47/48/15) in a regular balcony room and when that couch is fully extended, it's no joke how little space there is to get by.  Whatever the legal limit is for the amount of space available in an emergency situation, they pushed it right to that limit.  I must have hit my knee 3-4 times on overnight bathroom visits trying not to hit my daughter's overhanging feet (she's 5'8").  When the bed was 'tucked in', the room was plenty big for us.  Not sure if I missed it, but it would also be amazing to have a nightlight in the bathroom so you don't have to get blasted with full light in the middle of the night.

Seating:

The only places we found it difficult to find seats was the Observation Lounge in the afternoon, the buffet for breakfast and lunch (this room was bonkers) and the pool area in the afternoon.  One tip if you have a relatively low amount of little kids on the sailing like we did, the chairs up on the deck with the kid's aqua park were plentiful and it was pretty quiet. 

With three early days of rain, the lack of indoor seating in the Observation Lounge was probably to be expected.  With more sunny days, you'll love all of the outdoor spots to hang out and relax.

One other note on people commenting about the dirty chairs and couches, sadly they're right.  So many of the spots on deck 8 looked really awful for such a new boat.

Galaxy Pavilion:

Fun overall, but by the time we hit it at the end of the week, many of the best games were either broken or not fully functional.  For example, the cool VR truck that you've all seen by now, it could be driven but had no motion.  Kinda seems pointless.  I would also say that about half of the games already have pretty outdated VR.  We did the 'Pearl' escape room and found it a bit easy but enjoyable.

Speedway:

Well worth the $15 for a drive, I just wish they didn't throttle our speeds so much throughout the experience.  Those things could really move if they weren't being held back.  Maybe I needed to try the solo time-run experience.

Food:

Indulge is exactly the greatness everyone is saying that it is.

The Local was awesome for pub food and desserts.

Hudson's was beautiful and laid-back, the Commodore always felt more rushed and loud.

Hasuki was a blast, just don't book here if you have any sensory issues or want to talk to anyone farther away than the person on your left and right.

Layout:

I can't say I loved the layout of the boat.  I think I'm pretty good with directions and it took me forever to get used to where everything was.  The Prima got me to realize that I prefer the style of mega boat like the RCL Oasis where there's a mall type of atrium where I can get coffee/water/pizza at any time of day.

Bermuda:

If you've never been to their Aquarium/Zoo, I highly recommend it.  Lots of great up-close animals and super cheap.

Thanks for reading. 🙂

Any chance someone is recently back from a 7-day April 2023 cruise on Prima and would be willing to share the daily freestyles?

12 hours ago, BTSEN5 said:

The man running it told us that they are not allowed to run the Northstar in Boston due to being so close to the airport. 

Thanks for this info!  Having that info before we sailed would have really helped us to plan to get in stand-by before we hit Boston, rather than assume we'd just jump on when everyone got off the boat that day.  They couldn't just add that one piece of info to the Thursday Compass?  I guess I'm a tough critic, but so many typos and misinformation between the paper Compass and the app drove me nuts.  I guess that's why they have a 2&1/2 star rating in the app store.  That's definitely being generous.

Another gripe of mine is that if we had asked Guest Services about this, one person may have had the info and another would have had no clue.  The range of expertise at the different desks was quite annoying.

Rant over...I really enjoyed this boat but the reservation system needs work.

We were on Anthem last week and the lines never seemed to get smaller as the week went on.  We had horrible luck with the reservations for NorthStar, RipCord and Escape Room.  We booked our cruise late (January) so we never had a chance to book them online.  Guest services was also no help.  I'm really disappointed with the fairness of everyone having a chance to book different events.

NS: Not sure why, but NorthStar was down for both Boston port and the day after.  We couldn't find one reservation open the entire week.  Standby line was always long when open.

RipCord: Finally got an 8pm reservation for the last night after 4 days of continuous app checking and dropping by the check-in office for stand-bys.

Escape Room: Took 4 stand-by attempts and we finally got in on the last try.  Small and not too difficult but still really fun and worth the time.

Shows are also finally available for the 4/13 sailing.  Still no iFly or NorthStar but it seems like most people agree that we can book those once onboard. 

We're actually from the Boston area and planning to stay on board for the Boston port day so maybe we'll get lucky with lots of openings that day.

We're on Anthem on 4/13 and I've had the same problem for weeks now.  Hoping it opens up before we get on board.