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On Meraviglia 3-day, there was a 'tropical night' and a 'white night'. The party is held in the gallery under the dome.

Just off Meraviglia today. Had a hard time finding artificial sweetener of any kind. At the buffet coffee stations, the sugar is not near the coffee dispensers. You have to go to a table to find a little dish with sugar and sweeteners and take it from there. My fave is Splenda but often not found. Even the 'blue' packets were few and far between. Also, FYI, in the buffet sometimes a staff person comes around with a cart that has ice tea, lemonade and water. I asked for an ice tea and it was sweetened. I wasn't expecting that. Next time I knew what to ask.

Just off Meraviglia today. I gentleman in front of us in line at the restaurant (Waves) was wearing a tank top and he was turned away. Otherwise, shorts and tees seemed to be fine.

We had a 3:00 boarding time at Port Canaveral last week.We always drive to the port as we are fairly local. We park at a shuttle service parking facility. The service states their latest departure time is 2:00, so we scheduled a 2;00 time with them. we were at the port at 2:20 and got on with no problems.

Update: My saga regarding the unrequested upgrade appears to have been resolved. After 3 calls to MSC, and being put on hold numerous times, I finally got someone to help me. They saw in the notes my previous phone calls and were able to escalate my issue to a higher authority (they say it was corporate). The ship is almost sold out and the only availability was balcony or YC. I could see on their website there were a few balcony cabins near an elevator. The agent asked me if I knew of a cabin number I wanted, I was able to say yes, and I gave him the number of a balcony cabin near an elevator. Within minutes he was able to switch my booking to that cabin. I think the only reason they were able to work with me on this is because the cruise is only 2 days away — and they probably can’t sell those cabins now anyway. They had already upgraded me to a balcony, so all they had to do was move the location. I’m so grateful

Hi. I knew this would happen. It was only a matter of time until i got slammed. You have no idea of a person's particular circumstance and why they book a cruise the way they do. There are tons of posts about people complaining about all sorts of thing ... chair hogs or bathrobes or lack of free soft serve ice cream None of which are the least bit important to me. What is important is the location of a cabin. That is why I don't book a guarantee room. That is why I was not happy when they arbitrarily changed my room to the furthest possible distance to an elevator. But hey, thanks for your input.

Isn't there a great Seinfeld bit where Jerry goes to pick up his rental car and the rental agent says, "I'm sorry but we have no cars left."

Thanks. But I have since found out, that apparently the aft stairs and elevator on Meraviglia is for crew only. I have another thread going on right now about how MSC randomly and inexplicably upgraded us to a cabin in then back of the ship.

Wow. Ok. That's so weird. What's the point of Fantastic then, I wonder.

Really? They seemed pretty specific and adamant about not arriving before your boarding time. Our boarding time is 3:00. I don't know who we could talk to unless we are actually on the ship. I don't think the porters that take your luggage would be much help. LOL. I'll see what we can do about getting a note from DH's doctor. Thanks.

Thanks. I can see something like that happening if the original booking was a GTY room, but this was not. Welcome to the world of MSC, I guess. We've been on over 60 cruises. This is our first time on this cruise line.

Anyone ever receive an upgrade that they didn't ask for? Our cruise leaves in 2 days and I just got a confirmation that we'e been upgraded from an inside to a balcony. I have no idea why. I know it sounds crazy, but we really wanted the inside. It was close to an elevator and DH has mobility issues. The cabin they gave us is waaaay in the back of the ship. Now they say they can't give us the original one back because it has already been assigned to someone else. In fact there are no rooms left in that same category. We booked in the Fantastica category so we could choose a room. Weird. I suppose we could talk to Guest Services when we get on board, but since we booked so late in the game our boarding time is really late.

Does anyone know about the aft stairs/elevators? I see them on the deck plans, but I heard those are for crew only?

Just got off the Escape. We got room serviced twice a day.

First rule of Cruise Critic . . . always blame the OP.

I bring ziplocks all the time. If I want a late night snack, my only option is O'Sheehan's and I don't feel like fighting the crowd or dealing with the noise from the Atrium

Will be on this ship in March for a Transatlantic. Are you able to book any of the shows online before the cruise ... or do you have to do it on the ship. Where on the ship do you go to do so? Thank you.

The rules keep changing.

January 14 sailing on Escape went to Amber Cove, not Puerto Plata. Even the captain, when making his announcements said we were going to Puerto Plata, but nope ... it was Amber Cover. The night before, the cruise director said Puerto Plata. Nope.

The atrium noise is certainly not a deal breaker for me, but it is certainly IS a great annoyance. Whoever is conducting a game at any particular time YELLS into the microphone and it just kills my ears. I am admittedly noise sensitive so I try to stay away from the Atrium.

thanks to all who responded. Much appreciated.

Do you know how it works if you buy the VOOM package before you cruise? I see that there is a discount if you buy it before you board. The pre-board discount is equivalent to $60 on a 12-day cruise. If I wait until I board, the D+ discount would be equivalent to $50. So it would actually be a better deal if I purchase ahead of time. I'm just wondering if I would get the D+ discount in addition to the pre-board discount? A D+ discount does not show up in my cart when I go to check out.

We are booked on a 12-day in March. I called Crown & Anchor desk and was told our Diamond Plus status only got us $10 off a bag of laundry. Don't they typically offer a laundry discount to the general public anyway a few days into a cruise? So, where is the benefit. Unless would we get $10 off THAT price? I see on the chart on the website, there are basically 7 additional perks offered to Diamond Plus over Diamond, and over half of them only kick in when you've reached 350 points.

Thank you to everyone who responded. I appreciate it.

Seasoned cruiser here but new to MSC. We are interested in a Med cruise in the spring of next year and I keep seeing the same ship's beginning point at different ports a day or two apart. I can only assume that they have passengers starting and ending the cruise at different ports along the way. I've never seen that before and it seems like it would be a logistical nightmare for the staff and crew. The particular cruise we are interested begins and ends in Barcelona. I see it on my online travel agents website. But I also see the ship departing and ending from different ports and the Barcelona stop is in the middle of the itinerary. When I go to MSC's website, they don't show the Barcelona port as a starting point at all. Is this a common thing with MSC?