A megaship lover sails the Meraviglia- photo review April 2018 Med

Wow, we're only at day 1?! So excited for what's to come.. ..

Day 2

Don't worry, this day won't be quite so long (probably) because I'm done with pictures from around the ship! Today we were in Valletta, Malta. This was the port I was most excited about as I'd heard Malta is really pretty. We had no firm plans except to wander round the city and enjoy the sunshine.

Breakfast was in the buffet. Selecton is decent if not as exhaustive as NCL. The sausages are those weird European frankfurter style ones, but American sausages are weird too so not much difference there. They had pancakes (which were really good) waffles, fruit, cereal, pastries etc. For some reason they had cake on the breakfast buffet but not later in the day. They did baked beans that were cooked well so that was a bonus for me!. The one thing I didn't like about the MSC breakfast buffet was that the toast was pre-toasted. Yeah, I dislike waiting for the toaster, but cold toast is the worst.

Ooh, here's my top breakfast tip for you! On the kids buffet counter they have fresh donuts. I didn't find them until about 4 days in.

The view from the deck was pretty. You dock right in town.

We made the mistake of turning left when getting off, taking us to this little waterfront area. Pretty but it doesn't go anywhere! You need to turn right instead to get into town.

Doesn't she look festive

You can walk into town which is up a hill and a bunch of steps, or take the lift. We chose to walk as figured there'd be a queue for the lift.

I see you Meraviglia trying to hide! (Your butt is way to big to hide honey)

There was a whale tail in port with us, and also another couple of ships- a small Princess one and a Tui ship I think.

This is on the walk up to town. Once you are at the top of this hill you are pretty much there.

This is the lift you can also choose to take up. It's the big metal structure in the middle of the picture- doesn't look like it's worth doing for the ride alone.

These very pretty gardens are at the top

I believe these cannons are fired daily, if you're into loud bangs. There are several museums in the city dedicated to Valletta's role in wars.

I made friends with this little guy. He was just flopped there letting a kid stroke him.

We explored the area, checking out all the historic buildings and also the modern touches. I couldn't help thinking this pig eating his own tail was a little macabre

So, this was the main street in town. It looked like everyone from all four ships had decided to congregate here.

The whole place was very pretty indeed.

Wanting some lunch, we kept seeing these odd conical shaped breaded items in shop windows. We stopped at one place to ask what they were- turns out they are a local delicacy of fried rice with a meat centre. So we got one to try. It was alright but a bit bland and hard to eat!

We also got a plate of pasta to share which was yummy. We got it to take away and ate it in the sunshine outside. Of course we also needed dessert, so ended up with a very nice tub of gelato. The shop was very busy but it was worth the wait! Then we decided to head back to the ship around mid afternoon.

The sun had really come out so we grabbed a couple of loungers on one side of the ship to chill out and wait for sail away. It seems like they stack the loungers most of the time and you're expected to get one yourself and set it up. Not a problem for G as he's big and strong, but he had to help several others who couldn't do it.

As we sailed away everyone on rhe Carnival ship shouted and waved, so of course we did back! G is a bit snobby about Carnival but he actually said this ship looked quite nice.

Bye Valletta! It was pretty and I'm glad we've been but not sure we'd be back. We normally go for more beachy locations rather than busy cities.

Check out the views from both sides of the ship as you sail

By the time we'd sailed away we'd missed our sitting in the dining room (Freestyle we will never complain about you again!) so it was the buffet for us. I think this was one of the best nights in there- they had a Mongolian Wok thing going on in the Ethnic section and it was really good!

The spring roll was only OK and I normally love spring rolls. It was a veggie one and seemed to have mostly whole peas in it which was weird. The meat was great though. I also had some bread and mozzarella which I was clearly too lazy to get a seperate plate for!

G got the same Mongolian Wok stuff, along with some extras. I think there's some gnocchi there, pork topped with cheese, fish and some squid

They make the Mozzarella right in this room and you can watch them do it if you go early enough in the day

Tonight when we returned to our cabin we had a notice that our Cirque Viaggio show that was cancelled last night had been rescheduled to tomorrow, our sea day, at 2.30pm. Very happy about that as we really wanted to see both! But tonight we had another show to get to- Virtual in the theatre.

What can I say about Virtual. I think I have to describe it to you through pictures

The premise of the show is something about us spending too much time on mobile phones. A tad preachy for a cruise ship theatre show, no?

I think this guy was the Cruise Director. The only times we saw him though is before shows, when he'd turn up, plug the bingo or whatever party was on that night. Then he'd do this pose which he presumably thought was funny and leave.

We saw the younger assistant CDs more as they ran more of the entertainment.

Loving every second of your review. Cannot wait until the Meraviglia comes to NY!!!!!

So, Virtual. Let me try to explain. The premise of the show centered around the guy on the floor- who spent too much time on his phone- and the big glowing phone in the middle of the stage. Each App was selected one by one and a song and dance number would take place around it.

I'm with you, dude. I'm confused.

After a little while he seems to just kind of go with it. I'm guessing he thought that was his best chance of making it out of this nightmare alive.

Once he'd been told off for using his phone and for using emoticons, he was also taught a lesson about doing too much online shopping

This number was about plastic surgery. I honestly can't tell you if they were for or against it.

Things are getting really weird now. He's blind folded and Pacman is trying to eat the dancers dressed as diner staff while the guy in the matrix coat watches. Just stay with me. It'll all make sense (I lie, it won't).

Sadly our hero can no longer cope with all the cray going on and dies. The nurses seem pleased about this and dance around his body. Perhaps this is a ritual dance and they are going to feed him to Pacman.

Oh no look, he's okay. He doesn't look okay though. I think this guy needs a real doctor.

Remember the girl who did the Dirty Dancing lift? She did some pretty nice lifts in this show too (on the right)

Now for a final medly of crazy where the emojis dance around with the nurses and delivery guys in the hospital

And the moral of the story is... something about matching gilets? I'm out guys. I can't even attempt to explain this show any more.

After that very confusing experience we had a couple of cocktails around the ship, listened to the singer in the lounge (next to the chocolate shop, they always had the same singer in there and she was very good) and off to bed! End of day 2.

I really hope that threre is more to come. I enjoyed reading your review so much.

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I'm sorry I did intend to finish! Life got in the way! I will try and get back on it :)

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I was on the escape with you

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I remember you from the meet and greet where we met at the district Brew House

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I remember you from the meet and greet where we met at the district Brew House

 

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Oh okay I do remember you in the Roll Call in this post you said you had no little whale I thought that was cute

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Oh okay I do remember you in the Roll Call in this post you said you had no little whale I thought that was cute

 

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Squish ... I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your review so far and hope that you do find the time to continue. I know (from experience) that it's hard to get back into it when you take time out from it - it disrupts the flow.

Hi guys, I am sorry about the pause- it did feel a little like nobody was following so I apologise to those of you that were! I've been in the process of organising a big family cruise to Norway next year, which has been a challenge- I'm used to just booking whatever and telling the hubby we are going! All sorted now though and very much looking forward to having the whole family together to celebrate my mum's 60th. I'm the only cruiser in the family, it's new to all of them- no pressure then, lol!

But, back to MSC. I finished at the end of day 2, so we're onto day 3!

Day 3- Sea Day

We had a couple of plans for today- attend the Masterchef at Sea event, which I'd heard good things about, and attend our rescheduled Cirque Viaggio show in the afternoon. Today the ship was rocking and rolling- we were fine with it, we've experience very similar sailing to the Canaries on our first cruise. Some others did not seem to be coping well though! One English lady I met later on said she was really struggling and so were her kids, and she wouldn't book a cruise with sea days again.

So we headed to the theatre for Masterchef at Sea, this was on around 10am. They had a preliminary round earlier in the cruise but it was about 4pm on a port day- keep this in mind if you want to participate. So we didn't make that one.

I love that MSC holds these events in the theatre- tonnes of seating and everyone has a good view. On NCL this would be in the atrium and you'd have to camp out the night before to get a seat.

We were really disappointed in this event! We love Masterchef and had big expectations as the offical branding it all over this. The contestants were paired up and given 10 minutes- yes just 10- to make a meal, out of- wait for it- some fruit. Oh and some soft cheese. They had no cooking equipment at all, just a bowl and a chopping board. So literally all that each pair could do is cut up the fruit and put it on a plate with the cheese. I have no idea if this is normal- those of you who have attended this event in the past, did they actually cook?! I'm wondering if we had this watered down version due to the movement of the ship.

So, that was rubbish. All the contestants got some good swag and the winners also got the chance to go on the real Masterchef show. I'm kind of sad I didn't enter, I'm no chef but I'd cut up some fruit for some swag!

We spent the rest of the morning having a wander around the ship- nobody was outside due to the weather.

You can see the water sloshing around in the aft pool

The inside pool was sloshing around too, but they didn't shut that- seemed dangerous as it was full of kids.

We really enjoyed the spaces upstairs in the indoor pool area. Loads of tables with a sea view and it never seemed full. It's always nice and warm in there too.

I don't have a picture of lunch, I think we got burgers in the buffet. We did get a plate of desserts though!

For some bizarre reason the buffet dessert selection is way better at lunch than dinner. Get your fix then.

On our wanderings I also finally found the library- it's next to one of the 'glow-worm' bars on deck 7 (I have no idea what they're actually called sorry!)

A decent enough space but obviously a limited selection in English.

Yay!!!! You're back!!!!!

A few more pictures from the day- this is from the MSC shop

Yay for the female captain- boo for the pink hairbrush and mirror accessory. So close!

Room service menu- sorry for the rubbish pic. Because we were Fantastica we could have had free delivery I think but we never got anything- not much fun to eat sat in an interior cabin!

Breakfast room service menu

At 2.30pm we had our Cirque Viaggio show rescheduled- so at 2.15 we toddled off, with a growing sense of doom about us as the ship swung back and forth underneath us. Sure enough, we got as far as the casino and the announcement came- show cancelled AGAIN. My hubby was pretty narked off- yeah, things happen, but this was twice in a row now, and there was absolutley no ticket availability for the rest of the cruise. He really wanted to see both shows so wasn't happy.

For dinner that night we made our second and last attempt at the MDR. I think it was another formal night? Which was a bit of a pain as we only just had one.

Menus:

This was the chef type guy's selection (can you tell I don't know who he is)

I lovvveee spring rolls so went for them, with a suspicion they would be the same as the not-great spring rolls I had in the buffet last night. What do you know...

I don't know how you can get a spring roll wrong, but MSC knows. I think I ate two because I was hungry. They were not as good as the really cheap frozen spring rolls you get in the supermarket.

Hubby had the soup with pasta- was alright

I love king prawns so went for them. This was just.... bad. Honestly I know I sound like I'm whinging, I'm really not that hard to please. I don't like fine dining. First of all it annoyed me the shells were on, but I can live with that. They weren't worth de-shelling. Just tasted really weird and nasty texture. I don't know if they were overcooked or if it was something else.

The rice was tasty so I ate that.

Hubby had the beef- the one from the main menu, not the chef selection one

He said it was OK but it was literally the same as the other beef dish he had but with a different sauce. To us the food was either boring or bad!

Dessert they had the baked alaska parade, which I've never seen before (NCL not being formal) and thought it was really fun. Didn't get a picture of the parade due to our table being tucked away in a corner.

We both enjoyed this, it did taste like cheap supermarket ice cream but still it was nice. It felt like the portion was really small- but maybe we were just still hungry after the rest of the meal being poor!

Yay!!!! You're back!!!!!

Sorry! Didn't intend to disappear, I did need that poke to come back and finish!

Yikes. This is getting really depressing. Hey...on the up side...maybe I will lose a few pounds.

Yikes. This is getting really depressing. Hey...on the up side...maybe I will lose a few pounds.

Honestly the buffet was OK and we certainly didn't starve. But if you are one of those people who hates eating in a buffet then you could struggle a little. I don't know, maybe we just chose all the wrong things in the MDR. I hear the food on the Seaside is good so maybe the Meraviglia will improve!

After dinner we found out the evening Cirque show was going ahead despite the seas being just as rough as earlier in the day... hmm, okay then. We decided to try our luck so popped down at opening time to speak to the staff and explain the cancellation situation. They told us to return later and they would try and seat us. Which, they did! Yay. So we did get to see Viaggio. Our seats were way in the back and to the extreme side- I guess beggers can't be choosers. It did mean we missed some stuff that couldn't be seen from our angle. These seats were behind the tables where the dining package people were eating- and their meal continued as the show started, with waiters constantly walking around in our view and clattering plates. The waiter station was right next to our seats, so yeah, more clattering and talking. Luckily they finished serving around 10 minutes into the show, and we just had to try and ignore it until then.

On the upside some of the performers entered the room right over our heads so that was cool!

You choose a cocktail (or a juice) on your way in, and at your table is a plate of 4 chocolate macarons. Having just had dinner I only nibbled at these. After having a macaron tower at our wedding last year I consider myself well versed in macarons, and these were pretty good.

We both found our cocktails way too strong to drink. I normally choose sweet and fruity cocktails. I guess it shows they aren't giving you a watered down drink but blurgh not for me!

The show is based around an artist, who does a nice balancing routine on a ladder

Here's some of the performers coming in right over our head

The show was good but not mind blowing. I think I expected more in terms of aerial acrobatics and deaf defying stunts. It was quite arty and abstract. Maybe I'm just not cultured enough! We had tickets for Sonor later in the week so would be able to compare them then.

I should mention- while sorting our standby tickets out, there was a bit of an awkward situation in the line to enter. A Spanish family had turned up- I think 3 adults and about 4 or 5 kids- and they had only purchased tickets for the adults. They expected to be able to come in and the kids just sit on the floor for free. I probably don't need to tell any of you this, but that is not how it works!! They seemed determined to argue with the staff and couldn't understand why they couldn't do this, especially as there was a bit of a language barrier. Unless they left the kids on their own I guess none of them got to see it as it was all sold out.