Meraviglia Western Med Review - Dec. 17-24

MissyMoo,

Glad you found us under the mountain of Seaside threads, lol.

As regards to the Beatles Tribute, the show was held in the Carousel lounge. They had two shows for Beatles and two for the Jazz that night, each about 45 mins long, then they would alternate to the other show. We went to the later showing, around 10, and the lounge was maybe half full. But also during that show, the flower party started and there was a lot of people there. I honestly do not know if this is a recurring act or we just happened to get them for our trip. Maybe someone who went before or since us can chime in and shed a little more light.

Hope that helps

Shane

And back with the last full day onboard. Just a heads up, there are two mini rants from this day. Neither of which really have to do with the Meraviglia or her crew, but more so with fellow guests onboard. So lets get it on...

Day 7 Marseille

Today started similiar to the last few, a good cup of coffee from the Edge bar, a meal in the buffet , and then out to the deck to watch our arrival into port. Before we boarded, we did plenty of research on all the anticpated ports of call and came up with a rough plan on what to do that day, which mostly was play it by ear based on what we saw that interested us. Marseille was differnent in the sense that from the get go, we had decided that we probably would not even get off the ship that day, with the exception to do some port shopping if available. So we whole heartedly stuck to that plan, which worked out great as the ship was practically empty. So we took advantage of the empty Thermal Spa and claimed the stone loungers. It's not chair hogging if you are the only ones there. That's our story and we're sticking to it, all the chair warriors can move along. After reluctantly surrendering the loungers, we headed off to the buffet to grab a bite to eat as the heat from the loungers works up quite the appetite. At lunch, we decided to head off the ship in search of a little port shopping, with a follow on plan to soak up the sun and relative warmth on the slides and ropes course.

Our morning coffees, A Mocha and a Caramella Latte

Arrival into port

Upon leaving the ship long after the rush, it wasnt clearly signed on where to go, but we found our way. We walked over to the other cruise terminal where the Costa Diadema was parked and where there is a very small market. After grabbing a few souveniers, we figured that the minimal amount of walking accomplished thus far needed to be rewarded with a second lunch at the buffet, which we happily obligied. After lunch part two, it was up to the ropes course.

Which ship are we again? Davina? Smellside? Merglia? Italian for getting flamed for making fun of spelling errors of ship names? The world may never know...

Warning, mini rant inbound

Due to some short staffing, the ropes course only had one crew member working it, and this caused a bit of delay. We were in no rush as we had absolutely no where else to be, so that was not the problem, but it was more so that one individual can not rig guests up, de-rig other guests and keep an eye on the course. Because of this, there was group of five or six kids who were all over the place, taking the obstacles all at the same time, using the harnesses as swings, pushing past other guests on the landings, all while making far more circuits than normally done. Most cases I would not have an issue with this as I remember being an excited kid about things, but this was beyond on that. Or I'm getting older, which the seven year old at heart would not want to hear. Macon had an issue with them constantly trying to use the same obstacle as her, but she luckily knew enough Spanish to atleast stop them from continuing to do that. But instead of heeding the only one person at a time on an obstacle, they would just not go on one with her, but continued to do it everyone else. I got to the point if they hopped on one with me, I would go obnoxiously slow and shake the whole thing to the point where they would lose balance as well. Super effective on the rope bridges or single ropes. Two can play that game. Eventually we got off after two complete turns, so that both of us did the inside and outside obstacles. We then talked to crew member who was trying his best to alternate rigging and de-rigging guests about the kids up there. As we were doing this, another gentleman and his terrified daughter also came down and was talking about the kids and how their shenanigans scared the girl. The crew member was then able to get them down.

So to relieve our frustrations about the kids, we headed off to the slides. The water was cold at first, but would feel okay shortly after being in it. The wind hitting you after getting out on the other hand was always cold lol. We did all the slides multiple times, with the exception of the body bowl slide, because that thing is rough when you go fast. We even let out our inner little kids and played in the splash park part of it. By this time, it was about quarter after snack time and ten till spa time. Off we went for third lunch, and a second trip to the spa.

For sailaway, we posted up on the Carousel Lanai on the starboard side, until the winds picked up, and moved indoors to the Champagne bar. Tonight we had buffet for dinner, as we were to see the Cirque show Sonor around dinner time.

Au revoir

We almost picked this cruise, but I have an aversion to Costa due to a prior experience

This is the next mini rant from the day.

The line for the Cirque shows wrap through the casino, which as one could imagine causes a bit of an issue crossing from the slot to the table side of the casino for both guests and waitstaff. Not that I can come up with a better solution, but kind of ineffiecnt until the doors open and people are moving. So because of this, we start seeing the issue of people just merging with the line as close to the front as possible, instead of going to the back of the line. I chalk that up to laziness. But my biggest gripe at the time was with one of the American groups on board, as they were the ones who lived up to the loud complaining American stereotype. One of the ladies of the group had gotten a drink at the bar whilst waiting in line, and before they entered, a staff member kindly stated that no outside drinks were allowed to be brought into the lounge for the show. I imagine most people would ask the standard why not, get the answer of thats the policy, respond with that is dumb, step off to the side, finish the drink, and move on. But not miss prissy pants. She had to throw the biggest tantrum she could because she wasn't allowed to bring her drink in. She yelled at the poor guy up front like it was his fault, tried to move past him with drink in hand a couple of times, yelled at the crowd behind her, before eventually wither downing the drink or dropping it to the floor. After that group made it to the two smaller lines where they verified your reservation, she was still on and on about the drink. Then she went on about all kinds of things, like the food wasn't good, and that we missed Malta, etc. I then realized this is the same group that was near our cabing because I started to recognize her whiny voice from the hallway when we missed Malta. I did hear something about there was an issue with the initial reservation they had for the Cirque show, so I secretly hoped that the reservation was lost and they would be sent away. Lucky for them, and probably the reservation checker, it wasn't. When we got in, we grabbed our drinks, which was some sort of blood orange bubbly concoction, headed to our seats. Here is another area where I think the system could be improved, as they just tried to direct guests as they came in to fill seats. Of course people dont always want to listen, so its not very efficent. But we managed to get pretty decent seats up by the tables next to an aisle. With the the exception of the party at the table talked a lot into the beginning of the show, that was midly annoying. Admittedly though, whatever they had for dinner smelled great. /Rant

The show itself was very entertaining to us, although it starts off a little slow and the story isnt very clear until about halfway through. The acrobatics were a lot of fun, and both Macon and I agreed that the guy who does the spinning ring thing on the ground looked like he would have the most fun, and that if either of us were that coordinadted we would want that job. When the show was over, we headed off to the Thriller party, stopped by guest services in regards to an account question and then realized that we should probably be off to bed as we would need to be up early for our journey home.

The sun sets on the day, our cruise, and this review.

That will conclude it for this day, and more or less our entire trip. There will be one more to follow, which will be a debarkation and final thoughts. Now that I have finally figured out photos, I may either blast out a ton of 6 photo posts or just fill in the gaps from the other days that are currently photoless. Haven't decided yet. But as always, if you have any questions or comments, Macon or I will be glad to answer them

-Shane and Macon

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Gosh, you make me laugh. So much warning and apologies for your rants, and they turn out to be perfectly reasonable, nay genteel! We learned several holidays ago, when in a Sharm el Sheikh resort with predominantly Russian guests, the best thing to do when faced with rude people, was to step back, watch and giggle!

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Sure did enjoy all your photos. We embark in Marseille on March 31st. Hope it's warm enough for the kids to do the slides/Aqua Park, and Ropes of course!!!! ;p;p

Here's the link to our cruise picture drive!! Feel free to peruse them again! :)

 

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN8mwRhjIUrwFpz_8y3P3vb0c31bPF4xpW0Exb6OMqi25SumnL12oz974aVecw84w?key=amNRSlNuYmxpeG5KbXJFbkRtemFFR1lUSjNlcmpB

Just went back to reread the review and wanted to thank you again for taking the time to put this together.

Keith

We are on the same ship xmas 2018 rather than xmas 2017 with similar itinerary so I am enjoying your post.... I am tying to pay attention to the coats in your port photos on land.... trying to determine if we take jackets or heavy winter coats, or both !

Is the disembarkation and final thoughts post still planned?

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for your nice review. We will be doing a family cruise on the Mediterranean next April on the new Seaview. I know it is a different ships but I"m hoping you can answer a few questions for me relevant to MSC. I know that formal nights are dressier than our Caribbean cruises but what is the attire like on the other nights of the cruise? How dressy? I've read that coffee/tea are not served after dinner...is that true? Also...will we need to make reservations for shows in the evenings? thanks in advance!

Just went back to reread the review and wanted to thank you again for taking the time to put this together.

 

Keith

Ditto that. This has been a great resource for us. Our first MSC Meraviglia spring 2019, same itinerary.

Thanks you so much for this great review.

Is the disembarkation and final thoughts post still planned?

After only a sliiiigggghhhhhhtttttt delay, yes I am getting to that part. I would like to apologize, as we were distracted with our Symphony of the Seas cruise and a very hectic summer of work and family visitations. So without any more delay, the last chapter....

Disembarkation and final thoughts

We woke up early, with the sad realization that our adventure onboard this wonderful ship was coming to a close. We packed up the last of our items in the room, grabbed our suitcase and travel bags, then headed down to the Waves restaurant for one last full meal. We left our bags at the entrance with everyone else's, and got a table for two. Even though it has almost been a year, I would say we had our go to meals of French toast and an omelette. Following breakfast, Macon grabbed a spot at the Edge bar and ordered us our final two coffees. We had saved two coffees from our coffee card and used it without a problem. At this point we were just waiting around for our scheduled time to walk off was to be announced, so I took this opportunity to go up to the deck and take one last good look around at the empty pool deck. I do remember that it was significantly cooler that morning than the previous day in France. Heading back down, we decided we had waited long enough and there was no line to leave, so we made the our way to the gangway and back to reality. This was a super simple process, just a quick scan at the ship exit and we walked straight through the terminal. Really glad we decided to keep our suitcase with us, as it was a bit crowded in the baggage pickup area, with large tour groups milling about blocking paths everywhere, to include the pickup point of where our bag would have been. From there we walked to the train station, which rolling a large suitcase up hill on uneven sidewalks was less than fun. From there we booked our tickets back, and got a little lost in the station, as we took an elevator that did not go anywhere we wanted to. But we weren't the only ones taking the scenic elevator so that made us feel a bit better. We got on the train just in time for it to start raining in Genova, so glad we missed that, and were jealous of those we saw get off the train with their MSC tags heading to the ship.

So the big question everyone wants to know, what did we think of it all-in-all?

For starters, we loved it. We absolutely loved it! The atmosphere was warm and welcoming. Every cruise employee we interacted with were kind and thoughtful, which is a big plus in our books. Even the passengers, of varying nationalities (except for several one-off encounters), were smiley and enjoying themselves! The food was good and there were always plenty of options if you didn't quite like something you had ordered. Plus the buffet for night snacks! Overall, the cruise was a complete success and wholeheartedly one of our favorites! Which, I mean really, we love cruising and all of our cruises are our favorites! ;p

We have done nothing but rave about the cruise to anyone who will listen to us ramble. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few of our friends who are tired of hearing about it. But on the plus side, between this one and the Symphony cruise, we have interested a few in possibly taking this exact cruise this year around the holiday season. That in turn got us all excited, as well as going through some cruise withdrawals, we decided to go ahead and move our Bellissima cruise back to doing the Meraviglia again the week before Christmas, this time in Yacht Club! I think that is testament enough to say how much we absolutely enjoyed ourselves, MSC and the Meraviglia.

We are on the same ship xmas 2018 rather than xmas 2017 with similar itinerary so I am enjoying your post.... I am tying to pay attention to the coats in your port photos on land.... trying to determine if we take jackets or heavy winter coats, or both !

I would recommend that you bring a combination of light jackets, a heavy jacket, some rain gear, and swim suits as the weather seems to be generally cooler, especially at night, but on bright sunny days it does warm up enough to make using the pools and slides enjoyable.

Thanks for your nice review. We will be doing a family cruise on the Mediterranean next April on the new Seaview. I know it is a different ships but I"m hoping you can answer a few questions for me relevant to MSC. I know that formal nights are dressier than our Caribbean cruises but what is the attire like on the other nights of the cruise? How dressy? I've read that coffee/tea are not served after dinner...is that true? Also...will we need to make reservations for shows in the evenings? thanks in advance!

So I apologize for taking so so long to get to you on this, and now I am really racking my mind, but I would say that the general dress code seems to be pretty on par with what I have seen on Caribbean cruises. Those who chose to dress a little classier would, and others would rock jeans and a t-shirt. On White Night, a lot of fellow passengers would be dressed in white, but on the other themed nights, there would be very few people dressed to match the theme. Personally I would wear jeans and a nicer shirt or maybe some khakis and a nicer shirt, depended on my mood that night.

Coffee and tea were always offered after dinner, as is the norm for most land restaurants that I have seen. Since I don't have any pictures of the menus, I can't verify whether or not they were included. I do know that hot water as well as tea bags and "coffee" were available almost always in the buffet.

Thanks for your excellent review. Since it was winter, were there many children on the ship?

thank you both for a great review. It has made me very excited for our first msc cruise next April. Although we are on a different ship ( seaview) I have gained really useful information :D

best wishes

Nicky x

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for your excellent review. Since it was winter, were there many children on the ship?

Jimbo,

I do not recall many children on board. The children that were on board were evenly split between highly respectful and cognizant of other people around them and straight up hell spawns. You'll definitely feel the amount of children in the indoors pool and the ropes course. But it wasn't bad at all!

Macon

At this point we were just waiting around for our scheduled time to walk off was to be announced, so I took this opportunity to go up to the deck and take one last good look around at the empty pool deck. I do remember that it was significantly cooler that morning than the previous day in France. Heading back down, we decided we had waited long enough and there was no line to leave, so we made the our way to the gangway and back to reality. This was a super simple process, just a quick scan at the ship exit and we walked straight through the terminal. Really glad we decided to keep our suitcase with us, as it was a bit crowded in the baggage pickup area, with large tour groups milling about blocking paths everywhere, to include the pickup point of where our bag would have been. From there we walked to the train station, which rolling a large suitcase up hill on uneven sidewalks was less than fun. From there we booked our tickets back, and got a little lost in the station, as we took an elevator that did not go anywhere we wanted to. But we weren't the only ones taking the scenic elevator so that made us feel a bit better. We got on the train just in time for it to start raining in Genova, so glad we missed that, and were jealous of those we saw get off the train with their MSC tags heading to the ship.

 

Hi, Thank you for your excellent review!

I know this was a while ago, but in your memory, what was your scheduled time to get off and what time did you finally decide to disembark? How long did it take you to wheel your suitcases to the train station along those lousy sidewalks? We will be doing all this in November in Genova. Any advice for getting around in that train station so that we don't follow and take the 'scenic' elevator too :)

Hi, Thank you for your excellent review!

I know this was a while ago, but in your memory, what was your scheduled time to get off and what time did you finally decide to disembark? How long did it take you to wheel your suitcases to the train station along those lousy sidewalks? We will be doing all this in November in Genova. Any advice for getting around in that train station so that we don't follow and take the 'scenic' elevator too :)

I believe our scheduled time to depart was closer to 9. We left well before that, shortly after 8 or so.

The trip up to the station took maybe ten minutes, it's a pretty simple route, it's just a bulky suitcase over uneven sidewalks is slow going. But it's a great way to start burning off those cruise calories.

As far as the Genova station, just head towards the back and always head down. In the end, we just balanced the suitcase in the end on the escalator to the underground passage and the elevator at the platform.

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Rockolamamma,

 

I believe our scheduled time to depart was closer to 9. We left well before that, shortly after 8 or so.

 

The trip up to the station took maybe ten minutes, it's a pretty simple route, it's just a bulky suitcase over uneven sidewalks is slow going. But it's a great way to start burning off those cruise calories.

 

As far as the Genova station, just head towards the back and always head down. In the end, we just balanced the suitcase in the end on the escalator to the underground passage and the elevator at the platform.

 

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Thank you for these notes! What time was your ship supposed to dock? We are supposed to dock at 9am, so not sure when they will start letting people off and wondering when I should plan for a train departure.

I heard that you can ask at guest services for an early time to disembark.

Thank you for these notes! What time was your ship supposed to dock? We are supposed to dock at 9am, so not sure when they will start letting people off and wondering when I should plan for a train departure.

I heard that you can ask at guest services for an early time to disembark.

Rockolamamma,

I can't find the info if when we were supposed to dock, but I do remember waking up around 6 and saw we were already in port. I think they started luggage tag colors around 7.

As far as getting off earlier, you certainly can ask at guest services for an early time frame, or you walk off with your bags like we did, and leave any time you're ready.

As always, we would be happy to answer any other questions you may have

- Shane and Macon

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do remember for all plannings within Genua, there main highway bridge to harbour (one of 2) is broken down completely....

do remember for all plannings within Genua, there main highway bridge to harbour (one of 2) is broken down completely....

I'm not quite sure I completely understand.

However, we brought the Train into Genoa and plan to do the same again this year.

Macon and Shane

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Rockolamamma,

 

I can't find the info if when we were supposed to dock, but I do remember waking up around 6 and saw we were already in port. I think they started luggage tag colors around 7.

As far as getting off earlier, you certainly can ask at guest services for an early time frame, or you walk off with your bags like we did, and leave any time you're ready.

 

As always, we would be happy to answer any other questions you may have

 

- Shane and Macon

 

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Thank you! So 'walk off with your own bags' is anytime after the ship is cleared then? That would be great! I thought that was also an assigned time.

I would like to catch the early train to Florence so that we have more leisurely time there, so it sounds like it is possible now.

Walk off as soon as ship is cleared and then a 10 minute walk to the train station. not bad! It's a Saturday so that I can get a 2 for 1 if I purchase train tix ahead of time, so I want to take advantage of that then. Thank you for all your help!

Hi You two!

Great review... I wonder if you have any idea why other people are reviewing this ship so badly? And I mean....some scathing reviews....when you two seem to have had one of your best cruises.

What do you make of that?

HLR

On 11/1/2018 at 7:28 PM, HLR said:

Hi You two!

 

Great review... I wonder if you have any idea why other people are reviewing this ship so badly? And I mean....some scathing reviews....when you two seem to have had one of your best cruises.

 

What do you make of that?

 

HLR

HLR! 

*I finally figured out how to "Quote" your post so I could respond. This update has thrown my brain for a twist, which is why it has taken so long to respond!

As for people reviewing this ship so badly, I believe it could be a slew of factors. We are super easy going and easy to please with little negativity while we are on vacation. It's a time to enjoy ourselves and go with the flow, which is why we love cruising so much! There were definitely points in the cruise where we questioned some logistical layouts, but truly we loved our time on the this ship. Which is why we will be going back on her again this year!

However, the European style of cruising and being "cared" for onboard varies quite a bit from how Americans are used to. Granted, we have had the pleasure of being Americans living in Italy for a while, so we have experience in this type of environment and how the service works. We actually prefer it to America and dread when we have to move back.

However, for the inexperienced European cruiser, regardless of location (be it in the North or the Med) people are just too demanding in my opinion. They don't understand La Vita Dolce and how life is much slower here with less requirement of constant care and service.

In all, that is solely my opinion. My husband may have a completely different view on a more logistical point, as he is a more experienced cruiser. All in all, we love the cruising style in the Med and love the Meraviglia, so if there are scathing reviews, it just means more rooms at hopefully a lower price for us to constantly cruise on her!

I hope that answers the question you have HLR! Please let me know if you have more. 

-Macon and Shane

I am the writer of a slightly scathing (although I hope balanced) review, and for me the above explanation is not the case. We are easy going and not demanding in the slightest. I don't think I've ever once asked for anything special or made extra requests of the staff on board. We are from the UK so much more used to European service than the OTT American style- so while maybe for Americans I do believe the above explanation has some merit, just not us.

The source of my problems with the Meraviglia is food and service. We aren't fussy on either count and don't expect more than we paid for. But, for us, dining in the MDR is one of the most enjoyable parts of cruising. The food in the MDR was so bad that we gave up after 2 nights. The buffet was fine, but really- should the quality in the buffet be superior to the MDR?!

The service problems stemmed a lot from the organisation and systems on board so hopefully can be fixed. For instance, I shouldn't have to make 8 or more trips to the photo gallery and spend hours of my time arguing with them just to get the photos I've paid for- and then not even get them all! If the system worked- you are given the VIP card, take photos, scan photos on, done- then none of that would have happened. 

It shouldn't take an hour to disembark, being crammed into corridors with nobody know whats going on and them not letting you leave. Every other cruise I've done you just walk off the ship in 5 mins or less.

I can imagine how someone can have a different experience to us. They only dine in the yacht club or buffet. They don't interact with the photo counter. They are part of a tour so manage to disembark easily. Maybe they didn't book a Fantastica cabin with the promise of flexible dining, only to have that taken away with no notice. But those are just a few examples of the problems we encountered.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the ship is stunning so they just need to work everything else out. We will not be cruising MSC again, theres so much other choice out there so why would we?