My review of a cruise in the Meraviglia Yacht Club

[Skier52]

Thank you Pete for the wonderful review. We are sailing with Meraglivia in the YC cabins in early December. Could you kindly advise how we can make reservations for the Cirque shows? It wouldnt be too late to book onboard right?

 

We will by flying to Genoa from Stansted a day before the cruise.

 

Secondly, how did the cruiseline organized excursions go?

 

Thank you very much.

The best way is to phone the MSC office and book the show(s) and the time slot with them.

I wouldn't leave it until you are on board. It may be completely booked out,

 

The theatre can hold 450 guests. There are 12 shows a week, 6 of each of them. Each of them does 2 shows on 3 nights. so the total maximum viewings is 5400, Ship capacity is 5714, so if they restrict it to only one show per person there still is not the opportunity for every one to see a show.

When you factor in many guests taking in both shows then significant numbers of guests won't get to see a show.

 

So book early don't wait until you are on the ship.

 

 

You can book on line through MSC but you can't choose a time slot, neither can the MSC office access your booking to add the time slot.

 

 

The shows are very popular and when I booked there were days which were not available as they were fully booked

 

 

 

the excursion was in two languages English and French, this is not unusual for MSC.

 

The time was lessened by the amount of traffic we encountered on the way our of the port to the motorway , and we lost about an hour of visit time. Not that MSC could do anything about it,

Getting to the bus was easy we were escorted by our butler and beat the main tranche of guests to the bus , so we had a free choice of seats.

the guide didn't get her timing correct and the latter parts of the visit to the palace and its gardens was a tad rushed

but for saying that it was pleasant excursion

 

 

Hope this fully answers your question

 

 

Pete

Edited October 24, 2017 by Skier52

[Tall-Cruiser]

Great review and photos.

 

I would have expected a bigger balcony with at least one lounger for the YC cabin you had. (I think on Seaside they are saying 80sft if I recall right). Since the cabin is bigger than the one you had on Devina as you noted, maybe they took space away from the balcony to achieve that. Still a great cabin though.

[mafig]

We've seen Cirque-type shows on other cruise ships and Las Vegas. To be honest, we're tired of them (as a matter of fact, Las Vegas supposedly is not producing any more because there are just too many). Are these shows on MSC so different, so much better than what we've seen before?

[doodbug]

Thank you Pete, for the advice on the Cirque de Soleil show and the excursions.

 

This may sound silly - we were on the Yacht Club MSC Preziosa in December 2015 and we really enjoyed the Yacht Club product. Shortly after, we booked MSC Meraviglia Yacht Club on the exact same 7 night itinerary! The MSC Preziosa did not have Cirque shows, and I did not join any ship-organized excursion then.

What I recalled was that the ship excursions were priced significantly lower than other cruise lines; I'm not sure if that has changed. I also recall the paid options onboard the ship, whether it be cakes or coffee at the paid cafes, were quite reasonably priced. I didn't really eat or drink extra as there was more than enough food and drink in the Yacht Club dining venue/lounges.

 

What I did recall was that the queues to board the ship at each port were extremely long. I recall sometimes, it took longer than half an hour if not an hour. Was this the case with the Meraviglia?

 

Glad you had a good cruise on the Meraglivia. She must be very elegant :)

[Skier52]

Thank you Pete, for the advice on the Cirque de Soleil show and the excursions.

 

This may sound silly - we were on the Yacht Club MSC Preziosa in December 2015 and we really enjoyed the Yacht Club product. Shortly after, we booked MSC Meraviglia Yacht Club on the exact same 7 night itinerary! The MSC Preziosa did not have Cirque shows, and I did not join any ship-organized excursion then.

What I recalled was that the ship excursions were priced significantly lower than other cruise lines; I'm not sure if that has changed. I also recall the paid options onboard the ship, whether it be cakes or coffee at the paid cafes, were quite reasonably priced. I didn't really eat or drink extra as there was more than enough food and drink in the Yacht Club dining venue/lounges.

 

What I did recall was that the queues to board the ship at each port were extremely long. I recall sometimes, it took longer than half an hour if not an hour. Was this the case with the Meraviglia?

 

Glad you had a good cruise on the Meraglivia. She must be very elegant :)

As we only took one excursion I only have a limited experience of going ashore early. At most ports we got off relatively late and encountered minimal queues as for getting back on board at some of the ports we were given priority as YC guests.

 

For the excursion we were escorted off the ship by our butler through a special exit, and for final disembarkation we were escorted straight to the front of the queue,

So overall we never experienced any queuing.

 

Pete

[Skier52]

duplicate post deleted

[sidari]

Pete ... Do you have nay close up photos of the front of Meraviglia ? in particular the curved balconies at the front.

[Dr. Cocktail]

Pete ... Do you have nay close up photos of the front of Meraviglia ? in particular the curved balconies at the front.

 

 

If I may be of assistance ......

 

https://www.gettyimages.no/detail/news-photo/people-watch-the-msc-meraviglia-cruise-ship-leaving-the-stx-news-photo/691079460#/people-watch-the-msc-meraviglia-cruise-ship-leaving-the-stx-shipyard-picture-id691079460

[sidari]

Dr C ... Thanks for posting the link, we have seen that already but thanks once again ... :D I think we will be happy with the Deck 12 Balcony, second one down from under the bridge.

[Dr. Cocktail]

Dr C ... Thanks for posting the link, we have seen that already but thanks once again ... :D I think we will be happy with the Deck 12 Balcony, second one down from under the bridge.

 

No problem ... I used the same picture to select a Yacht Club cabin.

 

Getty Images seemed to have a LOT of Meraviglia pictures. I Googled: getty images msc meraviglia. There are tons of pictures of the front of the ship.

 

We're also going to take the plunge on Meraviglia ... but then again with this week's events, really bad choice of words ....

[lcpagejr]

Thank you Pete, for the advice on the Cirque de Soleil show and the excursions.

 

This may sound silly - we were on the Yacht Club MSC Preziosa in December 2015 and we really enjoyed the Yacht Club product. Shortly after, we booked MSC Meraviglia Yacht Club on the exact same 7 night itinerary! The MSC Preziosa did not have Cirque shows, and I did not join any ship-organized excursion then.

What I recalled was that the ship excursions were priced significantly lower than other cruise lines; I'm not sure if that has changed. I also recall the paid options onboard the ship, whether it be cakes or coffee at the paid cafes, were quite reasonably priced. I didn't really eat or drink extra as there was more than enough food and drink in the Yacht Club dining venue/lounges.

 

What I did recall was that the queues to board the ship at each port were extremely long. I recall sometimes, it took longer than half an hour if not an hour. Was this the case with the Meraviglia?

 

Glad you had a good cruise on the Meraglivia. She must be very elegant :)

 

Don't mean to hijack Pete's post.... I assume pricing is consistent among MSC ships...but we found the excursion prices on the Seaside to be extremely low for a ship sponsored excursion compared to Carnival, Princess, RCL, etc. Additionally the prices for items in gift shops, drinks if you purchase without a package....again very reasonable and less expensive then other lines.

[travelberlin]

Thanks for your nice review Pete!

Ivi

[lcpagejr]

Great information in your review - thank you! We're on Seaside in December so I was curious and pleased to see the configuration of your suite. The shorter wider room does look much better. I'm hoping it's the same on Seaside. I think we'll have tall wardrobes rather than walk in closets. I noticed the other day that Seaside YC suites don't have a bathtub, so I suspect it will be a similar configuration to yours on Meraviglia. I'm surprised about the loungers in One Pool - that was one thing I loved about YC on the Divina...there were always an abundance of loungers, even on the busiest of sea days.

Thank you for posting!

 

I think you will enjoy the YC1 layout on Seaside, I think size of cabin is just as large and layed out a bit better. .... I liked the separation from bed to couch area...Only difference appears to be wardrobe closets (3) vs the walk-in. Balcony is deeper and shower , although similar to Meraglivia had a bench and the shower door completely enclosed/shut.

[lcpagejr]

Great review and photos.

 

I would have expected a bigger balcony with at least one lounger for the YC cabin you had. (I think on Seaside they are saying 80sft if I recall right). Since the cabin is bigger than the one you had on Devina as you noted, maybe they took space away from the balcony to achieve that. Still a great cabin though.

 

Yes... Balcony is same width...but deeper on YC1 cabins on Seaside

[sidari]

Dr C ... As with the Seaside photos of the interior of the Aurea suite at the front proving somewhat hard to find as is video footage, found a video earlier that shows one of them but not the cabin number.

I was quite surprised to see on both the UK and USA site that the cabin size of the one we have booked is 420 sq feet and the Balcony over 300 sq feet, the others are around 298 sq feet cabin size.

[Dr. Cocktail]

Dr C ... As with the Seaside photos of the interior of the Aurea suite at the front proving somewhat hard to find as is video footage, found a video earlier that shows one of them but not the cabin number.

I was quite surprised to see on both the UK and USA site that the cabin size of the one we have booked is 420 sq feet and the Balcony over 300 sq feet, the others are around 298 sq feet cabin size.

 

That's quite the Suite!

 

It truly is a First World Problem on MSC choosing between a large suite with a great balcony or The Yacht Club. I would LOVE a Duplex Suite but the Yacht Club benefits for us outweigh the cabin benefits.

 

I think that the primary design flaw is that they didn't let either of us tinker with the plans!

 

I wish you could do both as on NCL!

 

Th

[sidari]

Dr C ... So right about the deck plans ... :D

 

Take a look at this link and stop at about 19/20 seconds in as the drone is looking at the curved balconies, second deck below the bridge is 12, quite a lot bigger than the one above and those below.

 

[sidari]

Dr C ... great video for you.

 

[Dr. Cocktail]

Dr C ... So right about the deck plans ... :D

 

Take a look at this link and stop at about 19/20 seconds in as the drone is looking at the curved balconies, second deck below the bridge is 12, quite a lot bigger than the one above and those below.

 

 

 

So sorry for the delayed response .... funny how life can intrude on important CC matters!

 

GREAT shots of Meraviglia ......

 

While it's an MSC design "trademark", there really are a LOT of forward balconies with metal balustrades ... I see the "swoopy" look that they're going after but a bit of a bummer for the people in those cabins ....

[sidari]

Dr C ... The metal balcony does not bother us having had a similar one twice on the Ruby Princess, though I understand why some people only want a glass screen.

[Dr. Cocktail]

Dr C ... great video for you.

 

 

Thank you so much for providing this .... random acts of kindness should be one of the Central Tenets of CC, not the usual ... nonsense ....

 

I have to make a confession as a Cruise Nerd ... I had seen it before but I watched it again (please refer back to "Cruise Nerd"....)

 

It really is amazing when you look at the insane amount of planning, designing, procuring, building and ultimately running one of these behemoths.

 

As a teenager on vacation in Florida in the 70's, my indulgent parents would drive me to Dodge Island and they would stay in the parked car while I would walk up and stand next to the Norway - no security in those days! I would look up at the ship (having of course memorized the brochure...) and wondered what fantastic, amazing and beautiful wonders were almost in reach ....

 

At the time, my sailing on one of these ships was about as likely as my walking on an ice field in Antarctica.

 

Who knew?

 

You are the consummate "old hand" on MSC and I am just beginning what I think will be a long term relationship with them. I think (maybe?) that so many frustrations stem from the fact that they get so much right (far more than their competitors...) but then get so much of the really obvious stuff so wrong.....

 

They really are at the cusp of being a scary and serious threat to RCI and Carnival .... they just need to hire us to make it happen!

[sidari]

Dr C ... Interesting story there, while I have always had an interest in ships which began a long time ago and admittedly began with Titanic it was not until 2008 that we did our first cruise on the Ruby Princess. Since then we will have done around 20 after our second Seaside cruise in two weeks time, we also have three others booked.

MSC for me suffers from doing things the old Italian way, complain today but expect to wait days to get it sorted out, the left hand not telling the right hand what is happening and even to the point of people in their offices booking holidays giving conflicting information.

Get these right and they might just become a force to be reckoned with.

I do however think their new build programme is being rushed.

[Dr. Cocktail]

Dr C ... Interesting story there, while I have always had an interest in ships which began a long time ago and admittedly began with Titanic it was not until 2008 that we did our first cruise on the Ruby Princess. Since then we will have done around 20 after our second Seaside cruise in two weeks time, we also have three others booked.

MSC for me suffers from doing things the old Italian way, complain today but expect to wait days to get it sorted out, the left hand not telling the right hand what is happening and even to the point of people in their offices booking holidays giving conflicting information.

Get these right and they might just become a force to be reckoned with.

I do however think their new build programme is being rushed.

 

I completely agree .... I don't really think that they've quite figured out if MSC USA is a separate company or a branch plant of Geneva.....

 

I completely agree with respect to the New Builds.

 

RCI (who I am not a big fan of) has engineers figuring out how people get from "A" to "B" and where people are likely to go or not go. They use virtual reality arenas where the designers actually "walk" through the ship to see what it will be like. When ships become as big as they have become, you can't expect it to all sort itself out.

 

It's extremely obvious that the same rigor is not being applied to MSC. Seaside has cabins with zero storage but lots of empty floor space, arguably the largest promenade deck at sea with no bars or specialty restaurants to take advantage of this amazing space and specialty restaurants with a seating capacity of 36(!)(Ocean Cay) on a ship with 5000+ passengers.

 

Still ... a grand value and a great product with *challenges*!

[sidari]

Dr C ... I have to agree with what you say, I mean who in their right mind would make the speciality restaurants so difficult to get to? Or have guest services inan area where you have to shout to be heard due to music in the atrium!

 

The computer models you mention are used also to model behaviour of people in fire situations in buildings and shopping malls, there are always those who try to leave by the way they entered the building instead of using the nearest fire escape, those people are it seems the MSC designers.

[Norwegian Cruiser 73]

Dr C ... I have to agree with what you say, I mean who in their right mind would make the speciality restaurants so difficult to get to? Or have guest services inan area where you have to shout to be heard due to music in the atrium!

 

The computer models you mention are used also to model behaviour of people in fire situations in buildings and shopping malls, there are always those who try to leave by the way they entered the building instead of using the nearest fire escape, those people are it seems the MSC designers.

 

Talking about having guest service in an area where you have to shout to be heard.....her is a video from my cruise on the RCI Jewel Of The Seas from Rome in July 2016. Loud music and noise nearly all the time....we also just returned from a great cruise on the Celebrity Equinox, also there they played loud music in the atrium where the guest service is located. But only in the evening though.

 

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