MSC Meraviglia, Our experience/review Jan. 2023. Free room upgrade.

[ready2cruzagain]

On 1/22/2023 at 11:25 AM, jbrown111 said:

I wanted to share our experience here in case it helps anyone else when considering MSC. 

 

We just returned home from a 4 night sailing on the Meraviglia. A little background on us, we are experienced cruisers with 15 sailings(most 7-8 days) under our belt before we boarded this ship. We know what to expect from cruising. This was our first MSC. We booked with wifi and drinks included in our fare.

 

Embarkation was smooth. Our rental car company provided us a free shuttle to the cruise terminal. Our assigned embarkation time was 2-2:30pm, but we arrived around 12:30. There was hardly any lines and no one checked to see what our assigned time was. We checked in and were on board by about 1pm or so. First thoughts were the ship was very nice, modern, and clean.

 

We decided to try our luck with a room upgrade. We stood in guest services line for about 30 mins. We requested an upgrade and the staff said the manager was away so they could not assign us any upgrade at this time and told us to try again later. We called guest services from our room about 2 hours later and to our surprise, we were offered a complimentary balcony upgrade on deck 13 from our interior room on deck 5. We gladly accepted and went back to the desk for our new cards. The staterooms were fine, not much different than any other cruise i've been on. Our balcony was an "obstructed view" but still a very nice upgrade from our interior. This was the most positive experience of the whole cruise. 

 

We did not like our 9pm dinner time and we were unable to change to the early seating after asking the staff. Overall the dining experience was fine and food was pretty good. We ate the dining room every night and were able to find something both of us could eat. It was frustrating that we were told we could not order drinks other than wine and soda while dining. Our waiter told us they don't offer full bar service in the dining room which is unlike any cruise I can remember. 

 

The buffet was just okay and nothing more. The options are very limited and even though the buffet area is large, the food repeats over and over again around the buffet area. This is an area that definitely needs improvement. 

 

The most disappointing part would probably have to be the bar service. We had the "easy-plus package". I have never seen a more disorganized bar staff. No two drinks ever really tasted the same unless you got the same bartender. Bartenders would ignore you and avoid eye contact. They had no idea who was next in line and many people were frustrated about it. I waited up to 20 minutes for a drink at times and other people had walked up and got served in the meantime. The number one complaint from anyone on the trip I spoke to was about the bar services. We are not heavy drinkers but while on vacation, we do enjoy having a few cocktails and we were really not able to do so. 

 

Im going to start a second part so this isnt too long. 

 

Not sure which 4 day cruise you were on in January but we were on the Jan. 29th 4 day cruise (was also on the 7 day cruise before).  Glad you were given an upgrade, at GS during both of our cruises there were signs posted "Cruise is full, no upgrades". Your cruise must not have been full.

 

We did have problems with bar service also on the last day of the four day cruise. We did not have any problems on the island at all getting drinks but then again we did not go late in the afternoon.  On the last day when everyone came back to the ship and it left Ocean Cay, the bars were crazy. Lines out the kazoo.  We knew which bars to go to that were the fastest since we had been on there so long.

 

As far as the island goes, I was there on the second cruise ever to the island and it has come a long way! Love this island! Love that it is NOT Coco Cay. It will never have all those bells and whistles and thank goodness. It is a Marine Reserve and all plans are to preserve it.  It still has a long way to go but it takes time.  Our friends did the wave runner excursion last week and seen several sea turtles. I think that is amazing!

 

I definitely would not have liked the 9pm dinner and not sure why you could not change since the ship could not have been full since you were able to get the upgrade. I would have been willing to take any table for an earlier seating.

 

I will never do a 4 day cruise again.  The people on the 4 day cruises are totally different.  It is so all about me and out to fit everything into fun and party in those 4 days.  No thanks. We will stick to the a minimum of 7 days.  I think if you were to sail on a 7 day or longer cruise on MSC you would find it to be a different type of crowd. 

 

Thanks for the review!

 

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by ready2cruzagain