JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 9/24

[BoundForSea]

Ok so @JamieLogical, I still don’t understand why MSC runs out of so many food and drink items frequently. We had the same thing happen last year again, ketchup, alcohol, just random things that I’ve never experienced on other lines not read about it happening as frequently as MSC. How do you run out of English Muffins? They must purposely under provision to save money. I thought they had finally figured this out when they came to NY. Can you just blog when it happens again on the rest of your cruise for us? Drives me nuts. Then they do what they shouldn’t and instead of saying , sorry we are out of XYZ they do like that and substitute ingredients for some whacked out concoction they make up instead of just telling people like a restaurant, sorry we’re all out of XYZ when you order. Ugh. Just a pet peeve I guess. 

[JamieLogical]

19 minutes ago, BoundForSea said:

Ok so @JamieLogical, I still don’t understand why MSC runs out of so many food and drink items frequently. We had the same thing happen last year again, ketchup, alcohol, just random things that I’ve never experienced on other lines not read about it happening as frequently as MSC. How do you run out of English Muffins? They must purposely under provision to save money. I thought they had finally figured this out when they came to NY. Can you just blog when it happens again on the rest of your cruise for us? Drives me nuts. Then they do what they shouldn’t and instead of saying , sorry we are out of XYZ they do like that and substitute ingredients for some whacked out concoction they make up instead of just telling people like a restaurant, sorry we’re all out of XYZ when you order. Ugh. Just a pet peeve I guess. 

 

I don't think the ship was out of English muffins. I think they were out of them at that particular dining room at that particular time. Just like the other day when that same dining room ran out of orange juice. There was definitely orange juice to be had elsewhere on the ship. We have 4 mimosas each on that same morning at the Bamboo Bar.

 

I have been on plenty of non-MSC ships that have run out of things ship-wide. I was on an NCL ship that ran out of basil, another that ran out of mint. I have been on Celebrity ships that ran out of limes and mint. NCL's District Brew House is infamous for running out of various beers. I sat next to a couple on my MCS cruise in April that told me their last Holland America cruise ran out of toilet paper!!!

 

I think the real issue here is that MSC drastically underestimated the number of people that would eat breakfast in the MDRs on port days with this itinerary.

Edited September 29, 2023 by JamieLogical

[Best Cat Mom]

34 minutes ago, BoundForSea said:

I’ve never experienced on other lines not read about it happening as frequently as MSC

Have you ever been to Italy? Menus in restaurants there are considered "suggestions." It is quite common to be told that they are out of something. MSC as a cruise line completely meets our expectations and experiences of a land-based Italian holiday.

[Mark_T]

51 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

I have been on plenty of non-MSC ships that have run out of things ship-wide. I was on an NCL ship that ran out of basil, another that ran out of mint. I have been on Celebrity ships that ran out of limes and mint. NCL's District Brew House is infamous for running out of various beers. I sat next to a couple on my MCS cruise in April that told me their last Holland America cruise ran out of toilet paper!!!

For a real disaster, on last cruise on Eclipse the World Class Bar ran out of gas for the smoker!

 

Probably a reasonable definition of a first world problem 🙂

[angelofjoy23]

Jamie - I think on a past blog you mentioned luggage tag holders. Can you remind me which ones you get and if they are wide or narrow?  
 

Love reading your blog!  We are getting on the ship on Nov 5!

Edited September 29, 2023 by angelofjoy23

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

We live in Rochester, NY which has a huge craft beer scene along with the surrounding area, so we are incredibly spoiled.

 

 I can only imagine.  Well after my earlier comment about beer I felt obligated to come clear. 

 

 I just returned home after attending "The Nation's Gun Show" in Chantilly, VA.  I meet up at that show five or six times a year to walk through the offerings with a couple of friends who are also former co-workers as well as shooting buddies. 

 As per our usual habit, when we get tired of shopping and walking around (usually at the two or three hour mark) we head to a nearby Hooter's for beer and dinner.  This being the end of September I felt obligated to have not one but two large Sam Adams Octoberfest to go with my dinner.  The beer, wings, and blackened fish sandwich, sans bun, was delicious. 

 

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, angelofjoy23 said:

Jamie - I think on a past blog you mentioned luggage tag holders. Can you remind me which ones you get and if they are wide or narrow?  

 

 Sorry for butting in but I believe these are the ones she mentioned.  They are what I ordered.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MV4HLF9

 

[ajoneen]

4 hours ago, angelofjoy23 said:

 We are getting on the ship on Nov 5!

So are We!

[ajoneen]

Hey @JamieLogical hope you had a great day at sea.

I also hope the crap weather we've had in NY metro hasn't effected you.  

Looks to be Sunny and warm for your return Wednesday. 

[JamieLogical]

12 hours ago, angelofjoy23 said:

Jamie - I think on a past blog you mentioned luggage tag holders. Can you remind me which ones you get and if they are wide or narrow?  
 

Love reading your blog!  We are getting on the ship on Nov 5!

 

They are linked on the first page of this blog if you click back over there. MSC uses the wide tags.

[JamieLogical]

On 9/28/2023 at 1:08 PM, ajoneen said:

Jamie- noticed you tipped cabin attendant at beginning and I think you posted somewhere you tipped favorite bar server/tender(?) at end.  Do you tip the room service person each morning? Ever? End? 

 

We don't usually tip room service because it's a different person every time.

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was our first sea day of the cruise! Hard to believe this far in. We have two sea days coming back and I am really looking forward to those. We decided to have a super lazy day and we accomplished just that.

 

First, we woke up to our room service breakfast being delivered, despite having scheduled it for a later time than normal because the clocks were moving forward an hour. We took our sweet time getting showered and dressed and, by the time we were ready, it was too late for MDR breakfast as it was already past 10:00!

 

We went up to the buffet for a light breakfast, since we now weren’t far off from lunchtime. I had my traditional cottage cheese and jam with a couple of slices of other cheeses. My husband managed to acquire another actually toasted bagel on which he put both butter and cream cheese. Plus he had a couple of sausage links.

 

Then it was off to find our very first Mimosa Blossoms of the cruise!!! We tried Edge, but there were no seats. I have decided to never again do a cold weather cruise on this ship. The cold weather forces everyone inside and all of my favorite spots are always mobbed. On my April sailings, I was pretty much a permanent fixture at Edge. Now I can simply never get a seat there.

 

We headed down to the Infinity Bar and decided to just sit at the bar ro drink our Mimosa Blossoms. After we were there for a bit, a couch opened up and we rushed over to snag it. I typed up my blog and my husband played his Switch and we drank two more mimosa blossoms. At one point a pianist played some live music. It was quite pleasant and relaxing, though we did end up having to share our couch a couple of times.

 

We decided to try the MDR for lunch, which opened at 12:00. We got there around 12:05 and there was a fairly long line outside the door, but we got seated quickly. I ordered the soup of the day, which was supposed to be cream of potato, the muffuletta sandwich, and the Boston cream pie.

 

The soup didn’t take *too* long to arrive, but I was very amused to find shrimp in it instead of chunks of potato. Good thing neither of us is allergic to shellfish! I thought of my dad, who doesn’t eat shellfish, receiving that soup after ordering what seemed like perfectly safe cream of potato and I think he would have been very upset. Also, there are a lot of people who don’t eat shellfish for religious reasons who would have been very upset, I would assume. I thought it was pretty good actually.

 

We had to wait a really really really long time between courses. I would guess it was close to 40 minutes. I forgot to take a picture of my sandwich because I just inhaled it when it finally arrived. At this point, my husband was getting really stressed about not being able to get a table at the Sky Lounge, which opened at 1:00. He decided to give up on dessert, run back to the room to grab his stuff, then head up to Sky Lounge to grab us a table and text me with news.

 

Initially, when he got up there, he texted that he was only able to get a small table, but I told him to wait there, keep an eye out for something to open up, and I would join him after my dessert. Fortunately, a larger table opened up shortly thereafter.

 

I stopped by the room after dessert to grab the copy of 7 Wonders Duel we had bought in Saint John and then joined him in the Sky Lounge. We hung out there for quite a while, playing Splendor Duel and learning 7 Wonders Duel. We both had a couple of drinks and our afternoon coffee then we were feeling nappy.

 

We headed back to the room and took a good long nap and by the time we were up and dressed again, it was almost dinner time! We had talked about doing Brass Anchor for dinner earlier in the day and ultimately settled on that, even though we could have made it to the MDR in time for our 6:30 seating.

 

Instead, we went to the Champagne Bar and had a couple of rounds of Blueberry Lavender Sparklers. Then we headed over to Brass Anchor and sat at the bar. I hadn’t intended to get a drink there since their beer selection is hot garbage, but I saw they had some cocktails on their menu that the other venues didn’t have. I decided on the Spiced Caribbean Mule, which was pretty good. I was worried the “tiki mix” would involve pineapple, but if it did, I couldn’t taste it. I mostly tasted ginger.

 

I ordered the Scotch Egg and my husband ordered the Fish & Chips. I love a Scotch Egg and I now only know of one place that still serves them in Rochester, so it had been a while since I had one. My husband’s Fish & Chips came out first and he enjoyed it. Sorry I only got a picture after it was half-eaten. The breading on the fish was good and he was happy it was served with vinegar. The fish “chunks” were pretty small, but he liked it.

 

My Scotch Egg came out and it was absurdly huge. It had about three times the sausage-to-egg ratio I am used to. It was good and the honey mustard they served it was tasty. I only manage to eat less than half of it, though.

 

After dinner, we ended up in the Casino, where I lost more money than I care to admit. And then after that, we ended up in Edge, which actually had some seats open this late. We played a round of Skipbo and had a couple more drinks and then it was off to late-night snack and bed. They had oatmeal raisin cookies, so my husband was reasonably satisfied.

 

Day's Drinks:

Mimosa Blossom x3 from Infinity Lounge
Double Vodka & Ginger ale x2 from Sky Lounge
Americano w/ Bailey's from Sky Lounge
Blueberry Lavender Sparkler x2 from Champagne Bar
Spiced Caribbean Mule from Brass Anchor
Blind Russian from Casino Bar
Blind Russian from Edge
 

[JamieLogical]

The photos reminded me of two things I forgot to mention in my blog. At dinner and late-night snack, they had these ridiculous hot dog and french fry sandwiches on the buffet at the pizza station where they usually have stromboli or something along those lines.

 

Also, after dinner, we walked through the shops and I took photos of the snacks and pharmaceuticals that are available for anyone who is concerned about those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by JamieLogical

[Sakura Tomoe]

I'm assuming that the food offerings at the Brass Anchor are not complementary, since I see prices.  Is that correct?

[Homosassa]

Those French fry and hot dog sandwiches look like MSC's version of a chip butty with sausage for their UK guests.

 

 

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Sakura Tomoe said:

I'm assuming that the food offerings at the Brass Anchor are not complementary, since I see prices.  Is that correct?

 

That is correct. They are a la carte. I don't believe you can use a specialty dining credit there.

[AstoriaPreppy]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

Then we headed over to Brass Anchor and sat at the bar. I hadn’t intended to get a drink there since their beer selection is hot garbage, but I saw they had some cocktails on their menu that the other venues didn’t have.

 

Could you post a beer menu (or recount the beer options) at Brass Anchor? We're on the Meraviglia in January, and would enjoy knowing what we're going to be facing 🤣

Edited September 30, 2023 by AstoriaPreppy

[HLR]

Just wondering....at breakfast is there smoked salmon at the buffet? Or is it only in the MDR?

 

Howard

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, HLR said:

Just wondering....at breakfast is there smoked salmon at the buffet? Or is it only in the MDR?

 

Howard

 

I will try the keep an eye out if we go to the buffet tomorrow. My gut says yes, but I want to confirm.

[Laurab23]

On 9/29/2023 at 10:37 AM, JamieLogical said:

Yesterday was our port stop in Portland, Maine. We received information in our rooms the night before about the US Immigration process that all of us would need to go through. They were going to have everyone go to the Carousel Lounge by “group,” regardless of whether they intended to go off the ship or not. Group A was to consist of those with MSC Excursions and staterooms on Deck 5. It was supposed to be called at 9:30. We were supposed to be in Group B with our fellow passengers from Deck 8. We were supposed to be called at 10:00.

 

We running a little late with getting ready in the morning, but still intended to go to Panorama for breakfast, which was supposed to be open until 9:30. We got there just about 9:00. We walked past Deck 7 (where Carousel Lounge is) and there was already a line past the aft elevators. Carousel Lounge is at the complete aft of the ship, on the other side of the casino, so this was a very long line already, considering it was a full half hour before the first group was even supposed to be called.

 

There was also a line on Deck 6 for Panorama. It initially didn’t seem to be moving at all. I looked at my watch and it was 9:04. We agreed to give it 5 minutes. The line began moving again and we did get inside, but I heard the Head Maitre’d tell them to close the doors behind us. Remember, they were supposed to be open until 9:30.

 

We were seated at a table with four other people, the two ahead of us and the two behind us in line. We were seated at an eight-top table right up against the wall, behind a pillar at the front of the restaurant. There were only 5 coffee cups on the table and I was the odd man out. Someone came around with coffee and milk and sent someone else to fetch me a cup. But by the time I received a cup, the person with coffee had moved on. Eventually, another person with coffee came around, but no milk. At this point, everyone else at my table was on their second cup of coffee. Finally, I waved down another person with milk and accomplished coffee.

 

We all placed our food orders and the wait began. We waited and waited and waited. At this point, the dining room was about ¾ empty because everyone else had finished their food and left. The army of servers were all busy turning over the tables with fresh tablecloths and place settings. Trays upon trays upon trays of dirty plates were being carried away. No new food was coming out. A table near us was also still waiting on their food (a few of them had gotten fruit salad at least). We waited some more. We were really down to about 10 tables with people still at them at this point. Only the two tables without food. Someone in a suit jacket came over and told us he had sent someone to check on our food.

 

We were just about to give up and go to the buffet when the other table that had been waiting finally received their food, which gave us renewed hope. Then finally we got our food. Three of the people at our table had ordered the eggs benedict. It came out on white bread instead of english muffins. Apparently, they had run out of english muffins. One of the other women at my table had also ordered an english muffin as her bread with her meal and they came out and asked her what she would like instead (she went with a croissant). My food was perfectly good. I had ordered an omelette with cheddar and bacon. I also partially accomplished toast as well. I asked for butter when they brought it out and was given butter almost immediately. However, I still didn’t get any jam. My husband’s meal was less successful. He had ordered french toast and there was no hope of syrup. I had seen the syrup carried away out of the MDR earlier while all the staff were clearing everything.

 

We headed back to our room around 10:00. At this point, they were still only calling Group A. They kept repeating that ONLY Group A should be queuing up at Carousel Lounge and that they would call everyone else by Deck after that. You were not allowed to get off of the ship until passing through immigration, so clearly a lot of people who wanted to go on shore were eager to get through, regardless of whether it was their turn or not.

 

We came back to the room and I worked on my blog and my husband played his Switch and we waited for our group to be called. It was called shortly before 11:00 (remember the flier had said our group was supposed to be 10:00). We headed down and got in line just past the aft elevators. It quickly got much longer behind us.

 

Fortunately the line moved quickly. However, we could see lots and lots of people going into the Carousel Lounge and none coming out. It was slightly alarming. We made some jokes about people just getting shoved off the back of the boat or being put through a wood chipper to become fish food. I did start to become concerned that they were having people exit the ship from there. We were not prepared to go on shore yet. We hadn’t brought our jackets or any of the other stuff we would want to take onshore like medications and water. As we got near the entrance to the Lounge, I could feel cold air coming in, so there was definitely a door to outside open somewhere nearby.

 

We got into the Lounge and saw that they had those facial recognition scanners set up, so we didn’t need our passports after all. We went through the scanners quickly then looped around through the Lounge to where two crew members were putting little white, rectangular stickers on everyone’s ship cards to show they had been “cleared” to go on shore. We then had to have our ship cards scanned by another set of crew members who were sitting at a long table with laptops. We were then routed outside onto the Promenade, which I had honestly forgotten existed on this ship and walked forward along that before re-entering the ship near the Champagne Bar.

 

As we were walking along the Promenade, we heard the announcement for Group C to come to the Carousel Lounge, so the pace of things seemed to have picked up. We went back to our rooms to grab the rest of the stuff we needed to go onshore and then tried to figure out how to get off the ship. We had to go down to Deck 4 from the aft elevator/stairwell.

 

Once off the ship, there was quite a long walk down gangways and across bridges and such out to the street. We had decided that we were going to do a DIY brewery crawl. There was a tour company called Brews Cruise that offered a brewery crawl for $85 each, but I didn’t understand the point of doing that when we were perfectly capable of walking to the various nearby breweries ourselves. According to Google, some of the breweries opened at 11:00 and more opened at 12:00. It was about 11:20 at this point. We decided to stop at the one closest to the ship first since it was already open, This was Brickyard Hollow. The location we stopped at wasn’t the actual brewery, which I gathered was in Yarmouth, ME, but they did serve their own beer. I got an Imperial Stout and my husband got a Brown Ale. Both were good and we really enjoyed the vibe of the place (which also seemed to be a popular pizza place) and relaxed at the bar and enjoyed our beers.

 

Next up on our list was Stars & Stripes, which was rated as a 4.9 on Google, so that boded well. It was pretty far away, but we figured we would go there first and then work our way back east. Well, we got there and were disappointed to discover that the hours listed on Google were wrong. They didn’t open until 2:00. That was a disappointment, as it was just now after 12:00.

 

We headed back down the hill to Liquid Riot, which was the next stop on our list. There we tasted a couple of beers and then split a flight. I had some sort of strawberry cream ale nitro and an Irish stout. The strawberry was my favorite. We also decided to order a little food to tide us over here. We had the crab hush puppies, which were delicious.

 

Next up was Shipyard Brewing, which required us to walk back past the ship and further north and east. This is a larger brewery that distributes. They had a large gift shop at the front and then just a counter to order beers at furtner in with some open tables, no table service or a bar to sit at. Here we got another flight. We both got the Pumpkin Imperial Ale and I also got a Blueberry Ale, which was very good. There was no food available here and my husband was starting to get hangry for a real lunch.

 

When we left, the plan was to head north up to Washington Steet, which is where the best breweries were purported to be located. It was quite a hike up the hill and we had to deal with a lot of road construction and closed sidewalks. We finally made it to Oxbow Blending & Bottling, which was our next planned stop. Right next to it was the Duck Fat Frites Shack where we got a grilled cheese sandwich and some poutine with duck confit.

 

We also got a German Pilsner to share from Oxbow, which only had their outside bar with a limited draft selection available, unfortunately.

 

The grilled cheese sandwich was delicious. It had cheese and sundried tomato pesto on sourdough bread that was perfectly toasted. The poutine would have been great if I hadn’t JUST had that amazing chicken & waffle poutine the day before. This paled in comparison.

 

After the stop at Oxbow, we decided to just head back to the ship. I had gastric sleeve surgery years ago and it makes it difficult for me to drink anything for about an hour after eating a full meal, so it would have been a while before I could drink more beer.

 

At least the walk back to the ship was all downhill, but by this point, we both desperately needed to pee. We were praying there would be restrooms in the little terminal building where the ship was docked, as the walk from there back to the ship was still quite long and we didn’t know what kind of security line we’d be facing.

 

There were indeed bathrooms in the little building, but the ladies’ room only had two stalls and the line was quite long. Two stalls seemed perfectly reasonable when accommodating a ship with roughly 6000 people onboard, presumably half of whom were women….

 

I waited in the line for forever. My husband went to the men’s room and came back out while I was still in line outside of the actual bathroom area. I did eventually get to pee, but I am not convinced it was any faster than had we just gotten back onboard the ship.

 

Back onboard, we went to our room and quickly changed. Our next priority was coffee, which we acquired from Edge while I finished typing up my blog for the previous day.  We then decided that a nap seemed like a good idea, but it was challenging as first, the crew safety drill was underway and they kept making announcements regarding that which played in the staterooms. Then my husband got some acid reflux from having had coffee right before trying to nap, so his coughing kept me up. I didn’t actually get much sleep and my husband got even less.

 

Around 6:00, we got up and out of the room again, having not conclusively decided what to do about dinner. I decided that we would go up to the buffet, do a lap to see if there was anything amazing there, and then go to the MDR at 6:30 if we didn’t spot anything we really wanted.

 

Surprising no one, there was nothing inspirational at the buffet, so we opted for the MDR. We headed down to the Champagne Bar for some French 77s before dinner and ran into someone from Cruise Critic who was on her way to Butcher’s Cut with her husband for their Diamond dinner. I gave her a little advice on drinks to order and then we headed off to the MDR. Oh, while we were sitting at the Champagne Bar, a couple of our dinner tablemates passed by and informed us they wouldn’t be at dinner.

 

We got to our table and no one else was there. Even the two ladies who always show up late never showed up, so we had the table to ourselves for dinner. I was excited because there was this seafood pasta on the menu, which I had had on my solo sailing in April. It was every bit as good as I remembered. I also had the French Onion soup as my appetizer and the cheese plate as my dessert.

 

My husband had the asparagus for his appetizer (the stalks were ridiculously small) and the short ribs as his entre. The short ribs were too fatty, but the polenta underneath was apparently really good. For his dessert, he had the Opera Cake and they brought him some strawberry ice cream as well, which was very good.

 

After dinner, we decided to head back to the Champagne Bar to hang out for a bit. My husband was still having stomach issues so he planned to call it an early night, but I wanted to try some of the other cocktails on the Champagne Bar menu. Our bartender recommended the Blueberry Lavender Sparkler, so I tried that and it was very good. While I was just getting it, the couple we had run into on their way to Butcher’s Cut spotted us again and we got into a long conversation that was initially about the differences between NCL and MSC and the cuts that NCL has made recently. They are whatever status level is below Ambassador on NCL now. They had status matched to Diamond with MSC before COVID and were going to lose their status if they didn’t sail by the end of the year, which is how they ended up on this cruise (their first on MSC).

 

They have been loving it so far and she ordered a glass of Vueve (a $14 upcharge with the Easy Plus package) just to spite NCL, which no longer carries Vueve onboard. We stayed and chatted for a very long time. My husband had to eventually go to bed, as he still wasn’t feeling great. But I stayed for longer and we had a great chat about cruising, children, grandchildren, nephews, broken bones, surgeries, and horses!

 

I had a few more of those Blueberry Lavender Sparklers. But eventually, it was time for me to have a late-night snack and head to bed. Especially since the clocks were moving forward an hour. I got a slice of pizza, checked for some cookies for my husband (there were none as I got there around 10:15), and headed off to bed.

 

We decided to fill out our room service card for later than usual because of the time change and then we crashed pretty hard.

 

Day's Drinks:

Wescustogo Imperial Stout from Brickyard Hollow
Ichigo Cream Ale and Irish Goodbye  from Liquid Riot
Smashed.Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale and Blue Paw Blueberry Ale from Shipyard Brewing
Zeit Pils from Oxbow Blending & Bottling
ending & Bottling
Americano w/ Bailey’s from Edge
French 77 x1.5 from Champagne Bar
Blueberry Lavender Sparkler x3 from Champagne Bar
 

Are there a lot of things at the champagne bar that are covered under the easy plus package?

 

Laura

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

2 hours ago, HLR said:

Just wondering....at breakfast is there smoked salmon at the buffet? Or is it only in the MDR?

 

Howard

I saw smoked salmon daily on my April 29 cruise. 😀

[HLR]

2 hours ago, Ottawa_Cruiser said:

I saw smoked salmon daily on my April 29 cruise. 😀

yay!!!! I can make eggs any day at home...but i never get smoked salmon!

[gizfish]

7 hours ago, HLR said:

Just wondering....at breakfast is there smoked salmon at the buffet? Or is it only in the MDR?

 

Howard

My DH was never able to find any at the buffet couple of weeks ago on the Bahamas Florida cruise.

[ESCARGO]

1 hour ago, HLR said:

yay!!!! I can make eggs any day at home...but i never get smoked salmon!

There is always a big selection of packaged smoked salmon right by the seafood counter in many grocery stores. 

[JamieLogical]

10 hours ago, Laurab23 said:

Are there a lot of things at the champagne bar that are covered under the easy plus package?

 

Laura

 

All of the prosecco-based cocktails are covered and you can ask to have the champagne-based cocktails made with prosecco to get the price down to where they are covered.