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JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Meraviglia 10/25

JamieLogical

By JamieLogical,
in MSC Cruises

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buffet24

buffet24

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38 minutes ago, angelofjoy23 said:

This is AMAZING!!! I love buffets too. I am totally saving this to bring with me!!  You need to add in the Carousel shows and the hours for the free ice cream by the pool...just sayin; 🤣

You Ask... and You shall Receive... 😁

image.thumb.png.1abd6d9b9dfa4f1aff114bd2727a1840.png

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Morgsmom Great Review Rare

Morgsmom

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22 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I managed to get everything into a 24" and my absurdly large backpack, which is basically the size of a full carry-on. Here's a photo of it from the Away site:

 

image.png.a7143da95e053b1d98a772ed5c14974a.png

is that the 25L or 45L pack?

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Itchy&Scratchy Great Review Rare

Itchy&Scratchy

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Posted (edited)
On 10/24/2023 at 1:50 PM, 3some said:

One 25 inch, one 22 inch, 2 small carryon. I'm traveling without my sherpa.

for one person?

 

We travel with 2 28" half empty bags 36-40# each (because we usually fly on Spirit) and 3 small backpacks with medications/electronics/emergency stuff. There are 3 of us on 7-10 night cruises.

 

My mom and dad sometimes cruise with us and are limited to one 40# 28" roller suitcase and 2 small backpacks with medications/electronics/emergency stuff.

 

But then - we once saw a young couple that had around 12 large suitcases piled on a cart... They were all the same color/style, so it was easy to tell. 

Edited by Itchy&Scratchy
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JamieLogical "Live from...." Rare

JamieLogical

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Hola! was closed for lunch. I suspect because of our early sail away. Hung out with my crew at Edge and th n had lunch in the buffet, which was a cage match. Once rooms wer ready around 1:30, we all split up to drop our stuff and unpack. Then it was time for muster. Going to meet up at Sky Lounge for sail away.

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buffet24

buffet24

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14 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Going to meet up at Sky Lounge for sail away.

If you get a chance... can you take a quick picture of the parking lot?  Curious to see how full it might be...  If you don't get a chance then not a problem!!

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ajoneen

ajoneen

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Posted
18 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Hola! was closed for lunch

 

 Going to meet up at Sky Lounge for sail away. 

Hola!  Boo!

Sky Lounge- I noted on the previous cruise the daily posted the Sky as only open 11pm to late. Is that true? Is the space open but not serving? Or is it a typo that is supposed to bwee 11AM?

 

Are you Aurea this time?

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Essiesmom "Live from...." Rare

Essiesmom

Posted
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3 minutes ago, ajoneen said:

Hola!  Boo!

Sky Lounge- I noted on the previous cruise the daily posted the Sky as only open 11pm to late. Is that true? Is the space open but not serving? Or is it a typo that is supposed to bwee 11AM?

 

Are you Aurea this time?

Cabin type is in post #1, paragraph 3.  EM

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JamieLogical "Live from...." Rare

JamieLogical

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18 hours ago, buffet24 said:

If you get a chance... can you take a quick picture of the parking lot?  Curious to see how full it might be...  If you don't get a chance then not a problem!!

 

I didn't get a chance, but I did take a picture on our September sailing and I would say it was about 1/3 full at sail away.

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JamieLogical "Live from...." Rare

JamieLogical

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I am sorry this is all bold, but It is the way it copies in from Google Docs and I can't seem to fix it. If I paste as plain text, I lose all my line breaks, which is a huge pain to clean up.

 

As you know, yesterday was embarkation day. I had flown into JFK the night before and stayed at the Baltic Hotel, which is in Brooklyn, only two miles from the terminal. My group of solo friends were texting each other all morning, sharing our travel plans and estimated arrival times. We were all aiming to get to the terminal around 10:00.

 

I checked out of my hotel and summoned my Lyft right at 9:30. My original ETA at the terminal was 9:57, but the traffic was quite bad. It was an issue that everyone else was running into as well, so only one of us actually made it to the terminal by 10:00.

 

I dropped my luggage with the porter at 10:02, according to the time stamp on the photo that I took. The line for security was fairly short. It took more time just to walk through the rat maze than actually standing in line. After security, there were two check-in lines, one for Diamond & Aurea and the other for everyone else. I got into the Diamond line and I was literally the only one in it, so I didn’t have to wait at all. As soon as I got to the front of the ropes, a spot at the desk opened up and I was directed straight to it. I got checked in, got my new, fancy, black Diamond key card, and then I went to the seating area. General seating was on the right and priority boarding seating was on the left. The first section on the left was for people in wheelchairs or who needed assistance. The second section was the Diamond and Aurea section. I don’t know where the YC people were. Somewhere else entirely, I guess.

 

I saw Ed right away and went to join him. A man stopped me as I tried to enter the area and checked to make sure I was diamond. Turns out he was VERY strict about only allowing Diamond and Aurea into that area and I saw him turn away many more people than he let in. I sat down at 10:15, so less than 15 minutes total for security and check-in and walking all the way back to that back corner of the priority boarding area.

 

Soon after I sat down, Cheree texted that she was in the terminal. Shortly after that, she said she had seen Ray in the check-in line. But it was Ted who joined us next, then Ray, and the Cheree. Ted had gone through the Diamond “line”, but the others had not.

 

Once we were all together, it wasn’t long before boarding started. They escorted those who needed assistance first (and presumably YC at some point), and then our area next. Because of where we were sitting, we were actually the last of the priority people to board, but it still went quickly. I walked onto the ship at 10:48.

 

When they scanned my card to let me in, they stopped me, because the person who checked me in hadn’t taken a new photo of me. The one I had uploaded before the cruise, I had green hair and I now have orange hair. He wrote a big “P” on my card in magic marker and told me I would need to go to guest services to have a new one taken by the end of the day.

 

Ed wanted to drop his stuff at his room, even though the rooms weren’t ready yet. So the rest of us headed up to Edge for our first round of drinks. We had no trouble getting seats, since were were some of the first people onboard, but the ship did start to fill up fast.

 

After our first round of drinks (Ed rejoined us in there somewhere), Ray and I volunteered to go to the MDR desk to get our dining situation sorted out. Prior to the cruise, I was able to get five of our six reservations linked, but the system wouldn’t allow me to link Ed’s (more on why later). Also, we had all been assigned the 6:00 dining time and that was too early for some in our group, so we wanted to change to a later time. We had been assigned Panorama, though, and everyone was happy about that.

 

So Ray and I went and waited in the LONG line at the MDR desk on Deck 6 to get things fixed. I had everyone’s key cards and room numbers, so it was easy once it was our turn. We were moved to the 8:30 dining time in Panorama.

 

Back at Edge, everyone was on a second round of drinks. Ed had stolen the drink I had ordered for my second round, so I had to wait for another. While I was waiting, I went to see about lunch ay Hola! And was disappointed to find out they were closed for lunch. I had had lunch at Hola! on embarkation day before, so this was a bit of a surprise.

 

We ultimately ended up going up to the buffet for lunch and by this time it was complete chaos. Everyone was on board. Everyone was waiting for their rooms to be ready. We did a full lap of the entire buffet, including the deck seating in the back and couldn’t find a table. By the end of our first lap, we had lost people, but I finally spotted a table for 4 near where we had first come in. I snagged it thinking we could just pull up an extra chair and texted everyone where I was.  Ray found me quickly and then Cheree, but Ed and Ted were hopelessly lost. While we were trying to communicate to Ed and Ted where we were, another larger table opened up, so Ray grabbed that and we relocated. We decided to get food in shifts and keep an eye out for the others.

 

Ed did eventually find us, but Ted had given up and said he was on a lounger outside near the ice cream bar. I went to fetch him and brought him back inside to our table and eventually, we all did get to eat some food, though not all together. While we were finishing up, the announcement came on that rooms we ready, so we all went our separate ways and agreed to meet up at the Sky Lounge after the muster drill for sail away.

 

I finally got to check out my Studio Balcony. When I got in there, I was surprised to see the sofa pulled out into a full-sized bed. In its pulled-out state, it blocked the mini-fridge and half of the closet from opening. I was also surprised to find only two hangers in one half of the closet and zero in the other half. Two hangers for an 11-day cruise was not going to cut it!!!

 

I wrote a note to my room steward that I would like more hangers like the couch made up with bedding in its couch configuration so I would have more floor space, and like my mini-fridge emptied. I put on the “Make Up Room” light in the hopes he would find the note, but he actually came by while I was in the process of trying to put the bed back to a couch and make up the cushions as my bed. He was very dismayed that I was doing it myself and insisted on helping me. I gave him the note and the $20 I had left with it and told him about the hangers and the mini-fridge.

 

Once the bed situation was sorted and I was able to get into the closet, I began unpacking my backpack, as I didn’t have my suitcase yet. My room steward came back with a handful of wire hangers, but I was concerned it still wouldn’t be enough and asked for a few more. I got my backpack unpacked and my suitcase arrived, so I had just started unpacking that when my deck was called for the muster drill.

 

My muster station was on Deck 7 in the Carousel Lounge. My room is on deck 14 and the elevators are locked down during muster. I was already pretty hot and sweaty from unpacking in my hot room (I had put on the A/C when I got in there, but it hadn’t cooled the room much by the time muster rolled around). After climbing the seven flights of stairs back to my room, I was dripping sweat. Oh, I should also mention it is 160 steps from my room to the elevators/stairs.

 

As I headed back to my room, I saw my room steward again and he said he had left three more hangers for me and would try to scrounge up more. I told him not to bother until I was finished unpacking and I would let him know if I needed any more.

 

It was pushing 3:00 at this point and I wanted to finish my unpacking, cool WAY down, and change before meeting everyone at the Sky Lounge, so I let them all know I would be a bit late. I got the rest of my stuff unpacked. I had the perfect number of hangers. I did struggle a bit with where to put everything. There are no hooks on the walls in this room. The regular balcony rooms have two hooks on the walls and two inside the bathroom door. This room has the two on the bathroom door, but none on the walls. So I had no place to hang my hat or my water sling that I take with me on excursions. I ended up just piling those on the top shelf of the closet with the two beach towels they provided me. Not sure why I got two towels, but I did. Also not sure why I got four pillows for the bed…. This is a solo room, there would never be two people in it.

 

My hamper wouldn’t fit in the bottom of the mini closet, so I ended up just having to put it out in the open at the end of the couch. I hate not having my dirty laundry tucked away somewhere, but that was the only option. Also, since there is no “under” the bed, I just had to leave my suitcase out, tucked in the corner between the couch and the wall.

 

At least there was plenty of room in the bathroom! The bathroom has a full-sized tub! It has less counter space than a normal balcony, but still plenty for one person, especially, since it has the same three shelves on the wall/mirror that the regular rooms have. There is also a little shelf under the counter and a cabinet under the sink.

 

After I finished unpacking, I stripped off all my sweaty clothes and just laid down for a bit to cool off. Once sufficiently cooled, I changed into my clean, dry cruise uniform and headed up to the Sky Lounge. The rest of my crew was already there. By this time, we had learned that Cheree’s friend was not going to make it onboard. Cheree had been trying to contact her all day. At first, it sounded like she had caught a train from Connecticut into NYC, but then I guess she didn’t? The latest word was that she had contacted MSC about joining the ship in Port Canaveral. But there is no way they would let a US citizen do that, as it would violate the Passenger Vessel Services Act. So I guess it will just be the five of us.

 

I had a couple of drinks at the Sky Lounge and we watched the sail away. Watching the part on deck was more entertaining to us than the Statue of Liberty or Veranzano Bridge since we have all been there and done that a bunch of times now.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that when we got to the Sky Lounge, I found out that Ed had learned he didn’t have the drink package, which was news to him! I also suspect this is the reason I couldn’t link his reservation to ours before the cruise. He spent 45 minutes at Guest Services trying to get it resolved while the rest of us were drinking and enjoying sail away.

 

He wasn’t able to get it resolved, but we had renewed hope when Ted was able to find a screenshot on his phone. See, what had happened was that Ted had originally ended up with two bookings for this cruise somehow. So, when Ed was thinking about joining us, after the prices had gone up, Ted called MSC and had them transfer one of his bookings into Ed’s name. Ted had a screenshot of that original booking that showed it had the drinks and wifi included. So they tried to go back down to Guest Services together, but by that point the line was insane and they agreed to just go later, since we had the solo meet-up at the Brass Anchor at 5:00.

 

The solo meet-up was packed. Definitely a lot more people than the first night of our April solo sailing. It was very loud and chaotic and I didn’t actually get to get to interact with too many people. I did chat with a gentleman named Andy for a bit because he recognized me from Cruise Critic. Apparently, he is a lurker here and doesn’t post. But we talked about why a wealth of information Cruise Critic is.

 

After the solo meet-up, we decided to all go down to Guest Services. Ted & Ed were still trying to get Ed’s drink package sorted out, I needed to get my new photo taken, Ray wanted to get a new keycard printed to show our new dining time/table, and Cheree wanted to go to the excursions desk to cancel an excursion she had planned with her no-show friend in Cozumel.

 

Cheree finished up before the rest of us, but fortunately, there was a good musician playing down there so she was able to watch/listen to him while the rest of us waited in line. Ray and I went up together and got our issues taken care of pretty quickly. There was a hiccup with the keycard printer initially, but we got that resolved. Ted & Ed were still arguing with their Guest Services rep when the rest of us decided to go up to the buffet for a snack since it was still ~2 hours until our dinner time.

 

After our snack in the buffet, I planned to go back to my room, but my room steward was there working. He let me know he had emptied the mini-fridge and so I went looking for Ed & Ted to see if they had any luck. I found them in the Meraviglia Lounge, which is where I guessed they would be because I knew Ted wanted potato chips and they often serve them there in the evenings.

 

Still no resolution with Ed’s drink package. Guest Services sent an email to corporate, so we are still hoping they will be able to do something for him. It’s ridiculous that they are saying the drinks package and wifi were canceled on the reservation when it was transferred into Ed’s name. The rep Ted had talked to when doing the transfer assured him everything would transfer over and Ed still paid the remainder of the same balance that Ted had on the reservation before the transfer and just reimbursed Ted for the deposit. Why would he still have to pay the full balance with the drinks and wifi removed?

 

 I did finally make it back to my room where I relaxed for a bit before our late dinner seating. I was pretty tired by this point, having been up since 6:30 and having had a very full day, but I mustered the energy to go to dinner. We were seated in the port-side back corner of Panorama near the windows (though it was pitch dark at this point) and seemed to be one of only two tables in our section with people. The other table just had a woman sitting by herself.

 

I had the Spanish Delights, Lasagne Bolognese, and Grandma’s Chocolate Cake. The first two items were very good. The cake didn’t come with ice cream like it has on every other sailing. I don’t know if that is a change or just an oversight. I will specifically ask for ice cream next time.

 

After dinner, Ray, Cheree, and I tried to keep the party going with a stop at the Champagne Bar, but we were all really tired. I went to the casino briefly after finishing my Blueberry Lavender Sparkler and then it was off to bed.

 

Day's Drinks:

Mojito from Edge

Espresso Martini from Edge

Mojito from Sky Lounge

Hugo Spritz from Sky Lounge

Vodka Ginger Ale from Anchor Bar

Americano w/ Bailey's from Meraviglia Lounge

Blueberry Lavender Sparkler from Champagne Bar

Hugo Spritz from Panorama MDR

Blueberry Lavender Sparkler from Champagne Bar

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