Why has MSC Meraviglia Undergone Such Significant Changes on the 7-Day Christmas Cruise

[stefanel]

Forgot to mention, it seemed to us that cabin service was done more than once per day. Cabin service was good, once the soap dispenser was empty but when I left a note in the afternoon it was promptly refilled. The steward also vacuumed the room at least once (i saw him doing it) and cleaned the balcony. This cruise came on the back of the deviated one that took the ship to Boston and Canada and the steward noted that they did not even open the balconies during that trip.

 

[michelle.zhang.90]

1 hour ago, stefanel said:

Forgot to mention, it seemed to us that cabin service was done more than once per day. Cabin service was good, once the soap dispenser was empty but when I left a note in the afternoon it was promptly refilled. The steward also vacuumed the room at least once (i saw him doing it) and cleaned the balcony. This cruise came on the back of the deviated one that took the ship to Boston and Canada and the steward noted that they did not even open the balconies during that trip.

 

It’s possible by steward. Our steward is not very good. The other girl steward and boy I saw them cleaning the cabins all the time.

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Thank you for your reporting.  Unfortunately it seems the norm that the monster ships are no longer for us as the kids have grown and flown the coop. With beautiful memories of cruising around the world including holidays, it seems the relaxation of a beautiful voyage does bring some headaches.  We are blessed to divide our time between NY and Honolulu having been born and raised in Manhattan.  That said, since the late 80s our condo has a beautiful gym/pool/hottub on the 47th floor and being on the Board was always told never use a communal hot tub because of the constant proper need for chemicals to be added in a very precise manner.  We are on another cruise line ship and low and behold Legionnaires Disease was traced to the hot tub.  Not the only instance but I heeded the advice and refrain from using them sad to say.

[dexddd]

Definitely changes.  We've sailed Mera four times since restart.  Twice Feb 2023 then Oct.  All in YC.  October was a big drop from past.  Biggest drop was YC food and restaurant service.  Saw YC director two minutes over 11 days.  Butler and Asst plus many bar staff great.

[michelle.zhang.90]

2 hours ago, dexddd said:

Definitely changes.  We've sailed Mera four times since restart.  Twice Feb 2023 then Oct.  All in YC.  October was a big drop from past.  Biggest drop was YC food and restaurant service.  Saw YC director two minutes over 11 days.  Butler and Asst plus many bar staff great.

so sorry about that, especially after how much you paid for YC. Time to pause cruising for a while.

[MisterBill99]

2 hours ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

so sorry about that, especially after how much you paid for YC. Time to pause cruising for a while.

 

Don't you mean "Time to pause cruising MSC for a while"?

Edited January 2 by MisterBill99

[michelle.zhang.90]

18 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Don't you mean "Time to pause cruising MSC for a while"?

That sounds good too.  Over the last four years, my children have grown, prompting us to shift from cruising to exploring other countries during our travels. We used to cruise twice a year now once a year. If all cruises are going down at some point, we probably will cruise less. I heard Celebrity and Princess are both still very good which left cruising as an option for us. It's just too sad to see how bad MSC goes now.

[MisterBill99]

10 minutes ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

That sounds good too.  Over the last four years, my children have grown, prompting us to shift from cruising to exploring other countries during our travels. We used to cruise twice a year now once a year. If all cruises are going down at some point, we probably will cruise less. I heard Celebrity and Princess are both still very good which left cruising as an option for us. It's just too sad to see how bad MSC goes now.

 

Celebrity has gone down too, at least in food. But it's still better than MSC. We are trying Virgin next month; the food is supposed to be excellent. But it won't work for you since it's no kids.

 

Trying MSC Meraviglia in March, but in the YC. We did the Seaside in 2018 and hated it, but YC was the only thing that could get me back on the ship. But now I'm reading here that it's gone downhill as well on Meraviglia. I guess I'll see if that's also a one-tme thing.

 

[michelle.zhang.90]

1 minute ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Celebrity has gone down too, at least in food. But it's still better than MSC. We are trying Virgin next month; the food is supposed to be excellent. But it won't work for you since it's no kids.

 

Trying MSC Meraviglia in March, but in the YC. We did the Seaside in 2018 and hated it, but YC was the only thing that could get me back on the ship. But now I'm reading here that it's gone downhill as well on Meraviglia. I guess I'll see if that's also a one-tme thing.

 

A previous comment on this post indicated a decline in YC. I would be so mad if I invested a considerable amount in YC and received unsatisfactory service. I highly recommend staying updated on recent reviews of Meraviglia. Frankly, it seems like the management no longer cares customer satisfaction. The captain does not look like a captain, really, more like a chef. We cruised with seaside in 2018 as well. If you think back then is bad, you will hate Meraviglia today without any question.

 

[MisterBill99]

18 minutes ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

A previous comment on this post indicated a decline in YC. I would be so mad if I invested a considerable amount in YC and received unsatisfactory service. I highly recommend staying updated on recent reviews of Meraviglia. Frankly, it seems like the management no longer cares customer satisfaction. The captain does not look like a captain, really, more like a chef. We cruised with seaside in 2018 as well. If you think back then is bad, you will hate Meraviglia today without any question.

 

Well, we're in an inside YC cabin so it wasn't that expensive, certainly not compared to the balcony suites. Everyone tells you how great MSC is, but when you come back to complain, they tell you "Well it's a low-price line, what did you expect?" I even saw someone post that when there was a complaint about YC, saying it's not fair to compare it to a high-end cruise line. Funny thing is. MSC's description of YC doesn't say "but we're a low-price line, so take our claims with a grain of salt".

 

Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Edited January 2 by MisterBill99

[Denversail]

On 12/31/2023 at 9:37 AM, michelle.zhang.90 said:

Are you sure about that? We sailed out from NYC last May with Norwegian to Bermuda and our cabin was cleaned every time we left it. 

I have never had my standard stateroom cleaned every time I've left. Not from a single cruise in the last 20 years. I haven't cruised on NCL but I find it hard to believe they provide this level of service or anything close to it.

[michelle.zhang.90]

2 minutes ago, Denversail said:

I have never had my standard stateroom cleaned every time I've left. Not from a single cruise in the last 20 years. I haven't cruised on NCL but I find it hard to believe they provide this level of service or anything close to it.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. What I mentioned occurred on every single time during our previous cruises with Princess, Norwegian, and MSC. We've never returned to our cabin to find wet towels on the floor and an unmade bed, not even once.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 12/30/2023 at 7:22 PM, michelle.zhang.90 said:

We chat with people and found there were some guests flew back home in the first port due to dissatisfaction of this cruise.

sorry, but I find that hard to believe.

 

On 12/30/2023 at 7:22 PM, michelle.zhang.90 said:

Both my son and our cousin developed fevers between days 2 and 5 of the cruise. The prevalence of coughing was noticeable everywhere – in the buffet, main dining room, theater, and even the elevators. We suspect insufficient sanitizer measures may be a contributing factor.

well, when somebody is coughing their lungs out without even covering up (Seascape Thanksgiving cruise), it doesn't matter whether their hands are clean and sanitized. I doubt that they are, given that people didn't bother covering up their coughing and sneezing at all, and with their hand in the best case scenario... 😞

I am shocked we didn't get sick on our cruise. My parents, however, managed to get covid here at home right before NYE, just doing their regular non-travel routine... as well as 6 months ago (no travel involved).

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 12/31/2023 at 11:37 AM, michelle.zhang.90 said:

Are you sure about that? We sailed out from NYC last May with Norwegian to Bermuda and our cabin was cleaned every time we left it. 

never had that.

4 hours ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

What I mentioned occurred on every single time during our previous cruises with Princess, Norwegian, and MSC. We've never returned to our cabin to find wet towels on the floor and an unmade bed, not even once.

we have been on RCI, NCL, Princess and MSC. Our cabins were never cleaned every time we left the cabin. That's an unreasonable expectation.

Edited January 2 by Itchy&Scratchy

[MisterBill99]

6 hours ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. What I mentioned occurred on every single time during our previous cruises with Princess, Norwegian, and MSC. We've never returned to our cabin to find wet towels on the floor and an unmade bed, not even once.

 

I've never heard of cabins being made up more than twice a day. Maybe the timing just worked out for you, and it seemed like they were doing it constantly.

[MisterBill99]

On 12/30/2023 at 7:22 PM, michelle.zhang.90 said:

We chat with people and found there were some guests flew back home in the first port due to dissatisfaction of this cruise.

 

Since someone else commented on this, I figured that I would as well. This sounds extremely unlikely, since it would have meant they left after only two days and they would have received a hefty bill from MSC, who would have been fined for violating the PVSA by allowing them to embark and disembark at different US ports without a distant foreign port in between. I suppose they could have left in Nassau, but it still seems unbelievable unless someone was sick.

[michelle.zhang.90]

30 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Since someone else commented on this, I figured that I would as well. This sounds extremely unlikely, since it would have meant they left after only two days and they would have received a hefty bill from MSC, who would have been fined for violating the PVSA by allowing them to embark and disembark at different US ports without a distant foreign port in between. I suppose they could have left in Nassau, but it still seems unbelievable unless someone was sick.

This is what our fellow cruisers shared with us. It's fine if you have your own judgment. Personally, I've never heard of such things before, but I've also never encountered such a dreadful cruise experience. For me, it seems entirely plausible.

[MisterBill99]

Just now, michelle.zhang.90 said:

This is what our fellow cruisers shared with us. It's fine if you have your own judgment. Personally, I've never heard of such things before, but I've also never encountered such a dreadful cruise experience. For me, it seems entirely plausible.

 

Except that the ship would have refused to let them leave with their luggage if they were going to incur a fine.

[michelle.zhang.90]

4 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

never had that.

we have been on RCI, NCL, Princess and MSC. Our cabins were never cleaned every time we left the cabin. That's an unreasonable expectation.

Well, as I mentioned earlier, we've never returned to our cabin to find the towel still dirty or the bed unmade. This has been our consistent experience over the past so many years. Perhaps we've been fortunate to have diligent stewards. During the first few cruises, we were pleasantly surprised by how promptly and efficiently they managed to clean up the cabin. And later on, we thought that's a standard practice till this time.

[MisterBill99]

4 hours ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

Well, as I mentioned earlier, we've never returned to our cabin to find the towel still dirty or the bed unmade. This has been our consistent experience over the past so many years. Perhaps we've been fortunate to have diligent stewards. During the first few cruises, we were pleasantly surprised by how promptly and efficiently they managed to clean up the cabin. And later on, we thought that's a standard practice till this time.

 

And if you use towels in the morning before you leave for breakfast and in the afternoon before you leave for dinner, then the usual twice-daily service they do in the morning and before bed (typically starting around 6pm) in the evening would explain what you're seeing. Are you claiming that it was made in the morning, and you came back to the cabin around lunch but then went out again and the room was serviced three times a day?

 

You made a few valid points in your post, but your insisting that some things that make no sense are actually true is making your whole story suspect.

[dexddd]

NCL moved to once a day room cleaning except for top rooms back in 2022.

 

[MisterBill99]

Relevant article I just got sent from Cruise Critic.

 

How Often Is Your Cruise Ship Stateroom Cleaned?

 

"Even though twice-daily stateroom cleaning has long been the standard in the cruise industry,"

Edited January 3 by MisterBill99

[shipgeeks]

I'm just curious why a cabin steward would even think to look in on a cabin more than once or twice a day.  Do some pax put out the "please clean room" tag/light multiple times?

[Denversail]

2 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

I'm just curious why a cabin steward would even think to look in on a cabin more than once or twice a day.  Do some pax put out the "please clean room" tag/light multiple times?

The OP is just exaggerating their statements. Obviously, a room steward isn't there waiting to clean their room every time they step out.

[MisterBill99]

6 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

I'm just curious why a cabin steward would even think to look in on a cabin more than once or twice a day.  Do some pax put out the "please clean room" tag/light multiple times?

 

You can put it out, but they're not going to service your room more than twice a day! I just think that she's confusing the room being serviced when they get back with constant servicing. As I said earlier, if I put towels on the floor before leaving for the day and then again when I was back before dinner, it might seem like it was being done constantly.