MSC Meraviglia

A pleasant March break holiday beyond expecation

the onboard experience on MSC Meraviglia is very much relying on the mother of nature and subjective opinions for food and service provided, so those bi-polar reviews are all correct. I chose MSC for its value of money cruise fare, while march break prices are soaring in anywhere. After on board I figured out that more than 80 percent people are from Canada, mostly Ontarians, which made the voyage very pleasant. Being advised by our MDR waiter, last two voyages they omitted Ocean Cay due to bad weather, and from online reviews I got to know that even Port Canaveral also omitted for some voyage, which made the experience a mess for limited food supply and no fun at all. As regards our voyage during Mar 9 to Mar 16, we have the best weather, on schedule sailing, nice food, attentive services and tons of entertainment. Nothing to complain at all. I love the food both in buffet and MDR, I would say the food quality in buffet is par for many 5-star hotels, except for no sea food and variety of ethnical foods, MDR menu is changing every day with different themes, it's a big loss for the people who didnot go to MDR to enjoy the cuisine, checking out my pics of entrees.

Yacht club experience

I have done 22 cruises so far but on this one I bid up and got accepted for the yacht club, which was an excellent experience. I was by myself and the staff were excellent soon as I sat down in the lounge, they knew exactly what I wanted to drink. The cabins had different sizes in the suite area. Mine was a lower suite, but it was a good size about 1.5 compared to a regular room on most cruise ships. They had a really nice walk-in shower. The only thing I got tired of was the dinner in the evenings. I found it to be very focussed on seafood meals, which I don’t really enjoy towards the end of the cruise. I decided to give room service to try because it’s part of. Yacht club one night I had Caesar salad with a ham and cheese sandwich and it was very good. The Caesar salad had such fresh cheese since they make their own cheese on the vessel also had a pizza which was delicious. Also this vessel is not that old and it is a very nice vessel. When we went to the private island originally I was not gonna get off I was just relaxing in the lounge and my balcony then in the afternoon I decided to go and check it out. It has several beaches. I didn’t go to the special beach for yacht club guess I ended up going to the beach closest to the vessel. It had wire nets to keep anything big from the ocean getting into the swimming area had a great couple hours on the beach and swimming

Amazing cruise line

Great amazing cruise ship! I have been on MSC Meraviglia 2 times, in August 2024 in Bermuda for 7 days and in January in the Caribbean for 11 days. We were with friends, 10 adults occupied 5 cabins. I had a room with a balcony on the 10th floor with a beautiful view. Room was extremely clean , thank you our housekeeper Piter . Both vacations were wonderful. I rate it 10. All the staff are very friendly, great food, lots of selection of food and fruits. Nice friendly atmosphere. We especially liked the Rub Bar and everyone who worked there amazing, especially, thank you Abiegale Mark Frenkey, Omarley, Darmavan , Wina , Marielle, July, Patricia . I would like to especially mention the spa area, we spent every day a lot of time in the sauna ,very clean and great atmosphere. Definitely I’ll go again to this beautiful ship

A very pleasant surprise

I have been on many cruises-Disney, Celebrity, Norwegian and Carnival. This was a last minute cruise with MSC out of Brooklyn. I was very apprehensive since there were many less than stellar reviews, especially for the food and embarkation process. At the last minute we decided to give it a go with very low expectations. In order to hedge our bets we upgraded to the Aurea experience which was well worth the money and made a big difference. First, with Aurea after going through TSA, we were sent on an express line for Aurea [there was an even easier line for Yatch Club]. Without the Aurea we would have had to stand in line for an estimated hour- never stood waiting that long anytime. With Aurea bathrobes and slippers are in the room and a small chocolate bar [dark] and a sparkling wine- nice touches. With Aurea you have anytime dining, which was great. You eat in the same area every night and whenever you go, they will put you with the same server. So nice continuity. The dining is in the Panerama, at the end of the ship and the Aurea tables are around the window, but in January there is nothing to see. The Panarama dining room is the dreariest looking, but the food was all good. No complaints. The Aurea also gives you exclusive access to Solarium on deck 19. We had seen a video someone had posted, but it was not the same. That showed an indoor pool with seating. Deck 19 had a whirlpool, there were chairs, several couches and on good weather days, a bar. There was an attendant to set up your chair and give you towels. Unfortunately, the weather was so miserable with rain and high winds we only went there a couple of days-pretty empty. Aurea also gave you access to the Aurea spa. We went one day when it was very bad weather [this was when there were record snowstorms in south USA, which translated to torrential rain, waves up to 16 feet and 50+ knot winds], I lounged in a quiet space and my husband sat in the whirlpool, but it kept sloshing, that is how bad it was. The crew and passengers got sick- I definitely felt the ship rock and since it was so large that tells you how bad the storms were. Unfortunately, due to weather, we arrived late at Cape Canaveral, but we stayed there overnight and lost out on the private island. Not MSC's fault and I checked afterwards. Norwegian, Celebrity, Carnival all had to bypass their private islands. Biggest issue was since there were so many days on the ship the meal timing was not convenient. We are not early risers when there is nowhere to go, but breakfast in the restaurant was only 8-9:30 on sea days, otherwise you wait until noon or go to the buffet. I was not impressed with the buffet, except the pizza. As everyone states, the pizza is very good since they make the mozzarella on the ship. On the first sea day they had a sea brunch at the restaurants so we could go later and my husband could have breakfast and I could have lunch. We thought it was supposed to be for each sea day, but it was only the first one. They should really do that all sea days. The wait for breakfast or lunch in the restaurants were not long. We did not get off at Cape Canaveral- we only got off the one day in the Bahamas so we appreciated the breadth and depth of the entertainment on the ship. There were constant quizzes, dance classes, DJs, live entertainment everywhere. Not even all were listed. One night we went to the pub and there was a gentleman playing guitar, he was great. One night we went to the adult lounge and there was a pianist and then joined with saxophonist and again when we returned the following night. We saw a different show every night. We paid for the 2 carousel productions- they were about $12 each [they came with a horrible complimentary drink-but we had a drink package so it did not matter]. It was worth what it cost, entertaining enough. All the shows were well done. The crew show was great. I shudder to think that if I were on a Norwegian cruise what I would have done since they are doing away with productions [the last cruise I was on for 10 days had 2 shows only and I had already seen one of them on an earlier cruise]. Even though the ship was at capacity it never felt crowded except at 10:30 at night when the put on a short show in the atrium and the LCD ceiling changes. The first night when they checked our ID before we could go through to get to the Panarama restaurant, the woman remembered my name and addressed me by name everytime she saw me. At the dining room they would all remember us, not just the waiter. Everyone was pleasant, we did not see or have any interaction with any rude people, passengers or crew. I would go on another cruise with MSC.