Poor COVID changes, understaffed cruise ship.
MSC Meraviglia Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 32
4 Night Bahamas (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: August 16, 2021
Ship: MSC Meraviglia
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 14123
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 3 years ago
Review summary
Pick a different cruise line if you want a good experience. Please. Trust me you do not want to vacation on MSC.Embarkation
While requiring COVID tests to board was great to maintain safety. The implementation and staff service was horrible. We arrived to a short quick security checkpoint. Only to be held up for 10-15 minutes at way too many other checkpoints. No seating, tight waiting areas, little organization, and staff that was rude. Can't imagine who the management is. Employees looked upset and uninterested. We had done everything we could've to make it a simple process because it was our honeymoon and we just wanted to relax in our cabin. Our total time to embark was around 2 hours. Trying to make the best of it only lasted so long and the many flaws of MSC management were beginning to show.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Because of COVID, the buffet experience was limited to being served by staff. Which was not a concern. The concern was how understaffed the cruise staff was. It was common to see 1-2 cruise staff taking care of 15-25 cruise guests at a time. Food was cold, lines were really long. What would've taken me previously 5-10 minutes to get a meal on another cruise line pre-covid, took MSC about 30-40 minutes to just get some buffet food. The staff at the dine-in restaurant were particularly uninterested in helping us. Previous cruise experiences had very attentive staff and were very friendly. We waited 40 minutes. Called over politely 2-3 times for our server to take our order. Yet noone showed up. It was not until a MSC restaurant manager noticed us looking around that he came over and asked what we needed. Right then and there, our server stopped talking to his friends and coworkers to come take our order. It was disrespectful and we did not want to make a big deal. We just wanted to eat. We placed our order and still waited 20 minutes with no food. So we just ended up leaving and going to the buffet. Luckily it was empty and we got our food pretty quickly. We watched a movie in our cabin and enjoyed our night. No thanks to the msc experience unfortunately.
Onboard Activities
Pools were clean, the fitness center was spacious and mostly empty. The "water rides" were open for very specific hours so it was hard to make it on time. We went to one show, a music tribute. I found it hilarious how bad it was, my wife was more upset and wanted to just to leave. The singing was like karaoke. Many times the singers were off key, and unfortunately did not sound professional at all. Maybe they were given the part forcefully.
Entertainment
Service and Staff
We decided not to get the drink package due to it being such a short trip and knowing we were going to be arriving tired. We figured we may just purchase drinks when we were ready instead of forcing ourselves to use it. Not only did we get cheaper alcohol off the boat, but the drinks on the cruise were below below average. Add the fact that the staff was constantly giving us looks when asking about our drink package. It was very irritating, considering we were still paying for drinks but getting attitude for not getting the package, of weak flavorless drinks. The staff that we saw everyday was pretty much always nice. But you can tell many could not deal with the stress of being understaffed and overworked. I blame MSC and MSC management. It is not fair to their staff. Also get ready to hear the captain talk into your cabin 40-50 times a day. I am not even exaggerating. We literally would get off the ship not to hear him. Every 2-5 minutes he yaps on his comm that goes to every single room. Even on our walk on the port to the beach. We heard him about 4 times off the ship. Meanwhile the Carnivale cruise next to us, was peacefully quiet. No annoying captain.
Ship Quality
We always had a clean cabin. But unfortunately it seemed like every 5 minutes there was heavy equipment being moved and would wake us up at 2-3 am every day.
Cabin / Stateroom
Was small but comfy. Nothing astounding, but definitely comfortable.
Ports of call
Miami's port was very badly labeled. Expect to get confused. We took an Uber, make sure you warn them ahead of time and give them a good tip.
Thumbs Up
0
It used US dollars and was pretty affordable. Buy your own booze if you go to the beach! The alcohol was already cheap on the beach but much cheaper when you pick up alcohol at the many liquor stores before you arrive.
Disembarkation
We wanted to get off asap, thankfully they also want people off the ship too so that worked out great.