Overall I had a great time on this beautiful ship. The main complaint would be their tender service. If this is how they operate on all their ships, then I would reconsider going on another cruise with MSC, especially cruises with tender service. I would like to be able to visit all the ports, & not get stuck on the ship. I was on another NE & Canada cruise with NCL several years ago, & I had enough time to visit a mansion, cliffwalk & had lunch at one of the restaurants. They should give more time at a port. Since they had problem with their tender service, then they should have extended the time in the port. Leaving at 2 pm is really unreasonable. They should have extended to 6 or 7 pm, so people have enough time to enjoy the port.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Embarkation process went smoothly
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The dinner at the main dining room was good, but lunchtime did not have enough waiter. We were given bread without butter, & had to request it directly from one of the managers before getting it. We didn't go back to the main dining room for lunch. We tried 3 specialty restaurants. The Butcher's Cut Steakhouse was very good, & we also enjoyed the Japanese Tappanyaki, but the seafood restaurant was just so so. The service was a bit slow, & the menu didn't have a good selection. The buffet was decent, but got tired of the same selection after a few days. I do like that they put out whole fresh fruits for passengers every day. I also liked their hot, just came out of the oven, cookies, & their not really sweet cakes. I think they did the right thing by serving small pieces of cakes at the buffet because people want to try different desserts. The big pieces would normally be a waste.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
I like that MSC had several dancing classes every day. I attended several 4:30 pm dancing classes, & it was pretty packed. Everyone seems to have fun.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
I enjoyed all the shows, but thought they were a little too short compared to other ships' shows. Most shows I saw were about 45 minutes to 50 minutes, but MSC's shows were only 35 minutes. I also don't like that we are required to make reservation for shows, or risk not having seats going in 5 minutes before the show starts. A lot of passengers, especially non-English speaking ones, did not know they have to make reservation. I also liked the after the show parties at the main corridor. They were really fun.
Children's Programs
No children
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The waiters who took care of us in the main dining room, Rocky & Albert, were excellent. They were patient with my party of 12 people, & also gave good suggestions on what to order. Never get upset at us when we put in more requests. It is not easy taking care of a big party like ours.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
I've been on many cruises, but I thought this is the prettiest ship I was ever on. I loved the Swarovski crystal stairs. Very shiny. Also the designs of the main corridors were really beautiful. I also liked the projections on the ceiling of the main corridor. Very creative.
I did not do an excursion because I just visited RI in July. Since I did not join an excursion, I was unable to go on the shore because the tender service was terrible. My number wasn't called until 1 pm, after waiting for several hours, but we are expected to return to the ship by 2 pm. I only have enough time to take a tender to shore, & get back on line to take another tender to go back to the ship. Therefore, we decided not to go to shore, & missed our favorite port. What upset me the most is that MSC never gave us an explanation on the delay. I may accept it if they gave us a good reason for not being able to tender all these people. I later heard that they only took out 3 tender boats to take over 4,000 people to shore. This is why they were so slow. I've been cruising over 20 years, & this never happened to me before. This is my main complaint for this cruise.
This was our favorite port. We went on an excursion to Kennebunkport. I liked the lighthouse & the resort town of Kennebunkport. We also had one of the most delicious lobster rolls.
I think requiring people to leave their room by 7:30 am is too early. Everyone ended up in the buffet area for breakfast. There were so many people that it was hard to find a table to sit. Also, they ran out of coffee mugs, & didn't bring more. I left the ship without being able to have a cup of coffee. Also, don't know how they assign the number for disembarkation. My brother, who lives a few doors down, was assigned number 10, & we were assigned number 16. Because of this, we have to leave at different time, & can't leave together.
Great review, very well detailed. Sorry to hear about the tender & tender port issue. Clearly, MSC/Meraviglia needs to work on correcting this issue, bc limiting the tender port landing capacity is frankly a huge waste of time & not what over 4K passengers agreed to. 2 pm deadline to return to ship is just an unreasonable option & huge waste of time to even bother going off ship. Glad to hear you still managed to enjoy the rest of your cruise, bc sailing on this beautiful ship can be so much fun!
Thanks for sharing & happy cruising 🤩⚓️😎🙏🏽‼️
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