MSC Meraviglia is a beautiful ship, sadly plagued with many service difficulties (due to staffing shortages and overbooking of small children).
MSC Meraviglia Cruise Review
7 Night Bermuda (New York Roundtrip)
Sail date: August 25, 2024
Ship: MSC Meraviglia
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 10208
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 2 months ago
Review summary
4 Finally's: Finally! A ship with enough elevators (and they are fast!). Finally! A ship that uses actual plastic straws (instead of those paper abominations!). Finally! A ship that provides fun, mid-day Sea Day entertainment (noonish parades or samples of shows on the main promenade!). Finally! A ship with a highly organized E-Day and D-Day experience. That said: One star on their Assembly Station Drill! The way they do the maritime-mandatory safety check-in is by far THE WORST way to do it that we have ever seen on any cruise. The stuff of nightmares: Ear-splitting sirens, shutting down the elevators and making old people walk 10 flights of stairs, and my Lord, the screaming children! ----------------------------- 2 "Yet Anothers" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yet another overbooked and understaffed cruise! The understaffing is most obvious in hotel staff such as overloaded cabin stewards, but also in long lines at casino cashier window and non-existent beverage service. Overbooking is obvious (and don't give me that "it is impossible to overbook, there is a capacity number" blah blah blah, bc it IS possible to overbook when you add rug rats into every other cabin, 16 cruises ago I was on NCL Breakaway capacity 3,962 but 4,500 on board due to additional kids). To make more money, they add 1-3 children to cabins designed for 2 adults only. On MSC Mera, there are over 1,000 children on this cruise, as it is the last week before many schools start in New York and New Jersey and Philly. These brats are loud, rude, obnoxious little walking stereotypes of absently-parented city kids. Yet another "ninja" cabin steward [one that you never see, never meet, does not respond to phone messages you leave, and cannot read your written notes regarding any requests, even after leaving cash underneath your note: untouched] (although it is kinda neat when you leave for as little as ten minutes and come back to a magically perfectly-clean, well-ordered cabin). I dare you to call twice daily, morning and afternoon, to ask for 1 extra pillow. Go on, I dare you.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Imperial Casino Bar
Not the best vibe or nostalgia fun spot. I been to a jillion casino bars and this one is sterile and dull. They pretty much charge you for everything unless you have a casino play status sticker on your card, so don't expect comp drinks when away from a slot machine or table. MSC calls normal casino courtesy beverage service a "casino drinking package" like they are offering some kind of extra amenity. Basically, they force you to participate in their casino points program if you want a free drink and you do not have a drinking package. So, those of you who don't want to be under constant surveillance while gambling AND are planning to drink in the casino only to save money by not buying a drinks pkg, rest assured, my American friends, you yankee cruise customers, MSC "haf vays" of making you pay! Sorry, I lapsed into a Casablanca casino scene there, too much TCM on this cruise, the only decent tv channel they had. And don't judge me for watching tv on a cruise. Let the one among you that has not called the cabin stew re ur lost remote cast the first stone!
Butcher's Cut
4-star food with agonizingly slow service. 40 minutes between dinner plate removal and dessert being served. We couldn't even get a glass of water for an hour at one point. Waiters are overwhelmed and completely understaffed. They have to bus their own tables (trust me as an ex waiter), something you would not even expect at AppleBee's level table service.There are principles in economics where incentives play a huge rule in service outcomes (part of why socialism is notoriously more inefficient compared to capitalism). First, the cruise industry destroys the tipping system with these mandatory gratuity systems. Then MSC and NCL basically muscle you into these prepaid "specialty dining experiences" if you expect to get a single decent meal on a 7 day cruise. They have your money and your tip before you even arrive. What incentive do they even have to serve you well? If this was a restaurant in any city in America, it would close in a couple of months. It exists here only by the front-loaded economic system MSC is employing and is a veritable monument of an overall inability of MSC to deliver on its promises. Cruisers of the world unite! Who's with me???!!!🤣
Hola! Tacos & Cantina
Had a lovely lunch here as part of specialty dining package. This place is clean and the wait staff are super nice. This spot has a bouncy, good atmosphere. The food is well.... one star above Taco Bell, tbh, and I certainly would not call this fine dining. You really want to have lunch here instead of dinner. It's just something fun to do.Trust me on this, if you order a pitcher of sangrias you will be happy!
Brass Anchor Pub
Favorite bar on board, never crowded, so go see JayPee Morgan and hoist a pint for me, brother.
Marketplace Buffet
Who cares? Don't eat at any buffet on any ship. When you go out to eat in your town, do you look for a buffet? You have paid good money to eat in nice restaurants every meal. Why are you driving through for fast food with a full service "fancy restaurant" gift certificate sitting in your purse or pocket???What is it with my fellow cruisers and their buffet obsession?
Panorama Restaurant
This was our assigned main dining restaurant. Well appointed, lovely room. Dependable service, understandable wait times, great food, and volume is kept low to allow table conversation. Excellent job by MSC with main dining room service and staff.
Waves Restaurant
Wonderful venue, good use of space, reasonable volume levels and reliable service. Food is high quality and variety is definitely on the menu. The welcome lunch here on E-Day was wonderful. They have good brunches here too on sea days, I believe.
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Carousel Lounge
Shows were mehAcrobatics is 5-star but audio performance is lip-synched so poorly it becomes a parody of itself. There is a make voice singing duets NOT EVEN ON THE STAGE ie pre-recorded performance which makes the female in the duet look like a clown as she faked her parts in both Rock Circus and Houdini. Please take her fake mic away, it only makes it worse.
The Broadway Theater
Nice venue. Skinny people seats. Multiple use venue for shows, lectures and bingo. Not a bad seat in the house as far as view goes. Comfortable A/C which I cannot say for many other places onboard this ship.Overall performances in the theater were like watching the finals of a private school show choir competition. Not Broadway or even Off-Broadway level.The Carousel shows were like watching former bronze medalists in gymnastics perform a hastily rehearsed circus act at one of those non-Ringling Brothers third tier traveling tent circuses.
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
GO AUREA OR STAY HOME‼️‼️‼️ Despite what you may have heard, MSC can be a very good cruise experience IF you book the Aurea Experience and know how to use all the benefits thereof or book the MSC Yacht Club. For example, they offer the most awesome welcome aboard lunch/brunch, if your Sea Card says "Aurea", yet we encountered hundreds that missed it because they did not know and were not told. Believe this: MSC has some of the very best amenities (full access to thermal suite, etc.), while simultaneously being the very worst at communicating them to you!!!! I would never cruise Bella or Fantasia or whatever on this line.
Disembarkation
Traveler Photos
