7 Nights Mediterranean from Marseille Cruise

Meraviglia YC Review

Hi everyone, While I sit in the Chase lounge at LGA waiting for my flight, I figured I would write a quick(ish) review of our cruise on Meraviglia. First, we are a family of 4- 2 adults, 2 kids (12 & 15). This is our sixth MSC cruise, the first on Mera and the second in YC. We typically book Fantastica Balcony rooms and are plenty happy with that. We decided to spring for YC on this cruise because we knew we would be on the ship more than our normal cruises out of Florida. We arrived in NYC on Thursday evening to spend a couple of days being tourists in the city. Embarkation: We Ubered from our hotel in Times Square to the ferry station at Pier 11. From there, we took the 9:15 South Brooklyn ferry to Red Hook and took a short walk to the YC tent to drop off our luggage. We were escorted to the YC lounge at the Port, did the typical check-in procedures, had time for a quick glass of champagne, and were whisked away to the Top Sail lounge. I think I was on the ship with a drink in hand sometime between 10-10:15. The whole process was quick and easy for us. Room: We stayed in a basic YC balcony suite. The kids shared a pull-out bed, much to their frustration. They are used to the MSC couch bunk beds, so a week of sharing resulted in a lot of "get on your side" comments. The room was spacious and had plenty of storage for us. There are two closets, one with shelves and one to hang clothes. There are also three large dresser drawers of storage in the main room area. The closet area is directly in front of the bathroom, which made the bathroom smaller than the YC bathroom we had before. We have mixed reviews of the closet space being there. It was nice for an extra changing location, but we didn't love the smaller bathroom or how crowded it got near the bathroom with 4 of us trying to access clothes and the bathroom. But, this was not a big deal at all, more of an observation. Something to note, there are no outlets near the bed, so be prepared to plug everything in on the counter across the room. We asked for extra towels and pillows and were provided with both. The bathroom had shampoo, body wash, and conditioner in the shower. On the counter, there was hand soap and lotion. We also had some toiletry amenities such as a shower cap and Q-tips. We had sparkling water and still water available to us in our room as well as a fully stocked mini-bar with our preferences. They had some fun juices and sodas that the kids enjoyed. Each night we had a treat in our room and our room steward made sure we had water and glasses near our bed. Our butler, Shane, was great! We really enjoyed talking with him. Joy was our assistant butler and she kept our room pristine. Sea Days: We enjoyed our three sea days very much. The first day was rocky! We had a lot of wind and they closed down many of the outside areas. However, when the areas were open, we ate breakfast and lunch at the pool deck- which we LOVE! During sea days we spent time in the pool, going to various activities, and my daughter spent a lot of time at the kid's club. We played many games of cards in the Top Sail lounge and my son loved all the readily available treats. We had great weather the last two sea days and the water was much calmer. Restaurant: We only ate at the restaurant for dinner but had great service and food. They were accommodating to us ordering things that were not on the menu if we wanted. Everything came promptly but we never felt rushed. The staff in the dining room was fantastic and got to know us and our preferences. We were seated at the same table every night, which we appreciated. Ports: We arrived at Port Canaveral two hours late. There is much debate over why we were late (weather or mechanical issues), but either way, we were late. The RC ship that left NY around the same time, arrived earlier than we did... MSC did, however, add an extra hour to our time at port in the evening. But, this then made us one hour late for Ocean Cay. Oh well. In PC, we spent time with my family who is close to PC. Ocean Cay was a beach day. We enjoyed the YC beach and lunch at Ocean House. They expanded the seating at Ocean House, which was nice. We didn't have to wait for lunch. The service on the beach was different than before. At the beginning of the day, the butlers came around with trays of ready-made drinks...it was a little harder to get a different drink at the beginning of the day. As the crowds died down on the beach, we were able to have more personalized service. Our third port was Nassau. We hadn't been there since they renovated the port. It was nice. It didn't feel too crowded despite 5 or so ships being in port that day. We walked around the port and some of the shops outside of the port. Entertainment: Meh. The theater shows were unimpressive. However, the carousel shows were fun. We did the progressive trivia in the evenings and always stayed for name-that-tune. There's always something to do if you just look for it. We did the flight simulator and that was fun. We also tried the water slides and rope course. Both were very exciting! Disembarkation: We were out of the room by 7:00 (the deadline was 7:30). We had breakfast in the restaurant and then hung out in the Top Sail lounge until about 9:00. We called an Uber and were on our way to the airport by 9:30...it would have been sooner, but customs was held up due to a long line of people trying to get out of the building. Overall: I'm glad we tried this cruise. The price and extra days in NYC were worth it. YC was amazing, as usual. The service and exclusivity cannot be matched. However, I think we will go back to cruising out of Florida for a number of reasons- more ports, close to our family, and warmer weather from the start.

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