The Happiest Travels on Earth

Hi Everyone! I have just returned from my first cruise in 4 years! That’s right, this morning I disembarked the MSC Meraviglia which departed from the Brooklyn (Red Hook) Cruise Terminal. I am excited to share my review of the MSC Meraviglia. Have you ever been on an MSC ship? 

MSC Cruises USA is a private cruise line that has predominantly been operating in Europe for over 50 years. It is a part of the Mediterranean Shipping Company, MSC, which you might have seen in ports around the world. MSC is the third-largest cruise line in the world, behind Carnival and Royal Caribbean. 

The newest player in the US cruise market, MSC entered in 2013 and has slowly been increasing its presence in US ports. This includes the MSC Meraviglia which is newly homeported in the port of Brooklyn, New York. Currently, the MSC Meraviglia is sailing 7-day itineraries to Florida and the Bahamas, but also has plans to visit Canada and Bermuda. 

Our sailing onboard the MSC Meraviglia followed the Florida and Bahamas itinerary, with stops in Port Canaveral (Orlando), Florida, Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve and Nassau, Bahamas. This review is strictly about the ship. I will be back with more detailed reviews about the ports of call and the dining as well as photos of the daily planners and restaurants and bar menus in other posts. I did sail with 17 family members, who share many of the same sentiments that I do about this voyage. 

Pre-Cruise Communication

Prior to our cruise, MSC gave us access to the MSC App, MSC for Me. The idea for this app is that you were able to access shore excursions, shows, dining reservations and more. 

The app did work but there were some glitches. For a while shore excursions would not show up on either the site or the app. It’s also quite confusing to purchase show tickets (such as the Rock Circus or Houdini Show), since you don’t pick a date when booking. 

When we booked our cruise, it was listed as leaving from New York, New York. If you live in the NYC area, you know that NYC is quite a large place. After some

pushing on the phone, we were able to find out our cruise didn’t leave from the Manhattan terminal, but the Brooklyn terminal. 

Some other pre-cruise confusing aspects with communication include contacting them for medical equipment or baby items. I had family members who needed things in both scenarios and MSC didn’t convey if they would provide them or if they should be brought onboard by the guest. Make sure you print out any communication with them about these things in case they say you didn’t reach out. 

Embarkation

Living in the NYC area, the commute to the Brooklyn/Red Hook Cruise Terminal was quite easy. My family and I arrived at the pier at around 9:50 am and headed inside. When I spoke to MSC on the phone, they said that we didn’t need to follow the embarkation time that was on our ticket and that they were pretty relaxed with that. We first went through security and metal detectors, which was an easy process and then proceeded to the check-in area. While the line took less than 10 minutes, the area was very chaotic with people everywhere. 

After checking in, we took our “welcome aboard” photo and headed to the waiting area. At 10:10 am, there was nowhere to sit and the area was extremely packed. Luckily, at around 10:15 am, they started the boarding process. As I mentioned, we arrived at 9:50 am and our boarding group was #23. Our number was called at 10:55 am, making our whole embarkation process about 1 hour from arrival to stepping onto the ship. 

I recommend you get to the pier as early as possible. I had family members who arrived at the terminal between 10:30 am and 11:00 am and their process took over 2.5 hours. They had extremely long lines to wait on, there were technical difficulties and they also experienced issues with the gangway. Definitely make sure that you come early enough that you don’t have to encounter line issues… for now. 

Dining

I will be doing a full dining review with menus and food photos separately, but I did want to mention the food in general onboard the ship. During our cruise we dined at L’Olive Doree, the Marketplace Buffet, the Brass Anchor Pub and Hola Tacos and Cantina. We also tried the specialty coffee over at Jean-Philippe Chocolate and Coffee. 

For breakfast, we ate at the Marketplace Buffet. Breakfast daily included almost the same thing every day. The scrambled eggs have some type of honey on them which makes them sweet and kind of weird so stay clear of them if you see they have a really shiny surface. Another thing to note is that breakfast gets insane so try to get to the kids section and take food from there as it’s a bit easier to access. 

Lunch I enjoyed on embarkation day at the buffet and there were some nice options but nothing really changed daily except for one little section. I did try the Brass Anchor Pub and Hola Tacos and Cantina for lunch on different days and they were good, but they do require an upcharge. Given it’s an Italian cruise line, the pizza was always available. The white piece was so delicious and a good option if there was nothing else to eat. 

During our cruise, we were given 6:00 pm dining in the L’Olive Doree Dining Room. I noticed that the different dining rooms had different times to eat, but your given time is listed on your cruise card. The wait staff seems to be a bit overwhelmed and short staffed, which definitely showed. Our first few nights we weren’t offered alcoholic beverages and when we asked for them, they told us to go to the bar ourselves to get them. When we asked for coffee, they told us no as well since they need to set up for the next seating. I am actually surprised how often I was told no or given a look because I ordered something or asked for something. I have been on 20 cruises now and it’s shocking that I couldn’t customize meals or ask for more in some cases. The food options weren’t very vast, the food wasn’t the best quality and the portion sizes are EXTREMELY small. Two of the best meals here were the Surf and Turf and the Lamb Shank. 

Brass Anchor Pub was located near the spa and had a few specialty, for-fee items that tasted a bit better than the dining room food. Think things like wings, fish and chips and burgers. 

We also tried Hola Tacos and Cantina. They offer an all-you-can-eat option or a la carte. We ordered a la carte and enjoyed the food here. 

On one of our days in port, we tried Jean-Philippe Chocolate and Coffee for a specialty coffee. They don’t offer too many substantial food options to enjoy but they have brownies and some desserts along with all of the chocolates.

Packages Offered

Easy Plus Beverage Package

One of the benefits of our booking was receiving the Easy Plus Beverage Package included in the price of our cruise. The Easy Plus Beverage Package allows guests to get drinks up to $10 in value and includes alcoholic beverages, large and small bottles of water, soda and cappuccino and espresso. 

I will say, it’s quite hard to get a drink at times and you do wait if you are at a busy bar, such as the one by the pools. You end up waiting quite a bit of time and people will cut in front of you to get those drinks. This also includes wine at dinner. Given this package was included, it was great to have. 

Internet

In addition to the Easy Plus Beverage Package, we also received free wi-fii for our cruise. The free plan included the browse option. Most of the time it worked but there were times it went out or you needed to log-in again. That gets super frustrating but the perk is that you don’t have to just use the app to text others onboard, you are able to text on iMessage or WhatsApp as well. 

All-Inclusive Digital Photo Package

Prior to our cruise, I purchased the all-inclusive digital photo package. I paid $140 for the package prior to sailing on the MSC site. When purchasing, the package sounded like it was for ALL digital photos taken of you during your cruise. 

Again, I traveled with 17 other people and 3 other people in my cabin specifically. Once onboard, the photo team said I could only get photos of the 3 guests in the cabin and that’s it. The term “all-inclusive” to me sounds like it includes all of the photos me or my party of 3 were in, including group photos. I was told very rudely by an employee in the photo area that, “ma’am if you would let me talk you would hear that’s not how it is and that’s it.” 

Speaking of photos, another thing I wanted to mention for large groups is that if you want a group photo, good luck. Our group of 18 waited in line for 15 minutes for a Swarovski Crystal stair photo, since we figured the area was quite big and would fit our group. After waiting, the photographer told us that there were too many people and he couldn’t take our photo. We would need to go to the photo gallery and make an appointment. When we went to speak to the photo gallery, they told us that it would cost $12 per every adult in the photo, costing around $156 total and that would need to be paid ahead of time. Needless to say, we didn’t get our group photo professionally done but pro tip… find a spot onboard and ask someone to take your photo on the phone. It’s a great photo and it’s free! 

Entertainment & Shows

Paid Shows

Carousel Productions at Sea is only available on a few select MSC sailings and offers guests a unique experience. Onboard the MSC Meraviglia the two shows are the House of Houdini and Rock Circus. Both shows we purchased online prior to our cruise for $12 each and they each included an alcoholic beverage. If you purchased it onboard, they would be $18. 

Even though we did purchase ahead of time, we couldn’t actually select the nights for these shows until onboard. We ended up seeing House of Houdini our first night onboard and Rock Circus our second. 

Both shows were incredibly interesting and a bit chaotic at times. That’s not to say that the performers weren’t excellent because they were. But, the storylines of both shows were hard to follow and just a bit all over the place. Now, during our performances, announcements were made that due to safety one night and technical difficulties the other, we weren’t going to be able to see the acrobats and other fancy performances during the show and that our money would be refunded. Again, the performers were very good and they are worth a view if you can but just don’t expect too much. 

Free Shows

Every night at the Broadway Theater, guests could view the free production shows at sea. These shows included Cool, A-Train the Comedian, The Conjurers Magical Act, Born to Rock, Journey and Top Hits. 

The stage productions were Cool, Born to Rock, Journey and Top Hits. There might have been another one earlier in the cruise, but that wasn’t easily found. As for the ones that I saw, Born to Rock, Journey and Top Hits, the singers were quite good. Again, there really was a story that was lacking and more just singing and dancing, but again, the performers were excellent. 

In terms of the Comedian, A-Train, and the magical act, The Conjurers, both were very good entertainment options. I think the performers on MSC are quite good. 

Parties/Themed Nights

MSC features a few different “theme” nights during the cruise. You can find a gala night, a tropical night, a white night, a music night and an italian night. The ones that they suggest you dress for are tropical, white and music night. Each one had entertainment that accompanied these nights, including parties on Deck 6 and Deck 7. 

Music Night was great and had an excellent live band performing for all on Deck 6. There was also a silent disco one night.

The Meraviglia also has Cruise Staff Moments, on Deck 6, where depending on the theme, members of the cruise staff would do some type of dance performance for about 5-10 minutes. 

Around the same time of these, the dome shows would happen as well, sometimes coinciding with the night’s theme and sometimes not. These were quite cute and really enjoyable.  

Bars and Lounges

While you could find some bars and lounges around the ship, these were always quite full and hard to get into. There is a bar on Deck 7, called the Champagne Bar, which isn’t always manned so it is almost a bit of a waste of space. One of the easier bars to get a drink at during the day was located on Deck 6 next to the Chocolate Shop. 

Again, this ship is very crowded so it’s often hard to just walk up to the bar and grab a drink. We had multiple instances where we waited at the bar for more than 15 minutes waiting for a drink. 

Onboard Activities

The MSC Meraviglia has a Sportsplex Complex up on Deck 16 which has a simulator, a bowling alley, a basketball court and an arcade. Usually you would find a lot of the kids and young adults here and it didn’t seem as popular with other guests. 

Besides the occasional trivia during the day, there weren’t too many onboard activities which can be quite frustrating. Especially if the weather was bad, it was hard to find things to do during the day. 

Shopping

If you are anything like me, you love a good gift shop. Well, the MSC Meraviglia doesn’t have too many options when it comes to gift shops. There’s the MSC Shop, which features MSC branded items, the Swarovski Store, with Swarovski jewelry and the Plaza Meraviglia, which was home to a watch/sunglass store, perfume/makeup store and liquor/sundry store. You could also shop at the two boutiques onboard which feature Effy Jewelry as well as a variety of watches and clothing. While this all might sound like a lot, with a ship that size, the shops can get tired quite quickly. 

Pools

The MSC Meraviglia is home to a few pools, but given the size of the ship, they aren’t enough. There is the Bamboo Pool, which has a retractable roof and some hot tubs, the Atmosphere Pool, which is the main pool and the Horizon Pool which is Adults Only.

While you might think that’s a lot of pools, for the amount of people on the ship, it was simply not enough. The pools were extremely small and on some days, people were crammed into them like sardines. 

Part of the pool area is the Polar Aquapark, which is a collection of waterslides perfect for every member of the family. 

Spa 

The MSC Aurea Spa was great. They offered various incentives throughout the cruise, including on day 1, where you can purchase a 80 minute massage for the cost of a 50 minute massage. But these all do come with stipulations, so be sure to read through and make reservations immediately. 

I had a 50 minute Swedish Massage on one of our sea days which is standard pricing. My massage therapist listened to me and my concerns and only focused on areas that I asked for. She didn’t push any products either which was refreshing since they usually do that at spas on cruises. 

Cabin

We had a Balcony cabin on the MSC Meraviglia, #9205. The room was very small and had a lack of storage, which made it hard to be livable for a full week. The sofa turned down into a twin size bed. In some of these staterooms you can even get a bunk bed and sleep another guest over the couch.

The bathroom was the real shocker. It is one of the smallest bathrooms I’ve seen at sea, especially the shower. It looked like a little capsule that your body could literally just fit into. One thing to note is that you don’t get tissues (Kleenex) or washcloths immediately. We had to keep asking to get tissues and washcloths for our cabin. 

In terms of closet space, it was almost non-existent. There was a small closet with a bit of storage but other than that, there were no drawers. With three adults with three pieces of luggage, this was hard to make it work. We put one suitcase on the counter, one on the floor and one in the closet. 

There are two European plugs, a USB plug and two regular US plugs in the room. If you use a CPAP machine or some type of medical equipment, you’ll need an extension cord. Therefore, make sure you reach out to MSC prior to your cruise.

The largest part of this room was the balcony. Since the MSC Meraviglia has sections of her side that curve and move out and ours happened to be on that curve, so our balcony was on a curve and larger. Our room steward introduced himself on our first day and then we didn’t see him again. 

One thing to take note of is that on the MSC Meraviglia, they did not turn down our beds or provide us with towel animals. I had family on other decks and they received a towel animal one night but they didn’t have their beds turned down either. 

Crew

The crew on the MSC Meraviglia varied. Some of them were really nice and some were a little less than nice. Our Cruise Director was Matias on this sailing. I didn’t see him until a few days into the cruise but then he started making more announcements and was around a bit more. 

Final Thoughts and Other Info

The MSC Meraviglia was definitely a unique experience. I’m not sure if there was an issue with this ship specifically or this was an MSC thing, but there were definitely some differences from other ships I’ve been on. 

Here are a few other things to know about the MSC Meraviglia: 

• On the higher decks, especially Deck 15, where you can find the buffet, be aware that the elevators and floors are quite slippery. Also, be careful with children as some wall sockets were exposed.
• On multiple occasions, we noticed things that identified a bit of uncleanliness. From stained napkins to overflowing garbage cans, vomit in the sinks near the buffet and dust collection on vents, I think the team on this ship needs a bit more of a deep clean. I get that on the day of your boarding very early, but I think that people would appreciate waiting a bit longer for a deeper clean. 
• This one might be random but there are no chicken tenders at the main dining room. If you have kids or are a kid at heart, you’ll have to order grilled chicken not chicken tenders. 
• While I’ll go into details about ports in another post, the ship was not organized with getting passengers on and off. In Ocean Cay, their private island, there was a rainstorm. A few thousand passengers tried to get back on and ended up waiting in the rain for over 2 hours in a mass of confusion. 
• You need to do 3 different things for your lifeboat drill: watch a video in your room, call a phone number to confirm you’ve seen it and then visit your muster station for them to scan your card. It’s a bit drawn out and could probably be streamlined a bit.
• You need to find a cruise activation kiosk to make sure your credit card is linked with your room key.
• You are able to bring a hair dryer, curling iron, straightening iron and dryer brush onboard. My family and I brought some combination of these things and they were fine.

Other Photos

My Opinion of MSC

I really hyped up MSC in my head. Over the years I’ve heard mixed reviews about them but I attributed it to different tastes. After sailing on MSC myself, I see what people are talking about. While it’s a good deal, you do have to pay for quite a few things and there are things lacking that other major cruise liners provide. I think that while a bit more expensive, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian or Carnival offer a better value for the money.

Head over to @thehappiesttravelsonearth on Instagram and follow me to see more and stay tuned to the blog for more on the MSC Meraviglia.