In January 2019, we sailed on a one week cruise around the Mediterranean on the MSC Meraviglia. The full account of our trip can be found by clicking here.
Before we booked, we researched MSC as thoroughly as we could. The cruise was cheap-ish and we wanted to make sure there wasn't a "gotcha". We booked knowing that the atmosphere would obviously be more "European" than our previous cruises, whatever we thought that meant.
As our departure date came closer, I reached out to others in a Facebook cruising community, asking for any specific tips for sailing with MSC. Some of the answers that I received left me very nervous about our upcoming cruise. Some said they would never sail with MSC again. Many people cited the food as being sub-par.
I am happy to report that post-cruise, we can say that we had a wonderful time, and we would consider MSC for a future cruise. There were still some gotchas and we would be more aware of them next time. Overall we though the food was excellent, the shows were entertaining, the decor was beautiful, the cabin was well equipped, and the staff were all helpful and attentive.
The cruise card can't have a hole cut in it so don't bother with a lanyard unless you have one with a pouch. I noticed that it was rare to see someone with their card on a lanyard. I think this is possibly because they encourage use of their app, and we were in port every day, so phone use was far more prevalent than I have seen on previous ships. I kept my cruise card in my phone case.
Once you are on board, there are four main things to take care of:
1. Go to one of the kiosks and activate your cruise card for payments. You just tap your card on the kiosk, and link your credit card to your cabin. It will list everyone else in your cabin and you can link the same credit card to them. I noticed that it also had an option to link your credit card to people in other cabins.
2. Attend the safety briefing. We did find this a little confusing. We were given a sheet that said we must attend, but it did not have a location. It said that the location would be on the app. We checked the app and the daily schedule and the location was nowhere to be found. In the end we applied some knowledge of previous cruises and discovered that our assembly station was printed on our cruise cards - K - and used the ship's map to learn that station K was the Carousel lounge. We headed there a bit early, and waited for everyone to arrive.
We were not required to bring the life jackets from our cabins as we have done on previous cruises. A number of crew stood in the middle of the room, and demonstrated how to put a life jacket on, one painful step at a time, where each step was repeated in six different languages. I found myself losing concentration during the bits where another language was being spoken, and would suddenly realise that they were speaking English again.
Later on a sheet of paper was delivered to our cabin informing us that we had missed the briefing and would have to attend the next day. Turns out they were scanning cards on the way in, but because we were seated early, they did not scan our cards. We explained this to the man at reception. I'm not sure he believed us, but he let it slide.
3. Visit the buffet. Who can embark a cruise ship without at least going and having a look at the buffet after embarking? It is massive. Even after a week I am not sure that I saw all of it.
4. Book tickets to as many shows as are available on the app. I recommend installing the app before you arrive, and logging in to it. This will make it easier when you get on board. You will still need to use your cruise card to fully log in. There is an "internet ID" on the cruise card that is used to activate the app once on board. We found that the shows for the next 4 days were available in the app, and seats in the 8:30 show were going fast. We immediately booked ourselves into them (for free). We also booked paid tickets to Cirque du Soleil. More on that later.
We did find that there was not a lot of storage space for 4 people, so we mostly lived out of our bags.
See the lights above the door - they show whether someone is in the room (presumably for the benefit of the steward). I think our steward got a bit frustrated with us as he was clearly supposed to freshen the room a set number of times a day, including in the evening, but at least one of us was often in there when we were on board.
This view is from the door.
The desk has two European and two US power points. Luckily we had one universal adapter each, and were able to use ALL of them. We may have been trying to set a record for the most number of cords and devices on this desk during our week in this cabin. There is a hair dryer in the desk drawer.
Bunks for the kids. Our son was on top and did get irritated by the light above his bed so we were constantly in semi darkness.
The balcony. Small, and it was chilly but it was fun to be able to watch as we sailed in and out of ports. Sitting out here also increased our phone reception significantly when in port.
We were each provided with 2 pillows - a soft one and a firm one. I thought it was a nice touch.
If we had forked out for the higher "experience" package, we would have received a wrist band that we could have used as a cabin key and to buy drinks etc. You can buy them separately but we did not bother.
On every deck there are large touch screens that pretty much mirror what is available in the app. You can figure out where you are, look at the daily schedule, order tickets to a show, or look at what there is to do in the upcoming port. It is a great idea and we used them a few times. It also shows the current weather and forecast.
There is an MSC for Me app that you can install on a phone or a tablet. The only annoyance was that to use it, you had to be connected to the ship wi-fi. This was free, but once connected to the ship wi-fi, the internet from the sim cards that we had did not work, so we had to keep connecting and disconnecting depending on whether we needed the internet or the app. (Note - we had sim cards from our prior travel around Italy that worked in all of the ports, so we used them when close to shore).
I though the app was well done and provided lots of valuable information.
It always shows where you are, and includes a weather forecast for each port.
It is able to tell you exactly where you are on the ship. It also includes a list of all charges against your account. The only oversight here was that my husband could not see his own charges. I assume this is because I put my credit card against all 4 passengers.
There are also kiosks at which you can view all of the photos logged against your cruise card. I would like it if they could update this so that it shows all photos from everyone in your cabin. I was not able to see the photos taken when my husband's card was swiped.
The shows can be booked through the app. When you arrive at the show, there is a line for "booked" and "not-booked". Those that booked are allowed in until a few minutes before starting time, and then they let everyone else in.
There were 3 showings of each show every night, and they generally went for 40-45 minutes. We chose the 8:30pm show, which was the middle one, every night. One person can book tickets for everyone in the cabin. The others will then see the event in their "Personal Agenda" for the day.
My husband and I attended almost all of the shows, and I thought they were very well done, if a little different to shows we have seen on other ships.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly what it was, but I think it was just more flamboyant than at home. I told myself that I needed to watch some Eurovision when I got home to see if that helps me understand the style.
The costumes were amazing and the dancers were very talented. For the most part the singing was great with a few exceptions.
On other ships we've experienced a lot of guest performances to supplement the regular ship entertainment group, but on this one there was only 1 - a magician on the last night. His "magic" was sad but then he did a shadow puppet performance that was quite fantastic.
We booked this as soon as we got on board, and still didn't get our preferred day and time. On this particular cruise the thing to remember is that there are multiple embarkation ports. The ship just keeps going around and around past the same ports, and people get on and off at several of the stops. This means that others have already had the opportunity to book some of the shows that you will be considering.
We chose the 15 euro cocktail and show package for Viaggio. Our main criteria was that the running time was longer so it was a better deal, as well as the description of Sonor sounding a bit airy fairy.
These were my thoughts from my travel diary on the show:
They are popular so the only tickets we could get were at 10:15pm. They came with a drink, so at 10:15 we were allowed in and shown to our table. On the way through you pick up your drink. They had 3 choices of cocktails and one mocktail. It was some sort of grapefruit juice concoction. Some pre-show music was playing. Shortly after we arrived, a woman came on and started singing, I think in French. She was good but not what we came to see. There were three mimes running around through this performance as well. We had the opportunity to watch those eat who had purchased dinner and a show. Theirs was supposed to start about 45 mins before so I don't know why they were only just being served main course while we were sitting there. At 10:45 the show actually started. It wasn't quite as elaborate as I expected but some excellent performances by jugglers and acrobats. It is hard to describe but a curved tv screen undulates across the back of the room and animated backdrops were shown on these screens. At one point two people even came out attached to cables and walked across these screens, meaning their bodies were parallel to the floor. It finished around 11:40.
In this photo, the clouds are on the curved LED screens behind the stage.
We had requested the early dinner sitting, and were assigned to eat at 6:30pm in a specific restaurant. Although you can opt to eat at the buffet instead, having been on other cruises, we knew this was usually the best way to avoid the crowds and have a pleasant dinner without elbowing past several thousand other people.
There is a menu each night that you can select from, and we would usually choose a starter, a main, and a dessert. They were not large meals (with a few exceptions), but by the time I got through three courses, I was always full. A selection of fresh bread was available with every meal. I was never hungry between meals.
Our waiters were from Indonesia and South Africa and were excellent.
I was impressed with the quality and range of the food on offer and have no complaints. They also had at least two or three vegetarian options on every menu.
One thing that we did find strange was that every night a guy would come around offering an 18 euro T-bone. Invariably this was also after we had ordered.
We chatted to our waiter about the dining times and he said that generally people in Europe eat later, so the majority of the early dinner sitting was the Australians, Americans etc. Apparently they've had issues where even if they assign Italians to the earlier dinner sitting, they will still show up late because 6:30 is WAY too early to eat dinner. We were quite happy to have a 6:30 dinner, 8:30 show, then get enough rest for another busy day in port.
For breakfast we went to the buffet. The buffet is massive, and it was always absolutely packed with people. One thing that I thought was interesting was that they had a section of the buffet for families, which was more out of the way and had a selection of items that would appeal more to kids. The breakfast buffet was comprehensive, with everything - hash browns, pancakes, eggs, fruit, cereal, sausages and so on. There is a juice machine with four kinds of juice to choose from. We over-ate at breakfast and often found we didn't then eat much while off the ship.
We only ate a few lunches on board. The lunch buffet was pretty good. There was a pizza section (of course), carved meats, soups, breads, pasta, salads, an "ethnic" section, fruit, sweets, and more. I didn't always find a lot of vegetarian items - for example many of the salads would have fish or meat in them, but overall I thought it was a fairly decent buffet.
When eating in the buffet we quickly discovered that if we all went straight for the food and then tried to meet up, we would be eating in four opposite corners. We learned to have one or two of us claim a table while the others went to get food. You had to be quick when you saw a free table. The same rules that applied to Italian driving appeared to apply to the buffet. Do not hesitate.
We ate lunch once in the restaurant. It could have just been the day that we went, but there was only one vegetarian option across both starters and mains, so that meant I really had no choice in what to order. We all agreed we probably wouldn't bother with it again. You have to pay for water when eating in the restaurant too.
There were activities scheduled during the day, but I would say not as many as we've seen on other ships. It is possible that this is simply because we were in port almost every day and many people are not even on the ship. The language barrier could potentially also be an issue with scheduling activities.
We did catch the end of a MasterChef at sea show one day. The participants were enjoying themselves, and I was amazed at the MC who was effortlessly switching between at least 4 languages and still managing to keep everyone's attention.
The night life appeared to be more of a priority. Every night as we left the show, there would be some sort of spectacle happening in the dome area. One night "Michael Jackson" was doing his thing on the bridge under the dome. This often seemed to be a bit of a taster for the themed party of the night. I was exhausted and went to bed after the show every night, but for those that like to party, it sounds like there was plenty going on.
We were excited by the family fun options on the ship before we boarded. They market things like the bowling alley and we were keen to give it a try, until we learned it would be 30 euros for 30 minutes. Throw in the exchange rate and we decided to give it a miss. In fact most of the things on the family entertainment deck cost, and they are not cheap.
My husband and son had a go on the simulator on our sea day and said it was great fun. You can buy "fun passes" which essentially means you can get 30 euros of stuff for 25 euros, and so on.
The high ropes course on the top deck is free and is definitely worth having a go. You have to sign a waiver, for which they give you a white wristband that you cannot take off.
My husband and son also had a go on the water slides. It was January in Italy. They were a little chilly but said it was still fun. The water park area on the top deck looked awesome and I imagine that younger children would love it.
Our kids were not interested in the teen club, so I can't comment on it beyond the fact that we walked through the area and it looked clean and well organised.
Drinks cost extra on all cruise ships. I've heard that some people spend more on drinks than they spent on their tickets in the first place. We had no intention of doing that.
As soon as we boarded the ship they tried to sell us a drinks package. I had already looked online and decided it was not worth it. 19 Euros per person per day for the unlimited non alcoholic drinks alone. We just don't need to drink that much, especially given that almost every day we were going to be going ashore.
The part that did frustrate me was that water could be obtained for free in the buffet, and at breakfast time, juice was also available for free. In the restaurant, everything costs, including water. We settled into a practice where the other 3 would get a drink and I would order a water, which was a 1L bottle of water. Then everyone got a glass of water and we spent about 13 euros at each dinner on drinks.
The touch screens had language options, which is one of the other advantages of going digital.
Our daily schedules and all written communications were delivered in English.
I have no idea whether the crew generally speak five languages, but they had no trouble with English and appeared to be moving effortlessly among the passengers in the dining room and cabins.
The guy I thought was incredible was the man that introduced the show every night and also listed out the evening entertainment. He would start in English, and then rapidly repeat the entire thing in Italian, French, Spanish, and I think German (?). My memory is fading already. He was clearly fluent in all five languages.
Announcements that were made over the loud speakers were also made in all of those languages plus Japanese. It didn't bother me. I only found that I tuned out during the other languages and sometimes didn't realise when they were speaking English again.
There is no self service laundry on board so my husband also had to pay 3.50 to get his formal shirt ironed after carrying it in a backpack for 2 weeks.
We were assigned a disembarkation time and lounge to meet in, so we ate breakfast in the buffet and then went to wait for our turn to leave.
Our luggage was waiting for us in the terminal and before we knew it we were on our way home.
The food, crew and entertainment were all excellent. The ship was immaculate. The decor was amazing. Yes, it was different to other cruise ships that we have been on, but differences are what makes life interesting.
Before we booked, we researched MSC as thoroughly as we could. The cruise was cheap-ish and we wanted to make sure there wasn't a "gotcha". We booked knowing that the atmosphere would obviously be more "European" than our previous cruises, whatever we thought that meant.
As our departure date came closer, I reached out to others in a Facebook cruising community, asking for any specific tips for sailing with MSC. Some of the answers that I received left me very nervous about our upcoming cruise. Some said they would never sail with MSC again. Many people cited the food as being sub-par.
I am happy to report that post-cruise, we can say that we had a wonderful time, and we would consider MSC for a future cruise. There were still some gotchas and we would be more aware of them next time. Overall we though the food was excellent, the shows were entertaining, the decor was beautiful, the cabin was well equipped, and the staff were all helpful and attentive.
Embarkation
It was a pretty painless process. We dropped our bags, then went through security screening, stopped at the check in desk to pick up our cruise cards, then we were on the ship. We had completed the online check-in process, so if that is what made it painless, I recommend you do it.
The cruise card can't have a hole cut in it so don't bother with a lanyard unless you have one with a pouch. I noticed that it was rare to see someone with their card on a lanyard. I think this is possibly because they encourage use of their app, and we were in port every day, so phone use was far more prevalent than I have seen on previous ships. I kept my cruise card in my phone case.Once you are on board, there are four main things to take care of:
1. Go to one of the kiosks and activate your cruise card for payments. You just tap your card on the kiosk, and link your credit card to your cabin. It will list everyone else in your cabin and you can link the same credit card to them. I noticed that it also had an option to link your credit card to people in other cabins.
2. Attend the safety briefing. We did find this a little confusing. We were given a sheet that said we must attend, but it did not have a location. It said that the location would be on the app. We checked the app and the daily schedule and the location was nowhere to be found. In the end we applied some knowledge of previous cruises and discovered that our assembly station was printed on our cruise cards - K - and used the ship's map to learn that station K was the Carousel lounge. We headed there a bit early, and waited for everyone to arrive.
We were not required to bring the life jackets from our cabins as we have done on previous cruises. A number of crew stood in the middle of the room, and demonstrated how to put a life jacket on, one painful step at a time, where each step was repeated in six different languages. I found myself losing concentration during the bits where another language was being spoken, and would suddenly realise that they were speaking English again.
Later on a sheet of paper was delivered to our cabin informing us that we had missed the briefing and would have to attend the next day. Turns out they were scanning cards on the way in, but because we were seated early, they did not scan our cards. We explained this to the man at reception. I'm not sure he believed us, but he let it slide.
3. Visit the buffet. Who can embark a cruise ship without at least going and having a look at the buffet after embarking? It is massive. Even after a week I am not sure that I saw all of it.
4. Book tickets to as many shows as are available on the app. I recommend installing the app before you arrive, and logging in to it. This will make it easier when you get on board. You will still need to use your cruise card to fully log in. There is an "internet ID" on the cruise card that is used to activate the app once on board. We found that the shows for the next 4 days were available in the app, and seats in the 8:30 show were going fast. We immediately booked ourselves into them (for free). We also booked paid tickets to Cirque du Soleil. More on that later.
Our Cabin
We had a balcony cabin on Deck 13 - cabin 13195. It was arranged with a queen bed and twin bunks. A desk and stool is across from the bunks. It is definitely compact. I felt that the bathroom was a decent size for a cruise ship, and apart from the bathroom door opening right into the path of the cabin door, the layout worked OK.We did find that there was not a lot of storage space for 4 people, so we mostly lived out of our bags.
See the lights above the door - they show whether someone is in the room (presumably for the benefit of the steward). I think our steward got a bit frustrated with us as he was clearly supposed to freshen the room a set number of times a day, including in the evening, but at least one of us was often in there when we were on board.
The bathroom is compact but functional. I did think some more hooks could have been handy. There is shampoo and body wash in the shower. A clothes line is also in the shower. There are tissues provided.
This view is from the door.
The desk has two European and two US power points. Luckily we had one universal adapter each, and were able to use ALL of them. We may have been trying to set a record for the most number of cords and devices on this desk during our week in this cabin. There is a hair dryer in the desk drawer.
Bunks for the kids. Our son was on top and did get irritated by the light above his bed so we were constantly in semi darkness.
The balcony. Small, and it was chilly but it was fun to be able to watch as we sailed in and out of ports. Sitting out here also increased our phone reception significantly when in port.
We were each provided with 2 pillows - a soft one and a firm one. I thought it was a nice touch.
The Digital Experience
I have read that the Meraviglia is one of the first ships that MSC has used to try out their new digital experience. I am not sure how much of this is in use on other ships.If we had forked out for the higher "experience" package, we would have received a wrist band that we could have used as a cabin key and to buy drinks etc. You can buy them separately but we did not bother.
On every deck there are large touch screens that pretty much mirror what is available in the app. You can figure out where you are, look at the daily schedule, order tickets to a show, or look at what there is to do in the upcoming port. It is a great idea and we used them a few times. It also shows the current weather and forecast.
There is an MSC for Me app that you can install on a phone or a tablet. The only annoyance was that to use it, you had to be connected to the ship wi-fi. This was free, but once connected to the ship wi-fi, the internet from the sim cards that we had did not work, so we had to keep connecting and disconnecting depending on whether we needed the internet or the app. (Note - we had sim cards from our prior travel around Italy that worked in all of the ports, so we used them when close to shore).
I though the app was well done and provided lots of valuable information.
It always shows where you are, and includes a weather forecast for each port.
It is able to tell you exactly where you are on the ship. It also includes a list of all charges against your account. The only oversight here was that my husband could not see his own charges. I assume this is because I put my credit card against all 4 passengers.
There are also kiosks at which you can view all of the photos logged against your cruise card. I would like it if they could update this so that it shows all photos from everyone in your cabin. I was not able to see the photos taken when my husband's card was swiped.
Evening Shows
The shows can be booked through the app. When you arrive at the show, there is a line for "booked" and "not-booked". Those that booked are allowed in until a few minutes before starting time, and then they let everyone else in.There were 3 showings of each show every night, and they generally went for 40-45 minutes. We chose the 8:30pm show, which was the middle one, every night. One person can book tickets for everyone in the cabin. The others will then see the event in their "Personal Agenda" for the day.
My husband and I attended almost all of the shows, and I thought they were very well done, if a little different to shows we have seen on other ships.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly what it was, but I think it was just more flamboyant than at home. I told myself that I needed to watch some Eurovision when I got home to see if that helps me understand the style.
The costumes were amazing and the dancers were very talented. For the most part the singing was great with a few exceptions.
On other ships we've experienced a lot of guest performances to supplement the regular ship entertainment group, but on this one there was only 1 - a magician on the last night. His "magic" was sad but then he did a shadow puppet performance that was quite fantastic.
Cirque du Soleil
We booked this as soon as we got on board, and still didn't get our preferred day and time. On this particular cruise the thing to remember is that there are multiple embarkation ports. The ship just keeps going around and around past the same ports, and people get on and off at several of the stops. This means that others have already had the opportunity to book some of the shows that you will be considering.We chose the 15 euro cocktail and show package for Viaggio. Our main criteria was that the running time was longer so it was a better deal, as well as the description of Sonor sounding a bit airy fairy.
These were my thoughts from my travel diary on the show:
They are popular so the only tickets we could get were at 10:15pm. They came with a drink, so at 10:15 we were allowed in and shown to our table. On the way through you pick up your drink. They had 3 choices of cocktails and one mocktail. It was some sort of grapefruit juice concoction. Some pre-show music was playing. Shortly after we arrived, a woman came on and started singing, I think in French. She was good but not what we came to see. There were three mimes running around through this performance as well. We had the opportunity to watch those eat who had purchased dinner and a show. Theirs was supposed to start about 45 mins before so I don't know why they were only just being served main course while we were sitting there. At 10:45 the show actually started. It wasn't quite as elaborate as I expected but some excellent performances by jugglers and acrobats. It is hard to describe but a curved tv screen undulates across the back of the room and animated backdrops were shown on these screens. At one point two people even came out attached to cables and walked across these screens, meaning their bodies were parallel to the floor. It finished around 11:40.
In this photo, the clouds are on the curved LED screens behind the stage.
Dining
Food was something that I became worried about after reading many online reviews slamming MSC for their poor food options. It turns out that I had nothing to worry about.We had requested the early dinner sitting, and were assigned to eat at 6:30pm in a specific restaurant. Although you can opt to eat at the buffet instead, having been on other cruises, we knew this was usually the best way to avoid the crowds and have a pleasant dinner without elbowing past several thousand other people.
There is a menu each night that you can select from, and we would usually choose a starter, a main, and a dessert. They were not large meals (with a few exceptions), but by the time I got through three courses, I was always full. A selection of fresh bread was available with every meal. I was never hungry between meals.
Our waiters were from Indonesia and South Africa and were excellent.
I was impressed with the quality and range of the food on offer and have no complaints. They also had at least two or three vegetarian options on every menu.
One thing that we did find strange was that every night a guy would come around offering an 18 euro T-bone. Invariably this was also after we had ordered.
We chatted to our waiter about the dining times and he said that generally people in Europe eat later, so the majority of the early dinner sitting was the Australians, Americans etc. Apparently they've had issues where even if they assign Italians to the earlier dinner sitting, they will still show up late because 6:30 is WAY too early to eat dinner. We were quite happy to have a 6:30 dinner, 8:30 show, then get enough rest for another busy day in port.
For breakfast we went to the buffet. The buffet is massive, and it was always absolutely packed with people. One thing that I thought was interesting was that they had a section of the buffet for families, which was more out of the way and had a selection of items that would appeal more to kids. The breakfast buffet was comprehensive, with everything - hash browns, pancakes, eggs, fruit, cereal, sausages and so on. There is a juice machine with four kinds of juice to choose from. We over-ate at breakfast and often found we didn't then eat much while off the ship.
We only ate a few lunches on board. The lunch buffet was pretty good. There was a pizza section (of course), carved meats, soups, breads, pasta, salads, an "ethnic" section, fruit, sweets, and more. I didn't always find a lot of vegetarian items - for example many of the salads would have fish or meat in them, but overall I thought it was a fairly decent buffet.
When eating in the buffet we quickly discovered that if we all went straight for the food and then tried to meet up, we would be eating in four opposite corners. We learned to have one or two of us claim a table while the others went to get food. You had to be quick when you saw a free table. The same rules that applied to Italian driving appeared to apply to the buffet. Do not hesitate.
We ate lunch once in the restaurant. It could have just been the day that we went, but there was only one vegetarian option across both starters and mains, so that meant I really had no choice in what to order. We all agreed we probably wouldn't bother with it again. You have to pay for water when eating in the restaurant too.
Daytime activities
As with other ships, every night a schedule is delivered to your room for the following day. I have scanned all of ours and you can see them here.There were activities scheduled during the day, but I would say not as many as we've seen on other ships. It is possible that this is simply because we were in port almost every day and many people are not even on the ship. The language barrier could potentially also be an issue with scheduling activities.
We did catch the end of a MasterChef at sea show one day. The participants were enjoying themselves, and I was amazed at the MC who was effortlessly switching between at least 4 languages and still managing to keep everyone's attention.
The night life appeared to be more of a priority. Every night as we left the show, there would be some sort of spectacle happening in the dome area. One night "Michael Jackson" was doing his thing on the bridge under the dome. This often seemed to be a bit of a taster for the themed party of the night. I was exhausted and went to bed after the show every night, but for those that like to party, it sounds like there was plenty going on.
Family Fun and other Entertainment
We were excited by the family fun options on the ship before we boarded. They market things like the bowling alley and we were keen to give it a try, until we learned it would be 30 euros for 30 minutes. Throw in the exchange rate and we decided to give it a miss. In fact most of the things on the family entertainment deck cost, and they are not cheap.
My husband and son had a go on the simulator on our sea day and said it was great fun. You can buy "fun passes" which essentially means you can get 30 euros of stuff for 25 euros, and so on.
The high ropes course on the top deck is free and is definitely worth having a go. You have to sign a waiver, for which they give you a white wristband that you cannot take off.
My husband and son also had a go on the water slides. It was January in Italy. They were a little chilly but said it was still fun. The water park area on the top deck looked awesome and I imagine that younger children would love it.
Our kids were not interested in the teen club, so I can't comment on it beyond the fact that we walked through the area and it looked clean and well organised.
Drinks
Drinks cost extra on all cruise ships. I've heard that some people spend more on drinks than they spent on their tickets in the first place. We had no intention of doing that.As soon as we boarded the ship they tried to sell us a drinks package. I had already looked online and decided it was not worth it. 19 Euros per person per day for the unlimited non alcoholic drinks alone. We just don't need to drink that much, especially given that almost every day we were going to be going ashore.
The part that did frustrate me was that water could be obtained for free in the buffet, and at breakfast time, juice was also available for free. In the restaurant, everything costs, including water. We settled into a practice where the other 3 would get a drink and I would order a water, which was a 1L bottle of water. Then everyone got a glass of water and we spent about 13 euros at each dinner on drinks.
Multiple Languages
It must be a challenge to manage a ship with thousands of passengers that speak a wide variety of languages. I had heard that it made things painful, but overall I thought they handled it well.The touch screens had language options, which is one of the other advantages of going digital.
Our daily schedules and all written communications were delivered in English.
I have no idea whether the crew generally speak five languages, but they had no trouble with English and appeared to be moving effortlessly among the passengers in the dining room and cabins.
The guy I thought was incredible was the man that introduced the show every night and also listed out the evening entertainment. He would start in English, and then rapidly repeat the entire thing in Italian, French, Spanish, and I think German (?). My memory is fading already. He was clearly fluent in all five languages.
Announcements that were made over the loud speakers were also made in all of those languages plus Japanese. It didn't bother me. I only found that I tuned out during the other languages and sometimes didn't realise when they were speaking English again.
Formal Night
We had 2 "elegant" nights. We dressed up for the first and were too tired to be bothered for the second. There was a huge range in how people dressed, so we did not feel out of place. Plenty of people went all out, and plenty of people did not dress up at all.Around the ship
Smoking
I was concerned that with smoking being more acceptable in Europe, I would come across it more on the ship. The only time I had to deal with it was when walking through the Casino to get to the Carousel lounge. Otherwise, it was not a problem at all.Shipboard Account
Our final account came to 513.47 (euros). The bulk of our charges was the daily 10 euro per person service charge (tips). I am aware of all of the arguments around tips on cruise ships, and I have every desire for the crew to be paid a fair wage, but I still have mixed feelings about this one given that Italy is not a tipping culture. In the end I figure that if they were to remove this they would just increase the ticket price to cover it (I would actually prefer this), so I choose not to make an issue out of it. We spent about 13 euros per day on drinks, had one go at some of the entertainment, and spent 60 (plus tax) on the Cirque du Soleil show.There is no self service laundry on board so my husband also had to pay 3.50 to get his formal shirt ironed after carrying it in a backpack for 2 weeks.
Disembarkation
There was nothing remarkable about getting off the ship. As usual, we packed our bags and left them outside our door the night before with the provided tags.We were assigned a disembarkation time and lounge to meet in, so we ate breakfast in the buffet and then went to wait for our turn to leave.
Our luggage was waiting for us in the terminal and before we knew it we were on our way home.
Conclusion
We had a wonderful week on the MSC Meraviglia and would consider another MSC cruise. Next time we would be able to better estimate our on-board costs when looking at the ticket costs.The food, crew and entertainment were all excellent. The ship was immaculate. The decor was amazing. Yes, it was different to other cruise ships that we have been on, but differences are what makes life interesting.
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