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Tips for next time

Things I found out before and during the cruise which may (or may not!) be helpful:

champagne is available in most bars including the Yacht Club and one brand is included in the drinks package

the Yacht Club has the deluxe drinks package so anything on the menus with no or one star is included. Items with 2 stars is not included in any package

you sometimes have to sign for drinks across the ship but not in the Yacht Club

the 40 item laundry package for £35 was really good value. You didn’t have to use it up all in one go. 

there is an always available menu which is separate from the normal YC restaurant menu - just ask for it as it wasn’t offered up front

if you really want a specific wine on the list at lunch and dinner, just insist you want it and they will do their best to get it for you

you can order any type of tea or coffee even at breakfast time on room service by calling them

I wouldn’t bother with the Eataly room service pizza, it was a bit stodgy and we both had massive indigestion afterwards

I will update this blog if I think of anything else! However, ask in the meantime.

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Final thoughts

So, having been on an 11 night itinerary with MSC, would I go on the the Meraviglia again?

I would say, I would definitely go MSC again if I could go into the Yacht Club as that made such a difference to our cruise. However, I wouldn’t go on the Meraviglia again if I had a choice as I prefer the more traditional layout smaller ships (this had over 5,000 passengers on it). It was a lovely ship but, for us, the promenade made the ship have a bit of an odd layout with no real central area.

If I was not in the Yacht Club I probably wouldn’t have been so happy seeing the queues at reception:

Pros

Yacht Club and the Meraviglia itself is amazing

Always loungers available even on the main decks (never busy on the One Deck even on sea days)

Service was impeccable

Food was of a very good standard with some great wines recommended

The butler service was amazing including getting on and off the ship

The button on the buffet tables to get a drink worked really well

Concierge and room service were excellent

Loved the pillow menu

Cons

Some of the evening entertainment was dire

On board screens were a nightmare to use for booking

The daily programme was terrible at describing some of the entertainment. There were normally non-existent descriptions at times

The priority lift access was a bit hit and miss although the lifts were never really busy

We couldn’t get a burger on the one pool deck one day so had to go to the buffet to get one

Difficulty in getting a seat in some of the bars. The Meraviglia Bar is way too small for the size of ship

The food in the main buffet was hit and miss

The social cruise wifi system kept logging us both out which was annoying

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Disembarkation

We disembarked in Hamburg. The Meraviglia docked at the Steinwerder cruise terminal.

We had to vacate our cabin by 8am but were told we could keep our hand luggage in there until we were ready to leave. This meant we could go for a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant which was open until 9:30am. We saw Miljan and Massimo for the last time on this cruise and said an emotional farewell to them. I can’t stress enough how good the staff are on this ship. I had to have my eggs benedict for the final time before we (begrudgingly) would be going home.

We stayed on the ship until 10:45am as we had a car booked to take us to the airport at 11:10am and wanted to allow time to get off. We could use all the Yacht Club areas and still get food and drinks until we disembarked. We could have stayed on longer if we had wanted to.

When we were ready to go, we asked to be escorted off the ship by one of the butlers. We were taken down to the arrivals area of the terminal and got our cases straight away (you had to put your case outside your cabin by 2am) and we were outside the terminal by 11am. Very stress free.

Outside the terminal there were queues everywhere for the shuttle bus and for taxis. I am glad we booked our own car through Blacklane as it arrived on time and we were whisked to Hamburg airport which took about 40 minutes.

We then checked in for our flight (the queues at BA check in were terrible but that’s a different story!) and slummed it in economy for the 1 hour flight back to London. We used the executive lounge as I have access to lounges as part of my bank account which was nothing to write home about but worth taking for the peace and quiet.

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Ports of call

This cruise started off at Genoa then called at Marseilles, Barcelona, Cadiz, Lisbon, Vigo, Southampton, Le Havre and ended up in Hamburg. We had 3 days at sea. We didn’t go on any MSC excursions as we like to explore on our own as we can get a better feel for a place that way. We are not going to go into the ports of call in detail but give you a brief overview with any tips we picked up.

GENOA

We flew into Milan Linate and took a car here (220 euros one way for a chauffeur driven Mercedes with Taxi Bergamo) as we stayed here for 4 nights before the cruise in the NH Genova Central. The hotel is very near everything in this historic city and it takes about 15 minutes to walk to the Aquarium on the waterfront. I will write a separate post about this in more detail.

MARSEILLE

Things didn’t get off to a good start at Marseille as the free shuttle bus was not running due to a general strike in France. We didn’t find this out until we had walked 20 minutes to the port shuttle stop where a sign stated it wasn’t running. As it was too far to walk into town and the fact we had to walk another 20 minutes back to the ship in extremely hot conditions (it was unseasonably hot this day). We gave up trying to go into Marseille and got back on board. We also factored in that my partner had been to Marseille before and it wasn’t much to write home about. A warm welcome with a cold glass of prosecco in the Yacht Club made up for this.

BARCELONA

We have visited Barcelona a couple of times before and, as much as some people absolutely love this city, we feel we missed the point. Gaudi’s cathedral is amazing but the city on this day was very crowded and quite expensive. You need to get a shuttle bus from the ship and you can either get the ship or port organised options. We took the former which was a greater cost (9 euros return) but meant it just removed the hassle. We did see some people walking but it was a long way into the centre.

CADIZ

Cadiz is a lovely city consisting of the old town and the beach area. This is somewhere where we would love to revisit as there were quaint streets and really nice places to sit and have a drink and watch the world go by. You could walk into town from where the ship docked and there is a hop on hop off tour.

LISBON

Again you can walk from the ship straight into town from the dock we were moored at. It is a very hilly city which could make it difficult to walk if you have mobility issues. There is a hop on hop off tour which we didn’t do as it had quite poor reviews. Also it doesn’t get near any of the narrow streets. You can also ride the famous 28 line tram which takes you across the city but we saw this was very crowded so gave it a miss.

Instead we booked a Renault Twizy through Lisbon Eco Tours. A Twizy is an electric 2 seater car which fits down many of the streets and comes with a sat nav which guides you around all the sights and explains where you are going past. You can stop in most places for free in the city being an electric tourist vehicle and for 2 hours you can stop and take pictures where you like. We even stopped off for Pastels de Nata and a coffee. You need a driving licence and credit card and you can book this in advance. It is truly an amazing experience and something we would recommend.

VIGO

Whilst not as picturesque as Cadiz, it is still a nice place to roam around. It is more of a working town than Cadiz but you can go to Santiago de Compostela from here. We decided to walk around the city and have a look at a few of the shops on offer and sat down for a while with some cake and coffee in a local bakery to watch the world go by.

SOUTHAMPTON

Not much to say here as we live about an hour and a half from here and work in Bath so didn’t really want to do any of the excursions. There is not a huge amount to see in Southampton unless you want to go shopping but you can walk into town from the port. Many people went to Bath, Salisbury, Stonehenge and London from here.

LE HAVRE

You can go to Paris from here either by organised excursion or by train. You need to get the shuttle organised by the ship to get to the station or get a taxi. We got a taxi and it was about 8 euros each way so cheaper for 2 of us to do this. As we have been to Paris before, we decided to go to Rouen, about 1 hour by train. This is a very historic medieval town where Joan of Arc was Burned at the stake (this monument was very modern and disappointing). There was also a massive cathedral which is free to walk around which was very historic. You could spend about half a day here exploring. Apart from Paris, some passengers went to Honfleur, a sleepy fishing town about 45 minutes from Le Havre.

Le Havre itself is not much to write home about as much of it was rebuilt after being a major casualty of the war.

HAMBURG

We ended our cruise here and we will be covering the disembarkation experience in a later post.

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Staff

All the staff I came across were really friendly and helpful. They were all good natured and had a good sense of humour. I didn’t come across one member of staff who did not want to help. Sometime language was an issue but you just had to rephrase your request or show what you wanted on the menu to get what you wanted. All the butlers and other staff in the Yacht Club worked very hard. Sometimes they did seem overstretched as they had many jobs to do but we were on holiday so were happy to wait a few minutes sometimes.

I have already mentioned this previously, but a special mention goes out to the following staff who went out of their way to make our cruise extra special and made us feel like part of the family:

·        Maksim – our butler – catered to our every need with the minimum of fuss.

·        Nova – our Junior Butler – who kept our cabin spotless and did amazing towel animals.

·        Miljan – YC restaurant waiter – had a really good sense of humour and was really good at suggesting wines to go with the food. Nothing was too much trouble.

·        Massimo – YC restaurant supervisor – always had time to talk to us about our day and how things were going. He even made us a special pasta dish one night and his crepe suzettes was amazing.

·        Joyce – Assistant YC waiter – always remembered our bread and water preferences and had time to chat.

I think the staff made this cruise and we were really sad to leave them.

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Entertainment

The entertainment on board ranged from dire to quite good. It seemed that MSC has spent all the money on Cirque du Soleil on board and not had much left for the other entertainment. We did not go to see Cirque du Soleil as it is not our cup of tea but there were spaces available every night for the shows for both the meal and drink options.

The Broadway Theatre had a range of shows by the theatre company and this included the Rock Show which was horrendous – out of tune and dancers who weren’t in sync, songs from the musicals which was very entertaining even though their accents came through particularly with songs from Mary Poppins (think Dick Van Dyke meets Mario), the Flamenco which show seemed really good but we didn’t stay as we have seen many Flamenco shows which take place near our house in Spain, Virtual which was music and dance based on smartphone apps – this was ingenious and I really enjoyed it. The entertainment team seemed to get better as the cruise went on. They had a live band for most shows. You could book the shows through the interactive screens or through the app and they were all on over 2 to 3 nights at different times which gave you change to see them all without clashes.

There was music and singing across most of the bars across the ship and the Brass Anchor pub had a very good acoustic duo which we listened to over a few nights.

The Yacht Club had a pianist every night in the evening and a violinist on a couple of occasions who was really talented.

There was dome shows and parades on the promenade including a history of MSC (which was slightly out of date). A couple of the LED dome panels were broken so I’m not sure how often they’ll need to replace them. However, it was truly impressive.

The Flower Power (70s) party on the promenade was really good fun and everyone got involved and the daytime snow party on deck was entertaining. The beach party at the indoor pool was a bit of a mistake. It was the wrong venue for this (not much room for dancing) and wasn’t well attended.

There was karaoke in the TV Studio Bar and MSC also have “Masterchef at Sea” based on the TV programme. The casting session consisted of a quiz which was used to select the contestants and the “live cooking” competition (chopping fruit and cheese) took place on the last sea day. This was good fun.

There was always something going on and we were never stuck for things to do. You could get involved as much as you wanted but the daily programme could do with explaining the activities more as the title didn’t always make it obvious what it was.

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Food

There are 3 places in the Yacht Club where you could get food (apart from room service) – the One Pool Deck, the Top Sail lounge and the restaurant. You could also book in to one of the speciality restaurants although we didn’t do this as the food was so good in the Yacht Club.

Main buffet: We ate in the main buffet twice and we had no problem getting a seat. The button on each table to ask for drinks was a really nice touch and the service was quick and friendly. Food here was nice although there were some strange combinations of food which made it difficult to have a complete meal. However, you could get burgers, hot dogs and pizza here.

Yacht Club One Pool Deck: Here you could have casual breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks. We had roast beef, chicken parmigiana and salmon amongst others and the food was generally good but was sometimes a bit lukewarm. This place is great if the weather was good but you couldn’t eat up here if it was cold. You also had a full range of drinks including some very nice wines such as Chablis and Pinot Grigio.

Top Sail lounge: There was a small buffet of cold snacks such as sandwiches, cakes and nuts. You could also get sushi here and they had canapes before dinner. You could also take high tea here between 4-5pm where you had a 3 tier cake and sandwich stand with a selection of sandwiches, cakes and scones with jam and real clotted cream. If you wanted any other sandwiches, you only needed to ask and they would get you some. They also had a selection of loose leaf teas which were served from the trolley. A very civilised experience.

Yacht Club Restaurant: This was open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The first night was really good and Ajay was efficient. However, the second night started out as a disaster, so much so that we tried to walk out. It took an age for the menus to arrive, we didn’t get any drinks and the waiter couldn’t understand what we wanted. When we walked out, we were stopped by the Restaurant Supervisor Massimo who was very concerned and persuaded us to stay. He seated us in another section of the restaurant and our new waiter, Miljan, was amazing. He served us for the rest of our cruise and we didn’t want for anything. He got to know what wines we liked and recommended some new ones which were good to try. He also tailored the dishes and had a really good sense of humour. He knew how to tailor the service based on our personality and attitude. We never had an issue getting a table bar one night (tables were available but not in Miljan’s section) so we were asked to go to the Top Sail lounge and Massimo came to collect us as soon as a table was ready. He generally got us the same table every night which was nice. Joyce, the Assistant Waiter, was also really good remembering that we liked still water and what type of bread we generally like. Miljan and Massimo really made our cruise special and we were quite emotional when we left the last night. Massimo also organised an anniversary meal for us with a specially cooked dish and a bottle of champagne.

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The Butler Service

Kardek, our initial butler introduced himself and asked when we wanted the in-cabin wine which was a gift from our travel agent for our anniversary. He also explained about the laundry package we had purchased (£35.00 for 40 items of laundry) and asked if everything was ok which it was. Nova, our Junior Butler also introduced himself and he was the one who serviced our cabin. We also had our luggage unpacked whilst we went for lunch,

Everything went well until day 2, when Kardek had to get off unexpectedly (his wife went into labour so he had to go home). Not a problem, except that we didn’t get a replacement butler and the service noticeably decreased. The promised bottle of wine never materialised and it took ages to get service in the cabin. We went up to reception to ask what was happening and after a discussion with the head butler, we got a replacement butler.

Our new butler, Maksim, was amazing. He was there if you needed him but left you alone if you didn’t want anything. He was friendly and professional and always had time for a chat. Butlers tend to provide room service but they also serve in the Top Sail lounge and the One Pool Deck this gives a continuity of service as they know how you like drinks, etc. Some of the services Maksim provided were: tea, coffee and any other drinks you wanted to your cabin (including cocktails and champagne), laundry delivery and breakfast/room service in your cabin. You could have a continental breakfast in your cabin together with a few hot items. You didn’t even need to hang the breakfast card out the night before as you could phone down for coffee and pastries in the morning and it would be there within 10 minutes. Anything you need, you call the Yacht Club reception. We also asked for green instead of red grapes in the fruit bowl and this was changed and we had green grapes from then on.

As it was our anniversary cruise, I had a word with Maksim and he decorated our cabin with balloons and cards. He also provided chocolates and a bottle of Asti. That was a really nice touch. Maksim is a credit to MSC.

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The cabin

We stayed in a Yacht Club Deluxe cabin which was huge. It had a minibar of drinks and snacks (such as chocolate peanuts!) which were included and refilled twice-daily. We also had a welcome bottle of prosecco on ice and a fruit bowl that was filled up whenever anything was running low. We had bathrobes and slippers and plenty of toiletries which were lovely. The balcony wasn’t very deep but very wide so there was plenty of room to sit and have a drink or read a book. The balcony furniture consisted of 2 chairs and a footstool with clear glass frontage. The cabin also had a Nespresso coffee machine which we didn’t really use as our butler provided us with tea and coffee if we asked. The bed was absolutely amazing. So comfortable and I had the best sleep I have ever had which was enhanced by the choice of pillows that the butler brought to our cabin. The cabin was also pitch black when the curtains were shut. The TV had a range of pay movies and the only English language channels were Euronews, CNN and Sky News.

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Embarkation

Embarkation in Genoa started off as a nightmare. It was disorganised, none of the staff knew where we had to go and the signage was very confusing. No sign of the Yacht Club tent until we finally got directions from a staff member who actually knew where the Yacht Club check in was. With suitcases, this was very stressful not helped by the fact that 2 ships were in at the same time.

When we got to the Yacht Club tent, the butler was nowhere to be seen and we had to wait for 10 minutes before we saw one. Once the 2 butlers arrived, there was a group of around 14 people waiting to check in. However, they were very efficient and took our cases from us and escorted us past many queues, through security and to the embarkation lounge. We took a seat and were offered chocolates and prosecco whilst they processed our passports and tickets. We then were escorted to a bus to take us to the ship and were escorted on board. There were 2 staff members taking photos for your cruise cards but we didn’t need this as we had already uploaded our photos when we checked in.

We were taken up to the Top Sail lounge and separated into our language groups and were given (warm) prosecco. Luckily we didn’t have time to drink it as a butler took us down to the cabin. This was not ready which the butler was clearly unhappy about but she took our hand luggage and put it in the cabin and got us the cruise cards so we could go and explore. We were told the cabin would be ready in 20 minutes which it was.

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About us

We are a couple in our 40s and we went on the Meraviglia in April 2018 for an 11 night cruise from Genoa to Hamburg in the Yacht Club.