Coronavirus Cruise: March 2020! MSC Meraviglia Yacht Club

[CTslotters]

Hi all! I will add more content and pictures here when I get a chance (hopefully later tonight), but wanted to kick off the cruise trip review with a video we posted about our trip (room tour and great slot session included). We got some fun videos while snorkeling and those will be on a future video too! I'll detail more later and feel free to ask any questions! :)
https://youtu.be/wOmY5PV1deo

[Hoofy7]

I took a 12 day with MSC in Yacht Club in December and absolutely loved it. I’ll never cruise another way again.

[Elf70]

Great video! Looking forward to seeing the rest.

[CTslotters]

So the plan was fly into FLL and Uber down to Miami Saturday, the day before we set sail. Earlier that week we hear news stories of the MSC Meraviglia being turned away from ports due to concerns over coronavirus. Yikes! What?!? It was quickly confirmed that those were just folks with the regular flu and our tensions were eased and we were ready to set sail.
We stayed at the Marriott Biscayne Bay (free with points earned from work travel, yay!) and walked to dinner at Kush. We had planned to go to a fancier place but were crazy tired and this farm to table place had great reviews. It lived up to the hype, yay!
The next morning we grabbed Starbucks, packed up, and headed to the port.
Check in for yacht club was a breeze with a private room with snacks (fruit, desserts, finger sandwiches) and booze (never too early for mimosas on vacation!)
Fun beer taps at the restaurant, we sampled 3 different beers.
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We were on the ship quickly and escorted into the Top Sail Lounge for YC guests and then to our room! Yay! The video in the first post shows off the room, it was definitely the nicest ship room we’ve stayed in (the bed was comfy, it was sound proof, very large with tons of storage, and a great big nice shower!) It came with a butler who would stock it with whatever we wanted (we just asked for tons of still and sparkling waters daily, I drink a lot of water!) everything is included in YC so that was a plus.
Top Sail lounge
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Leaving Miami was really pretty!
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More to come...


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[TwoArmedBandito]

I cant wait to see and read more!

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[Laurie]

Great start look forward to the rest!


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[Nhcris]

I enjoyed your video. Very nice room and sweet run on Dragon Links! Looking forward to more more more!

[CTslotters]

One additional win from the first night. The casino had essentially every money sucking game we like playing (except any version of wonder 4!)
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And some food porn. This salmon trio was awesome!
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Pate, yum!
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I think this was swordfish. We ordered their nightly risotto every day, it was so good and always different.
This was a sweet and savory one with pears, fancy Brie like cheese, and fig/nut clusters. Like a perfect cheese course!
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[CTslotters]

The ship was stunning, and pristine.
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A Swarovski crystal staircase!
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Lots of fun bars all over and lots of seating in them!
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Lunch at the pool deck with amazing lamb chops!
And drinks of course!


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[Cyndyga]

Looks very nice! Enjoy the pampering ... the ship looks gorgeous. I will definitely have to check out that ships Yacht Club when they start sailing again! I want to compare it to Seaside as I absolutely loved the experience.

[hytail]

Very nice video!

How full is the ship with vacationers?

That lamb chop looked great. Me luv em lamb chops...

[DK528]

That room and ship look fantastic!


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[Slotspert]

I have been on three MSC Yacht Club cruises. I really enjoy them. Its the best way to cruise on the mass market ships. Unfortunately I cancelled all remaining cruises this year due to the virus (including two MSC Yacht Club ships). But, I will be back on the cruise circuit once this virus issue resolves. Excited to play and see that the Seaside and Divina both still had my "Dancing in Rio" slot game.

[CTslotters]

Our next trip video is up. Shout out to Elf70 for the inspiration to play this! :) I'll post more trip recap and extra pics tonight!
https://youtu.be/W-yNAC83LGA

[CTslotters]

Very nice video!

How full is the ship with vacationers?

That lamb chop looked great. Me luv em lamb chops...

The lamb chops were outstanding! We heard the ship did turn away a very large group from Italy but who knows how valid that statement was. It didn't seem empty by any means but staying in the Yacht Club, we didn't really get a good sense of how busy it was in the main areas since we had a private pool deck, restaurants and lounges. The main galleria was definitely very active, but not overcrowded.


I have been on three MSC Yacht Club cruises. I really enjoy them. Its the best way to cruise on the mass market ships. Unfortunately I cancelled all remaining cruises this year due to the virus (including two MSC Yacht Club ships). But, I will be back on the cruise circuit once this virus issue resolves. Excited to play and see that the Seaside and Divina both still had my "Dancing in Rio" slot game.
We are excited to try the Seaside in the future, especially since that one has more outdoor space compared to the Meraviglia. For as small as the casino was, it was never very busy.

[Elf70]

Lol. I watched the video from my YouTube feed first so wasn’t expecting the shout out. Glad the coyotes were landing for you. You’re really making me miss cruising. We had planned Alaska in the Bliss for August but who knows?? Can’t wait to see what happens next on your adventure.

[Slotspert]

The lamb chops were outstanding! We heard the ship did turn away a very large group from Italy but who knows how valid that statement was. It didn't seem empty by any means but staying in the Yacht Club, we didn't really get a good sense of how busy it was in the main areas since we had a private pool deck, restaurants and lounges. The main galleria was definitely very active, but not overcrowded.


We are excited to try the Seaside in the future, especially since that one has more outdoor space compared to the Meraviglia. For as small as the casino was, it was never very busy.

Yes the lamb chops were outstanding and we had them everyday on the open deck grill lunch. Seaside is overall BETTER then Meraviglia. Both are too crowded outside of yacht club, but Megavilia was uncomfortably crowded. Lately these new ships are just packing in too many people and will look for better options going forward.

[BonAppetit]

Beautiful Ship and great pictures too !!!

[CTslotters]

Who's ready for more TR?! It's something to read while trapped at home, lol!
This ship had two different Cirque de Soleil shows (extra fee but cheap enough, $18pp and included a cocktail), not Cirque-like shows or other knock offs, the real thing! Can Adam stay awake long enough to enjoy it? If you've read our Vegas TRs, you know that Adam falls asleep in virtually every cirque show we've been to!
The answer was a resounding YES! It helps that these shows were only about 45 minutes long - the perfect length of time! We saw SONOR first on our 3rd night and LOVED IT! Not knowing what to expect, it was a very acrobatic and high energy show with lots of surprises. Two huge thumbs up!
The second show 3 nights later was Viaggio. This was a more artistic show with a very whimsical story line. I liked it, Adam thought it was ok. I think if we saw Viaggio first and then Sonar, he would have liked it much more but was expecting it to be like the other and it wasn't.
Ports:
Our first Stop was Costa Maya, we found out the day resort/beach we wanted to go to was booked (we found this out in Miami the day we boarded the ship). At first we were bummed, but then after being on the Yacht Club only deck the first day, we didn't mind hanging out there the entire day instead! We love an empty ship and spent the day in the sun! Also, we received a daily paper (I don't know if this is just YC or all guests but we were able to choose at check in so we chose the Wall Street Journal.) After day 4 they had issues with printing so only had it those days. I brought books to read, Bob Iger's "The Ride of a Lifetime" was AWESOME! As a huge Disney fan, it was fascinating to read about his experiences transforming the company.

Our next port was Belize. This is where we booked a snorkeling and beach experience at Caye Caulker. We will share video of the snorkeling and Caye in our next video (as soon as I edit it, lol). Thoughts on Belize, it's a tender port, ugh. And the tender was about 25 minutes long (unheard of to us!), the water was rough, we would probably not go back for this reason alone. The excursion we booked was another 45 minute boat ride to the snorkel spot/Caye! What?!?! Thankfully, that SUPER LONG RIDE (not on a catamaran like we've had in Grand Cayman and Cozumel) felt like forever after the tender ride but brought us to calm waters. It was weird though, lots of other boats, and it was a guided snorkel (also a first and last for us as we like to explore on our own). Visibility was good and fish and coral abundant. Then we went to a place to swim with sharks and sting rays. That was neat and we got to touch the rays and they were everywhere! We have good underwater footage of this.
The island after the snorkeling was beautiful! We had some local Belize beer (meh) and enjoyed the sights and sun before the ride back. Guides were great, but the experience was very different than those we've had and preferred previously.
More to come...

[CTslotters]

The reason we didn’t need to leave the pool deck!
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I had water with drinks too! Moderation hhh!
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Above was entrance to casino! Hhh! Joker!
Below is sampling of treats butler left us.
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We got room service lunch one day after leaving the pool. Omg, this pizza was amazing!!!! As was the sandwich, turkey club with a fried egg!
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[CTslotters]

And more food pics because food is delicious.
The mozzarella is made on the ship and ridiculously delicious. I swear, one day for lunch we ate a pound of it with only two small pieces of bread and some tomatoes, lol. This is the appetizer for dinner with a normal amount of cheese.
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Above is perfect steak (mine). Adam had a gross tuna he didn’t eat for dinner this night. No pic, just wanted to say not everything was great.
Giant lobster tails with truffle risotto, pretty damn fantastic!
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The most perfect pasta ever! Made fresh for me at the pool for lunch! Also, during the week I ate the amount of carbs I typically eat in 6 month period, lol.
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Blended coconut mojito, yes please!
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Belize beer, for our second round we got land shark instead, lol.
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[treyster]

Good call on the Landshark!

[bluesfan]

Wow, looks like a great time. Glad you were able to get this in before everything shut down....

[CTslotters]

Wow, looks like a great time. Glad you were able to get this in before everything shut down....

We had a great time, we left on Feb 29th and the week of March 2nd is when everything really started to explode on the virus front in the US. We had our updates with the news stories in the WSJ, but we didn't have internet on the ship and limited tv channels anyways (not that we watched much since we tend to completely unplug on vacation). Docking on March 8th and turning on our phones and catching up was eerie. It's like we came back to another world - which in a way, we did. If our sailing was a week later, I'm not sure we would have been so eager to travel.

[BorgataBabe]

Loving your TR, especially since it looks like we will be cancelling our anniversary cruise to Bermuda in May. You made this one just in time. Loving all of the food pics, it looks delicious.

We went to Belize 3 years ago with NCL and ported there, I guess every cruise line does something different?


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[dvandentop]

great love reading the trip report makes me yearn for another cruise

[Slotspert]

We had a great time, we left on Feb 29th and the week of March 2nd is when everything really started to explode on the virus front in the US. We had our updates with the news stories in the WSJ, but we didn't have internet on the ship and limited tv channels anyways (not that we watched much since we tend to completely unplug on vacation). Docking on March 8th and turning on our phones and catching up was eerie. It's like we came back to another world - which in a way, we did. If our sailing was a week later, I'm not sure we would have been so eager to travel.

We got off the Carnival Panorama the same time you got off your ship except our ship's disembarkation was held at the Long Beach port for one additional night before anyone got off as one passenger was Covid 19 tested and the 4000 of us had to wait for the results. Thank god the passenger was negative but it was nerve wracking for all of us. The three Mexican ports (Cabo, PV and Mazatlan) we travelled to that week were already out of face masks and hand sanitizer. Needless to say it was chaos for the 4000 embarking passengers since they could not get on the ship since we could not get off it. I have no idea were 1500+ hotel rooms were found to put these 1000's of waiting passengers. This was a true nightmare.

[Zooms]

We got off the Carnival Panorama the same time you got off your ship except our ship's disembarkation was held at the Long Beach port for one additional night before anyone got off as one passenger was Covid 19 tested and the 4000 of us had to wait for the results. Thank god the passenger was negative but it was nerve wracking for all of us. The three Mexican ports (Cabo, PV and Mazatlan) we travelled to that week were already out of face masks and hand sanitizer. Needless to say it was chaos for the 4000 embarking passengers since they could not get on the ship since we could not get off it. I have no idea were 1500+ hotel rooms were found to put these 1000's of waiting passengers. This was a true nightmare.

We were on the Panorama for the February 15th sailing. Brand new ship. What did you think of it?

[Slotspert]

We were on the Panorama for the February 15th sailing. Brand new ship. What did you think of it?

Thanks for asking.....After 15 Carnival Cruises (since the 1990's), I think I am really done with Carnival for a long time. The Panorama crew and their service was impeccable and personable. The problem is that the mass cruise market has just become way too congested (e.g. just too way too many people and too many queues) on their ships. The shows were great, but the showroom layout and sight lines were the worse ever (and that was considered an improvement from the other Vista ship we were on). The casino was, for the first time in my 80 cruises, unplayable! Reason: The entire casino is the dedicated indoor smoking area 24 hours a day. Its so bad, that transiting non-smokers had to go up one deck and cross over before going back down stairs. What a dreadful design and my play was the least ever on any cruise ship because of this. On the other hand, the new NCL Encore has a non smoking and separately ventilated and isolated/enclosed smoking casino and it was wonderful except even the NCL Encore suffers from the same passenger congestion issues. I am still a big fan of cruising, but I think its time to look at less passenger ratio ships in terms of "elbow room." I'll try more River cruises (which I love!), once this Covid virus is past us. My estimate is that is won't be until year 2022 that this pandemic is under control so that cruising becomes as safe as it was before this started. Otherwise, trust me, its not worth the stress to travel this way.

[Zooms]

Thanks for asking.....After 15 Carnival Cruises (since the 1990's), I think I am really done with Carnival for a long time. The Panorama crew and their service was impeccable and personable. The problem is that the mass cruise market has just become way too congested (e.g. just too way too many people and too many queues) on their ships. The shows were great, but the showroom layout and sight lines were the worse ever (and that was considered an improvement from the other Vista ship we were on). The casino was, for the first time in my 80 cruises, unplayable! Reason: The entire casino is the dedicated indoor smoking area 24 hours a day. Its so bad, that transiting non-smokers had to go up one deck and cross over before going back down stairs. What a dreadful design and my play was the least ever on any cruise ship because of this. On the other hand, the new NCL Encore has a non smoking and separately ventilated and isolated/enclosed smoking casino and it was wonderful except even the NCL Encore suffers from the same passenger congestion issues. I am still a big fan of cruising, but I think its time to look at less passenger ratio ships in terms of "elbow room." I'll try more River cruises (which I love!), once this Covid virus is past us. My estimate is that is won't be until year 2022 that this pandemic is under control so that cruising becomes as safe as it was before this started. Otherwise, trust me, its not worth the stress to travel this way.

I wasn’t that impressed, either, even though that was only our 4th cruise. My casino play was also way down from previous cruises. I can’t say that was entirely due to the smoke, although I did notice it. It was hard to get on machines, which may have been because of the smoking situation, and there weren’t very many of the type I like..3 reel, single line. I usually will play up to $10, but I mostly stuck to dollars because they ticked me off at the beginning. My booking was supposed to have free drinks in the casino for me and one other person, but when I went over to get my drinks card they told me no, it was just me.

I also thought the food in the buffet could have used a little more variety. Four two-sided serving centers with exactly the same food on both sides, sometimes with two sets of the same food on one side. They’re rationing the bacon at breakfast? I know a lot of people waste food but why pick bacon? The lobster on “cruise elegant” night was good, though.

Overall, I liked our November cruise on Norwegian Getaway better. I even won sometimes in the casino, although no hand pays. We had a specialty dining package, but enjoyed the buffet too, much more variety than on Carnival this time.

I had not expected to get any good offers from Carnival again after low casino play, but the current situation seems to have made them desperate so the offers have started up again. The earliest dates are mid-May. Like that’s happening.