We made a last-minute decision to get away for a few days and as a travel agent I wanted to experience a bigger and different ship than we had been on in the past. MSC Meraviglia did not disappoint. As I navigated the booking portal, we had a few notable glitches in the system while I was booking and even after it was booked. The MSC support team were fantastic in helping fix a few things that went wrong during the booking process. I had booked the same cruise for somebody else a day later and did not experience the same portal issues from our booking. Well done to the support team throughout MSC for the great communication and guidance to resolve the issues. For this cruise our departure time was a 6 pm departure on a Sunday night and an arrival back in port 7 am Thursday morning.
One thing to note when booking with MSC you are able to choose many things during your booking and I strongly recommend working with a travel agent to navigate through the initial booking and to add on to current booking prior to your cruise. Whether you are booking just one room or a group of rooms 2 Away travel can assist with that. Not only for cruises but for all travel, I strongly suggest a travel insurance such as Tin Leg (opens in new window) for all travel needs. Your travel agent can add this at the end of booking all travel such as flights, rental cars, hotels, and cruises. You will receive a few quotes and you can select the best for you. I do suggest the Luxury package as it covers everything from partial trip delays to full cancellations with or without reason and includes medical and life insurance. If you are traveling out of the country, it is always best to check with your medical insurance provider to see if they cover expenses outside of the United States as some do not. Tin Leg is a great alternative to help keep your vacation worry free with coverage.
Port Arrival – After we had booked, we were assigned a 1 pm boarding time. While the instructions state not to come early as you will be turned away, we did not find that the case. Having not been to Port Canaveral before, I chose to drive there early for any unexpected issues with our arrival around 930 am. These directions are for the MSC Meraviglia and Dock 10 only. As you arrive into the port on SR 528 you will get off on exit 54A. There are DOT signs on the highway telling you which cruise ships are at with the dock and exit number.
To get to dock 10 you will get off on exit 54A of SR 528 and stay in the right-hand lane. You will see the directions to keep right to go to Dock 10 MSC Meraviglia. As you proceed around toward the parking deck and port you will want to stay straight to port, do not turn right into the parking garage. You will need to drop your luggage off first and then proceed around to the parking deck. The walk from the parking deck to the terminal is a very short walk and very easy to access. They open up the escalators at the bottom of the terminal for entrance around 10 am.
Boarding – Once you go up the stairs you will be split into lines dependent on whether you are checking in with your passport or just a driver’s license and birth certificate. This line moved rather quickly, and you were moved to the window of the next available customer service rep. Once at the counter they checked your credentials with your boarding pass then took your picture for your sail card. You were then given a boarding group number to sit in the lobby with. Again, we had a 1 pm boarding appointment, however, we arrived at port around 930 am, dropped our luggage off, parked our car, went through the check in line and our group was called about 1030 to embark. Once your group number is called you proceed through the port authority line to have your carryon items checked and they check your id as well. it was now about 1045 and we were aboard this magnificent ship.
Once on board you won’t have access to your room until about 2 pm and if your luggage is not already at your door it will be there shortly after as we made it to our room about 5 minutes before our luggage. I suggest make your way up to Deck 15 to the marketplace and have some lunch and grab a drink. After lunch explore the ship because if you have not been on this ship before you be just amazed at its beauty and the open space as you walk about. It is easy to just find a post that you know you are going to want to hang out in but don’t stop there explore it all. We found so many great areas throughout the ship from deck 5 to Deck 18 the MSC Meraviglia has it all. From our taste points and choice of drinks we found that the best place for us to get our drinks made was the casino and the bar by the pool on Deck 18.
If you have not connected a credit card or put money on your account, it is recommended to go get that done the first 48 hours on ship. If you go to guest services, they will refer you to one of several machines that are similar to ATMs to accomplish this. I was able to link my card to my account prior to embarking via the app and it stayed linked, but my wife linked her card and we had to do it again as it did not stay linked.
Internet – Whether you plan to use the Wi-Fi package or not it is best to download the app prior to getting into port so that you are ready to go. Your agent should be able to guide you through the best internet options. We originally had the two device basic plans for our phones and I added one video plan for my computer for video conference calls, but we ended up upgrading our phone packages to video capability as well. Once on board the ship put your phone in airplane mode and connect to the MSC Meraviglia hotspot. Then if you open your browser and type in www.mscwifi.com it will take you to the log in page. Here you will type in your number located on your sail card and then your password. You should see the internet plan that you have, just click start and you are all set. Should you have any problems if you go to the pixel gallery, they can help get you connected at that desk. If you go to guest services, you will be referred over to the pixel gallery. When you get to Ocean Cay and get off the ship your Wi-Fi will still work, however, you will need to switch internet connections to the MSCO Ocean Cay – hotspot. Once you do this you may need to go back to www.mscwifi.com and click start again. When you get back on the boat don’t forget to switch your internet back over to the ship’s hotspot. Again, you may have to go into the browser and click start again.
Staff – The staff aboard the MSC Meraviglia are absolutely amazing. From the moment you step aboard you are greeted with smiling faces and conversations are truly a two-way communication. I never once felt like conversations were a scripted response to questions and just another routine from them. They were very genuine in their conversations. I liked the fact that once you have spoken to them whether just randomly standing there and talking to them, ordering a drink, a meal, or talking to your room steward they remembered your name and preferences. Our room steward Eugene was fantastic and I spoke with him one day for more than 15 mintues and got to know his background and how much he loved the cruise industry. While he has an engineering degree he loves being on the cruise ships working. He has been doing this since 2003 and one of his sons has just started there as well in hotel resource management. I enjoyed hearing him talk about his family and also about how it changed their life when they were all sent hom during the pandemic but then he was called back and is happy to be helping people enjoy their travels. Another young man in the jewelry store was one of two American workers on the ship we were able to talk to for about 30 minutes about his background and how his parents met on the ship and were married in Juneau, Alaska and they spent their careers on ships and now live in Miami close to the port so that they can see the ships still. It was always a pleasure talking to cruise staff no matter what position they held. They were knowledgeable with the answers and when they were unsure, they were able to get us to a person who had the answer.
Room – We had a balcony room with a larger balcony than the normal. If you are looking for a great room, ask your agent to try and book you room 12248. The room stayed really cool, so no fan really needed unless you like to have one with you for air movement like we do. The room is on the corner of two halls, so you do hear traffic at times but overall, the entire cruise was quiet in our room. The only two things I find wrong with the rooms are the hallways and the lights. The hallways seem to be narrower than others and they do not flow in a straight line. You will need to pay attention to the elevators you get on regarding side of the ship as it is easy to get turned around. If your room is in the rear of the ship and you get on an elevator at the front of the ship the hallways can be confusing as they are not straight line and and there are a lot of corners to go around back and forth.
The one thing that I did find inconvenient was the fact that you had to put your key card in a slot to get the lights turned on and remember to take it out when you leave. Once you remove the key card there is a couple minute delay, so the room doesn’t go immediately dark. The problem that I found with this setup is that if you simply keep your key card in a lanyard then you will have to remove it to turn the lights on. There is very little room to open the door, walk in with items, and fumble for a key card to be able to turn the lights on, so I suggest having the key card our prior to entering the room as it will be one of the first things you will do when walking in is slide it into the switch.
Food – While I was very impressed with the ship, the same admiration fell short in the food category. The food was really good but changed very little from lunch to dinner and day to day in the marketplace for selections. It also seemed lacking traditional American food that most Americans would find at the dinner table throughout the week or on the menus of popular restaurants. The main dining room was a very nice meal but again the dinner menus varied slightly, maybe one or two items from night to night. If you are looking for a place to eat in a quiet area but do not want to go to one of the many specialty restaurants, then I would suggest you grab something from the marketplace and walk all the way to the back of the ship. All the food is served in the main room, but you can walk to the back of that for another seating area and in the back of that room you can walk out onto the small, covered deck with some tables and chairs. Unfortunately, we did not discover this until the last full day on the ship.
Shows – There are several shows that go on during the cruise, however, we did not attend any. We chose to relax most of that time after all that is what we went for. But definitely see a show if you want to catch those and your agent can book these as well.
Disembarkation – The day before disembarkation your room steward will bring around instructions and the luggage tags. These tags will also have an id on them telling you which group you are and the scheduled time for you to leave the ship as well as where to wait for your number to be called. We were on the 12th floor and were group 18 which was scheduled to depart at 920 am. They say that dis-embarkment begins around 7 am but it truly depends on when the port authority allows them to start letting
There are 2 ways to disembark the ship. If you would like to take all your luggage with you then you can do that, but it is noted that the lines are long as a lot of people choose this method. If you are going to do that then you will go to level 5 and level 6 mid-ship and wait for announcements in the morning. While we are in port around 7 am, they were not allowed to start letting people off the ship until closer to 8 am. All rooms need to be emptied by 8 am so that they can clean and get ready for the next cruise. The process actually went really smooth, and they alternate the numbers from level 5 to level 6. We sat on deck 6 as we went down early and found a good seat to sit in the area. Around 9 am a crew member came over to the area and told us he hasn’t called all our numbers but all the luggage has been delivered to the pickup area and we could proceed to leave the ship. As you leave the ship you will have your sail card scanned again leaving the ship. Once you get to the bottom of the ramp you will proceed to the luggage area to gather your belongings. Each luggage area has a number above it that will correspond with you number of your luggage tag you were given the previous night. Once you gather your luggage you will again divide at port authority with passport holders in one line and those with drivers license with their birth certificates in the other. The process went smooth through there and we were off the ship and in our vehicle at about 930 am.
Leaving Terminal – Once you have loaded your luggage you will depart the parking deck going toward the port. Proceed through the parking lot to the toll booth where you will pay with a credit card to exit the parking area. This booth as down near the corner that you turned at to drop your luggage off on the depart day. The cost is $17 per day so the 4-night 5-day cruise were on had a total cost of $85 plus tax. You will then depart back towards the parking deck to the exit to get back on SR 528 to leave Port Canaveral.
I hope some of this information helps you with your MSC Meraviglia voyage from Port Canaveral. Please feel free to reach out with questions via email at [email protected]. Whether I’m your travel agent or not I will help guide you in the right direction so that you can make memories without the headaches on the journey. Thanks for reading our blog and as always safe travels.