Our MSC Cruise

This week we sailed on the MSC Meraviglia. MSC is known for cruising in Europe and has been expanding into the US market. We sailed from New York stopping in Miami and then 2 stops in the Bahamas: MSC’s island Ocean Cay and also Nassau. Ocean Cay is filled with beautiful beaches surrounding calm waters. You can do water sports here, grab food and drinks, shop, and end the day with a light show on the lighthouse.

We chose to purchase the unlimited specialty dining package and as soon as we boarded the ship, we made our way to Deck 6 and the Ocean Cay restaurant to set up our dining plans for the week. The boarding process in New York needs some work and hopefully as time goes on, MSC will streamline the process.

Our first 2 days at sea the weather was rough so it made for a rocky beginning. But by the time we were getting close to Miami, the weather was beautiful.

The ship has a main buffet, a pool grill, the normal dining room as well as specialty restaurants: Japanese, Teppanyaki, Mexican, Seafood and a Steakhouse. If you purchase the unlimited specialty dining, you get to choose from a set menu at the specialty restaurants. The menu wasn’t too limited at all though. Butcher’s Cut, the Steakhouse, was our favorite followed by Hola Tacos. The main dining was good, not great, but we definitely found some foods that we liked. For the main buffet, our favorites were the pizza, salad and fries.

For drinks, we purchased the Premium drinks package and next time would go one step below and choose the EZ Plus package.

If you are looking for a cruise with activities, you will find them here! They had 2 shows you had to pay for – it was $18 and came with a drink. However, since we had the specialty dining, the shows were $5. The shows were fantastic and we caught some free shows in their Broadway theater too. You could either wait in line for those shows or use the app and book it.

The ship also had both indoor and outdoor pools, hot tubs, water slides, kid areas, a casino and so much more.

Their cabins were not the prettiest but were very clean. Make sure if you don’t want to pay the minibar prices, that you ask your steward to clear out your minibar. If you have a drinks package, go to a bar and ask for sodas or bottles of water and fill up your minibar yourself.