MSC Meraviglia Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I would avoid this ship. It is not large or well-staffed enough to handle its own crowd of customers. The Mediterranean port cities are excellent, on the other hand!
I was on the Meraviglia during its second week of cruising, embarked from Naples for a seven day cruise with extended family. My family of four (two kids, 5 and 2) were in our veranda room with us, in the Aurea class on deck 14.
Overall, I was disappointed with the ship. I knew it would be crowded (ship was close to, if not fully, sold out), but it was surprisingly ungracious. Sections of the ship were frequently closed off, forcing the considerable masses into uncomfortable places. Decks would be chained off completely or exclusive for certain cabin classes, dining rooms or whole sections of the buffet would be closed for unexplained reasons despite dense and unworkable crowds, odd rules would apply to different drink stations/bars about whether water (or coffee, or soda) could be served at different times of day.
Cabin Review
Our cabin (and the cabins of our extended family) were average, which is surprising for a new ship.
Note that we had four people in the cabin (two kids in a bunk bed, ages 5 and 2).
Poor storage and dark, and I am adjusting for the fact that we had four people in the cabin. Beds, bunk beds were excellent, and the bathroom was clean and spacious. On deck 14 we were just under the overhanging roof from the pool deck on deck 15. Two consequences. First, the balcony basically always was shaded (great!) but the room always felt like a cave (not great for a veranda room!) Second, we could hear everything from deck 15, including the 23:30 DJ dance party and the 05:00 Sunrise DJ party (I am an early riser and I can confirm that there was NEVER a SINGLE human being at the sunrise dj dance party, but the music was playing regardless). It always sounded like a herd of elephants was pounding on the roof. Avoid.