twangster

With the sun rising higher we could get a better look at Ocean Cay.

Ocean Cay is relatively young as a private destination in the Bahamas goes but I could already tell I was going to like it.

The pier was approaching.

Day2 - Ocean Cay

Scheduled arrival is 9am.

Up early to explore the ship at or just before dawn.

I had noticed a panoramic elevator on the deck plans so I picked cabin not far from it.  

Up to deck 14.

As we approached Ocean Cay the ship turned and I could start to see a channel defined by buoys like a runway begging us to land.

I headed aft...

To the horizon bar to get a picture, and...

A mimosa to start the day...

It became apparent we were going in aft first which places starboard facing Ocean Cay.  Remember that for cabin selection if it's important to you.

The sun had fully risen but was nestled behind some clouds making for some dramatic morning photography.

As we continued to reverse into the channel the famous lighthouse was growing larger.

With all that was going on and sailing away late I chose dinner in the buffet.  

After dinner it was around the ship collecting bar menus.  That ended in the pub with some pub music.

Then it was off to bed for an early morning to watch our arrival into Ocean Cay.

Sail away time lapse:

I am experimenting with a 360 camera that can also take wide angle pictures so bear with me as I post some here just to see how they look on the internet.

I'm not used to boarding so late 🙂

Time was flying by and day turned into late afternoon then into early evening awfully quickly.

I spent my time exploring mostly the outer decks.

Bar selection:

There are many areas that are seemingly deserted.  I think with so few people on board there are vast areas that aren't seeing any crowds since there is no need to venture there with the main pool decks so available.

Finally sail away was upon us.

With a large anvil cloud over Miami lighting up occasionally with lightning it made for a beautiful sail away.

2 hours ago, CruiseHabit Bill said:

I'd bet it's less that they rotate, and more they just have multiple.  They can see which room calls, so that's easy - even if all calling one number.  They may split it up in the event the system can only handle X calls per extension, or something like that.  We'll see.

The PA announcement repeated several time... eight eight one or you will have to do another muster!

It will be interesting to see if they change it up.  As soon as you board dial 881.  What could go wrong?  🙂 

Right as I was in the buffet getting ready to put mustard on a hamburger the call for the muster drill came over the PA.  Muster was at 5:30pm.

Muster in the pandemic consists of going to your cabin to watch a video.  At the end of the video a code is displayed.  On this day it was 881.  Using the phone we were instructed to dial this code to record having watched the video.

Next decks were called to begin visiting the actual muster stations.  This started with top decks called in threes until eventually 15 minutes later my deck was called.

Muster station D is in the Plaza.

Using the stairs as instructed was a bit chaotic as other guests called earlier were coming back up the stairs as my collections of decks that were just called were going down the stairs.  Eventually I made it to muster D where my card was scanned and they directed me deeper into the Plaza.

At this point there was no more direction and we all sort of milled about until we all came to the realization that was it.  We were done.  So back up the stairs!

With that muster was complete.

Complete both steps...  dial the code and get your card scanned.  Otherwise you'll get tagged for another muster drill.

Cabin tour!

Deck 9, starboard, somewhat midship.

Waiting for me were...

Closet:

Balcony:

View down into the deck 8 extended balconies.

View aft:

View forward:

The balcony is "efficient".

With the curtains open:

Desk area with two euro power ports, two North American 110v outlets and 1 USB.

Nicely laid out bathroom with shower door.

There is a panoramic elevator not far from my cabin which is one of the reasons I picked this location.

Back down to the Galleria.

Four guests per elevator.

Since you asked beverage packages...

Every bar has a paper menu but more common are these signs with QR codes:

The bottom QR code links to the beverage packages available on board.

PDF:

MSC Meraviglia Drink Packages.pdf

Here are some menus I've collected so far...

Meraviglia Pub.pdf

Meraviglia Pool Bar.pdfMeraviglia Bar.pdf

Come to think of it this is like a challenge game... collect all the bar menus 🙂

Here is one of the physical menus I've seen:

Also note MSC does charge local taxes while in port.

Interesting to note they will post the beverage package purchase to my account later tonight so that it isn't subject to local taxes.

5 hours ago, CruiseHabit Bill said:

Curious which beverage package you opted for (not sure based on the price).

I did the "Easy" package.  This is the entry level basic plan that covers well drinks, Heineken draft, house wine and some non-alcoholic beverages.  More to come...

I neglected to mention at check in they gave me a white wrist band to denote my vaccinated status.  Upon walking on the ship there was a table setup where they provided an MSC smart device that serves as door key, allows drink purchases but also does contact tracing since it is a tracker that knows where you have been.

Next I walked into a lounge and was immediately greeted by a drink package salesmen.  For 3 night cruise MSC doesn't offer drink packages for pre-purchase and I wasn't sure I was going to bite but in the heat of the excitement of being back on a ship I caved and bought the easy package for $32 per day plus 15% service fee.  This next picture was my first glimpse of the ship and where I signed up for the drink package.

Cabins were ready so I didn't grab a beverage just yet but I did grab a picture of the next area that the lounge led me into:

IT'S CRUISE DAY!!!

I drove to Miami this morning arriving with an extra hour before my appointment time.

I think someone forgot to tell the Port of Miami that cruises are back, at least the parking department.  Meraviglia is using terminal C but the terminal C parking garage is barricaded off.  I had heard of this from the last group of cruisers so like them I went to NCL next door and terminal B.  After a few laps around the merry-go-round following the sign for B parking I declared myself a VIP.  

To the right is the VIP Bag Drop and since it was the only ramp that goes up... why not try it?  Sure enough this is route to park at terminal B.  Left brings you back around in a circle.

I was an hour early so I parked and took the elevator to the top of the parking garage hoping to get a picture of Meraviglia.  Parking at B actually worked out well for this purpose.

Okay, that took 5 minutes.  No what?  I figured I might as well head over and see how thing were looking.

Turns out they weren't checking boarding pass times at 3pm so I joined the line and made it through the door.  Next up security.  Pretty standard ship security.  After security I joined a queue for the health check.  At several points they wanted to make sure I had completed the health questions and signed the form. I had done that at home this morning but plenty of others had not.

After roughly 15 minutes I reached a desk where they took my health form and gave me 4 stickers with my name and a QR code.  From here I joined another queue for the actual test.  Five minutes later it was my turn to test.  They took the stickers from me, did a quick nasal dip and gave me a sticker that corresponded with my testing station.

Upstairs to a waiting area to section "10" to match my sticker where I began to write this post.  I was the first into section 10 but not long after others joined me. 

Almost 45 minutes passed and an employee came by and announced "everybody up!" and we are going to the next step.  In hindsight this meant we all passed as no one was called out.  

We went back downstairs to join the queue for check in.  The real check in.  Here they requested my boarding pass, passport and proof of vaccination.  Moments later with my card in hand I went back upstairs to board the ship.

All of this from the moment I walked in the front door of the terminal to the moment I was walking up the gangway to the ship was roughly 1 hour.

T-1 day.

PCR test: Negative!  Woohoo!

In full disclosure i didn't need to a do a test prior to this cruise.  MSC didn't ask me to get tested in advance.  I'll be tested again at the terminal TOMORROW!  Yay!

I chose to get a test done within the 3 day window for two reasons:

1. I love to cruise and want to do my part to protect the cruise industry.  If I was an asymptomatic carrier and brought the virus to the terminal that wouldn't be good.  

2. I have more cruises in the coming weeks that do have a requirement for the cruise lines involved to have a negative test with results in hand before arriving to check in.  This was an opportunity to confirm how quickly results came back for future reference.  This was a practice run for me.

So now I'm fully vaccinated, tested negative and ready to cruise safely!

Email and text message received just now.

Original check in time was 1:40pm but I noticed this change a few days ago so no big deal.  I'll just drive really slow and do a few laps around Dodge island getting some pictures 🙂 

Following along the Aug. 2nd group on social media they appear to be at 60% capacity.  Everyone was given a CV-19 test at the terminal, vaccinated and unvaccinated.  

Getting excited!

Looks like my cabin category was changed to Guarantee.  I was able to call and get my old cabin back, thankfully.  

T - 4 days.

Discovered I couldn't log into my account this morning.  It seems my account is gone.  I registered for a new account thinking it would bark at given my MSC # and booking # indicating I already had an account but it didn't.  Same email address I used to use but now it's a brand new account.  Weird.

At least all of my information for this cruise was saved including passport details and I still appear to be checked in.  

I received an unsolicited email today with a new eTicket.

My 13:40 boarding time has been pushed to 15:30.  

Guess I can take my time getting to the terminal.

17 minutes ago, CruiseHabit Bill said:

 

Interesting.  For my booking (Aug 20) there were plenty available already, but I have two thoughts/theories.

1. When you checked previously, had you already selected Fantastica?  That opens up far more categories.
2. Return to service adjustments.  It may be that they initially blocked out a ton of rooms to limit capacity, and then found a way (later) to block capacity while still allowing all the available rooms to be selectable.  Perhaps this or something similar, but ultimately, a struggle relating to them not yet returning to service.

Just guesses TBH.

Maybe because I am solo.  

Virtually all of the additional cabins that are options now can accommodate 3 or 4 guests.  I've been Fantasica from the start, but the original cabins offered were for two guests only.  

On a positive note I was able to book this cruise as a solo.  In the past MSC required 2 guests, at least when I searched for bookings from Florida before the shutdown.  

Here at T-11 days I've discovered that a new set of cabins has become available within my category of booking.  All of the new cabins I can now choose from appear to be quad cabins that were not available for me to choose previously.   

I'm happy with my current cabin so I'm not going to move however as I get to know this class and for potential future bookings it's interesting to note how the pool of cabins available to pick from has grown at this point in the cruise countdown.

A few days ago there were two other cabins that were options available to me.  Now there are dozens of cabins on multiple decks should I choose to move at the same rate.  

This trip report is all about new.  New for me that is.

• New user on the CruiseHabit message board. 
• New to MSC. 
• First revenue cruise of my new cruise restart.

For those that haven't heard MSC has some really attractive rates at the moment so with exactly 14 days until the sail date I decided to jump on board.  

MSC has a status match program that I exercised a few years ago.  My status match was expiring so this opportunity will also keep my MSC status alive and well.

It's always good to try new things and I'm looking forward to trying not only a new cruise lines but also a new class of ship, for me at least.  With many cruise lines operating at reduced capacity as they restart operations I see this as a great time to try new cruise experiences.

For this cruise I've booked a Fantastica balcony on deck 9.  I haven't fully discovered what Fantasica means but it was a small per cruise upgrade over the base rate so why not?  I've heard great things about Yacht Club but I'm going to save that for another occasion.  It's just 3 nights and I look forward to more of an apples to apples comparison with the balcony cruises I've done on other cruise lines.  

I've added a wifi streaming package and an excursion climbing the Ocean Cay lighthouse.  Other than that my plan is just to explore Ocean Cay, MSC's private destination and enjoy the salt air of a sea day on our way back to Miami.

Here is the cruise itinerary:

With that it's time to let the countdown commence...