MSC MERAVIGLIA

My wife and I have been on approximately thirty cruises but this one was the worst. It took more than three hours in the terminal before we could get on the ship and we were standing the entire time. There were very few cruise ship employees to guide you - it was a complete mess with no direction. We were told that the computers had been down in the morning and this had caused the back up. Later we found out that they were only down for 30 minutes (a convenient excuse). When we finally got cleared to go on the ship we spent one hour on the gangway - all they had to do was scan the cards that we had just been issued for us to board! There were only two gangways open for 5000+ passengers. We left New York City more than two hours late. The following night, as a way of apology, we were offered one glass of champagne - after dinner, in fact many had already left the dining room. Not much of an apology.

We found most of the crew to be indifferent and we never saw any senior officers walking around to check on things and spread good will as you always see on other cruise lines. We assumed they did not want to have to speak with unhappy passengers - and there were many of them. Read more