StuartThe MSC Meraviglia entertainment on board ranged from dire to quite good. It seemed that MSC has spent all the money on Cirque du Soleil on board and not had much left for the other entertainment. We did not go to see Cirque du Soleil as it is not our cup of tea but there were spaces available every night for the shows for both the meal and drink options.
The Broadway Theatre had a range of shows by the theatre company and this included the Rock Show which was horrendous – out of tune and dancers who weren’t in sync, songs from the musicals which was very entertaining even though their accents came through particularly with songs from Mary Poppins
(think Dick Van Dyke meets Mario), the Flamenco which show seemed really good but we didn’t stay as we have seen many Flamenco shows which take place near our house in Spain, Virtual which was music and dance based on smartphone apps – this was ingenious and I really enjoyed it. The entertainment team seemed to get better as the cruise went on. They had a live band for most shows. You could book the shows through the interactive screens or through the app and they were all on over 2 to 3 nights at different times which gave you change to see them all without clashes.
There was music and singing across most of the bars across the MSC Meraviglia and the Brass Anchor pub had a very good acoustic duo which we listened to over a few nights.
The Yacht Club had a pianist every night in the evening and a violinist on a couple of occasions who was really talented.
There was dome shows and parades on the promenade including a history of MSC (which was slightly out of date). A couple of the LED dome panels were broken so I’m not sure how often they’ll need to replace them. However, it was truly impressive.
The Flower Power (70s) party on the promenade was really good fun and everyone got involved and the daytime snow party on deck was entertaining. The beach party at the indoor pool was a bit of a mistake. It was the wrong venue for this (not much room for dancing) and wasn’t well attended.
There was karaoke in the MSC Meraviglia TV Studio Bar and MSC also have “Masterchef at Sea” based on the TV programme. The casting session consisted of a quiz which was used to select the contestants and the “live cooking” competition (chopping fruit and cheese) took place on the last sea day. This was good fun.
There was always something going on and we were never stuck for things to do. You could get involved as much as you wanted but the daily programme could do with explaining the activities more as the title didn’t always make it obvious what it was.
