Gwilliam Gazette : Time to Cruise Again!

The last cruise we went on was February 2020. Since then, we had 3 cruises that were booked get cancelled and finally, one of them actually happened!

In November we went on MSC Meraviglia - yep the same one we went on in Europe almost 3 years ago.

We had some visitors with us on this cruise too:

My friend Max and Stephanie and her sister/husband, Paul and Nancy Petersen (Doug's uncle) & Matt and Marissa.

This ship's capacity is 4500 passengers and we were told there were less than 1500 on during our cruise. It was amazing! No lines anywhere! We always could find tables in the buffet and chairs at the pool!

Getting ready to go to Miami

Stayed downtown Miami

Once on board, it looked very familiar! Except no people!

Our room was ready once we boarded so we could go and drop off our backpacks

One feature of this ship is the giant LED screen on the ceiling the length of the inside promenade

We'd forgotten this ship has an indoor pool also!

Marissa recreating the pic Hannah had here with us last time

This is all chocolate

Miami harbor

Beautiful pool area with comfy areas to lay out on

The first night, we ate at the Teppanyaki restaurant - it was very good!

Max trying to catch a shrimp in his mouth thrown by the chef

Every day the LED dome has short 5-6 minute "shows"

The next day was a sea day. The itinerary changed when we got on board to avoid weather they said and they added a stop in Bahamas.

Some yummy desserts at dinner

One of the entrees at dinner

Hannah loved this "wine tunnel" so we had to take a pic to show her

Marissa found some new friends!

Sat out by the pool reading, watching people, eating ice cream

You probably won't see a sign like this very often asking you to take OFF your mask! This was for the water slides!

There were maybe 5 others on the slides with us - so nice to not have to wait in lines!

VIDEO: View from balcony

View from our balcony

Sunrise coming into Cozumel

Aunt Nancy

On Cozumel, we rented jeeps and drove to Punta Sur, which is on the southern most tip of Cozumel (which is an island)

On the way we got a good view of our ship

We took a little guided walk and were told these ruins are "haunted" with the ghosts of witches......uh ok..sure

We climbed very steep steps in the lighthouse to see these views

We then drove our jeeps a few miles to the beach...that we pretty much had to ourselves

Cozumel was good! We explored and had a private beach

That night we even got a towel animal on the bed

Part of the main lobby area. This ship is pretty fancy

The next day was Costa Maya - which is an area about 2 hours south of Cancun. We've never been here. It's a very small city, fairly new to tourism. We opted for a tour of some ruins - but they were pretty far away - 2 hour bus ride. Our tour guide however, talked most of the way there explaining all kinds of things about the Mayans, Costa Maya and the ruins so it really added to the trip

We had to walk about 3/4 mile to tour office and once we left the actual port, this is what the city looked like. Pretty small and quiet

We finally arrived at Dzibanche which was at one time, one of the largest cities here. They have stopped excavating it because of budget cuts, but there are about 500 other "cities" like this in the general area. We were the only ones there. Really.

Time to go explore! The stairs were steep!
Much easier going up than down though

They know when there is a mound, there is something underneath it. Over the centuries, dirt leaves and wind cover up all the structures

Sitting on the throne where they believe the king of this city sat

This is how they believed the city looked

There were a few areas that they exposed to the original artwork and carvings on the sandstone walls

We also went to Kinichna - another area of the same city, a few miles away

On the way back we passed this colorful little cemetery

and this LDS church

We arrived back at the ship just in time

We found this lounge was good for playing games

And watching live band shows

That night was the "white" party where you are supposed to wear white. There weren't too many people there and half of them were the crew!

The next day was another sea day.

This is the tracker we had to wear at all times for contact tracing

Did the water slides again - nobody else was there

For lunch, they had the chocolate dessert buffet - YUM!

We ate a lot of ice creams out by the pool

The next day was MSC's Private Island - Ocean Cay. It's pretty small but when you're on it, it seems spacious. It used to be a sand mining operation. MSC bought it and spent millions making it what it is now. Very calm and relaxing

VIDEO:

Again, with the ship running around 25% capacity, it was not very crowded. It was so amazing!

Later that night before the shows, it was game time!

The next day was the Bahamas. It was the first time since Covid started that the Bahamas allowed a cruise ship so it was total mayhem in the port with vendors and people trying to sell you stuff. We just got off the ship, walked around and came back because it was so crowded and chaotic.