Meraviglia finally found her forever home … and we’re totally shipping it.
Just last April, the Geneva-based sailing line Mediterranean Shipping Company Cruises — born and bred in Naples over a half-century ago — committed its massive craft to the Big Apple.
Christened by none other than Sophia Loren in 2017, Meraviglia is part of an all-star 22-ship roster (soon to be 23) with names that read like a lost Verdi libretto: Virtuosa, Splendida, Lyrica, Fantasia — another literally named Opera.
While hardly new to this Earth, Meraviglia is making waves, now offering New York cruisers year-round itineraries to Mexico, the Bahamas, Florida, Bermuda, eastern Canada and New England — a first for the line.
A bona fide, sumo-sized megaship, Meraviglia has 171,598 gross tonnage, 19 decks and 1,036 feet in length.
She is tied with her younger sister, Bellissima, as the 17th-largest in the world.
You and up to 5,699 other passengers can sleep in one of its 10 styles of rooms ranging from solo and balcony cabins, to its “ship within a ship” MSC Yacht Club.
And unsurprisingly, Meraviglia’s charms are vast.
There’s the 315-foot shopping promenade, Galleria Meraviglia, and its overhead LED screen that can out-sky our real one. There are 20 bars and a dozen restos, a water park, more hot tubs than the Poconos, a 985-seat Broadway-styled (and named) theater, an MSC Kids’ Club, pickleball courts, a 6,000-square-foot gym and lastly, but impossibly least, Aurea, the ship’s bliss-blessed Balinese spa.
Here, three samples of Meraviglia’s sexy sailings to seize this year, departing from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.
Boos cruise
What: 11 nights in Florida and the Western Caribbean from $569/per person
When: Oct. 25
Ports of call: Port Canaveral (Orlando), Florida • Cozumel, Mexico • Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico • the private Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve • Miami, Florida
Why: Halloween/Day of the Dead in Mexico and the tropics is scary fun!
Love triangle
What: 6 nights in Bermuda from $729/per person
When: Sept. 4
Ports of call: Kings Wharf (Royal Naval Dockyard), Bermuda
Why: There’s a reason people “disappear” on this posh, pretty-in-pink-sanded overseas UK territory.
‘Eh’ for effort
What: 10 nights in New England and Canada from $599/per person
When: Oct. 15
Ports of call: Newport, RI • Boston • Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island • Sydney, Nova Scotia • Halifax, Nova Scotia • Saint John (Bay Of Fundy), New Brunswick
Why: You can’t pronounce Canada without “duh” — she’s fam, fam.
Set course for MSCCruises.com to book.
