Rocket-launch views from the top deck - this cruise is unlike any other in this world

There are cheers, whoops, applause and whistles as the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying 23 Starlink satellites, lifts off. The hurricane roar of the rocket itself is soon upon us as it streaks towards Low Earth Orbit. In the distance, back at the launch pad, a mushroom cloud has formed above the horizon and hangs there, visible for longer than the Falcon 9, which within three minutes has vanished into the ether. The crowd disperses. It's time for a pre-dinner cocktail after this big wow moment - one of many (although not all as stupendous as a rocket launch) on this seven-night round-trip cruise from New York. The first such moment takes place before we've even left the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on Buttermilk Channel: from the balcony of our deck 11 cabin we have an uninterrupted view of the Statue of Liberty. Later in the afternoon, up on the pool deck, we watch the green lady shrink into the distance as Meraviglia sails away, bound, ultimately, for the Bahamas.

Except, we never get to the Bahamas proper, only as far as MSC's own private island Ocean Cay, a speck of Bahamian paradise where we spend a languorous, sun-drenched day. At some point on our first full day at sea, as we're sailing southwards more than 100 nautical miles from the US's east coast, a passenger has a medical emergency. The ship must divert to Charleston in South Carolina to off-board the patient, which means our port stop in the Bahamian capital, Nassau, is cancelled, and we'll arrive in Cape Canaveral a day behind schedule.

This gives us two consecutive days at sea, ample time to explore Meraviglia. It's one of a fleet of 22 cruise ships owned by the Italian Aponte family, shipping magnates whose 800-ship cargo fleet, the Mediterranean Shipping Company, is the biggest in the world.

Some of Meraviglia's stats reflect its hugeness - it's 316 metres long and 19 decks high - while others speak to flourishes of luxury and decadence on a cruise ship which is, in fact, very affordable. The three-deck atrium is connected by six sparkling staircases embedded with 61,000 Swarovski crystals. At Jean Philippe Chocolat and Cafe, there are 91 types of chocolates to choose from, all made on board. It doubles as a gallery of awesome chocolate sculptures, including one that moves like the fantastical inner workings of a giant, magic, chocolate clock.

I'm at the cafe indulging in possibly the best hot chocolate of my life - it's real melted chocolate with lashings of whipped cream on top - when Pablo from Spain appears just outside. He's one of the ship's theatre performers and, let's just say, he's been noticed. He proceeds to execute a series of acrobatic feats atop a big toy car in the middle of Galleria Meraviglia, which is like the ship's main street, flanked by restaurants and shops over two levels. Lots of things happen here - parties, parades, pop-up dance shows, competitions, Guinness World Record attempts.

And at a few scheduled times every day, the 480-square-metre ceiling, which is actually an enormous LED screen, erupts into a four-minute animation depicting outer space, or the Jurassic age, or, getting all meta about it, famous ceilings of the world. It is a cacophonous place, especially when Pablo takes his shirt off, and some among the audience scream. "And yes, folks, he will have his shirt off tonight as well," says the cruise director Matius, in a plug for that night's show in the Carousel Lounge.

There are Donald Trump chocolate bars for sale on the counter at the Florida Key Lime Pie Company at Cocoa Beach, which throws me but I buy a slice of their famous pie anyway and some Cocoa Beach Crack, aka pretzels coated in key lime yoghurt. After three nights we're off the ship for the first time, berthed at Port Canaveral on the Florida Space Coast. It's from here that men went to the moon. It's also where the US military developed and tested its intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nearly 30 launch pads are lined up all along the Cape's Atlantic coastline, many on the aptly named ICBM Road. We learn this and much more at the Sands Space History Centre, a small but very effective museum.

My niece and I are on the Port Canaveral and Cocoa Beach Highlights shore excursion, "the best tour available on your ship", claims our local tour guide Jeri. It seems an ambitious comment given the other shore excursions on offer (one of them goes to Kennedy Space Centre; another to Walt Disney World in Orlando, although granted that is transport only) but there are definite highlights. That key lime pie is cold, sweet, limey and delicious, and we eat it while strolling down to the eponymous surfing beach - a very famous one, apparently. It's where local boy Kelly Slater, 11-time world champion, learned to surf. It's busy on this warm, weekday afternoon. Rows of colourful umbrellas line the sand and we stand there for a while, eating our pie, watching the waves crash, spotting rocket launch pads in the hazy distance and wishing we'd brought our swimmers.

We're told at least twice that Cocoa Beach is where the classic 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie was set, in the decade after NASA arrived in town. Louie Moorhead, owner of the pie company, addresses our group outside his lime-coloured shop. "Eighty-six times they mentioned Cocoa Beach," he says of the beloved show. "How many times do you think they filmed here?" We know the answer by now. "Zero," comes the chorus.

We learn that if we were here on a weekend, deputy sheriff Sweetie the Alligator would be lying just about where Louie is now. Also, Louie and his team made the world's biggest key lime pie in 2018, and he's been in discussions with Elon Musk to get one of his pies on a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station. I can vouch that the astronauts would love it, although Elon Musk has been somewhat otherwise occupied.

For dinner that night, an hour after the ship's 6pm departure from the Cape, we head to our allocated restaurant, Waves, and a table beside a porthole window where the sunset is still lighting up the horizon. The food is tasty enough - a good selection across seafood, chicken and steak (I have a fettuccine alfredo with blackened chicken) - but we come to learn that the best dining action is in the more intimate, specialty restaurants, not included in the cruise price but worth paying extra.

At the Butchers Cut steak restaurant, I opt for a juicy, 16-ounce chunk of American bison, with smoked mashed potato on the side. The chefs at Kaito Teppanyaki double as showmen, performing tricks with their cooking utensils as they fry up a feast of salmon, fried rice and steak. Completing the troika of my three best meals on board is the lobster thermidor at Ocean Cay, served with shaved white mushroom and a hint of truffle oil.

The next morning, not long after dawn, we're sailing up Buttermilk Channel, the Statue of Liberty in the distance, a final wow moment to welcome us back.

The writer was a guest of MSC Cruises