Review: Couples Trip on the Divine Divina Mar 25-Apr 1, ask me anything

Part 1

A little background: We are a Canadian couple who left the kids at home. I have sailed Carnival, Princess, and Holland America. My husband has sailed twice on Carnival. We are in our late 30's and like to cruise both for the ships and for the ports. Our two Carnival cruises were both on new ships at the time, whereas my Princess and Holland America cruises were on older ships. My husband came down with laryngitis the first day so if you met me, you probably remember us by that!

We attended the Cruise Critic meet and greet and are so glad we did! Hello to the lovely people we met (big hi to Laura, my new BC buddy!), we are so glad we attended and met you. The party was also attended by the cruise director Darren and senior staff of the ship. Darren was very clear that MSC wants to hear from us, he is a former Princess cruise director and MSC basically made him an offer he couldn't refuse to spearhead their expansion into the Miami (and USA) markets. The champagne flowed freely at this meet and greet, and in fact, continued to flow for 2.5 hours (six glasses of champagne, I was toasted!). We also attended the captain's past guest party (again, free flowing champagne!). I personally feel that the staff on this ship is trying to make an impression with North American guests. They want the expansion to work, as they have 11 new ships coming to market over the next 10 years.

This particular week the ship had approximately 3700 guests on board. This current week there are approximately 4300 guests on board, due to spring break in the UK. Clearly this point could color my view of the ship. We also had great weather and no missed ports, other factors in favor of a great cruise. I would be interested to see how MSC handles missing ports, with so many travelers coming from overseas I would definitely categorize this ship as a "travelers ship," meaning that guests are typically cruising for port experiences first and ship experiences second.

Overall Impression

The Divina is absolutely divine, an understated classic beauty of a ship offering a traditional cruise experience. If you are looking for flashy attractions, freestyle anything, or a youthful vibe, this may not be the ship for you. Everything about the design and entertainment on this ship is exquisite. My friend and I joked a lot about evenings passing through the atrium feeling a bit "Titanic-y" due to the extremely formal dress, the achingly beautiful piano and violin, and the timeless vintage decor. The sparkling staircases must be seen in person to be appreciated, they don't photograph well.

The guests are mainly European, I met very few Americans, although I actually met quite a few Canadians from my own province, probably due to it being spring break here. I did not experience the rudeness I had read about. In fact, I met some great people from Belgium, England, Holland, and Austria too. There were quite a few South American people on the ship also. Even on non-formal nights, most people are dressed up in the evening. Usually a fancier cocktail dress for women and a button up shirt and slacks for the men. some women wore gowns on non-formal nights.

Entertainment

The theatre, race car, bowling, and sports activities all feel a bit like an afterthought on this ship. None of these activities are really great for more than a few minutes casual entertainment. Where this ship really shines is in the live entertainment.

The shows are absolutely phenomenal. I saw Witches of Paris, Pirates, The Voices, Michael Jackson, and the afternoon opera. All were perfection except maybe the Michael show (it was a new entertainer and was only soso in my opinion, but still worth a watch!). I have some photos I will try to upload in an upcoming post. The shows are a variety type show, which works very well for the demographic of the ship (no unifying language between guests could be a challenge from an entertainment perspective). We looked forward to attending the shows, they were definitely a highlight for us. The entertainers they have found are so gifted and definitely mesh well.

The ship also has live music everywhere, including steel drums. If you want DJ style music, hit the disco or the garden pool bar. The musicians, like the stage entertainers, were fabulous. We saw a band in the Golden Jazz bar, and also in the Black and White lounge. excellent both times, and well received by the other guests.

We didn't do trivia, but we did do the quest game, and our friends played another game. Night life is excellent on this ship! Lots of people stay out late dancing. We did play bingo one day, which cracked us up because they had to give the instructions in six languages and still someone didn't get them! By the time they got back to repeating the instructions in English again we had forgotten what they were.

The casino slots were very tight in my opinion, I lost $20 in about two minutes playing penny slots. They have one of those quarter pushing machines, I am a sucker for them but this one was not appealing as it used tokens instead of quarters. Better to save my money anyway! Oh, and there were free drinks in the casino for gamblers apparently. I didn't gamble long enough to be offered one but I did hear another couple that they had them.

coming up......Part 2: Pools, Hot Tubs, chair hogs, and Top 18

Part 2: Pools, Hot Tubs, and chair hogs

This part will be relatively short as I didn't swim in the pools. We found that we were quite busy this trip and we really would have benefited from another week on the ship! maybe someday!

Pools: The main pool hosted traditional "fun ship" activities. These felt odd on the Divina, with her understated elegance. The Garden Pool is adult only and the smokers hang out there. the "infinity" factor was only really present once when I went by, but the area was always busy. Loungers around the main pool and Garden Pool were always in use.

Kids seemed to really enjoy the indoor pool but we were trying to avoid kids this trip so didn't spend much time in areas they were hanging out ;-) I did see a lot of toddlers in the wading areas of the main pool.

We rented the big wicker sunbeds in Top 18 both days. I know some people complain about having to rent loungers in the adult only area but my friend and I were really happy to have that choice. Having a cost attached to it meant we could always get a lounger up there, with dedicated towel service and a hot tub too. There were always loungers available outside of Top 18, we got loungers by the hot tubs on the upper decks easily but we really liked the opportunity to have the fun sun beds. They gave us discounts for wind both days (charged us a half day rate).

I did see the top 18 fruit skewers getting handed around and received chilled towels a few times in the hot tub. For drinks you had to go and ask staff. I think Top 18 could be improved by offering a dedicated server with lounger drink service up there.

I saw the pools emptied once on the trip, with paint and cleaning done at this time.

Towels were frequently left on loungers and I didn't see any enforcement of the lounger policies, which in my experience is typical across all the lines I have tried. we joked that MSC must love windy days as they charge $20 for lost towels!

Love your review.

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Thanks for the review.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do the review, I was wondering how much were the loungers on deck 18 and how do you reserve them? TYIA :)

Thank you so much for taking the time to do the review, I was wondering how much were the loungers on deck 18 and how do you reserve them? TYIA :)

They are $10 or two for one after 3PM. you can reserve the big sunbeds in advance or just drop in, they were all rented by about 11AM. there are lots of loungers up there though!

Part 3: Food and Drink

On this trip we ate in the Black Crab Upper as our main dining room. We also ate at the sports bar, pizza restaurant, Eataly Steakhouse, and Galaxy. We used both the buffet and the main dining room for breakfast and lunch.

Food in the Black Crab upper came quickly and at a good temperature. I know food is subjective, but the vast majority of what we ate was well prepared and seasoned. There were a few notable exceptions.

The Japanese things we tried to eat were not good....I guess we could be a little spoiled being westcoasters, we have a lot of japanese food here so my expectations may be a bit high. That being said, the miso soup had celery and mushrooms in it, a thick broth, and frankly did not taste like miso paste. When we ordered tempura the batter was ok but it wasn't crispy. No sushi was every offered on the menu. The chinese soup the night before tasted mysteriously like the miso soup.....

The filet mignon on the night with the steak and shrimp....it was tough, small, and overcooked. The shrimp that came with it were bloody fantastic though, totally worth the gross steak.

The deserts were all good, no complaints. We had the 8:30pm seating and we were out of there by 9:45. We had our water glasses refilled frequently (on the first night they asked us to specify if we wanted cold water, which we thought was a bit strange but after all the water talk on here I was not surprised!).

Galaxy was AMAZiNG, totally worth the upcharge. my husband and friend had the best steaks of their lives in there, you could cut the steak with your fork it was so tender. we loved everything in there

Eataly Pizza.....meh. not my thing. some of the pizzas didn't have sauce or cheese....authentic italian pizza is not my thing I guess.....food is so subjective. I didn't feel it was worth the upcharge, it was very similar to the pizza on the buffet. Maybe if we had not paid extra for it I would have been more enchanted with it.

Eataly Steakhouse.....so good! But just a warning, the side orders are massive. we thought we were choosing sides to go with our mains...nope! whole extra plates of food! so just be warned, if you order a side get it to split with your table. I had the surf and turf and the lobster tail was huge. steak was delicious and perfectly done. The staff were very very concerned about whether we enjoyed our meal.

For the three above restaurants, we ordered the three visit dining package. It was $50 per person and was very good value.

In the sports bar we had wings, cheese sticks, and artichoke dip. The wings and cheese sticks were great but the artichoke dip was yuck. not salty and had no tang. We had no issues getting tables in the sports bar. drink service was fast and the drinks were good.

Breakfast buffet was a madhouse most days, as is usual across all cruise lines I have experienced. I didn't experience more or less rudeness on this buffet as compared to carnival, princess, or holland america. I love that they have flavored waters (like crystal light) included. Waiters came around with juice and coffee (table service). No "bacon police" and the baked goods were phenomenal. There are some items that are always on the buffet (meats, cheeses, hamburgers/hotdogs, pizza) and then there were items that rotated out (ethnic foods usually changed daily, but within the same category so there were always some chinese or curry options etc). Yummy hashbrown patties. Great eggs, my husband commented that they were the best cruise eggs he had had. Deserts were very similar day to day (pannacotta, a different daily cheesecake, lemon or lime bar, rolled cake, and something like tiramisu or a chocolate dish) but what they lacked in variety they made up for in flavor. wonderful, perfectly prepared delicious little deserts.

A tip for if you want to try the gelato but don't want to pay for it is to order it in the restaurants or dining room, they always have a flavor or two.

That being said, try the gelato!! you can try two flavors for $2, and it is a good sized serving. so tasty, so perfect. I think I should have been born Italian. so wonderful. I am salivating thinking about it again. I will fantasize about it until I get on another MSC ship. I don't think I will ever be able to go back to the cruise ship soft serve faucet again after this.

DRINKS

We bought three packages, the "More for Less" 18 drink package, the 15 canned or bottled beer package, and the dinner house wine package.

My favorites for the drinks were the peachalini, le fizz, and the classic miami vice. Not a lot of variety in the slushy drinks, but they were very good. my friend loved the frozen toblerone.

the beer package was perfect for my husband and was a better deal than using the more for less tickets.

The dinner wine package was the best deal. $85 gets you seven bottles of wine The ticket says it is to be consumed in the main dining room, but they let you use it in all the restaurants...we had two of these packages between the four of us and we were fighting to drink all the wine! They will also let you use them at lunch time, and you can just go to the dining room to grab a bottle if you want to use it in the buffet. We drank the red every day. It was a cab and not the best wine I have ever tasted but it was good enough ;-)

By the last night we were fighting to finish our drink tickets. With the free drinks we had at the meet and greet and the past guest party, we really didn't need as many drink tickets as we thought. I had assumed that we would receive one drink each at the parties but that was not the case.

Keep in mind that pool bars don't serve everything and some bars can't make the slushy drinks. There is no drink service in the theatre. People like their drinks on this ship! People were out drinking at the bars late into the early morning hours.

The tickets are a great deal and it is in your best interest to buy them in advance, as you save the gratuity. If you find you don't have enough you are able to buy more tickets on the ship. Same thing goes for the dining packages.

If you don't want to spend the money on the dining packages, don't feel like the MDR food will be substandard, it really isn't. We were very satisfied with it and were impressed with the food quality overall.

Just wanted to add that someone in our party frequently ordered more than one entree or appy and it was never a problem. He did run into an issue once when he tried to order THREE entrees, because he didn't have a space for that on his order sheet it seemed.

This might be a stupid question, but what is the bacon police?

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This might be a stupid question, but what is the bacon police?

 

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It's a term from the Carnival forum. They serve you the bacon from the buffet - you can't grab a plateful. Sort of like rationing it...EM

It's a term from the Carnival forum. They serve you the bacon from the buffet - you can't grab a plateful. Sort of like rationing it...EM

Thanks! I figured it was something like that. Lol

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Thank you for your review! Sounds like a great week on Divina:cool:

Thank you for the review! I am looking forward to our week on the Divina!

We were on the same cruise & sat next to you at the meet & greet ! Best cake ever as well as flowing drinks.

Anyway, just goes to show how same dates have different experiences !

The absolute best pizza ever is at the buffet. I learned that from reading cruise critic ! It is NOT the same from the 'pay' restaurant or what you get from room service.

We chose to have that on 2 different port days because a lot of people were still off the ship & you could get a nice window seat by the pizza !

We were in the Yacht Club so we just grabbed a beer from our frig & went to the buffet. That was the last cruise where your complementary drinks were limited to the Yacht Club are, now you can get your free drinks ship wide.

As far a formal dress.....there was perhaps a bit more than other cruises but not overwhelming in the public areas. There were even blue jeans at the yacht club restaurant during dinner !

Shows....I was a bit disappointed. We have sailed MSC before and the shows are the same but I think had better performers before. I thought the lady soloist was awful but not as bad as the lady opera singer.

We had most of our meals in LaMuse, the yacht club restaurant so no comparison can be made to the original posters experience. Our food was FABULOUS from the eggs benedict to the tender steaks. They were freshly cooking pasta right in the dining room most nights.

The casinos was a big surprise. They kept telling us about the fact they were going to have 10 new ships come out in the next few years. 2 of them will hold 6,000 people !

Obvious by their status match promotion with the other cruiselines that they are looking for new customers. They gave us their top, Black Card, because we were Diamond on Royal.

:D Anyway, I went to the casino for about a half hour each night after dinner. Penny machines but usual bet was about $1.50.

On the 4th night, a casino host came up to me & said I qualified for 30% off my next cruise ! You only need 1200 points. Catch is you have to use it in 9 months but you can book with anyone & get any category. It is also 30% off the full cabin price not just for me ! My husband does not gamble. AND my 5% Black Card discount can be combined with it....wow.

PLUS $150. cash from the casino on my return.

Shows they are really trying to get repeat customers.

Of course the best saving is to use the yacht club price.

I just put a yacht club cabin on hold for the middle of next January with my internet TA.

I called MSC to see if the offer can be extended until then they said they would call me back within a day or 2 because they had to verify everything but did not think there would be a problem.

If so.......how can I pass this by....MSC gives 35% off total price & $150 cash at casino...my internet TA throws in $275. OBC & prepays the tips & the yacht club will then have complementary drinks ship-wide !

Thank you for your review! Appreciate hearing more of what we can expect :-)

it was great chatting with you Shippy!! We had a great time with you guys :-) I liked the buffet pizza but I just didn't really feel like the pizza was worth paying extra for. I like sauce and cheese on my pizza hehe :-D Maybe it seemed more formal to me because my HAL and Princess cruises were west coast? You definitely sold us on YC, I am sure we will do it at some point in the nearer (and richer!) future :-D

Part 3: Food and Drink

 

On this trip we ate in the Black Crab Upper as our main dining room. We also ate at the sports bar, pizza restaurant, Eataly Steakhouse, and Galaxy. We used both the buffet and the main dining room for breakfast and lunch.

 

Food in the Black Crab upper came quickly and at a good temperature. I know food is subjective, but the vast majority of what we ate was well prepared and seasoned. There were a few notable exceptions.

 

The Japanese things we tried to eat were not good....I guess we could be a little spoiled being westcoasters, we have a lot of japanese food here so my expectations may be a bit high. That being said, the miso soup had celery and mushrooms in it, a thick broth, and frankly did not taste like miso paste. When we ordered tempura the batter was ok but it wasn't crispy. No sushi was every offered on the menu. The chinese soup the night before tasted mysteriously like the miso soup.....

 

The filet mignon on the night with the steak and shrimp....it was tough, small, and overcooked. The shrimp that came with it were bloody fantastic though, totally worth the gross steak.

 

The deserts were all good, no complaints. We had the 8:30pm seating and we were out of there by 9:45. We had our water glasses refilled frequently (on the first night they asked us to specify if we wanted cold water, which we thought was a bit strange but after all the water talk on here I was not surprised!).

 

Galaxy was AMAZiNG, totally worth the upcharge. my husband and friend had the best steaks of their lives in there, you could cut the steak with your fork it was so tender. we loved everything in there

 

Eataly Pizza.....meh. not my thing. some of the pizzas didn't have sauce or cheese....authentic italian pizza is not my thing I guess.....food is so subjective. I didn't feel it was worth the upcharge, it was very similar to the pizza on the buffet. Maybe if we had not paid extra for it I would have been more enchanted with it.

 

Eataly Steakhouse.....so good! But just a warning, the side orders are massive. we thought we were choosing sides to go with our mains...nope! whole extra plates of food! so just be warned, if you order a side get it to split with your table. I had the surf and turf and the lobster tail was huge. steak was delicious and perfectly done. The staff were very very concerned about whether we enjoyed our meal.

 

For the three above restaurants, we ordered the three visit dining package. It was $50 per person and was very good value.

 

In the sports bar we had wings, cheese sticks, and artichoke dip. The wings and cheese sticks were great but the artichoke dip was yuck. not salty and had no tang. We had no issues getting tables in the sports bar. drink service was fast and the drinks were good.

 

Breakfast buffet was a madhouse most days, as is usual across all cruise lines I have experienced. I didn't experience more or less rudeness on this buffet as compared to carnival, princess, or holland america. I love that they have flavored waters (like crystal light) included. Waiters came around with juice and coffee (table service). No "bacon police" and the baked goods were phenomenal. There are some items that are always on the buffet (meats, cheeses, hamburgers/hotdogs, pizza) and then there were items that rotated out (ethnic foods usually changed daily, but within the same category so there were always some chinese or curry options etc). Yummy hashbrown patties. Great eggs, my husband commented that they were the best cruise eggs he had had. Deserts were very similar day to day (pannacotta, a different daily cheesecake, lemon or lime bar, rolled cake, and something like tiramisu or a chocolate dish) but what they lacked in variety they made up for in flavor. wonderful, perfectly prepared delicious little deserts.

 

A tip for if you want to try the gelato but don't want to pay for it is to order it in the restaurants or dining room, they always have a flavor or two.

 

That being said, try the gelato!! you can try two flavors for $2, and it is a good sized serving. so tasty, so perfect. I think I should have been born Italian. so wonderful. I am salivating thinking about it again. I will fantasize about it until I get on another MSC ship. I don't think I will ever be able to go back to the cruise ship soft serve faucet again after this.

 

DRINKS

 

We bought three packages, the "More for Less" 18 drink package, the 15 canned or bottled beer package, and the dinner house wine package.

 

My favorites for the drinks were the peachalini, le fizz, and the classic miami vice. Not a lot of variety in the slushy drinks, but they were very good. my friend loved the frozen toblerone.

 

the beer package was perfect for my husband and was a better deal than using the more for less tickets.

 

The dinner wine package was the best deal. $85 gets you seven bottles of wine The ticket says it is to be consumed in the main dining room, but they let you use it in all the restaurants...we had two of these packages between the four of us and we were fighting to drink all the wine! They will also let you use them at lunch time, and you can just go to the dining room to grab a bottle if you want to use it in the buffet. We drank the red every day. It was a cab and not the best wine I have ever tasted but it was good enough ;-)

 

By the last night we were fighting to finish our drink tickets. With the free drinks we had at the meet and greet and the past guest party, we really didn't need as many drink tickets as we thought. I had assumed that we would receive one drink each at the parties but that was not the case.

 

Keep in mind that pool bars don't serve everything and some bars can't make the slushy drinks. There is no drink service in the theatre. People like their drinks on this ship! People were out drinking at the bars late into the early morning hours.

 

The tickets are a great deal and it is in your best interest to buy them in advance, as you save the gratuity. If you find you don't have enough you are able to buy more tickets on the ship. Same thing goes for the dining packages.

 

If you don't want to spend the money on the dining packages, don't feel like the MDR food will be substandard, it really isn't. We were very satisfied with it and were impressed with the food quality overall.

How can I know my dinner time ??/

How can I know my dinner time ??/

You won't know until your board. It will be printed on your card :-)

How can I know my dinner time ??/

You can log onto your booking and find it under guest information (scroll to the bottom left) and it says Dining Preferences First Seating or Second Seating.

Saw that you went on the Stingray City and Starfish Point tour in GC. We are going to be on the Seaside in January and have some OBC to burn, so we were thinking of doing this tour. How was it and did you hear of any comparisons to the Catamaran tour on the Cockatoo that just does Stingray City? The cat tour is 3.5 hours versus 3.0 hours and 79 versus 69. Had read that the Cockatoo holds up to 60 people, how large was the boat you were on? Thanks