TomNPB

We were on the MSC Seaside from August 18-25 and I wanted toshare some information that I found hard to find on this board recently and myexperience on the cruise.

Much of the information you find on here is related to YachtClub passengers and in my opinion there are just so many other types ofpassengers on the boat that have a different experience and would like hearthose answers/opinions.

Room –

We were bella category with a balcony room. I’ve read quite a bit about how bella couldbe made to feel like a second class passenger but that was not my experience atall. We did not have a drink package butthat’s not something we’re really interested in since we have 4 young childrenand other than that we did not see much of a difference. I believe we were restricted to only ourdining experience at our allotted time or you could choose a specialtyrestaurant or the buffet. The bellacategory cabin was great. I didn’t findit particularly small as others have said and have cruised 6 other times on 5different lines. I’ve read complaints onhere about closet space and the position of the toilet in relation to thevanity. Both of those are true. Closet space is somewhat limited but we wereable to make it work with 4 people in the room by utilizing the night stands aswell for smaller items. if my childrenwere older it would likely be more difficult however I believe I significantlyoverpacked and so did my wife. We tendto bring too many day time clothes outfits when the reality is that we end upin bathing suits for most of the day. Recycling the barely used shorts and t-shirts often happens. Did I find either of those to be a hugenegative – absolutely not. The showerwas also small and definitely could not fit a second person. I found the room to be decorated quite niceand to be excellent. I really enjoyedthe stay in the room. The airconditioning does take a while to get to temp, especially with the constantopening and closing of the balcony door. The balcony was fairly standard size for a small balcony and was reallygreat. It adds to the square footage andreally gives you that little extra that you really appreciate during down timesor at port.

Pools –

I really enjoyed the pools and so did my children. We typically cruise on the smaller boats with2000 passengers so I was concerned about having 5000 passengers on board withthe amount of available activities and pools. I never once felt more crowded on this boat than I did on any otherboat. The pool on 16 was really nice andhad a decent size beach area around it that was flooded by about 2 to 3inches. This left quite a bit of extrapool area for the kids to play in and was a really nice touch. The pools were 6’3” to the beach area but Irecalling my experience on others boats I don’t believe I’ve ever seen ashallow end in a cruise ship pool. Ibelieve others on here have quoted this as a negative but I saw it as apositive. The reason it was a positiveis that often this kept the small kids out or clinging to the sides orbeach. It also kept the middle forswimming and playing with the kids. Ifound the pool size for all of them was rather generous and larger than Irecall on other boats. My kids liked thewaterfall feather on the pool on 16. Itwould have been nice to have been able to see the large screen tv outside frominside the pool but this is blocked by the raised area in the middle. The jungle pool was also very nice and had alarger beach area. The kids pool in theaqua park was amazing. It was about 2’deep and had lots of water shooting devices. My kids really enjoyed it and this was quite an active space. The south beach pool we unfortunately neverhad the opportunity to use since we often had children with us. It lookedbeautiful and rarely were people swimming. It would have been amazing especially givenit’s location on the back of the boat deck 7.

The Jungle pool stayed open the latest till 9 or 10. Main pool on 16 I believe was 8 and aqua parkwas 6. I don’t recall the time of thesouth beach pool

The slides – the dual blue slides were rather adisappointment for me. the one on theleft was very slow and both me and my children got stuck in the middle and hadto push our way out. The right slightwas pretty good but also fairly slow. Atleast that one you would make it to the end. The large single blue slide that was supposed to be used with the boardwas used with inflatable tubes instead (single or double). They said that the slide board was broken andwould be fixed in a few weeks. I thoughtit was great with the tubes and it has a really nice drop at the end. The kids definitely enjoyed. The brown tall slide was very nice and reallycatered to the smaller kids even though it was probably better than the dualblue slides. It was likely faster and justa better ride overall. There is also asmall side by side next to the 2’ pool in the aqua park. The slides really were a nice touch and keptthe kids entertained. There was noadditional cost for any of the slides and wait times were not terrible. The longest wait time was the one for thetube where at most I waited 20 minutes and I would say on average 5. The other slides were very quick lines and afew minute wait at most

Dining – we dined at the seashore restaurant every night at530pm. This worked out perfect with theport days since we were back by those times and it also worked out with theshows. We were able to make the 645 showjust about every night. Let your waiterknow in advance because I could see this as an issue if they had a lot oftables in their section or if they didn’t prioritize you. One thing I had a hard time finding on theboards here was what was offered for drinks and when for those who were in thebella category. Table water was alwaysavailable and plentiful. The kids werealso able to get milk every night if they liked. Other than that you would have to pay fordrinks or have a drink package. We hadpurchased the 7 wines for 160 package and it was outstanding. We had the robert mondavi premium carbernetand it was great. On board it was 33plus gratuity which came to about 39. Through the package it was less than 23 with no gratuity charged. In my opinion, this was a no brainer and anexceptional value. The food quality wasfairly standard for cruises and reminded me a lot of NCL. No lobster or filet (even though one nightfilet was on the menu) unless you paid extra. Many of the dishes were delicious and you were able to order multipleitems if you’d like. The portion size issmall so be prepared. Honestly, thesmall portion was great because I was so full from breakfast and lunch. For breakfast we did both sit down andbuffet. Both were great but there issomething special about sit down. Lunchwas always the buffet and I read on here many times about how good the pizzawas. I’m from ny and I believe it rivalsany pizza here. The dough was reallythin and well cooked. Was classic pizzadough and not premade stamped. Thetoppings were excellent. They reallyknow how to make a pizza and it was always plentiful – even pizza at thebreakfast buffet. I found that thecruise had ample choices for food even though on here I have read numeroustimes that it’s the same food over and over again. I didn’t experience that and felt there wastons of variety. The buffet on deck 8 isconsiderably larger than that on deck 16 however deck 16 is the only one withsoft serve ice cream. Juices and waterwere always available in the buffet which is a nice touch. It’s a shame so many people were filling upwater bottles directly from the machines despite the signs. It was probably the worst I’ve seen on acruise ship.

Shows – we did the 645 show every night because reservationswere not really necessary or checked. There was always seats available. I believe they check at other times and you have to reserve inadvance. I felt the shows were verygood. Only 1 opera the whole week –butterflies. The rest were broadwaystyle shows centered around talent – singers, ring twirlers, strong men, aerialists,roller skaters, etc. the them of theshow changed every night but the act remained fairly standard. In other words if you’ve seen 1 or 2 showsyou’ve essentially seen them all with the exception of butterflies that wasquite unique and well done. We went toall shows but 1 and despite how it may sound, I was entertained at eachone. However, I’ve been on a Disneycruise once before and it’s a hard bar to measure up to.

Gym –

We went to the gym many times. They have a decent amount of equipment andplenty of non-standard equipment like ropes, balls, and other items I don’teven know the name of. I wish they had asecond set of all the machine exercise because they often were taken andcrowded. They were quite advancedmachines with a computer screen that tracks your reps and tries to keep you inthe correct form.

Notes –

Elevators - yes they were annoying and probably more annoying than other boats. I had a disabled child with me in a wheelchair most of the time so I definitely needed the elevator. the aft elevator is empty often. the middle elevator is busy at peak times but not terrible and the forward elevator with the priority service for yacht club passengers is obnoxious. I avoided that bank of elevators at all costs.

Bringing wine on board - we had some leftover wine that wepurchased from when we were staying in Florida prior to the cruise that we didn’tfinish. I put it in my suitcase becauseI really didn’t have a choice and was hoping for the best. My checked bags made it to my cabin withoutissue. Don’t judge me but this was blockbox wine (the small 500ml variety). Itwas easy to carry back from the store and it’s not terrible. When we were in port we also brought back abottle of limoncello and had zero issue bringing it back through security. Turns out when you watch the monitor almosteveryone is smuggling a bottle of some sort of alcohol back on the boat.

Embarkation and disembarkation – reading on here peoplefound them smooth. I found them to bevery long journeys. Long hallways withlots of steps. I also got right to the frontof the line with a handicapped child and still felt like it was long. I can’t imagine staying in those lines ofsecurity in Miami. We arrived at 1pm andthe lines were very long. I think theywere boarding passengers late that day.

Smoothness of the boat – this was probably the smoothestride we’ve ever had. I almost never feltthe boat moving. This could be due tothe amazing weather we had or the speed the ship was going (I felt that it wasoften going rather slow comparatively – maybe they’re not overreaching on theports they can get to in the allotted time)

Kids club – this is the first kids club that my kids reallyenjoyed (8, 8, 7, 4). The legosavailable was great as well as the gaming systems. This kids club seemed more likely to offerfree play and not so many structured activities. My kids really enjoyed that because on otherships the kids club only did structured activities which often left my kidswaiting for their turn to do something. To me it sounds like freeplay with that many kids is asking for troublebut it didn’t present. They managed theamount of kids great and it was never an issue. The last boat I was on was over capacity 1 time and couldn’t take mykids that night. i couldn’t be happierwith the kids club on the boat.

Customer service – we didn’t have an issue with any languagebarriers. I felt like it was standardcruise staff

Water package – we bought the 14 waters for 37$ and itworked out really well for sea days. Wegrabbed them before we left the boat and the 1L bottles were ideal for theday.

This was probably my favorite cruise of all that we’ve takenand it was likely due to the pools. We didn’tuse any chairs and as with any other boat they are always taken but the poolsthemselves were plentiful and outstanding.

I hope this helps some folks out there –

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I traveled with my wife and two daughters, 8 and 10 last week. I Got us the deluxe packages and the corresponding kids packages. The whole deal cost around a thousand dollars ...... and it was worth every penny and we drank and ate more than it's worth. No charge of any kind for all that we had. My wife and a I had countless drinks. We had beers, wine, Crown Royal, Jim Beam Black, Grey Goose, every frozen cocktail on the menus many times over ..... never a charge. We visited Venchi several times a day and it was so amazing. We would get fine speciality coffees, hot chocolate and one chocolate Martini after another. The kids would have sundays and shakes and gelato there and all over the ship. Everything was indescribably delicious, no charge and we got a LOT from there ..... When we wanted sodas we got them and they have large bottles of water in which drank a lot of those too. I think the access you get to your room mini bar really topped off this drink package. It was filled with soda, liquor, beers, waters, juice, cashews, pringles, chocolate peanuts, etc. I swear with two kids we emptied that mini fridge every day! The great thing was it was refilled by the room steward when we were out of the room. He knew we had the deluxe package and would take care of it and actually started leaving me buckets of beer on ice with mixed beers on top of the desk each day as well. The mini fridge made it so easy to get something while sitting on our balcony or for a snack at night. On excursion days I would fill my backpack with all kinds of stuff for our day in port ..... Never an extra charge for anything. I can't even imagine what our bill would have been if we purchased everything separate. We did not use room service. If you want to max out your experience and like your cocktails like we do then I can surely tell you that you can make the cost of this package on the Seaside a really great deal! The Seaside was simply awesome!

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This is the exact reason I do, spot on. Nothing more than sheer kindness. Tom, some of the people here will never understand it and it's not even worth trying or even expecting them to may maybe even a little bit anymore. They'll say you and I have self esteem issues (hilarious) when the real reason is their own guilt using every excuse they can come up with to make them feel better about them not tipping. Don't kid yourself, more on here wouldn't tip a dime that would admit and would remove all tips if they could.

Now we know from reading the replies why we don't see any $ being handed over. Lol

Low self esteem, Ego, Low self worth, many reasons people want to stand out. Many people when on vacation throw around money and want people to believe they are important.

You're probably just a cheap _-$_:

This is just an observation and my opinion. The ship was at least 70% European and South American and tipping must not be something that is done to my dismay. I took $200 in singles and tipped a dollar for every drink, and even cash tipped for Venchi and gelatos. The staff/bartenders was so happy when doing so. I never saw one other dollar given by anyone else. I thought the bar service was fast and excellent ...... waiters/waitresses on deck walking around taking orders and even orders in the buffet with the call buttons. They tried very hard to please and were always pleasant. I thought they deserved a tip as their service was better than on most other ships I've sailed. If you want to make some workers happy on the ship, throw them a few bucks. God knows nobody else did ..... Just saying.

Divina 3x last yr ..Tipped every time I was waited on even for coffee in the morning...Never waited for service at any time during the entire week...Seaside 3/31- 4/7. Lots of the same staff members as Divina..Again tipped every time I was served...Again never waited not even s minute for service..Along with that I brought some silly trinkets for Easter gifts .. These guys and ladies work long and very hard for minimal pay .Most have families that they support and don't see them for about 7 months.. I work hard and it makes me feel really good to tip these people and believe me they are extremely appreciative ...

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Agree 1000% with Tapi and Tom, if you care about animals....these types of tourist 'attractions' will leave you with sad feelings. Like the old days with zoos and the animals in small nasty steel cages.

 

Cheers!

Hi.. I'm not a tree hugger in any way but was fortunate to actually live, work and observe these beautiful animals in their own world on almost a daily basis. I believe everyone has a right to make their own decisions on this topic but also wish that everyone understands what's behind the curtain and smile that is permanently on their faces.. good article here. https://justinpluslauren.com/swimming-the-dolphins-the-dark-truth/

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Sorry to say it but NONE OF THEM... Dolphin do not belong captive in pens to perform for fish or pull tourists around with their fins !!

Captain Mazza is fantastic.Last May on Divina we had a very bad storm come out of nowhere shortly after pulling out of Cozumel. He was on it in seconds clearing the outside decks and giving constant instructions and updates over the ships pa system .Also he is a very personable gentleman .

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I'm not that old ..50's ..and I remember how you looked forward to getting dressed up to take a flight on a plane 😁

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show me where in their policy it says that they treat vaping the same as smoking please.

I've been on the Divina twice in the past 11 months and will be on it again on September 30th. I vape and yes the same rules apply for vaping as smoking tobacco products .You will see it in the information sheet that is in your room. That includes your cabin and balcony.Cigar Bar prominade on the port side of deck 7 and the garden bar / pool with the exception of the bar itself..

Your MacBook is probably larger than the TV's in the room..

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No

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I actually booked and sailed on the Divina last October based on the negative reviews I read. 😀 " Not enough American type food, too many Europeans, language difficulties etc.. The ship is beautiful met fantastic people from all over the world who I he Ave remained close contact with and booked again to go this May..

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We had the same experience. I got the impression there weren't many tippers so those of us who did tip were treated very well.

100 percent right.. God we're treated like gold.. Even for a $5 tip.. Here in Jupiter they'd be insulted.. Lol

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We used prepaid coupons for coffee and for cocktails - no problems, great value. There are some restrictions, for example in the Piano Bar (Deck 7 above Casino) you have to ask for the bar menu, not the cocktail menu they put out. More expensive items not included. Cocktail coupons = $6 each cp to $7.50 + 15% at the bar. Coffee coupon less than $2 each cp to $3-4.50 + 15% on board.

All depends on who you know. And tipping the staff does wonders

There is marble, tile, and carpeting throughout the ship, but we didn't have any problems slipping, nor did we see any areas that were wet, where there wasn't a sign posted. And that was usually out on the pool deck, or up on Deck 15 at the back pool, but that was mainly because we got a lot of rain on our cruise. I wore sandals, and my husband had on some sort of flip flop looking shoes, and we didn't have any problems walking on the floors.

 

As far as children on the ship, we have several grandchildren, ages from 2 years up to 17 years, and I would have no problems taking any of them on this ship. The kids that we seen, seemed to be having a great time. We noticed that the children's area for the smaller children, was themed with smurfs. They had lots of toys for the kids to play with in the children's program. We seen a large toy box over-filled with all sorts of toys. My granddaughter that is 2, would have had a blast.

 

I will let you know that this ship is very long, and it takes a lot of walking to get from the back of the ship to the front. Make sure you have a stroller.

Very long.. Took a couple of days to find out about the outdoor smoking on 7...Did many laps to the garden before that.. Lol

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Either that, or I could put it here in the forum. LOL

On Flickr. God I'm glad I don't have to go back to work until tomorrow. 😂

We bought our 2 year old granddaughter a Doremi plushed toy at the store on the cruise ship. We bought her the larger one (for about $11.00), and we bought my 6 mo. old grandson, a smaller one (for about $7.00).

 

She loved this so much, that she had to take it to the store when I took her grocery shopping with me.

 

 

Dorame by Debbie G, on Flickr

 

AdellawithDoremi1 by Debbie G, on Flickr

Broken link

We bought our 2 year old granddaughter a Doremi plushed toy at the store on the cruise ship. We bought her the larger one (for about $11.00), and we bought my 6 mo. old grandson, a smaller one (for about $7.00).

 

She loved this so much, that she had to take it to the store when I took her grocery shopping with me.

 

 

Dorame by Debbie G, on Flickr

 

AdellawithDoremi1 by Debbie G, on Flickr

[emoji4]

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Sure. I just changed it for you. If you need the exterior photos, let me know, and I'll change that one too. In the meantime, I have a photo of the Garden Bar on the 15th deck that has you in it. If you want it, just let me know, and I'll upload it for you to fetch it, and then I'll remove it.

uploaded to flickr ?

Sure. I just changed it for you. If you need the exterior photos, let me know, and I'll change that one too. In the meantime, I have a photo of the Garden Bar on the 15th deck that has you in it. If you want it, just let me know, and I'll upload it for you to fetch it, and then I'll remove it.

Thank you.

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I took over 70+ Interior Photos of just the interior of MSC Divina. I hope this link works. I'm new to Flicker.

 

https://www.flickr.com/gp/148753594@N04/78xq39

 

I'll try to get the exterior photos uploaded before I go to bed tonight.

Awesome pics.. 😂 Deb can you change the settings on the interior photos so I can download them. Thx tom

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Deck 15 right at the aft by the garden pool area

Not last week!! 😀

LOL - I plan to upload the photos some time today. We just finished washing clothes that took care of 2 people for 7 days. :O

😀😀😀

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