irenedee

"No life jacket fashion shows". - lol - that's a good one!

This board is amazing. Post a question and receive quality, thoughtful, well written advice and perspectives. No flames or sarcasm. Just experienced travellers helping others. You know who you are .... thank you!

Seems like many of you opt out of the included excursions in favour of private excursions. I get the reasons why, but why pay for a cruise that has included excursions imbedded in the price and then opt out?

Time to sit back, relax and enjoy all of your careful planning. Looking forward to your post cruise comments

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you Stretchcruz for your review. Even though it was a "quickie" it was quite in depth and very helpful

To be fair, you did spend quite a few paragraphs describing your disappointment around the included excursions and it looked like Peregrina was just trying to help as she has done for so many of us by her many contributions to this board

I'm glad to hear the food and service experience exceeded your expectations

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I must admit that I agree with JimmyC that itinerary is very important and the Homelands hits all the buttons for me

Since there are few sea days, I'm not too concerned about a quiet day. Food however is a different matter. I DO have expectations around that. I would be very disappointed if meals were not a highlight. I expect (based on everything I've read so far) that it will not be a Carnival experience

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you for your perspective. I have recently booked my first Viking Cruise - 2018. I have cruised with Regent twice and had expectations along that line for Viking. If what you say is true then I may need to re-think my decision.

Can I have a few opinions from others please?

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Wow and thanks Roothy. That was a great post. I'm sure many readers are taking notes. Thanks for sharing

Sent from my iPad using Forums

It would never have occurred to me to use Pinterest (I use it for recipes). I just had a quick look - used Bergen as a search and wow what an easy way to collect information and of course store it on a board. I think you just made my day

BTW - you certainly don't "lackcreativity" - lol

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you all - I knew I'd get a lot of tips and inspiration. You really are a wonderful helpful resource

I like to plan (I was a financial planner in my former career) and I'm going to have lots of fun researching for the Homelands. I can't imagine arriving at a port totally unprepared. Standing in front of something important and not being aware of its significance

I notice that many of you recommend a pre/post add to the cruise. Does that really add value to the experience? I can appreciate a pre cruise arrival, time to adjust to the time change etc but I would imagine that I would be ready to head home after the cruise. Can you elaborate on your pre/post cruise experience

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We are recently retired with plans to cruise regularly until one of us gets too old. Our cruise experience todate, has been confined by our work and family obligations and usually involved a quick week sailing in the Caribbean. They were fun but just the warm up to the retirement travel dreams

As you know Caribbean cruises do not require much planning since the ports are similar and they were very often places we had visited several times anyway.

So... now I'm looking at my 2-week Homelands Cruise with its many exciting ports and cultures and wondering how to organize it all. As some wise person said- you may never pass this way again - and I want to make sure that I've taken full advantage of the experience

Cruise Critic is such a valuable resource and I appreciate all I've been able to gather so far but I was hoping some of you, with more travel experience than I, could share with me your planning process. Once you've decided on a destination are there things that you routinely do as part of your planning Are they other websites that you regularly use too

With thanks and Seas The Day

Thanks Peregrina, I'll take a closer look

Sent from my iPad using Forums

My first Viking Homelands cruise is over a year away - Aug 2018.

I notice that My Viking Journey details the itinerary but not the times in port. Is it listed somewhere else or is it a detail to be added closer to the time?

With thanks

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Fabulous! I so enjoyed your pictures. Thanks for sharing

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Big thank you to everyone who contributes here

After weeks of reading and re-reading your posts, we're booked our first Viking Cruise - the Homelands Aug 2018

Now the planning begins. Keep posting please [emoji106] I'll still be reading

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Perfect - thanks all

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We are considering our first Oceania Cruise and I've been unable to find the answers to my questions just browsing on the Oceania Web page

Does the included flight also include transportation from the airport to the port

We may not want to purchase a beverage package can anyone point me to a link that shows prices for wine and beer when paying outside of a package

With thanks for your kind assistance

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Lol is Sarcastic! Wow sorry didn't mean to offend you.

Maybe I'll just go back to reading comments rather than posting them

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Also ..... didn't mean to start a Creme Brûlée War. It just wasn't prepared the way I'm used to with a hard candy top

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I agree with all of your comments about being seated with people who speak English. They could have however seated us with guests from USA, UK, Australia to name a few easy English speaking choices.

No offence intended to my fellow Canadian dinner mates of course

Sent from my iPad using Forums

The shampoo is a 2 in 1. Bring conditioner if you have longer hair

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Food is a very personal thing, we don't all like the same things or have the same expectations. A previous poster thinks pudding is Creme Brûlée- lol!

I would say the buffet was good for breakfast and lunch. One day we missed our 6pm MDR and ate at the buffet and was disappointed by the limited selection offered. The food doesn't vary much at the buffet. I thought they could have had better salad options and things like sushi or cold shrimp or mussels. Celebrity Solstice class ships have a much better buffet and variety of food through the week.

I would say the MDR food was on par with most mass market cruise line MDRs

Service was definitely average. I don't have any complaints, but the staff did not attempt to connect with us and no one left any memorable impressions. Perhaps Eataly was the exception, we had really good service there.

However I will add that the Captain and officers were very visible on the ship and I did see them in conversation with passengers. Captain Scala has a great sense of humour and acknowledges the work of his crew

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We are Canadians in our late 50's. We have enjoyed many cruises with what I call the US Branded Cruise Lines. We have had our most consistently enjoyable cruises on board the Celebrity Solstice Class ships. Thanks to this forum, I embarked on this our first MSC Cruise quite well informed. I was looking forward to experiencing "something different" and not necessarily trying to duplicate the Celebrity experience. I was curious to see what a European line would do differently and was it an improvement versus the US Branded Cruise Lines

Embarkation was typical of most cruise ship experiences. However instead of registering your credit card for your on board account at check in you must do so once you are on board at kiosk. This was in my opinion an unnecessary step and could easily be done at check in. We disembarked efficiently with only a 15 minute wait in the designated area.

We had a balcony fantastico class room - 12192 - which is the smallest size in that category. This means that the room lacked a sofa and was quite small in size. We knew this before boarding so it was not a surprise but it did mean that we had to be efficient with our space. MSC supplies a 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner, body wash and hand soap but all are in a pump format. Shower caps are provided but nothing else.

The room also had a faint sewer smell which we attributed to the drain in the bathroom floor. Our remedy was to use a damp facecloth to cover the drain and this seemed to work sufficiently. We could hear our neighbours on occasion through the walls. I would imagine this could be a challenge if neighbours were overly noisy. Ours were not, thank goodness.

The room was cleaned sufficiently twice a day. Towels were thick and of good quality but the pillows and bedding were not. The pillows were flat and our white bed linen, although clean had yellow stains. The balcony with two chairs and a footstool was small but adequate.

The Divina is indeed lovely, with many unique architectural features, the most notable being the famous crystal staircase. Lots of glass and mirrors which are always sparkling and clean. Vintage black and white photos of old Hollywood stars are posted all over the ship and were fun to look at. The layout of the ship however is not so favourable. All of the bars, main dining rooms, casino and entertainment areas are concentrated on decks 6 and 7 and this creates a bottleneck of people in the evenings.

There is no outdoor space for dining or sail away other than the pool deck or the garden pool which is also the smoking area. There were lots of smokers on board but they fortunately obeyed the rules and kept their smoking to the garden pool area. The coffee shop closes in the afternoon on port days until 4pm. I thought this was very strange and made it more difficult to use our Coffee Cuddle Package.

The so called walking circuit on deck 15, is so crowded with deck chairs that it is difficult to walk. Jogging would be nearly impossible. The gym is an average size. Like most ships, the treadmills are frequently in use. All free weights are in kilos and there were few lighter weights- I guess European women don't use free weights. Pilates and spinning classes were offered for a fee but they did not meet the minimum sign up to have the class. There is a daily stretch and aerobics class held on the pool deck.

There are 3 public pools as well as quite a few hot tubs. We enjoyed them one day when the ship was in port and most guests were ashore otherwise, good luck fighting the crowd

Bring your own books since the library, if you can call it that, is a few measly books tucked away in a meeting room of the disco. There was also no games room for those who enjoy puzzles or board games or cards.

Food at the main buffet was quite good especially if you enjoy pizza and pasta. Both are freshly made with several types to enjoy. Salad items were limited which was a bit of a disappointment but there certainly was a good selection of other foods to enjoy. In addition to the usual teas and coffee, the beverage area also provided two flavoured waters and lemonade.

Finding seating in the buffet at peak times, especially on sea days, was challenging. Those same peak times were a bit of a free for all - everyman for himself. Courtesy forgotten. In fairness, we've experienced this on other larger ships too.

We were assigned dinner seating at the Villa Rosa and at a table for 6. We enjoy meeting new people at dinner and given the multi cultures on board, we were looking forward to learning about the lives of people from another country Instead we were assigned two other Canadian couples to dine with. We enjoyed their company for sure, but a little bit of diversity would have been interesting. MSC made a big assumption that same cultures want to sit together.

Dinner at the Villa Rosa was average to good most nights. I did not have a problem with portion sizes but on the two Gala nights for some reason they remove the "Classic - or always offered" choices and instead promote expensive wines. This means there were only four entrees to choose from on gala night. I passed on dessert most nights - not because I don't like desert, far from it. The selections were biased to ice cream and were not particularly enticing. I missed my usual cruise ship creme brûlée but I did however partake generously with the cookies offered in the afternoon snacks.

Service was quick, almost rushed at times. Our dining time was 6pm. One evening our dinner mates arrived at 6:20. They were told they were late and could not order an appetizer which to their credit they ignored and ordered the appetizer anyway. The serving staff were polite but they did not seem to be experienced. Tables are crowed together and it's difficult to move across the room. Certainly not a fine dining experience.

We decided to book Eately on a whim on the last night. Food was fabulous, probably the best steak dinner I have ever had. Portion was huge - too much for me and when I ate only half the Maitre d' wanted to make sure I was happy with my meal. The service was professional and friendly. The decor however is a bit odd with its plastic chairs and paper napkins. There certainly is no ambiance to this dining experience but you will enjoy your meal.

The entertainment is first class. The talent of the singers, dancers and the production team is outstanding. The singers are classically trained and as long as the tenors and soprano stayed within their genre they provided an excellent show. It didn't translate so well to singing the hits of Queen - lol -except for Bohemian Rappsoday which fit nicely into their singing style. That particular moment was show stopping. I was greatly looking forward to the much hyped Michael Jackson show but I thought it was just ok.

Since there are 25 different languages on board according to the captain, entertainment is limited to singing, dancing and acrobats. In other words there are no comedians. Although we enjoyed the opera style of entertainment it did become a bit repetitive as the week progressed

I enjoyed a 55 min massage at the Spa as well as a 10 min deck ($10) massage both were well executed with no attempt to sell product. I had a shampoo and style and again I was very pleased with the results but the hair salon was more aggressive in the product upselling. The Spa and hair salon advertised excellent discounts in port days

The staff were not as friendly as our experience on other ships. I was passed many times by staff who did not say hello or good morning- a very usual occurrence on other ships. I don't have a complaint about the staff but they didn't stand out either.

The ship guests are from many nations and I had hoped to find some advantages in that but unfortunately that didn't happen. Most cultures kept to themselves probably because of language barriers but that same barrier also limited the on board entertainment

In summary, MSC delivered a good but not particularly memorable cruise experience. I could be enticed back with the right offer but I would likely not proactively plan to sail with MSC. I will likely still favour Celebrity Cruises.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope you found it useful.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Is there a cost for room service on the Divina?

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I've really enjoyed your "Random Photos". Thanks for sharing your vacation with us. Wishing you a safe trip home

Sent from my iPad using Forums