Best Cat Mom

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

the James Bond pier

Which -- Reynold's or the damaged one?

Day 3 - Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Our scheduled arrival time to Jamaica was at 10am, a bit later than most ports, so when we woke up to our Baileys and coffee morning room service, we did not have anything to see from our balcony yet.

Our breakfast in Le Muse began with mimosas and due cappuccini:

BCD ordered eggs benedict, with no bread and 5 pieces of crispy bacon (sorry, no picture), and I ordered two 6-minute eggs with mixed berries:

After breakfast, we went up to the One Pool Deck to watch us dock at Ocho Rios. I wasn't sure if we'd be at the undamaged part of the damaged pier as others have reported from recent cruises. We are docked a little to the right of that, at Reynold's Pier. We had to wait for sailaway to get a good picture of the name to accompany these pictures of the area:

Here's the port that was damaged:

Day 3 continues...

Day 2 continues...

We hung out in TSL for the afternoon. Around 4:30pm, we were getting a bit peckish so we took a look at the snacks. We helped ourselves to some sandwiches of parma ham with cream cheese and caprese.

We'd heard that some MSC ships were doing away with the self-serve snacks. Instead, butlers would bring snacks when drinks were ordered. We seemed to have missed that on our last cruises; we have seen the self-serve continue. Ashish was at the bar -- he and Hubert are the only two we've seen behind TSL's bar. We think both are great bartenders, though they each have different takes on different drinks. I encourage everyone to try their favorite drinks from each to see if one is more "your style" than the other before bothering to venture out to non-YC bars. Since drinks, like food, are so subjective, I will leave it at that.

I wanted a heartier red to have with my snacks so I asked Ashish if he had a red zinfandel. I was thinking that would good -- more full-bodied but no tannins. He took a look and offered me a Peter Lehman Shiraz. It's an Australian red wine that we like and we even have a few at home in our cellar, along with other reds from southeastern Australia. We recalled having a Peter Lehman on Seaside a few times too, though I'm not remembering if that one was a Shiraz or a Cabernet Sauvignon, or maybe a Cab-Shiraz blend.

After awhile, we went back to the cabin to get ready for tonight's Gala dinner. We generally prefer to eat late and we take our time. We got into this habit during our many land holidays in Italy. We arrived to the restaurant around 8pm and examined the menus with some champagne, placed in a bucket beside our table for easy access.

BCD started with scallops:

I chose the arugula salad from the Deliciously Healthy offerings (but not because it was healthy, but because I love arugula):

To accompany our mains, we moved to a southeastern Australian shiraz. Here's Ryan presenting the bottle:

BCD had the filet:

I had the duck but substituted the truffle-infused potatoes from the filet dish for the potato puree:

We also shared the risotto:

We ended the meal having butter pecan ice cream with amaretto on top:

We made our way back to TSL around 10:30pm. We had 4 rounds of sidecars and old fashioneds and enjoyed the live music. Returning to the cabin, we found some treats left for us. We couldn't recall what they were from the last cruise, maybe lemon? 

Day 3 in Jamaica is next...

14 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

So Pepe has moved on elsewhere?

Yes, Pepe is now on Preziosa in the Brazil market. We were also surprised by his move, since when we disembarked in Miami in December, he'd said he would see us in April.

I don't think he'll be there long, however. Rudy showed us that Pepe had left his car in the office and then said his luggage was still on board Divina and it would be dropped off in Civitavecchia after the transatlantic back to Europe in a week or two.

Day 2 continues...

I had the Signature Martini during the YC Cocktail party. Wow, what a strong drink! And I am most definitely not a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.

The MSC Signature Martini is amaretto, vodka and licor 43. When they said amaretto and vodka, I was all in. I thought it was quite tasty and looked up licor 43. Still no real answer, but I will not turn down another one in the future.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licor_43

We waited until around 12:30pm to stumble, er meander, to Le Muse for lunch. It was more full than we've ever seen before. This YC crowd does not seem to be the One Pool Deck for breakfast and lunch and only dinner in Le Muse type. The window tables were occupied as far back as could be seen from the front and all of the middle tables were occupied while we were there. It was quite windy for this sea day, so that might have been a factor. The noise level was equal to or maybe higher than dinner service.

Lunch menu:

We had champagne while checking out the menu. I couldn't decide between 2 starters so I had the octopus and seafood salad for my starter and the porchetta for my main. BCD had the porchetta for his starter and the tuna for his main. We continued to drink champagne with the entire meal, since it went so well.

Octopus and seafood salad:

Porchetta:

Tuna steak:

We absolutely loved this lunch. It might be the best one we've ever had, cruise or otherwise.

Day 2 continues next...

Just now, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Are you able to name some of the personnel

LOL I was just working on that now.

 I couldn't get a good snip of our current butler Dwi, or our last butler Elvin. 😞

Here are some images cropped from the YC cocktail party group pictures in case you want to know who is who.

Mehmet, Le Muse maitre' d:

Antonio, Le Muse chef:

Tiziana, YC Director:

Simone, YC Head Concierge:

Rudy, YC Head Butler:

Cruise Director David:

Captain Antonino Sammartano:

I used Microsoft Windows Snipping Tool on these cropped images. Sorry that they all are different sizes.

More about Day 2 coming next...

Day 2 - Sea Day

Today was a sea day. We were sorta awake before the alarm since we gained an hour of sleep because the clocks were turned back an hour over night. We think that the best nights are the ones when you get an extra hour of sleep. That's the main reason we prefer the transatlantic from Europe to North America -- extra hours of sleep every few nights.

We enjoyed the view of the sea with our first morning of butler-delivered coffee and Baileys in the cabin:

Next, off to Le Muse for our first breakfast, starting with mimosas:

The breakfast menu does not change day-to-day, though I'm sure you could make a special request. Usually given enough notice, they are happy to accommodate you.

BCD ordered MSC express with scrambled eggs and 5 slices of crispy bacon. I had an egg white omelet with ham and cheese and extra ham on the side. We both had cappuccinos. (No pictures, my apologies.)

After breakfast, we decided to enjoy some time in TSL. BCD has started working on some cars since various crew members had bestowed a robust amount of champagne corks, wires and foil upon him shortly after we boarded. The lounge was quite relaxing, being able to watch the water and enjoy the sea day. Then the butlers started setting up for the YC cocktail party that we had forgotten was happening at 11am.

The party had a great turnout, and TSL seemed totally full. David, our Cruise Director was the emcee. He introduced the various YC and Le Muse staff, ending with a toast to thank all of us YC guests. There were drinks of champagne, the Signature Cocktail or fruit juices given out in advance. On each table, there were snacks, savory and sweet, potato chips and mixed berries. A piano player and saxophonist supplied music.

More Day 2 to come...

Day 2 - Sea Day

Daily Program and 2 "special" notifications:

More Day 2 to come...

Just now, alserrod said:

is it something like this?

No, but that looks very nice -- something I'd be happy to try.

The MSC soup has the beans pureed smooth and the only ingredient you see is bits of octopus. No chorizo at all, and I don't eat any spicy foods so that is fine for me.

We have always used "chickpea" and "garbanzo beans" interchangeably. We use them at home to make our own hummus.

Just now, mnpurple said:

We were on a similar itinerary a year and a half ago and enjoyed Divina.

I think that we were on that sailing with you. We're on this cruise for the ship, not the ports. We don't have any excursions planned and probably won't even bother going out.

Divina's YC is a nice size, not too big and busy, for us. From what I've read about Euribia and World Europa, the YC public areas are a bit small for all the additional cabins. For the right time and itinerary, we'd still give them a try. But if there is a Fantasia-class ship to choose instead, we'd definitely be looking at those first.

8 hours ago, alserrod said:

Do you have a picture about your Octopus soup?

 

It says "garbanzo octopus soup" and I am not sure if I had understood correctly

So sorry, but I do not have a picture. We're trying to do better at taking pictures, but sometimes we forget.

The soup is a light brown color, from pureed garbanzo beans, with small pieces of octopus mixed in. It's really one of my favorites. Even on a hot day, this hot soup is something I will order.

Day 1 concludes...

After sailaway, we spent a little time in TSL with a sidecar and an old fashioned. We saw Hubert, bartender extraordinaire, and caught up with him a bit. We met him on our first Divina cruise in October of 2022, which was our first post-Covid holiday. He was bartender of the One Pool Bar at that time. He wasn't on our next Divina cruise but he was on the one after that, the transatlantic. We walked into TSL that first day and he was behind the bar. It is always so nice to find someone that you know from a previous cruise -- someone good from a previous cruise, I should say. It gives you a feeling of what to expect on your current holiday in a very good way.

Unfortunately, Hubert is disembarking with us on the 18th. He has no idea where he will be next. I hope that all of you have a chance to meet him someday. He is a great bartender and truly cares about taking the best care of his guests. You'll feel at home in TSL with him. 🙂

We went back to our cabin to change for dinner and headed to Le Muse via Deck 7. We dodged the photographers (only 2 tonight) and checked in with Warsha at the host stand. Warsha was on the transatlantic with us so she knew that we'd want to be in Glenn's section. At lunch, we had chatted with Glenn and at that time he still did not know who would be his assistant. As we were seated, Ryan came by and told us that the "dream team" of him and Glenn were back together! All 4 of us reminisced a bit (maybe a bit longer than we should have) but it was not an issue because Le Muse was surprisingly empty for nearly 8pm. Apparently, the lull between early diners and late diners was nearly 20 minutes tonight. We sipped our customary champagnes while checking out the menu.

For starters, BCD chose the nordic salad and I ordered the sea scallops.

We switched to a cabernet sauvignon then to accompany the filets we ordered for our mains. Of course, we also ordered the risotto to share. We totally forgot to take pictures of the food, though we did capture Ryan with our bottle of wine (I scratched out a few faces in the background. I try to respect people's privacy whenever possible.)

Ryan had left the bottle of Oberon on our table and we still had a bit left so we ordered some grana padano to end our meal.

After a very satisfying dinner, we made our way back to TSL for some nightcaps. Two rounds later, we were back in the cabin for the night. All in all, we felt it was a very good first cruise day. Then again, compared to not being on a cruise with good food, good wine and good company, how could it not have been a good cruise day?

Muster was the typical MSC format, at least from our experience post-Covid.

We watched the safety video when the announcement told us. It is on a repeat loop all morning, but we did not bother to watch it earlier since you need to know when it ends so that you can proceed to the next step, which for us was calling 881 and then going to our muster station via the stairs to have our cruise cards scanned. We headed down to station D (La Luna Bar) on Deck 7 right away. There were very few other people out yet. At the muster station, we were able to immediately get our cards scanned as no one else was there at that time. Then we headed back the way we came. We started up the stairs, encountering only a few people on their way down. BCD was going a bit slower and was offered an elevator by the crew on Deck 10. He and I met on Deck 15 as his elevator and my legs finished in sync. Having earned our next drinks, we needed to decide where to watch sail away. When we saw from our balcony that we were pulling away from the dock, we proceeded up to the One Pool deck to grab drinks and bid ciao to Miami.

Here's our last look at Miami in the setting sun:

Dinner is next...

Day 1 continues...

Here is the welcome letter that was in our cabin:

Here is the 6-page Daily Program from Day 1:

Muster drill next...

Day 1 continued...

At 2:10pm, we returned to our room after lunch and saw two of our suitcases at our cabin door. Our junior butler Richard appeared just as we got there and brought the cases into our cabin. He asked if that was all of our luggage. When we told him we had one more, he said that he would look for it. Then we told him our pillow choice (Oxygen), asked for 3 extra towels each day, and requested ice for our bucket in the evenings. We also stressed that we wanted him to make sure our bed was tightly secured. We frequently have the two mattresses separate and I am always the one who winds up in the "crevice." This is one thing we miss from NCL's Haven -- a real king-sized mattress. It's clearly not a deal-breaker for us and is the reason we don't mind going home after a cruise.

Within 10 minutes, Richard was back with our pillows and the third suitcase. We told him our refrigerator preferences (Coke Zero and Heineken for BCD), newspaper choice (Wall Street Journal) and our choice of alcohol bottle (Glen Grant). We told him that we'd need to unpack to determine how many extra hangers we'd need.

We unpacked quickly then to get settled. Last cruise we had ordered a pizza to help us unpack and thought it would be a new cruise ritual for us. We thought about it today but we were still way too full from lunch to even want to give it a try.

At 3pm our butler Dwi stopped by. We had been brought onboard by her and I had asked her if she would be our butler for this cruise. I had told her the wrong cabin number -- wrong deck, right last 2 digits -- so she was so surprised when I opened the door to her knock. We chatted for nearly 20 minutes but she seemed to be in no rush. I told her that we needed 12 hangers. She was back in just a minute with them. I got the rest of our stuff onto them and we put the cases under the bed to never be seen again -- well, until the 18th. 😞

Images of cabin 15022:

Love the "H" shape on the faucets of the tub. Hermes anyone?

More to come about Day 1...

Just now, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Do you know the champagne served?

We've been served Nicolas Feuillatte so far.

From experience, I know that if they run out, they'll substitute others. We've had Pommery and Moet and Chandon as substitutes in the past, which makes me wish that they do run out during our cruise. 😉

Just now, NYHartChapp said:

My apologies to Mehmet for misspelling his name.

We only know how to spell it from the concierge desk. We asked when we were writing names on tip envelopes last cruise. LOL

Day 1 continued…

There was no QR code table placard  in Le Muse for the menu like on our last cruise. We had liked the QR code being available because we could see the lunch and dinner menus each day at the beginning of the day. However, we did notice that the actual menu was sometimes different than was posted. I will be posting the menus from the display case outside the restaurant for this cruise. I apologize for any reflections coming from the glass cover.

Day 1 lunch menu page 1:

We began lunch with some champagne to help us peruse the menus:

The menu is the "typical" embarkation day menu for YC lunch. I was happy the menu hadn't changed because I was looking forward to the octopus soup. I started with that and BCD opted for cobb salad. We both had the beef for our mains, with a cabernet sauvignon that we'd not had before on MSC. It was a great pairing for the steaks, with just the right amount of tannins. (No pix of the starters, sorry. And the mains were "in process.")

Dessert for us was finishing our liquid grapes. Back to the cabin next...

Day 1

We awoke as the sun was beginning to rise. Our room did not face east but my senses still perceived the lightening of the sky, likely because of my enthusiasm for what today would bring.

We had the free breakfast and ate just enough to get us to our first lunch at Le Muse, talking about how much better breakfast would be on board.

At 10:20am, we checked out of Hyatt Place and ordered our Uber to the port. It arrived promptly at 10:25am -- a great advantage of having a hotel near the airport. There was no traffic so we arrived at the port, checked our luggage at the YC tent and were escorted to the security area by 10:50am. Thirty minutes from hotel check out to ship security? I'll take it!

Five minutes later the ship had apparently been cleared and the YC guests were allowed to pass through security before the other guests who were lined up near us. There were about 20 or so guests in the YC pre-security seating area and maybe 200-250 other guests lined up separate from us.

Divina embarkation for this cruise was at Terminal C. We've never boarded at C before, though we did disembark at this terminal after our last cruise. BCD remembered the area because it's where he had to go to retrieve his confiscated Leatherman multi-tool at the end of our transatlantic crossing in December.

After security, we entered a YC guest area to provide credentials and receive cruise cards, taking pictures if needed. BCD had added his picture when he did his online check in and they did not take a new picture of him. I had used his picture (!) for my check in so they took a new picture of me. We were told to have a seat to wait for a butler escort. There were no refreshments and only about 16 seats. There was a line of us 20 at first, but guests coming after the first 15 minutes or so were checked in as soon as they were brought to the area.

At 11:07am, the group of us were taken upstairs by Head Butler Rudy. We did need to show our boarding pass again before going up the escalator. We were led to a seating area with refreshments:

There was prosecco (not semi-sweet but dry, similar to champagne), water (still and gas), fruit juice, mixed nuts and -- good news for those of you who covet them -- chocolate covered peanuts. We opted for some prosecco:

The entire group of us were escorted onto the ship at 11:35am and were firmly ensconsed in the Top Sail Lounge (TSL) by 11:42am. Another group of about 10 guests joined us in TSL just ten minutes later.

The head concierge Simone was circulating in TSL, welcoming people on board and answering questions. Another crew member was available to help with connecting to the internet. And one TSL butler was letting people know when their cabin was available. We were told that the buffet on the One Pool Deck was serving lunch beginning at noon and Le Muse would begin seating at 12:30pm today. Our cabin was available just before noon. We dropped off our 2 carry on bags, freshened up and headed to Le Muse to arrive just after 12:30pm.

Lunch details in next post…

We arrived in ATL Terminal B and headed to the Delta Crown Room, oops Sky Club (showing my age, I guess). The club was less full than usual and there was no check in line. The snacks in the B lounge have more options than our CVG club, but nothing seemed particularly noteworthy so no pix from there.

Our next flight was leaving out of Terminal B also, which was good. But it was delayed, which was not. The delay was only expected to be ~30 minutes thankfully. We were taking later flights than usual so we were worried about cancellations of course. The weather was fine in both ATL and MIA. We later found out the delay was because the crew was a bit late coming in.

No PDBs but we managed to have 2 Vodka Crans and 2 Old Fashioneds during the flight. Takeoff was 21 minutes late but we made up time while in the air and only landed 13 minutes late, around 10pm. Surprisingly, security was already closed at MIA. I never realized that they don't have late flights out of MIA.

We ordered an Uber to get to our hotel, Hyatt Place Airport East (3549 NW Le Jeune Road). We've stayed at this property every single time we've had a cruise out of MIA. When we first stayed there, they had an airport shuttle which made it very convenient for us. During Covid, the shuttle was eliminated and never reinstated. But the low points needed to stay and the quick Uber ride keeps us going back.

Standard room there (with a nightlight in the bathroom, if that matters):

Their kitchen has a limited menu but had closed at 10pm. We got a Vodka Cran and a beer at the bar and headed to bed, looking so forward to tomorrow.

Embarkation day comes next...

33 minutes ago, psmarkle said:

Highly recommend Homer and Kaith (like Keith, but with an A) for your Waiter/Ass't Waiter team.

I don't recall that pair. We had Glenn and Ryan on the transatlantic so we asked for them again. Mehmet has some great people in Le Muse.

3 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Can you post who the Maitre'd and Sommelier are. And your butler.

Mehmet is still the maitre' d of Le Muse. This is our fourth time in YC on Divina and there has never been a sommelier in Le Muse.

Our butler this time is Dwi. We knew her from TSL on our last cruise when we had Elvin as our butler. They are both great. We've seen how they both seek our their guests in TSL to check in and see if anything is needed so it seems more than just our opinion.

8 hours ago, alserrod said:

Hi, could you share your "daily planners"?

 

 

PS. You should learn a bit of Spanish after this cruise. Most ports of call are in Spanish speaking countries

I will post the daily schedules as they come.

We always like brushing up on our Spanish in the Caribbean. But we get much more practice with our Italian. 😉

Our flight to Miami was Saturday afternoon at ~4pm so we packed Friday night to allow us a leisurely travel day. This cruise was not as long as our transatlantic crossing last year and only encompassed one season of weather so we took one less checked bag. Here's our 2 hard-sided spinner bags, one (old fashioned) garment bag, and two carry ons:

Our Uber to the airport allowed us to arrive in the CVG Delta Sky Club around 2pm Saturday.

Champagne and snacks before our flight:

Then PDBs (pre-departure beverages) on board -- Vodka Cranberry and Old Fashioned:

And another round once in the air:

We're off to a good start on this holiday!