AmoMondo

Glad you've got your answer and are going to book via UK. Just be aware that deposits work very different,y over here compared to the US. They are non refundable here and cost more. No problem if you are definitely going to go, not so much though if you want to change your minds.

Don't entirely agree. What language would you all have them show movies or sports in? How would you feel if it were not in English? How do you think other non English speaking passengers (often the majority by miles) would feel if it were in English?

The US sailings may be an exception where they could go with movies or sport in English. Other cruises it would need to be Programmes in Italian or German.

Go to the ports of call section on here and then to the Med section. Search y port and you'll find plenty of threads on how to DIY with public transport and local shored providers. I almost always do ports on my own.

You can just walk around Bari yourself. An alternative to Olympus if you e already seen it is a wee road train trip that goes to a winery and a beach with some ices emery in between.

Athens can become by public transport. Santorini you can just queue up to get the cable car but if there are several ships in port, you need to get a tender ticket for an earlier boat otherwise the queues are horrendous. They were selling tickets on the quayside last time I was there for about€20 for a boat around the island, then on to a bus up to Oia and then bus back to Fira where you got the cable car back down. Some people I spoke to thought it was food and well organised.

(answering SPA questions)

 

I have found that this is usually the case, as the SPA is usually operated by an independent contractor ... not the cruise line. I am not sure if this is the case with MSC.

IT is an onboard franchise. However it is not just questions about the spa that onshore are vague about, it can pretty much be anything!

Ive only sailed in the Med in winter as the start to a repositioning cruise. It's far from ideal. Practically the least amount of daylight hours, cold, storms possible. However if that is the only time you can sail and are prepared for cold weather, you may still enjoy it. Cruise prices are much cheaper then and ports of call much quieter for getting around. MSC like some others, extend their itineraries into 10 or 11 days and head further south to catch some decent milder weather in places like the Canaries, Cyprus etc. If you do look at MSC, book one with a magrodome over its pool (Magnifica or any Fantasia class ship).

MSC operates mainly out of Italy (Venice and Genoa) and these can be impacted by bad weather (snow in Genoa) so make sure you allow a big enough buffer for flights being delayed. MSC tends to operate a bit like a ferry or bus in the Med, picking up and dropping off passengers at almost every port of call. Some may suit better for flights from the US.

I try to arid winter in Europe myself and escape to the sun!

I'm so sorry to hear Bout your recent diagnosis. My best friend sailed the Divina and requested a healthy low fat diet when she booked. No major health issues for he, just lost a lot of weight and wanted to keep it off and not destroy 6 months determination and sticking to it in 2 weeks. She said it was great at dinner. They'd consult with her each evening about the following days options for her. Sometimes her table mates were jealous of what she had and asked to order it too!

You will find plenty of healthier options anyway but perhaps do what my friend di to always be guaranteed them. She said instead of feeling that she was limited by her diet choices, she felt the opposite since they were designing her dinner to exactly suit her.

Thanks! That's what I figured ... but thought I'd check since the boarding & sailing times are later than normal (for me). :)

The later sailing time is to accommodate flights coming in from Europe, which tend to land in the afternoon. They've been known to hold up the sailing time when a flight they've used for their fly/cruise packages land late. I was on one such flight, three hours late coming in from London. There were around 25-30 of us booked on that flight by MSC. I was the last up the gangplank and they were pulling it up right at the back of me. Engines were running and they cast off in less than 5 minutes of my feet being onboard. We were around 30-45 minutes late out of port.

Does anyone know if the Divina serves a lunch upon embarkation in Miami?

Lunch is always available on the first day regardless of the ship or where it is sailing.

What are the itineraries for both?

One thing to consider is how European aEuropean holiday you want. On the Poesia there will be barely any American passengers onboard, so will have a European experience on land and onboard. This mY be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preferences and adaptability. Some would see this as exciting and interesting and part of being overseas. Others would be completely out of their comfort zone and prefera ship predominantly catering for their nationality. It can be hard to tell which you're going to be if you have never been overseas.

There is always an "always available" section but I can't imGine it ever having chicken nuggets on it. - maybe on the kids menu? Think the norms are chicken breadt, beef, salmon and a past dish - could be spaghetti but can't remember as I so rarely even look at that section as I can always find loads on the main menu that I eat.

A there is very plain chicken available when you've been ill. A couple of times I had an upset stomach (once very seasick, another picked up a bug) and both times the ship's doctor gave me a bit of paper with bland foods to eat for a couple of days. That had the boring, plain chicken on it!

They post the menus outside the mDR so if you don't see anything you like on any of the sections, then you may fair better at the buffet. AlternTively, I've had really picky eaters share my table before and they somehow had organised to get the few things they would eat. I half remember the waiter getting a list of what the person ate and the chef mKing suggestions each night via the waiter for he following evening.

There used to be a tiered discount, and when they announced the status match they changed it to 5% for all levels. Now I don't see that listed, did they remove the discount since the early fall?

The5% discount is still showing on the UK site across all but the welcome level, so I don't think they've removed that as well as everything else that has gone.

We decided not to book anything ahead of time, because the descriptions were vague and sometimes contradictory - possibly because our cruise was a grand voyage and thus an uncommon itinerary. The result was that we saved a bunch of money paying in Euros by booking on board. My guess is that the excursion prices were set in USD much earlier in the season. For example, we paid €145,90 for an excursion that was listed as $199. The exchange rate when we disembarked from our credit card company was $1.10/€1.

 

It was interesting to us that when we boarded, excursions could only be booked until about the halfway point. I dunno if this was due to logistics for the "Travel Agency" crew, since we had the excursions e-mailed to us when we booked, or if things were in flux. But it didn't matter, there were plenty of spaces on the tours we wanted and I didn't dawdle when the second batch opened up.

 

Edit: Also, we were in Aurea but the Aleggrisimo package was on sale for our cruise, 20% off. I probably wouldn't count on that if sailing but wanted to mention it.

Only making tours available for the first half of the cruise is the norm for MSC repositioning cruises. I don't know why, but suspect it is most likely that they haven't got all the details sorted for the latter part sorted out. Italians tend to book at the last minute, so that is likely a factor in not making them all available at the start.

Sounds right to me. I've usually had 4 or 5 formal nights on long repositioning cruises.

I don't have the prices for dry cleaning evening wear as I take a different gown for each one. I'm in the minority wearing a long gown to most, men wearing a tux are even rarer. The exception is New Year galas when a few more make an appearance and you even see a few in full highland dress.

A lot of people mix and match their evening outfits not going the full hog. I love to dress up and usually fly with BA or AF where an extra luggage allowance is cheap.

Thats what Iglu said but I'm worried they may link us somehow when we get on the ship and the other couple end up having to pay as well.

I dont want to have to pay their bill as well.

Just wondered if anyone else has had this scenario.

Soyuz only have the option of laying up front for the la Kate when you book it now. So if it lets you book then you will see how much it is charging you. You won't get a bill later for them onboard.

Sometimes when you book via a TA you have to book extras like drink packages through them too.

As a last resort, buy it for yourselves onboard. It will incur a 15% service charge but the price in euros may offset that a bit since the pound is quite strong now.

I read this on cruise critic " At night, jeans, T-shirts, shorts and bare feet are prohibited in public areas, including the main dining room." Is this really the case for MSC Divina? I was thinking of taking a cruise to Caribbean in the Spring but I was very put off by this info. Just wondering if this was accurate from your experience so that I could make a decision on where this cruise line is the right choice for me.

 

Also wanted to know do they have prices in USD or Euro on board for drinks and everything else?

 

Any dance classes?

 

PS. My heading "Attire Question on Diving to Caribbean." I meant to say Divina to Caribbean, unfortunately cant edit the heading.

They enforce the no bare feet rule everywhere (thankfully), not sure about the shorts rule. They may allow this on US sailings, not so much elsewhere. Where it is not something passengers tend to want to wear to dinner. No issues with jeans though especially on casual evenings.

On the whole MSC are not strict at enforcing policies unless they are safety policies. Attire tends to be a suggestion rather than a hard and fast rule.

A sailing from the US will be priced in USD onboard.

They do have various dance classes.

I'm nit a dessert person but make an exception for the tiramisu night! The ice creams in the MDR are very good in my opinion.

While checking out the first cruise for Seaside a few days back I was offered the date of December 1899 by the new UK version of the site!

Well that may be ok if it were1899 pricing and you could borrow the Tardis!

FINALLY, I am happy to report that the website is now fully functioning as it was before the upgrade. Never received any explanations or response from customer service on this after months of calls and emails, but was able just today to change my password and get in the site through the normal log in process.

Enjoy it whilst it is working! If it is anything like the UK site, sooner or later another glitch will arise.....seems every time they makes changes they fail to test properly (or just use us as their testers).

What I have been reading, MSC is European, so expect more pasta.

 

Divina is name after Sophia Loren, the Italian.

Pasta is a course in it's own right at dinner.

I've read about the experience being different on MSC than on Royal or another line. Can someone explain what elthe difference is? Is the servrcie, dining experience, excursions etc different? I am not trying to see if one is better than the other just how they do things.

If you are contemplating sailing out of the US then you'll probably not notice that much different as they tailor the offering for the US market. You'll hear announcements in many languages and there will likely be more European and other nationalities onboard. Having a broader mix of nationalities onboard leads to a different feel onboard.

If you are thinking of sailing elsewhere, expect to me in a small minority. The ship and everything else will be over the top Italian - not American Italian, but Italian, iTalian! They still cater for English speakers but most passengers won't be English speaking.

It is quite aEuropean line popular in iTaly and German in particular. Also used by French and Spanish too. Slowly growing in the UK.

Spent 11 nights on her last her before she was stretched. She is one of the smaller older ships in the fleet.

I quite like the Lirica class (Opera, Lirica, Sinfonia and Armonia) as they tend to have more interesting itineraries and can get into smaller more unusual ports.

The Armonia (and Sinfonia) have the nicest thermal areas by far. Definitely worth a is it.

Can't comment on whether those items will be available on a US sailing. Prime rib isn't available on other sailings for sure.

Your biggest difference is that you are on a European line and the passenger mix will be more international. That in itself makes for different onboard atmosphere.

Assuming you're on a US sailing, then there will still be a significant number of Americans onboard. If the Divina is back in Europe by the summer, then there will be almost none and few English speakers.

Thank you. It just wasn't clear how it worked since neither Bella or Fantastica actually guaranteed a time.

 

Would have to book Fantastica to get the deck/room we want anyways, so looks like thats the way to go. I would assume on this ship many guests want late dining, so early shouldn't be an issue <?>

It really depends on the passenger mix from week to week. For example if there is a big group booking that can impact what's available on a certain sitting.

I am looking to book Divina with either the Bella or Fantastica package. The Fantastica package says there is priority for choosing dining time, but ultimately says dining times are assigned on board. huh? Does that mean no matter what I select it won't be set until we board the ship?

 

We have a toddler with us and late dining time is a NO GO. Aurea experience with my time dining is not available for our cabin category.

 

Is there any way at all to ensure early dining time?

 

Won't be a happy camper if we have to go to buffet all week.

You only get to express a preference not book in advance. Book Fantastica to get priority. I've never ended up on a seating I did not want but I always go second. Sometimes I've been given early when I embarked and have always been able to change. That was before Bella and Fantastica was introduced.

No point in booking Bella and then being unhappy of you don't get what you want when you know that experience does not allow you to choose what you want or get priority for it.

I'm sure MSC will try to put people with young kids on early sitting where they want it. Not all do though. Spanish and Italian passengers always eat late even if they have young children.

Mairi you don't want to see me trying to tango!

It could not be your worse than me!