Iluvcruising2

Celebrity and MSC target very different segments of customers. I wouldn't be able to afford Celebrity suites. I would consider MSC Yacht Club suites as more 'affordable luxury'

A video showing you the prices of drinks on board.

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In Rio de Janeiro, my parents must have watched some performance as there were many clips of this performance which I have put together into one file. Is this considered a traditional Brazilian performance?

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Thank you for your posts. I am boarding the MSC Divina tomorrow and am really looking forward to the Yacht Club experience.

 

 

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Have a great cruise!

A picture of the ticket.

A map inside the tram.

Reached the station.

And here is a video of the peak! Bright and sunny day. Great weather.

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And some more photos.

And the famous statue.

From the side.

Alright, I am not covering my parents' trip in order. Based on the footage given tto me, Rio de Janeiro was towards the end of their trip. So let's start. This is the visit to the most famous Christ the Redeemer (Christo Redentor) statue.

I believe this image was taken from their tour coach.

My Dad did mention all the grafitti that he saw.

Looked like they were crossing the road.

On the way to the tram station.

Quite a crowd.

Where to get our tickets?

And here is a video of the tram ride up.

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Here is the place they prepared the cheese plate. Pretty neat. I had a cheese plate on my first night.

After dinner, I went to walk around and spotted some live music in the Italian inspired cafe. Looks like some people were having fun.

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Yes, I know I am greedy. Headed to the Top Sail lounge to check out the food and ended up eating some more! Here is the display of food.

In this video, I show you the food as well as what I ate, and my drink. Tonight, I asked for a Gin and Tonic.

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Another picture of the food.

And my food, minus the drink.

And that completes our day in Valletta, Malta!

We didn't ask the butler to touch our clothes and naturally he did not.

It was time for dinner! Tonight, in the Yacht Club restaurant, looks like we will have some Dim Sum assortment.

Here is a video I made of the dinner experience that evening.

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My House Red and White, as usual.

This was the fish of the day. Crusted. And rather dainty.

And the dessert. All of us chose the same, cheesecake.

When we were on Celebrity Cruise in the penthouse our Butler served us breakfast, and dinner in our suite we had a dining table that seat 8 he would serve us each course individual. He made sure all of our needs were met and predicted our needs we had coffee delivered to the butlers pantry every morning at 6am then breakfast at 7:30. Our first cruise on MSC will be in January of 2017, not sure what to expect but was informed by the agent at MSC they will do anything possible to make sure our needs are met.

I don't think MSC serves much food in the cabin, not even in the Yacht Club. I read that they will not bring dining room food to your cabin, unless there are health reasons, e.g. if you are too ill and you cannot go out.

But your experience could be different.

The shows in the theater on the Divina are in English and they are fantastic. Even on the Italian favorites night, the songs were those that most Americans are familiar with over the past 3-4 decades.

That's good. Glad to see that they have tried to customize the product for the American market.

I have really enjoyed your review. Thank you for sharing! I am planning our 40th wedding anniversary cruise and considering trying MSC Divina/Eastern Caribbean at the end of May. You information has been really helpful.

Thanks for your note and congrats on your 40th wedding anniversary! God bless.

The YC product is outstanding (relative to the price of course). As for the non-YC cabins and experience, it is not bad given the price point.

Overall, I would think that MSC is worth a try, especially the YC.

Frankly, they don't do much. The term 'butler' is quite an over-sell. They are more like experienced cabin stewards. You could try asking them to do plenty of things for you, but we didn't. Maybe we are just not demanding.

I also am looking forward to getting up and having a cappuccino out on in the lounge or on the sun deck.

Oh yes. The One Pool Bar and Top Sail Lounge.... so sublime. :)

The restaurant is one of the reasons that I booked the YC inside. I love great food. So is it really all that great comparing to the other included restaurants on board?

Definitely better than the Main Dining Room food. However, I wouldn't know how it compares with the speciality restaurants as I didn't try any. We ate at the Suite restaurant every night.

Just noticed that i was on this ship and itinerary with you as well besides the Voyager trip from SG to Shanghai. How interesting.

Cool! You must like cruising too! :):)

We have enjoyed our MSC cruises but they were in some ways very different from other lines.

I am curious - for MSC sailings out of the USA, is the entertainment in English? On our MSC Preziosa cruise out of Genoa, the live music was nice but the singing was almost always in Italian.

See this video for an example.

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Last year on our Mariner OTS cruise, it was only about 2/3 full.

 

A week before sailing I moved us up from 2 Promenade views to 2 Suite Guarantees, just by calling. The price of a Suite Guarantee was lower than what we had paid for the Promenade view.

 

We ended up in 2 Grand Suites! I thought we'd be in JS, so it was a nice surprise to get GS!

 

We orginally had booked insides, moved up to Promenade when the price dropped (gave up $200 OBC). So technically, I got the GSs for the price of insides.

Sounds like a great deal!

On the MSC Preziosa, during afternoon tea time, the buffet line had hot dogs, burgers and fries. See this video. This was on a sailing out of Genoa. I would be very surprised if they didn't have hot dogs, burger and fries when they sail out of the USA.

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We have only sailed on the MSC Preziosa out of Genoa; the Preziosa is Divina's sister ship. Yes, we sailed in the Yacht club, but we still had a blast.

Food, for us, is very important. Based on what I saw at the main buffets, the buffet wasn't bad. Plenty of pizzas for sure.

I made some videos to show you what I am talking about. I would be curious to know whether the buffet lines on the Divina are similar or different.

MSC Preziosa Breakfast Buffet

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MSC Preziosa Lunch Buffet

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MSC Preziosa Dinner buffet

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Are there Q-Tips and Cotton Balls in the bathroom on the Divina in the Yacht Club? I am starting to make my packing list (I am a list maker) and I was wondering if I have to pack them.

Thanks

Not on the MSC Preziosa Yacht club.

Do read my review of MSC Preziosa, where I also included many pictures and videos.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2288693

All this talk about the Yacht Club is making me hungry for their suite dinners!

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Alright, the ship was about to sail from Valletta and I decided to go up to the sun deck to watch the sailaway. I think my family went back to the cabin to rest. The views were great. This was the waterfront.

A photo of the pier. It looked like they were loading some luggage.

Almost dark now. Dusk.

This was the Garden Pool, aft of the ship.

Outdoor pool.

The MSC Preziosa was sailing out!

And here are two videos. First is the outdoor pool area, during sailaway.

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And some footage of the scenery as we sailed out. Sorry this video is a bit jerky, but you get the idea.

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