MSC Divina review....Oct 25th-Nov 1st 2014

[American Bear]

Looking forward to you review!:D

[OzCanuck]

Enjoying the review.

 

So your son is almost four - ours turned three in September. He's done six cruises on NCL and loves it - but we're thinking about trying something new. Our last cruise he was finally old enough for the NCL kids' club; but absolutely refused to go (it was too crowded, noisy, about 500 kids on the NCL Getaway). If we tried MSC we would book the Yacht club/Family Suite. We have always done Haven/Suite on NCL so would look for something comparable; though I am not keen on having a cabin with no balcony..

 

How did you find the treatment of this age group on MSC? Anything special for him in the room? Did he sleep on the fold-out? Were bed rails available? How was the kids' club? Has he cruised a lot?

[skyking]

Enjoying the review.

 

So your son is almost four - ours turned three in September. He's done six cruises on NCL and loves it - but we're thinking about trying something new. Our last cruise he was finally old enough for the NCL kids' club; but absolutely refused to go (it was too crowded, noisy, about 500 kids on the NCL Getaway). If we tried MSC we would book the Yacht club/Family Suite. We have always done Haven/Suite on NCL so would look for something comparable; though I am not keen on having a cabin with no balcony..

 

How did you find the treatment of this age group on MSC? Anything special for him in the room? Did he sleep on the fold-out? Were bed rails available? How was the kids' club? Has he cruised a lot?

 

Hi There,

 

I thought the KIDS club was fantastic....Vanessa was the head teacher and they do a really good job at keeping the kids occupied. They do all sorts of arts and crafts, language lessons, and they do go to the shows each night, they attend the 9pm show and sit in the front or second row. My son seemed to like most of the shows, he did say the Mad Hatter was a little scary:) There were about 20 kids in the club at the busiest time, I do know a lot of Europeans take their kids everywhere, some I spoke to didnt even know the kids club existed. Landon also stayed for the after hours....We paid a set charge of 50.00 for the entire cruise and he was good from 11pm until 2am. Of course we were never out that late, but it was nice to know that we could have some mommy and daddy time. When we picked him up at night he was either asleep on a very nice comfy looking matt with a pillow or watching a movie. I will for sure post pics of the kids club later, I have been going home to sleep after work, I have the cruise ship funk:(

 

 

Edit: I realized I missed a few things you asked. This was Landons 3rd cruise, but his first 7 day, he did GREAT! Also the kids club does take the kids to dinner at 6:30pm or you can arrange for them to pick up your child at your dinner table. Landon only ate twice with us in the dinning room, and both those times they came and got him right after he ate his meal.

Edited November 5, 2014 by skyking

[skyking]

Alright everyone I am back after a short battle with the cruise ship funk. Lets continue with some FOOD PORN!!!!!

 

This was the Pork loin from the first night, I took a bite then remembered to take a pic for you all:) Which I thought was pretty darn good!

 

 

This is going into the second night which was the first formal night. This first pic was an amazing crepe stuffed with veggies and I think Chicken, I have never had anything like it and loved it.

 

 

Escargot anyone??? I am not a huge fan no matter what cruise line I am on, and always order it and have atleast one. It was not a rubbery as other I have had on other cruise lines.

 

 

 

Scallops that my wife ordered!

 

 

And the main course the Prime Rib...I am not sure what people are talking about, the prime rib was delicious.

 

 

 

The crepe might actually be from Italian night, so I might have my food a little mixed up, I apologize for that.

[cruisingpartyof4]

Thank you for coming back. Great review. Thanks for the details on the kids' club.

[skyking]

Ok lets go into Italian night. We did a little theme and tried to color coordinate for this night. Here is a nice pic of my wife and I. I think this was the first time since the QM2 I have worn a bow tie on a cruise, on the QM2 I had a tux.

 

 

Now lets go into the food. I do remember for sure now that the crepe in my last post was on Italian night, I also had this baby...A nice portabella mushroom with sizzled cheese and yummy goodness on top. man was it good!!!!

 

 

 

 

And once again a great dinner, and once again me asking what people are talking about. I had two pieces of Lasagna for dinner:)

 

 

 

 

I think I have more food pics, I will check, if not we will move on to something else. I have a lot of video that I want to post, need to do some youtube uploads, I can't WAIT to do my show review.

[skyking]

On the 4th night we all decided to eat in Eately, but since we had a large table they allowed us eat the Eately menu in Eatalia. Eatalia is a little Italian restaurant that sits next to EATELY, but it only has 6 tables. It's very nice, but a little small.

 

 

 

 

The food here was wonderful, the chef made an amazing sample plate of Italian appetizers, I don't this is on the menu, but my step mom is very good at asking nicely. I HAVE never tasted so much good food, here is a pic, but I will deny it ever happened:)

 

 

My wife ordered the pasta, which was cooked to perfection. It's very hard to find pasta that is cooked well, it's either over cooked or under cooked, but this was perfect. This was a half plate by the way, my wife had the other plate.

 

 

I had the 12oz sirloin, I ate the whole thing, I was full after the appetizers.

 

 

Here is our entire group after dinner with the Chef, he spoke no english and the waiter had to translate our joy for dinner. we are all wearing white because this was the night of the white party.

 

[anamarieus]

Thank you for a great review so far! We want more!!!:D

[DENIE]

By all means!! Keep the review/pictures coming. We are getting ready to board on 11/12, and living vicariously right now through photos like these! :)

[OzCanuck]

Hi There,

 

I thought the KIDS club was fantastic....Vanessa was the head teacher and they do a really good job at keeping the kids occupied. They do all sorts of arts and crafts, language lessons, and they do go to the shows each night, they attend the 9pm show and sit in the front or second row. My son seemed to like most of the shows, he did say the Mad Hatter was a little scary:) There were about 20 kids in the club at the busiest time, I do know a lot of Europeans take their kids everywhere, some I spoke to didnt even know the kids club existed. Landon also stayed for the after hours....We paid a set charge of 50.00 for the entire cruise and he was good from 11pm until 2am. Of course we were never out that late, but it was nice to know that we could have some mommy and daddy time. When we picked him up at night he was either asleep on a very nice comfy looking matt with a pillow or watching a movie. I will for sure post pics of the kids club later, I have been going home to sleep after work, I have the cruise ship funk:(

 

 

Edit: I realized I missed a few things you asked. This was Landons 3rd cruise, but his first 7 day, he did GREAT! Also the kids club does take the kids to dinner at 6:30pm or you can arrange for them to pick up your child at your dinner table. Landon only ate twice with us in the dinning room, and both those times they came and got him right after he ate his meal.

 

Great - thanks for your reply. Still pondering whether to do Divina vs. NCL Pearl. Almost exactly the same price for the YC Suite vs. a 2-bdrm on the Pearl. Many pros and cons to each.

 

Keep the review coming!

[rfinch]

Thanks for the review! Booked on the Divina in March.

[mom2tcdx2]

I was on this sailing too, though I haven't quite composed my thoughts for a review. Overall we did have an enjoyable time, though a few little hiccups along the way.

 

Breakfast we found to be fine, there actually was an egg station where they were cooking omelets and eggs to order, though it seemed to only be there one day. Bacon cooked much better towards the end of the cruise than the beginning. I liked the fried eggs, no omelets for me. I didn't like the premade burgers, but I did ask for one different and the guy behind the grill was quick to make it. I don't like ketchup on my burgers.

 

Dinners were very good, though our group of 10 wasn't seated together so that wasn't any fun. Our staff was good, attentive, though sometimes a little slower compared to tables around us. I had a couple dishes I didn't care for, but that was my personal preference. Loved the Chicken Marsala dish the most. My husband enjoyed all the pasta dishes, though he got a different lasagna than my sister did and he said his was better than hers was. Though we had later dinner and 8:45 is later than any other ship we have sailed on.

 

Most staff was friendly, we found the passengers to be on the rude side, which isn't the fault of MSC. Though it was the foreign passengers that were the rudest - they cut in line, grabbed food from you at the buffet, grabbed it from the servers, pushed their way onto elevators without letting people off first.

 

Shows we liked, but found them to be about the same. Just different music and costumes. Though I think a little too short, I would liked 45 minutes instead of 30. Starwalker - Michael Jackson was by far the best show.

[skyking]

I was on this sailing too, though I haven't quite composed my thoughts for a review. Overall we did have an enjoyable time, though a few little hiccups along the way.

 

Breakfast we found to be fine, there actually was an egg station where they were cooking omelets and eggs to order, though it seemed to only be there one day. Bacon cooked much better towards the end of the cruise than the beginning. I liked the fried eggs, no omelets for me. I didn't like the premade burgers, but I did ask for one different and the guy behind the grill was quick to make it. I don't like ketchup on my burgers.

 

Dinners were very good, though our group of 10 wasn't seated together so that wasn't any fun. Our staff was good, attentive, though sometimes a little slower compared to tables around us. I had a couple dishes I didn't care for, but that was my personal preference. Loved the Chicken Marsala dish the most. My husband enjoyed all the pasta dishes, though he got a different lasagna than my sister did and he said his was better than hers was. Though we had later dinner and 8:45 is later than any other ship we have sailed on.

 

Most staff was friendly, we found the passengers to be on the rude side, which isn't the fault of MSC. Though it was the foreign passengers that were the rudest - they cut in line, grabbed food from you at the buffet, grabbed it from the servers, pushed their way onto elevators without letting people off first.

 

Shows we liked, but found them to be about the same. Just different music and costumes. Though I think a little too short, I would liked 45 minutes instead of 30. Starwalker - Michael Jackson was by far the best show.

 

I was going to wait to talk about the line cutting, but since you brought it up I will for sure chime in. Europeans do not like to wait in line, ever, at all, PERIOD. I SAW A FEW VERBAL ARGUMENTS BREAK OUT, but it is NO fault of MSC whatsoever. The Buffett area is layed out perfect, but they will cut right in front of you, I get it, but towards the the end I wasn't going to have it anymore, as a matter of fact I was waiting on the yellow line at customs getting off the ship and a guy just walked right in front of me, I said woaaaaaaah NO way. The customs agent was cracking up, but I still loved every minute and wish I was back on the Divina!!!!

[shelling4life]

How exciting...cant wait to hear more.

[keyskelly]

Eagerly awaiting your next installment... love your review! We are traveling on Divina in December with our five year old... happy to hear your little one enjoyed the cruise. :)

[skyking]

Eagerly awaiting your next installment... love your review! We are traveling on Divina in December with our five year old... happy to hear your little one enjoyed the cruise. :)

 

More coming today I promise.

[skyking]

Hello All,

 

 

Sorry for the delay, I was away from my computer the last few days, but I am back and ready to go. I think I am done with the food, I am pretty sure you all got the point, and thought I thought the food was wonderful, and better than other cruises we have been on. SO NOW lets move to the SHOWS.

 

 

I have never been a huge fan of cruise ship shows, most of the are cheesy, use too much video, and we usually get up and leave. THIS was NOT the case on the Divina!!!! The shows just wrap you in, the productions are incredible ,and the costumes like nothing I have seen on a cruise ship. Now I felt all the shows we saw were great, but one really really stuck with me and I still can't stop watching the video. I do have video of some of the shows, I am slowly going to get this uploaded to youtube and will post the link when I am done. LETS START!!!

 

 

First show we saw was WONDERLAND. This show was great, had some singing, had some acrobats, awesome costumes as well. I left me wanting some more for sure.

 

The show started with a brief introduction of the officers and staff by the cruise director. This did not last that long and it was formal night, so we expected it. This was the only show this happened ,and did not happen again. Before this they played a brief video about MSC that showed where they came from.

 

 

 

Lets not forget the beautiful space where these shows are held, very elegant feel, and well thought out, the one thing I found odd was there is no bar service at all in the theatre.

 

 

 

 

Now back to to the show, the Mad Hatter costume was pretty awesome!

 

 

The entire cast at the end of the show, check out all the costumes.

 

 

 

Here is a brief video of some of the acrobatics performing during WONDERLAND

 

Edited November 9, 2014 by skyking

[skyking]

I am going to get this review finished very soon, and promise to get more pics up. Still one of the BEST cruises we have ever been on, I highly recommend the DIVINA. Don't let these silly negative comments scare you away, she is wonderful with a great crew, food, and entertainment. ENJOY!

[skyking]

We were in cabin 11103 a B2 CAT cabin. This cabin has a large balcony that faces aft and looks down the the port side of the ship. We loved this cabin, it had a large sofa that made into a bed, lots of storage space, wonderful bathroom, but most of all we loved the balcony. If I can say anything negative about this cabin it would be that it is a connecting cabin with cabin 11105. We had some rather loud neighbors that were very early risers, and we could hear them faintly, but they blared the TV every morning at 7am. Here is a pic of the balcony as well as video I made of the entire cabin...ENJOY!

 

 

Link to my youtube video of the cabin.

 

Edited April 11, 2015 by skyking

[American Bear]

Very good review, and pictures.:)

We also enjoyed our time on the Divina, and the prices when compared to other cruise lines are hard to beat.:)

[tampagirl2]

Thank you for your review! Do you use a GoPro for your video?

 

Also, do you remember if they had chicken nuggets or grilled cheese available for kids? Was there yogurt available at the buffet? I have a very picky 2 1/2 year old, so just wondering.

 

Thanks

[skyking]

Thank you for your review! Do you use a GoPro for your video?

 

Also, do you remember if they had chicken nuggets or grilled cheese available for kids? Was there yogurt available at the buffet? I have a very picky 2 1/2 year old, so just wondering.

 

Thanks

 

Hi There,

 

On this cruise I did use the go pro for my video, I have a very picky 4 year old so I know how it is for sure, yes to the chicken nuggets, and yogurt. I am willing to bet that if you asked one of the Maitre D's who handle the buffet area they would come up with one for you, they always went out of the way for us.

[Juddernaut]

I was going to wait to talk about the line cutting, but since you brought it up I will for sure chime in. Europeans do not like to wait in line, ever, at all, PERIOD. I SAW A FEW VERBAL ARGUMENTS BREAK OUT, but it is NO fault of MSC whatsoever. The Buffett area is layed out perfect, but they will cut right in front of you, I get it, but towards the the end I wasn't going to have it anymore, as a matter of fact I was waiting on the yellow line at customs getting off the ship and a guy just walked right in front of me, I said woaaaaaaah NO way. The customs agent was cracking up, but I still loved every minute and wish I was back on the Divina!!!!

 

 

The concept of a line/queue is a foreign one on the continent. However, over the last 7 years of living here I think I have noticed an improvement and to be fair in a lot of ways Europeans are more considerate and polite than a lot of my fellow Anglo Saxons. I always give line jumpers a right bollicking, but I can not understand how other people tolerate it.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tampagirl2]

Hi There,

 

On this cruise I did use the go pro for my video, I have a very picky 4 year old so I know how it is for sure, yes to the chicken nuggets, and yogurt. I am willing to bet that if you asked one of the Maitre D's who handle the buffet area they would come up with one for you, they always went out of the way for us.

 

 

Thank you!

[skyking]

I had to bring this review back to the front page, I am tired of people saying the food is bad, but yet they have never sailed MSC. The food was wonderful, and the shows were the best we have seen. On a recent cruise on the Liberty Of The Seas we got up and walked out on the shows because they were so boring, please don't let peoples negative comments scare you. The Divina is going to back in Miami soon, and I am looking forward to it.