Quick Review of Divina 12/13-20

[keyskelly]

Here’s a short and to the point review of our sailing on MSC Divina from December 13-20.

 

Our party consisted of my husband and I, our 5 year old son, and my parents. We had cabins on the 13th deck, with balconies. They were able to open the balcony door so that we could go between the rooms via the balconies. I will discuss the room in a moment.

 

Embarkation was very easy. We arrived at the port at 12:30 pm, and we were onboard by 1:00 pm. The cabins were ready at 2:45 pm. The cabins were very nice, larger than some ships we have been on, and smaller than others. Overall, the cabin was comfortable for our family. They made up the sofa each night for our son, and it was fine for him. The bed was somewhat firm (in my opinion).There was a closet with many hangers, and drawers (4 or 5) and two open shelves. The bathroom was also comfortable, the only issue we had was the shower seal allowed a significant water leak when showering. We solved this by using an extra towel on the floor.

 

We went to the muster drill, which was uneventful other than the passengers being rude to each other during the drill. This unfortunately, was not a one-time occurrence. I am sad to say that I witnessed a few occasions where passengers were beyond rude to the staff as well as to other guests. I guess my parents raised me by the standard that you give what you get, and it is so much easier to be nice to people, than to be rude and disrespectful.

 

We ate in both the main dining room (Villa Rosa) as well as the buffet. With our five year old, he tended to fall asleep right around 5pm, which made it tough to get to dinner at 5:45. We ate in the MDR 4 out of 7 nights, and especially enjoyed our meal during the second formal night. While on the subject of the dining room, there were quite a few people who showed up to dinner around 6:30 and they still served them. I thought it quite rude, as there was a long list of people requesting early dining, who were not able to be accommodated. Additionally, I did see people wearing jeans, t-shirts, and shorts in the main dining room and they were not turned away. We ate at the buffet the other nights, and found it to be very busy. Overall though, the food was good and we didn’t starve during our week. Our only “issue” with the MDR was that it was difficult to get a cocktail in the dining room. Most people ended up bringing a drink with them, as it was a long delay to order drinks in the MDR. I would definitely recommend breakfast in the MDR as opposed to the buffet. The buffet was a madhouse!

 

The ship is gorgeous and kept immaculately clean. There are a lot of bars and live music as well. We had purchased the 18 drink vouchers package, which worked out perfectly for us. We also got our son the Doremi 10 voucher package for ice cream, milkshakes, etc. These packages were very economical and we felt well worth the money. As others have stated, there is no one in your face every five seconds offering you a drink. You often have to go to the bar and wait for someone (a bartender) to acknowledge you (can take a few minutes), and then order. The drinks were very tasty and if we travel again with MSC, I would definitely purchase these again.

 

The shows on board were the BEST I’ve ever seen on a ship. We saw Wonderland, Witches of Paris, Pirates, and Michael Jackson. Even my husband, who is not a big show person, thoroughly enjoyed the shows. My parents saw all of the operas as well, and said that they were wonderful. The entertainment staff is very talented and entertaining, and the shows are the perfect length also. They were each about 30-45 minutes long. Andre the Cruise Director opened each show, and he is pretty funny. It was a great way to end the evening. There were always various areas with live music after as well, and each night they had a party, usually in one of the lounges.

 

The pools were great as well. Our son loved splashing around and swimming in them. It was tough to find a lounge chair on at-sea days, but eventually you will find one. There are also numerous hot tubs that we saw a lot of people enjoying.

 

The ports that we visited were lovely! St. Maarten, San Juan (amazing, beautiful city!!!), and Great Stirrup Cay all provided us with great opportunities to see new places. I will absolutely be going back to San Juan for an extended vacation at some point. St. Maarten was bad weather so I think we missed out on the beauty of the island, but I hope to be back some day. We’ve been to the Bahamas so many times that there really is nothing new for us there. The private island is beautiful, but very rocky, so don’t forget your water shoes. We did some snorkeling and relaxed on the beach. They also have the BBQ on the beach, but be prepared to wait a bit, as the lines take about 30 minutes to get through to get to the food. It was a decent lunch though, and nice to be off the shop for a bit. And the water was perfectly clear and blue.

 

The staff members that we encountered were wonderful. They were so accommodating to our son, always asking his name and bringing him little treat’s. I never once encountered any crew members being rude or indifferent as was mentioned in some other reviews. In fact, it was the opposite. It was passengers being rude to the staff. They kept their cool though, which I can’t say that I would have done, had I been in their shoes. I don’t think it’s too much to ask to just be kind to one another. We are all human.

 

As I previously mentioned, we were in a balcony cabin (13086). The room itself was great; however the noise from the metal overhang was awful, especially at 0230 every morning. I know they have to do their jobs, but every morning at 0230, but sounded like cannonballs being rolled across the deck. We did not have the choice of choosing our cabin, so I really can’t complain. It is what it is, and it certainly did not deter from our overall trip.

 

Overall, this cruise was wonderful and we would sail MSC again without hesitation. It was a great value for the vacation that we had, and we will look forward to sailing on her again someday.

 

Please feel free to ask any questions, and I will answer to the best of my ability. We did not utilize the spa, children’s program, or specialty restaurants.

[JK300]

Keyskelly, thanks for your review. Happy you enjoyed this cruise.

John

[mcatmcat]

Thank you for the review. I have a question , I'm not sure if you are also familiar with other cruiselines such is royal or carnival. Based in your perception, can you say that MSC DIVINA attract young passengers or is it more mature orientate?

Thank you

 

 

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[keyskelly]

mcatmcat, We have sailed with Norwegian, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Disney. I would definitely say that MSC attracts a more mature crowd. Not that they all acted that way though... ;) We witnessed a fight in the theater that resulted in what appeared to be an 80+ year old man with a bloody fist. We overheard the fight, and saw the man with MSC staff on our way out.

 

There was a diverse group of people, American as well as European. It was nice to be able to expose our 5 year old to different languages and cultures.

 

I would say compared to Carnival for example, MSC is much more subdued. :) I'm in my late 30's (ouch that hurts to say out-loud, haha), and we enjoyed it as much as the "older" crowd.

[jazmic]

Thanks for your review! :) We will be sailing with our 4 and 5 year old in February. I was wondering what you thought about the Kids' Club? Also, did you sign your child into the kids' club in the evenings so you could go to the shows? I'm wondering how we will manage to get to the shows or enjoy some of the evening life when our kids tend to be in bed by 8. Thanks again! :)

[keyskelly]

jazmic, we didn't use the kids club, but it looked like they were having an awesome time. They marched them into the shows every night (dressed like pirates the night of the Pirates show), and the kids had a sectioned area where they got to sit and watch the shows. They also offer a program (I can't think of the name of it this moment), where the kids can go to the dining room with you for the first part of the meal, and then they will come get them and take them to the kids club, so that you can enjoy the rest of your dinner.

 

Every time we went past the Kids club, they were having fun, and they doing lots of activities.

[riclop]

Thanks for your review and sorry about your noise from above, that is why we never pick a room under the pool or buffet.

[jazmic]

Thanks Keyskelly. I just re-read your original post and saw you'd mentioned that you didn't use the kids club. Don't know how I missed that the first time around. :rolleyes: Thanks for answering, though! :)

[skyking]

Thank you for the review. I have a question , I'm not sure if you are also familiar with other cruiselines such is royal or carnival. Based in your perception, can you say that MSC DIVINA attract young passengers or is it more mature orientate?

Thank you

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Hi There,

 

I want to chime in on this if thats ok. One of the many things I loved about the Divina was the diverse crowd. Many Europeans, with great fashion, yes we also encountered some rude fellow passengers, especially when it came to waiting in line, but I didnt let it bother me too much. I would also say it was a mature, and a young crowd. It was fantastic!

Edited December 23, 2014 by skyking

[keyskelly]

I also liked the diversity of the passengers. I think because of the time of year (the week before Christmas), it was a older (70+ age) crowd on this sailing. There were very few kids, probably because they were still in school (we pulled our son out a few days early). But overall, we heard many different languages being spoken.

[WendyG]

Do they have trivia on sea days? Things to do on the daily program?

 

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[keyskelly]

They had a ton of different activities on sea days. The back page of the Daily lists it all in order of when they are doing things. There was trivia and various games as well.

[WendyG]

Wonderful to know. Thank you. :)

 

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[DENIE]

Keyskelly.....we loved the diverse crowd as well in November. I recall a delightful exchange for about 20 minutes or so with a couple from Italy. We did not speak each others language, but was fun trying! And when we (or they) just couldn't get the point across...we all threw our hands up and laughed! We kept running into each other on board and shared a quick greeting. This experience was just part of the fun. We also enjoyed and appreciated the maturity of fellow passengers.

[shelling4life]

:pThank you. We will be sailing her in March. Same stops. How warm was the air temps for you? Did you swim in Stirrup Cay? Waters were they warm or chilly?

keep telling us your lovely story. Hope to hear more.

[Satincruz]

I was on the same cruise, and there were many people out in the water around GSC.

 

The air temp was 72 in the morning, up to 79 for a high that day (Dec 19th).

 

It should feel VERY hot there by March--both on the beach + in the water (I'm originally from northern Minnesota, and I was already feeling pretty warm by the end of the day last week!)

[sandy1754]

for those of you that have been on it what did you think of ship temps? Was it cold in the dining room and theater ?

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your nice review. Sounds like you had a good cruise.

[shelling4life]

Merry Christmas and thank you for your review. What was your favorite dish in the dining room?

[keyskelly]

As the above poster mentioned, there were a lot of swimmers in GSC. The water was cool when you first got in, but perfect once you swam around for a minute. It was worth it because we saw lots of fish and sea life.

 

One thing to note (and hopefully they will have fixed this by the time you go), the Daily stated that orange towels would be available at GSC (meaning you didn't have to bring the towels from your room that you received each day). Thankfully, we asked when we were picking up our tender tickets, and they informed us that you had to bring the towels. So we had to hurry back to the room to pick up the towels before they called our group. Just a slight confusion, but had we not asked, we would have ended up with no towels, and we would have been cold. :)

 

Regarding ship temperatures, I always carry a light sweater with me, and tend to always be cold. I did not find the ship too cold. The dining room was not freezing nor was the theater. I would recommend bringing a sweater just to be on the safe side.

 

When we were in St. Maartin, they told us that that day was the coldest day that they had had in a long time. It was 80 degrees. Unfortunately, it was windy and rainy, so not the best of days, but you can't complain when you get to see that beautiful scenery.

[keyskelly]

My favorite meal was in the MDR was the second Gala (formal) night. They had this amazing roasted red pepper soup (had I known it was that good I would have figured out to have a second bowl, lol). Then they served an awesome "French salad" that had candied walnuts, blue cheese, and an array of lettuces. I am not normally a fan of either walnuts or blue cheese, but the combination was delicious. They also served a tenderloin that night that was very good. And then they did the Baked Alaska display through the dining room. It was fun and the baked alaska was very good.

 

I'm also one of those people that liked the pizza on the buffet. I had to have a piece every day. They would serve different combinations each day. They had some really good combinations, my favorite being the prosciutto, cream, and mozzarella. It sounds heavy, but it was delightfully light and delicious.

[shelling4life]

That sounds delicious. Did they serve melting chocolate lava cake. My husband had on Carnival and was in heaven.

[keyskelly]

I did not see that chocolate lave cake (I've had it on Carnival and it is delicious!!!), but I also did not eat every night in the MDR. I will say that generally Divina's deserts (which were decadent) were not too sweet and sugary. They had an amazing tiramisu and berry creme brule that were really good!

[AmoMondo]

That sounds delicious. Did they serve melting chocolate lava cake. My husband had on Carnival and was in heaven.

 

I very much doubt they will have that. Never seen it on their menus.they tend to have Italian desserts and other European ones.

[riclop]

That sounds delicious. Did they serve melting chocolate lava cake. My husband had on Carnival and was in heaven.

 

No they do not.