MSC Divina really THAT bad????

[jerseyaxn]

I have never cruised on msc .We are going to give them a shot we are booking the seaside the ship looks amazing.we are thinking of booking the yacht club. My wife and I have found on other cruises if you take the time to talk with the staff and talk about theier country and treat them like people not servants we always get great service and the staff does all they can for you.Im sure the staff on msc is no different

[CTBob]

I have never cruised on msc .We are going to give them a shot we are booking the seaside the ship looks amazing.we are thinking of booking the yacht club. My wife and I have found on other cruises if you take the time to talk with the staff and talk about theier country and treat them like people not servants we always get great service and the staff does all they can for you.Im sure the staff on msc is no different

I'll be on the Seaside in the Yacht Club a few weeks before you so I'll let you know what to expect. And I see that you'll be on the Koningsdam a few weeks before me so you can brief me on what to expect there. Bob

[jerseyaxn]

Ok sounds good no problem

[LordCapybara]

Amazing, why anyone can be so critical to the most beautiful & cleanest ship floating.

 

Forgot to mention, but couldn't agree more, it is the cleanest ship I have ever sailed. always someone cleaning, something.

[jerseyaxn]

I cant wait to see the seaside.im looking to give the yacht club a try it seema amazing

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Divina is so 'bad' that I just booked her for my third time for a B2B in the winter of 2017! :D

[jerseyaxn]

Im glad to hear you are going again .Can you tell me what keeps brining you back.

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Im glad to hear you are going again .Can you tell me what keeps brining you back.

 

Beautiful ship with a wonderful pool layout, great staff, good food, love the diversity of the guests and meeting people from around the world.

[glamer57]

I just got back from my second Divina cruise and I'm going on my 3rd in May. I have also booked Seaside for 2018. What I say about it is this. It is a BUDGET cruise line and I adjust my expectations based on that. I sail solo and can get the Divina for less than half of what I pay for Royal Caribbean, my favorite line. Two interesting things about the OP is they are going on Disney first and they have kids. OP, would you mind sharing what you paid in total for each cruise? I haven't done Disney yet, because they are so expensive, but, I have heard they are amazing, head and shoulders above RC, Carnival, etc. Compared to that, MSC may indeed be a step down, but, OP says all they want is to relax and be waited on.

 

If you and your kids just want to lay in the sun and relax and eat and see great ports, you should love it. There aren't as many bells and whistles on this ship as you will see on other ships, but, that is why the price is so good. You're not paying for Flowriders, rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, etc. I found the MDR to be hit or miss, so, on this last cruise I just did the buffet and thoroughly enjoyed every meal, I hope your kids like pizza, because people just camp out near the pizza ovens, waiting for fresh ones to appear. As with all ships, don't hit the buffet at noontime and be surprised that it is busy, wait a little later , after the hubbub has died down before you go. Head to the back of the buffet, it's always less crowded and there is a children's only buffet back there, although I've seen some six footers with full beards in that line, scooping up the popcorn shrimp.

 

As with all things, go in with an open mind, and you will find plenty to enjoy. I was nervous the first time I tried Carnival, after years and years of Royal. The horror stories I had heard about Carnival had me thinking the buffet was going to be like the Serengeti, animals ripping each other to shreds, just to get a morsel of food. What do you know, it was fine and I now include Carnival in my cruise planning repertoire. As a solo, I pay double what a couple pays, so, I am always looking for a good price. Right now, Divina is knocking it out of the park price wise. I have an (unfinished):o review of Divina in my signature that you can look at, it has some nice pictures in it. Welcome to cruising, OP, I hope you love it as much as I do.

 

Sorry, it's been so long since I was on this post and it took so long to answer your question. We went on the Disney dream in January (4 day, 3 night) and after taxes, fees, travel insurance, for a balcony room, it was just over $2300. It just depends on when you go. We went around MLK weekend so the kids only missed one day of school. For our MSC cruise, it is Nov. 19-26 and there was a 2 for 1 balcony special along with kids sailing free, plus the 10% educator discount and it was a little over $2100 which is why we decided to try it.

Edited October 30, 2016 by glamer57

[lovelights]

I want to go on a cruise the week of Thanksgiving and I alot of ship set sail on Nov 19 out of FL.

 

Of all of the cruise, MSC Divina is the cheapest by $200 less for balcony.

 

The price is good, but the food. hahaha .. I see alot of pizza and pasta. Come on, add a few chinese, indian and american food and I will get on board.

 

Not sure what ship you went on, but we just got off Divina today, and there was way more than just pizza and pasta, so for this ship, they must have changed, because there was a large variety of food to choose from. I would rate the Divina 5 stars for sure, and recommend this beautiful ship, with great food, and a wonderful crew any time of the week.

[bradleyj39]

I will start by saying that the MSC Preziosa that we sailed on was a very nice ship. Clean and well maintained. The staff overall were also friendly for the most part. I had only sailed with RCL(6x's) prior to this cruise and was looking forward to a new experience and ship. I too saw the bad reviews and wrote them off....wish I hadn't. The food was as bad as people are saying, maybe worse. Horrible meat quality, over/under cooked food...sometimes dangerously under cooked. The buffet can usually save you on an RCL cruise if the dining room is bad, but the only thing the did right was pizza. Buffet also seemed to run out of food frequently, and instead of replenishing they just shut down the area while still in the middle of peak dining periods. I like pizza, but I can't live on it all week. Even things as basic as scrambled eggs were not done well. In short, we will NOT be back to MSC anytime soon. Probably try NCL, and Celebrity next. Sad about this, because MSC has what looks like a lot of cool ships coming...

Edited October 8, 2017 by bradleyj39

[Stockjock]

I've been on Carnival, RCCL, Celebrity, Norwegian, MSC, Princess, Pullmantur/Croisieres de France and multiple times on most of these lines. My GF and I both agree that Divina is our favorite ship.

 

I'm not sure why MSC gets such a bad rap. The ships are stunning. Services were fairly priced. While the eastern European crew isn't quite as friendly, they were just fine.

 

I read a lot about the hot dogs and hamburgers in the buffet and MSC was put down for that. There are *so many* options, but sometimes you have to explore and walk down a ways. Food wasn't the best we've had, but was good. Entertainment was excellent. Maintenance is the best we've seen.

 

I see the new MSC ships rated 4 stars and I really have to disagree with that. We felt like it was more of a 5 star experience. I had a 5-10 minute embarkation in Rome. Can you imagine. Sure, I might have gotten lucky, but I hadn't experienced that before.

 

In short, no it's not "that bad". It's really good. I wouldn't hesitate to book MSC.

[Summerland]

Im glad to read this! Booked divina for May for what I think is an amazing price. Then I started reading reviews and my heart sank. This thread gives me hope, lol...it sounds perfect !

 

I saw Divina launched in Marseille and sailed on her the following year as a solo traveller and LOVED it. Too many reviews are from people used to sailing with one cruise line and as mentioned before expect to be able to get fries or English style fish and chips or similar at every meal. This is an Italian cruise line for heavens sake - eat Italian style! If you don't fancy it then don't book it.......Divina is a beautiful ship, the crew were just great - I've been on 6 MSC ships and sailed from Cape Town to Venice in May this year on Sinfonia. Have booked to sail Durban to Venice next year on the same ship. If MSC was that bad, would I book with them again? Of course not. I have sailed with 4 other cruise lines and the fact MSC is privately owned, it has benefits as you don't get certain things pushed down your throat as with some lines. Too many lines owned by the same conglomerate!!

[ssmea03]

Sadly MSC, and Divina in particular, come in for far more than their fair share of trolling from the likes of royalists etc. The usual complaints, no towel animals, children, foreign language announcements, real Italian food etc, you all know what I mean. I think we're all better off if these philistines all stayed at home.

[Proseccoandsun]

Agreed! We were on Divina 3 years ago and again this past August and I think the buffet is terrific. It is huge and has so many offerings! Yes, there are usually 3 different delicious pastas every day with different sauces that I love! But there is also a carving station,usually something Mexican, Jamaican (a fish stew or jerk pork or chicken), Indian, etc...as well. Plus burgers, hotdogs, chicken sandwiches, and fries for (I suspect) American passengers looking for American food. There are also at least 4 -5 types of pizza out at a time, salad bars, Italian meats, cheeses, vegetables, and fresh baked bread at every meal. Then there's the children's section.

 

Besides all of that, the Divina itself is a stunning ship. Immaculate, sparkly, and beautiful. There's nothing budget about MSC other than their prices. They offer great service, food, ships, and entertainment that you'd be hard pressed to get on another line. But it's all a matter of taste. So glad there's a ship and a cruise line out there for everyone. For us it's MSC all the way!

 

 

Not sure what ship you went on, but we just got off Divina today, and there was way more than just pizza and pasta, so for this ship, they must have changed, because there was a large variety of food to choose from. I would rate the Divina 5 stars for sure, and recommend this beautiful ship, with great food, and a wonderful crew any time of the week.

[CGTNORMANDIE]

We just returned from Divina last week and I can say the following: MSC and Divina are "works in progress". They have had to build a fleet of new ships that currently call for 20,000 active crew and an additional 10,000 crew on shore leave. They all need to be trained and they all had to learn English. (MSC actually has accelerated English courses) and they all need 2 to 3 years of onboard experience to become proficient at their jobs. The cooks need more training in the basics (I have a strong background in food prep). I have no doubt that the crew is working very hard to overcome the deficits. When you put this together you can see that what MSC has done is a miracle. I predict that within 3 years the MSC product will be better than ever.

 

The really good news at MSC is the Yacht Club. The service in the YC is second to none! It is a better experience than any other mass market line...MSC has nailed it. You can now have a First Class experience while being able to enjoy the entire ship with all its offerings. You don't get that on a small Luxury Ship. It's the best of both worlds. MSC has come up with a concept that has upped the game for the entire industry.

 

The deciding factor is the price...and MSC wins that one completely. The price with the credits, especially the status match and tiered incentives make this one a No-Brainer. The casino credit system is also fantastic...a 30% discount on you next cruise when you accumulate 1200 credits! (Which I did in about 3 days!).

 

The Divina is beautiful and a bit quirky (going from deck 6 to deck 7 to get to certain places and walking from the YC to Le Muse and secret elevators, etc.) but I love quirky...it's what makes a ship special.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Thank you so much for your comments and review :)

For Disney, my husband and 2 children got a category o4e cabin with an oversized verandah on level 5 and it was a little over $2400 after taxes, fees, vacation protection, and gratuities. For MSC, we booked the 2-for-1 balcony special and my kids cruise for free and it was a little over $1700 for the fantastica package, taxes, fees, and vacation protection (I also got 10% off because of their educator discount).

what? Disney for 4 people veranda for $2400? :confused: Was it 4 days cruise or something?

[GOLDENBONNY]

It's so funny to read. One thing I learned many years ago- go and check it yourself. ;p Our first cruise was on Costa, and reviews from Americans were so bad I wanted to cry, but it happen to be best cruise we ever had. Our second cruise was on NCL Spirit and american reviews were sooo good but cruise was so ****ty we will never step on any NCL cruise again even for free. We don't mind CCL but we don't like food there and ships are very dirty. We found Celebrity very overrated and boring :* Our worst cabin steward was on HAL :rolleyes: More to say- going on same ship can be different experience . We had back to back on Divina and first portion of cruise was fantastic,the second one I wanted to jump overboard. Just go and see it yourself.

[mjonis]

I think it comes down to:

a) If you're in YC or not. I don't think I've seen a "negative" YC review recently, but I could be wrong

b) The spotty service. You seem to either get things fine (in which case a positive review) or things are not very good (negative review).

 

In our case, we must've had the bad luck curse. As for the ship being spotless, I hardly call ripped carpeting, stained/mildewed and wet carpeting "beautiful". (Oh, but the crystal staircase....LOL).

 

Regardless, I say *try* it. As long as you know/expect certain things (unfortunately I think all but two things we didn't expect, and they weren't good things), you'll be OK.

 

It is (IMO) unfortunate that almost a year after our cruise on MSC Divina, that most of the issues still appear to be present. I was really hoping they'd fix things in almost a year, but alas. The only way we'd ever go again is:

a) MSC fixes things/gets their act together (apparently not gonna happen)

b) We could afford the YC. Unfortunately that's not going to happen either. While I agree that compared to Haven/RCL "suite" the perks are cheaper than the competition, I just cannot justify a 200-300% price bump from balcony to YC on Divina.

 

The Seaside pricing looks a little better (Jan 2019) $1080/pp balcony fantastica vs. $2019/pp Deluxe Suite (sorry, don't consider an "inside" room comparable to a balcony), although that particular itinerary doesn't appeal to me (I'd consider the 11-night one), but that's $2,000/pp/balcony fantastica vs. $3880/pp/YC Suite. Ouch. I wanna say our 10 (or was it 11-night) Divina cruise was $1050/pp/balcony fantastica.

 

But there's pros/cons to anything and everyone has a different list of what's important to them. Some people don't mind paying for things and not getting them and having to spend about 4+ hours of their vacation time in lines trying to get things sorted out. I don't.

 

But you'll never know until you try it.

[grush240]

This is off topic but the best pizza in Italy is found in Naples. Folks from Rome, Milano, Palermo, etc. might disagree but Naples is where it started. Personally, I don't care for Roman pizza.

 

As an English man that spent a fair few years in Italy I couldn't agree more best in the world. Tried them in NY and Chicago as well not a patch. Re the service it's Italian, try being in the sticks in Italy it's the same, I'm sure it rubs off on the non Italian crew. Used to be a rule of thumb that you should be able to smoke a cig between courses.

 

Kev

[Proseccoandsun]

We must see things differently as I didn't see any of what you're describing below - either time we were on the Divina. We are also seeing different pricing. Where are you getting your pricing? We went YC in August and paid about $500 pp more than an Aurea balcony suite. We're also booked on Seaside YC for the Christmas cruise and my family of four didn't cost the prices you show below and holiday cruises are usually the most expensive.

 

I think it comes down to:

a) If you're in YC or not. I don't think I've seen a "negative" YC review recently, but I could be wrong

b) The spotty service. You seem to either get things fine (in which case a positive review) or things are not very good (negative review).

 

In our case, we must've had the bad luck curse. As for the ship being spotless, I hardly call ripped carpeting, stained/mildewed and wet carpeting "beautiful". (Oh, but the crystal staircase....LOL).

 

Regardless, I say *try* it. As long as you know/expect certain things (unfortunately I think all but two things we didn't expect, and they weren't good things), you'll be OK.

 

It is (IMO) unfortunate that almost a year after our cruise on MSC Divina, that most of the issues still appear to be present. I was really hoping they'd fix things in almost a year, but alas. The only way we'd ever go again is:

a) MSC fixes things/gets their act together (apparently not gonna happen)

b) We could afford the YC. Unfortunately that's not going to happen either. While I agree that compared to Haven/RCL "suite" the perks are cheaper than the competition, I just cannot justify a 200-300% price bump from balcony to YC on Divina.

 

The Seaside pricing looks a little better (Jan 2019) $1080/pp balcony fantastica vs. $2019/pp Deluxe Suite (sorry, don't consider an "inside" room comparable to a balcony), although that particular itinerary doesn't appeal to me (I'd consider the 11-night one), but that's $2,000/pp/balcony fantastica vs. $3880/pp/YC Suite. Ouch. I wanna say our 10 (or was it 11-night) Divina cruise was $1050/pp/balcony fantastica.

 

But there's pros/cons to anything and everyone has a different list of what's important to them. Some people don't mind paying for things and not getting them and having to spend about 4+ hours of their vacation time in lines trying to get things sorted out. I don't.

 

But you'll never know until you try it.

[helen haywood]

We've sailed Divina in both a regular balcony cabin and in the Yacht Club. We had a great time every time. Even when staying in the YC we went to the buffet on a port day because we think MSC's food is really great!! The antipasti spread! The pastas! The pizza! And on and on...

 

 

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[Proseccoandsun]

I completely agree! We love it and don't even look at other cruise lines anymore!

 

We've sailed Divina in both a regular balcony cabin and in the Yacht Club. We had a great time every time. Even when staying in the YC we went to the buffet on a port day because we think MSC's food is really great!! The antipasti spread! The pastas! The pizza! And on and on...

 

 

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[gkbiiii]

The real bargain if you can get it, is the inside YC: for around $1,100 PP (with Black Card discount) you get the Ultra-VIP experience, on the cheap!

[CGTNORMANDIE]

The real bargain if you can get it, is the inside YC: for around $1,100 PP (with Black Card discount) you get the Ultra-VIP experience, on the cheap!

 

Even better when you get the 1200 casino credits for a 30% discount!

We already booked a B2B for next year. After the YC experience you will not find anything else to match it!