MSC Divina review July 5th

[verodoodle]

This was our first cruise on MSC, but we have cruised about 25 times on RCCL and Celebrity. We already have a 7-day cruise on the Divina booked for next February, and when we saw this short one at a good price we decided to see jump onboard and see how MSC compared to our other cruises. We did the matching program and were given Black status.

 

Embarkation: We drove to the port and dropped off the luggage around 11:30 and were on the ship by 12:00. We were sent to a regular check in line, not the priority but were told to listen for Black to be called for boarding which happened quickly.

 

Buffet: We found a large variety of food and the Pizza was the best we’ve had on a ship. We always found a table in the back. Food was always warm and what you would expect for a buffet.

 

Specialty Restaurants: Being Black status we had 2 dinners for 2 at specialty restaurants. We ate the first night at Eataly steak house and the third night at the Galaxy Restaurant. The diners are a 5 course prefixed menu and both were very good. The service was excellent at both. The only down side is it was very hard to make reservations. We tried calling the number listed a few times but ended up going to the restaurant.

 

Dining Room: We ate two dinners and breakfast in the Black Crab dinning room. Breakfast was again what you would expect when serving a lot of people, food was tasty, warm and they had a good menu. Service was missing in a few areas, others at table had a hard time getting apple juice but overall it was good.

Dinner took the same amount of time as the other cruises we have been on. The food was good, Pasta was great. Had a little communication issue with a steak, ordered med/rare and got med/well. But that was the only issue.

 

Cabin: Booked a Fantastica cabin 10262, center aft. If you like aft it does not get any better, Cabin was always clean, had plenty of storage and the bathroom was good size with good storage. Shower door setup gives you a little more room to move around. Had a large & deep balcony with 2 chairs 1 footstool. Asked cabin attendant for a lounge chair and were told HE could not bring one, but we could. If it had been a longer cruise I would have gone and gotten one.

 

Bars: We purchased an 18 drink booklet and it covered most of what we wanted to drink. Wines up to 7.50 mixed up to 8.00. It worked out very well. The bars are not all consistent with the pricing. Wife purchased Kur Royal at most bars for 6.50 and was then charge 12.25 at a different bar. This was after our coupons had run out. After explaining it was 6.50 at other bars he changed his price also.

Service was always good, friendly and they were always smiling, never had to wait very long to attract someone.

 

 

 

Shows: By far the best we have seen on a ship. Starwalker is amazing.

There was music all around the ship and other activities each night.

 

Ship: This was the cleanest and prettiest ship we have been on.

It is a little difficult to navigate as there are some dead ends. Also lots of mirrors, lots of mirrors. Saw ourselves coming and going!

 

Some other observations. We booked two massages for the 2nd day and on the 3rd day they left a flyer in the cabin with discounts for Black Card members. One was - book one massage, and get 50% off the second. Only applicable when they are booked.

The area for picking up pictures was a total zoo and not large enough!

 

Staff was helpful and friendly.

 

If not for the match program and nice pricing we would not have tried MSC. So if their match plan was to attract new people to their product it worked for us. We are looking forward to our next cruise in February

Edited July 13, 2016 by verodoodle

[alpal1993]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise on MSC. My DH went on his first MSC cruise and he loved the shows as well. Did they have the Opera offered? It was the most wonderful show with the ballet dancers as well as the Opera Singers telling the story. This was my third MSC cruise ,but the first time I had heard about the Opera.

[Beamafar]

Great to hear the cruise went well for you. Did you attend the Black Card gathering/party? Did you receive the chocolate model of the ship and/or the Voyagers' Club backpack?

[verodoodle]

alpal1993 - being a 4 day cruise they only had some opera singing down by the stairs not a show.

 

Beamafar - again being a 4 day they did not have a Black Card gathering/party. We did get (2) MSC baseball caps. :)

Edited July 13, 2016 by verodoodle

[Beamafar]

Something to look forward to you on your Feb cruise, so :rolleyes:

[Clarea]

Nicely written, thanks.

[lakelorain]

Thanks for sharing your opinion. Nice to hear the pros and cons of Divina.

We are booked on MSC in February after many RC and Celebrity cruises. The price attracted us along with the matching status.

[GRANNYOFSIX]

Thank you for an informative review!! Glad you enjoyed your cruise!:)

 

Can you tell me what type of music they play around the ship? Did you see people doing ball room type dancing?

 

Thank you!

 

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[CTBob]

Thanks for posting your review. Sounds almost exactly like my Divina experience. Bob

[Cruisermom2nick]

We enjoyed our Divina short cruise too! :) We are def. looking forward to December when we go for a week! :) Is your room in a similar place for your week long cruise?

[AEckhardt]

Love reading all these Divina reviews! Thanks for taking the time to write one! Which Feb sailing are you doing? I'm on my first MSC cruise Feb 25th. Feels like an eternity away, and I booked it over a year ago!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[verodoodle]

GRANNYOFSIX - there was all types of music, Classics, pop, jazz, dance music . We did not see ballroom dancing but they did have many types of dance lessons.

 

Cruisermom2nick - Our cabin is 2 down from from the one on this cruise so it will be the same view. If it does not have a lounge chair I will go and get one. :)

 

lakelorain - We are on the same cruise, Feb.4th and are looking forward to being back on the Divina. :)

Edited July 14, 2016 by verodoodle

[shukapaw]

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. We are looking forward to our time on the Divina

 

~Brian

[tigger312]

verodoodle: Glad you enjoyed your MSC Divina cruise. We've scheduled our 3rd one on the Divina Feb. 7th also. Just curious if they charged you an extra $150 for "non-commissionable fare" onto the cost of your cruise in addition to the port charges, taxes, and fees? I booked directly with MSC. Thanks. Used to live in Vero, now live in Indian Harbour Beach near Melbourne.

Edited July 14, 2016 by tigger312
specify person

[sfaaa]

How was the disembarkation? Did it go smoothly? How long did it take?

[TheSoccerCoach]

We were on this cruise! First on MSC for us. For disembarkation, we learned that the ship will want to zero out your account before you depart, in person. We started the morning with $20 owed to us and then ended up going $9 over the amount we had pre-approved to be charged to our card. We got stopped at the gangway when they read our card and sent us back to a desk on deck 6 by the gangway where I paid the $9 in cash to zero things out. People who were owed money were paid so in cash. We asked and the purser advised they do not charge or credit after the cruise. So, we had to get to zero before we could go. Now that we know, we will be sure to do this ahead of departure on embarkation day.

[verodoodle]

tigger312 - we had nothing extra added just the cruise fare and gov't fees & taxes.

 

sfaaa - Having Black statue we had priority disembarkation which was 7:30. We walked of at 7:30 and in the car heading home by 8:00. Our account was on a credit card and we received a statement & copy the last morning which we had to sign one & leave in the room.

[bills blasters]

Verodoodle, so excited. We have the same room booked for a back to back the end of Feb. Was it hard to get a lounge chair and bring it to the room. Don't want to be dragging a chair down a bunch of steps or long hallways.

Claudia

[alliebrandy]

Enjoyed your review. DH and I are sailing on the Divina the beginning of November and so looking forward to trying out a new line as well. We too are Royal and Celebrity members and have already done the status match and were awarded Black level as well. Based on your review I have a couple of questions:

 

In regards to the drink vouchers, since you were on such a short cruise, did each of you have a book of 18 vouchers or did you only puchase 1 book and shared the vouchers?

 

Since you stated that you had run out of vouchers, and then were paying for any additional drinks you wanted, would you recommend purchasing 2 books per person for a total of 36 drinks per person - for a 7 night cruise?

 

You also mentioned about the specialty dining that since you were black card members you at in 2 different venues. Did you pay the up-charge to eat at these locations or were they included in the black card level?

Edited July 15, 2016 by alliebrandy
Asked an additional question

[Cruisermom2nick]

Enjoyed your review. DH and I are sailing on the Divina the beginning of November and so looking forward to trying out a new line as well. We too are Royal and Celebrity members and have already done the status match and were awarded Black level as well. Based on your review I have a couple of questions:

 

In regards to the drink vouchers, since you were on such a short cruise, did each of you have a book of 18 vouchers or did you only puchase 1 book and shared the vouchers?

 

Since you stated that you had run out of vouchers, and then were paying for any additional drinks you wanted, would you recommend purchasing 2 books per person for a total of 36 drinks per person - for a 7 night cruise?

 

You also mentioned about the specialty dining that since you were black card members you at in 2 different venues. Did you pay the up-charge to eat at these locations or were they included in the black card level?

 

You can buy more vouchers on the ship- but you will have to pay a gratuity charge on the package if not pre purchased. We are getting the classic drink package for our 7 day cruise as we used both of our 18 packs in 3 1/2 days! :)

[alliebrandy]

You can buy more vouchers on the ship- but you will have to pay a gratuity charge on the package if not pre purchased. We are getting the classic drink package for our 7 day cruise as we used both of our 18 packs in 3 1/2 days! :)

 

 

Thanks for the quick response and DH and I will have to look into that package to try and determine if it would suit us. We are not heavy drinkers but do enjoy a glass or two of wine daily and an occasional cocktail in the evening as well. Can you tell me if the vouchers are able to be utilized inside the MDR at dinner time? This is really when we like to have a glass of wine, otherwise a soda or sparkling water.

 

Also, can you tell me are you only allowed to buy 1 book of vouchers per person in the cabin pre-purchased or can you purchase more ahead of time? Like 2 books per person?

Edited July 15, 2016 by alliebrandy

[Cruisermom2nick]

Thanks for the quick response and DH and I will have to look into that package to try and determine if it would suit us. We are not heavy drinkers but do enjoy a glass or two of wine daily and an occasional cocktail in the evening as well. Can you tell me if the vouchers are able to be utilized inside the MDR at dinner time? This is really when we like to have a glass of wine, otherwise a soda or sparkling water.

 

Also, can you tell me are you only allowed to buy 1 book of vouchers per person in the cabin pre-purchased or can you purchase more ahead of time? Like 2 books per person?

 

Yes you can use the vouchers in the dining room. :)

And yes- you can purchase as many books prior to cruising as you wish but MSC states you cannot turn in unused vouchers for $ or use them on another cruise. :)

[alliebrandy]

Yes you can use the vouchers in the dining room. :)

And yes- you can purchase as many books prior to cruising as you wish but MSC states you cannot turn in unused vouchers for $ or use them on another cruise. :)

 

 

Thank you again for the quick reply. We will definately review our options carefully. :)

[LMaxwell]

 

You also mentioned about the specialty dining that since you were black card members you at in 2 different venues. Did you pay the up-charge to eat at these locations or were they included in the black card level?

 

Each Black Card has a specialty dinner for 2 included as a perk. Since there were two people, each with a black card, each could go for a dinner for two. There is no additional charge for this, but when using the black card perk you are served from a special fixed menu.