MSC Divina May 20 to 27 2018.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Hi all. We just back from another cruise with MSC. I will put review later but if you have any questions go ahead and ask.

It was our 4rth time on Divina and I don't even like this ship :rolleyes: don't ask me why , nothing wrong with ship its just me. For some reason this ship is hunting me, but even this time I did not changed my opinion.

We spend 3 days pre cruise in Rome . I rented apartment first time in my life and really liked the idea. We had 2 rooms ,nice washroom, little kitchen right by Campo De Fiori and we paid very good price. Only problem was a noise from the street because apparently Italians party till 3 am and don't know how to talk without screaming :confused::confused:

We saw a lot ,we walked a lot I guess I don't need to wright about all main attractions but I give little tips about our stay.

1. If you want to see Vatican Museum don't book excursion with guide, they rush you throw museum almost without information and you can not stop for 1 minute even:evilsmile::evilsmile:. Just buy your tickets in advance ( must do because lines are huge and slow) and do audio tour.

Best way to see St.Peters is to be there around 7 am . Boy, I am happy we did. We just walked in and spend as much time as we wanted without million people pushing you around. We came out around 9am and line already was huge.

2. Restaurants . Do your search at home , read lots of reviews . Our favorite was Taverna Lucifero near Campo de Fiori amazing food , good service and very reasonable price for quality of the food . Another one we liked was on Piazza Navona - Bernini . Its right on Piazza but not a tourist place. both places should be booked in advance specially on weekend.

3. Coliseum- many may not agree with me but its waste of time unless you really like ruins. I wish I would skip it and go to Borghese gallery . If you do want to go, don't bother to buy your tickets online. Lines are huge and even you do have ticket they don't let you in for hours and even worst if you don't have ticket. There is lots of Tour guides(any language) around Coliseum they charge $35 pp include tickets and tour around Coliseum . They have fast line and you go right away inside.

I have to work now but I will continue later .

[Nimloth]

I'm looking forward to your review Goldenbonny.

[SeaSunset22]

Awaiting your continued comments/review with interest. Thank you.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Embarkation- Very fast and smooth. Rome is not a home port for this cruise, so maybe only 500 people embark there. We came to port around 10:30 am and by 11:00 am we been on board . Cabin was ready , CC and drink coupons on bed so we could start our relaxing day in pool right away.(we always keep swimming suites in carry on luggage). Luggage arrived around 3 pm .

Because we been on this ship before, there was no WOW factor for us, so I only will talk about changes from our previous cruises on Divina.

Good once : Security in pool . Finally !!! They don't let people jump to pool and don't let kids with diapers to go to pool.

During rush hours they escort you in Buffet to your table and if Buffet is full ,they ask you to wait or go to Restaurant. I really love this.

Bad once : Food is not as good as it was before. Menu has changed and not for good. I mean is not bad food or we ever went hungry but not as good.

Ship is not clean as it was before , its not CCL clean yet ,but not MSC clean any more.

Photographers become very aggressive , I always hated it on CCL how they attack you and now MSC start doing same thing. Its never happen before on MSC.

 

I have to say we had very good waiter and probably best room steward ever. Dinner never took more than 1-1.5 hour and room was done in no time perfectly.

We ate most of our lunches in ports(I will get you some tips later) so I can not comment about variety on board. Breakfast we always ate in DR , you can do Menu or little buffet they set up for you (or both if you like):hearteyes:.

Pizza as perfect as it can be. They serve free food in Sport Bar , like burgers and fries but we never went there this time. Who need burgers when you are in Italy and Spain LOL.

[CTBob]

Thanks for sharing. Bob

[GOLDENBONNY]

First port- Palermo .

Some people hate this port some love. I am in love with this port . Probably my favorite one in this cruise. I love it much more than Rome . (I am a weird person as I said before).We just left the ship and went to Historical area (download your Google maps and mark points you want to see).Lots of taxi offers or horse rides offers on the way, if you wish, but we love to walk (whom I am kidding here , I hate to walk but we walked around 10 km in each port)[This city is just beautiful ,every corner you look you find beauty and food....mean FOOD . If you pass by ArancineD'autore and treat yourself with arancini balls, they huge and melt in your mouth. After you done with it (we took 2 each and I am not ashamed on myself)go next door, and buy huge cannoli . Do it by the end of your visit because its really hard to move after .

[Nimloth]

First port- Palermo .

Some people hate this port some love. I am in love with this port . Probably my favorite one in this cruise. I love it much more than Rome . (I am a weird person as I said before).We just left the ship and went to Historical area (download your Google maps and mark points you want to see).Lots of taxi offers or horse rides offers on the way, if you wish, but we love to walk (whom I am kidding here , I hate to walk but we walked around 10 km in each port)[This city is just beautiful ,every corner you look you find beauty and food....mean FOOD . If you pass by ArancineD'autore and treat yourself with arancini balls, they huge and melt in your mouth. After you done with it (we took 2 each and I am not ashamed on myself)go next door, and buy huge cannoli . Do it by the end of your visit because its really hard to move after .

 

We loved it too. We took a taxi to Capuchin Catacombs and walked back to the ship from there. We got lost and it took us 2 hours to get back but we saw a lot more of Palermo than we had anticipated and it was enjoyable. :D

[GOLDENBONNY]

We loved it too. We took a taxi to Capuchin Catacombs and walked back to the ship from there. We got lost and it took us 2 hours to get back but we saw a lot more of Palermo than we had anticipated and it was enjoyable. :D

you brave. Catacombs were not on my list ;p

[GOLDENBONNY]

Cagliari - Our less favorite port during this cruise . Probably if you go outside DT you will get better feeling but city itself did not impressed us. We did see some nice churches and bought lots of cheese but did not ring our bells. It was only port I ever visited where they Sale city map in information kiosk for 2E LOL I know many Italians spend vacation on this island so maybe we just saw wrong places.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Palma De Mallorca - Absolutely love this place. Our ship docked in afternoon, so not that much we could do, but still we had amazing experience. We garbed a taxi for 15 E to go to Cathedral , spend about one hour there , continue our road to Arab Bath ( I believe 2.5 E ppand kids free) spend there 20 min and walk back to Paseige de Born, where our shopping desire could be satisfied. Well , at least my shopping desire LOL because my DH kept telling me that he" did no fly across the Pound to go shopping:rolleyes:". I am sure they do exist, those husbands, who would say "sure honey , 3 hours in Zara -no problem" but differently not mine. After brief run around shops, we went to City Market. Yes, I am not from third wold country and I saw food markets before, but this one really was impressive and you only could wish you have two stomachs to try all this . Right away we decided we are hungry:confused: and stopped for nice Paella outside the Market.. I don't remember name of restaurant but there are lots of them around Market and 7-8 E will bring you Paella ,Beer and Dessert. Now was a perfect time to go back to ship, and we almost made it to taxi stop, when some one put a huge sign on our way .. It has huge Churros picture on it and hot chocolate cup. :mad:Could we pass by? no! We stopped for fresh Churros and Chocolate , for real hot chocolate, not for substance they call hot chocolate in north America. Now, we could really go to taxi stop without any regrets. Taxi back to port cost 10 E .

I am glad we did not book any ship excursions in this port , mind you they walked same rout we did ,we saw MSC excursions all the time ,but no way we would do as much as we did with shore excursion.

[riclop]

Thanks for sharing.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Valencia - It was the first port where we got Safety Brochures on our way out from the ship. I don't really know if it was needed , we never felt unsafe in this port .You have to watch you belongings in any port .

We took a taxi again to Old Town and had a wonderful day walking around this beautiful city.Visited some churches and Ceramic Museum . Stopped for some nice lunch and Sangria (and ice cream :o) Interesting , how they bring you a bill in restaurant , any time you order something .you don't have to pay right away but if you order 5 drinks ,you will get 5 bills on your table. .We had no time (or power) to go to City of Art and Science but its a good reason to go back again .

My 10 years old DD laughing now, that it was a Culinary tour because we had so much different food options in each port. (I swear we did not miss any church or museum on our way;)) I just hope she realize how lucky she is to be able to see the World in her age . I could not even dream about it when I was 10.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Marseille- My DH refused to go a shore in this port , so I had to book some MSC excursion in order to see some France. I choose Cassis . It was a long drive in traffic , probably around 1.5 hour by bus and 10 minutes Tourist Train ride to Center. . After you finally reach you destination ,you have 2 hours to go around by yourself . Its a lovely place with a little beach (lots of topless girls ) lots of expensive restaurants an local Perfume factory where I bought couple perfumes (not that they are so good or cheap , mostly because- "common I need to buy something in France" ) If we would have more time, we would go to see Calanque on boat tour but I was afraid we will be late to bus, so we did not go. Overall it was a nice tour but I would not do it again .

[olympicfan]

Thank you for info on marseille. Will be there in October and not sure what to do in port. You have wonderful posts

[Nimloth]

Marseille- My DH refused to go a shore in this port , so I had to book some MSC excursion in order to see some France. I choose Cassis . It was a long drive in traffic , probably around 1.5 hour by bus and 10 minutes Tourist Train ride to Center. . After you finally reach you destination ,you have 2 hours to go around by yourself . Its a lovely place with a little beach (lots of topless girls ) lots of expensive restaurants an local Perfume factory where I bought couple perfumes (not that they are so good or cheap , mostly because- "common I need to buy something in France" ) If we would have more time, we would go to see Calanque on boat tour but I was afraid we will be late to bus, so we did not go. Overall it was a nice tour but I would not do it again .

 

Thanks for the info on Marseille. We are going back there in May next year and I am getting ideas on what to do this time. Cassis sounds too far away, with not a lot to do that I would be interested in. So I'll cross that off the list. Last time we walked around the Old Port and took the train up to the Notre-Dame de la Garde Cathedral which we enjoyed. We were only in port for half a day.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Genoa - this port was a real surprise for us. I was reading a lot about this city and in one point wanted to book excursion to Portofino, but my love to old and rusty places made me to stay in Genoa. The view from my balcony was beautiful, and we run ashore after fast breakfast. I new that Old town is not that far from Port, but I could not walk any more by this point. :rolleyes:Nice girl in Info booth told us that we can catch a bus to DT or walk for 40 min . :eek: I hate public transportation, so we went to taxi stop where we been given a price 25 E to DT. I was ready to go, when my DH said "lets just walk a bit to see Old Galleon ship ,its should be close and we take taxi from there". Sometimes you have to listen to your husband . Galleon was very nice , then we saw nice Submarine and before we even understood where to take a taxi, the DT appeared in front of us. So real walking time maybe 15 min. if you stop for pictures .

The old town is a maze of alleyways ripe for exploration. I have to say this city has lots to offer for tourists . Nice shoppes, beautiful old town, restaurants and please don't forget street food . We stopped by some little Friggitoria near market and treated ourselves with big bag of fright seafood . We finished big bag each, and start looking on each other.... I am ashamed to admit, I would buy more, but the line was huge , so we moved for ice cream shop :evilsmile:.

I really wanted to get taxi now , over 10 km each day of walking is not my favorite thing to do LOL. We approached taxi driver, and he gave us a "nice" price of 30 e to go back to port. Common ,I am a tourist but not an idiot , I am not gonna pay 30 E for not even 5 min ride, so I walked again ) not a big deal and very healthy after all this food.

PS .If you don't want to see too much of this city has to offer ,stay in main streets ,because next alley can bring you to place where girls sitting casually on stools (even during day time):')

[24acorns]

Thank you for info on marseille. Will be there in October and not sure what to do in port. You have wonderful posts

Have a look at Provence Wine Tours - They are an independent tour operator I did Bandol and Casis last year in October it was a great day.

[toakleyo]

Can you tell me how early you were allowed to disembark at the end of your cruise in Rome (Civitavecchia (Port)? We are looking to catch a fairly early flight out of Fiumicino airport (11:25am) and want to know if we could make it.Thanks!

[Hlitner]

The OP's post quickly got my attention when the OP posted that its their 4th time on the Divina and they do not like the ship. So the immediate question that comes to my mind is "why book a ship you do not like?" We have also done a few cruises on a ship that we do not like (HAL's Rotterdam) but only because it was doing a very unique itinerary not available from any other ship or cruise line. But this scenario would be unlikely to occur on Med cruises.

 

Hank

[GOLDENBONNY]

Can you tell me how early you were allowed to disembark at the end of your cruise in Rome (Civitavecchia (Port)? We are looking to catch a fairly early flight out of Fiumicino airport (11:25am) and want to know if we could make it.Thanks!

 

You can be out be 7:30 if ship is not delay .

[GOLDENBONNY]

The OP's post quickly got my attention when the OP posted that its their 4th time on the Divina and they do not like the ship. So the immediate question that comes to my mind is "why book a ship you do not like?" We have also done a few cruises on a ship that we do not like (HAL's Rotterdam) but only because it was doing a very unique itinerary not available from any other ship or cruise line. But this scenario would be unlikely to occur on Med cruises.

 

Hank

 

At first we did back to back, then I booked it because of itinerary , I really wanted to go again to Colombia and Panama. This time , believe it or not it was my only choice. I wanted Palermo, I wanted Mallorca and I needed cruise depart on Sunday . Divina was my only choice. (maybe some other lines too but I was not ready to pay 3 times more )

[Luvsparties]

Thank you for info on marseille. Will be there in October and not sure what to do in port. You have wonderful posts

 

We will be in Marseille in October as well. We are doing a private excursion to Aix through Provence Connections.

[Hlitner]

At first we did back to back, then I booked it because of itinerary , I really wanted to go again to Colombia and Panama. This time , believe it or not it was my only choice. I wanted Palermo, I wanted Mallorca and I needed cruise depart on Sunday . Divina was my only choice. (maybe some other lines too but I was not ready to pay 3 times more )

 

We truly understand. There are times when you just hold your nose and book an unliked vessel for the itinerary. Right now we find ourselves doing this again and again with HAL because of their fantastic itineraries on longer cruises. But lately we are seeing more and more HAL lovers booking with Oceania who often has comparable itineraries.

 

Hank

[GOLDENBONNY]

We truly understand. There are times when you just hold your nose and book an unliked vessel for the itinerary. Right now we find ourselves doing this again and again with HAL because of their fantastic itineraries on longer cruises. But lately we are seeing more and more HAL lovers booking with Oceania who often has comparable itineraries.

 

Hank

Yes, HAL is well known for best itineraries. I love Hal, and we start talking about cruising less, but maybe on more upscale lines. What we see lately on mass market cruise lines is more than I can handle. :rolleyes: