YC Meraviglia or Divina -comments please

[chisoxfan]

Hello everyone. Appreciate any thoughts as we approach a 2021Carib cruise on Meraviglia.  There is another booking option on Divina in YC and was looking for pros and cons of the two experiences.  In 'researching we understood the YC restaurant is in the aft area on Divina. Not sure that is a huge deal if the quality and experience is similar.We also saw that the Divina had a new deckplan for Summer 2020. Not sure what this encompasses. Will the ship be redone, YC suites?  Couldn't find much on this.

The Divina cruise is approximately 400 dollars less for the week.

Thanks everyone in advance for your valued input

 

 

 

[Até]

No chance of doing Seaside before April, 2021?  If it's only Divina and Meraviglia it's tougher and to me depends on how much outside of the YC you want to do.  Divina YC seems more intimate and will offer more personalized service with less people, Meraviglia's YC feels more crowded.  Meraviglia as a whole offers much more to do on the ship.  Cirque, numerous specialty restaurants and more bars/lounges, better spa.  But with that comes more crowds in general.  Being in YC will shield you from that to an extent but mainly only when you don't want to use the other parts of the ship.  Itineraries for the Summer time frame look equally uninspiring. 

 

MSC is tight about refurb schedules and Divina is overdue in my opinion, hopefully the ship's interior is refreshed before Summer 2021.  The "new deck plan" in Summer 2020 is primarily a reclassification of cabins, mostly increasing the number of the non-YC to higher experience cabins.  The only thing I know affecting YC is it looks like they are renaming the eight more desirable square Deluxe suites to a new class called Deluxe Grand suite.

[chisoxfan]

6 minutes ago, Até said:

No chance of doing Seaside before April, 2021?  If it's only Divina and Meraviglia it's tougher and to me depends on how much outside of the YC you want to do.  Divina YC seems more intimate and will offer more personalized service with less people, Meraviglia's YC feels more crowded.  Meraviglia as a whole offers much more to do on the ship.  Cirque, numerous specialty restaurants and more bars/lounges, better spa.  But with that comes more crowds in general.  Being in YC will shield you from that to an extent but mainly only when you don't want to use the other parts of the ship.  Itineraries for the Summer time frame look equally uninspiring. 

 

MSC is tight about refurb schedules and Divina is overdue in my opinion, hopefully the ship's interior is refreshed before Summer 2021.  The "new deck plan" in Summer 2020 is primarily a reclassification of cabins, mostly increasing the number of the non-YC to higher experience cabins.  The only thing I know affecting YC is it looks like they are renaming the eight more desirable square Deluxe suites to a new class called Deluxe Grand suite.

 

Thank you. Very helpful. I forgot about the spa which is a great YC feature. We were on Seaside last year and had a nice experience in YC but were disappointed in the rest of the ship (it was beautiful but were less than impressed with entertainment and the specialty restaurants). So we would like to spend more time outside of YC on the next cruise.  I think it will remain Meraviglia although I have to confess for a ship similar to Seaside in age, etc. I was concerned with the more negative comments.

[Linda the Book Lover]

I wanted to let you know how we came to our decision to book on the Meraviglia in March 2021. I really liked the itinerary for the 11-day Divina but was not a fan of walking from one end of the ship to the other to eat in the YC restaurant. My husband gave points to Meraviglia entertainment and everything in one area. We enjoyed the Seaside YC and though we did explore the rest of the ship we prefered the quieter zone of the YC area. What won me is I am a huge Cirque fan and the Meraviglia has two Cirque options. True, the Divina cruise offered 11-days and the Meraviglia only a 7-day but in the final decision the entertainment on the Meraviglia made us choose this ship. 

[rkacruiser]

4 hours ago, Linda the Book Lover said:

Divina but was not a fan of walking from one end of the ship to the other to eat in the YC restaurant. My husband gave points to Meraviglia entertainment and everything in one area.

 

Walking from one end of the ship after having pre-dinner drinks for dinner in the restaurant is something that I have done on other ships.  But, it is so much easier to just go up a deck from the YC Lounge to the Restaurant on the Meraviglia.  Having all of the YC amenities, except for the Spa, of course, in one area is a plus for me.

 

5 hours ago, Até said:

Meraviglia's YC feels more crowded.  Meraviglia as a whole offers much more to do on the ship.  Cirque, numerous specialty restaurants and more bars/lounges, better spa.  But with that comes more crowds in general.  Being in YC will shield you from that to an extent but mainly only when you don't want to use the other parts of the ship.  

 

Meraviglia's YC did not feel more crowded, to me.  Even at the end of cruise YC Party, there were seats available in the Lounge.  I spent more time outside of YC than I expected, exploring the ship and listening to the different styles of music in various lounges.  Enjoyed the main theater shows and, of course, the daily Dome Show.  I disliked the Cirque-type shows that I saw on Celebrity Eclipse several years ago.  But, I attended the Viaggio show on Meraviglia and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The most irritating congestion of fellow guests was when the theater shows ended and the crowd converged into the forward elevator foyer leading to the Meraviglia Lounge.  If something was going on in the Atrium or in the Lounge that attracted people, it was not easy to get through the crowd to go aft or get to the elevators to "retreat" to the YC.

 

OP, I hope my views are helpful to you.

[chisoxfan]

Thanks everyone for your comments.  When I want to remind myself what a 'good' choice we made I look up suite rates for X or NCL Haven for similar dates !

[cruisingnewtoit]

I read that Divina is going in for Drydock Dec 2020. Any news about this?

[Até]

I did find this stating Nov 26 through Dec 17.  No indication of what's being done but in that length of time I suspect a refurb of more than just mechanical items.

 

http://crew-center.com/msc-cruises-dry-dock-cruise-ship-schedule-2020

Edited February 16, 2020 by Até

[cruisingnewtoit]

8 minutes ago, Até said:

I did find this stating Nov 26 through Dec 17.  No indication of what's being done but in that length of time I suspect a refurb of more than just mechanical items.

 

http://crew-center.com/msc-cruises-dry-dock-cruise-ship-schedule-2020

I'm sailing end of Jan 2021 so hopefully it will be done some good updates.

[CUontheC]

On 2/16/2020 at 11:55 AM, cruisingnewtoit said:

I'm sailing end of Jan 2021 so hopefully it will be done some good updates.

 

I was wondering about the changes that will be made while in dry dock.  I was just on the Seaside YC the middle of February and had an amazing time.  I am booking Divina YC and there is a few things I noticed that are different.  My husband and I enjoy watching late night tv and the tv in the Seaside was huge.  I see the Divina is a small tv.  I am hoping that maybe they change this.   Also I see that the Divina has a nice relaxation area in the spa with a lot of sunlight.  However they do not have the therapy pool.   I wondered if there was any place to put a pool in the spa on the Divina?   It would be so nice to have one.  What are other changes that may happen while in dry dock?