Just back from 12/19-12/26 Divina Cruise (No Yacht Club content)-Ask any questions

[opshannon]

Got back today from a very enjoyable 7 days on the Divina. Happy to answer any questions you might have. First time on MSC generally very positive opinion about what MSC has to offer. We have sailed with RCL, NCL, HAL Princess, Celebrity, Disney, and Carnival, so we have a pretty good baseline to compare MSC to. As many have said, the food is very hit and miss. Desserts were across the board very good. Seafood often came out smelling like a bait shop. Eeek. Crew were generally exceptionally kind, friendly, and attentive. Ship was at most half full, but probably not even that. Never had to wait more than seconds for an elevator to arrive completely empty. 

 

I'll probably think of more things to say about the experience, especially if people ask questions. Right now I'm pretty exhausted. I-95 north on the day after Christmas was a nightmare. 

[pghflyer]

Welcome home! How was the COVID stuff (ex. check of pre-board screening test results, screenings on board, mask wearing etc.)? 

[opshannon]

18 minutes ago, pghflyer said:

Welcome home! How was the COVID stuff (ex. check of pre-board screening test results, screenings on board, mask wearing etc.)? 

We travelled with family (party of 10). Prior to the trip there was some significant anxiety about what would happen if any of us got a positive test in the 48 hrs before boarding. My immediate family (4) went to CVS and did the rapid antigen test and were all negative with results coming within an hour. The other 6 in the travel party also all came back with negative tests (all at CVS or Walgreens). 

 

Onboard we received daily temperature checks before entering either the mdr or buffet. Mask wearing was generally quite good. Very few to no people walking about with them on incorrectly, and I'm not sure I ever saw someone walking around without one. A few people would pull them off in the main theater. People were quite conscientious about putting them back on when they got up from their tables to get more food or drinks in the buffet. I was surprised by that. One fella walked around all week with a mask featuring a political message about the uselessness of masks, but he wore it, so mission accomplished. 

 

The biggest shock for us was coming back into the US and seeing almost no one wearing one anywhere we stopped on the drive home which stood in such sharp contrast to all the ports we visited where every local wore one. Every local. 

 

Hopefully that covers things on that front, but if anyone has any other questions about this topic, I'll be happy to answer.

[WestTexasCruiser]

How was the seating and food in the MDR?  We sailed Seaside in 2019 and MDR was awful. 

Also, how were the specialty restaurants?

[opshannon]

2 hours ago, WestTexasCruiser said:

How was the seating and food in the MDR?  We sailed Seaside in 2019 and MDR was awful. 

Also, how were the specialty restaurants?

We found the MDR food to be as others have described - very hit and miss. There was a zucchini starter on the last night that was really really good. The crab cakes and chicken croquettes while small were tasty. Jerk chicken was just fine. I found the chicken parm to be of lower quality than hospital cafeteria food. It's just bizarre to me how some of the easy things to do were done so poorly. The pasta was either too al dente or blown out. The shrimp fra diavlo and the scallops smelled like a bait shop. Both shrimp cocktail dishes were very good. Caesar salad was always good. Many of the soups were quite good. The NY strip was terrible. I never felt too upset at dinner because I went in expecting what I got - a bizarre level of inconsistency.

 

The actual dining room was very sparsely populated. We ate early so that may have played a role. But as I said earlier, the ship was not full. The good news is that we got our food very quickly. We sat down at 6 and were out by 715 at the latest each night - with a group of 10. 

 

We didn't try the specialty dining since we were travelling in with a big group. It didn't look like there were every many people in Butcher's Cut. The last night I did see a group in there as we passed by. 

[Maysel]

What islands did you go to?  I am curious if Ocho Rios is allowing cruise passengers to book private excursions.

 

 

[opshannon]

7 hours ago, Maysel said:

What islands did you go to?  I am curious if Ocho Rios is allowing cruise passengers to book private excursions.

 

 

We went to Belize, Costa Maya, Roatan, and Ocean Cay. We did private excursions in Costa Maya and Roatan. We did no excursions in Belize.

[opshannon]

Here's a weird thing I just remembered from the cruise. Maybe others have experienced this and can chime in. We had to set our clocks forward and backward FOUR TIMES on this cruise. We set the clocks back and hour prior to Belize. The next day was Costa Maya, and the night before we had to set the clocks forward. The day after that was Roatan, and we had to set them back an hour again. The next day was a sea day, and we were told to set them forward again. I've never been through this before. On other lines I believe we've just stayed on ship's time and were trusted to make sure we made it back on board in time. 

[opshannon]

3 hours ago, Couple-Somerset said:

How many Theatre Shows were there each night - Ive heard only one at 7.45pm (which makes it impossible to do dinner lol)

 

How many DIFFERENT shows during the sailing (inc any guest artists etc)

 

Thanks

 

There was indeed only one show per night at 7:45. The cruise director did say on the first night that if you had second seating, please don't rush from the show to make dinner, the dining room will wait for you. There were no guest performers on our cruise. The last night the show was canceled due to "unforeseen circumstances". I assume it was COVID. Each night was a different show. We only attended three over the course of the trip. One was a Christmas show which we did not attend.