Currently on Divina - embarked Sept 18

[cellfree]

On ship, everything wonderful, have been on Divina several times in past -

1) room service continues to be twice a day, you do not need to choose am or pm

2) dining room menu excellent - besides daily offerings there is also a list of choices that are the same every night that includes steak and salmon

3) gala night tonight - MSC now serving surf and turf gala night according to our servers 

4) diamond party invite received so that’s back

5) captains cocktail is also back - gala night prior to first seating 

6) all “staff” great, I am always amazed at how they remember our names

7) have “easy plus” and more than adequate, bar staff helpful if you are looking for something in particular - also don’t miss smoothie/protein bar outside of gym/spa, lots of choices, not busy, husbands new favorite “bar”

We are sailing at 50%. 
More Europeans than earlier this year but still not the diversity there was prior to shut down.

Oh yes, embarkation was a breeze. 
 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by cellfree
grammar

[flahagan]

Thanks for sharing.  I'm on her for the Miami to Rome TA next May and love hearing all of these good things!

[travelwide]

Do you mind checking on who the HD and YC director are?

[styles27]

Love that you’re having a great experience on my favorite ship!

 

We will be on her again for 14 days including New Years Eve so we’re really looking forward to that!

 

Interesting that your sailing is only at 50%. Maybe folks want to go on the larger ships out of FL. I’m good with that lol

 

[Tom.Terrific]

We have our first MSC cruise (10 day) coming up in March.  We're excited to give them a try.  This all sounds very encouraging. 

[cellfree]

3 hours ago, travelwide said:

Do you mind checking on who the HD and YC director are?

Took a stroll to guest services (no small feat considering we are in an aft facing balcony on deck 11 - but a good reason to pick up a couple beverages - yikes) and was told the following:

hotel director - Manoj

yacht club director - Raffaello Benfenati

[JT1962]

Thanks for the information and glad it is going well. I will be boarding Divina on October 2 for 19 days and am looking forward to it

[dmccadden]

Will be on her the 9th of October I will keep reading your posts thanks for the information!

[Georgia_Peaches]

6 hours ago, styles27 said:

Love that you’re having a great experience on my favorite ship!

 

 

Do you mind sharing what makes Divina your favorite ship?  As a relative newbie to MSC, I am still learning about the fleet. Thank you!

[styles27]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Do you mind sharing what makes Divina your favorite ship?  As a relative newbie to MSC, I am still learning about the fleet. Thank you!

Sure. We don’t like the super big mega ships. We’ve tried a couple and felt like we were always waiting in lines whether it be for an elevator or at the buffet or just to get on or off in ports.
Definitely not our idea of fun.

We also don’t care about having go kart tracks or water parks etc. on board. 

Divina is the perfect size in our opinion. She’s large enough to offer a lot of beautiful venues but not so big that we walk thousands of steps getting around each day. Long lines have also not been a problem which is great. 
 

If I had to choose one ship to cruise on for all future cruises, Divina would be our choice.  There’s something to be said about cruising the same ship over and over again. It’s like coming home. We know where everything is. 😊

 

[Morgsmom]

20 hours ago, travelwide said:

Do you mind checking on who the HD and YC director are?

We are onboard this sailing 🙂

The YC Director is Rafaello (Italy) who is charming.  The YC Maitre D' in Le Muse is Mauricio (a total hoot!!!) and the HD is Minoj (India), also a delight (but always running around!). 

There are 2300 total pax onboard, with 53 (including one toddler) in the YC.

 

Our biggest discussion is to WHY the cruiseline showed this sailing as fully sold when in fact it's less than 1/2 capacity.

 

 

[Morgsmom]

10 hours ago, styles27 said:

If I had to choose one ship to cruise on for all future cruises, Divina would be our choice.  There’s something to be said about cruising the same ship over and over again. It’s like coming home. We know where everything is. 😊

 

Agree to a certain extent HOWEVER the long, long walk from YC to Le Muse is a design flaw.  If you want to stay in the YC bubble then the bigger ships provide for that.  Otherwise the Divina is certainly one of our favorite ships

[Nunagoras]

12 hours ago, styles27 said:

Sure. We don’t like the super big mega ships. We’ve tried a couple and felt like we were always waiting in lines whether it be for an elevator or at the buffet or just to get on or off in ports.
Definitely not our idea of fun.

We also don’t care about having go kart tracks or water parks etc. on board. 

Divina is the perfect size in our opinion. She’s large enough to offer a lot of beautiful venues but not so big that we walk thousands of steps getting around each day. Long lines have also not been a problem which is great. 
 

If I had to choose one ship to cruise on for all future cruises, Divina would be our choice.  There’s something to be said about cruising the same ship over and over again. It’s like coming home. We know where everything is. 😊

 

Absolutely agree. Even though for the YC guests the YC restaurant placement was a design flow solved on the newer builds, for us regular cruisers the Fantasia class where the Divina belongs is the most balanced of them all. Not so small that you have basically no options out of the basic ones, nor so big that most of the features are in reality things many (most?) of us aren't really interested in. I enjoy a ship where I can have at least a nice coffee bar, some alternative bars to go each night, a wonderful atrium full of classical music to rest a little bit when I return from excursions at the end of the day, and so on. Oh, and I enjoy a ship that has a reliable crowd management system as well. On MSC's fleet me thinks that Fantasia class might to be the best on that as well.

[travelwide]

2 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

We are onboard this sailing 🙂

The YC Director is Rafaello (Italy) who is charming.  The YC Maitre D' in Le Muse is Mauricio (a total hoot!!!) and the HD is Minoj (India), also a delight (but always running around!). 

There are 2300 total pax onboard, with 53 (including one toddler) in the YC.

 

Our biggest discussion is to WHY the cruiseline showed this sailing as fully sold when in fact it's less than 1/2 capacity.

 

 

Thank you so much for your reply. I believe we had Minoj on another ship. Don't know the other two. 🥂🍾

[deliver42]

We're booked for our 3rd Divina cruise for next May  We were on the Seashore last May and found we like the Divina better. Much easier to get around.

[styles27]

7 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

Agree to a certain extent HOWEVER the long, long walk from YC to Le Muse is a design flaw.  If you want to stay in the YC bubble then the bigger ships provide for that.  Otherwise the Divina is certainly one of our favorite ships

I can see that being a negative for sure. Our first time on Divina we were upgraded to YC and honestly we wouldn’t have seen outside of the YC had we not been forced to leave that area to go to the YC restaurant. Other than that we didn’t go to the other venues. 
 

I doubt we would ever book the YC 

unless we could get a great deal, so for us it doesn’t really impact us very much.  

I much prefer the size of the aft facing balconies to the balcony we had in the YC. 

Have a great cruise I see that you’re on her right now!

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

I can see that being a negative for sure. Our first time on Divina we were upgraded to YC and honestly we wouldn’t have seen outside of the YC had we not been forced to leave that area to go to the YC restaurant. Other than that we didn’t go to the other venues. 
 

 

So am I understanding correctly in that the YC restaurant is not in the YC proper? 

[Morgsmom]

39 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

So am I understanding correctly in that the YC restaurant is not in the YC proper? 

On the Divina the YC restaurant, Le Muse, is all of the way AFT>>>>>> on deck 15.  So you have to go down to 7, walk across the length of the ship, take elevator up to 15.  If you are escorted by a butler you look like either 1) a convict or 2) lost little birdie... (Just Kidding..)  

On the Meraviglia, Seaside, etc the YC rest in within the bubble 🙂

 

[no1talks]

5 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

"If you are escorted by a butler you look like either 1) a convict or 2) lost little birdie..."

Or: Get dressed up, follow the butler, and stroll to dinner like you own the place. 😉

[Debde]

13 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

On the Divina the YC restaurant, Le Muse, is all of the way AFT>>>>>> on deck 15.  So you have to go down to 7, walk across the length of the ship, take elevator up to 15.   🙂

 

Question:

Why all the way down to 7 then up to 15??

I'm currently planning a first time Divina so all info is a plus.

[Morgsmom]

34 minutes ago, Debde said:

Question:

Why all the way down to 7 then up to 15??

I'm currently planning a first time Divina so all info is a plus.

You could theoretically walk outside on deck 15 to Le Muse, but the inside route is to go from YC down to 7, all the way across... take break for glass of wine at Cafe di Bacio if needed, then continue walking and walking to the last deck of Elevators. Hit 15, go up.  Eat, rinse & repeat 🙂

 

[WannaCruise365]

On 9/22/2022 at 6:19 AM, Morgsmom said:

We are onboard this sailing 🙂

The YC Director is Rafaello (Italy) who is charming.  The YC Maitre D' in Le Muse is Mauricio (a total hoot!!!) and the HD is Minoj (India), also a delight (but always running around!). 

There are 2300 total pax onboard, with 53 (including one toddler) in the YC.

 

Our biggest discussion is to WHY the cruiseline showed this sailing as fully sold when in fact it's less than 1/2 capacity.

 

 

I’d like to know why they show cruises a sold out.. also! They are sending out upgrade offers left and right.. at a small ( lol) price! Let us know if you find out why they are doing that! 

[Morgsmom]

3 hours ago, WannaCruise365 said:

I’d like to know why they show cruises a sold out.. also! They are sending out upgrade offers left and right.. at a small ( lol) price! Let us know if you find out why they are doing that! 

We tried to find out and the crew has NO idea.  But the upgrade offers (as far as we can tell) were sent to data mine - to see WHAT people were willing to pay.   

[styles27]

45 minutes ago, Morgsmom said:

We tried to find out and the crew has NO idea.  But the upgrade offers (as far as we can tell) were sent to data mine - to see WHAT people were willing to pay.   

I’m wondering if some itineraries are showing sold out because of the way MSC overlaps their cruises on the same ship. 
For example we’re cruising Divina for 14 days 12/30-01/13 but that cruise is also being sold as a 17 day, a 10 day and a 4 day itinerary. 
When I look at my sailing some categories are sold out however the 10 day and 4 day itineraries are showing rooms in those “sold out” categories. 
So I guess those rooms aren’t available for the full 14/17 days but are for the shorter itineraries. 
 

OR

This is MSC and I need to stop trying to make sense out of their business practices. 😬

[styles27]

13 hours ago, no1talks said:

Or: Get dressed up, follow the butler, and stroll to dinner like you own the place. 😉

LOL our first night in the YC I felt like this. I’m not a person who enjoys being waited on and I didn’t know it was common practice for the Butler to walk guests to dinner especially on Divina. 
The entire time I kept saying “it’s ok we’ll find our way I’m sure you have a lot to do” and he just kept walking lol