MSC Divina 12/19/22 - Never Again!

[tkwbear]

12 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

I boarded the Divina on Friday (1/20) and other than some slow bar service for those at my table that drink alcohol, everything has been great. I arrived at 10:40 AM for an 11:00 AM boarding time and was at the buffet at 10:55. The food and entertainment has been good. The passenger mix seems to be 50/50 US / International. They announced the ship was full, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I have heard 2,200 and 2,700 mentioned as the passenger count by different people. 

Evidently the cruise before you did not visit Columbia. On my November cruise, and others since, Customs took over the ship and I was unable to board until after 3pm.

 

I believe part of that is because MSC crew members have smuggled drugs, both on the cargo and cruise versions. Here's an example from Wikipedia.

 

"On 17 November 2018, seven crew members were arrested at PortMiami after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 7 kilograms of cocaine and a total of $100,000 in their cabins and in their possession. According to officers, the crew members were recruited by a fellow crew member to smuggle cocaine from Jamaica to the United States."

[JT1962]

14 minutes ago, tkwbear said:

Evidently the cruise before you did not visit Columbia. On my November cruise, and others since, Customs took over the ship and I was unable to board until after 3pm.

 

I believe part of that is because MSC crew members have smuggled drugs, both on the cargo and cruise versions. Here's an example from Wikipedia.

 

"On 17 November 2018, seven crew members were arrested at PortMiami after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 7 kilograms of cocaine and a total of $100,000 in their cabins and in their possession. According to officers, the crew members were recruited by a fellow crew member to smuggle cocaine from Jamaica to the United States."

The prior cruise was a 3 or 4 day cruise to the Bahamas / Ocean Cay. My cruise on Dvina in October did visit Colombia and repositioned from Port Canaveral. Debarkation did take longer than usual then. I heard several say it was due to no facial recognition being used at the terminal they used that day, that 75% or more were used international passengers and it was repositioning from Port Canaveral to Miami. 
 

Good to see the authorities are cracking down on drug smuggling at the port. Hopefully they are doing that at all locations locations where people are entering the country 

[styles27]

1 hour ago, tkwbear said:

Evidently the cruise before you did not visit Columbia. On my November cruise, and others since, Customs took over the ship and I was unable to board until after 3pm.

 

I believe part of that is because MSC crew members have smuggled drugs, both on the cargo and cruise versions. Here's an example from Wikipedia.

 

"On 17 November 2018, seven crew members were arrested at PortMiami after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 7 kilograms of cocaine and a total of $100,000 in their cabins and in their possession. According to officers, the crew members were recruited by a fellow crew member to smuggle cocaine from Jamaica to the United States."

Our cruise on 12/30 was one that went to Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica etc so we had a very tough debarkation. The ship didn’t clear til early afternoon. Immigration was very tough searching people’s bags etc. 
We were on for the next cruise but they still made us all get off to go through customs then we were the first back on. 
People in line in front of us said they had done this particular cruise before and had

the same problem. They claimed it was Divina’s reputation of having cocaine hidden on board. 
 

Have to say it was the first we had ever heard about it but found some very interesting information with a quick google search.
Needless to say it was a surprise and a disappointment. I know it happens but MSC has had it happen in both their cargo and cruise line businesses and it seems the port authorities are extra careful with them. Can’t say I blame them. 
 

 

[travelberlin]

On 1/16/2023 at 3:10 PM, styles27 said:

Exactly. MSC can afford to undercut everyone their shipping business is their bread and butter.
I’m starting to wonder why they even bothered with the cruise business.  
I’m not liking what I’m reading about some of the problems with their container business at all. 

 

Now I have to say, that we have had wonderful cruises with MSC in Europe and as repositioning Grand Voyages. So I am thankful that MSC went into the cruising business.

The negative reviews seem to come mainly from short cruises in USA, which are sold at discounted prices and include the drinks. With that type of cruises, MSC is attracting a certain public, similar to the spring breakers. I would never book one of those cruises with MSC or with any other company. 
 

One thing which is annoying with MSC is that even long cruises can end up being divided into short trips. MSC operates like a shuttle bus sometimes. So even if one books a 7 day cruise, it could turn out to be sold as 4 and 3 days at discounted prices. Probably few passengers who book those short cruises are interested in the cruise itself or in the port of calls. 
 

The atmosphere at MSC cruises and the quality of the service can change a lot according to the public and to the length of the cruise. 
 

Ivi

[tkwbear]

15 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Now I have to say, that we have had wonderful cruises with MSC in Europe and as repositioning Grand Voyages. So I am thankful that MSC went into the cruising business.

The negative reviews seem to come mainly from short cruises in USA, which are sold at discounted prices and include the drinks. With that type of cruises, MSC is attracting a certain public, similar to the spring breakers. I would never book one of those cruises with MSC or with any other company. 
 

One thing which is annoying with MSC is that even long cruises can end up being divided into short trips. MSC operates like a shuttle bus sometimes. So even if one books a 7 day cruise, it could turn out to be sold as 4 and 3 days at discounted prices. Probably few passengers who book those short cruises are interested in the cruise itself or in the port of calls. 
 

The atmosphere at MSC cruises and the quality of the service can change a lot according to the public and to the length of the cruise. 
 

Ivi

You are absolutely right. Normally I don't like to sail for less than 14 days, so I have booked cruises of that length that are made up of 3,4, and a7 days. You can really tell the difference on the 7 day cruises. On the others, many head to the bar as soon as they get on board. 

 

I sailed the Poesia for 13 days from Copenhagen last fall. It's an older, but wonderful ship. The crew was also amazing. On the second day, half the passengers got off in Germany, then we went back past Copenhagen on the way to Barcelona. I got off there, but many continued on.

 

Some of the European passengers were very difficult, but in general it was a much better experience than sailing out of Miami!

[styles27]

48 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Now I have to say, that we have had wonderful cruises with MSC in Europe and as repositioning Grand Voyages. So I am thankful that MSC went into the cruising business.

The negative reviews seem to come mainly from short cruises in USA, which are sold at discounted prices and include the drinks. With that type of cruises, MSC is attracting a certain public, similar to the spring breakers. I would never book one of those cruises with MSC or with any other company. 
 

One thing which is annoying with MSC is that even long cruises can end up being divided into short trips. MSC operates like a shuttle bus sometimes. So even if one books a 7 day cruise, it could turn out to be sold as 4 and 3 days at discounted prices. Probably few passengers who book those short cruises are interested in the cruise itself or in the port of calls. 
 

The atmosphere at MSC cruises and the quality of the service can change a lot according to the public and to the length of the cruise. 
 

Ivi

Agree about the US sailings being a different experience than our European MSC cruise. 
 

We won’t book short cruises either. 
When we booked this last Divina cruise it was sold as a 14 day cruise. 
Others we spoke to weren’t happy at the way it was sold and thought it was just one sailing as well.
 Had we known it was a 10 day and a 4 day combined we would have just booked the 10 day. 
 

But guess what? The pax on the 10 day were the problem. 

We had more than 1000 less pax on the 4 day and it was a much better crowd.
They were younger (20’s and 30’s) and a lot of first time cruisers who did like to party but at least they knew how to say excuse me and I’m sorry if they bumped into you.
Words that weren’t uttered on the first 10 days. 
 

So in this case the 4 day pax were better behaved than the 10 day pax by far. 
 

So now we’re like…hmmm there goes our logic of booking longer cruises 😏

[shipgeeks]

We, too, only choose to do longer cruises, and wish that MSC would offer more that really are longer. We've been able to figure out which are genuinely 14, for example, and which are 7 + 4 + 3, by looking at the itinerary.  If there is a Miami or Port Canaveral port day during the cruise, that means the ship will be disembarking and embarking passengers, thus making it a new cruise.

[Markanddonna]

A previous poster mentioned that Americans are a small minority now on Msc cruises out of Florida. Not true. English speaking (as their primary language) North Americans are a minority. Many Americans speak a different language, so the composition can seem like these Americans are from another country. Large groups traveling together have been negatively impacting the atmosphere. Can't say I am enjoying the seven day I am presently on. Running out of foods and drinks started on day seven...and other cutbacks. The dining situation described by the OP was horrible! I would have been furious