MSC Divina December 28 to January 7, 2024. B2B in the YC

[jean87510]

MSC Divina December 28 to January 7, 2024.  B2B in the YC

 

This is my first time on a MSC cruise.  I have been faithfully reading many other accounts of both the Divina and the Yacht club and what to expect.  I think at this point, I finally get it.  My husband and I ended up booking this cruise based on some great reviews on here.   We debated about choosing the Yacht club as we are not fans of over attention which isn’t a bad thing but sometimes we just like our space.  We also liked the itinerary for the 7 day and were interested in the 3 day with a stop at Ocean Cay.

 

Back in 2019, we were all ready to sail with MSC and had already been designated our Gold card status from the Royal Caribbean.  However, due to the long phone times and misinformation and inability to help us with a mistake on the booking, we ended up canceling the cruise.  Interestingly, we kept our status.  A few months back, we received an email from MSC asking us if we wanted to cruise.  The prices looked very reasonable especially compared to Celebrity.  And comparing the Retreat to the Yacht club, the pricing looked even more attractive.  As I said before, the butler plus the attention is not what is attracting us.  It is the lack of lines, the priority boarding and disembarking, the drinks in the room, and definitely the elevators!  It doesn’t appear that the Retreat has all of this anymore or if they do, its 2x the amount.

 

Joining a social media group was very helpful pre cruise as I discovered the other day that the Divina has been fitted for the MSC app!  If there was any negative pre cruise, it was the fact that I did not have an app to use.  We are on our phones a lot on a cruise.  We like to keep in touch with the world.  We also love cruise lines with the apps because personally it is easier for us.

 

We will be leaving from Baltimore BWI on the 27th via Southwest.  Not a fan of Southwest due to last years debacle but we will take our chances.  Normally we leave from Philadelphia, but Southwest has no directs to MIA and Baltimore does so we opted to just do the 2 hour ride via rental car and fly from BWI.  Hopefully all goes well.  We are staying the night before at the Marriott near the airport and then are heading to the port early for our prearranged Global Entry interview and then are heading over to the Divina.

 

Since Best Cat did such a great job with menus and food pics, I can only refer folks to her great review of the Divina TA crossing.  What I will probably focus on is the ports and other observations of YC plus the spa/gym experiences which I think get overlooked sometimes.  Both my husband and I are very active and go to the gym daily for cardio and weight training.  We definitely won't be as intense as we are at home, but we like to stick to a routine as much as we can.  We are also snorkelers and every one of the ports we are visiting we have some sort of underwater trip planned.  Even at Ocean Cay, we have the shipwreck snorkeling planned as well as a jet ski venture.  That is our only ship excursion as we really don't like crowds or rules.  We also plan to visit the other areas of the ship but definitely plan to escape back to the YC.  We do have 2 specialty dinners planned as I wanted to break up the YC dining a little.

[Frode]

OK - then we know 🙄

[psmarkle]

I am a gym enthusiast on our cruises as well. One unique feature of MSC gyms is having a barbell rack, so I can actually keep up with some olympic weightlifting. Although, the guys wanting to use the bench press look at me sideways when they see I swiped their 45lb plates for some heavy squats!

[jean87510]

4 hours ago, psmarkle said:

I am a gym enthusiast on our cruises as well. One unique feature of MSC gyms is having a barbell rack, so I can actually keep up with some olympic weightlifting. Although, the guys wanting to use the bench press look at me sideways when they see I swiped their 45lb plates for some heavy squats!

I will have to check it out!  

 

One of the things I do (not husband) is go to gym first thing in the am to get my spot on a treadmill.  I am not a walker nor an Olympic athlete.  I like a light jog for an hour for 5 miles.  I MAY have on occasion entered the gym a little early (530am) but only if I could find a way to do so.  As I said, I MAY have....😉

 

I'm also looking at possibly utilizing the YC concierge to get a massage at Ocean Cay.  We do have OBC so I'd like to use it in a treat for myself.  I have done searches on this as well and just can't find anything.  So, if I do it, I'll definitely share if it was worth it.

[psmarkle]

Have only done a hot stone massage with MSC as I require a massage therapist with seriously strong hands for my functional massages (I really have tight back muscles). However, doing a hot stone massage on a cruise is truly enjoyable and relaxing! Highly recommend.

[DaKahuna]

@jean87510 If the opportunity presents itself, your opinion of the breakfast and lunch buffet at the One Pool would be appreciated.  Also I am curious if the Galaxy restaurant is open on port days for lunch.  

 

[jean87510]

5 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

@jean87510 If the opportunity presents itself, your opinion of the breakfast and lunch buffet at the One Pool would be appreciated.  Also I am curious if the Galaxy restaurant is open on port days for lunch.  

 

Np.  We may break up going to yc restaurant for some of the breakfasts and lunches and head to buffet as my husband likes it.  Calls it grab and go.  And I'll check on Galaxy as well.

[DaKahuna]

9 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Np.  We may break up going to yc restaurant for some of the breakfasts and lunches and head to buffet as my husband likes it.  Calls it grab and go.  And I'll check on Galaxy as well.

 

 Thank you.

 

[jean87510]

]Pre cruise 1 day to go.  The weather was not good when we woke this am.  Drove to PHL to pick up our rental then to my husband's job to drop off his car.  Then made the 2 hr ride to BWI.  Traffic was terrible today.  To put the cherry on top of the sundae, our flight has been delayed.  So just enjoying the bar and pickies

[DaKahuna]

 Sorry to hear about your flight delay.  Thankfully you are going a day early, as we always do. 

 Hope you have a uneventful flight, hotel stay, and problem free embarkation tomorrow morning.  

 

[psmarkle]

You are smart to fly in a day early which is what we always strive to do! Following along, we're on the Divina in March.

[jean87510]

Southwest is always an adventure.  I detest flying it as I don't like the open seating at all.  We usually, if checking in bags, go all the way to the back as 1.  no kids, 2.  we can sit together and 3. no aisle and window couples.  I like kids.  Have 5 of my own all grown up.  Was a pediatric nurse for many years.  I don't like inattentive and oblivious parents.  We were in Group B in the teens and still it was a mob scene with the pre boarders.  Our flight sat at Miami waiting for a space for 45 minutes after landing.  BUT we made it.  We are at the Marriott at Doral.  Fyi to anyone ever planning to stay here pre cruise.  They have a free shuttle from airport to hotel.  It's located right near baggage claim areas.  You do have to walk outside and look for signs but it saves a few bucks.

[jean87510]

9 hours ago, psmarkle said:

You are smart to fly in a day early which is what we always strive to do! Following along, we're on the Divina in March.

We do it 50% of time.  It just depends where we are going and what time of year.  During the holidays there is no way I'd chance a same day flight living in the northeast US.  And if same day, always the earliest flight and always direct.  And never Southwest!!

[bucfan2]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

Southwest is always an adventure.  I detest flying it as I don't like the open seating at all.  We usually, if checking in bags, go all the way to the back as 1.  no kids, 2.  we can sit together 

Sounds exactly like us. Never understand the sheeple that just can't wait to get on board, and rush to get off as soon as the door opens. We hang out in the back of the jet, wait till it dies down, and costs us roughly 5min....time that we'd spend waiting on our bags anyway lol. 
 

Glad you're all set to cruise. Have a great time!

Edited December 28, 2023 by bucfan2

[psmarkle]

3 hours ago, jean87510 said:

We do it 50% of time.  It just depends where we are going and what time of year.  During the holidays there is no way I'd chance a same day flight living in the northeast US.  And if same day, always the earliest flight and always direct.  And never Southwest!!

 

And guess who we're flying on in March!? 😁 They were much cheaper then American or Delta.

 

FWIW, we stay at the Hyatt Regency Miami/Brickell, maybe 10 mins to the port and in a great walking/restaurant area. You can actually see the cruise ships from your room. We use points and it's only 15,000 for the night.

[jean87510]

Made our way over to Terminal D for our Global entry interview at 9am then walked to the MSC DIVINA.  Have no idea what terminal as we happened to see the ship and although it's pouring now, we have our waterproof hiking hooded windbreakers and trotted over.  Now currently sitting in a waiting area with Decks 11-16.  Did meet YC director Pepe (Giuseppe).  As you can see an absolutely gorgeous day. 😁

[jean87510]

Currently almost 11am and our bags were just taken up.  To backtrack a bit, our onboard was 2pm.  I did post on CC asking if this was normal for YC to have such a late time (ship scheduled to depart at 5pm).  Most of my answers were yes, disregard the alloted time and head over at 10am.  I can safely say no, this is not always the case!  We didn't have much of a choice as our Global entry interviews were early.  There are a LOT of people outside in the rain for the YC.  We just had a very nice port lady let us and other travelers sit inside.  We have decks 11-16 here.

[scamper]

Advice from someone who worked in the "complaint department" of a major US airline (😱), never fly down same day.

[jean87510]

12 noon.  Finally brought back to show our passes and passports.  Side note.  The app is working but does not show our experience.  I had brought the paper passes plus health questionnaire so we used the dreaded paper plus passports.  So far it's about 30 of us.  Unfortunately there are a couple of coughers who I'll avoid for now.  We are currently still in the Miami port lounge.  The ship was previously in Columbia, hence the reason ship was delayed as the persons that be had to check for drugs.  Where, I don't know.  Just what I was told.  Plus there were STILL people hiding at 1130...

[jean87510]

We experienced the YC paddle and walking by the other passengers.  Interesting.  

[DaKahuna]

7 hours ago, jean87510 said:

We do it 50% of time.  It just depends where we are going and what time of year.  During the holidays there is no way I'd chance a same day flight living in the northeast US.  And if same day, always the earliest flight and always direct.  And never Southwest!!

 

 We live about 25 minutes from Washington Dulles and fly almost exclusively on United.  I like knowing what seat I'll have and being in Group 1 or 2 to board.   There are no direct flights to Miami out of Dulles which is why we have only sailed out of Miami once before.  United partners with Silver airlines for flights in and out of Miami, usually a change at Orlando, and I'll never fly Silver again.  They are at top of my three "will not fly" airlines (Silver, Frontier, and American).  We flew Southwest once before.  We were in Group 1 numbers 3 & 4 (paid extra for that privilege) and I never seen such a cluster of a boarding process before in my life. The number of people boarding as "needing additional assistance" and some special group or Priority was amazing.  

 

 For our upcoming MSC Divina cruise we are flying into FLL and spending the night in FLL before heading to the ship via Lyft/Uber. Both times we have found the total cost of doing it this was less expensive than flying to Miami, staying in a hotel and going to the ship from a Miami hotel.  

 

 Again, I am very much looking forward to your review as we board in 45 days.

 

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

We experienced the YC paddle and walking by the other passengers.  Interesting.  

 

How so? 

 

Also I am not quite sure if you are sailing YC experience, you were put in the group for decks 11-16. Was this so you did not have to stand in the rain as you said others in YC were doing?  I thought YC had its own separate waiting area in the terminal? 

 

[jean87510]

7 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

How so? 

 

Also I am not quite sure if you are sailing YC experience, you were put in the group for decks 11-16. Was this so you did not have to stand in the rain as you said others in YC were doing?  I thought YC had its own separate waiting area in the terminal? 

 

First we sat and waited to have our carryons screened.  Then we checked in in a very tiny room.  Then we were escorted by the paddle up to the Terminal waiting area.  Currently we are still here at 145pm and have not boarded.  The yc cruise prior to ours boarded at 7pm.  We have chocolate covered peanuts and prosecco, juice and water.  People in other experiences are started to complain.  We've now been here for almost 5 hours.

[jean87510]

17 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 We live about 25 minutes from Washington Dulles and fly almost exclusively on United.  I like knowing what seat I'll have and being in Group 1 or 2 to board.   There are no direct flights to Miami out of Dulles which is why we have only sailed out of Miami once before.  United partners with Silver airlines for flights in and out of Miami, usually a change at Orlando, and I'll never fly Silver again.  They are at top of my three "will not fly" airlines (Silver, Frontier, and American).  We flew Southwest once before.  We were in Group 1 numbers 3 & 4 (paid extra for that privilege) and I never seen such a cluster of a boarding process before in my life. The number of people boarding as "needing additional assistance" and some special group or Priority was amazing.  

 

 For our upcoming MSC Divina cruise we are flying into FLL and spending the night in FLL before heading to the ship via Lyft/Uber. Both times we have found the total cost of doing it this was less expensive than flying to Miami, staying in a hotel and going to the ship from a Miami hotel.  

 

 Again, I am very much looking forward to your review as we board in 45 days.

 

True story re Southwest.  Family member gets A boarding for having a peanut allergy.  Note - no nuts on planes now...  I suspect there may be other similar culprits.  For the record, am not bad mouthing people who truly need special assistance.

[DaKahuna]

3 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

First we sat and waited to have our carryons screened.  Then we checked in in a very tiny room.  Then we were escorted by the paddle up to the Terminal waiting area.  Currently we are still here at 145pm and have not boarded.  The yc cruise prior to ours boarded at 7pm.  We have chocolate covered peanuts and prosecco, juice and water.  People in other experiences are started to complain.  We've now been here for almost 5 hours.

 

 That is amazing.  I hope this does not set a precedent for upcoming cruises.  I think I'll take a look at where the cruise before ours last port of call is, I know ours goes to Columbia. 

 We are showing a 2 PM time on our reservation so maybe I should plan for a later, rather than early port arrival time. 

 

1 minute ago, jean87510 said:

True story re Southwest.  Family member gets A boarding for having a peanut allergy.  Note - no nuts on planes now...  I suspect there may be other similar culprits.  For the record, am not bad mouthing people who truly need special assistance.

 

 We only have that one Soutwest experience and for us it made the best sense.  We had arrived in San Pedro at the end of our cruise and were going to Sacramento to visit with our son and his family for a few days before flying home.  The earliest and most convenient flight was Southwest non-stop to Scaramento from Long Beach so we took that.  My DW was not pleased.  I guess I had spoiled her with United 🙂