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

[jean87510]

FINALLY at 215pm, we were escorted onboard.  Bit of chaos when we entered YC.  The butler we followed went down a different hallway with another couple.  We did find our room and our bags!  We then headed to the concierge desk and asked where was the Muse YC restaurant.  The concierge gave us great directions.  Yet, I was surprised at no offer to take us by any butler.  We did find it.  Met Mehmet who is really nice!  Had the cobb salad, the burger plus a cheesecake.  My husband had the salad, the Rockfish stew and ice cream.  All were delicious!  

Not to keep harping on this but did notice every guest came in with a butler escort.  If you are new to the ship as we are, it would have been nice to have some sort of escort.  But now we know where the restaurant is so I guess we will just go on our own.  

We are getting ready for our safety drill. Pretty decent storage.  Mini fridge had the pringles, nuts and toberone.  Plus all sorts of drinks.  No sign of our butler.  It is only almost 3 hrs.  We will reach out later as we do have a few things we need.  

 

[bucfan2]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

FINALLY at 215pm, we were escorted onboard.  Bit of chaos when we entered YC.  The butler we followed went down a different hallway with another couple.  We did find our room and our bags!  We then headed to the concierge desk and asked where was the Muse YC restaurant.  The concierge gave us great directions.  Yet, I was surprised at no offer to take us by any butler.  We did find it.  Met Mehmet who is really nice!  Had the cobb salad, the burger plus a cheesecake.  My husband had the salad, the Rockfish stew and ice cream.  All were delicious!  

Not to keep harping on this but did notice every guest came in with a butler escort.  If you are new to the ship as we are, it would have been nice to have some sort of escort.  But now we know where the restaurant is so I guess we will just go on our own.  

We are getting ready for our safety drill. Pretty decent storage.  Mini fridge had the pringles, nuts and toberone.  Plus all sorts of drinks.  No sign of our butler.  It is only almost 3 hrs.  We will reach out later as we do have a few things we need.  

 

Hope the lack of a butler isn't due to being first-timers, and was just a lapse, as we'll soon be doing our first. Enjoy. 

[Mark_T]

1 minute ago, bucfan2 said:

Hope the lack of a butler isn't due to being first-timers, and was just a lapse, as we'll soon be doing our first. Enjoy. 

More likely that their Butler is one of those involved in the transfer of new arrivals during boarding, so hopefully they will turn up shortly.

[Mark_T]

4 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

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. 

Fear not, Divina is on a charter right before our cruise and is going nowhere near Columbia.

 

Cruise Itinerary: Miami, Florida (05 Feb d1800); George Town, Grand Cayman (07 Feb 0800-1800); Ocho Rios, Jamaica (08 Feb 0900-1700); Ocean Cay, Bahamas (10 Feb 0900-2200); Miami, Florida (11 Feb a0700)

 

Looks like a fairly benign charter compared to some others 🙂

 

https://www.lovelikeyoumeanitcruise.com/

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by Mark_T

[jean87510]

Met my butler and his assistant.  Gave him our 40 pages of requests including the one to command the ship.  Just kidding.  Just our usual things.  Very sweet and friendly!

[morpheusofthesea]

It’s Colombia 

[bucfan2]

47 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

It’s Colombia 

You must be the life of the party.  You critique birthday cards people send to you as well?

Edited December 29, 2023 by bucfan2

[morpheusofthesea]

31 minutes ago, bucfan2 said:

You must be the life of the party.  You critique birthday cards people send to you as well?

Touch a nerve did I?

[jean87510]

So we ate in the Muse for dinner.  As I said, I would not be posting pictures of menus and food.  But I will share this.  I've eaten in Blu on Celebrity and YC restaurant.  YC is 10x better.  Service and food.  We walked around a bit, thought about the shows but decided to head to our room as we had a long day.  

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

It’s Colombia 

 

 I make that spelling mistake all the time. 

[maggieq]

12 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 I make that spelling mistake all the time. 

@DaKahuna  I’m going to apologize.   Can’t we all just get along.  Jeez!

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, maggieq said:

@DaKahuna  I’m going to apologize.   Can’t we all just get along.  Jeez!

 

 No need to apologize.  I misspelled Colombia in my post.  He was just pointing that out to me. I can't count the number of times I have done that. 

 

[jean87510]

Couple of observations. 

 

Muster drill.  Sit in cabin and watch a video.  Dial 881 on phone and listen for beeps or clicks.  Wait until the deck is called and walk down to deck 7 to get your card scanned.  

 

Wifi is very good!  We also were able to watch Fargo episode last night on the tv in room without a cable (husband did it - don't know how)

 

Our room is not in the ideal location.  Right at entrance of YC so we do hear loud folks coming and going.  Nice sized walk in closet.  We were able to find drawers for everything.  Metal hooks worked on ceiling.  Bed comfortable.  You are given shampoo, conditioner and body wash in small tubes plus bar soap.  Plenty of facial tissue.

[jean87510]

Clocks moved back 1 hour but my internal clock did not!  Up at 5am ship time and unable to get back to sleep.  So I headed to the Top sail lounge to find coffee.  Alas!  No self serve coffee machines!!  Doesn't open until 630am.  So I found an elevator near concierge desk and went up to the gym.  Had the place to myself until about 550 when others wandered in.  I did my 5 mile jog happily.  

Few notes about the gym.  There are free classes like every standard cruise ship gym - stretching.  There is a class pass for 3 classes.  There is Yoga, spin, a type of HIIT class that are paid.  Weight machines are old and not in the greatest of shape.  10 treadmills that are old but work well.  Stationary bikes, ellipticals.  Barbells.  Towels available and I believe a water station.  Unfortunately the paper towel and spray bottle in lieu of wipes to clean machines which does not work as well.  

Did look at thermal spa yesterday and asked about going in on port day.  Was told by spa personnel I needed a reservation.  I did comment I was in YC and didn't think I needed one.  Of course I said it with a smile. 😁

Have to reserve my 2 dinner reservations and my massage appointment.  Concierge told me yesterday to call the restaurants and spa to book....🤨.  Yes, I will try again today to ask.  Yesterday was a madhouse with the ship finally leaving at 745pm instead of 5pm.  People were still embarking at 5pm.  People were also stuck in rain outside due to MSC computers being down so no one could be checked in.  I heard the port scanners were acting up as well.  So, yes, I will try concierge again as yesterday was such a #$it show.

[Lena11033]

When I had my massage I had the concierge call and book it for me.

 

When boarding with the butler in April the one showing us on the ship did take me to the lounge but no showing where everything is. Then I didn't even meet my butler until about 9pm and he rushed through everything. I think I called twice for showing me to things after that I would just make my own way (like theatre and where the spa was)

[jean87510]

I did end up just booking my 2 specialty restaurants myself as concierge desk had a line.  Heading to spa to set up my massage appointment for day 7.

 

We checked out TSL, pool area, plus grill for breakfast.  Nothing really caught our eye so we headed to Le Muse.  Not really a great experience on my end but husband enjoyed his oatmeal and omelet.  On my end special K was not special k, pumpernickel bread had seeds all over, forgot my cafe latte, never offered coffee for me or water for us, bread, pastries (tables around us kept being offered).  My husband finally said can you guys please give us water and my wife coffee?  Neither were given.  My husband had a coke zero from room and drank that.  I finally gave up, let my husband finish and grabbed some cheese and bread from TSL when we got back.  We will probably go to buffet in the future.  We did have shorts and t-shirts on but so did others.  

[jean87510]

2 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

When I had my massage I had the concierge call and book it for me.

 

When boarding with the butler in April the one showing us on the ship did take me to the lounge but no showing where everything is. Then I didn't even meet my butler until about 9pm and he rushed through everything. I think I called twice for showing me to things after that I would just make my own way (like theatre and where the spa was)

We never were shown where anything was yesterday.  Just told.  I guess they thought we are new and don't know any better.  I found everything on our own.  Which is fine.  BUT on the port days I do expect to bypass lines getting off of ship for the ports.  I plan later to ask my butler how this occurs.

[Mark_T]

37 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

I finally gave up, let my husband finish and grabbed some cheese and bread from TSL when we got back.  We will probably go to buffet in the future. 

I would suggest giving it another try, but on arrival mention that you were unhappy with the lack of attention and ask to be seated in a different section.

 

The management do want to fix things but sometimes they may not notice everything that slips below an acceptable level, so a quick word now can set the level for the rest of the cruise before it becomes a real problem.

[jean87510]

13 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

I would suggest giving it another try, but on arrival mention that you were unhappy with the lack of attention and ask to be seated in a different section.

 

The management do want to fix things but sometimes they may not notice everything that slips below an acceptable level, so a quick word now can set the level for the rest of the cruise before it becomes a real problem.

I may try that.  I was really surprised as yesterday was great service.  It was as if we were invisible.  

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, jean87510 said:

My husband finally said can you guys please give us water and my wife coffee?  Neither were given. 

 

4 hours ago, jean87510 said:

I finally gave up, let my husband finish and grabbed some cheese and bread from TSL when we got back.  We will probably go to buffet in the future.  We did have shorts and t-shirts on but so did others. 

 

 This would warrant a visit with the restaurant manager or Maitre'd.  Totally unacceptable and I hope you said something to someone.  

 

[jean87510]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 

 This would warrant a visit with the restaurant manager or Maitre'd.  Totally unacceptable and I hope you said something to someone.  

 

I decided to try the Muse for lunch as the weather is just terrible.  Cold and rainy.  The outside grill was too cold and windy.  Lunch was delicious.  We did move from where we were and service was much better and attentive.  Both of us had bloody Mary's and I highly recommend.  Afterwards, we decided to check out the pizza as we love wood fire pizza and the ice cream in the buffet.  An absolute madhouse compared to YC.  YC really is a different world.  We then walked by the pool areas and then tried the YC hottub which no one was in.  I discovered why!  Temperature had to be 88.  We have a hottub at home that we keep at 104.  We know it's bad for us personally to get in a public one that cold because of "hottub rash".  Google it.  So we dried off and currently relaxing in our room.  

 

Edited to add, I wanted to give a second chance.  All was great at lunch.  But yes, if it happens again, I will say something.

Edited December 29, 2023 by jean87510

[jean87510]

It does look very easy to sneak into YC area.  We did witness on our way to Le Muse a couple with the beige towels knocking on the outside door on deck 16 or 18 (sorry) when we were approaching it.  We changed direction and went inside to go down steps.

 

Fyi, the elevator down to 7 then across, then up to Le Muse is a PIA.  Just walk across Deck 15 to the right and back.  Entrance is right there.  Complete waste of time with the elevators.  

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

Afterwards, we decided to check out the pizza as we love wood fire pizza

Don't forget you can order a pizza to be delivered to your suite (no charge).

 

You'll find the list in the room service menu.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Mark_T

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

Edited to add, I wanted to give a second chance.  All was great at lunch.  But yes, if it happens again, I will say something.

I used to work for a large international hotel chain, and it was written into our travel rules that we must speak to a manger if we received anything less than great service in any of our properties as far too few guests actually say anything, they just complain to all their friends instead...

[jean87510]

3 hours ago, Mark_T said:

I used to work for a large international hotel chain, and it was written into our travel rules that we must speak to a manger if we received anything less than great service in any of our properties as far too few guests actually say anything, they just complain to all their friends instead...

Understood.  But I do believe in 2nd chances and as I stated earlier, if it happened again, I would address it.