JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Divina 2/11

[Stem to Stern]

Awesome pics with the sloths!!

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, laudergayle said:

Those sloths are so darn cute!  Who knew😊

 

 

 

If you ever want to see the best sloth-related video ever, Google something like Kristen Bell, sloth, Ellen.

[Cruzinforpeace***]

I 

LOVE

SLOTHS!

 

totally living through the 2 of you right now.❤️

[JoeTec]

That's my favorite excursion of all time!  I'm surprised you were able to have your phones in with the monkeys.  Even though your husbands hates them it looks like he was having a great time

[DaKahuna]

@JamieLogical Loving you review and pictures.  Full disclosure- for most meals the simplicity of the items in the MDR are more appealing to us than the ‘fancier’ dishes on the YC menu. 
 

We looked for you and your husband in the casino last night but guess like so many other times our schedules have not been in sync. 
 

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, JoeTec said:

That's my favorite excursion of all time!  I'm surprised you were able to have your phones in with the monkeys.  Even though your husbands hates them it looks like he was having a great time

 

They said we could have our phones if we held them in our hands and the monkeys definitely tried to wrestle mine away from me several times. Also, on of the monkeys kept biting the corner of my phone.

[DaKahuna]

I bet you are really glad you took your glasses off too!

 

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was the last port day of the cruise, Cozumel. We originally had a tour booked through MSC, but decided to cancel it earlier in the sailing after too many hot and humid days on shore. We both agreed we would prefer another full day of having the ship to ourselves. We were scheduled to dock at 9:00, so we had a lazy morning in our room, thinking we would hit the buffet after they started letting people off the ship. That way it wouldn’t be such a madhouse. Then we planned to try to hit an empty hot tub later in the morning.

 

However, while I was taking my shower, I thought of the prospect of getting dressed, going to breakfast, coming back to the room, changing into our bathing suits, and then having to change again, so I proposed we skip breakfast and go straight to the hot tub. My husband was on board with this idea, so that is what we did.

 

We went up to Le Sirene, which is the indoor pool area since all of the outdoor hot tubs are very exposed to the sun. There are three hot tubs in there: one large one and two smaller ones. We clearly only needed a smaller tub to ourselves, so that’s where we headed. No one was in any of the hot tubs, so we had our pick. I was frustrated and surprised to learn that they wouldn’t even let us bring a bottle of water over to the hot tub with us. I get why they wouldn’t want people to have drinks of food, but what damage can a plastic water bottle do? Worst case I spill the water in the water? I drop the bottle on the teak floor that is already soaked from people getting in and out of the tubs and pool and it goes rolling since it can’t break? So, when the lifeguard turned us away with our water bottles in hand, we went back to the lounger where we had dropped the rest of our stuff, sucked down several large swallows of water, and then left the bottles over there.

 

I was very impressed with how fancy this pool area is. There is beautiful tilework on the walls and the outside of the hot tubs. There are fancy light posts all around. The floors are real teak as are all the railings around the tubs. It definitely seems like something would see on a higher-level cruise line.

 

We had the place to ourselves the entire time. At one point they began to retract the roof and I was worried we would end up in the sun-exposed situation I was trying to avoid, but the last section of roof that remained still sheltered the tub we were in. I would say we were there for about an hour and the only people we saw were the lifeguard and a few people just passing through on their way forward or aft.

 

We went back to the room, cleaned up and dressed, and then headed down to Caffe Italia for our morning Vanilla Mimosas. Reynald was making them strong! We were both the only ones in and were feeling it. Maybe because we both had pretty much empty stomachs? Maybe something to do with having just come out of the hot tub? I am not sure what, but by the time we had our maximum of three before lunch, we were both very drunk.

 

Lunch in the buffet was predictably empty. We ran into one of our MDR servers from dinner and chatted a bit. Initially, there wasn’t any pepperoni pizza out, so we both filled our plates with other things and I went back for the pizza a little bit later. There was also no mac & cheese! I had to settle for some sort of pasta in cream sauce. There weren’t any good-looking desserts either. But somehow we both managed not to starve.

 

Then we both went back to the room to nap hard. Those mimosas had really done us in. We did eventually make it down to Caffe Italia for our afternoon coffee and some games. We ran into John, who had gone onshore with his wife for lunch. We chatted with him for a really long time. All the way until it was time for us to go to dinner!

 

Dinner didn’t really have anything that was speaking to me, so I opted to go with all classics: French onion soup, pasta bolognese, and cheesecake. I did get fancy and ask for both caramel and chocolate sauce for my cheesecake. My husband went with the spring rolls, meatloaf, and cheesecake as well. Once again, we had the entire table to ourselves. The people at the table to my right didn’t show up until 6:40 again. The tables behind us and to my left remained empty. And, once again, we were out of there in under an hour. We left at 6:55, which is something because we actually arrived a bit late after dropping stuff in our room after our chat with John.

 

After dinner, we decided to go back to our room to watch sail away from our balcony. It was lovely weather and a pretty sail away. Then it was down to the casino for a while. We ran into John again and he and my husband played bubble roulette together while I lost money to the slots. My husband finished the evening about $3 up for the cruise, so not bad at all.

 

We then went to La Luna to hang out until the 9:30 Beatles show in the main theater. John had come from the 7:00 show and said it wasn’t good, but I still decided to give it a try. The first thing I noticed was that, unlike the theater on the Meraviglia, there were no crew policing the bringing in of drinks, so I sent my husband back to La Luna to get us a couple of Bailey’s Alexanders.

 

The show itself was a bit of a roller coaster. It didn’t help that the opening song wasn’t even a Beatles song. It was “Imagine” (Communist Manifesto set to music), which is a solo John Lennon song. But I decided to tough it out a bit longer. Then there was a rendition of “Yellow Submarine” that was somehow arranged to sound like an Irish jig? I wanted to break out my clogs and river dance to it. Then there was a long ballet/classical intro to a song that I couldn’t even begin to father which song it would end up being. It ended up being “Ticket to Ride” somehow. After that is when things turned around and the show got better. The two female singers did a duet of “Can’t Buy Me Love” that was pretty good. Then there was a whole group performance of “Ob La Di, Ob La Da” that was very good. There was a very operatic version of “Yesterday” that was just okay, but then there were really rockin’ versions of “Twist & Shout” and “Hey Jude” that were a lot of fun. Overall, it was a decent show and the audience certainly seemed to love it. I am a HUGE Beatles fan, so probably harder to please than most. When I was in college, my dorm room was known as the “Beatles Shrine” and the college newspaper even did a story on it. And my girlfriend and I taught an unofficial course called “Beatles 101”.

 

My husband had left at some point in the show to go back to the room and play his Steam Deck. We agreed that we would meet up for late-night snack in the buffet at 10:30, so I went back to La Luna and had another drink, and listened to the guitarist from the duo who is usually playing there. Not sure where the female vocalist was.

 

Promptly at 10:30, I headed up to the buffet for a slice of pizza and french fries. My husband got three different kinds of cookies: chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal raisin, so he was happy. Then it was off to bed.

 

Day's Drinks: 3x Vanilla Mimosa from Caffe Italia, Americano w/ Bailey's from Caffe Italia, Vodka & ginger beer from Caffe Italia, Alabama Slammer from Caffe Italia, Prosecco from Black Crab, Mojito from Casino Bar, Hugo Spritz from Casino Bar, Double Bailey's Alexander from La Luna, Rum & coke from La Luna

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21 by JamieLogical

[DaKahuna]

Jamie it was fantastic meeting and spending a little time with you and your husband.  I look forward to following along on your next adventure.

 

[JamieLogical]

45 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

Jamie it was fantastic meeting and spending a little time with you and your husband.  I look forward to following along on your next adventure.

 

 

Great meeting you too! Not sure when our next cruise will be. Today we booked one on the Meraviglia, but it's not until January of 2025. We have our eye on a Celebrity sailing in October, but their high non-refundable deposit is causing us to hold off for the moment.

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Great meeting you too! Not sure when our next cruise will be. Today we booked one on the Meraviglia, but it's not until January of 2025. We have our eye on a Celebrity sailing in October, but their high non-refundable deposit is causing us to hold off for the moment.

Our next cruise, book a year ago is on Celebrity Millennium in May.  After that I am not sure when and with what cruise line our next one will be.  MSC is the more economical choice right now but have not discussed  at itineraries with the wife. 

[DaKahuna]

 

 

This afternoon was High Tea.  First one we have experienced in years.  It was nice to see all the butlers in their tails and white gloves.  

 

 

 

 

[Best Cat Mom]

How did you like it? We did it once, but they don't have any GF options for me. 😞

 

I see Dwi was one of the butlers serving you. She had said that she'll be our butler in April -- if she still has the same rooms on the starboard side of deck 15. Who did you have for your room butler this cruise?

[JamieLogical]

We were surprised to see that, even with our Diamond priority disembarkation, our luggage tags, Group 8, were for a 9:50 disembarkation! Our flight isn't until 11:23, which I thought would be pretty reasonable, but now we will need to do self walk-off to make it comfortably. The latest disembarkation time slot is 11:20!!! I feel bad for anyone embarking on the Divina tomorrow. Who knows what time the ship will be cleared?!?!

 

Edited February 22 by JamieLogical

[DaKahuna]

Sorry about the High Tea, did not mean to post that in your review.  
 

Disembarkation may be earlier than posted.  As always it depends on when the ship clears customs.  The YC Director says it could be earlier but we do have to be out of our rooms by 0900. 
 

[rzyjzq]

Another great review!  Thanks for sharing!

Susan

[edspec]

@JamieLogical the lunch menu in Cartegna indicated Spanish food to me.  In Spain a tortilla is what is called a  frittata in other countries.  The description of yours looked great, many times they're made with just potatoes, onions, and eggs which is good, but not as good as something with chorizo.

[bjahil47]

Thanks for your review and pictures!  Safe travels home!  It’s 50° in Rochester!  

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks much for your review.    Enjoyed followign along.    Hope you have a safe travel home.

[alserrod]

3 hours ago, edspec said:

@JamieLogical the lunch menu in Cartegna indicated Spanish food to me.  In Spain a tortilla is what is called a  frittata in other countries.  The description of yours looked great, many times they're made with just potatoes, onions, and eggs which is good, but not as good as something with chorizo.

 

 

In Spanish it is called "tortilla de patatas". Peel the potatoes into small pieces and fry them with a lot of oil. Add salt and when they are somewhat cooked (you don't have to let it reach the level of French fries, just until it has started to cook) add the eggs.

You have to let it become solid and, a very curious step when cooking, being in the pan and already partially solid, you have to turn it inside the pan. This is done with the help of a large plate (and with some practice).

The traditional omelette is made with potato and egg. Adding onion is optional and almost a reason for debate (I always order them with onion).

There are variants. The best known is potato and chorizo. However, you can see potato and zucchini (instead of potato and onion) and other options.

If someone goes to Barcelona on a cruise (or any other Spanish port) they can order it with any meal in a bar or restaurant. Tortilla sandwiches are very popular (in baguette-type bread, alone or with some mayonnaise).

Oh.... and it is possibly the cheapest dish on the entire menu, and with a simple sandwich you have a complete meal (it is a consistent dish based on potatoes and eggs. It takes away hunger very quickly and the ingredients are very cheap )

[Homosassa]

LOL - now maybe someone  can explain that the crusty "dinner" roll found on the table at breakfast in the dining room is the choice of many Europeans for breakfast (and is frequently a choice in New York City instead of a bagel).

 

Or, yes, the waiter in the dining room correctly expected that many would drink the bottled water without ice.

[alserrod]

13 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

LOL - now maybe someone  can explain that the crusty "dinner" roll found on the table at breakfast in the dining room is the choice of many Europeans for breakfast (and is frequently a choice in New York City instead of a bagel).

 

Or, yes, the waiter in the dining room correctly expected that many would drink the bottled water without ice.

 

 

Can you point the picture with that roll again?

 

[shipgeeks]

edspec and alserrod, Thank you for your nice notes about tortillas.  I am regularly embarrassed by the naivete of some of my fellow Americans, especially here on the MSC forum, who assume that if something is not exactly what they expected, or what they have at home, then something is wrong, or they were misled or lied to.

We spent several weeks in southern Spain, and ate tortillas, or bocadillas, many times.  Delicious!  We even asked niece-in-law's mother for cooking instructions.  And the bread was unfailingly good - plain, or with olive oil, never butter.  Such good memories.

I think we need to sail MSC again!

[Mark_T]

On 2/22/2024 at 12:49 AM, JamieLogical said:

We were surprised to see that, even with our Diamond priority disembarkation, our luggage tags, Group 8, were for a 9:50 disembarkation! Our flight isn't until 11:23, which I thought would be pretty reasonable, but now we will need to do self walk-off to make it comfortably. The latest disembarkation time slot is 11:20!!! I feel bad for anyone embarking on the Divina tomorrow. Who knows what time the ship will be cleared?!?!

 

The late disembarkation times surprised us as well, we had booked am excursion that would leave us at the airport to kill some time but it really wasn't all that important in the end.

 

For others who might take it, it was actually quite good with an early 'coffee' stop in Little Havana and then a longer 'lunch' stop for a couple of hours at the Bayside Mall.

 

The airport drop off was in two groups, the first for those on American Airlines, the second for everyone else. This left everyone relatively close to where they needed to be by around 1:15.

 

Sorry we didn't get to spend more time with you and your husband, but we had excursions in every port and some had us off the ship all day.

 

Will try harder another time! 🙂