JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Divina 2/11

[Homosassa]

18 hours ago, alserrod said:

 

 

Can you point the picture with that roll again?

 

I am sure that you can read the posts in this thread as well as I can and find  the roll reference.

[alserrod]

2 hours ago, Homosassa said:

I am sure that you can read the posts in this thread as well as I can and find  the roll reference.

 

 

Hello

 

I am not native-English and "roll" has a lot of possible translations.

 

If you point me the picture about the roll you are talking about I will try to explain a reason why people ask it as you commented

 

 

[JamieLogical]

Sorry for not getting this posted yesterday. I got most of it typed up in the Turkish Airlines lounge before our flight but didn't quite get it finished and didn't get back to it until now.

 

Wednesday was our last sea day and the last day of the cruise. The view from our balcony in the morning was gorgeous until the angry sun got too high and was burning into my retinas, so I had to retreat to the air-conditioned comfort of our couch to finish typing up my blog. We showered and dressed and initially planned to do the MDR for breakfast, but my husband simply could not bear the thought of it, so we decided to break out the brass knuckles and flails and brave the buffet.

 

The buffet seating situation honestly wasn’t the worst we have seen it. We were able to get a table in the aft section. I made the terrible mistake of trying to get some hot food options, though, instead of my usual cheese selection. I got a fried egg and some corned beef hash. I also saw someone walking around with a slice of that breakfast pizza, so I went all the way forward to the pizza station for one of those.

 

I brought my bounty back to our table in the after and my first bite of egg and corned beef hash was stone cold. Truly terrible and inedible. Fortunately, pizza tastes great cold, so I settled for eating my whole slice of breakfast pizza. I don’t love the fact that your options on this ship for breakfast are: fight to the death for cold breakfast or wait impatiently for super slow service in the MDR for cold breakfast. Though, to be fair, I have never had an issue with my omelets in the MDR being cold. My husband just always seems to end up with cold food there.

 

We stopped back by our room to pick up our games and headed down to Caffe Italia for our last lazy morning there. We stuck to mago mimosas just made of mango juice and prosecco. No mimosa blossoms or vanilla mimosas, as we didn’t want to end up in a coma again.

 

During our second round of mimosas, the sax player started up in the atrium. This had happened before and I was usually able to tune it out, despite my true hatred of the saxophone. But for some reason, this time, his backing track and the sax were EXCEPTIONALLY loud. Like penetrating and reverberating around your brain loud. Even my husband, who usually likes saxophone okay, found it to be truly torturous. So, we got our third round of mimosas to go and fled to the wine/pizza bar that I can’t remember the name of. Ironically, they were also playing some sax/jazz music over their PA, but at least it was quiet enough to tune out.

 

We decided to head over to the future cruise desk to see if there was a line. There was, so we just headed back to the room for a few minutes before it was time for lunch in the MDR. We had decided to tolerate the slowness of MDR lunch because they had Mediterranean Couscous on the menu, which my husband really enjoys.

 

We were seated at a two-top against the wall and I had to squeeze through a 4” gap between the tables to get to my chair with my back to the wall. Good thing there was no one seated at the table next to us yet because I definitely bumped that table hard with my giant butt. When another couple did end up seated next to us at that table, the woman who was significantly smaller than me also had trouble squeezing through that narrow gap.

 

To our left, we had a couple of Canadian ladies and to our right, we had a couple from Kentucky. This was the first time we were seated with native English speakers, so that was a bit of a treat. We had good conversations with both pairs.

 

For lunch, I ordered the lentil soup, the meatball sandwich, and the Boston cream pie. My husband had the lentil soup, the Mediterranean couscous, and the cheesecake. The soup was excellent. It was very flavorful, though maybe a smidge oversalted. My meatball sandwich was great. The cheese was really well melted and baked on. And, of course, the Boston cream pie was delicious as always.

 

After lunch, we headed back to the future cruise desk and got lucky with no line. I had done some cruise pricing earlier in the morning, after finishing my blog. We had narrowed it down to an 11 and 10-day sailing on the Meraviglia out of NYC and a 10-day on the Divina out of Miami. All in January of 2025. We settled on the 10-day on Meraviglia out of NYC on 1/23 because it was super cheap and we thought we had the best chance of persuading my parents or some of our friends to join us. We also decided to book one of the Whirlpool suites because it was “only” exactly twice the price of a deluxe balcony. Our future selves will only need to come up with $2500 a piece to pay for it…

 

So we booked our cruise, paid the $200/person deposit (since it’s a suite), and headed back to the room to grab our stuff again. We then headed down to Caffe Italia for our last round of gaming and some coffee. It was pretty slammed since it was a sea day, so we had to settle for a table over on the side, instead of in front of the bar.

 

We only played games for a little bit, as we had planned to get some packing done before the Diamond party at 4:30. It was definitely sad packing up our games and heading back to the room for the last time this sailing. Back in the room, we packed as much as we could that wasn’t going into our bundles and we wouldn’t need for the morning. We got done with that and then headed down to the casino to cash in our casino tickets before the mad rush to do so later in the evening. We headed back up to put our money in the safe and then headed down to loiter awkwardly outside of the Black & White Lounge until the Diamond party started.

 

The Diamond party was very similar to the Voyager’s Club party from earlier in the sailing with the exception of fancier drink options, canapes instead of chips & peanuts, and we had a performance by the ship’s singers, instead of dancers. There were also fewer passengers there. The Groovy band played as we entered and then after the presentations all ended and we were meant to mingle. During the mingling part, the officers all just stood awkwardly to the side and I didn’t really know if it was okay to go up and talk to them or what. I finally just decided to get up and talk to Benny, the Cruise Director and we had a great conversation. He has been on many MSC ships and will soon be departing the Divina for the Spendita, I think he said, out of South Africa? We talked about ship design, YC versus steerage, venues, the terrible buffet situation, and a bunch of other stuff. It was very pleasant.

 

After the party, we headed back to Caffe Italia to try to distribute the tip money was had acquired when cashing in our casino tickets. All of the regular bartenders and servers at that bar had treated us exceptionally well. I was happy that between the afternoon and the evening, we were able to give all of them their VERY well-deserved tips.

 

After one last Alabama Slammer from Reynald, it was off to dinner for lobster! Weirdly, the lobster/filet menu was saved for the last night of the cruise, despite it being “casual” suggested dress. We thought we were going to have the table to ourselves again. I ordered the lobster bisque, lobster tail, and Grandma’s chocolate cake. My husband ordered the salmon rillets, filet mignon, and royal cake. At some point after we had finished our appetizers, the Greek couple joined us and we got to have one last nice chat with them.

 

My lobster bisque was very good. My lobster tail was very meaty but a little dry. The grilled shrimp that came with the lobster tail were very very good, though. They were well-seasoned and well-cooked. My Grandma’s chocolate cake was obviously delicious and I really had to stop myself from eating every last bite of it. We tipped our one waiter, but the other was nowhere to be found. My husband asked about him and it turned out that they were planning a special presentation and our other waiter was going to be a part of it. We ended up deciding to wait until the presentation. It definitely took some coordination and very loud music over the PA system for a bit, but then there was a Baked Alaska parade, some introductions of all the chefs and restaurant officers, and then a dance number by some of the servers. It was super cute and endearing. And as the Baked Alaska parade ended, we were able to tip our other waiter.

 

After dinner, we had agreed we would hang out in La Luna one last time. We got a round of Bailey’s Alexanders and then headed back to the room to change and finish packing. We had both decided to just change into the clothes we planned to wear for disembarkation so we could head back out to Black & White Lounge and then late-night snack after we finished packing our bundles. We actually got done with our packing a little more quickly than planned. We headed down to Black & White Lounge where there was a dance class happening and we both agreed that we should probably go up and do late-night snack at that point and then come back down to listen to The Groovy Band one last time when they played at 9:30. That worked out well and we got back down to Black & White during the Groovy Band’s first song. We only stayed for a few songs though before calling it a night, since we would have to get up bright and early.

 

As I mentioned before, the disembarkation times were *really* late, so we had decided to do self walk off. That meant all of our packed bags stayed in the room with us overnight. We set our alarms for 6:00am and tried to get some sleep.

Day's Drinks: 3x Mango Mimosa from Caffe Italia,  Americano w/ Bailey's from Caffe Italia

Rum & coke from Caffe Italia, Sparkling Wine from Black & White Lounge, 2x Mimosa from Black & White Lounge, Alabama Slammer from Caffe Italia, Hugo Spritz from Black Crab, Bailey's Alexander from La Luna

 

In the morning, I woke up with the urge to pee at 5:40 and decided it wasn’t worth going back to sleep after that, so I hopped in the shower and then finished my packing of last-minute toiletries and such while my husband showered. We headed down to the Black Crab for their express breakfast that started at 6:30. We were seated at a two-top in the Aurea section and received very prompt service. The best surprise was that the server immediately brought butter and jam to the table before even getting our coffee or water, so I was well on my way to accomplishing toast!

 

The breakfast menu in the MDR is a little more limited on embarkation days. My husband went with the express breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage links, hash browns, and a “toasted” english muffin. I went with the cheese & mushroom omelet and white toast. The food came pretty quickly and my toast was toasted, but my husband’s english muffin was still floppy. I gave him a slice of my toast and he did okay with that. At least the rest of his breakfast was hot!

 

We headed back up to the room and right as we walked in, there was an announcement that the ship was cleared and they were beginning self walk off. We finished packing up the last few items and checked around the room to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. I had a slight panic attack when I found an uncashed casino ticket in the safe, but it turned out to only be for $0.37. We left a note and a tip for Alexander and said goodbye to our balcony one last time. We discovered a pair of bikini bottoms on the balcony. This was the second time something like that had happened. A day or two before, we found a pair of boxer briefs on our balcony. I really don’t know what to make of that. Presumably, people were putting things out on their own balconies and they were blowing onto ours? Or maybe we just had some secret admirers who wanted to throw their panties at us? The box briefs I had delicately picked up by the waistband and put into our trash can, then thoroughly washed my hands. The bikini bottoms I left for Alexander to deal with.

 

Getting off the ship was pretty easy. Despite the disembarkation sheet saying we would disembark on Deck 6, there were signs in the elevator saying to go to Deck 7 forward. So that is exactly what we did. We used the midship elevators, which weren’t toooo bad. The first one only had room for my husband and two of our roller bags. I waited with my roller bag for another elevator. The next one to come was completely full, but the one after that I was able to hop on.

 

I was a little worried when I got down to 7 and my husband wasn’t there waiting for me. As I went ahead and started walking forward, my phone dinged and I assumed it was him texting me his location. But before I could even check it, I spotted him loitering at Caffe Italia. We headed forward and then off the ship together. It was pretty quick getting our cards scanned, then we were off the ship and onto the gangway. I overheard one of the women working at the ship security area saying that “they need to make an announcement that bags aren’t ready.” I told her that every single announcement so far had explicitly said that bags weren’t ready and only those carrying ALL their luggage should be leaving the ship. Apparently, people were just ignoring the announcements.

 

We got down and through the terminal quickly. There was a rather loud family walking near us on the gangway, speaking Spanish very loudly and often stopping to gesture at and face one another. A woman behind us was somewhat loudly complaining about how loud the family was being. I made some sort of joke to her about how I didn’t have nearly that much energy that early in the morning. She said that she is never coming back on MSC because the passengers are too loud? What? Why would you not cruise with a cruise line because the passengers on one sailing were too loud? Passenger demographics are the one thing that is most likely to change from ship to ship and sailing to sailing. We had talked with some staff and they said the the Divina has been sailing nearly full of Americans this whole season and this was the first sailing with a majority Europeans. It makes sense that with the long and unique itinerary, you would end up with more Europeans than you would on the shorter Bahamas cruises. Who is going to fly from Europe for a 3-day cruise? So lots of things contribute to the passenger make-up and even if you do end up with another sailing with a similar demographic, that doesn’t mean the individual passengers are going to behave the same way. Bad food, bad customer service, poorly maintained ships, stupid policies, lack of services, cost… Those are the reasons you stop sailing with a cruise line altogether. The passenger make-up on a single sailing on a single ship is a ridiculous criterion.

 

Anyway, we got through the terminal quickly and then we were at Customs & Border Patrol. I was really really shocked when they told us we had to get our passports out. I haven’t needed my passport to disembark a ship in eons. They did not have the facial recognition scanners and made us show our passports to an agent who asked us all the old questions about whether we had any food, money, cigarettes, etc. It was really weird. It still went quickly though and we were out on the curb, hailing our Lyft in no time.

 

We got to the airport before 8:00. Even though we had “Priority” on American for being First Class, it took about 40 minutes for us to get through TSA. Then we had the seemingly miles-long walk to the Turkish Airlines lounge, where we parked for a couple of hours. Then it was time for our flights. We had a short layover in Regan. Everything ran mostly on time and got home safely.

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 23 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

Forgot to include my drink log from yesterday!

 

Day's Drinks: 2x mimosa from Turkish Airlines Lounge, Double vodka cranberry from Turkish Airlines Lounge, 3x vodka & ginger ale from American Airlines First Class, Coffee with Bailey's from American Airlines First Class, Vodka & ginger ale from American Airlines First Class, Scotch Ale from The Distillery, Dirty Bastard from my fridge

[JamieLogical]

I wanted to just quickly sum up my overall thoughts about the cruise. I think it was one of my favorites so far. I would give it about an 8.5/10. I genuinely loved the ship, the crew, the food, the live entertainment, and the itinerary. I would say the two major negatives for me were the buffet and our inability to do much socializing with the other passengers, due to language barriers. I also have to knock off a little due to the chaos and short length of our Aruba port stop, which led to our decision not to get off the ship there. I don't know that MSC could have done anything about our late docking, but they definitely could have handled disembarkation better (and did later with their ticketing system) and it would have been nice if they could have delayed all-aboard time to give us more time in port, though I don't know if the port itself would have allowed that.

 

The ship was wonderful. I loved the layout, the size, the small venues... The casino was a little on the small side, which many might appreciate. The ship was well-maintained and kept clean. I also liked that the seating throughout the ship was much more practical and comfortable than on the Meraviglia.

 

The crew were genuinely fantastic. They were cheerful and friendly and endured some truly trying circumstances. Our room steward, the waiters at Galaxy, our waiters in the MDR, and especially the entire staff of Caffe Italia were just wonderful. But really all the crew we interacted with more than once or for any amount of time were great.

 

The MDR food was spot on the entire sailing for me. I know my husband had some issues with his breakfasts and service at lunch could be a little slow, but I honestly had no problems with any of that. The actual quality and flavor of the food was awesome. Every single dinner I had to hold myself back from making myself sick from overeating. The pasta dishes were especially good.

 

We both loved the small venues all over the ship where we could relax and listen to live music. The Groovy Band in the Black & White Lounge and the duo and pianist in La Luna were the highlights for us.

 

And, of course, this was a great itinerary, which is why we booked the sailing in the first place. We were sad to miss our on Aruba, but the stops in Cartegena, Colon, and Roatan were all great for us. It was nice to go to a few Caribbean ports we had never been to and return to some we love.

 

I immediately started looking at future sailings on the Divina. There is a great itinerary in January 2025 that we are still considering, but for now, we have one on the Meraviglia booked. The reasons we opted for the Meraviglia sailing were the availability if Whirlpool Balcony Suites and the fact that the specific sailing we chose might be very appealing to our friends and family, whom we would like to try to convince to come with us. It is a very attractive price and it is out of NYC, which is more convenient for our loved ones. If it turns out that no one is interested in joining us, we may still end up switching to the Divina sailing.

 

It's crazy to me that my next booked cruise still isn't for another 11 months! We will have to make a decision on something for September or October because I will go insane not having a cruise to look forward to for that long.

[copper6606]

Thanks so much for all your effort and insight in Posting.

We are booked for our first MSC cruise [ Divina- Transatlantic in April] and appreciate your honest review. We have been getting a bit nervous with all the bad reviews🤪 

We have never had a "Bad" Cruise... some we have liked more than others... but love trying all the different Lines and are really looking forward to this one. 

Thanks again for letting us all follow along on your journey!

[laudergayle]

Thanks @JamieLogical for your detailed review.  Loved going along on your adventure.  11 months is way too long for the next cruise!!  

[psmarkle]

On 2/6/2024 at 10:59 AM, DaKahuna said:

 You are way ahead of us in packing.  I have not even finalized what shoes I'll be brining.  
 I have an idea in my head what clothes I'll bring but other than ironing a few dress shirts nothing has been put out yet.  We usually don't pack until the night before we leave the house, which in our cased will be Friday nigh.  

 

Off to get that haircut I mentioned and to get a Popeye's Ghost Pepper wing craving satisfied. 

 

 

 

1 pair of khakis and 7 polo shirts...leaves plenty of room for DW's "overflow"! 🤣

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks much for taking the time to post.   

 

Really curious --- How did Turkish Airline Lounge fall into the mix?   Sorry if you already mentioned.

[JamieLogical]

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Thanks much for taking the time to post.   

 

Really curious --- How did Turkish Airline Lounge fall into the mix?   Sorry if you already mentioned.

 

They are the lounge at the Miami airport that accepts the Priority Pass access I get through my Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

[Jim_Iain]

4 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

They are the lounge at the Miami airport that accepts the Priority Pass access I get through my Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

 

Ahh.... I use my Priority Pass all the time.   We mostly use FLL and they only have "facilities" at terminal 3 and 4.   At those they have one Takeout only and one Bar.    Nothing at Terminal 1 that United uses.

[DaKahuna]

9 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

I wanted to just quickly sum up my overall thoughts about the cruise. I think it was one of my favorites so far. I would give it about an 8.5/10. I genuinely loved the ship, the crew, the food, the live entertainment, and the itinerary.

 

Jamie, I could not agree more.  Unfortunately my DW was not a fan of the food feeling it liked flavor. 

 

We're undecided as to what we will do after our next cruise.  So time will tell but pretty sure she wants to go back to Hawaii on vacation this fall/winter, if not next year. 

 

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Ahh.... I use my Priority Pass all the time.   We mostly use FLL and they only have "facilities" at terminal 3 and 4.   At those they have one Takeout only and one Bar.    Nothing at Terminal 1 that United uses.

 

  The United Club is the only club I am aware of at terminal 1 in FLL.   There are two restaurants though at the C Gates where the club is. 

 

[JamieLogical]

Well, my husband and I just booked the Halloween sailing on the Meraviglia. One of my solo friends texted the group that he had booked it because it was insanely cheap with the President's Day Sale. He was not wrong! When I priced it out, it would have been $705 for a deluxe interior with drinks & wifi as a solo, a little over $1000 for a deluxe balcony as a solo, and it came out to $1357 for a deluxe balcony for both of us. That works out to less than $100/person/day in a deluxe balcony with drinks, wifi, and the Fantastica experience. The itinerary is garbage, but if more of my solo friends jump on it, it will be well worth it to see them again and to finally have them meet my husband.

 

@ESCARGO @raystorm @reeinaz 

[cruisebeachgirl703]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

Well, my husband and I just booked the Halloween sailing on the Meraviglia. One of my solo friends texted the group that he had booked it because it was insanely cheap with the President's Day Sale. He was not wrong! When I priced it out, it would have been $705 for a deluxe interior with drinks & wifi as a solo, a little over $1000 for a deluxe balcony as a solo, and it came out to $1357 for a deluxe balcony for both of us. That works out to less than $100/person/day in a deluxe balcony with drinks, wifi, and the Fantastica experience. The itinerary is garbage, but if more of my solo friends jump on it, it will be well worth it to see them again and to finally have them meet my husband.

 

@ESCARGO @raystorm @reeinaz 

That is great!!!!!

[Dred pilot Roberts]

Just know what you are getting with margaritavile.  It is not a main line ship and there is a reason it is so cheap. Basically a weekend booze cruise.  Check out this review.  It’s accurate, I have been on them many years ago but only to get to grand Bahamas island.

 

 

[JamieLogical]

10 minutes ago, Dred pilot Roberts said:

Just know what you are getting with margaritavile.  It is not a main line ship and there is a reason it is so cheap. Basically a weekend booze cruise.  Check out this review.  It’s accurate, I have been on them many years ago but only to get to grand Bahamas island.

 

 

 

What? Who said anything about Margaritaville?

[Dred pilot Roberts]

Sorry miss read the ship name 😂

[JamieLogical]

4 minutes ago, Dred pilot Roberts said:

Sorry miss read the ship name 😂

 

Ha! I had actually watched that video before. I have never had even the most remote desire to go on Margaritaville at Sea.

[jcpc]

@JamieLogicalThanks so much for posting.  I really enjoy reading your "live from" posts from Meraviglia and now from Divina.  I've only sailed Meraviglia but I do think I would like Divina, it being a smaller ship.  The one advantage I have with Meraviglia is no flying to the port as I'm within driving distance to Brooklyn.  I'll be looking forward to your next review.  Again, thanks.

[psmarkle]

On 2/16/2024 at 10:43 AM, DaKahuna said:

How was your gumbo?  As I stated in my blog mine lack any file flavor at all and was more of a soup than a thick and rich gumbo.

 

I wish pasta bolognese was on the YC every day menu.  We have penne pasta with a marinara sauce instead. 
 

In my own experience in the YC, if there's something on the MDR menu, you can ask for it. It just take a few minutes more to go get it, but the YC dining room staff has never disappointed! But YMMV?

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, psmarkle said:

In my own experience in the YC, if there's something on the MDR menu, you can ask for it. It just take a few minutes more to go get it, but the YC dining room staff has never disappointed! But YMMV?

I was not aware this was a possibility.  I never checked the MDR menu but did see it posted here in Jamie’s report. 
 

[Dunchues]

On 2/24/2024 at 7:30 AM, JamieLogical said:

I wanted to just quickly sum up my overall thoughts about the cruise. I think it was one of my favorites so far. I would give it about an 8.5/10. I genuinely loved the ship, the crew, the food, the live entertainment, and the itinerary. I would say the two major negatives for me were the buffet and our inability to do much socializing with the other passengers, due to language barriers. I also have to knock off a little due to the chaos and short length of our Aruba port stop, which led to our decision not to get off the ship there. I don't know that MSC could have done anything about our late docking, but they definitely could have handled disembarkation better (and did later with their ticketing system) and it would have been nice if they could have delayed all-aboard time to give us more time in port, though I don't know if the port itself would have allowed that.

 

The ship was wonderful. I loved the layout, the size, the small venues... The casino was a little on the small side, which many might appreciate. The ship was well-maintained and kept clean. I also liked that the seating throughout the ship was much more practical and comfortable than on the Meraviglia.

 

The crew were genuinely fantastic. They were cheerful and friendly and endured some truly trying circumstances. Our room steward, the waiters at Galaxy, our waiters in the MDR, and especially the entire staff of Caffe Italia were just wonderful. But really all the crew we interacted with more than once or for any amount of time were great.

 

The MDR food was spot on the entire sailing for me. I know my husband had some issues with his breakfasts and service at lunch could be a little slow, but I honestly had no problems with any of that. The actual quality and flavor of the food was awesome. Every single dinner I had to hold myself back from making myself sick from overeating. The pasta dishes were especially good.

 

We both loved the small venues all over the ship where we could relax and listen to live music. The Groovy Band in the Black & White Lounge and the duo and pianist in La Luna were the highlights for us.

 

And, of course, this was a great itinerary, which is why we booked the sailing in the first place. We were sad to miss our on Aruba, but the stops in Cartegena, Colon, and Roatan were all great for us. It was nice to go to a few Caribbean ports we had never been to and return to some we love.

 

I immediately started looking at future sailings on the Divina. There is a great itinerary in January 2025 that we are still considering, but for now, we have one on the Meraviglia booked. The reasons we opted for the Meraviglia sailing were the availability if Whirlpool Balcony Suites and the fact that the specific sailing we chose might be very appealing to our friends and family, whom we would like to try to convince to come with us. It is a very attractive price and it is out of NYC, which is more convenient for our loved ones. If it turns out that no one is interested in joining us, we may still end up switching to the Divina sailing.

 

It's crazy to me that my next booked cruise still isn't for another 11 months! We will have to make a decision on something for September or October because I will go insane not having a cruise to look forward to for that long.

We were on the same cruise and I would agree with everything you've written. Main buffet was really a war zone at times but Europeans look at things differently I suppose. I used  different bars than you most of the time although I did try your orange southern comfort arrangement as I stumbled past caffe Italia out of respect,  enjoyed it too! I agree the food in the black crab is really excellent,  I am a fairly adventurous eater and found almost every day was tough decisions, we did have an Indian meal one evening (there are so many Indians in the crew they have their own cooks, and originating from UK curries are in our dna) that demanded respect,  and I meant to see how the big crew groups from Indonesia, Phillipines etc were catered for and jump on the back of that but was sidetracked by the excellent regular menu. 

That Aruba farce I think was caused by trying to get 3 boats into a narrow channel with only two tugs but knowing we were leaving by two it's a shame we couldn't jump the queue though.

We enjoyed Divina in Feb 23 and 24 but plans clash for the next year or two so don't know when we'll be back but hope it's not too long.

 

 

[JamieLogical]

Well, for someone who had no future cruises booked a week ago, I certainly have plenty now! As I mentioned previously, my husband and I booked a sailing for January 2025 on the Meraviglia while onboard the Divina last week. Then my solo friend persuaded us to book the Halloween sailing on the Meraviglia a couple of days ago (all my other solo friends have now booked that as well except @ESCARGO, who we are still waiting to hear from).

 

Well, last night, my husband and I were buckling down and booking flights for our planned "road trip" in May. Our plan was to fly to Portland, Oregon, rent a car, drive to Chicago via a route that would take me to several stated I had never been to, and then fly home from Chicago. I got a good deal on a First Class flight to Portland and then an okay deal on a First Class flight from Chicago, but when we started pricing out the rental car is when things really started to get scary. One-way car rentals are stupidly expensive these days and when we had initially entertained the idea of doing this trip, we were shown some car rental results on Kayak that turned out to not be actually available. So the car rental was going to cost much more than we had planned for and between flights and hotels, this was already an expensive trip.

 

Between the first class flights and car rental car rental prices, the total cost of the trip became unreasonable. The whole idea was for me to pick up a few new states because I had long had a goal of visiting all 50 states by the time I am 50. I have fallen a bit behind pace on that goal since we started cruising and this trip would get me caught back up (45 at 45). So we shifted gears and said, well how about we do a round trip flight to/from Chicago rent a car in Chicago where it wouldn't be a one-way rental, and change our driving route to get a few of the states we had planned, plus Kansas. Instead of picking up Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, I would pick up North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kansas.

 

So we set to work on pricing that all out. In the meantime, I had also priced out a couple of cruise options on the Seascape and Seashore for around that same time. It turned out that the Chicago trip was still going to cost us ~$500 more than a sailing on the Seascape to St. Thomas, San Juan, and Dominican Republic with flights and hotel. Plus, our Chicago trip plan didn't yet include food, beverages, entrance fees to parks/museums, and gas! Meanwhile, I was thinking about all the logistics of booking everything for the Chicago trips... round-trip flights, rental car, and seven different hotel stays. All of that just to say I had been to South Dakota or Kansa? No offense to South Dakota and Kansas, but it just didn't really seem worth all the stress and additional expense for some bragging rights.

 

So I really reflected on my 50 by 50 goal and talked it out with my husband. I had set that goal back in my early 20s when seeing all 50 states seemed like a real travel accomplishment. Little did I know that in my late 30s and 40s I would be cruising and traveling to dozens of different COUNTRIES, not just states. My husband and I now have a realistic plan for spending months of the year on cruise ships in our retirement. That means seeing places like southeast Asia, Australia, all of Europe, South America.... am I really going to be on my deathbed lamenting never making it to South Dakota (assuming I don't by then)? 

 

So, the moral of this long story is that we are booking the Seascape out of Miami for May, instead of doing the road trip. Doing a one-week cruise in May and October means we will have some free time off to maybe do a mini-trip somewhere over the summer, like Montreal or Toronto or something like that. It could just be 3-5 days instead of a full week. So now we will have another trip to plan, but it will be to somewhere we WANT to go, not somewhere I feel obligated to go based on some promise I made to myself 20 years ago.