JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Divina 2/11

[Mark_T]

8 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

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.

Consider it an upgraded promise, you are heading for 50 countries now 🙂

[JamieLogical]

Just now, Mark_T said:

Consider it an upgraded promise, you are heading for 50 countries now 🙂

 

Maybe I'll go for 100 countries by 100!

[Essiesmom]

My high school best friend became a librarian, specializing in maps.  Married to a college geography professor.  They drove everywhere…she would t fly.  I think the original goal was 49 states and after they accomplished that, the Canadian provinces.  Then it expanded to every county in every state.  They drove to Alaska at least twice, and also did the Alaska Marine Highway.  Have you considered a Great Lakes cruise, or Erie Canal…. EM

[JamieLogical]

4 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

My high school best friend became a librarian, specializing in maps.  Married to a college geography professor.  They drove everywhere…she would t fly.  I think the original goal was 49 states and after they accomplished that, the Canadian provinces.  Then it expanded to every county in every state.  They drove to Alaska at least twice, and also did the Alaska Marine Highway.  Have you considered a Great Lakes cruise, or Erie Canal…. EM

 

Every county in every state? That is nuts! I definitely have zero desire to visit every tiny county with a population of like 400 in Wyoming....

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

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.

As a Canadian, I will say I prefer Montreal. I live in Ottawa and go to Montreal at least twice a year for 2-3 nights. It's an awesome place. 

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Ottawa_Cruiser said:

As a Canadian, I will say I prefer Montreal. I live in Ottawa and go to Montreal at least twice a year for 2-3 nights. It's an awesome place. 

 

Toronto has the advantage of only being a 3-hour drive for us, but we have been there many times and never to Montreal, so we would definitely lean in that direction if a trip to Canada is in the cards.

[DaKahuna]

I loved visiting Canada but I still think Calgary was the best Canadian city I visited. 

 

[DaKahuna]

10 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

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.

 

 That was certainly an admirable goal, and you still have the time to achieve it.   Good luck. 

 I am way past 50 and there are still 4 states I have never visited.  

 

 

[psmarkle]

Have yet to get to Wyoming and Montana, but have hit the other 48 thanks to the Air Force...and also way past 50!

Edited February 28 by psmarkle

[tsahall01]

On 2/27/2024 at 11:17 AM, JamieLogical said:

 

Maybe I'll go for 100 countries by 100!

You should try for every continent!  My sister and I had a competition to see who could do it first.  We were tied in 2017 with one continent to go--so we did a Buenos Aires to Santiago cruise--we counted going around the Cape as close enough to Antartica!

[texangal39]

Great blog! Thanks for all of the detail. I am learning so much about board games (you mention many I’ve never heard of) and I’m now creating a list of some that I want to purchase before we set sail. We usually travel with Regular playing cards, UNO, Travel sized Yahtzee and Othello, Cards Against Humanity, Tell me without telling me, and Travel sized Checkers. So, I’m sure my folks will be excited to try some new games.

 

I’m posting because even though I’ve only made it to page 7, it’s a very good blog and it’s nice to see someone else’s viewpoint of the Davina. I was on her in July of 2022 and thoroughly enjoyed the size of the ship. It was easy to figure out where everything was and also large enough that it didn’t feel crowded even though it was fully booked. There were lots of Australians, Spaniards, and other Europeans onboard and very few Americans during our sailing as well which was great in our opinion. We enjoy meeting people from all over the world because we invariably make new friends that we connect with when traveling and also reciprocate if/when they are in Texas.

 

Like you, we ate at the Black Crab often, but during our cruise we experienced decently paced service with good food most of the time. But, I cracked up laughing when you said “who knew there was a second entrance to the Butcher’s Cut” because the exact same thing happened to us when we went to make our reservation for dinner and we lucked up on the second entrance on our way somewhere else and no one was in line so it was a quick stop to take care of that. We did have a fabulous meal that night; seafood tower, lamb chops, steak, and they plied me with more wine than I should have had! Overall a great time on the Davina and I will sail her again for sure!

 

So, thanks so much for the interesting read and for taking the time to write it up and share your pics.

Edited February 28 by texangal39

[JamieLogical]

24 minutes ago, texangal39 said:

Great blog! Thanks for all of the detail. I am learning so much about board games (you mention many I’ve never heard of) and I’m now creating a list of some that I want to purchase before we set sail. We usually travel with Regular playing cards, UNO, Travel sized Yahtzee and Othello, Cards Against Humanity, Tell me without telling me, and Travel sized Checkers. So, I’m sure my folks will be excited to try some new games.

 

I’m posting because even though I’ve only made it to page 7, it’s a very good blog and it’s nice to see someone else’s viewpoint of the Davina. I was on her in July of 2022 and thoroughly enjoyed the size of the ship. It was easy to figure out where everything was and also large enough that it didn’t feel crowded even though it was fully booked. There were lots of Australians, Spaniards, and other Europeans onboard and very few Americans during our sailing as well which was great in our opinion. We enjoy meeting people from all over the world because we invariably make new friends that we connect with when traveling and also reciprocate if/when they are in Texas.

 

Like you, we ate at the Black Crab often, but during our cruise we experienced decently paced service with good food most of the time. But, I cracked up laughing when you said “who knew there was a second entrance to the Butcher’s Cut” because the exact same thing happened to us when we went to make our reservation for dinner and we lucked up on the second entrance on our way somewhere else and no one was in line so it was a quick stop to take care of that. We did have a fabulous meal that night; seafood tower, lamb chops, steak, and they plied me with more wine than I should have had! Overall a great time on the Davina and I will sail her again for sure!

 

So, thanks so much for the interesting read and for taking the time to write it up and share your pics.

 

Really happy you enjoyed it. Let me know if you have questions about any of the games I mentioned or any others for that matter. We play a LOT of board games so I would be happy to make recommendations on things like number of players, length of play, how complicated they are to set up, how much space they take up, etc.

[DaKahuna]

@JamieLogical Just wanted to once again say how great it was to meet you face to face after following so many of your trip reports.  Also was get to sit and talk over an adult beverage with you and your husband. You are a wonderful and fun couple!  

 

[JamieLogical]

17 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

@JamieLogical Just wanted to once again say how great it was to meet you face to face after following so many of your trip reports.  Also was get to sit and talk over an adult beverage with you and your husband. You are a wonderful and fun couple!  

 

 

I hope our paths will cross again!!!

[cruisebeachgirl703]

"So, the moral of this long story is that we are booking the Seascape out of Miami for May"

 

Looking forward to another of your Live post/reviews. Awesome.

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

"So, the moral of this long story is that we are booking the Seascape out of Miami for May"

 

Looking forward to another of your Live post/reviews. Awesome.

 

Well, we have had a change of plans. After pricing out flights to Miami for the week in question, it was just going to be too expensive. My husband refuses to fly anything but Business/First class and round trip flights were going to cost as much as the cruise itself. Now we are looking at the NCL Joy out of NYC to Bermuda, but ugh... The more I think about settling for NCL the more I am dreading it. MSC has certainly spoiled me. If I do sail on the Joy, I won't be able to do a liveblog, since their Free at Sea deal only includes 100 minutes of wifi.

 

Edited February 29 by JamieLogical

[Av8tor]

4 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Well, we have had a change of plans. After pricing out flights to Miami for the week in question, it was just going to be too expensive. My husband refuses to fly anything but Business/First class and round trip flights were going to cost as much as the cruise itself. 

 

...have you considered back robbery??  😄

[GPPhilly]

Jamie, Have you sailed the Joy before?   I always wondered how it was since it was retrofitted to fit the US market after transferring from the Asian Market.  I did just see it was in dry dock for more additions.  

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, GPPhilly said:

Jamie, Have you sailed the Joy before?   I always wondered how it was since it was retrofitted to fit the US market after transferring from the Asian Market.  I did just see it was in dry dock for more additions.  

 

We have not. We have sailed on the Escape (the ship before it) and the Bliss (the ship after it), but not the Joy. I was excited to hear that they added a thermal spa during the January drydock, as that is one of the things I do miss from NCL. The MSC thermal spas aren't really as nice as those on the NCL away-class ships, mostly due to the lack of windows. However, the Joy's new thermal spa doesn't have a thermal pool, so I am not even sure what the point of it is. Apparently, they are still charging the same prices for passes as the other away-class ships too! I mean, I like a sauna and a tile lounger as much as the next person, but without the pool it just seems like a waste of money.

[GPPhilly]

When we were doing the NCL ships we never looked at the Joy because of not having a thermal area.  I agree the NCL away ship have a great thermal area with the windows and the thermal pool.  

[cruisebeachgirl703]

can you fly into ft lauderdale? (our last ncl joy haven premium plus bev package cruise experience was a bust. i have posted about)

[JamieLogical]

16 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

can you fly into ft lauderdale? (our last ncl joy haven premium plus bev package cruise experience was a bust. i have posted about)

 

I have looked into flying into all of the Miami-area airports. In fact the flight we originally settled on was into FLL and then the flight home was from MIA, but two first class round trip tickets for those flights cost $2,192.42.

 

We also looked at flying in a day sooner (2 days before cruise) or flying out a day later.

 

Edited February 29 by JamieLogical

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Yowza on the price. Well it sounds like you gave it much effort. DH and I would try the celebrity solstice (NJ) before going back on the Joy. We didn't like the Summi. (NJ). But people seem to like the Solstice. Keep us posted. Good luck. (there is a board on NCL no more cookies, except for room service)

[cruisebeachgirl703]

8 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Yowza on the price. Well it sounds like you gave it much effort. DH and I would try the celebrity solstice (NJ) before going back on the Joy. We didn't like the Summi. (NJ). But people seem to like the Solstice. Keep us posted. Good luck. (there is a board on NCL no more cookies, except for room service)

celebrity silhouette (nj)

[JamieLogical]

8 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

celebrity silhouette (nj)

 

Actually, it's the Eclipse going out of NJ this May, but they aren't repositioning until later in the month than we have planned to sail. We are looking at the week of May 4th or 5th. Eclipse is on a 14-day repositioning cruise from Rio De Janeiro to Cape Liberty from April 27-May 11.