JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Divina 2/11

[cruisebeachgirl703]

I hope it goes good for you whatever direction you two go. your "friends" on cruise critic enjoy all of your insight/humor/experiences. thanks for all you give back.

[DaKahuna]

Hate to see you leave Celebrity / MSC but you gotta do you!

 

 

 

Edited March 1 by DaKahuna

[JamieLogical]

38 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

Hate to see you leave Celebrity / MSC but you gotta do you!

 

 

 

 

I certainly won't be "leaving" MSC. I still have my October and January sailings booked on the Meraviglia and plan to continue to cruise with MSC beyond that. It's just this May vacation that is forcing us to look at a brief return to NCL.

[DaKahuna]

5 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I certainly won't be "leaving" MSC. I still have my October and January sailings booked on the Meraviglia and plan to continue to cruise with MSC beyond that. It's just this May vacation that is forcing us to look at a brief return to NCL.

 

 Understand.  I'd say have fun but I know you will no matter which cruise line the two of you end up cruising on.  

 

[gizfish]

17 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. 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.

 

Another plus for NCL is upgrading to unlimited WiFi is not that expensive.  Also, remember you aren't married to the device you initially log in on.  

[alserrod]

4 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I certainly won't be "leaving" MSC. I still have my October and January sailings booked on the Meraviglia and plan to continue to cruise with MSC beyond that. It's just this May vacation that is forcing us to look at a brief return to NCL.

 

 

Are you planning other continents with MSC?

[Anastas617]

If you do end up on NCL in May, I'll look forward to seeing your thoughts or non-live postings as I have my first NCL cruise scheduled next February.

 

I enjoy your trip reports for being informative and mostly rational. It's obvious you enjoy MSC (as do I), but you come across as fair and not a cheerleader.

[JamieLogical]

7 hours ago, gizfish said:

Another plus for NCL is upgrading to unlimited WiFi is not that expensive.  Also, remember you aren't married to the device you initially log in on.  

 

On MSC, unlimited wifi is included, so any cost to upgrade from NCL's silly 100 minutes to unlimited is too much. That's why I won't be able to do a liveblog on this sailing. 🙁

 

As for being tethered to one device, I am fortunate in that my phone allows me to hotspot wifi, so this has never been an issue for me. When I want to work on my liveblog on my laptop or download new books to my kindle, I just connect those devices to my phone. I get that this is a BIG issue for some folks though.

[rugerdog]

• Jamie:

 

• Thanks so much for a very helpful review.  

 

I'm headed out on MSC Divina in three weeks for a nearly identical trip, my first ever with MSC.  I will make sure to bring an open mind and a chill attitude, determined to enjoy my holiday.

 

I've done the online check in and 100% agree the photo is beyond abysmal.  Although technically it worked, I hope they redo it on board.  

 

I've applied and received the status match to Gold on MSC, which seems minimal by comparison to Celebrity, but it's something.

 

Looking forward to an interesting cruise!

[JamieLogical]

9 minutes ago, rugerdog said:

• Jamie:

 

• Thanks so much for a very helpful review.  

 

I'm headed out on MSC Divina in three weeks for a nearly identical trip, my first ever with MSC.  I will make sure to bring an open mind and a chill attitude, determined to enjoy my holiday.

 

I've done the online check in and 100% agree the photo is beyond abysmal.  Although technically it worked, I hope they redo it on board.  

 

I've applied and received the status match to Gold on MSC, which seems minimal by comparison to Celebrity, but it's something.

 

Looking forward to an interesting cruise!

 

I hope you have a great time! Make sure to say hello to Reynald at Caffe Italia for us!

[rugerdog]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

I hope you have a great time! Make sure to say hello to Reynald at Caffe Italia for us!

Looking forward to the Caffe Italia!

 

As I've read from others, the website as well as the app don't seem as easy to navigate as some others, and overall pretty glitchy.  I'll survive.

 

With regard to the specialty restaurants, although I seldom have done this, on an 11 day with only the dining room and buffet as options  I might consider it.  So I'm thinking of adding a dining package.  On the website under "Plan My Cruise", it will only gives me one option:  the Two Specialty Dining Experience, and it says it is one meal at Butcher's Cut and one at Sushi Galaxy.  This doesn't make any sense to me, why can't I purchase three, four, five that seem to be offered on other ships.  Also, out of the several specialty restaurants, am I not allowed to choose which suit me?  What am I missing here?

[JamieLogical]

12 minutes ago, rugerdog said:

Looking forward to the Caffe Italia!

 

As I've read from others, the website as well as the app don't seem as easy to navigate as some others, and overall pretty glitchy.  I'll survive.

 

With regard to the specialty restaurants, although I seldom have done this, on an 11 day with only the dining room and buffet as options  I might consider it.  So I'm thinking of adding a dining package.  On the website under "Plan My Cruise", it will only gives me one option:  the Two Specialty Dining Experience, and it says it is one meal at Butcher's Cut and one at Sushi Galaxy.  This doesn't make any sense to me, why can't I purchase three, four, five that seem to be offered on other ships.  Also, out of the several specialty restaurants, am I not allowed to choose which suit me?  What am I missing here?

 

Galaxy and Butcher's Cut are the only two specialty restaurants on the Divina.

[rugerdog]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

Galaxy and Butcher's Cut are the only two specialty restaurants on the Divina.

Ha!  Well I guess that would explain it.  I thought there was an Italian one and a French one as well.  Thanks for the education 😳

[DaKahuna]

@rugerdog  We did the two specialty dining experience on Divina and enjoyed it.