MSC Divina Yacht Club 2/11 - 2/22 Live Review

[DaKahuna]

We walked off this ship and walked over to the lille ‘village’ where the ship normally docks.  The taxi / tour vendors are as pushy as I remember and walking through them was no easy task.  They all kept wanting us to stop and listen to their pitch.

 

We looked around a couple of shops but left without purchasing anything and made our way back to the ship.  We found one of the yacht club staff and he had them stop debarking passengers so we could go back onboard. 
 

We came up to our room to cool off before We venture out to see if we can locate @JamieLogical

 

 

 

 

much to our surprise we had a visitor waiting for us in our cabin

 

 

I did not know towel animals were a thing on MSC.

 

[DaKahuna]

Lunch in Le Muse was very good. I had the prawns, wellness salad, and fish & chips. 
 

 

 

 

and my DW had the salad and fish and chips.

 

For dessert we both had the apple pie and ice cream.   I would have preferred the pie to be warmer but it was not bad.

 

 

Of course we had to have coffee and our ‘secret sauce’ with dessert

 

 

I originally ordered the pinot noir but when our waiter went to top me off, I asked if they had any Italian wines and was served this

 

 

 

Not bad.  Don’t think I have had it before and will likely have it again.

 

Tonight’s dinner is in Butcher’s Cut at 6:30 pm.

 

Edited February 13 by DaKahuna

[JamieLogical]

Sorry I missed you at Caffe Italia! I heard you met my husband while I was napping. I also heard you have a 6:30 reservation at Butcher's Cut like we do, so maybe I will see you there. We will likely be hanging out at Caffe Italia until close to dinne time.

[DaKahuna]

32 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Sorry I missed you at Caffe Italia! I heard you met my husband while I was napping. I also heard you have a 6:30 reservation at Butcher's Cut like we do, so maybe I will see you there. We will likely be hanging out at Caffe Italia until close to dinne time.

 

I am sorry I missed seeing  you but I enjoyed meeting and chatting with your husband. 
Our Butler just stopped by and said he would be coming by to collect us. I had agreed before seeing your post or we would have gone down a little early to meet you.

 

Maybe we can meet up briefly after dinner or later this evening. 
 

 

 

[Beamafar]

7 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

I did not know towel animals were a thing on MSC.

 

 

They have been known to make an appearance. 😁

 

A steward, on one of our sailings, left one for us one evening.  Next day I made a point of thanking him.  Every night thereafter, we received more and more elaborate creations.  On the last night, no animal on the bed.  I shrugged and said Ah well, he’s preparing for a busy morning ahead with having to prepare cabins for the new arrivals.  I then turned around to discover a ‘monkey’ hanging from the side of the wardrobe.  I’m sure I have a photo of it (and all the others), but can’t remember which sailing so it would take me an eternity to unearth it. 

[Beamafar]

That Zonin brand is the one they have on European sailings and is included in the basic package. 

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, Beamafar said:

That Zonin brand is the one they have on European sailings and is included in the basic package. 

Thanks for tat information.  I had the Oberon in Butcher’s Cut tonight and think I will ask for that by name tomorrow. 
 

[momofmab]

Have you or your wife had the filet in the YC restaurant yet?  Interested to see what you thought of it.  Before sailing in YC on Seascape, I read post after post about how amazing the filet was in YC - no need to waste your money in Butcher's Cut.  We found that to be far from the case on our sailing.  The YC filet looked like it had been dragged behind the ship (my husband tried it twice), while our meal in Butcher's Cut was superb.

 

My husband also had the chicken breast (which looked exactly like your photo).  One of the things I mentioned on my survey was that YC needs to upgrade their veggie sides on the always available classics, from the mushy mess that they currently serve.  And some kind of sauce offering for that sad slab of chicken breast would be nice.

[DaKahuna]

We had the filet in YC the first night and unlike your experience ours were delicious. Served at the proper temperature and tenderness. 
 

In Butchers Cut the steak was also at the proper temperature but was not as tender as the one in Le Muse.

 

This is the filet at But her’s Cut.

 

[DaKahuna]

Good morning.  Now that I’ve had breakfast and two cups of coffee it is time catch things up.

 

As previously mentioned we dined in Butcher’s Cut last night.  Our butler stopped by and collected us around 6:25 pm for the walk down to the restaurant where me met @JamieLogical and her husband and had a brief chat before we were seated. 
 

 We had singed up pre-cruise for the Dining Experience so we made our selections from that, plus I added the deviled eggs as being a son of the south I wanted to see how these fancy deviled eggs were.

 

My DW chose a Moscoto to go with her meal and she had the Caesar salad and roasted chicken. 
 

I had the Oborn Cabernet Sauvignon to go with my shrimp cocktail, deviled eggs, and filet. 
 

We both chose the banana date cake for dessert.

 

Her Moscoto

 

 

My cab

 

 

Starters

 

 

 

 

main courses

 

 

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the dessert.

 

[DaKahuna]

After dinner we went down to deck 6 and 7 so my wife could look through the shops.  Nothing attracted her attention and the crowds and noise were a bit much for us. 
 

We proceeded to the Top Sail lounge where we were entertained by a musical trio and spent a couple of hours conversing with @Mark_T and his wife before calling it quits around 1130. 
 

After settling my wife in our room, I proceeded down to the casino to use some of my OBC playing ‘bubble roulette’ for about an hour.  I ended up down $3.00 and when the gentleman at the $1 slot machine behind me hit an $8400+ jackpot, I decided it was time to call it a night.

 

[DaKahuna]

We lost an hours sleep last night when we set clocks ahead in preparation for tomorrow’s arrival in Aruba.  
 

My wife had decided last night that she was going to skip breakfast so I went to the lounge and got her some croissants and fresh cut fruit. 
 

i decided I wanted a hot breakfast and proceeded aft to Le Muse.  For my breakfast I had coffee, orange juice, waffles, and Eggs Benedict without the sauce.

 

 

After breakfast I went back to the room, collected my DW and we are now in the lounge relaxing with no particular plans for the day.

 

 

[DaKahuna]

We decided we wanted some gelato and proceeded to deck 14 poolside.  We both had the pistachio and neither of us liked it.  Frozen hard and not creamy smooth like we have found gelato in the past.  Disappointing for an Italian cruise ship.  Celebrity’s Cafe al Bacio gelato is better than this was. 
 

Maybe that’s why there was no line at all to order.

 

[DaKahuna]

After eating what we wanted of the gelato, we strolled through the buffet on deck 14.  It’s 1100 and breakfast is still going.  Crowded and noisy is how I would best describe it.  There were multiple stations serving typical breakfast buffet items as well as an assortment of pastries. 
 

It did not look any better or worse than the breakfast buffet’s on Celebrity.  Of course we’ve not eaten breakfast at a buffet on a cruise in many years and don’t think we’ll start now.

 

[DaKahuna]

Anyone recognize this towel animal?

 

 

[Dock B]

I don’t think it’s an animal: maybe a 3-leg basket with a rose in the center for Valentines??

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, Dock B said:

I don’t think it’s an animal: maybe a 3-leg basket with a rose in the center for Valentines??

A basket is what we were thinking but the four legs threw us off.  

[DaKahuna]

Greetings and salutations.  
 

Just woke up from a nice afternoon nap.  It has been your typical lazy, relaxing sea day.  The ship is proceeding south at about 20 knots and we have a head wind of about 30 knots so it is quite breezy but very sunny outside.

 

We had lunch in Le Muse and it was delicious. My wife had the same Moscato that she had last night in Butcher’s Cut and I had the same red wine, Oboron Cabernet Sauvignon. 

 

We both started with the spinach salad, it was so good looking I had eaten almost half before taking a picture.

 

 

My DW went with the glazed pork, which she said tasted like teriyaki 

 

 

and I had the sea bream

 

 

Forvour dessert we both went with the assorted sorbet, which was refreshing 

 

 

After lunch we went up to The One Pool but the wind was just too much for us. It was busy up there with quite a few guest having lunch, others enjoying the jacuzzi’s and still more soaking in the rays.

 

We went down to the Top Sail Lounge where I enjoyed a New Fashioned made by Herbert.  He’s been making these for me since day one and other than a Sidecar, a margarita, and a couple of Old Fashioned’s has been my go to drink so far this cruise.  My DW said she felt a little chilled from the sorbet so she had a pot of green tea. 
 

We finished our drinks and came to the room where I took the nap I mentioned early in the morning.

 

I’ll close with a minor comparison of the public restrooms between Celebrity M and S class ships and MSC Divina. Celebrity wins this one hands down.  I find the public restrooms I have used much smaller on Divina.  Also, unlike Celebrity ships, I have not seen any overhead signs indicating where a restroom is located. 
 

Tow of the three I have used onboard were located behind a door maked female, male, and handicapped.  Once through that door there are separate doors for women, men, and handicapped.   Them men and womens both have paper towels vs cloth and we have found non that have toilet seat covers.

 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

Good morning from Aruba.  We are currently sitting in the Top Sail Lounge with a host of others waiting for the gangway to open.  We have no plans for today so are hanging out off to one side to be out of the way when people start to leave.

 

Last night we went to dinner and encountered our first real disappointments of the cruise.

 

i ordered the crab cake and a salad.  My wife received French Onion Soup again and the vegetable spring roll.

 

 

underneath the thin slice of apple and some root vegetable is the crab cake.  It tasted more like a potato croquette as it had very little crab flavor. I had been warned by @Mark_T that this would be the case.  
 

I did not get a picture of the salad but it was a lot of iceberg lettuce with some corn and tomatoes. It was served with a thin avocado dressing.  Nothing noteworthy at all. 
 

My DW enjoyed her sour and spring rolls

 

 

 

For the main course my DW had the sea bream and I had the short rubs.  I also ordered the lobster ravioli for us to share.

 

My DW said her fish was good

 

 

and my short ribs were very delicious. 
 

 

The disappointment was the ravioli.  It was only slightly above room temperature.  I am going to write this down as a one off as I overheard other guest speaking highly of it, including Mark’s wife.

 

 

of course our wonderful service staff surprised us again with a plate of rice to go with our meal.

 

 

For dessert we both had the apple strudel that was served warm as it should be! 
 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

After dinner we took a leisurely stoll of the lounges and shops on deck 7 before heading down to the casino.  We both made sacrifices to the casino gods but still have funds to support future trips.

 

Due to the time change my DW said she was ready to go to the room so I dropped her off and I joined @Mark_T and his wife in the lounge for a couple of Long Island Ice Teas, which had to be the best I have tasted in years.  Herbert once more outdid himself! 
 

 

I called it a night and went to the cabin and quickly fell asleep.  I guess I was more tired than I thought.

 

[DaKahuna]

Having no plans for Aruba we did not set an alarm but my DW was up and making ready when the captain came over the announcement system to inform everthat we would be an hour late arriving in Aruba due to operational reasons.

 

As I said, we had no plans for today, and since we were up later than normal we ended up not being ready for breakfast until after Le muse had closed so we went to the One Pool for omelettes.

 

 

and now it’s time to walk off the last two days of food and drink.

 

[Mark_T]

Sounds like you had a relaxing morning, we only had a short submarine trip booked so the delayed docking did not worry us.

 

 Had an enjoyable dive down to 141ft. With plenty of fish and a few wrecks for entertainment. 

[TrinaLC]

58 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

Sounds like you had a relaxing morning, we only had a short submarine trip booked so the delayed docking did not worry us.

 

 Had an enjoyable dive down to 141ft. With plenty of fish and a few wrecks for entertainment.  

We read elsewhere that Divina was having propulsion problems which delayed Aruba?  Any truth, we are due to sail soon!

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

Sounds like you had a relaxing morning, we only had a short submarine trip booked so the delayed docking did not worry us.

 

 Had an enjoyable dive down to 141ft. With plenty of fish and a few wrecks for entertainment. 

i hope you took a lot of pictures! 
 

Look forward to how your submarine dive went.

 

[DaKahuna]

32 minutes ago, TrinaLC said:

 

We read elsewhere that Divina was having propulsion problems which delayed Aruba?  Any truth, we are due to sail soon!

The only thing I have heard is that it was because of ‘operational’ reasons.  There has been no mention of any delays arriving in Cartagena tomorrow and we’re out of Aruba on time and headed there now.