Is MSC right for me? March 19,2016 cruise

Debarkation

Two days before debarkation, we received our debarkation information. We all received red tags, 10:30 AM departure.

Normally, this would have been fine with us except for a big problem. My husband and I had driven to port and the plan was that we would drive my daughter and the boyfriend to Ft Lauderdale airport for their flight home.

Because the boyfriend had boarded in Jamaica, we already knew that US customs and immigration was going to escort him and his luggage off the ship at 6 AM to clear immigration and customs. He then would have to wait for us to come out the customs and immigration area.

A trip to the service desk, an explanation of the situation, and we received a smile and yellow tags for priority debarkation (7:15 AM).

This was much better, especially as we all had received the shock of finding out we needed to vacate the cabins by 7 AM, definitely earlier than any other cruise we have been on.

The morning of debarkation, C & I didn't arrive to escort the boyfriend off the ship until 6:30 AM and then he had to wait about twenty minutes for the land side staff to organize themselves. He was out of the building at 7 AM.

Meanwhile we had breakfast and made our way down to the casino where we were to wait for our color to be called.

MSC also handles this procedure differently. The color to leave will only be announced in the meeting place for that color. There is no hanging about the exit for your group to arrive, you are firmly told to go to your waiting area.

When the color is announced, your group is escorted to the departure area to be dinged off the ship.

We arrive at 7:15 AM and we had about a five minute wait until yellow was called. AS the group was leaving, my daughter saw the Entertainment Staff Director standing in the casino. She decided to tell him about the back pack and tee shirt prizes and how they were going to her school. I didn't hear the whole conversation, but his grin became larger and larger as she told her story and thanked the two staff members who supported her need in the prizes she received.

By the time we came back to us, our group had been escorted out of the casino. Stopping at the "traffic cop" guarding the exit, we identified ourselves as yellow and we were directed to where our group was exiting the ship.

On the pier, the luggage is not set out in large groups according to color. Instead, the luggage for each group is placed on a an airport style luggage belt at the time each group exits the ship. This means any one who manages to leave the ship before their color is called will find that their luggage will not be available until their color is called on the ship.

This made it very easy to find our luggage. We engaged the services of a porter who loaded our bags, we breezed through C & I and we were curbside with the boyfriend by 7:35 AM.

One of us walked to the garage to bring the car back to the pier curbside .

This was definitely the fastest off and through customs of our cruising career.

Just wanted to mention that you are right about the Neapolitan food onboard MSC - the founder Gianluigi Aponte was born in Sant'Agnello (just outside of Sorrento) and founded MSC in Naples in 1970, hence the Neapolitan cuisine of Campania is ever present on MSC.

I can attest to the Southern Italian heritage of MSC. The first night in Le Muse the maître d'hôtel asked if there was anything special I might like. I replied that I would appreciate polenta and gorgonzola, which I consider staples of the Northern Italian diet. Not available, he said Actually, on the last night, polenta appeared on the menu, but it was orange :eek: and not to my liking at all. There was plenty of risotto offered though. In fact most, but not all, of the food was .disappointing. On an Italian ship, that was hard to accept for me..

Thanks for the review and very helpful information!

We are looking to book our first MSC cruise for 2018 and want to learn all we can about this cruise line!:D

Homosassa, I concur with the previous poster in thanking you for taking the time to write such a detailed review. We are considering MSC and your info was super helpful, especially re: food. (I have some food issues and so I need to research this area extensively before committing to a ship.) Thanks again!

k.

Debarkation

 

Two days before debarkation, we received our debarkation information. We all received red tags, 10:30 AM departure.

 

Normally, this would have been fine with us except for a big problem. My husband and I had driven to port and the plan was that we would drive my daughter and the boyfriend to Ft Lauderdale airport for their flight home.

 

Because the boyfriend had boarded in Jamaica, we already knew that US customs and immigration was going to escort him and his luggage off the ship at 6 AM to clear immigration and customs. He then would have to wait for us to come out the customs and immigration area.

 

A trip to the service desk, an explanation of the situation, and we received a smile and yellow tags for priority debarkation (7:15 AM).

 

This was much better, especially as we all had received the shock of finding out we needed to vacate the cabins by 7 AM, definitely earlier than any other cruise we have been on.

 

The morning of debarkation, C & I didn't arrive to escort the boyfriend off the ship until 6:30 AM and then he had to wait about twenty minutes for the land side staff to organize themselves. He was out of the building at 7 AM.

 

Meanwhile we had breakfast and made our way down to the casino where we were to wait for our color to be called.

 

MSC also handles this procedure differently. The color to leave will only be announced in the meeting place for that color. There is no hanging about the exit for your group to arrive, you are firmly told to go to your waiting area.

 

When the color is announced, your group is escorted to the departure area to be dinged off the ship.

 

We arrive at 7:15 AM and we had about a five minute wait until yellow was called. AS the group was leaving, my daughter saw the Entertainment Staff Director standing in the casino. She decided to tell him about the back pack and tee shirt prizes and how they were going to her school. I didn't hear the whole conversation, but his grin became larger and larger as she told her story and thanked the two staff members who supported her need in the prizes she received.

 

By the time we came back to us, our group had been escorted out of the casino. Stopping at the "traffic cop" guarding the exit, we identified ourselves as yellow and we were directed to where our group was exiting the ship.

 

On the pier, the luggage is not set out in large groups according to color. Instead, the luggage for each group is placed on a an airport style luggage belt at the time each group exits the ship. This means any one who manages to leave the ship before their color is called will find that their luggage will not be available until their color is called on the ship.

 

This made it very easy to find our luggage. We engaged the services of a porter who loaded our bags, we breezed through C & I and we were curbside with the boyfriend by 7:35 AM.

 

One of us walked to the garage to bring the car back to the pier curbside .

 

This was definitely the fastest off and through customs of our cruising career.

few things to add to your post from my experience on the May 21, 2016 sailing:

- Around 8:00AM, I went back to my room to retrieve something & noticed there were plenty of people still in their rooms.

- At 8:15AM, we found an exit on Deck 7, right outside the Black & White lounge, where there was nobody exiting the ship, literally empty & guarded by a few MSC employees awaiting to scan your cards to exit. We just left from there with zero wait. We had Lilac 2 tags for 10:15AM debarkation.

- Our luggage was already waiting for us around 8:20AM-8:25AM, even though our debarkation time was scheduled for 10:15AM. The luggage sits on a long snake shaped conveyer belt and is taken off and placed on the floor area the corresponds to your debarkation color.

One of the posters here said that the ship wasn't that nice. I got off her May 14th, and the one thing everyone I spoke to onboard agreed on was how beautiful it was and how good the service was. Some people complained about the food in the MDR, and some loved it.I do agree that the layout of the ship is questionable. Sometimes you have to go down in order to go up, moving from front to back.

I keep on seeing comments that the ship was difficult to get around on when going up or down.

I personally found the ship very easy to navigate. Yes, there are sections where you need to use a specific set of elevators to go to the highest or lowest decks fore or aft, but that is common on any of the larger ships I have been on where some sections of the ships have higher decks fore and aft that do not carry across the length of the ship.

The lowest decks have the dining rooms and gallery in the aft and, yes, one may need to go up to go forward, but again, that is a common design feature of ships that have the dining rooms aft. It is certainly better than ship's that are designed with the MDRs in the middle of the ship where traffic flow is completely disrupted traveling fore and aft on those decks.

I have also seen comments that the ship has many tripping hazards. Again, I am not the most graceful of people but I found no tripping hazards on the ship. Of course, I am a very occasional "social" drinker and I feel that may have something to do with the ability to maintain an upright forward motion.;)

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I have also seen comments that the ship has many tripping hazards. Again, I am not the most graceful of people but I found no tripping hazards on the ship. Of course, I am a very occasional "social" drinker and I feel that may have something to do with the ability to maintain an upright forward motion.;)

Homosassa, you are certainly on a roll today. First you labeled those of us who don't find the food 'stellar' as having less sophisticated pallets and now you are insinuating that those of us who warn others of the multiple tripping hazards on Divina as somehow less able than you to maintain an upright position.

Tell you what, I'm heading back on the Divina in 2 weeks and I will personally photograph all the tripping hazards (including the multiple signs posted by MSC indicating tripping hazards). And then we can put this topic to rest :).

Homosassa, you are certainly on a roll today. First you labeled those of us who don't find the food 'stellar' as having less sophisticated pallets and now you are insinuating that those of us who warn others of the multiple tripping hazards on Divina as somehow less able than you to maintain an upright position.

 

Tell you what, I'm heading back on the Divina in 2 weeks and I will personally photograph all the tripping hazards (including the multiple signs posted by MSC indicating tripping hazards). And then we can put this topic to rest :).

most if not all the tripping hazards i witnessed was in the Pantheon theater, there were some "unexpected steps" that were brightly lit by LED lights.

the transition areas from the buffet to the outside areas, especially the indoor tiled areas were very slippery. (feels like an oily slick from the food area)

it appears that if your room is mid-ship (by the middle elevators) or rear ship, you will significantly reduce your amount of walking. Our room was in the front of the ship (10061) and felt we did a TON of walking every day. The layout did seem to spread passengers all over so that not one particular area is over-crowded.

When the shows end, majority of the people exit on deck 6 and empty through the Casino. That was the only time i saw a crowd of people in one area. Quickest way to leave that crowd is to exit through the balconies on Deck 7 or walk the stairs up one level to Deck 7

Also, at times i saw 2 people leaving a small plate to hold a table for 6. Smaller parties should not be sitting in larger tables meant for larger groups. It's hard enough to find a table for 5+. We had to find seats, every day, at the extreme end of the ship during buffet hours to find a table for 6. Rear of the ship is where most of the tables for 6+ are found.