Best Cat Mom

Day 1 concludes...

After sailaway, we spent a little time in TSL with a sidecar and an old fashioned. We saw Hubert, bartender extraordinaire, and caught up with him a bit. We met him on our first Divina cruise in October of 2022, which was our first post-Covid holiday. He was bartender of the One Pool Bar at that time. He wasn't on our next Divina cruise but he was on the one after that, the transatlantic. We walked into TSL that first day and he was behind the bar. It is always so nice to find someone that you know from a previous cruise -- someone good from a previous cruise, I should say. It gives you a feeling of what to expect on your current holiday in a very good way.

Unfortunately, Hubert is disembarking with us on the 18th. He has no idea where he will be next. I hope that all of you have a chance to meet him someday. He is a great bartender and truly cares about taking the best care of his guests. You'll feel at home in TSL with him. 🙂

We went back to our cabin to change for dinner and headed to Le Muse via Deck 7. We dodged the photographers (only 2 tonight) and checked in with Warsha at the host stand. Warsha was on the transatlantic with us so she knew that we'd want to be in Glenn's section. At lunch, we had chatted with Glenn and at that time he still did not know who would be his assistant. As we were seated, Ryan came by and told us that the "dream team" of him and Glenn were back together! All 4 of us reminisced a bit (maybe a bit longer than we should have) but it was not an issue because Le Muse was surprisingly empty for nearly 8pm. Apparently, the lull between early diners and late diners was nearly 20 minutes tonight. We sipped our customary champagnes while checking out the menu.

For starters, BCD chose the nordic salad and I ordered the sea scallops.

We switched to a cabernet sauvignon then to accompany the filets we ordered for our mains. Of course, we also ordered the risotto to share. We totally forgot to take pictures of the food, though we did capture Ryan with our bottle of wine (I scratched out a few faces in the background. I try to respect people's privacy whenever possible.)

Ryan had left the bottle of Oberon on our table and we still had a bit left so we ordered some grana padano to end our meal.

After a very satisfying dinner, we made our way back to TSL for some nightcaps. Two rounds later, we were back in the cabin for the night. All in all, we felt it was a very good first cruise day. Then again, compared to not being on a cruise with good food, good wine and good company, how could it not have been a good cruise day?

Muster was the typical MSC format, at least from our experience post-Covid.

We watched the safety video when the announcement told us. It is on a repeat loop all morning, but we did not bother to watch it earlier since you need to know when it ends so that you can proceed to the next step, which for us was calling 881 and then going to our muster station via the stairs to have our cruise cards scanned. We headed down to station D (La Luna Bar) on Deck 7 right away. There were very few other people out yet. At the muster station, we were able to immediately get our cards scanned as no one else was there at that time. Then we headed back the way we came. We started up the stairs, encountering only a few people on their way down. BCD was going a bit slower and was offered an elevator by the crew on Deck 10. He and I met on Deck 15 as his elevator and my legs finished in sync. Having earned our next drinks, we needed to decide where to watch sail away. When we saw from our balcony that we were pulling away from the dock, we proceeded up to the One Pool deck to grab drinks and bid ciao to Miami.

Here's our last look at Miami in the setting sun:

Dinner is next...

Day 1 continues...

Here is the welcome letter that was in our cabin:

Here is the 6-page Daily Program from Day 1:

Muster drill next...

Day 1 continued...

At 2:10pm, we returned to our room after lunch and saw two of our suitcases at our cabin door. Our junior butler Richard appeared just as we got there and brought the cases into our cabin. He asked if that was all of our luggage. When we told him we had one more, he said that he would look for it. Then we told him our pillow choice (Oxygen), asked for 3 extra towels each day, and requested ice for our bucket in the evenings. We also stressed that we wanted him to make sure our bed was tightly secured. We frequently have the two mattresses separate and I am always the one who winds up in the "crevice." This is one thing we miss from NCL's Haven -- a real king-sized mattress. It's clearly not a deal-breaker for us and is the reason we don't mind going home after a cruise.

Within 10 minutes, Richard was back with our pillows and the third suitcase. We told him our refrigerator preferences (Coke Zero and Heineken for BCD), newspaper choice (Wall Street Journal) and our choice of alcohol bottle (Glen Grant). We told him that we'd need to unpack to determine how many extra hangers we'd need.

We unpacked quickly then to get settled. Last cruise we had ordered a pizza to help us unpack and thought it would be a new cruise ritual for us. We thought about it today but we were still way too full from lunch to even want to give it a try.

At 3pm our butler Dwi stopped by. We had been brought onboard by her and I had asked her if she would be our butler for this cruise. I had told her the wrong cabin number -- wrong deck, right last 2 digits -- so she was so surprised when I opened the door to her knock. We chatted for nearly 20 minutes but she seemed to be in no rush. I told her that we needed 12 hangers. She was back in just a minute with them. I got the rest of our stuff onto them and we put the cases under the bed to never be seen again -- well, until the 18th. 😞

Images of cabin 15022:

Love the "H" shape on the faucets of the tub. Hermes anyone?

More to come about Day 1...

Just now, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Do you know the champagne served?

We've been served Nicolas Feuillatte so far.

From experience, I know that if they run out, they'll substitute others. We've had Pommery and Moet and Chandon as substitutes in the past, which makes me wish that they do run out during our cruise. 😉

Just now, NYHartChapp said:

My apologies to Mehmet for misspelling his name.

We only know how to spell it from the concierge desk. We asked when we were writing names on tip envelopes last cruise. LOL

Day 1 continued…

There was no QR code table placard  in Le Muse for the menu like on our last cruise. We had liked the QR code being available because we could see the lunch and dinner menus each day at the beginning of the day. However, we did notice that the actual menu was sometimes different than was posted. I will be posting the menus from the display case outside the restaurant for this cruise. I apologize for any reflections coming from the glass cover.

Day 1 lunch menu page 1:

We began lunch with some champagne to help us peruse the menus:

The menu is the "typical" embarkation day menu for YC lunch. I was happy the menu hadn't changed because I was looking forward to the octopus soup. I started with that and BCD opted for cobb salad. We both had the beef for our mains, with a cabernet sauvignon that we'd not had before on MSC. It was a great pairing for the steaks, with just the right amount of tannins. (No pix of the starters, sorry. And the mains were "in process.")

Dessert for us was finishing our liquid grapes. Back to the cabin next...

Day 1

We awoke as the sun was beginning to rise. Our room did not face east but my senses still perceived the lightening of the sky, likely because of my enthusiasm for what today would bring.

We had the free breakfast and ate just enough to get us to our first lunch at Le Muse, talking about how much better breakfast would be on board.

At 10:20am, we checked out of Hyatt Place and ordered our Uber to the port. It arrived promptly at 10:25am -- a great advantage of having a hotel near the airport. There was no traffic so we arrived at the port, checked our luggage at the YC tent and were escorted to the security area by 10:50am. Thirty minutes from hotel check out to ship security? I'll take it!

Five minutes later the ship had apparently been cleared and the YC guests were allowed to pass through security before the other guests who were lined up near us. There were about 20 or so guests in the YC pre-security seating area and maybe 200-250 other guests lined up separate from us.

Divina embarkation for this cruise was at Terminal C. We've never boarded at C before, though we did disembark at this terminal after our last cruise. BCD remembered the area because it's where he had to go to retrieve his confiscated Leatherman multi-tool at the end of our transatlantic crossing in December.

After security, we entered a YC guest area to provide credentials and receive cruise cards, taking pictures if needed. BCD had added his picture when he did his online check in and they did not take a new picture of him. I had used his picture (!) for my check in so they took a new picture of me. We were told to have a seat to wait for a butler escort. There were no refreshments and only about 16 seats. There was a line of us 20 at first, but guests coming after the first 15 minutes or so were checked in as soon as they were brought to the area.

At 11:07am, the group of us were taken upstairs by Head Butler Rudy. We did need to show our boarding pass again before going up the escalator. We were led to a seating area with refreshments:

There was prosecco (not semi-sweet but dry, similar to champagne), water (still and gas), fruit juice, mixed nuts and -- good news for those of you who covet them -- chocolate covered peanuts. We opted for some prosecco:

The entire group of us were escorted onto the ship at 11:35am and were firmly ensconsed in the Top Sail Lounge (TSL) by 11:42am. Another group of about 10 guests joined us in TSL just ten minutes later.

The head concierge Simone was circulating in TSL, welcoming people on board and answering questions. Another crew member was available to help with connecting to the internet. And one TSL butler was letting people know when their cabin was available. We were told that the buffet on the One Pool Deck was serving lunch beginning at noon and Le Muse would begin seating at 12:30pm today. Our cabin was available just before noon. We dropped off our 2 carry on bags, freshened up and headed to Le Muse to arrive just after 12:30pm.

Lunch details in next post…

We arrived in ATL Terminal B and headed to the Delta Crown Room, oops Sky Club (showing my age, I guess). The club was less full than usual and there was no check in line. The snacks in the B lounge have more options than our CVG club, but nothing seemed particularly noteworthy so no pix from there.

Our next flight was leaving out of Terminal B also, which was good. But it was delayed, which was not. The delay was only expected to be ~30 minutes thankfully. We were taking later flights than usual so we were worried about cancellations of course. The weather was fine in both ATL and MIA. We later found out the delay was because the crew was a bit late coming in.

No PDBs but we managed to have 2 Vodka Crans and 2 Old Fashioneds during the flight. Takeoff was 21 minutes late but we made up time while in the air and only landed 13 minutes late, around 10pm. Surprisingly, security was already closed at MIA. I never realized that they don't have late flights out of MIA.

We ordered an Uber to get to our hotel, Hyatt Place Airport East (3549 NW Le Jeune Road). We've stayed at this property every single time we've had a cruise out of MIA. When we first stayed there, they had an airport shuttle which made it very convenient for us. During Covid, the shuttle was eliminated and never reinstated. But the low points needed to stay and the quick Uber ride keeps us going back.

Standard room there (with a nightlight in the bathroom, if that matters):

Their kitchen has a limited menu but had closed at 10pm. We got a Vodka Cran and a beer at the bar and headed to bed, looking so forward to tomorrow.

Embarkation day comes next...

33 minutes ago, psmarkle said:

Highly recommend Homer and Kaith (like Keith, but with an A) for your Waiter/Ass't Waiter team.

I don't recall that pair. We had Glenn and Ryan on the transatlantic so we asked for them again. Mehmet has some great people in Le Muse.

3 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Can you post who the Maitre'd and Sommelier are. And your butler.

Mehmet is still the maitre' d of Le Muse. This is our fourth time in YC on Divina and there has never been a sommelier in Le Muse.

Our butler this time is Dwi. We knew her from TSL on our last cruise when we had Elvin as our butler. They are both great. We've seen how they both seek our their guests in TSL to check in and see if anything is needed so it seems more than just our opinion.

8 hours ago, alserrod said:

Hi, could you share your "daily planners"?

 

 

PS. You should learn a bit of Spanish after this cruise. Most ports of call are in Spanish speaking countries

I will post the daily schedules as they come.

We always like brushing up on our Spanish in the Caribbean. But we get much more practice with our Italian. 😉

Our flight to Miami was Saturday afternoon at ~4pm so we packed Friday night to allow us a leisurely travel day. This cruise was not as long as our transatlantic crossing last year and only encompassed one season of weather so we took one less checked bag. Here's our 2 hard-sided spinner bags, one (old fashioned) garment bag, and two carry ons:

Our Uber to the airport allowed us to arrive in the CVG Delta Sky Club around 2pm Saturday.

Champagne and snacks before our flight:

Then PDBs (pre-departure beverages) on board -- Vodka Cranberry and Old Fashioned:

And another round once in the air:

We're off to a good start on this holiday!

We are on the Divina once again for a Caribbean cruise in the YC (Yacht Club). Here's the itinerary for our 11-night voyage:

Happy to share our experiences for others since we've gleaned so much information from here over the years. Please let me know if you have any questions and we'll do our best to answer.

Room service pizza allows you to choose your own toppings, though. 

How fortunate that you still had the HAL booking to use as a backup! We haven't gone through the Panama Canal yet, but it is on our list for the future. We've sailed YC both in Europe and in the US. We think YC "smooths out" the differences in the different passenger mixes. I'm sure you'll enjoy it all. 🙂

@Heartgrove Have you found a comparable Grand Voyage to book? We're looking at Seaside in late October 2024 but not sure where we might want to embark yet.

If all else fails, remove the light bulbs.

Also cancelled is the return in Spring 2025. I think Divina may not be returning to the Caribbean in the future. 😞

We're looking at Seaside's transatlantic crossings in October now to replace our reserved Divina cruise.

4 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

At least now I know haven't missed out on anything these past 50 years.

Because of you, we know this now as well. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on Regent as compared to (our favorite) MSC YC. We will not have to ever give them another thought. 🙂

Does anyone know if Antonio is still Le Muse chef on Divina? We knew that Mehmet, Warsha, Glenn, Ryan and Susmita expected to still be on board for our cruise next week, but weren't sure about the chef.

6 hours ago, Cathy in Boston said:

We’re starting a cruise on the Divina in less than three weeks.

We'll be on that sailing also. Looks like we're okay so far. 🙂

After we get envelopes from the concierge desk and fill each of them, we put the person's name on the envelope. We keep a list of the names and amounts for future reference and for the formal feedback to MSC. We'll carry a few envelopes around at a time and look for people in the YC area. If we haven't found someone and the day is almost over, we'll ask the concierge if they have seen the person recently. The concierge knows why a guest is looking for someone on the last day. They've even called around for us and had the person come to the concierge desk. This is why we make sure that envelope(s) are given to the concierge(s) earlier in the day. 🙂

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

I try hard to be incognito.

Did you realize that your name is on the laundry images?

(At least one of us had already figured it out from that other social media site though. LOL)

On 3/14/2024 at 4:05 PM, mnpurple said:

I'm trying to recall who on this board mentioned a "special" cruise coffee they like to order?  Something with Baileys and amaretto?

We do have a regular iced coffee that we "teach" them to make for us -- 1 shot espresso, 1 shot Baileys, 1 shot Kahlua, 1 shot coconut rum. We call it Holiday Coffee. Maybe that was what you were remembering? Even if not, give it a try and let me know what you think. 🙂