CruiserTB

I think people are missing the title of my thread which is it's the worst cruise I've been on but still a pretty good cruise so let me add some context. From best to worst:

1)Disney (sailed multiple times and it can't be matched but comes at a high price)

2)Norwegian (we had a 2 bedroom suite and it was a great experience)

3)Royal Caribbean (sailed multiple times but favorite was leaving from NJ for my birthday and I won the megabingo!)

4)Carnival (family reunion cruise)

5)Divina

So I say again if Divina is the worst cruise experience I'll ever have, I'd take it over and over again.

Oh and for those traveling with babies, we had a car seat bag which stored our carseat and fit rather nicely in the closet along with 1 other luggage. We put the other 2 luggages we had in the connecting stateroom but you could probably fit it under the bed (my shoes were put under the bed so there was no room to test this out)

I wanted to add 1 important fact, if you took Disney as you had in the past, it would have cost you a 'lot' more money!

For someone with young children, Disney is the best but unfortunately they cost a lot more, and not everyone can afford it!

The Divina pricing, and young children cruise free offers families an affordable opportunity to cruise!

Thanks for your review, happy cruising!:)

I definitely agree with this. But I did say my son had a great time on the Divina and the staff and other cruisers were delighted by him. I would definitely cruise the Divina again with a baby. It's a much more affordable alternative to Disney (which no one can touch but you pay for that experience)

Maybe they went to get more, i also doubt that they ran out 15 min after opening the buffet.

I said a half hour later. I might have gotten the times mixed up but it was a half hour after I checked the place out to see what's for dinner when I came up with my family and the salmon was gone. I'm not gonna continue to say this believe what you want. This is my experience the end.:rolleyes:

Thanks for the review! I'm glad you had a good time,

 

My husband and it will be sailing this Saturday !!

 

You mentioned setting up the on board account. I did notice you cannot do this online like you can with other cruise lines. You said you have to go to guest services? Everyone has to do this??? Or can it be set up when your checking in at the port?

No you can set it up while checking in at the port. The only thing you would need to see guest services for is if you're using cash or like us if there's an issue with swiping the credit card at check-in. I don't know why we had this issue because guest services was able to swipe it just fine but it was fine.

thanks for the review, you are brave cruising with a. 18 month! would you go again?

Yeah it was definitely a challenge. I would do it again though. I gleaned some tips from other people traveling with infants and mentally prepared myself that this cruise would be different from the ones in the past. But like I said all in all we had a good time.

While we were waiting to embark the ship last week, I was talking with the butler who had escorted us to the Yacht Club check-in on our first sailing back in May as well as the lovely lady who had checked us in, and none of the check-in agents, porters, butlers,etc. are employed by MSC,,they are all employed by SMS Shore Operations Ltd. Norwegian, Carnival, MSC, use this company for all of their onshore support at the pier.

Yeah I don't care who employs them embarkation was too long, the longest I've ever encountered and I've been on Carnival, Norwegian, etc...

Hey everyone,

I gleaned so much info from this board I thought I'd give back with a little review of my own. If you have any specific questions for me please feel free to ask.

Let me start with a little about me and my companions on this cruise to provide a bit of demographics. All adults were in our late 20s early 30s while children ranged in age from 18 months to 13 years old (Specifically 18 month old son, 7 year old boy, 10 year old girl, 13 year old daughter). I chose this cruise based on price and itinerary. Traveling on the cruise for the first time with my 18 month old son I didn’t want to pick ports I had never been to before, anticipating that I wouldn’t be able to do as much sight seeing as I’m used to. I also picked this cruise line because of the European feel previous reviewers had mentioned. I studied in different parts of Europe for undergrad and post-grad studies so I am used to the European effect of multiple conversations in different languages and other nuances. With that being said none of my issues with this cruise can be blamed on “European differences” and although we had a good time it definitely was the worst cruise I’ve ever been on. Still, if this is the worst it gets I’ll still take it! So let me begin:

Embarkation:

It took way too long and the agent directing the line at the beginning was either misinformed, incompetent, or intentionally trying to mess with us. Since I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt I’ll go with misinformed. We arrived at the port around noon. When we got to embarkation there were two lines you could go in. The agent at the front of the line directing everyone directed us to the line furthest away. When we asked what the difference in the line was because the closer line looked shorter he stated that the line furthest away doesn’t loop back around like the closer line does so that both lines essentially have the same wait time. How wrong he was. We found out about 3/4 in that the line did in fact loop around. In fact the travelers in front of us all seemed to notice this at the same time and did a collective “what the heck?!” In addition the line moved so slow, they definitely needed more agents checking people in. But in fact after a while they did add more agents and the line started moving at an acceptable rate. But it was bad and the agents knew it. When we finally made it to the front of the line the agent asked how long did our wait take and when we told her an hour and a half, she apologized and said that it was a long wait. That being said I’m used to long lines and can adapt pretty quickly so I spent most of my time in line watching Netflix. My 18 month old was in his stroller relaxing without a care in the world, my teenager was reading, the 7 year old boy (whoo) he was jumping around, and the 10 year old was looking around. All in all although the line was long, I didn’t let it affect me but sadly it was the longest embarkation I’ve ever had and I cruise the same time of year every year and show up at the ports around the same time so I can’t blame it on that.

Also, for some reason my partner’s credit card wouldn’t recognize at embarkation so we were informed we would have to go to guest services to create our onboard account. That guest services line was crazy but I’ll get to that later. So for being the longest embarkation time ever MSC has to lose points

Onboard

Once onboard we were met by a smurf. Now here’s what I found odd, there was no one offering to take our picture. Yes you could take pictures with the smurf using your own camera but there wasn’t like the normal welcome aboard photo I’m used to. I found that odd. I ended up taking a picture of everyone with the smurf on my cameraphone but alas I did not get a picture with the smurf. Not a big deal at all just odd.

Then we checked in with the kids club. Even though my son was too young for the organized programs he still had to get a wristband to wear for the week and I was given some papers about open play time and babysitting services. A pleasant surprise was that they offered in-room babysitting which when I researched before it did not appear they had this service. I think it’s new but I could be wrong. It was only offered on sea days from 8a-9am and 4p-6pm. So not long at all and we never used it but I felt it was a nice gesture to offer this service.

Afterwards we went to check out our rooms. 2 out of the 3 rooms we booked were ready so that was good and the crib I reserved was waiting in my room. We had 2 connecting balconies and an oceanview room. I attempted to call guest services to have the connecting door unlocked, the balcony divider opened, and the beds in the kids’ room split. I gave up after 10 mins on old. I figured everyone was calling so it was best to wait. I called back later and put the phone on speaker so I could do other stuff while waiting. Eventually someone picked up, they said they would unlock the connecting door but couldn’t open the divider for safety reasons (didn’t understand that one but ok) and they would split the beds. Later when we came back to our rooms, they split the beds but didn’t open the connecting door. The door would not be opened the entire cruise and we just gave up. I had better luck with my room steward who was great. I asked about the balcony again and he said no problem. Later when we got back to our rooms, the balcony divider was opened and that’s the way we went in and out of eachother’s rooms. I did end up calling guest services around 8pm that evening to ask for another blanket for the crib because we discovered that the crib bedding was uneven and lumpy and wanted to even things out. Guest services said ok but by 10pm they hadn’t shown up and my son was sleeping in his crib so we figured they forgot about us and just went to bed. At 12:30am someone continuously knocks at our door. I was in bed hoping whoever it was would just go away but no such luck they just kept banging. Finally my partner gets up to open the door and receives a towel. Yup, a towel. So yeah clearly a breakdown in communication somewhere. Luckily my son stayed asleep. The next day we mentioned needed a blanket to our wonderful room steward and when we got back it was waiting for us. We decided then and there to wait to personally speak to him if we had any concerns regarding our room. Now once again although not a big deal since we found an acceptable alternative, not being able to have issues resolved by calling guest services is something we never encountered on another cruise line so MSC had to lose points here. (We would try guest services one final time with the same results).

More on guest services

As stated earlier we had to go to guest services to create our on board account. That went fine once there the credit card swiped correctly and we didn’t have any problems once we reached an agent. The line was the issue. I contemplated that the line would be long and mentally prepared for it. What I didn’t mentally prepare for was a short line that took forever. I don’t blame MSC for this, it was the other passengers. Sigh, we were in front of one lady who I truly believe got on the boat complaining. She was saying how she has been on so many MSC cruises and this was the worst she’s ever seen (I think by then we were on the boat for like an hour) and how the lines were so long. Now in my head I’m thinking what do you expect its summer time. Maybe it’s just me, I take my vacation when kids are out of school so I’m used to long lines and long wait times. Anyway going to guest services in person usually got your issue resolved with no fuss and the only thing I would mention is that there are separate lines which seem like they would belong to something else but are still guest services. We discovered that quickly and always went in the line with multiple agents regardless of the amount of people waiting because those lines usually went fast.

One final thing about calling guest services. I ordered pizza through the interactive TV and received my confirmation that pizza was on its way in about 30 mins. An hour later I called guest services just to check the status (for some reason everything routes through guest services). The agent said sometimes the interactive tv doesn’t work and she would route me to the pizza department, well they didn’t answer so the phone went back to guest services and the agent then said she would continue to call them and call me back with the status. Well she calls back and says the order did not go through and now it’s too late to order pizza. She says sorry and hangs up. Um? Huh? So yeah we were slightly ticked off about that but we all just said forget it and went to sleep. No use in dwelling on it. But yeah phoning guest services loses points, going t guest services in person is fine.

Food

Speaking of food…Sigh I’m so sad to report that the food was just ok. I think I was looking forward to the food the most. I know there have been mixed reviews about the food before but I chalked up all the negative reviews to those people not used to European cuisine and the differences between Italian food and Italian-American food. Alas I was wrong. I was expecting the tastes I enjoyed while touring Italy during school but no it was no where close. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly where they went wrong, I’m just gonna say the food was “eh”. With the exception of the ethnic station at lunch time in the buffet, now that was a treat.

Also, biggest issue with the food and this isn’t a European difference this is basic cruiseline stuff. They ran out of food! Consistently. Also the portions in the dining room weren’t consistent. For example on mixed grill night, there was shrimp, scallop, and fish. Some people received 3 shrimp, 3 scallops, and fish while others received 2 shrimp, 2 scallops, and shrimp and still others received 1 shrimp, 1 scallop, and fish. In each instance the fish was the same size. That’s just one example but it shows clearly the contrast and we were all at the early dining so I don’t know if they under anticipated the order and had to adjust so they could still offer the same thing for the late service but either way it was unacceptable. Also in the buffet, they would run out of items and if you were lucky replace it with something else but other times there would be just an empty space where it once lay. This happened numerous times at lunch and it also happened the one time we chose the buffet for dinner. I went up early on this particular evening to see what the buffet had for dinner so I could see if we wanted to eat there or in the MDR. When I went up the carving station was serving salmon, not even a half hour later when I came back up with my family, the salmon was gone and the carving station was empty. It was 6:30pm so not late at all. I’ve never been on a cruiseline where they’ve run out of food or if they have where I noticed so for this MSC has to lose points.

The MDR staff was good After the first day they had our drinks and bottled water sent to us as soon as we arrived. I did recall reading that upon request you can have the food pureed for your child but when I asked they said they couldn’t do it. No matter, I chopped it up with the fork and my little guy gobbled it up. I will say the MDR kids menu lacks steady green vegetables. Sometimes the vegetable would be carrots or corn with no green option. Not a big deal, we adapted but it would have been nice to have as a steady option.

Drinks

We had a drink package. The allegrisimo. It worked fine, I don’t think we broke even but not having to worry about the cost for every drink was nice. One issue. In the beginning my daughter was buying latte’s and cappuccino’s without any issue. For some reason the last few days of the cruise the staff was telling her she couldn’t buy any drinks with coffee in it because she had the child card. From looking at the package before I understood it to mean that the only drinks she couldn’t buy was those with alcohol. So we went to guest services (yeah I’m taking points away from in person guest services for this one) the agent at guest services said she could get coffee with her card but since she’s a minor they won’t let her sign without an adult present because she’s not authorized to charge on the account. I said “but the allegrisimo packagae makes those drinks free so it’s not a charge” and the agent said it was because initially you are charged but then it gets zeroed out. Now I might have accepted this explanation except wouldn’t that be the case for the soda, juices, milkshakes, gelatos she gets from her card without any problem. Yeah so the agent’s explanation made no sense. Anyway probably the day before we left the waitress at the coffee bar stated it was because the coffee is linked to the alcohol system so when you order it it thinks you’re ordering alcohol. Ok that at least makes more sense, it’s stupid but it’s make more sense.

Pool Areas

We enjoyed the pool area. Didn’t much care for the towel in/out system but that seems to be the way cruiselines are headed so we went with the flow. My son enjoyed playing in the kiddie pool and we had no issues finding a spot or chairs. Service I thought was good, if you were sitting at a table waitresses came up to you and asked if you wanted something, bartenders at the bar were really cool. My partner would try to give the waitress/bartender a tip (not used to the allegrisimo) but I will say sometimes they would take it and other times they would say they can’t take it. So not sure if it’s policy or not but whatever.

Photos

Another difference would be on the different theme nights, gala, Italian, white, etc… the table photographer would come around and take pictures but I didn’t see anyone outside taking the traditional pictures. Well let me correct myself, I did see people outside but what I thought was a line waiting for the photographer was actually a family taking pictures themselves. Some cruisers brought really nice cameras with them, lol. Later I discovered you had to go to the photo deck for pictures, so I just wish that was spelled out in the daily or explained. I thought there were no professional pictures except for at the table only to later discover all these professional pictures people took. We ended up buying about 5 pictures all from dinner service but the price was beyond reasonable. We spent about half what we thought we would spend.

Spa

Hold out as long as you can, it will be worth it. As the days go on the spa offers more discounts. I went on a 30% discount day but the day before the last day of the cruise they were offering 50% off. I had a 90 minute massage for around $100. Cheapest I’ve ever spent for a massage on a cruise and probably on land too, especially for 90 mins. It was great! MSC gets major points here. Ahh

Overall

I liked that as a family cruise we all enjoyed it I didn’t feel any snobbery for having an 18 month old with me. The wait staff, other staff, and even other cruise passengers throughout the cruise would stop to talk to my son or give him a high five. I haven’t felt that much love since our past Disney cruises. The 9 year old didn’t want to leave the kids club. I hope this review doesn’t come off negative, we had a good time and would probably do it again. Like I said I feel very lucky to say this is the worst cruise I’ve ever been on cause at its worse I’d still take it!

Thanks Mike!

Specifically the Divina. I'm taking my niece on the cruise and want to make sure I'm not hit with a surprise requirement when trying to board with her. I checked the MSC USA website but couldn't find any information on what I need to bring. Checking other cruise line websites it looks like I'll need to bring a notarized letter from the parents authorizing me to take her on the cruise. Does anyone know if this is sufficient or if I need anything else?

I'm not sure if her passport will be here in time so I'm planning on bringing her birth certificate. She doesn't have a picture ID though.

The birth certificate needs to be the long form and have a raised seal. Also,,a certified copy of her marriage license or divorce decree,,if applicable. We are traveling in August as well and have not received our passports yet so we will use our drivers license and birth certificates,,

Thank you! :D

Hey Everyone,

Hoping someone can confirm/help with the following. A person in my group just received notification that her passport application was rejected because the photo was not acceptable even though the post office took the photo. Anyway they're now telling her that even if she sends in a new photo, they can't guarantee that her passport will get here in time for our Aug. cruise.

They still have her original birth certificate.

We're on the MSC Divina and live in NJ so it looks like since it's a closed loop cruise she will only need a certified birth certificate and government ID. So I'm wondering if she goes to her city hall and gets a certified copy of her birth certificate, that along with her driver's license (just a regular one not enhanced) should be sufficient. Am I correct or am I missing something?

Just don't link the friends to your information. Once onboard go together to the maitre d and have them put you guys together at a table. That would be your best bet.

Has anyone successfully done this? I can't convince all the members in my group to get the Allegrissimo Premium package with me. Some of them just don't drink alcohol and my attempts to convince them by telling them all of the non-alcoholic beverages they can get did not work. I would just get the Escape vouchers and be done with it but I don't want to have to carry around paper vouchers and I KNOW my child will lose hers. Sigh.

Thanks for posting this Giant. I thought I missed something as well! :D

Thank you Riclop and Bret :)

I currently have both rooms book as I will be needing connecting cabins for my upcoming cruise. I'm thinking that's probably the best we're gonna get as far as connecting balcony cabin size goes and I can have the balcony divider removed to create some more space. Thoughts?

dinansm3

 

riclop is correct. As I posted before, Cabin 10215 - Cabin Interior 148.0 sq ft (24.2 sq ft bathroom + 123.8 sq ft living space). Balcony is 34.0 sq ft.

 

mns2lv4ever

 

Cabin 12236 - Cabin Interior 191.8 sq ft (24.2 sq ft bathroom + 167.6 sq ft living space). Balcony is 42.0 sq ft. This cabin should have a double sofa bed.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Bret

Hi Bret,

Do you have any info on 9101 or 9099? Thank you.

Thanks :)

Does anyone have any info on Cabins 10086 and 10106 on the Divina? I saw a thread where cabin info was listed regarding size, location, etc... but these cabins weren't listed. If anyone has any info on these I would be grateful? Thanks:D

Thank you for posting this! It is very helpful. :D

Kids and car seats certainly complicates things as far as Tri-Rail. Good luck getting 7 plus bags into one van - especially if any in your group pack like my wife! :o You might compare the cost of renting two standard sedans (with lots of luggage room!), which sometimes works out cheaper than renting one van.

 

Good luck! :)

Yeah John, I think I'm the one in the group that probably packs like your wife.:( Hmm, I'll have to take a look at a 7 passenger mini-van in person before I book so I can visualize what the packing space will look like. I can also look into the 2 cars but that means DH will be driving one car and I'll be driving the other since the other adult just recently got her license and trust me no one (including her) thinks it would be a good idea for her to be on the road. Though things may change between now and August. Thanks for the added things to consider.

Another option, if you can handle your own luggage, is to ride the Tri-Rail train from PBI to MIA. From there you can shuttle to an airport area hotel or grab a couple of taxis and stay downtown near POM.

 

As long as your return flight is later in the day (after about 2:00 or 3:00) you should have plenty of time to use Tri-Rail to get back to PBI for your flight home.

 

http://www.tri-rail.com/

Thanks everyone, it looks like we'll try this out. Though I agree further research will need to be done in terms of the mini-van. It says it holds 7 people + luggage but I'm wondering if their idea of luggage for 7 & my idea of luggage matches.

John, we're flying home through MIA so no issues there. I was looking at the tri-rail but with 7 people (4 of whom are children, one of whom is a 1 year old), I don't think it's worth the hassle (we'll have his carseat, stroller, him, etc...)

Hi everyone,

When trying to book a flight to FL for our cruise leaving out of POM in August, I saw a much cheaper airfare flying into Palm Beach. This flight would save our group of 7, almost $600. So, my plan was to fly into Palm Beach the day before (arrival time is about noon), rent a minivan (which preliminary price at budget was $100) and drive to our hotel (either in MIA or FLL), the next day drive to the port drop everyone else off, drive to the car rental return agency in POM and take the shuttle to the port.

I know from reviewing this forum that a lot consider flying into Palm Beach to not be worth the hassle for the savings. However, in those cases, it has only been savings for 1-2 people. So I'm wondering if the scenario changes when dealing with a group of 7. Also, originally with flying into FLL or MIA we weren't planning on renting a vehicle so we would've had to arrange for transport to the hotel and cruise port by either cab or shuttle company. This new plan would allow us to use the rental vehicle for all our transportation needs.

The return trip is easy as we will be flying out of Miami. So, any thoughts/concerns, something I may have missed or does this sound like a good idea?

Homewood Suites is near FLL and has suites and free breakfast. It's not really an easy walk anywhere from there but you could just enjoy the suite and pool and order in a pizza.

Ahh I'm having the worst luck. Homewood is out of 2 bedroom suites as well. Ahh

Now DH is saying he prefers to stay in FLL area rather than MIA because he has a friend in FLL that he would like us to visit and also would be able to me LO for the first time.

But now with these flight prices it's looking like we may need to not only arrive the day before but leave a day later so we're gonna need a hotel post-cruise too. :rolleyes: I'm so over looking, I feel like booking the next thing I see price be da**ed! But of course then you have less cruise spending money, what to do...:confused::confused:

Hi CruiserTB! I got the hat on Amazon, here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/play-Unisex-baby-Infant-Protection-Toddler/dp/B004VOD6ZM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1393625614&sr=8-4&keywords=baby+sun+hat. We get compliments on that hat wherever we go. So many colors to choose from, too. I can't wait for this summer, I'm going to get some more!

Hey Chrystal would you say the hat sizes run small? I'm trying to decide which size to get for LO. He'll be 18 months when we cruise but I was thinking of getting him the 2yr old size hat. Thoughts?:D

Well I checked out Fortune House. It's about $250 not including tax & daily fee for the night for a 2 bedroom. Kind of close to the max we wanted to spend and no breakfast included. :rolleyes:

I'll keep it on the list but still would like other options.

We stayed at Fortune House last November in a private 2 bedroom, two bath condo, complete with kitchen, living room and laundry facilities for $199.00 per night. It was right across the street from the Four Seasons and around the corner from the free trolley and metro mover. We also flew into Ft. Lauderdale but chose to stay in Miami so we would be that much closer the morning of the cruise.

Thanks funnat. I'll check this option out.