Lady_E

Its funny I actually just finished a MSC cruise and we're booked on NCL for the first time come Christmas! I look forward to your review.

Hi! Maybe I'll see you on board, Warren. We can discuss stocks and the market! 😄

Haven't been yet, but I'm booked on Magnifica in January. Not sure when you're going, but I'll report back.

I've never come across this and I've sailed Carnival, Royal, and Disney as well. Its super weird and unless its on an island, like a cabana or something, I think its ridiculous and cheap, to nickel and dime people. We had ALREADY paid for Aurea, there is absolutely no way I should have to pay more for a clamshell.

There was just a lot that was disorganized, poorly communicated, or unenjoyable. They need to fix their website, change out the credit card machines, and upgrade the ship to use the app, at the very least. They also need to be way better about communication.

Weird! Yeah this one just...did not. It wasn't a huge deal, but it was definitely weird.

I did not have a soap dispenser. I actually found housekeeping on the last day, as I wanted to let them know the sink was also leaking, and she said they were going to fix that room, as it had some issues. It was 12175, for the curious. Yeah it would not let me add a credit card on board the ship, flat out. And the long line of people complaining about the exact same thing shows that it was frustrating for many, many others as well. The Solarium made NO sense. I was already Aurea, WHY would I need to rent a clamshell up there? I had already paid. No way in hell was I going to throw good money after bad. Literally none of the other cruise lines do that.

Its just so weird! None of the other cruise lines have this, as far as I know, and it doesn't make SENSE. Like, I linked my credit card online, why on earth do I need to do it again on the ship? I DID notice some rooms had bills tucked in the corner of their cabin number; I assume maybe those people didn't have a credit card linked anywhere...but I also didn't know you could just...charge stuff without a corresponding CC connected. I know in the early days of cruising back in the 70s and 80s, this WAS possible, because credit cards still weren't big, but for a ship in 2023 I didn't think that was possible.

So, I noticed that there were very few reviews about Divinia, and even fewer for anyone who was not Yacht Club. After being on Divinia, I sort of see why. So. I went on this as a solo passenger, and had a friend join me with her own cabin. We both upgraded to Aurea and they accepted. I live in Michigan, so I booked a flight and got in the night before. My friend drove down, as she's only a few hours from the Miami port. Stayed at the Clarion near the airport. Hotel was fine. I have some memory issues, and somehow (I don't know how) forgot my makeup and my hairbrush at the hotel. Hurray, we're off to a great start! The second problem began when I couldn't figure out which terminal the ship was going to be on. Originally we thought C, but when I got there, the Uber driver and I were both confused, because terminal C was like a ghost town. There were several people at B, so I hauled my luggage there. Surprise! A bunch of MSC passengers who ALSO didn't know where the terminal was. We wandered about like lost ducklings until we finally found the right terminal. The porter we stopped and asked explained that MSC changed their port daily and Google wasn't always accurate. It also was not listed anywhere on our packet of info; several other cruisers had checked. By the time we got to terminal E, I was dripping with sweat and looked like 9 miles of bad road. I was seriously upset, so were a bunch of others. Fortunately, the Aurea came with priority boarding. so I was on the ship in about thirty minutes after security. The room was nice; I'd preordered chocolate strawberries and Asti, and having it waiting for me was a relief. I met up with my friend and we explored the ship. The stuff I liked: MSC has the closest to actual Neopolitan pizza I've ever had outside of Naples. The 4 cheese was great, the marinara, the margharita was excellent. The buffet overall was a little lacking, but the food was certainly not terrible. The dining room food was also excellent; up there with Disney and Royal. The last night, we had Italian and they did a decent job with the carbonara. Could have been better pancetta, but it was definitely not bad. We also had the Butcher's Cut, and their filet was divine. I think we went to dinner too early, as the restaurant was essentially empty and it felt a little rushed, but the food was good. I also greatly enjoyed the private island. I hated, hated, HATED Royal's island, as it was WAY too crowded with too much STUFF. Who needs a damn amusement park in the middle of the ocean? MSC's Ocean Cay was absolutely gorgeous. The music wasn't too loud, the cabana was very reasonably priced (my friend bought it, which was incredibly sweet of her), and the ocean was magnificent. The only thing I was disappointed in on the island was our inability to get regular old diet soda for my friend. It was super weird, I kept getting the runaround at the bar even though they clearly had fountain soda available. They claimed to not have any diet and I saw them refuse people who JUST wanted soda. No idea what the deal was there. And the food trucks did not have any soda available either. The food trucks were a bit of a problem. The hot dogs weren't bad, but the burger I got was cold, despite them literally opening 5 minutes earlier, and honestly I prefer the buffet style of the other cruiseline islands more. The fries were fresh though, which was nice. The drinks were definitely not as well done on the island, but I've had that issue on all the cruiselines, so I think it's just due to supply. Nasseau was fine; we went to the Straw Market and I bought a sweatshirt for sleeping in because I was consistently cold (this is a me issue, not a problem with the room's thermostat). I also really liked how quiet the music was on MSC. The Garden Bar and Pool was my favorite outside area and I have super sensitive hearing. It'd be ten or fifteen yards until I could hear the music at the Garden Bar. I loved it. I also enjoyed how the stores on the ship were laid out; too many ships have a mall-like feeling for their shops, but Divinia does not. The stuff I didn't like: It was crowded. Very crowded. The ship was apparently 100% full, there was even a sign at the information desk, possibly to deter people from asking about upgrades onboard. The two main pools were consistently cluttered and the sea day was a nightmare of epic proportions with everyone cramming in everywhere. They also closed the solarium on the sea day. I don't know why, but it pissed us both off because it was one of the things we had paid for, and were unable to use it on a day it would have really come in handy. The lines for everything were very long on the sea day as well. The stuff I hated: There was no soap by the sink for handwashing in my room. Drove me crazy to have to constantly reach into the shower for soap. On the third day, I saw the solarium WAS open. Hurray! I went up, got into a clamshell (or whatever its called) and....immediately got told by the towel attendant that the clamshells were for rent. I explained I was Aurea but he insisted they had to be rented. I have never seen this happen before, EVER. I could see buying like, a day pass to get up into the solarium if you weren't already Aurea/YC but I've never seen a ship rent out chairs. I left and frankly, I was not impressed with the solarium at all. There were only a half dozen of the nice lounging chairs, the rest were the same regular ones that you see on the pool decks, and they didn't even have any cushions! There also wasn't a pool there or anything. Honestly, it was NOT worth any extra money, and certainly not extra to rent a shaded area! The Garden pool and bar were much, much better. The MSC app does not work on Divinia. I have no idea why, but it drove both me and my companion crazy because we couldn't look up menus ahead of time, or check pool times, or look at potential stuff we wanted to try...it was super frustrating. The elevators were also SLOW. It would take sometimes ten minutes to get an elevator, and we spent a lot of time just saying screw it and going up the stairs instead. I felt terrible for people who were older (and it's Flordia, there were a lot of those) or who had disabilities and couldn't walk. I wound up with a bad blister on my foot and definitely did not want to constantly go up and down stairs. Another thing that confused the majority of the ship AND seemed to be pointless and redundant is this weird request from MSC that you add a credit card on the website and THEN add it AGAIN onboard the ship. It made absolutely NO sense and every time I tried, I got "This operation cannot continue." But the ship announcements made a BIG deal of it being a problem if you didn't re-add your card by 8pm the final night. I tried several times and, judging by the mile long line for reception, so did many others and they also failed. Finally, we decided screw it, they had my card, they could charge it. It just seemed completely useless. Basically, I'm willing to try a different ship, but overall, I'm unimpressed with MSC as a package. There's just too much stuff they don't explain or do and there was a lot of miscommunication.

Gahh I just want to CHANGE my time. Is that an option on the website? It just says "Dining is not set". A friend of mine is coming on the cruise and wants to do early dining; I didn't really have a perference so I selected late. Anyone know if its possible to change it on the site? I must say, MSC's website is kind of a mess.

This happened to us on Mariner a week ago. We had just changed clock time heading into Bermuda and I woke up super early and went down to the Solarium. Every damn chair and bed and seat was claimed with towels. A couple other early risers and I complained and just started turning in towels. It was absolutely absurd, at 7 in the morning!

Well, we're testing tomorrow for our cruise and we're doing Walgreens drive thru. I'm figuring my insurance will cover it.

I know! We're sailing to Bermuda on Sunday and I couldn't believe the cabana prices. 1299 for a cabana! That's more than the cruise!

In terms of gambling, what's a monkey paw?

I don't know if there are anything specifically for kids. I didn't see anything the last time I looked at Diamond benefits.