Review for Divina March 22-29

[flahagan]

There were five of us spread over 3 cabins – hubby and me, our BFF’s and my brother. Hubby and I have sailed 14 times on various cruise lines – Premier, HAL, RCCL, Princess, Celebrity and Carnival. We chose this cruise for the fabulous deal on balcony cabins and because I’d read that this ship had terrific entertainment. It was a fairly last-minute decision, as we booked mid-February.

Embarkation: We were at the dock at 12:40, parked in the port garage across the street from the ship. Check-in was very smooth and organized with plenty of stations open. As we entered the terminal, there was coffee, juices and water offered, which I thought was a nice touch.

 

 

[flahagan]

As soon as we boarded, we headed to the casino bar and collected the drink vouchers we had pre-ordered. This took only a few minutes. Our cabins were ready before 2 PM and our luggage had arrived when we returned from lunch. Sail-away was late, after 8 PM, but we enjoyed sitting in the Garden Bar area listening to lovely music from Joel Nunez and seeing the beautifully-lit skyline of Miami. Our 2nd dinner was pushed back to 8:45 this night due to sail-away, and there was only one performance of the Frank Sinatra production show (8:15) which we sadly missed. But we were relaxed and enjoying the evening and it was a nice way to begin the cruise.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2014 by flahagan

[flahagan]

Cabin: We stayed in #12169, a cat. 11 superior balcony. It was perfectly located, just off the central elevator bank and stairways. The décor was very upscale with large padded headboard, wonderful room-darkening drapes, plenty of closet space and drawers. The mini-fridge actually kept things cold. The bathroom was pretty small, but we appreciated the under-sink cabinet for storage as well as three shelves to one side of the sink. Great water pressure from the rain-head shower. The cabin seemed a bit noisy, possibly due to our location by the stairs/elevators and the large number of children on this sailing – over 500. Our balcony was a nice size and our steward opened the divider so we could access our friends’ balcony next door. We used the balcony a lot on this cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

[blackpool belle]

Hello,

 

Could you tell me please what the currency is on board ( to play in the casino)

[flahagan]

A few more photos of our cabin. We thought there was ample storage space - in addition to the two closets, there was a bank of deep drawers beneath the safe plus two shelves above it, and two drawers in each bedside table.

 

 

 

 

[flahagan]

Hello,

 

Could you tell me please what the currency is on board ( to play in the casino)

 

The currency onboard is in US dollars. One nice thing they did was to offer each guest $10 in match play for the slots. The first time you put your sign and sail card in a machine and put $10 on it, the machine would show that you had put in $20.

[SeaYa52]

More! more! Loving your review & pics! :-)

 

 

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[flahagan]

Buffets: This ship had the most extensive breakfast buffet we’ve ever seen. Everyday there was bacon, sausage links, corned beef hash, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, several types of omelets, hard-boiled eggs, hash browns, hot and cold cereals, delicious croissants, pain au chocolat, muffins, doughnuts, Belgian waffles with mixed-berry topping, pancakes, every kind of fruit imaginable (even kiwis). And amazingly, they never ran out of bananas, a first for us! Coffee was delicious and there were many types of juices available, including orange, cranberry, pineapple and white grapefruit. There was a section for more European-style breakfast staples such as herring, cheeses, cold meats, broiled tomatoes and beans.

Lunch buffets were also wonderful, with a different meat carvery each day (beef, turkey, pork loin, veal), assorted pasta dishes, half-a-dozen types of pizzas, little sandwiches on buns (tuna, egg salad, salami and cheese), soups, salad bars, etc. There were also the pre-made burgers, hot dogs and fries. I liked the variety of drinks available from the machines – different fruit-flavored waters, tea, lemonade. At both breakfast and lunch, the buffet stretched for nearly half the length of the ship on both sides, very impressive! We always looked for a table near the rear of the ship and despite the huge number of people onboard (over 4100) we always found one for the 5 of us.

Dinner buffet was the only one that fell short. One evening, several of us didn’t feel like being in the MDR for several hours so decided to try the buffet, but there was very little to choose from. There was only a very limited area open, mostly pizzas and pasta, which one of our picky eaters doesn’t eat. He was forced to have the burgers and fries, while I had salad and pizza.

[Bosjoe]

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OMG they had limes. LOL, lucky. Another joke i been reading on RCCL and Celebrity. One thread called Limeageddon. People are talking about bringing their own limes. :)

[flahagan]

Well now that I think about it, most of the drinks we had the rest of the cruise had lemons instead of limes, even the mojitos. Didn't bother us in the slightest - they were all yummy!

[resstation]

OMG they had limes. LOL, lucky. Another joke i been reading on RCCL and Celebrity. One thread called Limeageddon. People are talking about bringing their own limes. :)

 

I'm jealous! No limes on our sailing! Even in *sniffle* the Yacht Club.

 

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[Bosjoe]

Well now that I think about it, most of the drinks we had the rest of the cruise had lemons instead of limes, even the mojitos. Didn't bother us in the slightest - they were all yummy!

 

Funny on Celebrity they were making the mojitos with lemon too. It just not Divina. They better have a good supply by September. :) This is just like the shortage of escargo the previous years, how funny we need these things while cruising. :)

[flahagan]

Main Dining Room: We had 2nd seating, 8:30 except for first night which was 8:45. The first two nights were extremely slow – we didn’t finish until 10:45 the first night, which was way too late for us to have eaten. Even though our waiter seemed to be in a mad dash most of the night, there were long waits between courses, although this improved a lot by the third night. Food was generally good. There were 4 entrees to choose from, usually a seafood, fowl, meat and vegetarian. The vegetables that came with the entrees were well-prepared and varied. The pasta course had two options and these were always very good, in fact I had pasta as my main on several evenings, as they were very generous portions. The alternative menu was very limited, Caesar salad, baked chicken, steak and possibly one other item. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available every night, such as on the first gala night, and this caused a little problem for our picky eater who eats absolutely NO sauces, only plain meat and potatoes. But he survived. Breads were delicious and offered at the start of the meal. You could ask for more later. Water glasses were filled at the beginning and again later in the meal. We ordered a glass of wine some evenings and never waited longer than 5 or 6 minutes for it to arrive.

 

Some food photos:

 

 

 

 

 

[flahagan]

I hope this won't be a double post, but here goes (again).

 

Entertainment: Outstanding is the only word for it! The talent in the production shows was simply amazing – the singers, dancers, gymasts. The costumes and makeup were spectacular. We loved the entertainment team, who kept the audience occupied and laughing before the shows and who were so fun and energetic at all of the special dance parties on the ship. The various entertainers in the different lounges were also wonderful – The Elegance Trio and Igor in the Atrium, who played all evening long, Dueling Pianos, Joel Nunez, Trio Latin Mambo, Duo Devotion, sax-man Nello Russo. I loved all of the special parties, like White Night, Italian Party, Flower Power, just so much dancing and fun.

Activities: The only ones we attended were Italian lessons and the various dance lessons, which I really loved. Other times, we relaxed on our balconies to escape the hordes of kids who were on spring break!

 

 

The theater is absolutely gorgeous!

 

[flahagan]

Some photos of a few of the fabulous shows. I think I took more videos than stills and I'll be posting them later on youtube.

 

 

I believe this was one of the Italian shows - the tenors were incredible!

 

 

 

Pirates

 

 

 

 

White Party

 

 

[Mattingly23]

Thank you for taking the time & effort on this great review. The pics are great!

[flahagan]

Service: I loved that I could get a bar drink from any server pretty quickly, but they were never pushing drinks in our faces. Kudos to all the bar staff. Also really loved the drink vouchers – they allowed us to try so many different cocktails and it really added to the fun. Our room was very clean, but used or half-filled old glasses were seldom removed. Maybe they are instructed not to remove anything from the rooms? It was a minor issue and didn’t really annoy us. Room service in the late afternoon (for our private happy hours) was usually there in 10-20 minutes. Wait staff in the buffet area were very attentive and friendly, as well as in the MDR. If you’re expecting wait staff or room stewards to know or call you by name, this won’t happen, and there are no towel animals or chocolates on pillows in the evening. For some reason, these silly little things seem very important to some passengers, but not to us.

 

 

 

 

[Typhoon1]

Great review with some fabulous pics. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[flahagan]

Thank you for taking the time & effort on this great review. The pics are great!

 

You're welcome - it's fun to relive it!

[flahagan]

Overall Impressions: This is a beautiful ship with a high-energy sophistication and a European flavor. I felt like I was in Europe at times but didn’t have the long flight or the high airfare! It only added to the feeling that I was truly away from it all. I loved interacting with people from all the various countries and observing the little cultural differences. I don’t believe I’ve ever had so much fun on a ship before.

 

Some random photos:

 

Hubby enjoying the "La Sirene" pool all by himself on a port day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Falmouth, Jamaica

 

 

 

 

In closing, I can only think that all of those horrible reviews I'd read must have been coming from MSC competitors, as this is an exceptional ship. Yes, it was crowded with over 4100 people onboard, but the staff did a fine job of keeping everyone happy. And most of the people I saw were very happy! I just hope I can afford to go again!

[DENIE]

Thanks for a great review! We did a lot of reading before booking our cruise on Divina for November 2014. Now we can't wait! :)

[flahagan]

Thanks for a great review! We did a lot of reading before booking our cruise on Divina for November 2014. Now we can't wait! :)

 

No problem. I'll be happy to answer any questions I can. I think you'll love it!

[crazycatlady82]

No problem. I'll be happy to answer any questions I can. I think you'll love it!

 

Thank you again! We'll be on her in October, and it looks awesome :) Something that we do every cruise is eat bagels and smoked salmon for breakfast...Did you see that? :)

[flahagan]

Thank you again! We'll be on her in October, and it looks awesome :) Something that we do every cruise is eat bagels and smoked salmon for breakfast...Did you see that? :)

 

They very well may have, but since we don't eat that I didn't notice. They seemed to have just about everything else!

[neptuno]

They very well may have, but since we don't eat that I didn't notice. They seemed to have just about everything else!

Regarding salmon on the buffet.

 

 

Thanks for the great review; your pictures are right on, reminicient of our Christmas (crowded) sailing. Divina is so elegant, a true delight. And, if one wants smoked salmon, go to the MDR for breakfast. Your experience was so positive, and similar to ours, although we were travelling with kids. But, MSC was the only line that we ever afforded to sail over Christmas, and it was a great price, with an exceptionally pleasing product. We love MSC for our family, but 'kids sail free' is not for everyone.