Review-MSC Divina Cruise 4-26-14

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Ok, here is where different personalities handle difficulties differently. Wow, alliteration!

 

Some would have let the tender process fiasco ruin their day on GSC. Others would have let the tender process fiasco ruin their cruise on MSC.

 

So you can understand our personalities, once we were on the tender and the sun was shining on our faces, all was forgotten. We just aren't people who let circumstances and/or others control our good time nor do we 'do' drama. Some on CC call this wearing, 'rose-colored glasses'. "We call it maturity," she says while stepping down from her soapbox. :D

 

Even though we arrived much later on the island than intended, we still found shade. At this point, though, you may have to be creative.

 

Our little slice of Heaven, by the small cabanas on the third lagoon over from the tender stop. We are right in front of a small bar.

 

Our beautiful view!

 

One of the Small Cabanas. We actually had this exact Cabana on our Pearl cruise in December.

 

A zoom shop of the ship from our vantage point.

 

I have posted photos of all the Divina Dailies including our GSC day in a separate thread on the MSC board. You may have to do a search, because I think it has fallen off page one. In it, you will find a simple map of the island and a list of all the activities they hosted there that day.

 

The biggest complaint we heard all day, "I didn't know I could use my (fill in the blank) package/drink coupons here!" Yes you can, alcoholic or non. Now, we didn't get to, because or coupons were floating somewhere off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico some 640 nautical miles away, but you will be able to.

[American Bear]

We woke very early on Friday to fantastic weather! This was really good news, because, I know that ship's miss Great Stirrup Cay often due to the tender process and the waves, even if the weather is nice.

 

I had been to GSC two times prior with NCL. I love it. It is more rustic and bare than I understand other cruisline's private islands to be. I like that, but know others like more of a resort feel. I was excited that Rich was going to experience it and curious to see what he thought.

 

After a quick breakfast in the buffet, we geared up and headed down to the tender area.

 

I had pre-booked paddleboarding on the MSC website. Our tickets and excursion instructions were in our room on embarkation day. The paddleboarding is for 1 hour and you go when you wish throughout the day. There was no set time.

 

There was, however, an instructional letter with our excursion tickets about the tender process for those with booked excursions. The normal tender process is to pick up a ticket in the Eataly Steakhouse on Deck 7 between 8:45am and noon. The first tender aboard on GSC was scheduled for 9:30am.

 

Our directions stated, "Guests who have purchased one of our shore excursions do not collect a tender ticket. Please present your excursion ticket directly at the tender embarkation area on Deck 5 to proceed ashore"

 

I highlight the above for both information and warning. This is not what happened in actual practice! My read of the above statement is that excursion tickets function like priority boarding, hence the reason you don't get a tender ticket.

 

We tried to make our way to the tender excursion area, only to be met with wall to wall people crowding the stairs on Deck 6, 5 and 4 waiting to board the tenders despite what tender letters MSC had called or what tender letters the cruisers actually possessed. You couldn't find an employee to give your excursion tickets to as directed in writing. There was nobody working the lines to weed out those who had later tickets than what they were currently boarding. It was madness!

 

After about 1/2 hour wait in the cattle shoot, where people were literally packed shoulder to shoulder, we finally found an employee on Deck 5 and showed him our excursion tickets. He told us we'd have to continue waiting in the line with the people who had tender tickets that hadn't even been called[/b]. I pointed out to him what our information said. He didn't care and spoke loudly enough to make it seem to those around us that we were trying to get something we weren't entitled to. That was embarrassing, because we aren't like that. :o

 

People were complaining loudly about the crowding and pushing. We were packed in so tightly then, you couldn't back out even if you wanted to. He said to everyone, multiple times that it was NCL's fault that the tender process was such a mess. He said NCL didn't know what they were doing! :eek::mad:

 

This is crap, plain and simple. I was just at GSC on the NCL Pearl not six months earlier and then again a year and 1/2 prior. Tendering is never pretty, but I have never experienced anything like this. The problem was not the running of the tender boats. The problem was the lack of MSC guidance and supervision in the tender area! Simply stationing an employee at each entrance on Decks 6, 5, and 4 actually checking the tender tickets and turning away those who were not slated to go yet would have stopped this mess before it started. Once the word got out that they weren't actually checking the tickets, it got worse and worse. Tendering went fine in Grand Cayman, so don't know what happened here. NCL gets the point for tendering, and by all rights, I should even deduct points for MSC for making it so uncomfortable!

 

I don't know if it would have made any difference, but we had been up since 6:30am. Had we known MSC wasn't going to follow their own excursion tender written policy, we would have gone ahead to Eataly and gotten a tender ticket.

 

 

I don't know if it will make you feel any better, but the week after your cruise, our visit on the Divina to GSC was similar in that tickets for tenders were ignored, (more or less first come first served) but we had a much more civilized group of passengers, and the tender process was a breeze! For whatever reason we had no problem!

One thing we noticed was all the tenders weren't operating for such a large ship, which would've been NCL's doing! That we didn't understand!

NCL Pearl 2,400 passangers, the Divina 4,000!

That said, the employee shouldn't have raised his voice to you! Wouldn't let it concern you as most likely the passengers near you didn't speak English to understand!:D

We also tendered the following week at Gr. Cayman, and again had no problem with the process, as the Divina used its own craft to tender passengers to the port, much faster, and efficient!

Since all these ports are making so much money off us passengers, they all need to get docks!

[Mrs. Squirrel]

After a little lounging, we walked over to the main lagoon (the first one you see from the tender stop) to snorkel. There are a lot of fish to be seen at GSC. The visibility in the main lagoon gets very poor early, though, because of the sheer number of people. Your best bet is to go way out by the rocks. After our first snorkel, we went back to our own lagoon and snorkeled. The visibility was much better here.

 

I really don't have any snorkel pictures of interest to show from this trip. I did take this photo almost two years ago in the main lagoon on GSC. The starfish is sitting on a barrel, one of many under water items placed by NCL along the Fate of the Fancy snorkel trail. If you have your own gear, snorkeling the trail is free.

[Mrs. Squirrel]

After our second snorkeling try, we hit the buffet for lunch. It was about 1pm. The buffet was typical outdoor fare. They were out of potato chips by then, so if you need some for kiddos, get there earlier. Eating on GSC is so much nicer since NCL built those large picnic table pavilions on either side of the buffet area.

 

Before, the picnic tables were out in the open. The gulls here are very aggressive and would swoop down and pick food right off the tables! We still saw a few gulls pick the plates of those who walked their food back to their loungers and get into serious fights over scraps left :D I am sure it is hard to control them, because so many people, especially kids, feed the gulls so they are use to getting an easy meal. They are as garbage gutty as the chicken on Grand Cayman and seem to eat anything.

 

I can't really remember much about the food quality. It was OK, but no standouts. I will say that a lot of the Europeans we talked to that day or after thought what MSC served on GSC was a typical American BBQ. Oh no, no, no! :eek: That's just wrong! A travesty, because American BBQ is way better and oh so tasty! What was served as baked beans, for instance, had absolutely no flavor or salt and the grilled chicken tasted more like plain baked chicken. I felt for those who thought they had tasted American BBQ and found it wanting. Get your BBQ in the southern states of the good ole USA, not on any cruise ship! :)

 

We went back to our loungers to let lunch settle, got in the ocean for a quick swim, then hiked to the excursion cabana for our paddleboarding excursion. My DH was not looking forward to this at all, so he was quite relieved to find that all afternoon sessions were cancelled due to the wind. It didn't feel any windier to me than any other typical ocean-breeze beach day, so I was a little disappointed to miss it. Our refund was processed within hours of returning to the ship. It didn't show up as a credit against our excursion charge, the charge itself was removed.

 

We decided to head back to the loungers to put on our shoes to go exploring on the other side of the island. I have read there are remains of a small settlement with an old lighthouse. Well, we made the mistake of sitting down on the loungers first. The warmth and full bellies led to sleepiness. :o Rich slept, while I read a little, then slept myself. We stayed in those positions pretty much the remainder of the day. At about 4:30pm, we rinsed our snorkel gear, then packed up to walk back to the tender area.

 

Right before boarding, we spent about 1/2 hour browsing the shopping stalls. They all seemed to sell the same 'made in China' Bahamas souvenirs. My husband did find a Conch shell for Alexander. It wasn't the Conch horn he had asked for (we had seen them sold at a stand in downtown Guadalupe), but the the shopkeepers daughter showed Rich how you could blow on the Conch and make a pretty good approximation of a horn. The shops did not take MSC ship cards, but they did take US dollars.

 

We tendered back to the ship with almost no wait, then boarded about 5:15pm.

 

I know I didn't post much detail about GSC or pictures. If you have any questions, please ask. I must go for now, because life is calling, but I hope to have this review done by the end of the weekend.

Edited May 23, 2014 by Mrs. Squirrel

[Mrs. Squirrel]

I don't know if it will make you feel any better, but the week after your cruise, our visit on the Divina to GSC was similar in that tickets for tenders were ignored, (more or less first come first served) but we had a much more civilized group of passengers, and the tender process was a breeze! For whatever reason we had no problem!

One thing we noticed was all the tenders weren't operating for such a large ship, which would've been NCL's doing! That we didn't understand!

NCL Pearl 2,400 passangers, the Divina 4,000!

That said, the employee shouldn't have raised his voice to you! Wouldn't let it concern you as most likely the passengers near you didn't speak English to understand!:D

We also tendered the following week at Gr. Cayman, and again had no problem with the process, as the Divina used its own craft to tender passengers to the port, much faster, and efficient!

Since all these ports are making so much money off us passengers, they all need to get docks!

 

Thanks for your perspective. I thought NCL only had two large tenders that ran from GSC. Did you see more tenders than that? You are right about the passenger difference in the two ships, though.

 

And to be fair, the MSC employee did not raise his voice at us like he was angry, he just spoke louder than was necessary, since we were right next to him in the human sandwich at that time. I just wanted to clarify that.

[ioneblair]

who thought they had tasted American BBQ and found it wanting

 

got to say it " 'merican bah b kew" :D

 

(having fun y'all not making fun of)

Edited May 23, 2014 by ioneblair

[Giantfan13]

Jayne

 

A question about GSC. We have been there before, but many years ago. During that time, I have had a case of melanoma and try and stay out of the sun as much as possible. You mentioned that you found a spot in the shade. Is THAT difficult to do, even arriving late. As we are really in no rush to get to the island, we can wait for a later tender, but I sure would not like to have to sit in the sun for relaxation. Can you walk to different parts of the island and have better luck finding a shady spot to sit and relax?

 

I thought I had read some where that you had to pay for a spot in the shade, is this so?

 

Cheers

 

Len

[gaddgie]

Great review, like reading a good book. You never want it to end.

 

After our second snorkeling try, we hit the buffet for lunch. It was about 1pm.

 

Can you tell me if you had to wear snorkel vests while snorkeling on GSC. I think I read somewhere, cannot remember where, that its compulsory but for the life of me cannot understand why.

[cjnix29]

Really enjoying your review. We just booked the Divina for April 2015. So great to read a "real" opinion of the ship! Especially from fellow Indy-burbs people! :)

[Mrs. Squirrel]

got to say it " 'merican bah b kew" :D

 

(having fun y'all not making fun of)

 

Too right! :D

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Jayne

A question about GSC. We have been there before, but many years ago. During that time, I have had a case of melanoma and try and stay out of the sun as much as possible. You mentioned that you found a spot in the shade. Is THAT difficult to do, even arriving late. As we are really in no rush to get to the island, we can wait for a later tender, but I sure would not like to have to sit in the sun for relaxation. Can you walk to different parts of the island and have better luck finding a shady spot to sit and relax?

 

I thought I had read some where that you had to pay for a spot in the shade, is this so?

 

Cheers

 

Len

 

The shade you find on your own by moving the lounge chairs into it is free. The shade provided by renting a clamshell (I've always heard don't get one without vents as they get hot) is something you pay for via MSC. The other pay option is to rent a cabana, especially if you can find another couple to share it with you on your roll call. Then you know you'll have shade.

 

For free shade, when you exit the tender, the first lagoon you see is the main lagoon closest to the Hippo slide. Almost every shady spot will be taken up here early. A lot of cruisers don't even know there are other lagoons. Keep walking

 

If you walk past the Bacardi Bar, you will see a very large shade pavillion. That's one option. Past this pavillion, the trail narrows to the second lagoon where the large cabanas are. There is shade under trees available on both sides of this lagoon. Continuing down the trail and you'll come to the small cabanas' lagoon. There is a small amount of shade under trees here. That's where we were.

 

There is a forth small lagoon further down, but to actually enter or exit the water from that lagoon requires water shoes and a higher level of fitness than I currently possess, as it is very rocky. I have never walked any further down the beach than that. Again, any free shade you find will, for the most part, require you to relocate loungers.

 

Last suggestion is to bring a small, clip-on beach umbrella to provide some shade.

 

Enjoy!

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Great review, like reading a good book. You never want it to end.

 

Can you tell me if you had to wear snorkel vests while snorkeling on GSC. I think I read somewhere, cannot remember where, that its compulsory but for the life of me cannot understand why.

 

Thank you for your nice comments.

 

We own our own snorkel vests and always wear them. Snorkel vests allow middle-aged, fluffy us to go out farther and stay out longer. Plus the emergency whistle comes in handy if you ever get into trouble. However, if you like to dive, they are a pita!

 

I do believe that when you rent snorkel equipment on GSC, the vests come in the package and are required. Probably an insurance liability/safety issue. There are lifeguards on GSC, and everyone I've seen snorkeling had vests on.

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Really enjoying your review. We just booked the Divina for April 2015. So great to read a "real" opinion of the ship! Especially from fellow Indy-burbs people! :)

 

Hello fellow Hoosiers! Thank you. Yes, I was really on the ship in cabin 13029 April 26-May 3, 2014. And yes, those are my pictures, taken with my camera, by my own hand unless otherwise, clearly labeled. What some won't do to get attention!!! :rolleyes:

[Mrs. Squirrel]

My desire to complete this review by this past weekend didn't happen. Too many projects and holiday fun to be had!

 

A big, hardy, "Thank You!" and, "God Bless You!" to each and every military service member, past and present. You are true heroes whose sacrifices allow us to live in a great country with enough peace and freedom to have the leisure time to spend on frivolities like Cruise Critic. Happy Memorial Day to you all! :D

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Before I go on to dinner our final night of the cruise, let me quickly dole out points for GSC. Given what American Bear posted, I don't really know now who is/was at fault or the tender fiasco at GSC. Is it NCL for not running all available tenders? Or is it MSC for not hiring out all available tenders from NCL? To be fair, I will award no points for GSC tendering to either cruiseline.

 

For the buffet food, the point goes to NCL. Their GSC buffet is just that much better than MSC's.

 

For service on the island, I'll have to also give that point to NCL.

 

If you want to see GSC in its best light, see it on an NCL cruise. . .just don't go expecting Disney's Castaway Cay or RCI's Labadee, Haiti. :)

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Earlier in the week, we had made arrangements with our new Italian friends to try an authentic Italian espresso. We had had a funny conversation at lunch one day about the differences between Italian coffee size and American coffee size (think Starbucks Grande). ;) They had already tried Starbucks, so I wanted to try an Italian espresso.

 

After we got back from the GSC tender and cleaned-up, I called our friends to make a time for espresso. We all decided we needed a nap beforehand, so agreed to meet later in the evening at Caffe Italia on Deck 7. After our nap, we got about 1/2 of our gear packed up for departure.

 

Once we arrived at the Cafe, our Italian, lady friend showed up in a Hawaiian shirt she had purchased earlier in the week! The inside joke is that she bought and wore it in Rich's honor. She commented all week on how he looked like Tom Selleck in Magnum, PI. (I don't think that you have seen any photos of Rich in a Hawaiian shirt yet, but he takes about 6-7 loud ones on each cruise. He is determined to wear nothing else once he retires, lol!) :D It was too funny! Apparently, we weren't the only ones with the espresso idea, because every seat was taken and we had to wait a bit to get a table for four. We were right by a couple of the shops, and they were packed with cruisers getting their last minute items.

 

Apparently, the Italians drink their espresso like an alcohol shot. . .some multiple times per day! I was afraid my heart was going to explode. I can't even drink Starbucks regular coffee. I have to have their decaf to not get heart palpitations and a tremor! :eek:

 

Watch out stomach, here it comes!

 

We had such a great time talking and learning about each other's cultures, we decided to go out to dinner. They wanted us to experience an authentic Italian meal, so suggested we go to Eataly Steakhouse on Deck 7 and they would order for us all.

[Mrs. Squirrel]

The Eataly Steakhouse was a small, ala-carte pay restaurant. There were about three other groups dining when we arrived about 8:45pm.

 

It turned out our waiter was Italian. It was fun to watch the three of them chat about home and what to order. He was also very fluent in English and took the time to explain each dish to us, filling in anything our hosts might have missed in relation to where the meats were from in Italy and how they were prepared.

 

Since our hosts ordered, I had to find the menu on Pinterest to remember the names of the dishes we ate.

 

For starters, we shared 1 plate of Parma Vs San Daniele-two kinds of Italian Prosciutto with toasted Garasau bread and 1 plate of Superb Selection of Italian Cold Cuts-Salami, Pancetta, Ham and Speck. I knew that Prosciutto was quality, because I had had it before, but I was a little nervous about the cold cuts. I grew up poor. To me, cold cuts were baloney, olive loaf or pre-packaged Budding meat. :p I could not imagine ordering cold cuts for an appetizer in a nice pay restaurant on a cruise! :eek: Well, I was wrong. All the meats we sampled were delicious and made even better by the suggestions of our friends on what vinegars to top each meat with to bring out the flavor.

 

For the main course, they selected sliced steak Tagliata from Piedmont Beef and fried potatoes. Piedmont Beef, we learned, is originally from Northwest Italy and is special for something to do with the way the cattle develop muscle. It was amazing. The best beef we'd had all week! It came served with a simple veggie garnish. The fried potatoes were essentially french fries served in a large stand up metal spiral lined with paper. The potatoes tasted like they were fried in some unusual type of oil, but I was too busy enjoying the food and conversation to find out. Very good. There was no room in any of us for desert.

 

Unfortunately for this review, I didn't take any photos. We were just too busy enjoying the moment with our new friends. It never crossed my mind at the time, but now I wish I had at least taken pictures of the meal.

 

When the bill came, it was our intention of paying, because they had treated us to the espressos. No amount of insisting or pleading on our part would move them from treating us to dinner, also. We couldn't even skirt around them because the waiter refused to take our key card. We exchanged information and promises to keep in touch. It was sad to part after such an enjoyable evening, but we all had to finish packing. Tomorrow was to be an early, potentially stressful morning.

[Mrs. Squirrel]

After leaving our friends, we stopped by the Villa Rossa dining room to tip and thank our head and assistant waiters. Diners had long gone, but they were, as we'd hoped, still there cleaning. We had only used the MDR three out of seven nights, but these men deserved extra. Afterwards, we finished packing, then headed to bed.

 

In what seemed like a blink, the alarm was going off very early Saturday morning. We were still sailing toward the POM. After dressing and packing the last of our things, we headed to the buffet for breakfast at about 6am.

 

Today would be a stressful travel day, because we were breaking yet another cardinal rule of cruising. . .never book an early flight the day of debarkation.

 

Rich would have to travel back to his work apartment on Sunday, so we really needed to get home as early as possible on Saturday. The only non-stop flight to Indy, and thus the quickest way home, departed from FLL at 10:35am. We knew that we'd never make it by taking a shared shuttle, so we booked All Limo, Inc. and owner Vincent Magri to drive us. We had used Mr. Magri a few years back when a return flight out of PBI was cheaper than than either MIA or FLL. The flight cost savings more than paid for his services, then. This time, we were paying solely for the convenience of our schedule.

 

Mr. Magri had told us to request the first self-assist time slot and we would make it to FLL on time baring any docking delay, custom's issues, traffic back-up, long security lines or any number of other things that make an early flight a really, really bad idea. :o

 

Although I had been irritated at MSC for being a Debbie Downer by giving us debarkation information the night we boarded, it did allow me to turn in our paperwork early the next morning, and we got the 7:15am self-assist luggage tags we needed.

 

We finished with breakfast and were out of the cabin by 7:05am and down to our meeting spot in Piazza Del Doge on Deck 6, right on time. On the way out of our cabin, we found and tipped our room steward. He had worked very hard for us all week and deserved extra, too. When we cruise with Alexander, we also tip the Kids' Club staff.

 

After about a 10 minute wait and a final goodbye to our Russian MDR tablemates, we were moving in a long, slow line up the Ponte di Rialto on Deck 6 and off the ship via an exit by the Silver Lounge. Unlike the tendering process at GSC, the MSC ship personnel were everywhere at the exit making sure that those debarking actually had the 7:15am tags and turning away others who attempted to join the line early.

 

Although we didn't try this out, the debarkation procedures information stated that you needed to be out of your cabins by 7am, but you were welcome to still shop and buy items with your MSC key card until your debarkation tag color was called. I thought this was a nice touch. I don't remember being able to use your key card the morning of debarkation on any other cruiseline before. Maybe I've just never tried.

 

We were out of customs and with our driver by 8:05am. MSC self-assist debarkation went very smoothly for us. We were at the airport, had bags checked, through security and sitting at our terminal by 9:50am. I was a nervous wreck until we went through security. The line behind us in security just kept getting longer and longer and longer. I truly think that if we had arrived at the airport a half hour later, we'd have missed our flight or at least been running! :eek:

[Mrs. Squirrel]

The Saturday return flight from FLL had a whopping 40 people on it. I do hope that Southwest Airlines learns a lesson from this and moves their return, non-stop flights from FLL back to the 12:35pm time slot it use to occupy. The non-stop flight down to FLL was full, so I know there is a market. 10:35 is just too early for most cruisers to make on debarkation day.

 

After an uneventful flight, we landed in Indy and were at our favorite, post-cruise Mexican restaurant with my mom and Alexander by 3:00pm. More guacamole, yeah! Hitting this restaurant on the way home from the airport is a tradition we started some years ago. Mexican is the one type of food that is few and far between on cruises (well, maybe not the Mexican Riviera ones). :)

 

We were home, sweet home by 4:30pm. As I sit here and type this, I still haven't fully unpacked our suitcases. I have to return to my real life very slowly to avoid what some on CC have dubbed PCD or Post Cruise Depression, lol!

 

That's the end. I thank everyone for their continued interest. I will post a few final, random thoughts on our MSC cruise tomorrow, then continue to monitor this review for questions. Until then, goodnight. Life is calling.

[Giantfan13]

Thank you so much Jayne for a wonderful review and a real personal walk thru a MSC cruise.

Also thanks for your advice on my questions.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[g8rfan94]

Jayne,

 

Thank you for a wonderful, informative, extremely well written review. We are going on the same cruise in January and after all of the negative reviews I have read over the past few months about Divina, I was really starting to question our decision and to say that I was beginning to become apprehensive would be an understatement. Thank you very much for restoring my excitement and anticipation :)

 

I look forward to reading more questions and answers as I continue to follow this thread as long as it goes.

 

Neil

[Mrs. Squirrel]

Final thoughts on cruising with MSC on Divina:

 

 

• The passenger mix puts Americans in the minority. Either enjoy the rich experience and learning opportunity or don’t go.

 

• You will see more Speedos than you thought existed.

 

• You will see Brazilian swimsuits exposing lots of flesh.

 

• If you are ‘fluffy’, like us, you will be far to the right on the passenger weight bell curve. Brace yourself, because it is a bruise to the self-esteem.

 

• The water slide is only powerful enough to propel kids and small adults, thus says Rich who had to crab walk his way down the entire course with hundreds of gallons of water sloshing over his shoulders.

 

• The European elderly were a healthy lot. We saw only two scooters and 1 walker all week.

 

• Do not expect a nice, orderly line through the buffet stations. Non-American passengers tend to dart in and out for what they want. They are not being rude, it is just different.

 

• Not many passengers, from anywhere, practice elevator etiquette. When the elevator stops, please let those exiting off first before you attempt to board!

 

• The room stewards will not remove/replace glasses with liquid still in them. If you are finished, emptying the glasses signals to them you are finished.

 

• You will appreciate the lack of public announcements and low key sales approach.

 

• There is no art auction. That is a plus for us, but may be a negative for others.

 

• You will most likely not get to do everything you want to do in one week. Hard choices have to be made or, better yet, do a B2B sailing. :)

 

• We would sail Divina at a higher price point if the itinerary was appealing. I do not expect that they will keep the prices as low as they have been in the past.

 

• No cruise is perfect, but this one ranked right at the top for us.

[Mrs. Squirrel]

g8rfan94 Thank you for your nice comments.

 

I believe you will continue to see more positive reviews as the number of CC members trying Divina increases. It is human nature to be quicker to condemn than to praise. I believe this, along with the time it takes any cruiseline to iron out the kinks in a new ship or a new market, accounts for a lot of the early, negative reviews. Before we sailed NCL Epic, it's reviews were overwhelmingly negative, also, to the point we seriously considered cancelling. I am so glad we didn't!

[MsTabbyKats]

Thanks for the review.......

 

Your "final thoughts" have confirmed that DH and I will be right at home with the fellow passengers..... :)

[moomoocow]

Jayne

 

This has to be my favourite review. Ever. For anything.

 

Thank you so much for the time and effort you have taken to do this. It is full of information and a delight to read. I am pleased you all had a great holiday and that you get what makes MSC different and special.

 

The funny thing is that we too are a Jane and Richard and my Richard wears Hawaiian shirts on holiday all the time (as posters on here will testify)

 

Again thank you very much!