MSC Divinia Q&A by a teenager

[mackin101]

Hi, I'm 16 years old and I just came off of the MSC Divinia. I started this thread so that you can ask questions about it and I will answer them from my perspective of the cruise, a 16 year-old's perspective. I can also answer general cruising question. This has been my 9th cruise and I have been on Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean, and MSC. Please feel free to ask anything about cruises.

[travlnblueberries]

Hello and thank you for starting this thread. I do have a few questions as I was interested in a cruise with this ship. First question is I was told by a TA that they don't serve their food hot, more like lukewarm. What is your opinion on this? Second question, again I was told by ta that they have their first seating for dinner at 8 or 9 at night. What time was your seating. Another I was told they don't speak English much on the ship, what was your experience with this? Not that I cruise for the food, but I was looking at pictures on someone's post of their meals and really, it didn't look to appetizing to me. What are your thoughts on this? I appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. You have a great start on your lifetime of cruising:D Thanks again

[mackin101]

Hi! The food isn't super hot, but it is still a little warmer than lukewarm. I had first seating on the Divina and it was at 6 pm. The second seating was at 8:45 pm. I have heard that the seating is much later in Europe, but I went out of Miami. The staff I interacted with knew a lot of English, but I found that it's mostly maintenance staff that didn't know a lot. I was able to have conversations with most staff members, though they do tend to have heavy accents. I really enjoyed the food, but some things were better than others. I found that the fish was overcooked, as was the steak, but almost everything else was great! On our trip we took lots of pictures of the food we ate and at some point my mother will be posting them. Also, you can search for MSC Divina menus on pinterest and you can see if you would like the food. The menus won't be exact, but they're pretty close. Also, a lot of the food is Mediterranean and often looks different to North American food. I hope that this helps and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

It would be wonderful if you would do a full review of your cruise - i.e. -- what you liked about the ship and what you didn't like. What were your ports? What excursions you took.

[mackin101]

Sorry! I posted a review somewhere else and I forgot to actually write a review here. The ship went to St. Maarten, San Juan, and Great Stirrup Cay. I can't say anything about excursions booked through the ship because I didn't go on any. I highly enjoyed the food, although it wasn't super hot. The pastas and pizza were my favorite things. I found that the fish was always overcooked and my brother said that the steak that he had was tough. The buffet food was equally good, but there seemed to be a lack of senior staff working there. It would be hard to find cutlery or dishes and you had to fight to get in to the food. They also didn't refill the food as often as it should have been. The service in the dining room for breakfast and lunch was slow and it could take up to 2 hours to have a meal. I loved the teen club. There were a lot of international cruisers, so there was a lot of cultures and different languages. Although they didn't do much in the teen club, it was still a lot of fun. The night that they did the pool party was the same night as the Michael Jackson tribute show and at the same time, so that wasn't very fun. The shows were wonderful, with lots of singing, acting, and acrobatics. The costumes and staging were done very well. For the shows that had a tribute or had a story line, they used a sound system and the actor would mouth the words. The rooms were nice, though my bed was broken for half of the week and we had to call a senior maintenance staff to deal with it. The beds were hard and the pillows were lumpy. A great part about talking with people on the ship was that they would actually listen to suggestions, which seems impossible with other cruise lines. Overall, I really enjoyed the cruise and I think that it has been my favorite one yet.

[travlnblueberries]

Thank you mackin101 for replying. As I was reading your replies my next question was going to be "would you sail with them again?" But I see at the end of your last post you said it was your favorite so far. That says a lot.