The Worst Cruise I’ve been on is still a pretty good cruise. - Aug. 23-30 Divina

[American Bear]

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.

 

 

Thanks CruiserTB for your review. Can you elaborate on the ethnic station in the buffet? Did they have indian vegetarian food? During lunch and dinner times?

 

The 'Americanization of the Divina' was good in some areas, and bad in some areas! But they needed to adjust some for the American market.

I remember one night 'trolling' the Allure buffet, and all the hot meat dishes were Indian, and we hate Indian food! Does that mean the food sucked, no, it just wasn't to our taste! And that's an important distinction most people playing 'Anthony Boudain' on these threads seem to ignore!:D

[CruiserTB]

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.

 

 

Thanks CruiserTB for your review. Can you elaborate on the ethnic station in the buffet? Did they have indian vegetarian food? During lunch and dinner times?

 

Sorry for the late response. I haven't been to back to this board in a while. To answer your question they served Indian at the ethnic station at lunch time one day. It was all vegetarian and very yummy. They did serve other vegetarian/vegan dishes throughout the various lunch stations at the buffet throughout the week so I don't think you will have any problem finding something to meet your satisfaction.

[CruiserTB]

Thanks so much for your review! Can you please elaborate on the kids club? Types of activities, lots of free play or more structured time? Sports, crafts, games? How crowded was it? We will be traveling with our 10 year old daughter who has cruised quite a bit and definitely would appreciate anything you could share. It makes for a wonderful trip when they make friends, have kind,fun counselors and LOVE to go.

 

Well unfortunately the 10 year old girl I was with never went to the kids club (she spent most of her time in the pool and made friends there) so I can only give you info from the 7 year old boy's perspective. He loved it. There was free play and they did some crafts (drawing mostly). It wasn't that crowded, the counselors took them as a group to the evening shows and there was even a section in the buffet where they could sit together dinner time as a group and the tables were decorated with tablecloths and mini utensils which I thought was cute. He definitely made a lot of friends, when we were out together there was always a kid coming up to him to say high or tell him something (but the little boy is very outgoing so it's not hard for him to make friends at all).

[CruiserTB]

The 'Americanization of the Divina' was good in some areas, and bad in some areas! But they needed to adjust some for the American market.

I remember one night 'trolling' the Allure buffet, and all the hot meat dishes were Indian, and we hate Indian food! Does that mean the food sucked, no, it just wasn't to our taste! And that's an important distinction most people playing 'Anthony Boudain' on these threads seem to ignore!:D

 

Yeah American Bear I know logically it makes sense that they would "Americanize" it but I was kind of hoping for more of the European flair and tastes so I could reminisce about my times living abroad. That being said, food is definitely subjective. While I understand others did not like the food, I can pretty much eat anything and so I wasn't really bothered by it. Nothing stood out, good or bad, the food was just eh in my opinion.

[Tatka]

Yeah American Bear I know logically it makes sense that they would "Americanize" it but I was kind of hoping for more of the European flair and tastes so I could reminisce about my times living abroad. That being said, food is definitely subjective. While I understand others did not like the food, I can pretty much eat anything and so I wasn't really bothered by it. Nothing stood out, good or bad, the food was just eh in my opinion.

 

We just returned this Saturday.

 

I was sad to see Divina more Americanized than Poesia last year.

Not food, but overall feel. I kind of missed announcements in three languages (I was trying to learn Italian during last two month :) ) Last year there was more Italian entertainers - Sicilian guitar duo, great Italian tenor.

 

But... this years shows were out of this world, even better than last year. They were simply amazing!

[Cruise-A-Hoy]

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...

 

I found embarkation a little long BUT I also found Norwegian worse. It took about 1 1/2 hours of crawling lines before we got on the ship

[CruiserTB]

I found embarkation a little long BUT I also found Norwegian worse. It took about 1 1/2 hours of crawling lines before we got on the ship

 

Ooh Cruise-A-Hoy I hope you had something to keep you entertained. Me and my group watched Netflix on our phones and played games to make the time go by.

[American Bear]

Yeah American Bear I know logically it makes sense that they would "Americanize" it but I was kind of hoping for more of the European flair and tastes so I could reminisce about my times living abroad. That being said, food is definitely subjective. While I understand others did not like the food, I can pretty much eat anything and so I wasn't really bothered by it. Nothing stood out, good or bad, the food was just eh in my opinion.

 

I would agree that all cruise line food isn't what it used to be!

On every cruise line forum are complaints of cutbacks in food, member benefits, service, etc.!

There are a few smaller cruise lines that still offer high quality food and service, but of course you'll pay hundreds of dollars per day more for the extra!

I think everyone needs to step back, and take a moment to think how much you get on a cruise that's included!

For what we paid for our 2 week cruise on the Divina, I'm surprised they didn't make everyone eat hot dogs all week! But you know, sometimes you just can't make some people happy!:eek:

(And the view outside changes every day!:D)