Divina Review December 5, 2015 Eastern Caribbean

[finzup-kt]

Enjoying your review so far! I recently booked divina for May 2016 and I'm loving all the info. Question : does MSC send you info about the various color themed nights? I know you read about them on here, but how would the average non cc reader find out about them? Thanks

Edited January 9, 2016 by finzup-kt

[riclop]

Great job on your review Tracey.

[maureencruiser]

uestion : does MSC send you info about the various color themed nights? I know you read about them on here, but how would the average non cc reader find out about them? Thanks

 

No, they don't. Most people find out when they read it in the daily planner, too bad they don't tell them sooner.

 

Tracey, my advice about the daily planners is to tell your cabin steward you need 2 every day. If each of you has one, maybe at least one of you won't lose it. I have used this method to come home with fresh clean copies so I can just throw away the one I tore up. If you both lose them, you can always stop by guest services, they have them in racks on the walls, just check which language you're picking up, LOL.

[ctipton55]

Hi, can you tell me what the dress code is at night. I read a review that said no jeans, shorts or tshirts allowed in public rooms after five. So if it is a sea day and you are using the pool or outside, you have to change? Thank you.

[Tracey/Thom]

Hi, can you tell me what the dress code is at night. I read a review that said no jeans, shorts or tshirts allowed in public rooms after five. So if it is a sea day and you are using the pool or outside, you have to change? Thank you.

 

There were people in the Pantheon Theater dressed in jeans, but I didn't see too many in the main dining room. If you're using the pool, chances are you'll WANT to change - it gets uncomfortable walking around in a wet swimsuit in air conditioned rooms, no? We dressed up for formal night, and we dressed appropriately for non formal nights, but we did change our clothes, yes, indeed. Some cruise lines, like Carnival perhaps, don't seem to have a dress code and everyone walks around dressed casually, some might say sloppily, but I don't think that's the case on MSC.

 

Remember this is a pretty international ship, with European standards. Culturally, it's appropriate to NOT dress casually for dinner. For us, that sometimes was as simple as putting on a clean shirt, or changing out of jeans and into a pair of black trousers. On a sea day, this is even easier, because you've not all day to figure out what you're going to wear that evening, and lots of time to take a shower and clean up for the evening. Hope that helps.

[Tracey/Thom]

Enjoying your review so far! I recently booked divina for May 2016 and I'm loving all the info. Question : does MSC send you info about the various color themed nights? I know you read about them on here, but how would the average non cc reader find out about them? Thanks

 

They didn't send me any info, but because I'd read about it on CC, I asked my MSC representative (when I was finally able to get hold of him) about it, and he confirmed. There were lots of people that weren't dressed in the theme of the night, and no one cared, so I wouldn't worry about it. I didn't buy a whole new wardrobe or anything, just packed carefully from the clothes I had as I wanted to participate (and I'm glad I did!).

[Tracey/Thom]

Day Six - at Sea So apparently the reason we had to go back to Puerto Rico, a few hours after leaving, was because there was a person with head trauma, and apparently such a patient cannot be lifted into the air, and head trauma needs immediate attention. We learned all this from other guests, some of whom had talked to other guests - and in such a situation, everyone knows someone - and hey, we're at sea with nothing else to talk about all day.....

 

The cruise director had announced at the show in the Pantheon Theater and over the public system basic details, and most of us were sympathetic and quite happy to lose some sailing time if it meant that this woman (urban legend was that it was a woman, but I could be wrong, it could have been a man!) would not die or suffer some horrible brain injury. After all, this could have been our mother, our sister, our daughter...what it meant was that we would not be stopping for a day at Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas the next day - we'd lost 7 hours by taking this patient to the Puerto Rico emergency room - and the doctor on board had to go with her, I guess to hand her off to the doctor in Puerto Rico.

 

I was imagining having a horrible head trauma, on a cruise, in the middle of a foreign ocean, far from home, having to be left in a different country, where they probably didn't accept my insurance, not knowing how I'd get home, or if the medical care was any good, if I'd get home at all. And maybe the medical staff didn't speak English - because Spanish is the official language.

 

So at breakfast in the main dining room (which was excellent of course, I had the herring), we sat with lots of lovely people from different countries, an American couple and a couple from Quebec. Discussing the head trauma patient, the husband made a comment about it being "ridiculous" that we would lose a day in the Bahamas (on the beach) because of her. I was appalled. :eek: When I asked him what would have been a better solution, he simply stated "you stabilize the patient and hospitalize them at the next port". But the next port would have meant 2 days later (we left Puerto Rico Wednesday at 4 pm and wasn't scheduled to get to the private island in the Bahamas until Friday at 8 am). Did he really, seriously believe that was a better solution? Yes, indeed he did. He thought it was just "wrong" to make 4,000 people lose 8 hours of their cruise for one person.

 

How heartless! I couldn't believe someone would hold that opinion, and then publicly state it. But I bit my tongue, it takes all sorts to make the world. And everyone has an opinion. I did wonder if that was his mother, or daughter if he would have cared about lying on a beach that much. And I'm pretty sure there is no hospital on that private island in the Bahamas. We all lost a day on a beach, and many people lost their excursions (MSC said they would refund those excursions), but I am still of the opinion that a human life is worth it - I think they made the right decision - at great cost to MSC I'm sure because ship gas is expensive and heartless imbeciles like Mr. Quebec would demand a full refund for their entire cruise because it didn't go exactly to his plan. Go figure.

 

The cruise director did announce that the patient had been stabilized, but I never did hear the announcement if she had made it, pulled through, or if in fact, she had died. I'm sure if she died, that's not the sort of thing they would say on a public announcement to 4,000 strangers, but I prayed she would be ok, and that she had family members or beloved friends at her side.

 

So back to the day at sea - it was relaxing, quiet and almost Divine - "divine, Divina get it? :rolleyes:) We went to the Bijoux Terner shop by La Sirene pool where I scored a watch for $10. Time for a quick nap and then to the OPERA.

 

Yes, MSC offers a real opera on the sea and it was sublime! We went to our first professional opera a decade ago, one of us loved it, one of us didn't, but we both recognized that professional opera required a gift from God. I have to say this (La Traviatta) little mini version was absolutely spiffing. It wasn't very long, but it broke up the afternoon, and it left you feeling like you'd been to an opera! If you'd never pay money to go to a professional opera, because you're scared you might not like it, and thus have wasted your hard-earned cash, go to this one! It will give you enough of a taste to know whether you should spend money to go to the full production.

 

But when you go, be on time - it started at 3 pm - and don't act like Ma and Pa Clampet and arrive 20 minutes late and then expect everyone in the row to stand up so that you can get the last seats in the middle of the row. And wear clothes! Not dress pants and ties, but not your pool clothes - have a little common courtesy for your fellow man that might not want to see your corpulent flesh in Speedos in the middle of an opera in the most elegant stage setting on the high seas.

 

I do wish MSC would have a staff person at the door, and once the show has started, bar the doors, Katie! It was so distracting, and just plain rude, to have people disrupting others, making others stand up (so that absolutely no-one behind for several rows could see) so that they could find a seat. Why are people so self-absorbed? I promised myself that when I start believing that everything is about me, my happiness, my comfort, my pleasure, it'll be time to give the family permission to lock me up somewhere and tell the world I've gone barmy.

 

At 4:45 we found ourselves in one of the bars for a cocktail and to listen to some very talented musicians do a Beatles Tribute - excellent entertainment! We went to the buffet for dinner, (we skipped Formal Night) where they were doing some sort of Oktoberfest food - in December, 2 weeks before Christmas - but the food was great! We loved sitting at the very back (aft) of the ship - the best views on the entire ship, although it can get a little crowded at mealtimes. The buffet was always immaculately clean, servers working hard to keep the tables clear of dishes, a little noisy too with all those languages on board, but overall it, just fine for us.

 

We'd received an invitation in our cabin to have cocktails with the Captain - not sure what we did to rate that! But off we went (glad I changed out of my buffet casuals into a dress) and it was very elegant - and the Captain and his team were in their finery, speaking multiple languages to tell us all about what MSC was doing in the cruise world. Free champagne too! And lots of nibbles, not that we were hungry , but they all looked so good!

 

The show that night was Treasure Island - lots of stunts and acrobats and Pirate singing and dancing - all well done (again) and professionally presented. Did I mention before how much we LOVED the shows on this cruiseline?

 

We went up on deck for a bit - nothing like ocean stars - and noticed how fast the ship was moving - not that we could feel anything rocking or anything, just that the cutting through the water bigger, faster. The Galaxy disco was rocking - lots of Latino music - but we didn't know how to dance to that music - despite our Salsa lessons (and the fact that it was younger crowd) - and we were actually quite exhausted from all that relaxing! So we decided to call it a night at midnight and be ready for Nassau the next day. The cruise director had told us they'd arranged for us to dock somewhere to make up for our lost day at Great Stirrup Cay, but we'd only be there for 3 hours.

Fine with us!

 

More tomorrow!

[ctipton55]

Lol I didn't mean I wanted to,be in bathing suit. But if it is a hot day and we don't want to do dining room but buffet for dinner we can't be in shorts or jeans? We dress for the dining room.

[Tracey/Thom]

Lol I didn't mean I wanted to,be in bathing suit. But if it is a hot day and we don't want to do dining room but buffet for dinner we can't be in shorts or jeans? We dress for the dining room.

 

:cool: We weren't in the buffet for dinner very much, just for late night snacking, there were lots of people wearing jeans, can't say that I remember too many people in shorts. I do recall thinking that people dressed a little better on this ship than on the Carnival ship we were on last year, which seemed sloppy to me. I mean, when you're having a little cocktail, or relaxing by a violinist, it adds to the enjoyment to have others around wearing clothes that don't make you wonder if they're on their way to play beach volleyball. So I'm sure jeans and t shirts and other casuals are fine for the buffet. Maybe the word "public" applied to the theater and the bars? Not sure where you found the verbiage.

[CJR10]

Tracey/Thom - thank you for taking the time to write this review.

 

I received an email late last week from MSC with a deal I couldn't pass up so me and my mom (who will be 88 yrs young when we sail) will be experiencing this cruise line for the first time in December. When I first seriously considered sailing on the Divina, I checked the reviews on CC like I do for just about everything cruise related and I was shocked by the all of the negative comments. I have not gone a "perfect" cruise yet but, I look at like this - I am not getting up at 5:30am to take care of our animals before I head off to my 10 hour work day then home again to take care of the animals once more before starting laundry, preparing dinner and going to bed. I just enjoy the experience of cruising.

 

I do understand the frustration with their website, I just cannot figure it out. I completed my on-line booking and web check-in but cannot seem to find my actual booking with my balance due, dinner selection and last payment due date. Guess the other cruise lines have spoiled me in this area. I will continue to search the internet to see what I can find but if anyone here could provide me some insight I would be truly grateful! I like to have everything in order way before I leave.

 

Thanks again for such a wonderful review!

Jannia

[Tracey/Thom]

Tracey/Thom - thank you for taking the time to write this review.

 

I received an email late last week from MSC with a deal I couldn't pass up so me and my mom (who will be 88 yrs young when we sail) will be experiencing this cruise line for the first time in December. When I first seriously considered sailing on the Divina, I checked the reviews on CC like I do for just about everything cruise related and I was shocked by the all of the negative comments. I have not gone a "perfect" cruise yet but, I look at like this - I am not getting up at 5:30am to take care of our animals before I head off to my 10 hour work day then home again to take care of the animals once more before starting laundry, preparing dinner and going to bed. I just enjoy the experience of cruising.

 

I do understand the frustration with their website, I just cannot figure it out. I completed my on-line booking and web check-in but cannot seem to find my actual booking with my balance due, dinner selection and last payment due date. Guess the other cruise lines have spoiled me in this area. I will continue to search the internet to see what I can find but if anyone here could provide me some insight I would be truly grateful! I like to have everything in order way before I leave.

 

Thanks again for such a wonderful review!

Jannia

 

Me too! I would call MSC, (this will take a while) and WAIT until you speak to a human being, get their name and direct line. Have all your questions ready in a list and make sure you get answers on each of them, ask them to email you the confirmation of what you've discussed WHILE YOU'RE ON THE PHONE with them, and when you get the email, then hang up the phone, print out the confirmation so you have proof.

 

We had a wonderful cruise, but the website was a nightmare to deal with. The phone call messages I left were unanswered for weeks. Obviously they have things they need to work on! The rep I talked to said he didn't have access to the public website or my account. So, prepare yourself for just ONE conversation (when you get hold of someone), and make sure you get everything you need sorted. It may take an hour (mostly on hold), but then you'll be done and won't have to throw your computer through the window. Have a fab cruise - by then you'll have forgotten about their dreadful website!

[gigi1313]

What a fabulous comprehensive review! Thank you for sharing! We are booked for Feb '17 and cannot wait!

 

Thanks again!

[btrfly73]

Thank you for your review as we are sailing on the Hysteria concert cruise on the 21st and have seen limited information about the Divina.

 

Since we were booked through the concert agent I'm unable to manage my booking through MSC, but I did find out from them that the agent switched my original booked Aurea suite to a much smaller cabin. We were eventually upgraded to the YC with full amenities after several phone calls but the manager really did step up to fix the problem.

 

The regular prices out of Miami are fabulous compared to RC and Disney so I'm hoping everything goes great and looking to book with their bogo balcony room while on board for early next year. Its a short 4night cruise but I m really hoping to fall in love with MSC as no one Ive talked to has ever heard of them.

[Tracey/Thom]

Day Seven - not Coco Cay, but Nassau, Bahamas. So as I said earlier, because of the medical emergency where we had to return to Puerto Rico to let a very ill person be hospitalized, we'd lost too much time to have our 8 hour excursion on the private island. MSC announced the night before in the theater that we'd be stopping in Nassau for just 3-4 hours in the afternoon.

 

We were ok with this, as any port while on a cruise would be a good port - but many others were not happy. But hey, we weren't going to waste our cruise time feeling negative and grumpy. We'd never been to Nassau and although it wouldn't have been in our plans were we to pick an itinerary on MSC, we were going and we determined to be happy about it!

 

So after a leisurely breakfast in the MDR (kippers, yum!) and a stroll around the promenade, we made our way back to our cabin to get our bags packed as our cruise would be over the following morning and we didn't want to waste an entire evening packing.

 

We landed in Nassau around 2 pm. Although MSC had pulled together some excursions, we didn't think it was worth it for just a few hours to rush around. After all, it's the Bahamas - we'd figure we were bound to be back here at some point if we continued funding our cruising addiction. So we strolled around the harbor area, we sat and listened to some reggae/Bahamian Christmas carols being sung by a trio in the square - that was LOVELY! Really very nice, lots of Christmas decorations all over the place (even though it was 82 degrees).

 

We strolled down the main road which was a mixture of very high end shops and some tacky t-shirt shops, which was different. We found the Straw Market, but we took the advice of some gentlemen we had had breakfast with, and stuck to the perimeter. It was good advice. On looking into the market (which is indoors), the aisles were narrow, very very narrow, and the merchandise is piled to the ceiling, and it's quite dimly lit. The vendors there were very pushy, which got annoying, and then felt uncomfortable. So we stayed on the perimeters which was outdoors, there was the usual t-shirts and hats, but also some exquisite hand carved wooden pieces. We bought a stingray, to remind us of our swim with the stingrays in the Grand Cayman last year. We also bought a little steel drum as a gift, which had been hand made and tuned by a guy who played the steel drums. The rest of it was just "stuff" so we decided not to add to the "stuff" already bursting our home at the seams.

 

We found an old church, Anglican, I think, which was very beautiful, and empty and wandered around streets looking at locals and tourists alike. We were back on board (very efficiently done) by 4:00 pm for a 6:00 pm quiet departure.

 

Ran by the Photo gallery to pick up our photos - everyone had the same idea because we'd all spent the week posing for the photographers in our finery! It was way too crowded, but we stuck around as it was the last night and we had no choice. I must say though, the photos are professionally done, and worth a little splurge (glad I didnt' waste any money on those tacky tshirts!) to remind you of your cruise.

 

We had a quick bite in the buffet. Tonight's theme was "casual" and everyone was casual, but not sloppy - no holey jeans, or sleevless tshirts that had been sawn off at the bottom. I like MSC for this reason (among others). And then onto the show - Starwalker - the Michael Jackson show. It was FANTASTIC!

The dancing was superb, the music spot on, the light show was rather strobe-y for my liking - (be forewarned if strobes give you migraines) - but it all added to a great show. The BEST show of the week -don't miss it!

 

There was a mini bowling game going on, the 4D cinema had something going on in Virtual World, more shopping opportunities and casino games. I've heard some say there are not enough activities on this ship - I think there are plenty of activities, just none that I really wanted to do. This is something for you to consider if you want to be kept busy all day and all night. We found that there was plenty for US to do, and still left lots of time for sitting around and gazing at my big, blue ocean. (You did know it was MINE, right? :) )

 

Up to the Jazz bar to use our last drink vouchers (we got the the 12-voucher pack for $72 - it was well worth the money), not sure where everyone was (maybe at one of the many dancing places) but we had the place, and the duo singing, almost to ourselves, they were very good.

 

And so to bed by midnight :( - bags packed and ready for self-assist in the morning (so much faster than letting them do it for you). Our first cruise we let them handle our bags, not realizing it would mean we had to have our bags out in the hallway in the evening, which meant we had to have ANOTHER bag, with our toiletries, pyjamas etc. for that one night. Note - if you can handle your own suitcases (we only had 2 between the 2 of us), it's a much more efficient way to get off the ship. We had been assigned the 7 a.m. departure group (Yay!) in the Daily Program so we set our alarm for 5:45 a.m. Sigh! The last night is always so sad......

 

My final thoughts tomorrow

[Tracey/Thom]

What a fabulous comprehensive review! Thank you for sharing! We are booked for Feb '17 and cannot wait!

 

Thanks again!

 

You are welcome! It's taken a lot longer than I thought to get it together, but it's also kind of nice, reliving our cruise in my head in order to get it all written down! You're going to have a fabulous time!

[Crzyfrk62]

So great.... I miss the Divina and the YC and this brings all those wonderful memories back.

[Tracey/Thom]

Great job on your review Tracey.

Thanks, Riclop! We received SUCH helpful information on here that it was only right to try and give back and contribute something useful upon our return!:)

[Tracey/Thom]

Well I had some final thoughts to add....

 

I'm one who does a lot of research before making a decision, and CC is SO good for gathering information. I'm sometimes surprised to read yet another thread question asking about dress code and the differences between Experiences when there is so much information on here already. My advice is, scroll through the threads and read up on what's already here. If you're posting a question like "Should I try MSC?" and not getting many replies, it may be because it's been answered many, many times on here already. MSC is not that old, so all of the information on here (for the US itineraries) are still pretty current.

 

Tipping - we loved the fact that we could pre-pay our gratuities before our cruise. We think staff work hard (even when they're having a bad day) and we've never considered asking Guest Services to remove them. It's really part of the cost of cruising, and let's be honest, this is SUCH great value for money, don't rip off the staff who are EARNING their tips.

 

We REALLY enjoyed the style of service in that nobody hounded us for drinks, or asked us 6 times in the space of an hour if everything was going well. I know that it's the way things are done in the US, as servers seem to think this will translate as good service (we find we fawning) and they'll get a better tip. MSC seems to take the position that the tips are built in (hence the daily addition to your bill), so no tipping is necessary. Certainly none of the staff "hung around for a moment" expecting a tip. We found this most refreshing. And there were servers in every bar, standing unobtrusively in a corner, waiting for you to catch their eye.

 

MSC has it in their literature that they don't want guests to tip individual staff, as the staff behind the scenes are working just as hard as the staff that have contact with the guests, and all the gratuities are handed out equally amongst the staff. We did tip our cabin attendant (by leaving $ on our pillow) as we made a couple of extra requests and she was very prompt, polite and helpful, though not overly friendly in an overly-familiar way. We left our $ in the safe and were happy not to have to walk around the ship with anything in our pocket other than our MSC card.

 

Closet space - we were actually very impressed with the generous closet space. We had plenty of space for 2 people on a 7 night cruise. We try to travel light, but with 2 formal nights, it can be a challenge!

 

Smoking - it did seem that we kept having to pass through the smoking section of the deck, which we disliked. And it was always crowded! I'm not sure how MSC arranges this, but our personal preference is for non-smoking ((I'm sure the smokers are going to have a hey-day with that comment!) cruising. Perhaps because it's a European cruise ship, it seemed like there were a lot of smokers. I did notice the ashtray in our bathroom, perhaps smoking is allowed when the Divina is in European waters??

 

Norovirus - I've heard lots of people (not on CC) who are terrified to cruise in case they contract Norovirus. We take basic precautions, without getting all OCD about it, and feel like due diligence and taking personal responsibility for one's own health is the adult thing to do. We thought the Divina was PRISTINE. There were staff everywhere, cleaning, spraying, shining, buffing. There was Purell outside all the dining rooms, including the buffet, although no staff were present to force anyone to use it.

 

Basic precautions - don't touch your face, rub your eyes, bite your nails or put your hands on your face so that virus can enter. We used the Purell (and kept a small bottle of Zylast in our pocket) available and washed our hands at every opportunity.

 

Use your knuckle or your elbow to push the elevator buttons, not your fingers.

Use your bottom/shoulder to push open a public door, not your hand.

Instead of running my hand down the rail on the stairs, I rested my forearm (sleeve) on it. It does the same job of helping balance, and is close enough to my hand that I can grab it if I trip. All of these became habit very within a day, and seeing others do it too, reinforced simple preventative techniques.

 

Pasta - my one regret - I never tried it! I read on here it was great, but when I returned home, I realized that the food was so yummy, I made other choices and forgot to taste ANY of the pasta. I shall have to rectify that by taking another cruise on Divina!

 

Crowds - we frequently found ourselves almost alone on deck, almost alone in the bar, and other than the dining rooms, we NEVER felt like there were too many people around. I hear a lot of folks who have never cruised verbalize this concern, and I must dissuade them of that notion. Even in the pool, there were other people, but certainly not crowds, on the dance floor, in the shops, we never felt crowded (other than that last day, Debarkation, which was crowded and a little disorganized).

 

Gelato - somehow I missed the memo that Gelato must have been invented by God himself, because I waited until almost our last day to get my $2 scoop of heaven in a little cup. Don't make the same mistake I did - ignore the free, sugary ice cream machine on deck 14 and go to the Gelato booth, where a lovely server will give you your choice of many flavors. I should have started on Day one, as there were lots of flavors I didn't get to try. Again - must take another Divina cruise to rectify this huge oversight on my part.

 

Hope this review has been helpful, I'm happy to answer any specific questions you might have!

[t_car]

Hi Tracey,

 

Thanks for your very comprehensive and genuine review. I am looking forward to a more international cruise experience on the Divina in September.

My wife and I were both born in Italy, although in Canada from a young age. We are looking forward to partake in the many pasta dishes and Gelatos on our cruise. :D:p