Divina to Bermuda review plus your questions answered

[nikkiw60]

Loving reading your review also. 2 weeks to go and we will be onboard. Looking forward to the pizza and pasta as we love Italian food.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[floatel_lvr]

Thanks for all the great info... Hope you are enjoying your trip.

[Homosassa]

Continuing with questions asked. There was white sugar, sugar in the raw, equal, sweet and low. Not sure if there was Splenda.

/QUOTE]

 

Splenda is on the table in the dish holding the various sugar options. It is also in the bins at some of the beverage stations. No stevia available.

[LMaxwell]

Continuing with questions asked. There was white sugar, sugar in the raw, equal, sweet and low. Not sure if there was Splenda.

/QUOTE]

 

Splenda is on the table in the dish holding the various sugar options. It is also in the bins at some of the beverage stations. No stevia available.

Thank you. I only use sweet and low so didn't pay close enough attention

[BermudaBound2014]

WELCOME HOME :). Sounds like our opinions of MSC are overall very similar with a just few talking points thrown in for fun.

 

Glad you had a wonderful trip :)

[LMaxwell]

A subject discussed often with wildly varying opinions is dining.

 

Let's discuss the two MDR.

 

The forward one is a two story MDR called Black Crab. The aft one is single story called Villa Rossa. Villa Rossa is also referred to as the Panoramic Dining room because it has windows on 3 sides, Black Crab only windows on 2 sides.

 

Breakfast and Lunch are served daily in Black Crab open seating style. Never went for breakfast. Went 2x for lunch. Fairly extensive 2 page menu with a handful of specials that change daily.

 

Dinner is served in an early and late seating. These times can vary cruise to cruise depending on itinerary, demographic, etc. Ours was 530pm and 830pm.

 

I believe Aurea experience guests have a My Time style option. We had fixed early time in Villa Rossa.

 

I am not a picky eater. I like to try new things on a cruise. However my bar is set higher than "I'm not cooking so it's great". Overall we had very good service and the food was tasty, well prepared, served hot when supposed to be hot, cold when supposed to be cold.

 

We had a baby with us and the child's menu changes every single day with nice selections such as spinach salads, prosciutto and mozzarella, risotto, always 1 or 2 Italian specialties, 3 or 4 different desserts per day, in addition to an always available menu with more traditional offerings. If you want your kids to dine on more than chicken nuggets and french fries you will be very pleased.

 

One night is Italian festival night. They do a parade of tiramisu and serve everyone a slice; you can order off the desert menu still if you wish. If you are Fantastica or Aurea experience the dining room photos from Italian night are free.

 

The second formal night is lobster night and also the baked Alaska parade and they serve everyone a slice, you can still order other desserts if you wish.

 

Iced tap water is free and roving servers refill quickly. Coffee is served with dessert and they always asked if we wanted. Bar servers were as quick as any other line. Using drink vouchers was no problem.

 

Bread is offered from a big bowl. Usually 3 to 5 different varieties and they come around to offer more.

 

Personally I really enjoyed the food. Best meal of my life?? No. It is a cruise dining room. But it compared well to other lines. I'd say about on par with Princess. Better than NCL or Royal. Portions smaller than Carnival but no worries order as much as you want. Multiple apps, multiple entrees no problem. Multiple lobster tails go ahead.

 

No real issues with service but two hours with a baby is stretching it. Most nights we opted out of dessert and went to buffet for dessert. This was our choice and saved about 40 minutes. They did give us the kids menu immediately and had food out for him within 10 minutes of sitting and when we discovered something he liked they would have it waiting the next day. Waiter made a few napkin animals and entertained the baby too.

 

I will post pics of menus via the Tapatalk app. If you can't read them due to size let me know and I will host them somewhere and repost them.

 

On the RCI board I said if you are looking for a classic cruise experience you might like MSC and dining was a big part of that. No need to schedule months in advance. Set time set table, same waitstaff that anticipates what you may like.

 

People generally dressed smartly from what I could see. No sloppy clothing. No gym clothing. Jeans were seen. Formal night very few tuxes. Some suits. Many sport coat and slacks. Casual nights a lot of dockers and polo or button up shirts. Since we were in Bermuda people opted for nice shorts and no issue. I wore Bermudas with a button up one night no problem. I think as long as you are neat and presentable you won't have any issues. So don't stress about it. Many people dressed more casually in the evening after dinner. No problems with that at all.

[LMaxwell]

Menus

 

Surf and Turf

[LMaxwell]

The alternative choice is the everyday menu

[LMaxwell]

[LMaxwell]

[susanrobert]

Thank you for your detailed review and for taking time to answer questions. It's greatly appreciated.

[Yorkvillain]

Such a great informative review. Thanks LMaxwell.

[LMaxwell]

More to come stay tuned in

[gimletgal]

I have thoroughly enjoyed your review along with all the wonderful information you have provided. Thanks so much! I am looking forward to my first MSC Divina cruise this coming Saturday.

Edited April 17, 2016 by gimletgal

[dodger1964]

Thanks for review. We are going to try MSC in September (Splendida). We have sailed exclusively on Celebrity. Looking forward to trying something new.

[Clarea]

Enjoying this, and following.:)

[Ocean Boy]

Embarkation lunch at the buffet. Yes it is busy there like most cruises. But no long lines. Lots of areas and sections. Some repeat. Some do not. There are handy maps on stands. It is worth doing a full lap otherwise you will miss stuff. The Mediterranean Corner cold cuts and cheeses were excellent. Prosciutto, speck, ham, salami, Mozzarella, brie, ricotta, variety of hard cheeses with fruit and preserves. There is an ethnic corner that changed daily(indian, chinese, Jamaican etc..). Yes it is true, kids corner is the place to find popcorn shrimp and other days coconut shrimp.

 

Variety of premade sandwiches and burgers. The burgers are really good. Not quite as good as specialty restaurant but way superior to your standard Royal/Carnival/NCL offerings. Close to as good as Princess. 3 different kinds of fries (shoestring, curly, and Nathan style crinkle cut) 5 varieties of awesome pizza. Nice salad bar and in between the two salad bars they are fresh slicing fruits and veggies. Nice touch.

 

In addition there are numerous stations with rotating daily hot food specials. Deserts are small and / or preplated but good quality and usually 5 to 7 different types.

 

This isn't even touching breakfast, dinner, or late night snacks.

 

If Royal Caribbean had buffets this good people would rave....

 

This is great to read for folks who really like buffets and eat most of their meals there.:)

[LMaxwell]

This is great to read for folks who really like buffets and eat most of their meals there.:)

The buffet is open 20 hrs a day for food and 24 hours for beverages. Pizza prepared fresh about 14 or 15 hours. At 11pm they open a few more sections with sandwiches, salads, deserts, cookies. Many of the ovens face into the buffet so you can watch these goodies being fresh made. There is a bar open in there too.

 

I can't imagine what the people eat at home that complain about the buffet on this ship[emoji568]

 

Oh just to add the fresh pineapples you watch them slice they use the shells for drink specials too. Very tropical [emoji267]

Sent from my B1-730HD using Tapatalk

Edited April 17, 2016 by LMaxwell

[Kruizin'Kath]

I believe that is a new promo being offered on future bookings. You can still add additional vouchers on top if you wish

 

Sent from my B1-730HD using Tapatalk

 

Thanks so much! Your review is perfect:D!

[LMaxwell]

Ship cleanliness and appearance.

SECOND TO NONE in regards to other mainstream lines I have been on.

 

You will not find a speck of rust. You will not find a wooden railing unvarnished. You will not find any salt crust on windows. The interior lounges sparkle and gleam as if new. A streak of soot on the deck? No way. They are constantly cleaning, painting, scrubbing, washing. The cleaning was almost fanatical and around the clock.

 

The contrast to the Carnival Victory I was on 4 months ago could not be more stark and make that ship look like a garbage barge. Like night and day.

 

MSC are absolutely fastidious about upkeep and it really makes you feel good walking around a ship and over the week noticing a small army of cleaners tending to the smallest details. Even the fun house style mirror and glass elevators you won't find a smudge. The public restrooms were always spotless and fully stocked. They provide additional mini foot operated trash cans by the door so you can use paper towels to turn the door handle without touching it. Very impressive. One night about midnight i was going up stairs to the buffet and they had workers uaing wire brushes to scrub clean the little metal kick sills on each step. Twice dueing the cruise they repainted the public aft balcony landings on decks 6 through 15 that probably 95% of guests never even know about. Constantly breaking down bwverage stations to fully clean, not juat wipe down around stuff.

 

No cost cutting on cleanliness and maintenance anywhere.

Edited April 18, 2016 by LMaxwell

[LMaxwell]

This was a minor issue for us w a baby stroller and a bigger issue for those in wheelchairs and scooters: very few doors from interior to exterior have automatic assists. I really feel this was a design miss. Opening those doors against wind can be difficult and I assisted people w mobility challenges a few times. Perhaps during dry dock they will add electric arms. They really should do so

[LMaxwell]

Will talk about entertainment and activities over a few posts.

 

Let's start with main theater Pantheon. All the way forward on decks 6 and 7.

 

My in laws booked the lowest cost interior fare and were assigned a cabin over the theater. I was concerned they would have noise issues. No noise because they only have 2 shows nightly and are basically done by 930pm in main theater so cabins above the theater no worries on night time noise.

 

The theater DOES have ramps on both decks for easy access for those w mobility issues. At the back of the theater is a small open area with chairs that can be moved around. Good spot for those that can't handle going down. The main rows of seats.

 

There are NO pillars so no matter where you sit the view is almost entirely unobstructed.

 

There is no fly in entertainment/juggler/magician/comedians. Every night is a production show at set times to correspond with early and late dinner.

 

This is what I mean by a classic cruise experience. No months of preplanning and booking. Go to dinner at a set time. See the show at a set time. No muss no fuss.

 

Show times were 630pm for second sitting and 830pm for first dinner sitting. Crowds started arriving about 30 minutes early. They have some entertainment staff there to warm up the crowd.

 

No drink servers in theater. No cocktail tables. No cup holders even.

 

Shows were about 40 to 45 minutes. Enough to enjoy without getting antsy.

 

Shows featured great live singers. Dancers were great. There are acrobats and physical performers. Costume and sets very nicely done. The lighting effects built into the stage were just tremendous! At times there were two dozen performers on stage.

 

My gripe. The canned music. Some may not notice or care. But to me it let down the performance and stage show. It was like....they spend all this money on talent and effects so where is the orchestra or band? Live music just sounds better. There is lots of live music in the lounges around the ship so I don't get why they skipped it for the main theater.

 

Night one was a show called Swing. Featured the vocal artists singing Van Morrison, Beatles, Frank Sinatra etc.

 

Night two The Amazing Mask based off the Jim Carrey movie. Great costumes, acrobats, singing and dancing

 

Night three a show called The Voices. Did not go.

 

Night four Witches of Paris. Singing acrobats dancers

 

Night five Simply Italian.

 

Night six Treasure Island. More thrilling acrobats and stunts. Awesome costumes.

 

Also this day in the afternoon they had one performance from LA Traviata. I did not go but many said it was phenomenal.

 

Night seven. Starwalker. Their tribute to Michael Jackson. WOW can the main performer dance. Lots of fun.

 

Many shows had standing ovations. The singers were really excellent. Come on MSC give them a live band!

[LMaxwell]

Evening entertainment. Every evening there was at least 6 different venues to enjoy live music being played. Some performers would rotate spots to keep things mixed up. All the bands and duos were very good! I enjoyed getting a drink deck 7 where they had a solo artist doing "chill out music"

 

One weird thing in Piazza Del Doge on deck 6 which looks like an outdoor Mediterranean cafe with bar and shops around it each night they had a caribbean steel drum band. Ok??

 

They also had a DJ up in the disco each night in Galaxy (think Viking Crown Lounge if familiar with RCI) sometimes during the day the DJ would be at the Garden Bar / aft infinity pool too.

[LMaxwell]

 

Just a sample of the live music around the ship. Each day slightly different

[LMaxwell]

hopefully this works better...