MSC Divina-The good, the bad & the ugly

[georgiagirljen]

Thank you for the wonderful review, my husband and I have been on the Divina before, back in 2014 and just booked for this coming fall. We ended up finding your video review as well and enjoyed them thoroughly. I just wanted to be able to thank you for the in depth information and honest review. MSC gets a bad rep most of the time and we were shocked to find it to be so beautiful and friendly.

[Suzcruz57]

Need help on a cabin. Deck 13 on Divina, totally aft cabin. 13227. Looks like a Wierd balcony.Anyone have any info. Cabin on hold for a short time. Please help asap

[BermudaBound2014]

Need help on a cabin. Deck 13 on Divina, totally aft cabin. 13227. Looks like a Wierd balcony.Anyone have any info. Cabin on hold for a short time. Please help asap

 

 

 

Google "divina aft balcony" images. I don't believe that's a true balcony. More Romeo

And Juliet. Maybe Pete can chime in, but I believe deck 13 was once considered ocean view (not balcony) due to the size.

 

Deck 10 huge- 11 and 12 big too. I fit a lounger on 12 aft. Any chance for those

 

 

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[Benzbuddy87]

Need help on a cabin. Deck 13 on Divina, totally aft cabin. 13227. Looks like a Wierd balcony.Anyone have any info. Cabin on hold for a short time. Please help asap

 

Divina Stateroom #'s 13222, 13223, 13224, 13225, 13226, 13227, 13228, 13229, 13230 have a Juliet balcony. If the stateroom is available, merely start to book a placeholder / dummy cruise online ... select the stateroom which interests you, then click for stateroom details. The details will include the size of the surface area, plus size of the veranda (if any).

 

Should you opt for a different stateroom, remember that deck 13 veranda staterooms on the inner hump will have an overhang from deck 14. The overhang will negate direct sunlight to your veranda - but that also means you will not get wet in the event of inclement weather. Only the aft balconies on deck 13 are Bella Experience, while all others on deck 13 are Fantastica.

[shukapaw]

Need help on a cabin. Deck 13 on Divina, totally aft cabin. 13227. Looks like a Wierd balcony.Anyone have any info. Cabin on hold for a short time. Please help asap

 

 

You can view a video

. Go to about the 3:45 portion of the video to see the tiny balcony.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Brian

[jimmymed3]

Need help on a cabin. Deck 13 on Divina, totally aft cabin. 13227. Looks like a Wierd balcony.Anyone have any info. Cabin on hold for a short time. Please help asap

 

Hey! I just now saw this. Did you end up booking it? The aft balconies on this floor are tiny. We considered this and ended up getting an actual balcony.

[Skier52]

Google "divina aft balcony" images. I don't believe that's a true balcony. More Romeo

And Juliet. Maybe Pete can chime in, but I believe deck 13 was once considered ocean view (not balcony) due to the size.

 

Deck 10 huge- 11 and 12 big too. I fit a lounger on 12 aft. Any chance for those

 

 

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Back from my Skiing holiday now and found this thread again.

 

here is a photo I took myself of the Divina deck 13 aft balconies

 

 

 

 

 

And yes , on my original Davina deck plans they were grade 5 cabins (out of 13 grades ; not including the 3 YC grades) and defined as ocean view, the same as the deck 5 OV cabins.

 

see this thread post#7 for the proof

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1732552

 

 

Pete

Edited March 15, 2017 by Skier52

[jimmymed3]

Dang! I'm not even sure if I could fit out there with the door closed! Lol kind of a nice bonus for an ocean view though.

 

 

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[GRANNYOFSIX]

Hi Jimmy and Amanda......We did book another MSC cruise for February of 2018. Looking forward to it. Divina again. Found the pricing to be higher this time by quite a bit, but we did get a stern/aft cabin and our rep said it was the same price as a regular balcony.....fine with me.......we had the same cabin this past January and it was awesome! Also wanted to say that our waiter and assistant waiter were awesome in the main dining room (first seating)......we had water continually being served without even having to ask for it. Was happy about that! Have you booked another cruise? Would love to see more videos. You guys are amazing!! Have a great day!!

 

[NJGRANNY]

To us, that's the charm of an Italian ship - that things are different. We've had a great time every time we've sailed an Italian ship - especially when we did the Irish cruise on one. That was a blast!

[jimmymed3]

That's awesome! I didn't know that MSC did a cruise around Ireland.

 

 

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[Jillee_Beans]

We are going on the MSC Divina in December out of Miami. We are both (boyfriend and myself) first time cruisers. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching your YouTube videos about this ship. We are ready for Gelato!!!! :D Your daily vlogs are extremely helpful, especially with info on each port. My boyfriend is a basic t-shirt and jeans guy but now wants to get a "hawaiian" type shirt like the one you bought! :cool: Thank you so much for your honest review on the ship! <3

[xtynyc]

1h35m for a three course meal is perfect unless you hate the people you are sitting with...my god, this isn't Applebees!

[sbsco]

Thanks for the review. Watching your videos now great job!!

[jimmymed3]

Thanks for the review. Watching your videos now great job!!

 

 

Thanks so much! We hope it helped!

 

 

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[jimmymed3]

We are going on the MSC Divina in December out of Miami. We are both (boyfriend and myself) first time cruisers. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching your YouTube videos about this ship. We are ready for Gelato!!!! :D Your daily vlogs are extremely helpful, especially with info on each port. My boyfriend is a basic t-shirt and jeans guy but now wants to get a "hawaiian" type shirt like the one you bought! :cool: Thank you so much for your honest review on the ship! <3

 

 

Oh awesome! Glad we could help! If you have any more questions, we'd love to help. And be warned, the Hawaiian shirts are not well made, but hey, fun to wear! Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

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[cruise325]

So, my girlfriend and I went on the October 22nd sailing of the Divina and wanted to share our experience with you all. I'm not sure if I should post it here, but I just wanted to hit the main notes of what we thought as we have YouTube videos of our thoughts, as well as our daily vlogs.

 

I thought I would share our views on here as MSC seems to get quite the wide variety of opinions on CruiseCritic. I want to say that overall, we had a great time and would definitely cruise on MSC again. We honestly couldn't see why people have been slamming them so hard. Yes, they have a few areas where they need to improve, and they need to do it quickly. So, here are a few bullet points.

 

We broke it down into three categories.

 

The Good

 

-Italian style of cruising, including the food(pizza). It was different than what the US lines offer. We saw this as a plus.

 

-$2 gelato. And it was good.

 

-Free flavored water.

 

-$10 chair massages on sea days.

 

-Low low cost duty free including Cuban cigars and rum.

 

-CruiseCritic meet and greet. This was the best one we have attended on a cruise line. A lot of the senior officers showed up to chat, and caviar.

 

-Loyalty match program. They will bring you in at your current status of a competing cruise line.

 

-Best pizza at sea we've experienced.

 

-The drink voucher program. Why don't the other lines do this?!

 

Lots of free liquor. We each had six free drinks throughout the cruise.

 

-More entertainment staff than other lines and seemed more interactive.

 

The bad

 

The seating at the buffet was horrible. Not sure how they can improve. If you go at non peak times you can usually find a spot in the back.

 

-Portion size in the MDR was small. Like, way small. They could make the main entrée just a little bit bigger.

 

-Larger glasses in the buffet. As with most cruise lines, they love to have you get five shot glass cups of your beverage as opposed to the regular sized human glasses.

 

The ugly

 

These are thing that they just simply have to improve on to be successful.

 

-Speed of service in the dining room. Now I know that there was a large amount of new staff on the ship, but come on. Both lunch and dinner was slow. We were hoping this would have been improved somehow after the dry dock. We waited up to an hour and 35 minutes a few night for the three courses.

 

-Drinks. They need dedicated drink servers in the MDR. We literally waited 30 minutes one night for just water. I would have been uber pissed if we have the unlimited drinks with meals packages. With that said, the staff was working their tails off. It wasn't the staff, it was the planning by MSC. They seemed short staffed but it sounded like everyone made it in after the hurricane.

 

-The venues for the events like the newlywed and Quest games are too small. We found that most of the guests on the Divina stayed up later than the other lines that we cruised on(the Europeans?) and attended all of these events. There were quite a few people stuffed in those venues. It was so packed a few nights, we turned around, frustrated.

 

-Port of Miami embarkation waiting area needs to be bigger. It was too small of a room for a ship that size.

 

We have a more in depth review of the ship on our YouTube channel if you guys want to check it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.chubbyandaway.com

 

 

 

All in all, we had a great time! I think the best thing, if you want to go on this ship, is to embrace the Italian/European way of cruising. We thought it was a cool way to visit Europe without leaving the US! #

 

Hello we will be on the Davina in August 2017 we are are travelling with 2 kids 14 and 12 ,

Wondering what dining time would be best , 6 seems too early and 8:30 too late what time would be recommended ? We would like to see shows and enjoy the events that are offered.

 

 

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[cruise325]

Hello we will be on the Davina in August 2017 we are are travelling with 2 kids 14 and 12 ,

Wondering what dining time would be best , 6 seems too early and 8:30 too late what time would be recommended ? We would like to see shows and enjoy the events that are offered.

 

 

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[WeAllLove2Travel]

So, my girlfriend and I went on the October 22nd sailing of the Divina and wanted to share our experience with you all. I'm not sure if I should post it here, but I just wanted to hit the main notes of what we thought as we have YouTube videos of our thoughts, as well as our daily vlogs.

 

I thought I would share our views on here as MSC seems to get quite the wide variety of opinions on CruiseCritic. I want to say that overall, we had a great time and would definitely cruise on MSC again. We honestly couldn't see why people have been slamming them so hard. Yes, they have a few areas where they need to improve, and they need to do it quickly. So, here are a few bullet points.

 

We broke it down into three categories.

 

The Good

 

-Italian style of cruising, including the food(pizza). It was different than what the US lines offer. We saw this as a plus.

 

-$2 gelato. And it was good.

 

-Free flavored water.

 

-$10 chair massages on sea days.

 

-Low low cost duty free including Cuban cigars and rum.

 

-CruiseCritic meet and greet. This was the best one we have attended on a cruise line. A lot of the senior officers showed up to chat, and caviar.

 

-Loyalty match program. They will bring you in at your current status of a competing cruise line.

 

-Best pizza at sea we've experienced.

 

-The drink voucher program. Why don't the other lines do this?!

 

Lots of free liquor. We each had six free drinks throughout the cruise.

 

-More entertainment staff than other lines and seemed more interactive.

 

The bad

 

The seating at the buffet was horrible. Not sure how they can improve. If you go at non peak times you can usually find a spot in the back.

 

-Portion size in the MDR was small. Like, way small. They could make the main entrée just a little bit bigger.

 

-Larger glasses in the buffet. As with most cruise lines, they love to have you get five shot glass cups of your beverage as opposed to the regular sized human glasses.

 

The ugly

 

These are thing that they just simply have to improve on to be successful.

 

-Speed of service in the dining room. Now I know that there was a large amount of new staff on the ship, but come on. Both lunch and dinner was slow. We were hoping this would have been improved somehow after the dry dock. We waited up to an hour and 35 minutes a few night for the three courses.

 

-Drinks. They need dedicated drink servers in the MDR. We literally waited 30 minutes one night for just water. I would have been uber pissed if we have the unlimited drinks with meals packages. With that said, the staff was working their tails off. It wasn't the staff, it was the planning by MSC. They seemed short staffed but it sounded like everyone made it in after the hurricane.

 

-The venues for the events like the newlywed and Quest games are too small. We found that most of the guests on the Divina stayed up later than the other lines that we cruised on(the Europeans?) and attended all of these events. There were quite a few people stuffed in those venues. It was so packed a few nights, we turned around, frustrated.

 

-Port of Miami embarkation waiting area needs to be bigger. It was too small of a room for a ship that size.

 

We have a more in depth review of the ship on our YouTube channel if you guys want to check it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.chubbyandaway.com

 

 

 

All in all, we had a great time! I think the best thing, if you want to go on this ship, is to embrace the Italian/European way of cruising. We thought it was a cool way to visit Europe without leaving the US! #MSCDivina

 

 

Hi Guys! I just spent the last several hours watching your you tube videos from your MSC Divina cruise. Great videos!! I had fun watching you two!! I just booked MSC Seaside for January 2019 for my family and was interested in learning more about the cruise line as I've never cruised them or heard much about them before talking to my TA who suggested I give them a try. I booked an interior room and your vlog made me want to switch to a balcony! I'm not gonna even lie. Lol. I'm pretty tempted. We will see what happens.

 

Well I see you didn't travel with kids but did you hear anything about the kids room on the ship? Our little cruisers are in love with Carnivals kid room and not impressed with RCI. I'm interested to hear feedback about the kid room if anyone has any information.

 

Also, was the formal night truly formal? We cruised RCI in January and the formal night was truly a sundress and flip flops for most people. Just curious. Not a game changer.

 

We went to Nassau on our last cruise and my kids got excited when they saw y'all walking around and exclaimed "hey! We were just there!" My son was with me during the first video then left the room. When he came back he said "wait! Are those the same people still on the TV?!" Fun relaxing afternoon! [emoji2]

 

Fun videos! I saved some of the places you suggested to go in Port (ie: tiki bikini beach) and will finish watching and come back with more questions. Thanks a ton for doing these! Makes the prospect of going on this cruise even more exciting!

 

 

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[TrinaLC]

Some people really do go all the way for formal night, but many don't. For women a cocktail dress and nice sandals is more than fine. For men that are highly tie adverse, I would think khakis, a button down shirt and blue blazer.

[jjjennys]

Hi All - We cruised end of March and it appears MSC is listening to our feedback. The MDR portion sizes were the largest I've seen on a cruise. I would even say they are oversized now! I cruised MSC last spring as well and there was a significant difference in portion size. One other change I noted from spring 2016 cruise to spring 2017 is the 'infinity pool' changed to adult only.

[jcollin]

Agreed, we (7 of us) were on over Easter and noticed a number of things people called out on CC have been fixed. We never had to ask for water for example. I noticed they fixed things even while on the cruise. We went to the CC meet and greet and told them that the coffee was not hot during breakfast. From that day on it was nice and hot. They certainly want to hear all feedback as we were asked several times.

[shipgeeks]

1h35m for a three course meal is perfect unless you hate the people you are sitting with...my god, this isn't Applebees!

Well said! We've never had a cruise dinner any shorter than that. Most cruises, our conversations with our tablemates extends dinner closer to two hours. Like a nice dinner party, not a McDonalds run.

[jimmymed3]

So sorry for the delayed post! Wow, thanks so much for the kind words! We hope you were able to get a lot out of our videos. We didnt travel with kids, but we were hoping we could bring my two cousins next time to see what they think. We thought there was more than enough cool kid/teen things to do on the ship and they will not be bored. I do know they had a decent arcade, bowling, and race car simulator that would keep them busy for a few hours.

Formal night was kind of a joke really. We actually like to get all fancied up and wear nice clothes, but it seemed like everyone else didnt have the same view. One of our table mates wore a Hawaiian shirt, while I saw others with a t shirt. So hey, formal night dress seems to be up to you on this cruise, lol.

As for Tiki Bikini Hut, you might be able to bargain your way to a cheaper deal! I think some people did that.

We will be happy to answer any of your questions on here, YouTube, or our website. Thanks again and happy travels! -Jimmy and Amanda

 

Hi Guys! I just spent the last several hours watching your you tube videos from your MSC Divina cruise. Great videos!! I had fun watching you two!! I just booked MSC Seaside for January 2019 for my family and was interested in learning more about the cruise line as I've never cruised them or heard much about them before talking to my TA who suggested I give them a try. I booked an interior room and your vlog made me want to switch to a balcony! I'm not gonna even lie. Lol. I'm pretty tempted. We will see what happens.

 

Well I see you didn't travel with kids but did you hear anything about the kids room on the ship? Our little cruisers are in love with Carnivals kid room and not impressed with RCI. I'm interested to hear feedback about the kid room if anyone has any information.

 

Also, was the formal night truly formal? We cruised RCI in January and the formal night was truly a sundress and flip flops for most people. Just curious. Not a game changer.

 

We went to Nassau on our last cruise and my kids got excited when they saw y'all walking around and exclaimed "hey! We were just there!" My son was with me during the first video then left the room. When he came back he said "wait! Are those the same people still on the TV?!" Fun relaxing afternoon! [emoji2]

 

Fun videos! I saved some of the places you suggested to go in Port (ie: tiki bikini beach) and will finish watching and come back with more questions. Thanks a ton for doing these! Makes the prospect of going on this cruise even more exciting!

 

 

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[jimmymed3]

Hi All - We cruised end of March and it appears MSC is listening to our feedback. The MDR portion sizes were the largest I've seen on a cruise. I would even say they are oversized now! I cruised MSC last spring as well and there was a significant difference in portion size. One other change I noted from spring 2016 cruise to spring 2017 is the 'infinity pool' changed to adult only.

 

Whoa! So cool! We are excited that they have been listening to all of us! Now, if they can just comp us a cruise for all of the help we have been giving them, lol.