MSC DIvina April 1st Cruise Review

[Luckyone2]

My husband and I have cruised four times with MSC: twice each on MSC Poesia and MSC DIvina. This review comes from the perspective of being a non-drinker, non-smoker, and non-gambler. We are senior citizens who simply love being on the sea, exploring familiar ports, enjoying fabulous shows, and eating great food. We have previously cruised aboard Carnival, Norwegian, Premier, Costa, and Princess ships.

 

We cruised on the MSC DIvina about two years ago, and I can honestly say that the DIvina looks as new now as it did then. MSC DIvina is a beautiful, elegant ship which we loved exploring again.

 

We booked an interior cabin and were bumped up to a balcony. Our room was B1 balcony which overlooked deck 7 and the lifeboats. The lifeboats in no way obstructed our view but I did miss looking directly down at the passing ocean. I was worried about smoking odor because our cabin was directly above the allowed smoking section of deck 7, but this did not happen. In fact, we never noticed the odor of smoke anywhere on the ship. Our cabin was one of the few cabins that had a tub. The bathroom was bigger because of this. I also like that the closet opened up into the room instead of the narrow room hallway. Our room steward, William, did an excellent job of keeping our room nice and tidy. Our bed and pillows were very comfortable. Our room was below a lounge, and the only thing we heard was the faint sound of music at night. We rather liked having this music as we fell asleep. Our room was centrally located on the ship. We often used the quick single elevator to go directly to the Black Crab dining room or Calumet Buffet. I believe these elevators are referred to as the "secret elevators".

 

We ate all breakfasts, most lunches, and all dinners in the Black Crab dining room. We found the food to be very delicious. The pasta dishes, breads, soups and sorbets were excellent! My husband loved the Beef Wellington, but found the steaks to be tough. The vegetarian dishes were quite good. While we had requested first seating, we were assigned second seating. This actually worked out better because we did not need to hurry when coming in from our excursions. Our waiter, Patris Dcosta, and his wait staff were exceptional. Patris always let us know that if we did not like anything that he would get us something else. We did not visit any speciality restaurants and did not order any upcharged dishes. The Calemut Buffet was always busy. We always sat at the very back of the buffet because it featured a panoramic view of the wake and was always deserted. The buffet had a vast variety of food. When we ate in the buffet, we always found the food to be very good.

 

We did purchase the non-alcoholic drink package which allowed us to enjoy speciality coffee drinks, sorbets, virgin cocktails, and water. We enjoyed visiting Caffe Italia and the Piazza del Doge to redeem our drink coupons.

 

The shows on the MSC DIvina are the best shows that we have ever seen aboard any cruise ship that we have been on. The shows featured excellent singers, dancers, and gymnasts. I especially loved the Pirates and the Michael Jackson shows although the other shows were just as good. All of the shows were different or improved from the first ones that we first saw on the DIvina years ago. There was always live music in the different lounges around the ship.

 

In Nassau, we walked to Fort Fincastle and the Queen's Staircase since it had been nearly 42 years since we had been to these places. In Puerto Rico, we walked around the base of Fort Morro, then used our National Park senior pass to tour Fort Morro. The views from Fort Morro are spectacular! We also enjoyed walking along the Paseo de la Princessa. In St. Maarten, we took a taxi to Mayo Beach to watch the planes fly in. Round trip taxi passes were being sold but I had read that there had been problems with people using the return portion of their ticket so we asked for and received a one way ride to Maho. It was very easy to find a taxi for our return trip.

 

Embarkation and disembarkation was very easy, effortless, and organized. We arrived at the terminal at 11:30 and were aboard by 12:15. I picked our drink tickets in the casino. We notified on Tuesday to submit a request for early disembarkation on Monday which we immediately turned in to reception. We were assigned to the first group for 6:30 disembarkation and were on the road at 7:10.

 

MSC absolutely suits our needs as cruise travelers. We would not hesitate to book another cruise with MSC. We found the fellow travelers to be friendly. We saw far more acts of kindness and helpfulness than we did of rudeness. The crew was friendly and welcoming. MSC offers a wonderful experience at a very reasonable price.

[shukapaw]

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

We are looking forward to our first MSC cruise in about 2 months

 

~Brian

[KiMnEvan]

Thanks great review!

[thegraminator]

Thank you for your informative review . We will be sailing our first time with MSC in July (previously with Royal Caribbean x 3, Princess x 2, and Disney x 2 ). We are excited to try something new .

 

Did you find the common areas to be crowded, such as the lounges and pool areas ? Were there plenty of day time activities to keep you busy on sea days ? And lastly , did you feel like you had enough time for touring in the ports ? Thank you .

[Luckyone2]

Although people flocked to the areas directly around the pool, there were many areas that were not crowded and were available for sunbathing. The lounges never felt crowded. Times that did feel crowded were when the shows were finished. This is the first cruise where I thought that we had plenty of time at the ports. Disembarkation at ports was easier when we waited about an hour to leave after the crowds had left. There was a variety of activities planned each day. Sometimes there were several activities that we wanted to attend scheduled for the same time. There are cooking demonstrations that were scheduled close together. We were able to go from one to the next without missing anything. I recommend buying drink packages and internet packages before the cruise where you can get a better deal. I wished that we had ordered the internet package because we found it to be a very good connection when we bought the one day package. I was glad that we brought our Tervis cups to fill up at the drink station at the buffet. We used their cups to fill up our containers with ice and water.

[seeriteR]

I agree with Brian and others. Thank you for your review. We are booked on Seaside in December and Divina in March, 2018. Looking forward to both cruises. We were very impressed with our first MSC cruise aboard Poesia, which we still consider to be the nicest ship we have been on to date.

 

Jim and Pam

[riclop]

Thanks for the review and we agree with your thoughts, that is why we have been on the Divina 7x.

[Moobaby214]

Thank you for your review!!