My (very) long review of MSC Divina, plus YC, 1/17-1/28

[Kmkub]

21 minutes ago, jrs2000 said:

We also just got off the January 17-28th sailing of the Divina and we couldn't agree more for most of the review. 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I agree about the desserts. I only had one in our MDR for the entire cruise. It was Cherries Jubilee made fresh, table side style. It was so boring. The ice cream was melted, there were three total cherries and so little juice there was only a hint of pink on some of the ice cream.

 

We were also disappointed at the lack of a poolside grill, but based on what we saw in the yacht club outdoor buffet, we didn't lose out much.

 

Once I found gelato, I pretty much stuck with that. Their gelato blows all others at sea away... sooooo good.

Edited January 30, 2020 by Kmkub

[CruisinCrow]

41 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

Once I found gelato, I pretty much stuck with that. Their gelato blows all others at sea away... sooooo good.

 

I hope the gelato in the dining room is free.  What flavors did they have?

[Kmkub]

20 minutes ago, CruisinCrow said:

 

I hope the gelato in the dining room is free.  What flavors did they have?

Gelato is an upcharge, available on Deck 14, pool bar & on Deck 6 in the Atrium. I don't recall all the flavors. I stuck with chocolate / hazelnut and it was amazing. There were about 8 flavors, maybe 10.

[CruisinCrow]

13 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

Gelato is an upcharge, available on Deck 14, pool bar & on Deck 6 in the Atrium. I don't recall all the flavors. I stuck with chocolate / hazelnut and it was amazing. There were about 8 flavors, maybe 10.

 

I've seen it on the dining room menus too but they didn't list flavors so they probably offer a different one every day.  I hope it's free in the dining room.

[Kmkub]

10 minutes ago, CruisinCrow said:

 

I've seen it on the dining room menus too but they didn't list flavors so they probably offer a different one every day.  I hope it's free in the dining room.

I can't say about any dining room except Le Muse. They had ice cream & sorbet each day, but no gelato.

[gotcha3]

15 hours ago, Anita Latte said:

Great review...we sailed 1/12 to 1/17.

 

We used the sauna and steam rooms and loved them. We brought product with us and had fun in the rooms which most people must pass on

 

 

 

 

 

.

What product?

[Anita Latte]

8 hours ago, CruisinCrow said:

I keep reading reviews where the luggage doesn't show up until after dinner.  Is that normal on Divina?  We've been on many cruises and have always gotten our luggage before sailaway and definitely before dinner.

 

Late luggage delivery happened on our cruise as well. It was after 9 pm and two from our group hadn’t gotten their luggage yet. I went for a walk forward on our deck to see if I could find their luggage and did. There must have been 20+ bags still out in the hall in the far forward section. I wasn’t the only one hinting it down. And that’s not a typo...it was well after 9:00pm. We had hoped the luggage would be delivered after the second theater show...but no joy...which is why I went luggage hunting.

[Anita Latte]

6 hours ago, Kmkub said:

They had ice cream & sorbet each day, but no gelato.

 

I tried a dessert on the first night and wasn’t impressed. When getting water from the buffet later that evening, I saw that same dessert at the buffet. I went with the ice cream or sorbet every night thereafter and it was always good. 100%. 

[Anita Latte]

4 hours ago, gotcha3 said:

What product?

 

Like cuticle oil, hand cream, body oil/lotion, deep hair conditioner...stuff like that. The heat from the steam/sauna really improves 5he performance of the product. Super fun personal spa time.

[eastoftheboston]

I appreciate your great, thorough review!
 

The only thing I wanted to say was that it may not have been the experience for you, but one CAN eat lunch inside on Ocean Cay in the YC restaurant, because when we went there the hostess apologized to us because the only open tables were inside. She was thrilled when we said we actually PREFERRED eating inside LOL. It was a win-win. I'm sorry you didn't have that option. 

[Bossa Nova]

Apparently we were on the same cruise, but in parallel universes. This was my fourth Divina YC cruise since 2016, and it was the best yet. Our group split across three cabins was escorted from the terminal by our at-sea butler, Jacques. He immediately made it clear that he would be our best butler ever. And boy did he deliver. The concierge staff members were also excellent as you mentioned. I had my usual flower arrangement picked up ashore by the concierge, and all my other arrangements made. Dining in Le Muse was better than ever. The menu changes every day, which I find amazing. Here is an example of a lunch I had: starters of escargot, octopus carpaccio, ox tail consume, and blue cheese soufflé, with Angus filet entree. The people that complain about food in Le Muse are generally people that order dishes they are used to and find they don't compare to the versions at their favorite restaurants at home. If you are "food adventurous", then you will be absolutely delighted by Le Muse, lunch and dinner, every day. The staff in Top Sail and Le Muse learned my peculiar wishes by the second day and delighted in bringing them. Regarding the muster drill, the YC director (from Scotland) looked across the room and noted that I had inadvertently brought the child life preserver instead of the adult version. He immediately sent a crew member to correct the situation. From laundry to excursions to special requests, everything was done as we requested. I am truly baffled that you were with us in YC and had such a different experience.

[Kmkub]

16 hours ago, Bossa Nova said:

  The menu changes every day, which I find amazing. Here is an example of a lunch I had: starters of escargot, octopus carpaccio, ox tail consume, and blue cheese soufflé, with Angus filet entree. The people that complain about food in Le Muse are generally people that order dishes they are used to and find they don't compare to the versions at their favorite restaurants at home. If you are "food adventurous", then you will be absolutely delighted by Le Muse, lunch and dinner, every day. 

I'm glad you were thrilled by the food. We were mostly disappointed because we thought the Italian food would be amazing, and it was not even as good as Olive Garden. We never go to Olive Garden, because it's just not very good. Our favorite Italian restaurant is owned and run by Italians who migrated here from Italy.

 

If authentic Italian was crunchy pasta with almost no sauce, which has no flavor, then nobody would eat it.

 

We didn't have one tasty Italian dish.

 

We are absolutely willing to venture outside of our food comfort zone, and we did throughout the cruise. The escargot was delicious, as was the octopus carpaccio (and all the other carpaccios we had, once we added salt.)

 

Risotto shouldn't be crunchy and ravioli shouldn't be gummy.

 

I also wish that the baguettes were warm instead of cold, and the butter would have been soft instead of hard. Something other than bean soup would have been appreciated as well. It started to feel like it was Forrest Gump's soup company... we have kidney bean soup, garbanzo bean soup, black bean soup, navy bean soup, pinto bean soup...

 

I'm also glad your waiters learned your preferences. We ate at Le Muse every day for at least one meal. By the end of the cruise, they still weren't clear on which type of water we wanted, even though we never chose sparkling.

 

 

 

 

[Bossa Nova]

2 hours ago, Kmkub said:

If authentic Italian was crunchy pasta with almost no sauce, which has no flavor, then nobody would eat it.

Risotto shouldn't be crunchy and ravioli shouldn't be gummy.

It started to feel like it was Forrest Gump's soup company... we have kidney bean soup, garbanzo bean soup, black bean soup, navy bean soup, pinto bean soup...

Agreed that most of the soups had a thin base although there were some standouts. Regarding pasta, I took an eight day bicycle tour of Tuscany staying at farms and resorts, and the only time I had pasta was in a cooking class where we made gnocchi. Le Muse menus are similar to what we were offered in Tuscany, except for the limited selection of fresh produce at sea.

[Nashna]

We were also in YC on the 17th of January sailing.  I don't think we had the pleasure of meeting,  Kmkub.  Glad to see you totally enjoyed your sailing, Bossa Nova.  

 

Kmkub, I totally agree with you regarding the soup options.  Hopefully, you had the Pumpkin soup as it was delicious.   While the kitchen pastas were just ok, our maître 'de, Ali, made some fantastic pasta dishes right there in the dining room.  They were beautifully seasoned and perfectly cooked.  We could not tolerate the crowds and rudeness in the buffet.  We only ate in the buffet once during our 17 day cruise.  I hope you realized that you could order food from the buffet sent to One Pool.  We ordered specially cooked hamburgers and fries one day.  We also ordered omelets for breakfast.  We did see others order the wings from the Sports Bar as well as some lunch apps  from Le Muse.   Several afternoons, we ordered cheese and crackers from room service which were quickly delivered to our room.  We found you could pretty much order what you wanted from  room service as it was the great concierge desk that answered the call.   

[Postcards]

Thank you very much for all the info. We are cruising on the Davina in March with a little more knowledge now, Cheers. As we are NCL cruisers , naturally curious for the Aurora experience. One question that I have not read anywhere,, are there coffee makers in the rooms? Huge fan of the Nespresso machines the Suites all have with NCL . Happy Cruising all!

[Kmkub]

18 hours ago, Nashna said:

 I hope you realized that you could order food from the buffet sent to One Pool.  

We had no idea. I didn't read about that anywhere on here before we left, and nobody told me while we were there. Thanks for letting me know; that will be helpful in the future.

 

 

[Nashna]

We did not know about this perk until a few days into the cruise when we were chatting with fellow cruisers who were on their third YC Divina cruise.  They even had the One Pool Bar and the Top Sail Lounge make up special batches of sangria.  On day eight, we also realized that One Pool Bar could do ice tea.  The butlers and staff really do try to respond to any reasonable request.  

[Kmkub]

10 hours ago, Nashna said:

   The butlers and staff really do try to respond to any reasonable request.  

I always felt that way by the concierge team, but not my butler nor the restaurant staff. There was one night where they wouldn't let us have our preferred bottle of wine. We asked three times and finally (and begrudgingly,) complied with what they wanted us to drink. We're not pushy types and we certainly didn't want to cause a scene. We did get our preferred wine the rest of the cruise. Not sure what was off on that one night.

[Nashna]

Our butler was fantastic.  We ordered cheese and GF bread for my husband as we were told there was no GF crackers onboard.  Our butler showed up 15 minutes later with cheese and GF crackers.   When we told him how happy we were to have the crackers, he came back five minutes later with a full carton of the crackers.  He told us to keep them in our room so we could always have them available.  Perhaps, you should have reported your butler to the officer in charge of the YC.  I was a bit miffed when I first met our butler when he escorted us to our room as he kept glancing at his phone.  Then, I realized that he was continuing to look at his phone as he was responding to his other guests requests.  

 

[Kmkub]

1 hour ago, Nashna said:

 Perhaps, you should have reported your butler to the officer in charge of the YC.  

 

As I said; we let things wash away, because complaining takes energy, most of it negative. We cruise to escape the negative, so we stay upbeat. There are always little things that could get in our way. we just refuse to let them.

 

It was still a great cruise. Had something truly bad happened, we would have complained, though.

[George C]

Thanks for review, we did YC on seaside two months ago , had a way better butler than you had. We were totally impressed with YC so much we booked it again. We normally cruise in suites on both rccl and celebrity but loved the private areas offered by YC . I thought the penne pasta offered at lunch was excellent, I grew up in a Italian family in nyc and can be picky about my sauce . ( we do agree about Olive Garden you could not pay me to eat that food) 

[Kmkub]

1 hour ago, George C said:

Thanks for review, we did YC on seaside two months ago , had a way better butler than you had. We were totally impressed with YC so much we booked it again.

I imagine we will try the YC Seaside at some point. I keep reading how "any reasonable request will be honored," but that just wasn't our experience. Like the food we had on RC, I think it was an anomaly.

 

For example - I asked our butler what he could do for us to help us celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. He just handed me the room service book and said, "pick something out."  I had seen pictures of one couple's stateroom and their butler had decorated it to the nines. I had hoped he could do a little something for us.

 

I don't think any of our (very few) requests were unreasonable. "Let me take that drink from you so my husband doesn't have to hide in the closet naked." Nope - can't do it; they have to bring it in for me.

 

 

[George C]

Not doubting your experience, seaside is a little newer and cabin was perfect , but a little small. Give you example of butler almost every night he knew we had dinner at 8 pm made sure we had a table waiting and carried our drinks up to dinning room or had a waiter do it. 

[TrinaLC]

Quality of butlers does vary, but 5 trips in YC we find for the most part they are great. 
 

And unlike NCL Haven, you aren’t stuck if you have a crappy butler as outside of your cabin they work in teams. 
 

 

[JAGR]

Happy anniversary!  I appreciate your attitude of focusing on the positive when cruising!  DW and I cruise to escape the pressure of work, so we look for the good things as well.