MSC Divina 18 Day Live Cruise Blog 11/14-12/2

[mlashae]

I board the Divina on Sunday, so nice to see what’s going on right now. Thanks for sharing! Can anyone speak to the quality of the ship WiFi?

[PRH]

36 minutes ago, mlashae said:

I board the Divina on Sunday, so nice to see what’s going on right now. Thanks for sharing! Can anyone speak to the quality of the ship WiFi?

It's ok.  Better in public areas.

[Motegi]

1 hour ago, mlashae said:

I board the Divina on Sunday, so nice to see what’s going on right now. Thanks for sharing! Can anyone speak to the quality of the ship WiFi?

Working well for me.  I’ve been posting everything in this thread using Wifi

[ESCARGO]

On 11/15/2021 at 4:41 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

Looks to me you found the Ranchero Potatoes.  I did not discover them until Day 6 of my 7 day cruise.  

Ok, I have to ask what are the Ranchero Potatoes?

[Motegi]

Day 3 - Lunch at Ocean House @ Ocean Cay

 

Our selections rated from * to *****
 

Crab Ceviche *** (not actually ceviche)
Charred Octopus *****
Carne Asada * (unexpected sweet dressing)

Lobster Roll (sandwich ****, fries *****)

[JAGR]

11 hours ago, ESCARGO said:

Ok, I have to ask what are the Ranchero Potatoes?

Potatoes cut into a large dice, cooked with slice onions, peppers and usually chili powder.  MSC keeps it fairly mild, though.  Think southwestern-style home fries.  Much better than their "hash brown" potatoes, which are really a poor copy of McDonald's hash brown patties.

 

[quattrohead]

There is something different about the MSC fries that are absolutely delicious, I agree with the five star rating. It must be a different type of potato from what we are used to in the USA.

The food is very typical of MSC and has been the same since I first stepped on Poesia 11 years ago. Somewhat smaller portions but very adequate food. Excellent fish, pasta and pizza and rather tough beef.

[PRH]

On this cruise and had the carne asada at Ocean House.  Mine was excellent.  Tender meat and nice and spicy.  From Maine so we don't order lobster from Caribbean.  Guess it does come down to personal taste.  

[styles27]

46 minutes ago, PRH said:

On this cruise and had the carne asada at Ocean House.  Mine was excellent.  Tender meat and nice and spicy.  From Maine so we don't order lobster from Caribbean.  Guess it does come down to personal taste.  

New Englander here and agree that above picture is not a lobster roll like it should be lol yikes!
One hasn’t lived until they’ve had a real lobster roll from New England 😉

 

WIFI right now on this cruise is perfect. Turn your cellular off and it’s a stronger signal in our experience. 

[Motegi]

58 minutes ago, PRH said:

On this cruise and had the carne asada at Ocean House.  Mine was excellent.  Tender meat and nice and spicy.  From Maine so we don't order lobster from Caribbean.  Guess it does come down to personal taste.  

I agree that the meat for the carne asada was tender.  We just didn’t realize it was served cold over a salad with a sweet dressing.  
 

Our waiter recognized that Pam didn’t really care for it so he brought her one without dressing along with a lobster roll.  
 

I lived in New Hampshire for several years and made a few trips to Maine for seafood.  Definitely a different kind of lobster altogether. 
 

But I will say Caribbean lobster can also be quite delicious.  There used to be an Oceanside seafood stand, Big Daddy Brown’s, in Grand Bahama that served the freshest and tastiest fresh lobster tails and conch salad.  I don’t know if it’s still there. We used to stop there every time we were in port.

[Motegi]

WiFi speed comparison between MSC Divina, MSC Meraviglia, and NCL Bliss

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Motegi

[Motegi]

Day 3 - LeMuse Dinner

 

 

Our Selections and ratings * to *****
 

Potato and Marscapone Flan *****

Guinea Fowl ****
Rack of Lamb *****

Butter Chicken ****

[Motegi]

Day 3 Theatre Performance: Cuore Italiano

 

A variety of Italian classics and Bocelli hits.  We enjoyed the performance but were surprised it didn’t coincide with Italian Night.  

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Motegi

[Motegi]

Day 3 Ocean Cay

 

We booked a lighthouse tour through the concierge desk for the last departure at 4:30.  
 

Thinking that we would relax at the lighthouse bar before our tour we walked over there around 3:30 only to find that the bar was closing.  
 

At 4 we went to the lighthouse to see the staff wrapping up for the day.  They were surprised to see us and even more surprised that we had tickets for a tour.  
 

After radioing back to the excursion desk they opened things back up and took us on a quick tour to the top.  
 

So thankful that they let us up!

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Motegi

[mlashae]

1 hour ago, Motegi said:

WiFi speed comparison between MSC Divina, MSC Meraviglia, and NCL Bliss

 

 

Nice! Gotta get back on NCL.

 

[rkacruiser]

6 hours ago, Motegi said:

We booked a lighthouse tour

 

That tour was not available in 2020.  Enjoyed seeing your views of this.  More evidence to me that Ocean Cay has many possibilities for the future.  

[rkacruiser]

22 hours ago, ESCARGO said:

Ok, I have to ask what are the Ranchero Potatoes?

 

10 hours ago, JAGR said:

Potatoes cut into a large dice, cooked with slice onions, peppers and usually chili powder.  MSC keeps it fairly mild, though.  Think southwestern-style home fries.  Much better than their "hash brown" potatoes, which are really a poor copy of McDonald's hash brown patties.

 

 

Thank you for answering ESCARGO for me, JAGR.  The potatoes are really good.  

[Motegi]

3 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

That tour was not available in 2020.  Enjoyed seeing your views of this.  More evidence to me that Ocean Cay has many possibilities for the future.  

Yes.  I don’t remember seeing it as an option when we were here in late 2019. M

 

As long as you don’t mind heights I highly recommend this tour.  The views are incredible!

 

And if you could time it around sunset it would be perfect! 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Motegi

[Motegi]

Day 4 - Sea Day

[Motegi]

Day 4 - Sea Day

We slept in a bit this morning and decided to try the Thermal area at the Aurea Spa (included with Yacht Club).   

 

First, we checked in at the Spa desk and exchanged our keycards for spa locker keys. The  Spa attendant said that the current capacity for the Thermal area was limited to 6 and that there were only two other passengers in there at that time. 
 

The first sauna we tried was apparently not working as control panel outside did not seem to respond to any commands and the temperature was not hot at all.  
 

The second was working and unoccupied so we hopped right in.  Apparently neither of us are sauna people because it reminded us of standing at a Las Vegas bus stop in the middle of summer.   We lasted for less than 5 minutes.  LOL.  
 

Next we walked to the Steam rooms but both were occupied so we relaxed on the loungers while waiting to see if one would open up.  Apparently the steam rooms were amazing because both of the passengers stayed in their rooms for the long haul.  

Having skipped breakfast, we decided to meander over to the juice bar for some smoothies and plan to come back to the steam rooms another day.

Edited November 18, 2021 by Motegi

[Motegi]

Some Yacht Club Suite Treats that have been placed in our cabin the past few days:

 

[Motegi]

 

Day 3 - Voyagers Club Captain’s Party in the Black & White Lounge

 

This was not on the daily planner.  We received an invite in our cabin the night before.

 

We think it was one of the best attended events on this cruise so far.  
 

The Captain announced seven new MSC ships in the next few years and the start of a sister luxury line of “all Yacht Club” vessels. 
 

I had a video camera recording the event but it was accidentally knocked over by one of the MSC photographers and, sadly, the footage was lost.  

Edited November 18, 2021 by Motegi

[Motegi]

Day 4 - Lunch at LeMuse and Calumet Buffet.

 

Seeing a couple items we wanted to try at LeMuse and also having a craving for MSC pizza we decided to partake a bit of both. 
 

 

Our selections and ratings * to *****
Seabass *****
Cuttlefish ***
Corn soup *** (**** after adding soy sauce per our waiter’s suggestion)

Buffet pizza (ham and cream, Margherita) *****

Edited November 18, 2021 by Motegi

[Motegi]

Day 4 - Trivia time

 

We tried our hand at Trivia again this afternoon at the Jazz Lounge. 
 

We were just 1 point off from winning the Visual Trivia but didn’t fare as well on general knowledge or classic rock. 

At least all participants get free slice of pizza at the buffet so everyone is a winner, right? 
 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Motegi

[Motegi]

Day 4 - Elegant Dinner at LeMuse 

 

Although the Daily Planner described today’s attire as “casual”, the menus indicated “Elegant”.

 

So we decided to dress up for dinner with black dress and black tuxedo and noticed a few others on the ship in Elegant style as well. 

 

Our selections and ratings * to *****
 

Blue Cheese Soufflé ***
Burgundy Snails (escargot) ****
Risotto (****)

Filet Mignon with a skewer of panko crusted jumbo shrimp and calamari ****
Crepe Suzanne ****

Edited November 18, 2021 by Motegi