MSC Divina Yacht Club 2/11 - 2/22 Live Review

[Beamafar]

Very enjoyable, informative report.  While I understand comparing The Retreat to YC (and we’ve done both), I wonder if it is fair to do so when The Retreat is so much more expensive, so should be a much better experience (which it isn’t IOHO).  I appreciate that you addressed this - I’m just making that point for others.

 

Have you considered MSC’s new luxury line, Explora Journeys?   There’s a lot of very positive reviews about it - especially the food offerings.  From what I can see, the fares are very comparable to The Retreat. 

[MsTabbyKats]

1 hour ago, George C said:

I moved from New York City to Dallas in 1982 , it was impossible to find a real bagel , once ordered a pastrami on rye , it was cold and had tomato and lettuce on it . Luckily things have improved.

Tomato and lettuce with pastrami "just aint right".......but at lease it wasn't on white bread with mayo!

[Jim_Iain]

19 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Best of Japan on Celebrity Millennium May 2-15 out of Yokohama.  Will be going over 3-days early and returning 3-days after the cruise. 

 

 

Fantastic.    That was one of our favorite cruises.    

[DaKahuna]

21 hours ago, RichYak said:

It’s not clear to me from your summary why your wife might be less willing to sail in Yacht Club again. Is it simply a food preference?

 

 The food is exactly what it is for her.  Otherwise, she had a wonderful cruise.   She especially

loved the YC venues and enjoyed sitting in there during the day just for the peace and quite and enjoyed the music in the evenings.  

 

19 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

You should see what I've encountered with "bagels".  Just because it's round, with a hold in the middle....no, that doesn't make it a bagel.

 

 I recall only seeing 'mini bagels' and did not try them.  Did not try any donuts either.  
 I ate more than my fair share of the focaccia bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar though.

[DaKahuna]

5 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Have you considered MSC’s new luxury line, Explora Journeys?   There’s a lot of very positive reviews about it - especially the food offerings.  From what I can see, the fares are very comparable to The Retreat. 

 

No, we have not looked into those as I fear those ships would be too small for my wife.  She really enjoys the larger ships over the smaller ones.  

 

[George C]

4 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Tomato and lettuce with pastrami "just aint right".......but at lease it wasn't on white bread with mayo!

I believe it did have mayo

[Beamafar]

Just now, DaKahuna said:

 

No, we have not looked into those as I fear those ships would be too small for my wife.  She really enjoys the larger ships over the smaller ones.  

 

That’s understandable.  There is a much wider range of entertainment on the big ships.  

[DaKahuna]

I just realized that I neglected to comment on the WiFi on Divina. 

 

We received two devices each of the Browse WiFi with our YC booking.  I initially tried to connect my travel router to the WiFi and was not successful in accessing the captive portal page.  I got impatient and gave up on that so used my iPhone and iPad as my two devices.  

 

 The speed test that I ran showed very high speeds, for shipboard WiFi,  much faster than what I experienced on Celebrity Millennium, even though both were StarLink.  

 

 What i did discover was that MSC  does deep packet inspection and even with the higher speeds, getting sites like YouTube were problematic.  However, when I engaged my VPN the speeds were significantly shower but I could get to YouTube with no issue.  

 

As a result, I never bothered upgrading to the Surf WiFi on Divina as switching on and off my VPN as needed to accomplish what I wanted to do at the time we very simple.  

 

[MsTabbyKats]

39 minutes ago, George C said:

I believe it did have mayo

I'm speechless..........I'm thinking what Lenny Bruce would have said....but I'll opt to remain speechless.

[jcpc]

@DaKahunaIt's too bad that your wife didn't enjoy the food.  Other than that, your review seems to indicate that you both enjoyed MSC Yacht Club.  Food is so subjective on each ship --- it really all depends on the chef.  On Meraviglia last week our chef was Ajay and he was wonderful - actually making us a couple "off menu" items at our request.  There were some interesting dishes in the main dining room and he definitely accommodated us when we requested them and even made baked stuffed shrimp and chicken parm for us!  Udon noodles was on the menu (I believe at lunch, not dinner - but I could be mis-remembering there!).  I did not have them but one of my traveling companions did and he raved about them.  I don't know much about these noodles but the noodles that were served to him were big, fat noodles - looking nothing like the picture you posted of what was served to your wife!

 

Hopefully you can convince her to give MSC Yacht Club another chance (with maybe another chef...LOL)

 

Enjoy your next cruise.  I'll be following along on the Celebrity boards.

[DaKahuna]

@jcpc I agree.  Other than the limited selections, I was always find something to eat and enjoyed my meals.   My wife is a very picky eater so it is not unusual for her to have difficulty finding what she likes on a cruise. 
 

The big fat noodles, white and two to three size of spaghetti is how an udon noodle looks.

[psmarkle]

On 2/17/2024 at 9:20 AM, Mark_T said:

Got to love the consistent inconsistencies  🙂

I’ve had the filet twice in the YC and both were cooked (med rare) to perfection.

 

I thought the 2nd one was going to be a fail when I saw it, but it was just a plating error as I was served something ordered as ‘well done’. This was rapidly corrected. 
 

I have to wonder if at least some of the reported ‘misses’ were just the wrong steak…?

 

I’ve yet to have a poor med rare steak there…

 

I usually have the YC Filet at least 3x on a 1-week cruise and have only ever sent one back as it was more med than med-rare. I think on our last cruise, I even had it on embarkation day for lunch.

 

We usually use our free Diamond meal at the seafood restaurant as DW loves Chilean Sea Bass, but might have to go ahead and try the filet at Butcher's Cut so I can do my own comparison and report back.

[DaKahuna]

11 hours ago, psmarkle said:

I usually have the YC Filet at least 3x on a 1-week cruise and have only ever sent one back as it was more med than med-rare. I think on our last cruise, I even had it on embarkation day for lunch.

 

 I had it twice.  I usually eat more lamb and fish on cruises as my cardiologist is not happy when I eat a lot of red meat. 

 

11 hours ago, psmarkle said:

 

We usually use our free Diamond meal at the seafood restaurant as DW loves Chilean Sea Bass, but might have to go ahead and try the filet at Butcher's Cut so I can do my own comparison and report back.

 

 We booked the two restaurant experience and unfortunately on Divina there is no seafood restaurant, or taco's, or anything other than Galaxy (sushi) and Butcher's Cut.   

 

 I encourage everyone to form their own opinion as we all have taste buds and they all taste differently.  🙂