Our First Cruise

I would first start by saying my fiancee and I had a great time. The ship was beautiful. The staff was a bit over worked. They cleaned all the time. Not many English speaking staff. For it to be an Mediterranean cruise line in the States going to US territories I think that they should have people that understand English a bit better. But that didn't put too much of a damper on our vacation. We kind of liked that in a sense. The reason being was it gave us a more diverse experience. It like going to US territories and also having a European vacation at the same time. Mostly Italian and French were being spoken around the ship. We enjoyed the buffet, it had plenty to choose from for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pizza was served from lunch on. The pizza is good but they should offer more of a selection for toppings. The downfall to the buffet is that for dinner there is only water, coffee, and tea for beverages unless you buy from the concessions which are over priced for soda. No fruit juices!

So for Dinner I drank water because I don't drink tea or coffee. We had safety training the 2 day which I thought was weird. What if something happened the first night of sailing? No one would have know what to do or where to go. Well maybe veteran cruisers but no one would have known where to go. The medical center hours were 8a-12p then 4p-8p. If one had an emergency what would they do?. The staff was all helpful and very nice even though there was a language barrier but they still seemed to make what you needed happen. We had the 2nd seating for dinner. We went 2 times that week. We would have went to the formals but the clothes we brought didn't adhere to the colors for the formal. So we wasn't able to attend. I think that MSC should provide the itinerary for cruisers ahead of time so they can pack accordingly. In the restaurant it took forever to get your food due to it being over crowded and not enough staff. The food was pretty good but you had to order like 2 entrees to get enough. I guess us Americans over indulge when it comes to food. I did however, like the buffet better. The lemonade was really good!!! We didn't make it to all the shows due to trying our things on the ship. But we did make it to the Michael Jackson tribute. OMG, it is not to miss...It was a very very good show. The staff and dancers done really well. The ports were great. We had a lot of fun.  Captain Pierpaolo Scala did a nice job of keeping us up to date with weather and the course we were on. The ride was really smooth. We had a balcony stateroom. It was very nice and pretty roomy. The 4D cinema was pretty good. A tip for people trying to get there tan on. You may want to get up to the Sun deck or Aqua Park early. Lounge chairs get gone very quick. I am a light-skin black guy so I don't tan I burn! So that wasn't a big deal to me but lounging on the desk in the shade is nice. Our cabin attendant, we never knew his name but he was really nice and on point. Gave him a nice tip. Every time we left our cabin and he was in the corridor he would ask if we needed anything. I thought that was really nice. The Swarovski crystal staircases are beautiful. They complimented our formal photos very nicely. We are using one of those for our wedding invites.  I was able to use this experience to propose to my future wife on St. Maarten. She had no idea. Had a local to get some great photos of the proposal. So our vacation which was an early but late birthday gift for her 30th birthday turned in an engagement celebration. Both of our birthdays are in July like 3 days apart. But she felt it would best to do a fall cruise due to it being too hot in July. So we chose September. Other than those few issues the cruise was overall a great first time experience. I want to try some other cruise lines but we would go on the Divina again.  Oh yes, and try to Gelato It was really good.