Entertainment Spectacular/ Food Sub Par
MSC Divina Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 50
11 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: February 04, 2018
Ship: MSC Divina
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 12207
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
Although I loved the shows, many improvements would have to be done with regards to the food before I would consider another MSC cruise.Embarkation
We ignored the embarkation information telling us to arrive at 3:30 and came at 11 am. We were on the ship quite quickly and relaxing at the buffet
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Christian our head waiter was fabulous but despite being told prior to the cruise that our vegan (me) and gluten free/vegetarian (my husband) diets would be accomodated, they were not. Making a spinach salad with a few nuts for protein is easy. Instead I was served a bed of Romaine lettuce with nothing on it. Most meals came without any protein. We gave up on the dining room and ate at th3 buffet. Despite asking whether there was dairy in the offerings I was given erroneous information and broke out in hives. The reason I am vegan is that I get a rash when I eat dairy.
The presentation of the food in the dining room was not great. It looked like it was thrown on the plate and garnishes were absent. We went on a Disney cruise 8 years ago and our needs were met. They gave us the next day’s menu at dinner time to select our meals and the next day they had a version of the meal that we could eat. There is no excuse to not catering to special diets. More and more people are vegan and if MSC cannot satisfy them then they are cutting out a large segment of the population.
We were told that when we were going on our excursion that we could order a special meal since the excursion operators might not be able to accommodate us. The meal provided was a bag of gluten free starchy breads and some jam and bananas. There was not a vegetable or a protein.
I will not be able to cruise again with MSC without assurances that your practices have changed.
Onboard Activities
I used the treadmill daily but for a ship that size there should have been more treadmills.
I participated in the stretch and aerobics classes.
I am allergic to chlorine and the salt water pool was on the smoking area so I didn’t use it.
I was annoyed that people put out their towels on loungers and then walked away for hours thereby keeping others from enjoying them. Some people reserved one lounger in the shade and then took another lounger in the sun. That way when the sun moved they could move to the other one. A solution might be to provide laminated cards with the guests room number on them. It would then be easy for the pool attendants to see if a lounger is held for more than a half hour. If someone is on a lounger and does not have a card then they would have to get off it.
Entertainment
I was truly amazed at the shows that were provided on the ship. I have never seen anything like them previously and we have travelled with four other cruise lines
Service and Staff
Our room steward was excellent and seemed to be working around the clock. I wonder how he ever slept. Despite that, he always had a very cheerful disposition
Ship Quality
Cleanliness was excellent. Flow was difficult. When the Panrheon theatre let out there was a total jam up as people funnelled through the casino. If there had been a fire people would have been trampled
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin was great. The balcony was wonderful. There was lots of storage. The bed was comfortable
Ship tip
Eat at the buffet for dinner. Go to the 7:00 show and then go back again at 9
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
No excursion. Walked to the beach and shopped. The reason we booked this cruise was because it was going to Costa Rica. We were very disappointed that it was changed to Aruba. Also no one was able to tell us why the change was made
We tried to book the Embera Village excursion prior to the cruise but it was completely booked. We then found a tour to another Embera village on our own instead. The problem was that the ship indicated that it was going to Cristobal not Colon and we had to make arrangements with the tour as to where to be picked up. We had many conflicting answers both before and after embarkation. We finally decided to guess that it would be Colon
Nothing to see. Just some shopping at the port.
The disembarkation was a nightmare. The timing was delayed and people were jammed in the hallway and staircases on the fifth floor. I thought that some passengers were going to come to blows. One passenger in particular was very aggressive. The whole episode was poorly organized with only Wesley trying to hold back the crowds.
In future if there is a delay you should send everyone to the Pantheon theatre and give them disembarkation numbers to keep things orderly
Disembarkation
Someone fell on the escalator and the escalator was stopped very suddenly narrowly missing everyone tumbling down.
We were told that we would have access to wifi in the terminal and we counted on that to be able to get an Uber. Instead we were shooed out of the terminal and had to find a bank machine to be able to pay for a shuttle.