This was the 3rd MSC cruise my husband and I have been on. Obviously we enjoyed ourselves enough the prior two times to be willing to consider sailing again on MSC. When we searched for cruises for this trip, we searched across several cruise lines, and selected this trip for its length and price. We traveled on the July 7, 2022 Divina 3-day cruise out of Port Canaveral. We cruised on back-to-back cruises, and thus also cruised on the Divina 7-day cruise from July 10 – July 17, 2022, totaling a fantastic 10-day cruise. For now on, I truly believe we will only look at MSC cruises for the future! For us, it is all about the staff- and they are wonderful!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Very smooth. And cruising out of Port Canaveral is so so much easier and less hectic than going out to the Port of Miami.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The food was good! And the experiences even better!
Example one is in the buffet. I had staff members ask us at our tables if they could get us drinks. And not just drinks from the drink package, which we did not have. They were willing and grateful to get us water, juice, and coffee on several occasions. One such staff member was Chirimah (buffet attendant) from Kenya. When first meeting him, he was so friendly and gracious. He was nice enough to bring my husband and I some ice water to our tables. Then he was genuinely interested in getting to know us better; asking how we were enjoying our cruise; he seemed authentically interested in us, like family! Family was a point the Cruise Director, Kerri (sp?) really emphasized each day during her intro to the evening’s theatre show… and it truly was more than just words.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
The Divina ship has one water slide. There is not really a 'water park' on the ship like there are on others MSC ships and other cruise lines. Though, there are some great pool areas and hot tubs! And, there are quite a lot of activities planned throughout the days. Pool activities; dance classes; fitness classes by the pool; trivia games; foreign language classes. Certainly enough to keep one's attention during a day at sea!
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The theatre shows were really good! I did not rate them a perfect score for only two reasons: I wish the shows were a little bit longer- I always left wanting more! Though I suppose that kept us coming back each night! And second, some of the themes of the shows seemed a bit random or general in nature. The shows themselves were always great!... but sometimes I would have trouble connecting them to that evening’s theme. But really, the themes did not matter to us, because we loved all of the singing and dancing. The final show of the cruise, Extreme, was wonderful! And the ending number was spectacular!
Children's Programs
we do not have kids
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The staff! It is the staff that really WOWed us on this trip. I don’t know if it’s because this is the first cruise we have been on since Covid and we really just wanted to see the good, or because truly the staff was incredible!... I am pretty sure it’s the latter reason (actually I know!). Not once did we ever pass a cruise staff member without them smiling at us and asking us how we are doing. Not once. And let me say, not only was all of the staff friendly, hospitable and outgoing to serve us, it truly appeared that they all loved their jobs and were having fun themselves. The staff were all genuinely enjoying their work, and that makes the difference. Please, never stop empowering the staff to have fun on the ship while they work! I know many of them work long shifts!...
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Great design. Very clean! The ship has a great flow to it in design. I would be cool to have some additional amenities on this ship such as more water slides; perhaps a ropes course or zip line.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Great space! Bed and pillows super comfortable. Mini fridge. The fridge comes empty which is nice so you may utilize the space as you like. We did order some waters and sodas for our fridge. But if you wanted to put leftovers from the buffet in it, you could do that too!
Ship tip
Participate in the bidding program for an upgrade. You may book an inside cabin for instance. Then you will be contacted about making a bid to upgrade. Definitely do that, and no need to bid too high. The cruise was still under 50% so most liekly the upgraded rooms will be available for an upgrade.
Not my favorite port. Just not a lot to do. And Atlantis resort, which is beautiful, has increased their day pass to $250/person which is of course ridiculous. However, you can still explore the resort and lobbies/casino for free. And frankly, there is not much other activities to engage in there except maybe an excursion- but many of those are activities that may also be done at another port.
The MSC private island in the Bahamas is gorgeous! And so much better than Nassau. The staff members who live on the island we encountered in the shops, landscaping, lifeguarding, etc. were all so nice, professional, and engaging! Perhaps a few more activities could be added to the island: perhaps bike rentals? Though of course tourists on bikes and tourists walking all on the same sidewalk may be a hazard! Lol Perhaps a bike path? With that said, the golf cart drivers on the island were, once again, always so professional and attentive to the pedestrian guests walking. Perhaps another excursion idea on the island may be a behind the scene tour of the island operations, much like the one offered on the ship. Even a tour of the staff residence on the island could be neat to experience. Also, perhaps adding a zip line from the top of the lighthouse tower down to the island would be fun. Great lighthouse light show by the way! My husband also mentioned the idea of a fresh-water swimming pool facility on the island as well.
Lots of opportunities to shop! And shop... and shop! There is also a nice pool in the port which may be used. We did not use it, but I really do not believe there was a charge to use it. You may also take the tram at the other end of the shopping district to take it to a stretch of beautiful beaches. We did that on our prior trip to this port in 2018. This time, the weather was a bit windy; the waters rough; and there seem to be some algae in the coastal waters. We just shopped and still very much enjoyed ourselves.
Like Costa Maya- lots of shopping opportunities in Cozumel. We took an excursion to the ruin pyramids (on the mainland). We have done this the past two visits to Cozumel. The excursions have been nice! I do feel like there is even more things to do on the Cozumel island we have not done yet. I believe next time we go, we will likely stay on the island and explore it more!
While driving to and parking in Miami may not be ideal the newer ships are so nice. And even though they carry more passengers we have never felt crowded. And on these ships you can actually book a two week cruise, even though you do go back to Miami between cruises they are great cruises, we have done before and doing again this October.
Thanks for the review. I read so many conflicting reviews so I am glad you all had such a wonderful time and the experience on Divina proved to be exceptional.
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