Overall, I loved this ship and cruise line. MSC was wonderful and a fair price. The food was great. I am an American, and I really enjoyed being part of the minority on the ship. It was great meeting new people from all over the world. Yes, some things were strange, but it was enjoyable. Like the shows were off the walls weird but, I just sat back and enjoyed it for what it was. We had some good laughs with the people around us regarding the shows, but that made for a good time. I also didnt mind the announcements were done in mulitple languages. It didnt bother me, people need to relax, you are on vacation. I would do another cruise again with MSC, was a great experience!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Miami cruise terminal pre-covid. We had no issues, showed up at our time took about an hour. Had no issues, went right in.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Overall, I really enjoyed the food on the Divina. I know this can be a hot-button issue, but it's so subjective. It's like when my mother in law orders a nice dry aged ribeye from a high-end steak house and asks for it well done. My taste is like, wtf lady, why bother eating here if you are going to destroy that beautiful piece of meat. Anyways, I digress. I thought they had good choices. There was always something I enjoyed. I really liked the European flair. I enjoyed how, at the time, it wasn't American-ized. I don't want American food, I can get that at home. I want something new that I wouldn't normally get to push my pallet. It didn't disappoint. Main dining room was great. The waitstaff was so wonderful, we got to know them very well. Some people think the service was too long, I enjoyed it. Again, having friends who live in france for example, they have fricken long dinners. So, I was expecting that. I think most nights we finished up around the 1hr 30min mark, give or take. The point deductions, in my opinion, came with the specialty steak house. It was okay, nothing great.
Eataly Steakhouse
3 out of 5
First off, service was great and the dining package was a really good price (except dining packages have their own menu which I wasn't a huge fan of). Overall, food was good, but not great. I was expecting better quality, but it was similar to the main dining. Don't get me wrong I actually liked the main dining room food but for being a special extra, could have been better.
Monitou Buffet Restaurant
4 out of 5
I am not a buffet fan, but tried at least one of each meal in there. Lunch was my least favorite, didn't have a huge selections at the time. Other than that, it was fine. I enjoyed the food. Just a personal preference about buffets in general. Plenty of seats with great views!
Golden Jazz Bar
5 out of 5
Fantastic place, awesome music. Bar service was a little slow at times due to crowds but it's all good I was relaxed enjoying the awesome Jazz bands.
La Cantina Di Bacco
5 out of 5
Best pizza at sea! Just awesome, loved every bit of it!
Sports Bar
5 out of 5
First off, I do not know what has changed since I sailed in 2018. At the time, the sports bar food was free. I know for the seascape I am going on later, it is not. I feel that is a shame. Anyways, didn't have high hopes for a European company trying american bar food. But boy was I wrong. They had these fantastic wings and this really good corn chowder. We ended up going to the bar at least once a day.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Had good activities, wished there was more trivia and game opportunities on sea days. Like any cruise ship built in mid 2000s, pool space was limited. We only really enjoyed the hot tubs because too many people by the pool. But there was lots of other stuff do to, so didn't ruin the trip.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
I thought entertainment was good, not the best like other lines bit good. First, I enjoyed the activities on sea days, my wife loves bingo and its quite scary watching her get into it but she had a great time. The main theater shows, the stage team was very talented, however, the shows were so weird. I get it. You have 8+ languages on board so you need something more spacial, plus you are doing anew show each night so I get how it can easily fall into the juke box routine. We did end up going to each show and we weren't upset, still enjoyable. I did have a good laugh that a show that was called the Witches of Paris had nothing to do with witches and didn't take place in Paris...it did end in the YMCA hahaha
4D Cinema
5 out of 5
So much fun and not a bad price. I did this several times. The staff was super nice. They noticed my wife's chair wasn't working during the show so they gave everyone a free extra ride so my wife could switch to a working chair to experience it all. Actually because of that professionalism, we ended up paying for the 4d cinema several more times.
Pantheon Theatre
5 out of 5
Big beautiful theater, no bad seats, no poles that blocked your view.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The staff was wonderful. I cannot speak enough about how amazing their were. There was moments of confusion with some due to language differences but that is to be understandable from an international cruise team with guests who spoke 8+ languages. The staff made the cruise amazing!
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Beautiful ship, super clean. I have been on several lines, and I still believe MSC have the most sleek and elegant ships. I really enjoy the details that went into this ship. Also, I love a nice aft.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Great cabin. We went the fantastica experience but for 2018 was much different that post covid (they did improve the experience levels since then in my opinion, much more clear and understandable). Lots of storage, beautiful views. We were in a great location, had a wonderful night sleep each night. We did end of eating most breakfast in the room. Overall, wonderful!
Ship tip
Don't expect your typical "american-ized" cruise. If you want a burger, go on another cruise line with burgers, but if you want that international flare this was great. Also, relax, you are in vacation and be patient with some of the staff where there is a language barrier as their are 8+ languages being spoken on the ship. Enjoy the international environment!
This was chaotic to say the least. Also, didn't enjoy how we had to leave the cabin early only to have to wait 3 hours. We didn't get breakfast since the buffet was insane. It is what it is is. Hopefully they improve this process.
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