We just returned home today from a cruise aboard the MSC Divina, 8/16 to 8/23. It was the first time for us with this Italian cruise line. Overall the ship was beautiful, decoration was classy, tasteful, refined, nothing gaudy and over the top, like what you usually see on American cruise lines. There were many lounges, each with different types of live entertainment. The only room that was not pleasant was the dining room (Villa Rosa), it was so tight, too many tables and chairs for such a limited space, there was no openness and airy like we are used to see on cruise ships. The diners and waiters could not move around, the place felt confined. that There were a lot of Europeans traveling, Italians(understandable), Germans and French so all the announcements were made in at least different languages, which made it kind of interesting and UN like place. Despite all the pretty decor, the attractiveness of the ship and so forth, the food(which is a big deal on a cruise) fell short of our expectation. The Manitou buffet did not offer a variety of food, for lunch they had hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, a couple of pasta dishes and if you venture further in the back of the ship, they had a little ethnic food, a few Chinese and some Caribbean dishes. The highlight is their pizzas which they had 4-5 varieties such magherita, pepperoni, white, etc... They were not spectacular, easily something that you could get at home with frozen thin crust pizza. Their pasta dishes were not impressive either, did not see a lot of vegetables either. I was expecting better offerings to be honest. In the dining room, food was worst and so little, they gave us appetizers for entrees, a dot for this and a pinch for that and service in the dining room was horrendous. We have cruised more than a dozen times(mostly on Royal Caribbean and Carnival) and we always get great personalized service during our dinner, either our waiter was new or he did not care. We had to tell him every time he was close by to refill our water. He did not greet us, just handed our menus and stood there waiting to get our orders. We all felt that he rushed us through the dinner, was not friendly, had zero personality.

The question is where do you put your trash? There were no place to dispose of your trash, if you wanted to get rid of something, you had to hold on to it until, you find a bathroom.

Fitness center had limited machines only had 4 elliptical machines and 5 treadmills. Each machine had a 30 mns limit. I did not understand why they skimped on the machines, it is not that they were lacking in space, in fact, they had too much space, could have easily fitted additional machines. Read more