My wife and I are both MSC veterans with many cruises over the past ten years. This, however, would be the first time we cruised in Yacht Club and the first Transatlantic. I’m an American and she Italian and both well over 65. I realize that our YC experiences were for the most part vastly different from those enjoyed by the passengers in aurea, fantastica, and bella classes.

Embarkation: We live in Rome so we took the early morning Frecciabianca train to Genoa where the Divina was to board and sail from. Arriving at the Piazza Principe station I elected to take a taxi to the ship rather than lug four suitcases down to the port. There were several other MSC passengers doing the same thing (both the Divina and her sister ship Preziosa were boarding that morning) but after a short wait it was our turn and the taxi (€15) drove us right to the Divina boarding point. I had the driver drop us at the white Yacht Club tent where the porters took our bags and a YC butler tagged them. We then had to wait a few minutes for another butler to arrive who escorted about ten of us to the YC check-in desk in the passenger terminal where pastries and drinks were available. After a prosecco and a pastry we were called to the counter where our cruise documents were checked, passports swiped, and cruise cards issued. A butler then escorted us through security and onto the ship to the forward elevators and up to the YC concierge desk. I believe the entire process from baggage tagging to the concierge took about 40 minutes.

We were welcomed by our two very pleasant and efficient concierges, Lucia Taloti from Italy and Ovidiu Moldovan from Romania, and the chief butler, Kamil Mustapa from Indonesia. The maitre d’ from the Le Muse restaurant, Giuseppe DI Nardo, was also on hand to ask our dining preferences for dinner. After this we were free to go to our cabin. Read more