As this was my fourth cruise on board the Divina and as I had already posted reviews after previous sailings, I was not going to write a review this time. However, on reading some of the recent reviews, particularly those from guests on the same cruise, I felt compelled to try and give a balanced view to help others looking to book a cruise on this beautiful ship.

Clearly, people have different opinions and expectations, and all cruise lines have to make decisions as to, for example, whether to allow smoking in the casino, which areas outside to allow smoking, and what entertainment to provide. Now personally I found it great that smoking was not allowed in the casino (and so did many other gamblers I spoke to), but I didn't enjoy the infinity style pool at the back and the Garden Bar area where they have now allowed smoking. This was previously my favourite place on the ship, but I was on vacation and instead of getting upset just changed my favourite place to the main pool, where previously they allowed smoking on one side which spoilt it for me then. There is no smoking at all in this area now which is great!

Embarkation was chaotic because of delays caused by immigration checks on disembarking passengers. This was a port / security issue and beyond the control of MSC, although maybe the cruise line could have organised the chaos a little better. At the end of the cruise we disembarked smoothly and without problems. Read more