I have no idea what ship the people were on who gave this cruise company, ship and crew bad reviews. I, like most of you, read everything I could before we left. Reviews stated that most liked the ship itself and the entertainment (which is by the way the BEST we've seen on any cruise) but would put down the service and food. We've been on 20+ cruises on Princess, RCCL, Celebrity, NCL, Norwegian, Sitmar (I'm dating myself here) and a couple river cruises so we are well aware what's out there. We went into this with an open mind realizing this itinerary has only been in effect since November and staff is used to the laid back Europeans and not the demanding Americans. Yes, we are American.... WA state residents and by the way, I'm a retired travel agent so I do really look at all aspects of a cruise. As another reviewer mentioned...when you see a negative review of everything, it's probably the reviewer, not what they are reviewing.

We were on the April 26-May 3 sailing of the MSC Divina. First of all the embarkation was by far the easiest we've ever had. No lines, no pushing or crowding. From the very first MSC staff we encountered we were impressed. Very cordial, welcoming. Our flight got in to Miami at 12:20PM, **good tip for most cruises and especially out of Miami and when transfers aren't included....take a taxi ($25 each way, not per person) saving about $20 each way and also saving at least an hour waiting for the shuttle bus to fill up, waiting to get on and off the bus, waiting for luggage to be taken off bus, and then getting in line with all those people who were on the bus. The taxi dropped us right in front of the entrance, went through security check and up to our cabin which took all of 10min from the time the cab dropped us til we were in our cabin(which by the way, if you'd just wait until 1 or 2PM, you'll have a much shot at going straight to your cabin. This applies to just about any cruise that leaves after 4PM. Yes, you don't get as much time taking in the ship but I'd personally rather give up an hour there rather than stand in lines for an hour OR MORE going early. This ship is technically pretty up to date (it's only 2 years old). When you walk in your cabin, there's a slot for your cruise card. You must put your cruise card in the slot or your lights won't work. It's a great little idea, you know where your card is and the slot also turns on a little orange light above your door outside, letting your room steward or stewardess know that you are in your cabin and they don't bother you. Very clever....however, there is nowhere this is posted so people are out in the halls asking why the lights in the bathroom won't come on. The Cruise Director comes on and announces this every so often but since I kept up with Cruise Critic (thank you members) we already knew that! Our room stewardess was extremely nice. I think she was excited since she only had 1 more week on her contract and could get back to her son for a couple of months. Anything we needed she was right there to accommodate us. Ok, beds... we found the bed extremely comfortable (there again a personal choice) but the pillows????? Like one person mentioned, they feel like they are filled with torn up pieces of material...sorta lumpy, but turns out when you get situated and fluff them up they weren't bad at all. We slept like babies.

We went up to the buffet which was quite large. They have 3 or 4 different stations which had the same thing at each, so there was never a crowd for breakfast or lunch buffet. That being said, we are early risers, did our walk on the deck 15 walking deck (5 times around is a mile so we were told) and usually were at breakfast by 7:30 or 8 so can't speak to the crowd after 8. The variety of food was excellent. However, if you don't snoop around a bit you will totally miss the "Daily specials" and "Ethnic foods" buffet tables which are toward the back of the ship from the main buffet tables. Some people may just think it's more of the same but look around, it's a fantastic part of the buffet and different daily unlike the normal salad bar, pizza (which is terrific) and the hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries and regular buffet stuff. Those saying the burgers hot dogs and fries were bad.... ????? again, what ship were you on? They mentioned they were under heat lamps and stale. Hummm, tell me, with 3500+ people on the ship, how can they get stale? They were replacing them hot off the grille quite often. I did try the cheese burger and fries and both were hot and delicious. Lots of stuff from the salad bar to add to them. I'm going to try to attach some pics of food from our dinners which, by the way, others put down and we thought were excellent. Again, food is a touchy subject and not everyone likes the same thing however those at our table never had a complaint. The one thing I was hoping the reviewers were wrong about was the pasta.... they were right....not that good or at least we didn't especially like it. Which leads me to dinner staff and food. The waiters we encountered were exceptionally friendly and accommodating and after the first night knew I'd like as much shrimp cocktail I could get when available. It got to be a joke and sometimes they would just bring a plate of shrimp and cocktail sauce which the entire table would gobble up.... amazing. Other than the pasta, the dinner food was exceptional. Lobster isn't a favorite of mine but I did have it and it was good. I would order fish quite often and found it all to be very good. The steak on the (daily offering page) is terrific as well as the lamb and prime rib. Did try the soups and they were very good as well. I don't think they know yet about salads and Americans... or should I say American type salads. The potato salad at the buffet was some lettuce in the bottom of the bowl with big cubes of potato, slice of egg, tomato, salt and pepper. I would have liked more items on the build your own salad bar but again it was adequate. Desserts at the buffet were sort of boring to me but the ones at dinner were very good. They had "soft ice cream" in the afternoon on the pool deck and you could buy gelato. I just waited for dinner where the gelato was included and they had a delicious crème Brule. Anything chocolate seemed to be excellent to me... a true chocoholic. Read more