MSC Divina Review

Great for the price

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on MSC Divina
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royal1364
First Time Cruiser • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Aug 2014

This was my first cruise, so i cant compare to any other. I am writing soley on my experience on this cruise. Everyone is writting about the disaster during Embarkation. This had nothing to do with MSC. There was a gas leak in the Port building which caused a huge delay. I got there at 3:00PM. The line was ridiculousley long. People were complaining, sweating, complaining, and sweating. Buses were coming in with groups arriving from the airport, dropping them off in the middle of the line causeing those that had already been waiting to get extremely irate. No one really knew what was going on until around 5:00 flyers started to get handed out stating what had happened and that there would be water as we got closer to the port entrance. When we finaly got close they were handing out shots of warm water which was very disappointing to me. At this point i felt that MSC could have at least provided cold individual bottles of water being that it was hot and people had been standing outside forevor. Anyway, we finally checked in and got onboared at about 7:00PM. The ship was supposed to leave at 7. We had 2nd dinner seating at 8:30PM, those that had 7:00PM dinners were upset because they missed it and had to eat at the buffet. We finally sailed off at about 9:45PM. Luggage arrived at my room before dinner, so i was happy. The ship is beautiful. Very clean, very modern. The staff were pleasent. My room was perfect. I had a big balcony suite right next to the front of the ship 11012. Came with a mini bar that I later learned was not free after downing all the liquor trying to get crunk on the first night. View was perfect. We lucked up because of bad weather the route was changed and instead of going to Falmouth Jamaica, we went to Ocho Rios instead, and it was Jamaica Independence day so Jamaica was very lively and festive the day we ported there. My sister and I pre-booked 2 excursions. Wave running in Bahamas which was sooooooooooooo much fun. The cruise line prepared an awesome buffet on the island (last stop), Cayman Islands we did our own thing. We caught a taxi to 7 mile beach and shopped. We ended up going to the excursion desk on the ship to book an additional excursion for Mexico which was the 1st stop. I was very discouraged with MSC at this point because of A) the poor accommodations during the embarkation set back and B) this what I’m about to tell you.

We booked an excursion on the ship COZ36 (I think) which was a beach break in Cozumel. The description read we would have access to kayaking and snorkeling we would only have to get our own transportation there. We were concerned about the transport part, but the excursion desk assured us it was safe and once we showed our tickets they will know exactly where to take us. Well no they didn’t. We walked from the taxi are to the ship twice to get an excursion manager who again kept assuring us that once we showed our orange tickets bought on the ship the taxi’s will know. No they didn’t. The excursion manager even walked us to the taxi’s and none of them had a clue. We didn’t bring a lot of money with us being that we had the tickets, so we had to go to Mr. Santos Beach and just swim and relax. The money we had could only pay for the taxi there and back, and food and drinks and a few souveneers. I was livid. I wanted to pay for the all- inclusive beach but if I did I fell short with either taxi fair or I couldn’t buy liquor duty free unless I went back on the ship which I wasn’t doing. As soon as we got back on board we went to the excursion desk. Someone else was there complaining about the same thing. All they did was remove the charge from our bills. No compensation, no discount off another excursion just a sorry, and we won’t charge you. I couldn’t let this keep me upset being that it was the first stop.

The process to get off the ship to the islands on the boats could have been communicated better. The fancy alcoholic drinks were weak. I’m not a drinker and I needed at least 3 to get tipsy. There is an App you can use and communicate with people that were using the app on the ship. You could check in where you were which I thought was awesome. It told you what was going on and where at the time, what excursions were available, and how much your room tab was. It was like an MSC Facebook with more features. They never told us about it, nor was it in the daily news letter that came to the room, we happened to stumble across it when trying to get online.

Cabin Review

View is perfect. You can see the front view a little being that your very close to the front of the ship. Room was spacious. Perfect for 2 or 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 small children. Very clean.

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