MSC Divina Review
Not recommended unless you’re a family on a tight budget.
Rating by category
Additional details
First off, I'll say I will not be travelling with MSC again. My wife and I have been giving all of the cruise lines a shot and we chose the March 19, 2016 sailing of the MSC Divina to check out what MSC had to offer. We’d hoped that it would be a good value, and that MSC had corrected some of the mistakes noted by other travelers since launching in the North American market. New to cruising in 2010, we have traveled on the Carnival Dream, Norwegian Epic, RCL Adventures of the Seas, and the Ruby Princess; such is an indication of our cruising experience.
On our sailing, ship information provided by MSC indicated the following stats: 4319 guests, 1294 crew, in 1259 cabins. As the number may indicate, the ship often felt over-crowded. MSC’s own information states design capacity at 2518 (all rooms booked at double capacity). The buffet was very much a free-for-all and loungers on sea days were difficult, if not impossible, to find.
Embarkation - we embarked without too much difficulty or delay, possibly because we still had to register our credit card at one of the terminals on board and had to locate the Casino bar in order to pick-up our prepaid drink vouchers. This, in a way, felt like a forced introduction to the ship’s layout. While we were on board by 3pm, 1 piece of luggage arrived to our room at 4:30 pm, with the 2nd piece only arriving at 6:30 pm, after we had already proceeded to and returned from dinner in the buffet.
Cabin Review
Balcony Stateroom
The cabin was attractive and comfortable but not large. The closet doors and bathroom doors open into the same space so there was always a risk of bumping into one another when getting ready. The balcony is small - no room to layout, with just enough room for a footstool/table and two chairs. It is also recessed compared to cabin 10157, with the wall of that cabin jutting out and blocking the view aft. Our biggest negative about this cabin that in high seas the closet/wardrobe would shift and cause the wall panels behind them to creak, making sleep difficult.
Port Reviews
Grand Cayman (Georgetown)
Due to a bit of rain settling into overcast skies, we only did some shopping downtown, putting off our visit to Seven Mile Beach for another visit. We enjoyed a tasty lunch and stiff drink at Paradise Restaurant, but were a bit surprised at the bill, having missed that prices were listed in Cayman dollars, then converted to US on the bill.
Nassau
We chose to spend the day at the British Colonial Hilton, within a short walk of the cruise pier in Nassau. For $65 per person, we in return received a $40 per person food and beverage credit and full access to the property’s beach area. Located within the same bay at the pier, we spent much of our time just watching later cruise ships come into port and turnaround, backing into their slips. Again, service was attentive and lunches offered were tasty and came in huge portions.