We chose to cruise on the MSC Divina with our two children, aged 8 and 11 and with another couple who are in their early 60s. The major contributing factor was the price. This is my 17th cruise and we have cruised with NCL, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Princess in the past. We had heard of MSC and had read all sorts of good reviews and all sorts of bad reviews, so we were not really sure what to expect. We booked our cruise in August of 2015 when they were offering a balcony stateroom for the first 500 inside cabins booked, plus the 2 kids were free except for taxes and port fees. All in all, it was less than $1,800 for the 4 of us.

FIRST - EMBARKATION.

We arrived at the port at 11:00 am and there were lots of people standing around that had just gotten off the ship. I was slightly taken aback by that because we usually disembarked around 7:00 am on the other ships. We went into the port, walked through welcome, showing our paperwork, went through security (DH had a problem since he has two titanium knees and also shoulder replacement. It's not unusual for him). We went into the waiting area, went straight to the counter, got our cards, got our picture taken and then were given a #6 card. They started at #1, so we figured we were there for a while. They called #1 about the time we sat down and they were at #6 within 10-15 minutes. We went up the escalator, walked across the catwalk and onto the ship. All in all, it took us less than 45 minutes to get on the ship from the time of our arrival. We went up to deck 14 and the lunch buffet was open and ready to eat. WOOOHOOO! Read more