MSC Divina Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,919 reviews

Dangerous, Disgusting and Rude

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on MSC Divina
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Yogibearadventure
10+ Cruises • Age 40s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Jan 2018
Cabin: Interior Stateroom

Disabled husband was injured during disembarkment due to passengers pushing and shoving. Toilets overflowing many areas and not being cleaned up on the floor. Toilets overflowed in women's bathroom to the top and full of feces. Beds very hard, no mattress toppers available. Shows were boring/poor quality. Activities were mostly gut fillers such as, several wine making fee for service, shopping and dancing. No real activities. Make your own tee shirt turned out to be, make your own paper flower with tissue paper and straws. Rooms were bad. We had a broken drawer, stains in the carpet, mildew stains in the bathroom, rust stains on the doors; and that was our room upgrade. Staff were so rude. Was yelled at for not participating in a dead sea salt scrub demonstration; and was told "you loose!" Cruise Consultant Director was rude as all get out and raised her voice at me, after she was an hour late and came in with a chip on her shoulder like she didn't want to be there. Our status match wasn't completed in their computer system, even though I had an email stating it was and we didn't even get all the perks. We got a mousepad for Gold Status. Staff were forced to work with fevers in the dining room. Many staff were very sick and several in our group ended up with colds, vomiting and diarrhea viruses. Television service was pay for service mostly. A couple of regular channels were available, but nothing local and the only news was CNN, unless you wanted to pay for a newspaper channel. Bottled water was only available if you bought the bottle of sparkling water in your room for $4.75. Nothing offered to carry off the ship on an excursion, so you're forced buying bottled water and canned colas in the visiting country. One of our excursions ended up being 10 hours and was 2 hours past onboard time. Fortunately the ship waited because it was a ship sponsored excursion. Mostly a foreign speaking company, English is last. We kept getting paperwork sent to our room in Spanish. I don't have anything against it, I just don't speak it. We had to ask twice for the correction so I could read the paperwork. You have to beg for everything.

Shows were mostly operatic singing, old songs and in other languages so we were bored and often left early. Buffett became assigned seating people were pushing and shoving everywhere and it was hard to find seating. People acted like they would starve to death if they didn't get a meal in. During one of my trips to the buffet for breakfast, I was assigned a seat and they placed a "reserved" red, place card on the table. I went to get my small hot plate of food and a coffee. Set it down and the reserved card was still there-went to go get my fruit. Came back and the table had been completely cleared off, reset and the reserve card was still there, but a new group of people had been seated, in my spot. The staff only said we are sorry, the dining room is full. Nobody tried to find me another seat, even after I asked a group of 5 employees standing at the front of the entrance. I had to start over and take my food upstairs to my room. So we went to the dining room the next morning thinking maybe it would be a better experience. Wrong. We waited 20 minutes for water. They started bringing food...and no drinks. We asked several times for water and orange juice. They only offered coffee but my husband doesn't drink coffee. Finally, our waiter that we usually see for our evening dining room meal was passing by and saw I looked irritated and asked if we were ok. I told him what was going on and he immediately turned around and grabbed two glasses and filled them. He wasn't even working that section and it only took him all of 30 seconds. Half of my food order didn't come and I didn't order much. I wanted scrambled eggs, grits and fresh fruit plate. I got scrambled eggs...I had to ask twice for the rest of it and they brought me toast. Overall, no. This company is Mediterranean Shipping Company, that's what MSC stands for. They should stick to that because the passenger cruise line industry isn't for them.

Cabin Review

Interior Stateroom

Cabin I2

Handicapped room. Stained floors, mildew stains in the shower, rust on bathroom door, broken drawer in vanity.

Port Reviews

Ocho Rios

Great port stop and the people were very friendly. Beautiful country.

Cartagena (Colombia)

Took a local tour. Oscar was great and did a fabulous job. The biggest problem we had were locals getting in our face stopping us to try and get us to buy stuff and it was the same stuff everywhere. I had to say no thank you at least 5-6 times. Liked the country, not the locals.

Puerto Limon

Took a river cruise through the rainforest. Good tour for the price. Saw lots of wildlife. Extremely helpful with my disabled husband.

Freeport

Not much to see here. Shopping was a good experience. They finally stopped being pushy about sales.

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