This was our 17th Cruise. After having to deal with MSC employees and failure to communicate we will never cruise with them again. At embarkation we had a hostess walk away from check in desk 25 minutes after opening to eat. She never said a word. So we waited for her to come back. After watching her eat one sandwich she then picked up another one. Remember they had just opened and the hostess went on break. At that point we switched lines and completed the check in.

After getting onto the Divina we contacted the assistant maitre’d At the Black Crab. We were then told, for the 1st time, that the ship had a large tour group on board. The Holistic group had an agreement with cruise line to bring on their own chefs. Since it was such a large group Corporate office had told the ship Holistic would have early dining. This was interesting, since I had called Corporate 3 times in regards to port changes from hurricanes, and requesting early dining each time. Corporate never advised us about Holistc being on the ship or having all of 1st dining during these calls.

After getting information we went to guest services and asked for phone number to Corporate office department who made decision on Holistic. I was directed to speak with male guest service manager. For the next 10 minutes he would not provide the number—never got the number. After the 10 minutes I switched to requesting a fix to dining. I requested the manager to set speciality dining reservations at pre cruise prices. The manager finally stated that he could do that and would call our room by 6pm that night. I told him to leave a message on the phone or on tv message board. Manager failed to do either. Next morning went back to guest services. Manager was helping other guests when he looked up and saw me. When these guests walked away the manager turned around and walked into office. After making several trips in and out of the guest services area over the next several minutes, Manager returned. When he looked up and saw me standing there you could physically see the irritation on his face. He started the conversation by stating he could not make the reservations without payment authorization. I asked what happened to the phone call. Manager stated that he called but no one picked up. When asked why he did not leave a message he started to get mad. He then said “Stop putting words in my mouth”. I asked him if he did not agree to setting the reservations. He again said “ You are putting words in my mouth” accusing me of lying. At this point my wife tried to assist on getting the reservations made. After several more minutes Manager finally tried to call the assistant head waiter. After contacting the assistant head waiter we got our reservations. We left guest services wondering how bad this cruise might be. Read more