Based on the 21 day itinerary you might have already guessed we now consider ourselves MSC regulars, we have had four previous cruises on the Seaside and Divina. This review will cover the first 11 day Southern Caribbean leg of our 21 day back to back cruises. We have been cruising since 1991 and primarily sailed NCL before switching to MSC in 2017. The kids are out of college and one is now married so we’re now sailing as a mid-fifties couple that enjoys spending quiet time together as well as meeting new friends on the ship. Divina was the first MSC ship we sailed on and in that first review I said it was not a ship I would sail again unless the itinerary was great. Well, these itineraries brought me back.

This sailing was originally scheduled as a Panama Canal visit but was later changed to the ABC islands, I actually preferred this itinerary and booked when I found a good deal on an aft facing Fantastica balcony that someone gave up when MSC dropped the canal visit. We also upgraded from Drinks On Us to the Deluxe beverage plan. While I was happy about the itinerary and cabin I had major concerns about spending this amount of time on what I consider a fairly boring ship, and since we rarely visit the buffet how monotonous it may become eating in the same dining room every day. Luckily while on Seaside in September I learned Arthur from the Yacht Club restaurant was going to be a head waiter in the MDR while we were on board. I was also hopeful that Ziggy would be the hotel director, unfortunately he went on vacation pretty much the exact dates we were on board. So with a DVD player and a stack of movies we decided to see what it would be like to remain on Divina for this length of time.

We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before and took a $40 Uber down to L Hotel in Miami Beach. An oceanfront hotel really isn’t mandatory for us when we’re going to be in an oceanfront room on the cruise. L Hotel was clean and in a good location, an easy walk to the ocean boardwalk, a grocery and dining. The room was large and a little Spartan, I found it strange there was no caddy for holding our suitcases which ended up on the floor. We took an Uber down to South Pointe Park Pier and watched the Saturday ships sail out as our Divina departed on Sunday. There were eight large ships in Port of Miami the next morning so I was a bit concerned about traffic at the port for embarkation. Complicating things was the government shutdown said to be affecting disembarkation times due to Customs staffing issues. We left the hotel around 9:45am and arrived at the port a few minutes after 10am. Read more