Being a seasoned cruiser, I would like to share our first time experience with the MSC cruise line, aboard the Divina. We have cruised with all of the other major cruise lines out of several ports in the US, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Australia. We have our favorite cruise lines but wouldn't hesitate to cruise again with any of them,… up and to this point.

The term "First Impressions" really came to life with this cruise. The departure port was Miami. The very first thing that we noticed was at check-in. MSC only had half of their check-ins open. This is NOT common with other cruise lines. It took us an hour to get through the check-in area. We then sat in the pre-board area for about another 20 minutes. The wait-time wouldn't have even been a concern if all the check-in areas had been open, and they were making a full effort.

Once on board we were able to get into our cabin, which is quite uncommon due to turnover still in process from the previous cruise. Cudos for that! While we were unpacking, I noticed there were no tissues (kleenex) in the built-in tissue holder. I figured it had just been overlooked so asked for them when our room steward came to introduce himself. He told us that they were no longer provided except for the Aurea rooms ($$$). Hmmmmm….. Here in the US kleenex have been provided in every hotel I've ever been in, right down to, and including the small mom & pop hotels. The couple of hotels I have been in in Guatemala did not provide them. Guatemala IS a third world country… So, MSC now has hotel standards and expectations of a third world country… Read more