This was our second MSC cruise after trying out the line on the Meraviglia last December out of Canaveral. We actually really enjoyed that ship, it was beautiful. We also really liked the private island, so when I saw another 3 night to the island on the Divina out of Miami, we said what the heck, let’s give it a go. We got a great price on an ocean view room and received a free upgrade to a balcony on the starboard side at the back corner. We were really excited about that because having been to the island before, we knew we would have great views of the island as it docks on starboard. We understood the service wasn’t up to the level of NCL and Royal but we were ok with that because the price was really good and our previous experience was fine for us. However, booking this cruise turned out to be a mistake shortly after getting on the ship.

A short cruise out of Miami can be a fatal flaw, depending on what you want your experience to be. This was the case for us as it was a loud and crazy party atmosphere, and the crew could not or didn’t really want to keep up with the cleaning and the organizing of the ship behind such crowd. Bathrooms were getting pretty bad early on and there was routinely trash on the floors. Pretty much every area was jampacked with people all the time and look like a train wreck. We went the buffet the first morning for breakfast and not only was it pure bedlam, the food was terrible. My wife asked one of the staff about an omelet station and they directed us to this area of premade omelets which were pretty bad. From there on out, we ate all of our meals at the main dining room, which actually wasn’t bad at all and our server for dinner did a really good job so I have to give him credit. The Captain decided to back into the private island from about 5 miles away so the rumbling of the ship was unbearable at 5:30 in the morning. There was no sleeping through that. On our previous experience to the island, the ship went all the way there and then turned 180 degrees to park the ship, so I don’t understand what this guy was doing other than needlessly waking people up. The private island is nice however, one of the bartenders at the main bar was a total jerk. We were trying to get fresh water to have to stay hydrated and we had water bottles (no one explained they would have canned water) and he had an attitude that I was asking about filling them up. Mind u we had been standing there for awhile and he walked past us a few times. So instead of being nice about it and explaining that we have water for you and there’s no need to fill up your bottles, he made a smart remark “that’s what I am trying to tell you” and then walked away. Prime example of total crap service. On the ship, my wife missed a step and almost fell, and one of the girls behind the desk was laughing about it so hard that she had to walk back into the office area as to not be seen laughing. We got her name and will pursue that matter further with MSC. For an employee of any business, especially a customer oriented business, to laugh at someone potentially getting hurt on their property/premises is egregious and borderline lawsuit worthy if someone were to get hurt.

There were several other instances of bad customer service but I won’t belabor those anymore. The ship itself of “ok” not great and we definitely will not sail on her again.