Three hour embarkation in Miami

Try to remember that this is an Italian cruise company.

For Italians, dinner is all about the social experience. Waiters are trained to come by when they are signaled. Same with drinks on the pool dec., Instead of being barraged by waiters offering drinks, they wait for you to call for them.

I am sure they are vigilant about watching their customers so they are right there as soon as you riase your hand, and I would personally prefer that they wait for me to be ready before barraging me with drinks and asking if everthing is alright right after I take that nice big bite of pasta.

I am going with some friends who have sailed several times on the Divina, and they have told me that the service is different, but excellent. They are not trying to cram drinks down your throat, and they give you your distance but are ready at your call during meals. Many of the reviews I have read that are positive reflect the same indicators. Most if not all the negative reviews state that the poster is a super-deluxe-platinum-diamond-vip on (insert cruise line here), which tells me; 1) they are loyal which is not a bad thing bu tmay provide a little Bias, and, 2) they more than likely don't like the different style or the change associated with a different line.

Again, every person's preception on service is subjective. Some people like being left alone, some people want to have their waiter breathign down their neck lest their glass goes down to less than 3/4 full of water.

Left alone? No, I asked for water 4 times and finally got up and got the Maitre'D . My husband could get wine but that guy said he didn't do water. The bread guy said he didn't do water. Every time the other couple got food I asked for water. Evidently the water guy does water but he never showed up in 40 minutes and no one else would grab a pitcher. Unacceptable. I live in New Orleans. I understand fine dining concepts. :rolleyes:

Yes, the embarkation process was pretty lengthy on the CT cruise, wasn't as lengthy on the past two MOR cruises I did with MSC. BUT, there was water once you got into the terminal, they had large coolers with cups next to them with water. And lemonade, I believe. That was also where the bathrooms. The only problem we had was that we were with my elderly mother and the seating in the terminal was impossible to acquire. Seats were all taken, sometimes there was one person taking up two seats, which was just plain rude. We FINALLY found a seat for my mother, once we got towards the front of the line, near the seating area before the long snakey lines.

Food was excellent, some of the best I've ever had on any cruise. Service, not so much. But it is what it is and we made the best of it. It's really hard to make a comparison when you are on a themed cruise as opposed to a regular cruise. As far as eating in the MDR, service was slow, but when you have a nice sit down dinner you don't want to be rushed. Am I correct? When we knew we had a show to attend, if we were that pressed for time we hit the buffet, no problem.

Left alone? No, I asked for water 4 times and finally got up and got the Maitre'D . My husband could get wine but that guy said he didn't do water. The bread guy said he didn't do water. Every time the other couple got food I asked for water. Evidently the water guy does water but he never showed up in 40 minutes and no one else would grab a pitcher. Unacceptable. I live in New Orleans. I understand fine dining concepts. :rolleyes:

This was right thing to do. We had an excellent service on Divina and Poesia, but if we did not have water poured, which is a standard service on North American itin, we would have spoken to M'D

Wow, some of you can sure be mean. "My grumpy ass" did go get water when a food truck showed up. Before that where do you suppose I go to get water? Get in a cab and ask them to bring me to a 7Eleven and get 3000 waters for the people waiting in line? Bear in mind a good portion of the passengers were quite older. There was also no bathroom facilities for three hours. I guess I should wear Depends next time. Maybe the fault wasn't with MSC. Maybe it was the tour operator. I have no idea. The check in agents had MSC tags on so I figured they worked for MSC.

 

The dining room issue was unacceptable mainly because we asked them to bring our entrees out after our appetizers. They didn't bother to tell us they wouldn't or couldn't. They just didn't. It's never acceptable to leave a person sitting at the table for 40 minutes between courses. And we couldn't even get them to refill our water in that time. If they had told us when we ordered, we would have happily left and gone to the buffet.

 

I posted this as information not to be raked over and abused like it was high school. I really am surprised that grown adults have taken this tone in response to information that was posted about a cruise. Excuse me for posting information that happened on a cruise on Cruise Critic. If that's not what it's for, then I'm not sure why any of us are here reading anything.

:mad:

I think people are comparing your 'Tour cruise review' to an 'ordinary cruise review', that's why some who have taken an ordinary cruise are being tough on your review! Its not personal, don't let it bother you! :)

About your comment you didn't know who to complain, you now know!

It was stated to you on this thread by others on your tour, the 'passengers were held up from boarding until the entertainers were all aboard'! Blame the entertainers for being late!:D

A 'suggestion' could be the next time you're in a hurry to eat, go to the buffet, that's what we always do when we're in a hurry!

And yes, as others have stated, it would be rude of anyone sitting at a table with others on any cruise line to make demands outside the ordinary service for the table! You want to leave early, just get up and leave!

Left alone? No, I asked for water 4 times and finally got up and got the Maitre'D . My husband could get wine but that guy said he didn't do water. The bread guy said he didn't do water. Every time the other couple got food I asked for water. Evidently the water guy does water but he never showed up in 40 minutes and no one else would grab a pitcher. Unacceptable. I live in New Orleans. I understand fine dining concepts. :rolleyes:

Sorry, this whole thing sounds like something going on between you and your severs, cause we got bread, water, etc., from anyone we asked in the MDR during our 14 days on Divina! Our service was excellent!

Sorry, this whole thing sounds like something going on between you and your severs, cause we got bread, water, etc., from anyone we asked in the MDR during our 14 days on Divina! Our service was excellent!

Sounds like the restaurants staff didn't adapt from the usual 2 set sittings to this charter with anytime dining particularly well. Either that or the OP wS just unlucky with the staff he had.

Can anyone tell me what terminal MSC sails from in Miami?

I believe it is terminal F

After reading numerous posts about embarkation, we decided to arrive around 11:00 a.m. for our 11/12 Divina cruise. We had our cruise cards in no time flat, and only waited about 20 minutes to board the ship. Fastest and most efficient embarkation we ever experienced. Our dining-room table-mates said the same thing.

To be fair, on our return, customs was lagging way behind because we were on the one-time Divina cruise with stops in Columbia, Panama, and Costa Rica - concern about drugs (?), or possibly the higher percentage than normal of foreign passengers. We were out of our cabin at 7:00 a.m., but not off the ship until around 11:30 a.m. I know those waiting to board for the next cruise were not going to get on nearly as fast. This was not an MSC issue, as the ship arrived in port on time.

We were getting on as you were getting off and had quite a delay before the ship was cleared for boarding (still about 200 people to get off around 11:30). They said it was because of immigration delays.