Msc

We will be on the MSC Divina in two weeks are they gay friendly?

We were on the Divina with a RSVP gay cruise three years ago, so they have to be somewhat gay friendly :) Hopefully we did not freak them out. The ship was great; food and service less so.

We went on the MSC Divina out of Miami back in 2013. There were several other gay couples who I met at the meet and greet. It was hosted by a male LGBT staff member. We didn't experience any issues. Probably because they're European, and the Europeans tend to be pretty chill about that kind of stuff. We were basically the only people who ever ate at the steakhouse. The food was amazing, and it just being us made it kind of romantic, too.

Well, there hasn't been any issue being gay on the MSC Fantasia. But this might be the only positive thing I can tell you about MSC.

Stefan, what did you not like about MSC? It was my first cruise, so I had nothing to compare to at the time, but looking back I still enjoyed it.

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In today's life, most cruise ship are OK with Gay's. How cares if the first place.

Stefan, what did you not like about MSC? It was my first cruise, so I had nothing to compare to at the time, but looking back I still enjoyed it.

Hi Stephen,

I cruised a couple of times with different lines and MSC really did a very bad job. I expected MSC would arrange a holiday for me, while I was given the impression that I am there to serve MSC. They caused problems and I had to solve it. MSC did things they shouldn’t and I was wrong. MSC even caused danger and I just was stupid. I was frightened by news and MSC wanted to take me to court.

Already before I went aboard the problems started. I live in Hungary and they did not allow me to book on their website as do geo blocking. You have to find a travel agent that does MSC (for me a 2 hours drive for the nearest…) or to call them in Italy. I do speak a couple of languages, but no Italian and it didn’t work. In the end I booked with a German online TA, who didn’t bother where I live (better said they mustn’t refuse any customer from any EU member state). Filing the data for boarding on the MSC site didn’t work as they checked postal code in a database and they only accepted German codes on the German site and this was the only where the log-in worked. Okay, a customer friendly website should be designed differently, but they have a customer service and this should service customer. Well, call me a bit naive… I sent all my data by e-mail and after quite a while I got as answer that they have completed everything. I checked it and not a single word was true, all fields were still empty and if I did not checked it they even would have refused me to board. I called the TA and they told that they would look after. Three days later I received an email that MSC did not help. The “solution” was that I was living in the office of the TA.

Boarding time was set for between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. in Genoa. I flew to Milan early in the morning and waited a couple of hours in a coffeehouse at the central station, as there are no waiting facilities at the terminal. I arrived at the port at 2 p.m. and in a long queue I even had to take a detour to an information desk for taking a sheet that they allow boarding already at 11 a.m. It is nice to enable boarding earlier for everybody who knows before, but this time management was just ridiculous, I felt that they were kidding me. For me it was the longest check-in ever and even worse if you know that they had a huge part of the passenger exchange one day earlier in Rome. The toilets were that dirty that I stood right in…. I better leave it to your imagination. It was a badly organised multistop check-in with not less than 5 passport checks. At the end a security check I even had to take my shoes off I never was refused to get on a plane with - and I had to walk on my socks through, knowing where I and others stood in the restroom.

Well, the design of the ship itself was nice to see, my cabin as described and kept, as it should. This part of the basics was acceptable but this is nothing remarkable. I mainly used the MDR and the food was Italian style (which I normally like), the fish dishes mainly between acceptable and good, meat lower than average, so I fast enough only ordered seafood. On several occasions I went to the buffet restaurant, for example early in the morning when I went on an excursion to Jerusalem. This perhaps has been my shortest breakfast ever. I took a plate and started selecting, when I looked onto the plate as it wasn’t looking, as it should. I’ve put it against the light and felt the surface and it was completely greasy, as it would not have washed after use, but just put back for new use. The waiters were absolutely not impressed when I showed my plate, the question was “what is your problem?”. Later I spoke to a Dutch couple about my impressions (they asked) and I said that I avoided the buffet and they asked me whether I also got dirty plates. So the hygienic problem is not only ignored, but also structural.

I mentioned Jerusalem. This means also to pass immigration to Israel. There were immigration officers on board and we all had to present ourselves in the theatre. All fine and the often as difficult described procedure to pass the border control was done very fast and professionally by the Israelis. We had to hand over our passports to MSC during boarding as usual and got them back after presenting our cruise card in the theatre right before immigration. I had a short look into my passport when I got it back and saw myself in the picture page and within seconds I already stood in front of an immigration officer. A few friendly words later I had my landing card for Israel, my passport and decided to bring everything into my cabin. But the cruise card did not open the door. Am I standing in front of the wrong door? No! I looked onto the card and suddenly my name was Anastasia and my cabin a deck lower… In case of a problem you can see how good people and organisations work. For MSC it was no problem at all, back in the theatre I was sent to the reception, no blocking of card or anything else right there. In the meantime my credit card and my cabin door were open to Anastasia or who ever got my card. As there was an endless row of people with more and less serious requests at reception it took nearly an hour to get my original card blocked and a new one in my own name was produced. Lucky me Anastasia was not interested in abusing my cruise card, but having luck is nothing provided by MSC.

I do my visits to ports on my own, with local providers or with the cruise line, depending of possibilities and available offers. During the one and a half day in Haifa I found by MSC on their website a tour to Akko I wanted to join on the first day and booked a tour with a local guide to Jerusalem the second. Description on the MSC site was Akko first day only and after booking they stated second day instead. Again: customer service. But no response. Another try and again no response. So I cancelled and booked with the same local guide a tour through Haifa and the Baiha gardens. On board I’ve learned that the tour to Akko indeed took place the first day only. But they were even unable to check the data of an excursion.

In my job I have from time to time to deal with security matters in buildings, escape routes, times needed to evacuate e.g. So I know what I am talking about, when describing the following. When arrived in Haifa I wanted to take a coffee in the atrium to be able to get easily from board to my tour as planned. When walking down the stairs I was yelled on by MSC staff to leave the staircase. After the coffee I just queued up. Being very close to the staircase I saw how people whose only crime was to walk down stairs or arriving by lift were literally haunted after not to leave the ship early. In the meanwhile so many people were coming from the rear, pushing more and more that I looked out, in which direction I could get out the best way in case of a panic. I am not someone who is easily to frighten, and a quite big and physically strong man, nevertheless also I am in such a situation only able to run. There were also children and elder people close to me and where I already saw a serious risk, the MSC staff still pushed more and more people into little space. Although I understand that we all have to pass a security check and a short look into the passports at the exit and that cruise line excursions are lead from board with priority I never experienced any kind of danger anywhere at any port with any cruise line but with this MSC manhunt. MSC even did lead own staff around the paying customers for leaving earlier. Within our group visiting Haifa nobody had ever experienced such a situation and our guide never waited so long for getting all guests from board. We even had to run through town and with a lot of apologises our guide succeeded to get us into the Baiha gardens as we were to late. Although I experienced the Israeli officers being relaxed professionals doing both their jobs and trying not to disturb tourists more than necessary, MSC blamed the Israeli border control for causing “inconvenience” instead of their own yelling and shouting aggressive staff, who dangerously smashed paying guests onto as little surface as possible.

We went westwards. Next stop Heraklion on Crete - at least should be. At some time we were informed that from the west a storm would be approaching and Heraklion would be not be done, but Chania instead. Chania is the most western town on Crete, so when in the west we have to expect bad weather, why we went further to the west? True was that we met terrible weather conditions next to the Italian coast, further to the west. I think quite a lot of people were seasick, as the MDR was remarkable empty that evening. Back to Crete. According to Greece newspapers and this has also been referred by German TV stations because of a bomb onboard of the Fantasia this has been redirected to Chania. I don’t know what really happened, but MSC told everybody who would use this information would be taken to court. Whatever happened, this reaction of MSC is neither suitable to calm down the mood of worried guests, nor even close to crisis management.

I had a AI package, so I did not check every receipt in detail, but at some stage I started to have a closer look after I saw a vodka lemon had been booked as one vodka and one bitter lemon - at higher price. This had not been a single incident, it happened in several bars and even in the MDR I had less glasses wine than shown on the ticket. Although I had financially no disadvantage, why do people structurally give me treacherous receipts for signature?

Confronted with the problems occurred the receptionists either denied completely or things were reduced to a “not such a problem”. The customer service even did not take the opportunity to react at all after I complained. Problems used to happen where people work. But a good organisation is able to recognise them and in best case to offer a solution without being asked for and if a customer reports a problem they should solve it and not to ignore him or to lie against him instead.

We've sailed on her twice and may be booking her again in April. We have had no issues....

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I will be in the MSC Divina departing Miamk on Feb 18, 2017. Any other DL guys that want to play?

yes....i will be on same cruise :cool:

I will be in the MSC Divina departing Miamk on Feb 18, 2017. Any other DL guys that want to play?

heyEddyhills....iwillbeonthesameship....letsmeet

We will be on the MSC Divina in two weeks are they gay friendly?

will be on the MSC Divina leaving out of Miami tomorrow......Looking forward to meeting other guys!