GreytRacer

Has anyone done MSC's Salsa, Cooking & Beach Break in Costa Maya? We booked it last November, but we were re-routed due to a hurricane. Thinking about booking it for our April cruise. Any thoughts? Thanks!

That’s great to hear! Thanks!

We loved the thermal spa on Meraviglia! We are on the Seaside next. Is the Seaside spa like the Meraviglia? The thermal spa on the Divina was a bust. 😞

Divina Thermal Spa was nothing! Two very small rooms (sauna and steam), one set for men and one set for women. Have to make a reservation to use them. Don’t waste your money.

Not sure of the percentage of American passengers, but I will say that when we passed a family late on Day 3 of the cruise who were speaking English, we were surprised and commented on it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

We were just on the Divina over MLK weekend and had a similar experience as the OP. While we expected a full ship (we had 4200!), we also expected they would be staffed to serve that many. They weren't. No plates or silverware on the buffet, running out of food, lines a mile long, no place to sit (due to tables not being bussed) if you were able to get food. None of the flavors of gelato needed to make the shakes they advertised. No Diet Coke! How do you run out of Diet Coke?!? We had good service in the dining room and the food was "ok". We also didn't have an assigned dining room or time, but we stood in line before sail away and were given one. We sailed on the Meraviglia 11/22 and didn't have any of these issues. Of course, the ship was only half full, so that helped. We had a terrible dining room experience on the Meraviglia (over an hour to get our food, the wrong items came out, plus they were raw), so we ate all of our meals on buffet and enjoyed them. Sounds like MSC is only staffed for half-full cruises.

We status matched our Carnival Platinum to MSC Silver. After one MSC cruise, they bumped us up to Diamond! I'll take it!

Thought I'd check back with the info in case someone needs it in the future: No formal night White Night is on the last night There is a Beach Party on the beach if there's an overnight on Ocean Cay (ours got canceled because we couldn't dock the first day) 60's-70's-80's-90's Deck Party the first night

Cruising this weekend on Divina for 3 nights. Will there be a formal night? White Party? I heard there might be a beach party during our overnight at Ocean Cay? Any guidance so I know what to pack would be appreciated . 🙂

Thanks for your response! I booked directly with MSC so I’ll call them and ask about the state. And I’ll have to get some pics on the computer. They’re all on my phone! 😂

First MSC cruise and trying to figure out their check in procedures. 🤪 1. It says we need security pics. An old thread on here said they retake the pic when you arrive so not to bother. Is this still the case? If we need to add one pre-cruise, is there a way to do it through the app? 2. My Embarkation docs don’t show my state. On the check in page online, it shows it, but not on the doc. Will this be an issue? 3. I see on other threads that we don’t need to click on the “Boarding Pass” link. Thanks for that info!

Wow! I’ve been on A LOT of Carnival cruises and have never seen a brawl! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks for this great insight! Exactly what I was looking for! What’s Yacht Club?

Thanks for the responses! We aren’t drinkers, so no alcohol induced haze or beer goggles. 🍺 Don't care about the poolside activities, but enjoy the night time Deck Parties and the Sail Away Party. It will be a 7 night cruise. Always love the dance/singer shows; we don’t go see the Comedians. We enjoy ballroom dancing; we’re not gamblers.

Thinking about booking MSC out of Port Canaveral. We are frequent cruisers, but this would be our first MSC. How do they compare to other cruise lines, in particular the “fun” factor? We love the sail away party and the deck parties, movies under the stars and the production shows. We did a HAL earlier this year, and while we loved the itinerary, the “fun-factor” was lacking. Also, we’re Platinum with Carnival. Will MSC match that in some way? Thanks!

OP here! A couple of clarifications: We LOVED our cruise, the older smaller ship, the crew and especially the itinerary. This was written specifically for friends who wondered what HAL was like compared to other lines we have all cruised. I decided to share it here in case it was helpful to others. Not complaining; just comparing our personal experiences. We didn’t pay $100 for this cruise; we paid approx $350 per person. The black and white photos they were selling cost $450 for three photos, $100 more than our cruise fare. We didn’t book this cruise for shopping onboard or for the lobster. I was simply pointing out some differences we noticed from other lines: the size of the shops and the fact that lobster is generally on the menu one night, but was not on HAL. Shrimp cocktail was available as an appetizer. I was speaking to the entrees when I said no seafood. I can’t eat beef and I get tired of chicken and pork, so I enjoy seafood when we cruise. That’s why I noticed the lack. The first morning we waited at the omelet station for eggs to order.Just wanted to clarify they weren’t there, so no one else made the same mistake. This cruise was indeed booked for the itinerary, plus the experience of a new-to-us cruise line. 😊

We just got off in Boston. No luggage direct (I think it ended due to Covid because it hasn’t been on the other cruise line I’ve been on). Just the bus transfer to the airport or the bus tour plus transfer, both offered as shore excursions.

I think our disappointment with the food came from our expectations. We were just expecting “more”, certainly something “more” than Carnival offers. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We did breakfast on the buffet. There wasn't a line for eggs cooked to order (which is not where they make the omelets) and, most days, no line for omelets. Be sure to ask for fruit on your French toast or pancakes. 😋 The casino is small but it wasn’t crowded so you should be able to get a seat! 😁

Interesting! We ate in the dining room on both formal nights and the only lobster we saw (any night) was at an extra cost. No escargot either. There were fish entrees on the menu every night, but not seafood (shrimp, scallops etc)

My husband and I have been on many cruises over 5 different cruise lines, but we just took our first HAL. Many of our cruise friends asked what we thought about cruising on Holland America - what was the nightlife like, how was the food, were we the youngest onboard, etc. I wrote this up and thought I would share it here in case it’s helpful to anyone. NOTE: This is our experience on an older smaller ship (Zaandam) with a port-heavy itinerary (Montreal, Quebec, day at sea, Prince Edward Island, Sydney Nova Scotia, Halifax Nova Scotia, Bar Harbor, ME, ending in Boston). Newer bigger HAL ships may be different. I think the biggest difference between HAL and other cruise lines we’ve been on was the overall “energy” of the ship. There were no Sailaway parties, no deck parties, no big dancing events or Name That Tune sing-alongs. The Cruise Director was 70 years old if he was a day and possibly a retired actor or public speaker. He hardly did any announcements over the PA and when he announced the shows, he didn’t come out on stage; he just said “here’s the show!” over the mic. But he did do two presentations during our one sea day that were each an hour long. He stood onstage and spoke, with visuals behind him, and no script in front of him and he was excellent. But this was not a man who was going to do the Wobble! We weren’t the youngest people like we thought we might be. There were a few families that had elementary and middle school children and a couple of groups that were multi-generation and those groups had some high school and college age kids. But otherwise, everyone was our age (59) and up. There are 5 bars on the entire ship, one of which I never saw open. They had a Piano Bar entertainer, but not every night. She played and sang (not really very well) and it was definitely not a sing-along situation, even though there were stools around the piano like in a traditional piano bar. There were no production shows but they did have dance-only shows, which were fantastic! The shows were 30 to 45 minutes long, nothing but dance, performed by six dancers who were all extremely talented. The choreography, costumes and staging was awesome and we loved the shows! One night they did a BBC nature movie presentation with live musicians playing in front of the screen and one night there was a comedian. He was hysterical and did 45 minutes of great material. We would’ve been happy to see him another time or two! There was a four piece band that played cover songs, a pianist who played during cocktail hour and a husband and wife violin and pianist duo. Other than that, the only other entertainment was one showing of a movie most nights, except for the nights they had bingo, which was played in the movie theater. So there wasn’t even bingo every day! I don’t know if the number of trivia sessions (one per day) and bingo might change on itineraries that aren’t so port heavy, but that’s what we had. While I’m not one to go to the Hairy Chest contest anymore or do 1000 trivia sessions, the lack of offerings did seem to impact the energy of the ship. There’s a bar in the front of the ship called the Crow's Nest and they had a DJ there in the evenings starting at 10:30pm. It could’ve been party central up there, but we would have never known (many ports = very tired). The one evening we went up there (for the Orange Party) there were some people dancing and a lot of people sitting and drinking, so maybe it was like that every night. They had Happy Hour most days with 50% off drinks. They advertised it as off well liquor, but the one time we took advantage of it, we were told it was 50% off any drink $11 and under. I also got a coupon for a free Mariner Signature cocktail that I could use anywhere and at any time on the ship. When I downloaded the app, it automatically signed me up for the HAL Mariner Society, so even though this was our first HAL cruise, I still got the free drink (which I liked). If you’re a Carnival stock holder (100 shares minimum) you can get an onboard credit if proof is sent in prior to your cruise (since HAL is owned by the Carnival Corporation). The Casino was small, I believe 3 tables and about 30 slots. It was never busy, so if you like to gamble, there was always a seat. They had Texas Hold ‘Em a few times and sold Lottery-type tickets, but no Blackjack tournaments or slot pulls. There were three shops. The sundry/liquor shop was about the size of my bathroom. The logo/resort wear shop about the size of my bedroom and didn’t have anything specific to the ship except the ship model and magnet. The third shop was the largest and was mostly jewelry, including a private curtained room where I guess you looked at really expensive stuff. The rest of the space was for designer bags and scents, plus a table for the “special of the day”. The crew were all amazing. Everyone greeted us when we passed them, from Officers to Engineers to Chefs. The crew served us on the buffet and they were all helpful and friendly. Our room steward was great. The food was…disappointing. It wasn’t bad, it was just meh. We were expecting something outstanding because it was “HAL!” But most things were just ok and some were flavorless. We treated ourselves to dinner at one of the specialty restaurants for our anniversary. While the presentation was beautiful, my scallops were flavorless and Mike said the Omaha steaks he grills at home are better than his beef tenderloin was. Bummer. There was no lobster, escargot, or stuffed mushrooms in the dining room and no seafood entrees. They did have waffle cones on the buffet, so that made up for it a little bit. 😉 Speaking of the buffet, I’m not sure if the crew serving us is standard with HAL or something new since covid. If you’re a sushi eater (we’re not), I believe they had it on the buffet every day. There were two photographers on the ship and they only did “official” pics three times, with one background to chose from. Two were on the formal nights and I don’t know when the other one was. (The night they had it listed in the “When and Where”, they weren’t taking them.) Unfortunately, the pics weren’t great (bad lighting or weird angles), but we found two to buy. We got corralled into a fancy private black and white photo session. Those pics were great! They presented them in a slide show with music and the whole thing could make you cry for pulling on the heartstrings. When I finally got the price out of them, I really could have cried. $150 per 8” x 10”! 😵‍💫. And they recommend a grouping of three pics, which for us, would have cost $100 more than one of our cruise fares! Needless to say, we didn’t get any and were a little annoyed at the time we wasted on it all. This was our 35th anniversary trip. Even though it was noted in our reservation and I mentioned it when booking our specialty dining, there was no acknowledgement, so 🤷🏻‍♀️ Would we cruise on HAL again? If it was a very specific itinerary (like this one, which we LOVED and would do again in a heartbeat!) or an amazing price (also like this one) - yes. If it was a standard Caribbean itinerary and the price was the same as Carnival, Princess, RCCL, etc - probably not. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. 😁. Hope it’s helpful to new HAL cruisers.

I just realized we have the same issue! Our flight was originally at 1:30pm but was changed to 4:50pm. 😕