eastoftheboston

If your terminal has a VIP area, you can sit in it. There's usually water and stuff in there, along with more comfortable seating. You also get to use the (in theory) shorter metal detector line.

This post has a photo from the Topsail Lounge extra-cost liquor price list. If you scroll up a couple of posts in that thread, I also posted a photo of the included liquors. Hopefully this helps. This is from the Seaside in January. I wanted to drink Hendricks, but I didn't care about it enough to pay extra for it, and they never offered to just give it to me even though in theory it was just $1 more than the $12 limit.

I've been on two MSC cruises and never saw a chocolate ship. Is this a gift for higher-tier cruisers? I would have loved getting one!

I loved how relaxing Ocean Cay was! We cruise for the ship, not the ports, and originally didn't even plan on getting off the ship at Ocean Cay but were glad we did. So a cruise with all sea days and one day at Ocean Cay would be absolutely perfect. I'd sign up right away!

Seaside Cabana rentals are extremely subjective. If you're just looking for shade, it's definitely not worth the cost, but the privacy and service you get with a cabana rental made it well worth it for me!

I stayed in the non-Sophia Loren suite two years ago. We heard nothing from the One Deck above us, and there is plenty of closet space. You have a big walk-in closet on the way to the bathroom. Plus you have all the drawers etc in the living room to put stuff in. You will have plenty of space. The balcony is a little awkward with the railing positioned where it is, but it is big, and we enjoyed it. There weren't any additional perks that I could remember, with the exception of the porters taking my bags curbside who exclaimed I had the second-best room on the ship (first being the Sophi

I find this shocking, and I can't give any advice because I honestly don't know what I would do in this situation. I just wanted to say I'm sorry you've been put in such an incredibly uncomfortable position on your vacation.

I believe the casino was closed while we were docked at OC. Duty Free was closed too.

There was a motion sensor (and light) at the base of the night stand closest to the balcony, and the second one I believe was at the base of the closet in that dressing area before you go into the bathroom. I've only had these kinds of motion nightlights in certain hotels, so I was happily shocked when I got up that first night in the dark to use the bathroom!

I didn't take advantage of priority debarkation, but you do get priority embarkation, there's a shorter security line and (at least in Miami) you wait in a separate room with more comfortable chairs and water etc before you board. And you board before general boarding. I was in an OS on the Victory/Radiance and loved it. The bathroom space alone is worth the upgrade, but it's nice in general to have room to move around. Also, I have no idea if this feature was in regular cabins too, but when you got up at night, there were motion-activated night lights on the floor so you could

I know this question was about the Divina, but I was shocked to find out (at least for our room) on the Seaside that you couldn't just stick any old card in the slot, it HAD to be your room card! A driver's license or credit card inserted in there would cause a flashing red light to blink and then the lights would go out. I guess the card slots now have the technology to read the chip (or magnetic strip) in your cruise card!

At the end of the hallway for the starboard cabins, there is a "secret" door that opens right into the topsail lounge. You don't have to backtrack to that set of glass doors. It doesn't get much use but it's definitely there!

Hi JS, It's possible you didn't know you could order from the restaurant menu because you got up to the cabana too late? If you said you would arrive by 12 or 1pm, when they brought us the menus from the restaurant, I think we had said we were hoping to order around 1 or 1:30, but they said they only had the ability to put in the orders so they'd be ready by 1 (maybe the restuarant closes early for lunch?). I didn't ask why, I just ordered earlier than I normally would have. The day we were on Ocean Cay, every cabana except one was rented, at least they all had the reserved s

Hi Deepwater. There is no door directly to the topsail lounge at the end of the hall. There is for the hallway on the other side of the ship though. From 16003 to the topsail, you walk down a few cabins, around 16015 there's a door where you can access the central hallway and then work your way back to the topsail lounge. The door isn't really indicated very well on any deck plan I've seen, but it's nothing hidden, it's an obvious big glass door, and there are bathrooms there, along with a staircase up to deck 18. On our cruise, coincidentally, there was a woman in 160

The daily program just called each sea day's dinner dress code "elegant." You can find those newsletters here: Have a great trip!

Hi All, For your planning purposes, here are the daily programs from my recent cruise on the Seaside, Western Carib. route. These programs are for the YC, but the opening times of venues etc should be the same regardless. A couple of notes: The arrival and disembarkation times for Grand Cayman are modified due to anticipated weather and the need for an early departure from GC. We actually ended up skipping GC because of the weather after all, so the program for our day in Cozumel has an earlier arrival and later departure time to make up for it. Hopefully these will be helpful to

One other thing I wanted to add to my review: Breakfast in the YC restaurant, the waffles are basically Eggos. Our waiter warned us when we tried to order them, and strongly suggested we choose something else. If you’re expecting beligian waffles, make sure you adjust your expectations.

you are absolutely right that there were well-behaved children in the YC that week. Those kids weren’t top of mind when writing my review. It just seemed like we couldn’t get away from that one family. Hundreds of loungers at OC and they plop down right next to us LOL. Anyway, I should have acknowledged there were well behaved families in my review. I apologize for lumping you in with that one group!

I sailed on the Allure in a Junior Suite and really enjoyed it, but once you have the yacht club exclusivity it’s hard to go back. enjoy your cruise!

Thank you for backing up what I said about the kids. That one family was awful! my husband LOVED the lamb and fish too! We are in agreement in a lot of areas!

I loved both of them. Our butler on the seaside was WAY better than the divina. Putra is sensational. I felt like the divina YC has a quieter atmosphere, maybe just because the topsail isn’t as open and the restaurant and lounge noises are combined on seaside. The front open area in top sail was a big plus for me on the seaside, if I HAD to choose one, I’d pick seaside, but I loved the Divina too. It’s like choosing your favorite child!

No problems being lgbtq on the seaside, except the welcome letter in the cabin was addressed to mr male name and mrs male name lol. they have an Unhosted lgbtq gathering listed in the dailies every night at 10 in the wine bar just outside the YC next to the specialty restaurants. there was at least one other gay couple in the YC with us, probably more. MSC always makes us feel welcome.

The cabanas at the pool are 59 on a port day, 99 on a sea day. Both were worth it for us. The YC cabanas on ocean cay are nice, but they’re set back behind the rows of sun beds, at least the ones I saw were. They had a couple loungers and pool floats and comfortable chairs and the butlers took great care of the guests in them!

I forgot to add, we took a tour of the thermal area in the spa since we had access. It was beautiful on the tour. Stunning, really. Except whenever we tried to use it, it was an overflowing sea of humanity that smelled like sweat and suntan lotion. I really wish we figured out when the quiet times were, or maybe there should be a reservations process or limit to the number of people allowed in there. If it wasn't so crowded, it would be an exceptional experience. So check out the spa, and ask about the quiet times!

I appreciate your great, thorough review! The only thing I wanted to say was that it may not have been the experience for you, but one CAN eat lunch inside on Ocean Cay in the YC restaurant, because when we went there the hostess apologized to us because the only open tables were inside. She was thrilled when we said we actually PREFERRED eating inside LOL. It was a win-win. I'm sorry you didn't have that option.