Divina Review Mediterranean - March 31 - April 6

We are just a week back from our 7 day cruise on the MSC Divina, westarted and ended in Genoa. Our family has taken several Disney, Carnival, andRoyal cruises previously all in the Caribbean. My goal of this review is toprovide background/facts as well as the good and bad that we experienced bothbefore and during the cruise.

-Why we booked.

We booked this cruise and flights in June 2017 as the timing was right.Our flight was into Milan the day before the cruise which left from Genoa. Wedecided to take this cruise as we have a 3 and 7 year old, this cruise had nodays at sea and we would be able to experience Italy, Spain, and France. MSCwas also offering a promo of "Kids cruise free" so we got a prettygood deal. We booked an oceanview on the 5th floor with the Fantastica experience.The experience included 12 drink coupons per person, non-alcoholic for thekids. We had some fears that our 3 year old might want to climb so we decidedagainst a balcony. (Observation, it appears oceanviews are only available onfloors 5 and 6 and the upper floors are all balconies).

-Pre-cruise

As it has been mentioned by several people the MSC website and bookinginformation is clunky at best. It depends on the day of the week if theinformation is available and working. When it does work the information islimited and for any real detailed information you have to call the customerservice number which I found on several occasions has at least a 15-20 minutewait to speak with someone.

As we were flying into Milan we booked transfers from Milan to Genoa throughMSC for $31 per person each way. Information was provided a few days before thetrip and we were told the pick up was at gate 8 of the airport terminal 1 at 8am. This seemed early as the cruise left port at 6 pm and it was only a 2 hourdrive but I figured we hopefully would avoid some crowds.

I took advantage of the status match program for the Voyager Club andwas given Black status, MSC's highest. The "exclusive" benefits toblack card members are listed below and I will provide the on board experiencelater.

-Complimentary specialty restaurant "Tasting Menu" dinner fortwo (no beverages) [One dinner per stateroom]

-Complimentary spumante with chocolate-dipped fruit per stateroom, onceper cruise

-Priority disembarkation at end of cruise

-Courtesy towelling bathrobe and slippers available during the cruise

-Complimentary dance class

-MSC Voyagers Club exclusive Black Card Party

-MSC Voyagers Club Chocolate Ship

-Late stateroom check-out at disembarkation

We reviewed the shore excursions, internet packages, and food/beverageall inclusive options on the website. We discovered that there were no shoreexcursions that were good for the kids. We decided to buy an internet packageand had questions on the beverage package.

About a week before the cruise I called customer service to get detailson the beverage package. Our 3 year old only likes apple juice **yes, I knowbut stick with me**. Knowing she had 12 drink coupons I wanted to know if applejuice was readily available on the ship or if we should buy the unlimitednon-alcoholic package for her. I was told there is always apple juice in thebuffet at breakfast and there were even juice boxes available that we couldbring to the room. She even recommended bringing an empty water bottle thatcould be filled and used through the day. There was no reason to buy thepackage as if she wanted juice outside of breakfast she still had the 12coupons. I was thrilled with the response and didn't buy the package.

-Arrival and Embarkation

We arrived on Friday about 11 am and had a room at the MXP airport asthe cruise wasn’t leaving until Saturday and we had booked transfers with MSC.After arriving we checked in to the hotel and took the train into Milan toexplore the city. We had a great time but for future reference Milan shut downa bit at 3 pm as it was Good Friday. We enjoyed a nice meal and headed back tothe airport on the train.

On Saturday morning we had the chaos of getting everyone up at 6:30 tomake sure we were ready for the transfer at 8 am. We grabbed a quick on the runbreakfast at the hotel and barely made it by 8 am. We arrived at Gate 8 andlooked around for anyone with an MSC sign and no-one was there. I went out bythe buses to see if we had arrived late and they walked out again to no avail.I tried calling the transfer company a few times with no answer. Finally, at8:20 someone answered the phone and told us the time had been changed to 9 amand someone would be there with a sign, in the meantime “the airport has placesto eat you should get a coffee.” We didn’t get a call or email about thischange. At 9:05 someone showed up with a sign and told us we wouldn’t beleaving for a while as we were waiting for more passengers. He also mentionedwe should get a coffee. The transfer left at 10 am, needless to say we weren’tthrilled that we rushed around to get there for 8 am and we didn’t leave for 2hours. The airport isn’t a ton of fun for 2 kids.

When we arrived in Genoa we got off the bus and followed the crowd intothe embarkation hall. There was a line of about 150 people already, Iapproached one of the employees and told him I was a black card member. One ofthose “benefits” was priority embarkation. He handed me a card and sent thefamily up an elevator to the Yacht Club check in. We made it through theprocess in about 30 minutes and were getting on the ship. The process wassmooth and easy.

- On Board

Once on board we went to our room and we were pleasantly surprised bythe size of the room. The window was quite large compared to the other cruiseswe have been on. The cruise cards were in the room and we looked for the drinkvouchers to no avail. I was somewhat surprised that my card was silver, but itsaid that I was a black card member.

The biggest surprise was that the “bunk beds” came out of the ceilingabove either side of the bed. Be careful if you jump up in the middle of night,you might have headache.

We went to the welcome buffet and realized it would take somenavigating as the space was huge. It was set up in a mirror pattern where bothsides matched. There was also a pizza area and a hot dog/burger area. Thequality of the food was good and the selection was adequate. There is a kidssection in the back which they liked a lot. There was a selection of delimeats/cheese, an ethnic section, carving/pasta area, healthy section, and a fewother areas. I can see how people who didn’t walk the buffet would miss severalitems.

We explored the ship and visited the kids club for registration and metseveral other families before dinner. Our dining table was set for 7 but no oneelse came to the dining room. On previous cruises the waiter and assistant werethe most outgoing people on the ship. To our surprise this wasn’t the case, ourwaiter didn’t engage in any conversation other than taking our order. We askeda couple of questions and were told he didn’t know the menu as it was new.

- The Good – There were several items that were very good

-The housekeeper was very nice and did a great job. She was great withthe kids.

-The kids club was amazing, the workers did a great job and my 7 yearold didn’t want to leave.

-The casino staff was great. I played blackjack while there and had alot of fun.

-The quality of the food was very good at the buffet and the selectionwas enough to keep us happy.

-The pool was around 78 degrees each day and was a lot of fun for thekids. They weren’t overcrowded which was nice.

-The excursion desk provided honest answers to questions. They admittedthere really weren’t any kid friendly excursions which I appreciated.

-The shows were hit or miss, the pirate show was good.

- The Bad – nothing over the top but a bunch of little to middle typethings.

-As mentioned earlier my 3 year old only drinks apple juice. The firstmorning we searched the buffet and didn’t find apple juice we found variousdifferent types and figured it was a rotating schedule. The second morning whenwe didn’t find apple juice we asked and were told there is never apple juice inthe machines, you can only buy it from the bar at 3 euros each. I inquired aboutadding the unlimited package and was told it was too late, you can only buy iton the first day. I complained to the desk and was told it was too bad and I’dneed to buy it from the bars.

- While there I asked about my card being silver instead of black andwas told it wasn’t a big deal but if it was a problem they could change it. Iasked about the benefits being a black card member and they told me the cruiseconsultant would be sending us messages to get the benefits. This neveroccurred and when we inquired about the free specialty dining it was made to bethat we were hassling the staff. We never received any message, they did sendthe chocolate ship on the second to last night.

- The biggest negative was in the dining room, as I mentioned earlierour waiter was very dry to say the least. The first and second night we weretold that he didn’t know the menu. My wife ordered a wine the first night andthen asked for the same one the next night along with the aforementioned applejuice and it never arrived for over an hour even though we asked 4 times. Whenthe supervisor asked him why we were still waiting he said he didn’t know whatwine it was. Our food took an extremely long time to arrive and both nightssomething was wrong. We asked for a new table as there wasn’t a good fit, theymoved us and also moved the waiter to the section next to us which was awkwardto say the least for the rest of the cruise.

-On all of the other cruises the staff has been friendly and easygoing. I found this staff to have very low morale and just plain rude. The bestexample I can give is when a crew member and a guest would get to a door at thesame time, the staff member would push through the door sometimes bumping intothe guest. I’ve always seen the crew open the door or step to the side whenguests arrived at the same time. This was an overriding theme throughout theship.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, there weren’t any over the top issues but therewere a bunch of small issues. The best way to describe it was this was a cruisethat had a very good price and we got what we paid for. I don’t know if I wouldtake a cruise with MSC again. The only thing I can say is that there could be adifference if you are in the Yacht Club level of service for the extra fee.

Thanks for the review.

Thank you for your interesting and helpful review! We’re looking at booking our first MSC cruise in June 2019, Divina from Genoa, based on the great itinerary and trying to research as much as possible.

(One thing I did learn today is that unfortunately the Fantastica option won’t include the 12 drink vouchers after March 2019)

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Thank-you for the informative review!

Thanks for your review!

This review completely echos my experience on the Meraviglia last week! I think a lot of this is just how MSC operates which is a real shame.

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We are just a week back from our 7 day cruise on the MSC Divina, westarted and ended in Genoa. Our family has taken several Disney, Carnival, andRoyal cruises previously all in the Caribbean. My goal of this review is toprovide background/facts as well as the good and bad that we experienced bothbefore and during the cruise.

 

-Why we booked.

We booked this cruise and flights in June 2017 as the timing was right.Our flight was into Milan the day before the cruise which left from Genoa. Wedecided to take this cruise as we have a 3 and 7 year old, this cruise had nodays at sea and we would be able to experience Italy, Spain, and France. MSCwas also offering a promo of "Kids cruise free" so we got a prettygood deal. We booked an oceanview on the 5th floor with the Fantastica experience.The experience included 12 drink coupons per person, non-alcoholic for thekids. We had some fears that our 3 year old might want to climb so we decidedagainst a balcony. (Observation, it appears oceanviews are only available onfloors 5 and 6 and the upper floors are all balconies).

 

-Pre-cruise

As it has been mentioned by several people the MSC website and bookinginformation is clunky at best. It depends on the day of the week if theinformation is available and working. When it does work the information islimited and for any real detailed information you have to call the customerservice number which I found on several occasions has at least a 15-20 minutewait to speak with someone.

 

As we were flying into Milan we booked transfers from Milan to Genoa throughMSC for $31 per person each way. Information was provided a few days before thetrip and we were told the pick up was at gate 8 of the airport terminal 1 at 8am. This seemed early as the cruise left port at 6 pm and it was only a 2 hourdrive but I figured we hopefully would avoid some crowds.

 

I took advantage of the status match program for the Voyager Club andwas given Black status, MSC's highest. The "exclusive" benefits toblack card members are listed below and I will provide the on board experiencelater.

-Complimentary specialty restaurant "Tasting Menu" dinner fortwo (no beverages) [One dinner per stateroom]

-Complimentary spumante with chocolate-dipped fruit per stateroom, onceper cruise

-Priority disembarkation at end of cruise

-Courtesy towelling bathrobe and slippers available during the cruise

-Complimentary dance class

-MSC Voyagers Club exclusive Black Card Party

-MSC Voyagers Club Chocolate Ship

-Late stateroom check-out at disembarkation

 

We reviewed the shore excursions, internet packages, and food/beverageall inclusive options on the website. We discovered that there were no shoreexcursions that were good for the kids. We decided to buy an internet packageand had questions on the beverage package.

 

About a week before the cruise I called customer service to get detailson the beverage package. Our 3 year old only likes apple juice **yes, I knowbut stick with me**. Knowing she had 12 drink coupons I wanted to know if applejuice was readily available on the ship or if we should buy the unlimitednon-alcoholic package for her. I was told there is always apple juice in thebuffet at breakfast and there were even juice boxes available that we couldbring to the room. She even recommended bringing an empty water bottle thatcould be filled and used through the day. There was no reason to buy thepackage as if she wanted juice outside of breakfast she still had the 12coupons. I was thrilled with the response and didn't buy the package.

 

-Arrival and Embarkation

We arrived on Friday about 11 am and had a room at the MXP airport asthe cruise wasn’t leaving until Saturday and we had booked transfers with MSC.After arriving we checked in to the hotel and took the train into Milan toexplore the city. We had a great time but for future reference Milan shut downa bit at 3 pm as it was Good Friday. We enjoyed a nice meal and headed back tothe airport on the train.

 

On Saturday morning we had the chaos of getting everyone up at 6:30 tomake sure we were ready for the transfer at 8 am. We grabbed a quick on the runbreakfast at the hotel and barely made it by 8 am. We arrived at Gate 8 andlooked around for anyone with an MSC sign and no-one was there. I went out bythe buses to see if we had arrived late and they walked out again to no avail.I tried calling the transfer company a few times with no answer. Finally, at8:20 someone answered the phone and told us the time had been changed to 9 amand someone would be there with a sign, in the meantime “the airport has placesto eat you should get a coffee.” We didn’t get a call or email about thischange. At 9:05 someone showed up with a sign and told us we wouldn’t beleaving for a while as we were waiting for more passengers. He also mentionedwe should get a coffee. The transfer left at 10 am, needless to say we weren’tthrilled that we rushed around to get there for 8 am and we didn’t leave for 2hours. The airport isn’t a ton of fun for 2 kids.

 

When we arrived in Genoa we got off the bus and followed the crowd intothe embarkation hall. There was a line of about 150 people already, Iapproached one of the employees and told him I was a black card member. One ofthose “benefits” was priority embarkation. He handed me a card and sent thefamily up an elevator to the Yacht Club check in. We made it through theprocess in about 30 minutes and were getting on the ship. The process wassmooth and easy.

 

- On Board

Once on board we went to our room and we were pleasantly surprised bythe size of the room. The window was quite large compared to the other cruiseswe have been on. The cruise cards were in the room and we looked for the drinkvouchers to no avail. I was somewhat surprised that my card was silver, but itsaid that I was a black card member.

 

The biggest surprise was that the “bunk beds” came out of the ceilingabove either side of the bed. Be careful if you jump up in the middle of night,you might have headache.

 

We went to the welcome buffet and realized it would take somenavigating as the space was huge. It was set up in a mirror pattern where bothsides matched. There was also a pizza area and a hot dog/burger area. Thequality of the food was good and the selection was adequate. There is a kidssection in the back which they liked a lot. There was a selection of delimeats/cheese, an ethnic section, carving/pasta area, healthy section, and a fewother areas. I can see how people who didn’t walk the buffet would miss severalitems.

 

We explored the ship and visited the kids club for registration and metseveral other families before dinner. Our dining table was set for 7 but no oneelse came to the dining room. On previous cruises the waiter and assistant werethe most outgoing people on the ship. To our surprise this wasn’t the case, ourwaiter didn’t engage in any conversation other than taking our order. We askeda couple of questions and were told he didn’t know the menu as it was new.

 

- The Good – There were several items that were very good

 

-The housekeeper was very nice and did a great job. She was great withthe kids.

-The kids club was amazing, the workers did a great job and my 7 yearold didn’t want to leave.

-The casino staff was great. I played blackjack while there and had alot of fun.

-The quality of the food was very good at the buffet and the selectionwas enough to keep us happy.

-The pool was around 78 degrees each day and was a lot of fun for thekids. They weren’t overcrowded which was nice.

-The excursion desk provided honest answers to questions. They admittedthere really weren’t any kid friendly excursions which I appreciated.

-The shows were hit or miss, the pirate show was good.

 

- The Bad – nothing over the top but a bunch of little to middle typethings.

 

-As mentioned earlier my 3 year old only drinks apple juice. The firstmorning we searched the buffet and didn’t find apple juice we found variousdifferent types and figured it was a rotating schedule. The second morning whenwe didn’t find apple juice we asked and were told there is never apple juice inthe machines, you can only buy it from the bar at 3 euros each. I inquired aboutadding the unlimited package and was told it was too late, you can only buy iton the first day. I complained to the desk and was told it was too bad and I’dneed to buy it from the bars.

 

- While there I asked about my card being silver instead of black andwas told it wasn’t a big deal but if it was a problem they could change it. Iasked about the benefits being a black card member and they told me the cruiseconsultant would be sending us messages to get the benefits. This neveroccurred and when we inquired about the free specialty dining it was made to bethat we were hassling the staff. We never received any message, they did sendthe chocolate ship on the second to last night.

 

- The biggest negative was in the dining room, as I mentioned earlierour waiter was very dry to say the least. The first and second night we weretold that he didn’t know the menu. My wife ordered a wine the first night andthen asked for the same one the next night along with the aforementioned applejuice and it never arrived for over an hour even though we asked 4 times. Whenthe supervisor asked him why we were still waiting he said he didn’t know whatwine it was. Our food took an extremely long time to arrive and both nightssomething was wrong. We asked for a new table as there wasn’t a good fit, theymoved us and also moved the waiter to the section next to us which was awkwardto say the least for the rest of the cruise.

 

-On all of the other cruises the staff has been friendly and easygoing. I found this staff to have very low morale and just plain rude. The bestexample I can give is when a crew member and a guest would get to a door at thesame time, the staff member would push through the door sometimes bumping intothe guest. I’ve always seen the crew open the door or step to the side whenguests arrived at the same time. This was an overriding theme throughout theship.

 

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, there weren’t any over the top issues but therewere a bunch of small issues. The best way to describe it was this was a cruisethat had a very good price and we got what we paid for. I don’t know if I wouldtake a cruise with MSC again. The only thing I can say is that there could be adifference if you are in the Yacht Club level of service for the extra fee.

Staff has low morale??? :confused:Can you please explain .