!!! DIVINA !!! Eastern Caribbean ^_^ The Ultimate Review and Complete Pictorial Guide

[gambee]

Wow, these pics are just fantastic!

 

Those were some of my best shoots. Although I also have some of a sunset on day 3 I think. They came out incredible as well :).

 

 

Thank you for mentioning it, I am very proud of those pictures :)

[gambee]

Ok, let's continue this party. I am attempting to push one cruise day in two days. It is exactly the same way I have been doing it in the past. It works great for me with the time restraints, and I feel that it allows for a smooth report. Hope everyone is ok with that =)

 

After we ate, we went for a little walk to attempt to burn some off the calories. First, we walked by the Steakhouse. We never ate there, but I did have a chance to get the menu. Everything is a la carte. To be completely honest with you, the restaurant is really bland looking. I obtain more pictures later on during the cruise.

 

 

Everyone who eats there claim that it is excellent!

 

 

 

After that we walked by the photo shop area, they actually had several cameras for sale. They added even more the next day on the cruise. I was puzzled by this. The same thing happened with my mom's shoes, one day they did not have any, the next they restocked. No port in-between.

 

 

I was not familiar with a lot of models here. I think a lot are Euro versions. I checked on prices and they seem very similar to the ones found on Amazon. Not a bad deal, plus they are duty free.

 

 

You know me, I am a huge Sony fan!

 

 

Edited August 29, 2014 by gambee

[gambee]

We kept on walking just wandering around and talking. It was quiet on the lower decks. Everyone was on the Lido deck enjoying the sun.

 

 

 

That is the pizza you can purchase. Everyone claims they are considerably better than the one at the buffet. But the one at the buffet was just perfect for me. Out of our group I was the only one that ate pizza, they are not much of pizza fans.

 

 

This was the bar with the largest selection of beers. I think I get the list later on in the cruise.

 

 

 

Neat sculpture, I am just noticing the details on it now.

 

Like I told you I wish this area was all open. The best one I have ever seen was aboard the Disney Dream, it was so open!

 

 

 

[gambee]

As you can imagine my uncle did some silly/sexual posses with the lipstick. Well, in all honesty, he was not the only one, we took several pictures of him there :D

 

 

The staircase is truly incredible. You will find yourself looking at it continuously, no matter how many times you come across it.

 

 

 

 

And the 2-deck waterfall! I really like the use of LED lights on this ship.

 

 

 

[gambee]

Here are just some of the sweets that are sold in the pastry store.

 

 

Those cannolis look exactly the same as the ones in the MDR...

 

 

 

I love Macaroons. I even did a 1-hour line in NY once just to get some of the famous ones. I do not know why I did not purchase any on this cruise. They looked very tasty.

 

 

My mom wanted one of the strawberry tarts. But when I told her I would buy one for her, she told me not to :confused:

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2014 by gambee

[gambee]

I also took some pictures of the menus and drinks there. MSC really has tons of drink lists!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Then we headed up to the Lido deck and took a stroll there.

 

Some folks waiting for gelato

 

 

 

As expected, it was busy up there, but no more than I have seen on other cruises.

 

 

 

They had some live music there.

 

 

And there is my uncle getting video and pictures. It was really funny, he got right in front of the stage and got video of them. I mean like 1 food away from the band, lol.

 

 

[gambee]

Ok friends, so this cruise had several mishaps. This one being the worst by far! I have never had a cruise with so many things (non-cruise related) go wrong. I guess it was due. Since every other cruise we have been very lucky and nothing big has gone wrong. If you remember, I already had an expensive filter crack on me, most likely due to mishandling.

 

This was a turning point to our cruise. As my uncle was taking pictures, the rest of us continued walking. My mom and aunt were walking in front of me and I was playing with the camera. It all happened very fast… As the we walked into the indoor pool area my mom slipped and landed pretty hard on her wrist. My immediate reaction was to wait. I have broken pretty much every bone in my body in the past, and from that I have learned to wait a little to see what is wrong with my body. Usually you have so much adrenaline pumping through your body that you don’t truly understand what just happened.

 

I knew for a fact that this was not a good thing, my mom has osteoporosis, and thus her bones are fragile. I stood by her and asked her what she felt. This situation frightened me more than anyone can imagine! The emotions going through me were many. I was pissed off as hell. At what? Not sure, maybe me for being a moron and caring more for my camera than her. Also at her for not being more careful. Fear at a major problem… It was a very frustrating moment. You can’t imagine. The one thing comforting me was that we had insurance.

 

About 3 minutes passed, I kept talking with her, while allowing her to relax a little on the ground. Some people were looking and others walked by, but no one approached us. It was then that an MSC crew member came and helped me raise my mom on her feet. I am not sure if would have let her sit there for a few more minutes or not, but either way once on her feet we went to the nearest table and sat down.

 

That is the location she slipped on. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!! THIS IS A VERY SLIPPERY AREA!!! I COUGHT ON VIDEO SOMEONE ALMOST SLIPPING AND SAW SEVERAL CHILDREN SLIP THERE WHILE RUNNING!!!!! BE CAREFUL.

 

MSC FIX THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

My mom was walking slowly when she slipped. This material should not be used in this deck. IT IS VERY DANGEROUS!!!!!!!!!! We have been on 7 cruises now and have never come across such a slippery surface. Just to prove what I said, sit in by jacuzzis, one day and look around!

 

I was going through a roller coaster of emotions… Mind you I am not a doctor, but I have my fair share of experience with broken bones. I could tell that there appeared to be no major fracture on her wrist, but that does not mean anything. What about fissures, tendons and such? The hand was not swollen, but mobility was limited.

 

It is very common for my family to hide things like this from others. I am not sure why, but I was worried that she was not telling the truth about the pain level.

 

We sat there for some time, and then agreed to keep on walking.

 

From then on, I kept a close eye on her and asked every 5 minutes if she was ok. She was not happy about me asking every few minutes about it. This event definitely affected the cruise, I was really pissed off, and the worst part is that I did not know to what or who to be pissed off at. I am extremely protective of my mom and I had failed at something so simple… I think mainly I infuriated at myself.

 

Anyway, we kept on walking around and we landed on the damn shopping area that they were looking for in the first place. If it was not for this shopping area, she would have never fallen in the first place. But you start thinking about destiny, what if there was nothing I could have done to prevent it?

 

Anyway,

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

They had some good deals, but I suggest you wait until the last day if you want to purchase anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The worst part is that we were looking for those rolls of jewelry that you buy by the inch, and the freaking area was closed. Apparently they only open them for a few hours a day. Later on during the cruise my mom and my aunt made it while it was open, and the manager in charge was very rude to them. He basically told them that they could not afford it and move on, my uncle later went there to verify their story and he saw the guy being rude to multiple passengers and even yelling at several crew members. I think I will hate that kind of jewelry forever from now on.

 

Anyway, I vented and I will move on. But as you can tell this is a touchy subject and I am still dealing with it. She is now almost recovered and doing good, but it took all this time for her hand to improve.

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

So anyway, I kept on insisting that we’d go to the medical center and get it checked out. I saw some light swelling and I was worried. My mom did not want to go, but she agreed to go. Mind you we had insurance, but the deductible was $250 and everything had to be paid upfront. Later on we would have to make the claim to the insurance company.

 

 

 

[gambee]

When we got there we saw a few rooms and an officer, the officer was the doctor. He came to us and asked us what the problem was, I explained and then he said. “You should consider coming in a couple of hours, because right now is the crew hours and it will less expensive for you to come in a couple of hours”. I really did not understand the logic behind that statement. But who am I to argue with company policies. Peronally I think he was entrenched in a conversation with cute lady there, if you catch my drift. Then he said, let me look at it. He basically felt it and looked at it, he said I don’t think it's anything major. Pretty much the same conclusion I came to upstairs. Maybe sore muscles or tendons, who knows. Either way, that kind of made me calmer and saved me a few hundreds dollars. He said we could go back, but we never did.

 

That said, my mom is still sore till this day. She went to the doctor here in Florida and he said the same thing. He suggested we save money and not shot the X-ray. Till now I am pissed off over this event, I think she should have gotten an x-ray. I also think that MSC should not have installed those floors. I also think that if I was not playing with my camera, I could have done something to avoid the event. Nonetheless, what is done is done. She claims to be better now, so I have to take her word for it.

 

So anyway, here are a few pictures of the medical center.

 

 

 

We then decided to head upstairs and find something to put pressure on the wrist. Soon we figured out that a good way was to use the anti-nausea bracelets that I was not using. From now on, I will pack accordingly.

 

 

 

[gambee]

I also suggested we use my tie to create an arm holder for her :D. Needless to say that she did not use it.

 

 

Either way I don’t think I tied the correct way… The thing was putting pressure on all the wrong points :D. But at least we got a few good laughs at the time, I really needed them. I was still fuming at that point.

 

Mom also did not appreciate that I messed up my tie. I have been saving this tie for almost 5 years for the perfect occasion. I actually think this was the perfect occasion, she begged to differ.

 

 

We decided to check the candy store one more time, and then to go bowling. As you can assume mom had no plans on going bowling.

 

 

[gambee]

My uncle had not seen the candy store, so we took him there before going bowling.

 

They sell a few toys there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yum Yum!

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

Then we stopped for a drink, we all needed it!

 

I took a few more pictures of more drink menus.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Once we go to the bowling lanes, we noticed that they where out of service. They had tangled and the staff had no idea when they were going to fix it.

 

 

 

Here is the sports bar menu.

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

Not much action going on there. I imagine that it is really busy at night when they have games going on.

 

 

You can see there that screen say out of service.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

So with the bowling broken, we decided to check out the formula one simulator that my uncle was dying to try.

 

 

Here is the disco, my uncle went there on one night and he said that it was only a few kids in the dance floor.

 

 

And here is Galaxy specialty restaurant.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

This area reminds me of the Viking crown on the Allure.

 

 

We got to the formula 1 simulator and my uncle was eager to try it out.

 

 

 

[gambee]

The bad news is the fact that it was broken as well. We spoke with the person in charge and he said that it was supposed to get fixed for the last sailing. I knew then that we would never see it working during our sailing. That was a total bust, he really just wanted to try out.

 

 

 

The XD Theater is also there and they offer a few movies. I never had a chance of trying it out, but from what I hear it is a neat experience although a tad short.

 

 

We chose to head out and go get some Jacuzzi time. My uncle suggested we try some of the forward ones, because they had a partial roof and maybe they would get some shade.

 

 

[gambee]

My uncle was doing some silly poses and I decided to join in.

 

I am not entirely sure what this one was all about. I think it was meant to be like diving into the ocean?

 

Leaning on the slanted glass.

 

 

 

We saw how packed the Jacuzzis in the main pool were, my initial thought was that the forward ones would be just as bad. But he insisted that there were few people in there when he went there, so we agreed to go check it out.

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2014 by gambee

[gambee]

 

 

The main pool is very nice. The water looks much cleaner than the one on the Breeze. I wonder if the Breeze was emptying their pools every night.

 

 

The problem with that stage is that there is no place in-front to place chairs and loungers. There is no way to have an engaged audience this way. Hopefully their new ships will be built with this in mind.

 

You can see there the people sitting on the little ledge, which by the way gets hot as hell!

 

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2014 by gambee

[gambee]

Remember that I told you about the ice cream machine not working properly.

 

 

The crew member was there trying to fix the machine.

 

 

When we got there, we noticed that the area was slightly less crowded than the main pool. But the shaded area was already taken up and the other two Jacuzzis were fully exposed to the sun. So we agreed to just go to our area that we knew would be less dense.

 

 

 

There was some swelling, but nothing major. I tried my best not to worry about it too much…