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

[gambee]

Hi Gambee i love your reviews and your photos are fantastic. I just wonder what is it that you enjoy about cruising, you dont like the shows or the pool or having a nice sit down dinner with your family because it takes too long or going dancing. So besides drinking yourself silly at times and taking pictures what is it that you enjoy??? Just wondering.

 

Thank you following me and I am glad you're enjoying the review. I am a strong believer that we all cruise for different reasons. The world would be one boring place if we were all the same, not to mention that we would have very crowded areas on the ship. Don't you think so?

 

As far as specifics? I can think of over 50, right off the bat. But I guess all my other reviews have details on what I enjoy the most ;)

[gambee]

Sorry to know about the incident with your mom!

Hope she is getting better.

 

The Divina has a lot of "little" things to be fixed - safety wise.

I'll post some examples in my review.

 

My mother passed away several years ago. We bring her picture with us in the cabin. So she is like still cruising with us...

 

 

That is a very nice gesture that you do with your mom's picture, God bless you :)

 

 

I am actually very interested in reading the safety issues about Divina that you're going to post. Do you know around when you plan on posting them?

[gambee]

Thanks for the great photos and review! Sorry to hear about your moms fall. They are very scary! Looking forward to the rest of your review! And where are the selfies?? :)

 

Glad you're enjoying the review :) The fall was indeed petrifying to say the least.

 

 

I am not well known for selfies :D

[gambee]

Gambee, I always enjoy you reviews. Love, love your pics especially the illustration mode pics. Looked at getting a camera that does this but still pricey. The building you commented on is the Miami Children's Museum.

 

I also love your relationship with your mom. I am the mother of boys. :)

 

Can't wait to read the rest.

 

Thank you for the info on the museum, the building looked spectacular that night.

 

By the way, most new Sonys come with the illustration mode. Even sub $100 models, just go on their website and make sure that the model you want has it. I know a few of my readers who bought $80 models and have sent me the pictures. Very impressive!

[gambee]

Really enjoying the pictures my friend. Sorry to hear about your mom's fall. I agree with others, I don't like the way the medical center handled it... totally unprofessional IMHO.

 

Thank you Chris, yeah I am still recovering from the ordeal. Now I know better, and this will never happen again.

[gambee]

Oh my gosh! This picture is an optical illusion with the water, and almost makes it look like the ship is sinking!

 

CeleBrat

 

You know, I never noticed that. Very cool indeed. Those are some of my favorite pictures from this cruise!

 

 

Thank you for bringing it up :)

[marty1950]

Hi my friend. I do believe they handled the situation wrong, at the medical center. They should have taken a report about the fall. Also they should have taken your Mom for an X-Ray at no expense to you. I'm glad it didn't totally put a damper on the rest of your cruise. please except my prayers that your Mom recovers quickly and fully. Gary:confused:

[JoLoca2208]

Service in the main dining room was not bad. Our server got everything right and he always has a nice manner about him. The problem is that I am not used to 2-hour dinners, I like things fast. The Food took forever, even when we rushed to put in the order, the food would simply take its sweet time to come out. I have already commented that Divina should appeal more to the US market. This is one area that needs revision ASAP. Then again this is nothing more than my honest opinion. I know I may get blasted by saying that, but it is exactly what it is.

 

 

 

That was my issue as well on my first MSC cruise - looong dinners. On the second one, I just accepted long wait

[oreosmile]

. 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.

 

 

 

I am sorry that your mom had a fall and that you had such a scare, but I am not as sure as some that the medical treatment/response was so lacking. At the time of injury, your mom said she was ok, that she did not have a lot of pain, and you observed no swelling or obvious external injury. You made the decision at that point to go on with your day and not seek immediate medical treatment (which probably would have triggered an incident report and been on MSC's dime).

 

Dud the MSC employee who came over and helped your mom up then quickly leave? Or did they stick around intil she said she was ok? I would be angry if the employee did not make sure that your mom felt she did not require medical assistance before leaving. And I would hope that this employee reported the fall to maintenance staff/supervisors to address the slippery floor.

 

Based on your description of the reason for your visit and the way your mom looked and behaved, the doctor you saw later also did not think that it seemed like an emergency requiring immediate attention. He did examine it (without charge?) and could find nothing from touch or your mom's reactions to the examination to worry him. And he told you to come back later if you wanted, presumably if any other symptoms developed. Later, on land, another doctor agreed that the wrist required no further treatment and that X-rays were unnecessary.

 

The only thing I would be angry with is if the doctor had recommended compression or support and didn't then wrap it, leaving you to your own devices mcgyvering with your seasickness bands. But the way I read your description, with no swelling or bruising developing and no severe pain, no treatment was necessary.

 

I am glad to hear that MSC put up wet floor signs, and do agree that if this is an ongoing issue that the flooring or maintenance of the flooring should be examined.

[gambee]

Hi my friend. I do believe they handled the situation wrong, at the medical center. They should have taken a report about the fall. Also they should have taken your Mom for an X-Ray at no expense to you. I'm glad it didn't totally put a damper on the rest of your cruise. please except my prayers that your Mom recovers quickly and fully. Gary:confused:

 

Thank you for the kind comment, it is very much appreciated :). She is coming along well :)

[gambee]

That was my issue as well on my first MSC cruise - looong dinners. On the second one, I just accepted long wait

 

Yeah, that was very annoying. I ended up missing a few dinners because of that.

[gambee]

I am sorry that your mom had a fall and that you had such a scare, but I am not as sure as some that the medical treatment/response was so lacking. At the time of injury, your mom said she was ok, that she did not have a lot of pain, and you observed no swelling or obvious external injury. You made the decision at that point to go on with your day and not seek immediate medical treatment (which probably would have triggered an incident report and been on MSC's dime).

 

Dud the MSC employee who came over and helped your mom up then quickly leave? Or did they stick around intil she said she was ok? I would be angry if the employee did not make sure that your mom felt she did not require medical assistance before leaving. And I would hope that this employee reported the fall to maintenance staff/supervisors to address the slippery floor.

 

Based on your description of the reason for your visit and the way your mom looked and behaved, the doctor you saw later also did not think that it seemed like an emergency requiring immediate attention. He did examine it (without charge?) and could find nothing from touch or your mom's reactions to the examination to worry him. And he told you to come back later if you wanted, presumably if any other symptoms developed. Later, on land, another doctor agreed that the wrist required no further treatment and that X-rays were unnecessary.

 

The only thing I would be angry with is if the doctor had recommended compression or support and didn't then wrap it, leaving you to your own devices mcgyvering with your seasickness bands. But the way I read your description, with no swelling or bruising developing and no severe pain, no treatment was necessary.

 

I am glad to hear that MSC put up wet floor signs, and do agree that if this is an ongoing issue that the flooring or maintenance of the flooring should be examined.

 

He basically did nothing, for some reason he did not want us there at that time. Personally, I think it's because there was a lady there to whom he was talking to. But I could be 100% wrong. He provided no medical attention, other than touching my mom's wrist. Later on the hand did swell, and she was under pain. But whatever, what is done is done.

 

What puzzles me is this, why is the treatment more economical 2 hours later? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

[gambee]

Day 3, Daily

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Day 3, Sea Day

 

 

I will begin this day with some of my uncle’s pictures. He woke up very early that morning just to take some amazing pictures of the sunrise. That is something that you don’t see often in my reviews. As a matter of fact, I think this is a first on my reviews.

 

So with let's get going!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

I woke up at around my average time 7:30 or so and I decided to check on my blog. I had failed to do so the day before, and I knew that I had missed a lot by doing so. That is really a full-time job, I have never dedicated so much time, energy and money to a single project. Well, I lie, maybe college is much more. But at least I got time off from college, with the blog, I never get a day off. I believe that this is something that I have learned to appreciate a lot when I cruise. Just being disconnected from the Internet gives some time to relax and enjoy life the way it’s supposed to be enjoyed.

 

So anyway, I grabbed the computer and opened the lid. The first thing I see?

 

 

When I saw that I almost had a heart attack! I am pretty good with technology and I knew that this was a major issue. A million things came racing to mind, but the most crucial one was that I had not backed up the Day 1 pictures and the only copy were in the computer. I tried diagnosing the computer for about 30 minutes, and the conclusion was simple. The SSD of the computer had a major error and it was not even showing in the system. I knew I was in big trouble. Not only that, but if something happened to my blog, I had no way of working on it. I really depend on that computer for a lot of things. It is the moment where you realize how much you depend on machines. The worst part of it all, was that I had the external drive there and for some reason I did not back up the day 1 pictures.

 

I think the problem was caused by installing the BETA OS Yosemite, which is the last time that install a BETA version. I have installed many BETA versions of numerous programs, and I have always had minor issues with them. But I have never had a computer completely die on me because of that. I guess you live and learn. I am back on Mavericks now and hope that everything continues to work well. As you tell I managed to recover the pictures, but that took a lot of perseverance.

 

I pretty much gave up trying to start the computer. There was nothing I could do at that point in time. I decide to leave it charging and head to my mom's room to use her iPad to check on my blog.

 

Here are the plans available for WIFI on the ship.

 

 

I bought the 1-hour one and it worked great for that cruise. Let me tell you something, MSC has the BEST Internet out of all the ones that I have tested in the past. The system is near flawless, you get charged by the second vs. by the minute like all the other lines. Not only that, but the Internet is ridiculously fast. Virtually LTE speeds in some parts of our voyage. I was very impressed with this, since MSC is not particularly strong in the tech/website area. Other cruise lines should look into this system and try to emulate it. I loved the Internet connection on Divina.

 

We logged in and I checked the blog, nothing major to report there, everything was running smoothly. My mom decided to send a few picture emails and we did that as well. I also updated my social media sites, and posted a few updates, and the best part is that it was all done in a few minutes of Internet.

 

I sat on the balcony for a little while, and waited for everyone to get ready.

 

 

[gambee]

When they were ready, we headed out to the buffet for breakfast.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is mine for the day.

 

 

[gambee]

And the rest.

 

 

 

 

While my aunt was out getting a drink, my uncle did a little perverted joke on her. Needless to say that her face when she saw it was not the best. But by now you know my uncle. He will do anything to have a great time ;) :D

 

 

Breakfast was really tasty, as a matter of fact, I wish I had a breakfast as such today.

 

 

[gambee]

We left and went to check the formula 1. I knew for a fact that there was no way MSC had fixed it already. But my uncle had his hopes up and who was I to tell him otherwise.

 

 

 

On the way, there we noticed Galaxy was getting setup for brunch. The elevator is not located on the best place. If the Galaxy restaurant is open then this elevator is only good for the restaurant and the port side of the ship. Forcing you to access the Formula by going one deck down and taking the stairs. The ship was a little complicated to navigate at times. I think it was the first time that it took so long to get to really know the ship.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

The formula one simulator is really something else, do not think of it as a video game. The simulator has servos that move it around. It was actually one of those servos that broke and why it was out-of-order.

 

As expected, we got there and it was still busted. I asked the guy if my uncle could at least get a few pictures inside the formula. He wanted to at the very least say that he went on one :D

 

That thing is really realistic, just look how he sinks in that cockpit

 

 

With the blow of the formula we decided to try out the bowling lanes again, my mom had told me that she saw them working late the night before. We agreed to head down there and try our luck out.

 

 

 

I would love to try this restaurant!

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

This is the shore excursion desk. It is located on the deck above the guest relations desk. I rarely saw a line in any of these services. They have plenty of staff at all times there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

We got to the sports bar and the lanes were free and working :). I took off my flip-flops to perform better at my game :D. What we did not know was that the token was only good for one person. I think I already explained how the system works. I was about to head down to buy another token and my uncle said that we should just alternate that token. My mom for obvious reasons could not play and my aunt had no intention of playing, she was relaxing, just the way it should be on a cruise.

 

I started playing, the lanes are pretty much the same as breakaway’s and the balls as well. Again, my issue here is that for $7 per person they should give us the full 10 turns per person. 5 turns are more of a tease than anything else. My uncle and I alternated, I did one strike and the rest of the game I played poorly. There was no way of tracking anything since we were playing the same lane. The scores are displayed on the screens right next to the lanes.

 

 

 

[gambee]

We both took pictures on that little scooter. Something to note is that the crew is extremely relaxed on this ship, you can pretty much do whatever you want without anyone telling you otherwise. I could never pinpoint the why as to this happens, but I do have two theories. The first is that MSC does not pay the staff enough and they do not care enough about the ship to even bother to tell people to stop doing whatever it is that they should not be doing. I already spoke about the tip system and how appalling it is. There was also that case in Brazil where one lady working on the ship called on the Brazilian authorities told help her off the ship and reporting of slavery working conditions on the ship. There are some other cases, but I won’t go into all of them. The point it is that there are plenty of articles circulating that tend to indicate that MSC is not the best cruise line to work for. You can see that on some of the crew, it reflects on their face. They just try to put on a smile, but they struggle to do so. I don’t blame them, if I was not getting paid well for my hard work I would not be happy to be away from my family for it.

 

The other theory is that MSC simply does not tell them to enforce the rules. Muster was a mess, my uncle was taking a ton of pictures, and no one said a word. The Zen pool area usually had children in it. Kids playing in the casino. People crossing the line to get pictures in what looked like restricted areas. People taking pictures of the ships pictures. I saw many cases.

 

The only other cruise line that it's flexible is Carnival, but never to this extreme. Carnival has rules on a lot of things and they enforce them. So anyway, I am not quite sure what it is, and in a way this all works in my benefit. However, I am still pointing it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

The sports bar is very nice, I also saw a few games at night and some people congregating there to see the games. I am not much of a sports fan, so I cannot tell you of the programing and what they show. But overall this is a nice area that usually goes uncrowned for most of the cruise. It tends to get loud when there is a group of children playing there, but since the games are so short, it does not tend to last long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My uncle pointed out some really old roller skates. They have some displays with older and or famous sport equipment.

 

 

Edited August 30, 2014 by gambee

[gambee]

We chose to walk around and check out more of the ship. There is always something you’re missing. As a matter of fact, it was only until I got off the ship that I realized that I had not gone to the specialty restaurant Tex-Mex. I wanted to kick myself in the butt for that.

 

We went out to the promenade first. I wish it was a little more open. It has a few open spots here and there, but for the most part the view is compromised.

 

 

 

 

Here is the big BOY!

 

 

The time on the ship’s clocks was off by a few hours. I told them we were way past dinner time! :D

 

 

Edited August 30, 2014 by gambee

[gambee]

 

I wish the balcony I had slanted that way. Still not perfect, but at the very least it had a better view than mine.

 

 

 

My uncle went to lean on the rail and then he noticed it was a small door, it moved slightly. He said “No Thank You!” and moved a little to a normal rail. I checked it out, it seemed very safe to me. Nothing to worry about :)