Tour of the MSC Divna

[js11110]

Our local travel agent was offering a day trip for a tour of the Divina with a sit down lunch. My wife and I along with my elderly parents decided to take the trip down and check out the ship. I thought I'd give my first impressions of the ship. Embarkation was kind of rough as it was delayed almost a hour and a half due to someone who was disembarking from the previous cruise tried to bring something they weren't supposed to off of the ship and law enforcement was called so instead of embarking at 11:30, it was after 1:00. Can't fault MSC for that and they were very informative and apologetic about the whole fiasco. At 1:00 we were shown on the ship and brought directly to the dining room and seated for lunch. The food was excellent. I had shrimp cocktail, cream of mushroom soup and fillet Mignon with a sampling of goodies and a slice of cheesecake for dessert. The only thing I didn't like was that we couldn't get coffee with our dessert for some reason but that wasn't a big deal. We then went on a quick walking tour of the ship. I thought the ship was beautiful. I especially like the Black and White bar and the Piazza Del Doge. Because of the snafu at embarkation we didn't have the opportunity to see any of the staterooms as people were already occupying them but in my experience a stateroom is a stateroom is a stateroom. They are all pretty much the same (except for NCL Epic- that was just bizarre). The one thing that I would have been really mad about if I was a passenger on this weeks cruise is that 3/4 of deck 14 around the main pool was roped of with construction tape and they had all of the saunas and the pool drained with the railings off around the pool doing construction. Me living in south Florida the pool isn't a MUST, but I want all of the amenities I paid for when booking a cruise and definitely would have been upset. Usually my brother and SIL cruise with us from Connecticut and spend a lot of time at the pool. They would have been terribly upset especially after the winter they've been having this year. All in all tho I would go on this ship if the people I was going with wanted to. I personally am more of a Royal Caribbean guy, but besides the pools having construction the ship was VERY nice!

[FireEater]

I remember an email I received from MSC last month about touring that the Ship. The email stated there was a price I think maybe $75 per person for a lunch and tour of the ship while it was in Miami. Since I do not live in South Florida, I passed on moving forward with it but it would have been nice if I lived closer to actually tour it before I board next April.

[janchor]

We thought it was a beautiful ship as well when we were on it last week! And we had a fantastic cruise. I heard somewhere that they drain the pools frequently since they are salt water. I heard every night but not sure if that is true or not. Were the pools going to be out of commission for the next cruise or just that day for cleaning and upkeep?

[janchor]

Just did a little research ! The CDC has strict rules for salt water pools on cruise ships including emptying the pool in port and not running the flow through system within 20 miles of shore. Other info said pools are often drained every night . So for clean swimming , go early !

[blackerbys17]

I just did that tour for Valentine's Day. They sell vouchers for it through Living Social from time to time. It was only $25 for a 4 course lunch and wine. Our tour guide was super sweet and took us to the Piazza for coffee after lunch. It was a great deal. I just sailed her last month, very nice cruise. Liked it so much we are sailing again in less than a month.

[js11110]

I was $30 pp for us which included the bus ride down, the tour and a 4 course meal. Thats good to know about them draining the pools while in port. Seems weird to me that all of the railings were unbolted and on the ground tho? Anyways- the ship was very nice and I think we would go on it to try it out.

[moomoocow]

The reason the railings are unbolted is to give them a thorough cleaning and check for any repairs.

 

 

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