MSC Divina W.Caribbean Cruise 05/03/16 with 3 days pre cruise stay Miami review

[RC Dancers]

Thank you for your review. It's looking great.

 

We would appreciate it if you could take a picture of the daily schedule (page 4, I think). There are some great ones from 2014, but updates are appreciated.

[deladypilot]

Loving your review. Thank you so much for sharing

[sammybonny]

Thanks for all you're lovely comments. have to say I'm enjoying doing the review. Nice to recap on the things you've done.

 

Good news this morning..... Both Neil and Amy have made it to Heathrow. Amy lives in Kilmarnock, Scotland and so has had to fly down from Glasgow. Neil has had to make his first journey to an airport alone. He was quite nervous about this but seems all has gone to plan. There was a worry at one point that snow may cause a problem. (for those that don't know, anything more than 1cm of snow on the ground causes a total meltdown of British infrastructure)

 

Yes there was a problem with snow in the north of England and Manchester airport had a lot of delays and some cancellations.The weather men had been expecting it for days so it was no surprise.

 

P&O cruises 2 charter flights to Barbados for their Caribbean cruises were both cancelled and didnt leave until the following day.We had the same problem last year and had a 7 hour delay ( there was about 1/2 inch of snow)!!

[BermudaBound2014]

According to the Divina Webcam looks like you are having terrific weather today with calm seas :). The pool is packed!~

[stuart2468]

Day 3 - Continued

 

Jest before heading over to the airport to meet up with Amy & Neil, we decided to stop for some food. Given we had been to little Havana in the morning, and had planned to eat cuban food we both felt we wanted to stick with this theme. The new ate Mexican on our first evening, we noticed next door was a Cuban Restaurant. Havana 1957.

 

We had a lovely little table in the street, but surrounded by various walled plans which gave the feel we were actually in a garden. The food whilst fairly simple, was actually very good. I have no objection with the food being simple, as I'm sure that whilst in Cuba, and away from the main resorts the food ingredients would in fact be simple given their lack of availability of imported products, so to me it felt authentic.

 

Once finished, we took the Metrorail back to the airport. We had arranged to meet Amy & Neil at the central station area after the MIA Mover, but i wasn't confident they would find it so given we were there with plenty of time, we decided to message them we would meet them at arrivals instead. We arrived there and waited an hour and still no sign of them. we thought perhaps we had passed them somehow and that they may have gone to the original planned meeting point. so off we trotted back to Central station to find……. well no-one. Turns out that earlier that afternoon there was a nation wide computer crash that took out all customs computers and therefore was taking much longer to get people through. Still eventually our paths crossed and we were soon on the train back to out apartment.

 

As you can imagine they were eager to tell us all about the wonderful upgrade to Business. Apparently though this came about because of Neil complaining about a broken seat, His broken seat, however he was complaining about it from the seat behind as he had sat in the wrong seat. It was something to do with the recline Anyhow they were upgraded just as the person who had sat in the correct seat (the one Neil was complaining from) began to realise of the same issue. He apparently was 6’2 n height. Amy has worked in travel for many years now, so once the cabin steward said theres no room in Economy we’ll have to seat you in Club, Amy demanded Neil collect everything in an instant and follow her. There was no way she was missing out on the upgrade. lol. Surface to say that the report was very positive. I tried to grin and appear interested as much as possible, but sadly inside i was bitter. lol

 

Once back at the apartment, we had a love cup of PG tips tea, and went off to bed.

Edited March 7, 2016 by stuart2468

[stuart2468]

I know its taking a long time to get the review online now, so please be patient. Its actually quite hard to sort out a review during the holiday. Sorry

[Cruisergal1208]

We appreciate your time to do your review. Eagerly awaiting your thoughts on the ship.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Cruisergal1208

[kikki21]

Thanks for your review so far! Just whet my appetite for heading out to Miami again ourselves in 3.5 weeks time - so excited! :)

 

We are there for 2 nights ahead of our cruise on Celebrity Reflection but our next cruise (unless we book a cruise before that!) is on MSC!

 

I agree with with your say about Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, it's ok for a novelty meal! :)

I did a Miami City Tour and we went to the same place as you in Little Havana, i got some very cool sepia and B/W photos there of the old guys playing cards & dominos and even some portrait shots.

Coconut Grove is an odd place, it is an affluent area but right next to it is an area called the Black Grove which is very undesirable as a neighbourhood, not to head out to late at night.

 

Live reviews are very hard to do as they rely on you having a good internet connection on the ship & of course you're trying to have fun!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review and great pictures.

[sandpiper35]

"But we'd seemed to have come to the end of Little Havana. It wasn't as large as id expected, and we thought we'd fill more than a couple of hours here and had planned to eat down here. But it was 3.30pm, and was way to early to eat."

 

 

 

Stuart, now you know why it is called "Little Havana" LOL.

 

We enjoyed your review very much. Please tell us more.

 

We will be sailing in the Divina in the April 9th sailing to Bermuda.

 

Armando & Maria.

[sandpiper35]

Stuart, Bubba Gump is ok, but if you like fish, we recommend "Garcias" on the river. A locally owned and family run restaurant which we locals enjoy very much. If you have time on your return, it is located right on the Miami river, the patio dinning overlooks the river. The address is 398 NW North River Drive, http://www.garciasmiami.com.

Enjoy.

 

Armando & Maria.

[stuart2468]

Stuart, Bubba Gump is ok, but if you like fish, we recommend "Garcias" on the river. A locally owned and family run restaurant which we locals enjoy very much. If you have time on your return, it is located right on the Miami river, the patio dinning overlooks the river. The address is 398 NW North River Drive, http://www.garciasmiami.com.

Enjoy.

 

Armando & Maria.

 

Thats really kind to recommend this place and sounds lovely, but sadly we won't have the time on our disembarkation day as we'll be driving to the everglades before our flight home.

[stuart2468]

Day 4 - Embarkation & Excitement.

 

So finally our day of departure had arrived. To say i was excited today would be an utter understatement. But before we packed up and left we thought it would be nice for our new recruits to enjoy a few hours of sun on the rooftop pool. So at about 8am, up we went. Sadly though the clouds weren't that kind to us and we felt very little of the sun. But we continued to have a swim in the warm waters and watch the planes take off as we were right under the flight path (something myself and Neil like a lot. Spotters? Well maybe a little)

 

At about 9.30 we thought it best to bag all our things up and begin the check out procedure. At just after 11am, we got into a taxi bound for Port Miami. There we many ships in this morning. NCL, 2x Carnival & a princess cruise ship i think. But, and maybe slightly bias, Divina looked the best. Having sailed Preziosa, i had slight indication of what to expect. And i wasn't disappointed.

 

 

So…. to answer BermudaBound2014, we arrived at the port at just after 11.30am. Check in according to our paperwork was 2pm. We had planned to drop off cases and head to South Beach, however we were notified by one of the porters that check in was opening at 11.30. Apparently they had brought it forward although for what reason we do not know. there were quite a few people inside waiting although the check in lines were empty. Within minutes we were at the desk beginning our check in procedure. We had been given our boarding number, and by about 12.10 we were called and headed up to the ship. This had gone very smoothly indeed. We later came back off the ship at about 3pm, and the checkin area was also quiet then. It seems they have the embarkation well thought through and well executed. Hope thats all the info you need? Feel free to ask anything further.

 

The first thing we did when onboard was to head to the buffet. We were all feeling a little peckish at this point although maybe 1 of us more than others ey Neil? when we arrived only half of the buffet was open, but there was a fairly wide variety of things to eat, and a huge leg of ox to try (it was delicious in fact!) once our bellies were full we decided a ship tour would be good. Before the clouds arrived.

 

Now, there are many photos that were taken. Either my photographer had upped his game on the basis of my advice or this was a sign he was liking what he was seeing. incase no-one knows, Matt is a first time cruiser, and somewhat sceptical, however he assures me he has an open mind. So i will list the various areas now for your viewing and later during the cruise we’ll probably go into more in-depth conversation about it.

 

First we took a visit to see Amy’s & Neil’s, Fantastica Balcony Room 11120.

 

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Then we checked out our room. Area Balcony Room 12029. Personally i preferred the red colour, but I'm really clutching at straws and in all honesty it made very little difference.

 

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[stuart2468]

Day 4 - Continued

 

Casino

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Golden Jazz Lounge

 

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[stuart2468]

Day 4 - Continued

 

Amy, giving some attitude whilst waiting for the lifts

 

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Pantheon Theatre

 

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[stuart2468]

Day 4 - Continued

 

Rear Pool

 

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[stuart2468]

Day 4 - Continued

 

Now, if i may just go back a little...... (i wrote the text for this the evening after embarkation day and only just found the time to upload it and the photos to go along with it. As such i've missed out a little of the text which goes along with the photos. So I'm going to add it here as it may be of use to some people)

 

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Just before getting back off the ship, and at about 2.15pm, we decided we would go check out our rooms. We had been advised the rooms would be ready for 2.30pm but thought we’d take the chance anyhow.

 

First to Amy’s & Neil’s They were on deck 11 starboard side in Balcony Room 11120. Amy is new to MSC but not cruising. She did 2 RCCI cruises last year. To compare she loved the room, and felt it was bigger than the balcony we experienced on Allure of the Seas. Neil was equally please but he views MSC as gods so its hard for him to find fault anywhere. lol

 

 

We then went to view our room. Deck 12, Port side in Balcony Room 12029. Again we were both very pleased with he space. Although i didn't really see the difference in size between ours and Amy’s room, (We were in a Aurea room) but that wasn't an issue. Size was more than adequate enough. As we were Aurea, our bags had arrived at this point.

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Edited March 8, 2016 by stuart2468

[sandpiper35]

Stuart, the ship looks lovely. Keep posting those pics and comments. I hope you get time to post some info on my favorite room on board, the steam and sauna rooms.

Sorry you will miss Garcias this time around but keep the info under your hat for the next Miami tour.

 

Armando & Maria.

[jimbri]

Wonderful review and photos!

[BermudaBound2014]

This is terrific!! Just the info I was looking for. ThAnk you so much:)

[karnze]

Thank you for taking the time to do this review. I have been very curious about the Divina.

[Cruisermom2nick]

Day 4 - Continued

 

Now, if i may just go back a little...... (i wrote the text for this the evening after embarkation day and only just found the time to upload it and the photos to go along with it. As such i've missed out a little of the text which goes along with the photos. So I'm going to add it here as it may be of use to some people)

 

................................................................................................................

Just before getting back off the ship, and at about 2.15pm, we decided we would go check out our rooms. We had been advised the rooms would be ready for 2.30pm but thought we’d take the chance anyhow.

 

First to Amy’s & Neil’s They were on deck 11 starboard side in Balcony Room 11120. Amy is new to MSC but not cruising. She did 2 RCCI cruises last year. To compare she loved the room, and felt it was bigger than the balcony we experienced on Allure of the Seas. Neil was equally please but he views MSC as gods so its hard for him to find fault anywhere. lol

 

 

We then went to view our room. Deck 12, Port side in Balcony Room 12029. Again we were both very pleased with he space. Although i didn't really see the difference in size between ours and Amy’s room, (We were in a Aurea room) but that wasn't an issue. Size was more than adequate enough. As we were Aurea, our bags had arrived at this point.

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This is an awesome review so far! Thanks so much! :) We have a Fantastica balcony booked for DEC this year, but are thinking about upgrading to Aurea....did you feel the price difference was worth it? :)

[Crzyfrk62]

Following your review.... I can't wait to return to the Divina.

Thanks for taking the time to do this.. .

[ocbaylady]

Great review and pictures, can't wait for more! is there any possibility that you could let me know if iced tea, lemonade, water, etc. are available free in that buffet or elsewhere all day? What free drinks are available with dinner in main dining room. We will be traveling with 3 teens this summer and trying to figure out drink packages as well. Ist time on MSC so any info would be great.

 

Deb

[shelpt]

Following and thanks so much!