Live from MSC Divina 12/30-01/13

[styles27]

Happy New Year! The ship was partying last night that’s for sure! 
Happy to report that we saw only a handful of passengers not in their “elegant night” attire. 
Many many beautiful ladies in gowns/sequin cocktail dresses and a lot of handsome men in tuxedos and suits!

It reminded us of cruises 40 yrs ago!

Our table in the MDR is now near the entrance of the room.  They had a sign out front stating the dress code.
We saw about 10 parties being turned away because they had on shorts and flip flops. 
One large group was told they couldn’t enter so they sent in a lady with a dress on and I guess she caused a scene because the MDR manager came over and told the young lady at the door to let the rest of her party in. 
That was the only instance where the people in shorts and beach wear won. All others left when they were told they couldn’t wear shorts. Not exactly a big ask🙄

Anyway there’s always a small percentage that likes to break the rules and honestly I would have felt left out in shorts considering how many of us were dressed up!

 

We have the best server in the MDR now. Her name is Jenna Rose and she is so personable. Can’t wait to get to know her better. She came over to MSC two months ago from Celebrity.

Sorry about the menu pic!

Today is a sea day! Very warm outside which is great!

[styles27]

We had the bacon wrapped filet and grilled shrimp. Also we asked for a large plate of vegetables to share.
We always feel the vegetable portion that comes with the entree is very skimpy. I’d rather eat more veggies and less meat and Jenna Rose took care of us last night for sure!

 

Here’s a couple of pics of the champagne given out on deck 14 

[styles27]

Today’s daily program

 

 

[tkwbear]

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

Today’s daily program

 

 

Did you stay late enough at Ocean Cay for the light show? I can understand why they wouldn't want to stay too late there as partiers would be hard to track down. It appears that overnight stays there are becoming less common, which is a shame. I love it there.

 

Happy New Year!

[styles27]

2 hours ago, tkwbear said:

Did you stay late enough at Ocean Cay for the light show? I can understand why they wouldn't want to stay too late there as partiers would be hard to track down. It appears that overnight stays there are becoming less common, which is a shame. I love it there.

 

Happy New Year!

Thank you Happy New Year to you as well! 
Yes they did the lighthouse show before we left OC at around 6pm. 
We also have an overnight in OC on the second part  of our 14 day cruise. We’re looking forward to that. 
This is our itinerary. 

[tkwbear]

8 minutes ago, styles27 said:

Thank you Happy New Year to you as well! 
Yes they did the lighthouse show before we left OC at around 6pm. 
We also have an overnight in OC on the second part  of our 14 day cruise. We’re looking forward to that. 
This is our itinerary. 

This looks great! Does it go through the canal?

 

My 4 day trip was right after a similar itinerary. Customs took over the ship when it returned to Miami, supposedly because of the stop in Columbia. I am not sure how it affected the disembarking passengers, but the back to back passengers didn't get off until 2pm (it's usually around 9-10am). I didn't get called until 3:30, then spent an hour standing in the uncooled and thus very hot boarding walkways. There was no public address system in the cruise terminal so some poor girl had to shout updates. The terminal was not set up to hold that many passenger so it was a mess, especially the bathrooms. I recognize that was not MSC's fault, but it wasn't a good beginning.

[styles27]

3 hours ago, tkwbear said:

This looks great! Does it go through the canal?

 

My 4 day trip was right after a similar itinerary. Customs took over the ship when it returned to Miami, supposedly because of the stop in Columbia. I am not sure how it affected the disembarking passengers, but the back to back passengers didn't get off until 2pm (it's usually around 9-10am). I didn't get called until 3:30, then spent an hour standing in the uncooled and thus very hot boarding walkways. There was no public address system in the cruise terminal so some poor girl had to shout updates. The terminal was not set up to hold that many passenger so it was a mess, especially the bathrooms. I recognize that was not MSC's fault, but it wasn't a good beginning.

Wow that must have been awful. Hoping that won’t happen again as our 14 day is a 10 day and a 4 day so we need to clear the ship as well. 
It does not go through the canal. They offer an excursion but it’s 7 or 8 hrs long and Panama isn’t the safest port so we decided to cancel the excursion. 
 

Here is tonight’s dinner menu. It was another gala night. 
We had the surf and turf. It was excellent and cold water lobster not Caribbean lobster. We’re from New England so of course we love Maine lobster. 
 

Here’s the menu

[styles27]

My last thought for the day. You know you’re getting old when the Captain looks as young as

your children 

 

Captain Christopher Pugh

[tkwbear]

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

Wow that must have been awful. Hoping that won’t happen again as our 14 day is a 10 day and a 4 day so we need to clear the ship as well. 
It does not go through the canal. They offer an excursion but it’s 7 or 8 hrs long and Panama isn’t the safest port so we decided to cancel the excursion. 
 

Here is tonight’s dinner menu. It was another gala night. 
We had the surf and turf. It was excellent and cold water lobster not Caribbean lobster. We’re from New England so of course we love Maine lobster. 
 

Here’s the menu

Hopefully the customs incident will be the exception not the rule. The dinner menus look great, I am glad things are going well!

[styles27]

Hi we’re in Jamaica today. The weather Gods are blessing us with fantastic sunshine so far on this cruise! 85 today in Jamaica!

 

We’re at Puerto Seco Beach Club which is very nice. Next we’re going to Konoko falls!

 

Here’s today’s Daily program and a couple of pics from the beach club 

[styles27]

Unfortunately MSC didn’t get the best location at the dock. Norwegian Breakaway beat us to it!

[morpheusofthesea]

Sorry. reading your great review and posted what was happening on my cruise by accident. 

Edited January 2, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[styles27]

3 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Sorry. reading your great review and posted what was happening on my cruise by accident. 

No worries at all! Happy New Year!

[styles27]

Tonight’s dinner menu. Caribbean night!  I ordered the salmon from the left side of the menu  It was really good. 

We haven’t had service like this in the MDR ever of any cruise we’ve been on.

 It’s very clear that Generose (correct spelling) learned from the best. Celebrity lost a great server and MSC is very lucky to have her. She’s knocking it out of the park and making our cruise so much more special!  We have made a point of telling her manager and the MDR manager what a great asset she is. 

[tkwbear]

I'll ask for her if she's still on in May!

 

I didn't get off the ship when I was in Jamaica. Did you go on your own or was it an MSC shore excursion.

[styles27]

15 hours ago, tkwbear said:

I'll ask for her if she's still on in May!

 

I didn't get off the ship when I was in Jamaica. Did you go on your own or was it an MSC shore excursion.

We did the beach and Konoko Falls excursion. If we had to do it over again we would just pick the excursion that stays at the beach the whole time. It was really nice there and the included lunch buffet was great Jamaican food. 

Last night in the Pantheon they had a comedic/magician.  
We felt sorry for the poor guy as most of the audience didn’t understand him since most people on board speak very little if any English.
We enjoyed the show. It’s clear that MSC is trying to bring on some different talent but if most of the passengers don’t speak or understand English I’m afraid it won’t work. 

Today’s Daily-

[Db85]

Is there any chance you can take photos of the Italian Specialty Menu and Steakhouse Menu?

 

Thank you in advance and hope you are having a wonderful time

 

🙂

[styles27]

4 hours ago, Db85 said:

Is there any chance you can take photos of the Italian Specialty Menu and Steakhouse Menu?

 

Thank you in advance and hope you are having a wonderful time

 

🙂

Sure. Will do.
Also is it the  Italian night menu you’d like?

[Db85]

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

Sure. Will do.
Also is it the  Italian night menu you’d like?

Hi 👋 

 

Thank you! For the Italian I think there’s a specialty restaurant onboard? That’s what I was looking for. 
 

We loved MSC before the pandemic but haven’t been back. Was thinking to do a weekend cruise again and move away from Virgin. 

[styles27]

11 hours ago, Db85 said:

Hi 👋 

 

Thank you! For the Italian I think there’s a specialty restaurant onboard? That’s what I was looking for. 
 

We loved MSC before the pandemic but haven’t been back. Was thinking to do a weekend cruise again and move away from Virgin. 

The only Italian (cantina) restaurant on board that we know of sells pizza 

Its right outside Butcher’s Cut

[styles27]

Good morning from Cartagena!

Sorry I haven’t posted as frequently as I’d like to but for some reason CC doesn’t always load. 
It’s the only website that I’m having trouble with. I can post to other social media sites while on board so it’s very strange!

Here are yesterday’s menus 

[styles27]

Never saw this ship that is docking next to us.

[styles27]

Today’s daily and a sample of the breakfast room service menu. We’ve been ordering every day because the buffet is crazy busy!

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by styles27

[quattrohead]

Oh man you are making me jealous.

We enjoyed our little Meraviglia cruise as far as we could but decided that Divina is our favorite ship, maybe because we are so familiar with it after 3 cruises. Well except the wonderful Cuba cruise we had on Armonia.

Do you remember Jason from South Africa from our last Divina cruise ? Well he is on Meraviglia now and after the 2nd night I remembered him. Had a nice chat, super nice guy.

[mnpurple]

Do you have an excursion planned for Cartagena? I haven't quite decided what to do when there. I read where a couple hired a taxi for a few hours and am considering that route for a tour/lunch.