Tell me about the Divina, been 5 years since I sailed her!

[ready2cruzagain]

Planning our next cruise, MSC Divina for 18 days in the Caribbean. We were on the Divina in 2017 for 32 days and fell in love with her but it has been so long ago I am sure so many things have changed.  For example, we used to love going to the Sports Bar for wings and beer. Back then the food was free but I see now there is an upcharge for food. What has changed in the last 5 years???  

 

One of my questions is does the Divina have the new menus? We were just on the Meraviglia and loved the new menus. Always something on the menu we loved.

 

Divina is our overall favorite ship except for the Spa (wish it was like the Seaside Spa). Can't wait to sail her again!

Edited February 9, 2023 by ready2cruzagain

[styles27]

Despite our crazy cruise last month Divina is our favorite ship as well. 
All of the menus are in the live review I did. 
In 2021 there was an up charge for items on the left side of the menu, like for example the NY strip was $9.99 but now it is all free. 
The only food that has an up charge is on the back of the men… filets and lobster tails for $19.99 each.  
 

We enjoyed every meal in the MDR.

I recommend asking for Generose in Black Crab if you’re not cruising in the YC.
We had a table for 2 #544 in her section and she made our dining experience so much better.

She came over from 13 yrs on Celebrity because her husband is also on the ship, so you know she was trained well and service is her specialty. She wanted everything to be perfect for us We loved her!
 

We did not see food or anyone eating in the Sports bar and we spent a few evenings in there watching football. 
 

Divina is a great ship, however it is not built for the 3800+ pax we had the first 10 days. There are not enough loungers on deck and it was crazy trying to find a place to sit. 
We enjoyed her so much more in Europe when there was around 2000 pax and in 2021 when there were only 490 pax. 

I think if you avoid holiday sailings and times when children are out of school it won’t be as packed. But who knows people are reporting 3500 pax as recent as last week. Maybe that’s the new norm for Divina 

Here is one menu from our cruise last month 

Edited February 9, 2023 by styles27

[JT1962]

31 minutes ago, ready2cruzagain said:

Planning our next cruise, MSC Divina for 18 days in the Caribbean. We were on the Divina in 2017 for 32 days and fell in love with her but it has been so long ago I am sure so many things have changed.  For example, we used to love going to the Sports Bar for wings and beer. Back then the food was free but I see now there is an upcharge for food. What has changed in the last 5 years???  

 

One of my questions is does the Divina have the new menus? We were just on the Meraviglia and loved the new menus. Always something on the menu we loved.

 

Divina is our overall favorite ship except for the Spa (wish it was like the Seaside Spa). Can't wait to sail her again!

I was just on the Divina for seven days two weeks ago and for 19 days in October and loved it. Still in great shape, perfect size, lots of entertainment options in the evenings, etc. 

 

There is a charge in the sports bar for food ( $ 5-6 for wings, I think), but people said they were great. I assume we had the new menus, since they were different than Meraviglia last January. New items included chicken & waffles, meatloaf, pulled pork Mac & Cheese, etc. They also had classic items listed each night at no charge - shrimp cocktail, N Y Strip Steak, etc. Some of these had a charge on Meraviglia in Jan 2022.

[ready2cruzagain]

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

Despite our crazy cruise last month Divina is our favorite ship as well. 
All of the menus are in the live review I did. 
In 2021 there was an up charge for items on the left side of the menu, like for example the NY strip was $9.99 but now it is all free. 
The only food that has an up charge is on the back of the men… filets and lobster tails for $19.99 each.  
 

We enjoyed every meal in the MDR.

I recommend asking for Generose in Black Crab if you’re not cruising in the YC.
We had a table for 2 #544 in her section and she made our dining experience so much better.

She came over from 13 yrs on Celebrity because her husband is also on the ship, so you know she was trained well and service is her specialty. She wanted everything to be perfect for us We loved her!
 

We did not see food or anyone eating in the Sports bar and we spent a few evenings in there watching football. 
 

Divina is a great ship, however it is not built for the 3800+ pax we had the first 10 days. There are not enough loungers on deck and it was crazy trying to find a place to sit. 
We enjoyed her so much more in Europe when there was around 2000 pax and in 2021 when there were only 490 pax. 

I think if you avoid holiday sailings and times when children are out of school it won’t be as packed. But who knows people are reporting 3500 pax as recent as last week. Maybe that’s the new norm for Divina 

Here is one menu from our cruise last month 

 

Thank you! I will have to check out your review! Great to see those are the same menus we had on the Meraviglia last week. Not too worried about the crowd since it was at full capacity last time we sailed her. We sailed from Thanksgiving to Christmas and there were a ton of kids. Yes, it was very crowded. Best crew I have ever met was on the Divina.  We loved the layout though.

[ready2cruzagain]

1 hour ago, JT1962 said:

I was just on the Divina for seven days two weeks ago and for 19 days in October and loved it. Still in great shape, perfect size, lots of entertainment options in the evenings, etc. 

 

There is a charge in the sports bar for food ( $ 5-6 for wings, I think), but people said they were great. I assume we had the new menus, since they were different than Meraviglia last January. New items included chicken & waffles, meatloaf, pulled pork Mac & Cheese, etc. They also had classic items listed each night at no charge - shrimp cocktail, N Y Strip Steak, etc. Some of these had a charge on Meraviglia in Jan 2022.

 

Yes, looks like the new menus. They are so much better than the ones we had on the Seashore last year.  Loved the Lobster on Gala night. What a surprise. Ours was between 7 and 8 ounces which is quite large for a cruise.

 

So disappointing that the Sports Bar is a charge for venue now. Was hoping that was one thing they kept free like O'Sheehans on NCL. Oh well, times change. 

 

Glad to hear the ship is still in great shape

[styles27]

1 hour ago, ready2cruzagain said:

 

Thank you! I will have to check out your review! Great to see those are the same menus we had on the Meraviglia last week. Not too worried about the crowd since it was at full capacity last time we sailed her. We sailed from Thanksgiving to Christmas and there were a ton of kids. Yes, it was very crowded. Best crew I have ever met was on the Divina.  We loved the layout though.

Oh good! So you’ll know what to expect!

 

Agree about the crew. Our room attendant was so great and very friendly which we hadn’t experienced on a cruise in a while.   CD was just meh…nice guy but never really saw him except when he introduced the theater shows so we didn’t have any interactions with him. 
 

The reason we love Divina is even though it’s a huge ship at just shy of 140,000 tons, it still “looks” like a ship and it’s layout is similar to many ships we’ve cruised on other lines. 

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by styles27

[Markanddonna]

You might want to look at the most recent reviews of the Divina. We just got off. It used to be a wonderful ship, four to five years ago.

[svmodi]

It's been more than 8 years since we last sailed on the Divina. We just booked a 11 night cruise on the Divina for this December during Christmas. Just had some questions:

* Do they do anything special for Christmas (Christmas themed games/trivia, etc)?

* Are there themed nights like white or flower power?

* Do they have different shows each evening in the main theater?

Edited February 14, 2023 by svmodi

[styles27]

9 minutes ago, svmodi said:

It's been more than 8 years since we last sailed on the Divina. We just booked a 11 night cruise on the Divina for this December during Christmas. Just had some questions:

* Do they do anything special for Christmas (Christmas themed games/trivia, etc)?

* Are there themed nights like white or flower power?

* Do they have different shows each evening in the main theater?

Are you staying on for New Years?

If so be warned it is crazy busy.

 

We did that cruise this year and swore never again will we book during the holiday season. 

 

The poor crew was exhausted. The ship was sold out for Christmas and New Years sailings and Divina just cannot handle 3800-4000 passengers. There aren’t enough lounge chairs on deck, the buffet was constantly out of silverware and clean tables. Just not a good experience. 
If you can, upgrade to the YC at least you’ll be in your own secluded area of the ship. 
 

[svmodi]

On 2/13/2023 at 7:20 PM, styles27 said:

Are you staying on for New Years?

If so be warned it is crazy busy.

 

We did that cruise this year and swore never again will we book during the holiday season. 

 

The poor crew was exhausted. The ship was sold out for Christmas and New Years sailings and Divina just cannot handle 3800-4000 passengers. There aren’t enough lounge chairs on deck, the buffet was constantly out of silverware and clean tables. Just not a good experience. 
If you can, upgrade to the YC at least you’ll be in your own secluded area of the ship. 
 

Our cruise is from 12/17-12/28 so we will be back home for New Years. But I
 am sure it will still be busy because of Christmas. Last year we did a Christmas cruise on RCCL which we enjoyed so we are prepared for the craziness.

[styles27]

1 hour ago, svmodi said:

Our cruise is from 12/17-12/28 so we will be back home for New Years. But I
 am sure it will still be busy because of Christmas. Last year we did a Christmas cruise on RCCL which we enjoyed so we are prepared for the craziness.

I think you’ll be okay. Our server in the dining room told us that even though the ship was pretty full over Christmas, it was a good group of pax. 

It seems the group we cruised with got on for the New Year’e Eve festivities.
We will avoid that week in the future.