Fresh off eight days onboard Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, I’m back on the water again. This time I’m sailing on MSC Cruise Line’s Divina for a seven-day eastern Caribbean cruise out of PortMiami.
MSC Cruise Line is a subsidiary of the cargo shipping giant, MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), and is primarily based in… you guessed it, the Mediterranean! The Divina is a two-year-old ship and the only MSC ship ported seasonally here in the United States.
Named after, Sofia Loren, the Divina is as beautiful as the actress herself. While there is plenty of shiny metal and glass, the décor creeps up to the boundary line that makes it too Vegas-like but doesn’t cross it. Don’t get me wrong, there’s glitz, but it’s not over the top.
I left my house around 11am and arrived at PortMiami an hour later. After handing off my luggage to the porters, I headed into the terminal where agents were passing out the obligatory health questionnaire. In addition to the usual gastro questions, where a checkmark in the “yes” column quickly gets you a cab ride home, the form also asked if you were in an area known to have Ebola.
Funny thing… I haven’t heard much about Ebola lately, have you?
Once the form was filled out, I got in line for the check-in counter where my passport was verified, a credit card was handed over and the only free picture you’ll get during a cruise was taken by a customer service agent. With everything in order, I was given my Cruise Card and a numbered boarding card. Boarding is done in groups, with numbers being called to one of two escalators. It didn’t take long for my number to be called, and the total time from curb to ship was around 15 minutes.
Not bad at all.
For those passengers traveling in Divina’s ship-within-a-ship Yacht Club accommodations, there was a dedicated waiting area as well as a check-in area.
Once onboard, the ship’s staff was stationed everywhere directing people to the Calumet & Manitou Buffet on Deck 14 (one buffet, a different name on port and starboard). Staterooms were not available until 3pm and the crew was enforcing the fact that you could not go to your cabin by being strategically placed at elevators and stairways preventing you from going to the stateroom decks.
I’ve never been on a ship where rooms were not ready until 3pm. 11am has been the earliest and 1pm was the latest. For those that were lugging around carry-on bags, a drop-off was set up at Guest Services which was a nice touch. After all, you don’t want to have a suitcase full of Victoria’s secrets limiting your ability to balance a plate overflowing with Serrano ham from the buffet.
Following everyone else, I headed up to the buffet, where I encountered one of the largest and most diverse offerings on a ship. Just when I thought I hit the end of the line, a peek around the corner revealed yet another group of stations doling out everything from the aforementioned Serrano ham, Prosciutto, salumi, and imported Italian cheeses to freshly carved roast beef, ribs, chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs and a separate buffet line just for kids.
While I was eating, a member of the bar staff came up to me offering the various drink packages being sold onboard. Here’s where things get confusing. Usually, a ship offers two, or maybe three drink packages. On the Divina, there was one wine bottle package, five different packages that gave you coupons that you turned in for each drink, and three unlimited packages each with an adults and child option. In order to find the best deal for your drinking needs, you need to study what each offers.
Here’s where I screwed up with the drink package I bought. Turns out that when you purchase an unlimited package, it doesn’t kick in until the second day of the cruise! So on Day 1, you’re paying for each one of your drinks. I should have bought one of the coupon packages for Day 1 in order to save some green. Later on, I was told that if you purchased your unlimited beverage package online before the start of the cruise, it would be available for you on Day 1.
Usually, when you buy a drink package, a sticker or some identifying mark is placed on your Cruise Card to alert staff. On MSC Divina, you need to go to Guest Services on Day 2 and have another Cruise Card issued which has a code printed on it. This was my first stop this morning and I stood in line for 30 minutes which was quite annoying. There has to be a better way to do this!
After a quick lunch, I started exploring the ship, which is pretty big. Divina holds around 3,500 passengers and 1,350 crew. The 1,093-foot-long vessel is under the command of Captain Giuseppe Galano who hails from where else? Italy! Hey, Pisano!
Not wanting to lug around my laptop bag anymore, I found a spot at the Disaronno Contemporary Terrace Garden Bar located on the top, aft of the ship with the infinity pool as the backdrop. Now, any bar that serves Disaronno has a special place in my heart, but one that bears the liquid love’s name is something to behold!
From there I headed down to another one of Divina’s pools in the center of the ship which is flanked by two bars and a giant screen TV which was added after the ship was built to please American passengers.
Right on time at 3pm, the announcement was made that all staterooms were ready. I headed down to Deck 12 midship to see what type of accommodations were waiting for me. Inside balcony stateroom 12116 was a king-size bed, a couch, a small desk, an even smaller television, and a balcony with two chairs and an ottoman.
My only complaint about the room was the television. While I don’t usually watch TV on a ship since channels are usually just news and sports, those who do enjoy TV before bed will find it hard to watch. The 17” screen is bad enough, but the TV itself is tucked all the way over to the right of the bed at the balcony doors making it hard to see from the bed.
The bathroom is your typical cruise ship bathroom. This one had a single sink, toilet, and shower. Here’s where things get interesting. The bathroom is a tad small, so when you’re sitting on the throne, your leg hits the door to the shower. To avoid that from happening, the glass doors on the shower fold inward.
No complaints about the shower. Two ships in a row with no shower complaints, I may be on a roll here! The pressure was great and the water was hot. In fact, if turned all the way to the highest hot position, you will burn yourself. With the way the shower doors are set up, when you take a shower, they don’t form a solid seal down the middle so water flows through them and onto the floor.
A couple of things about the bathroom. First, is the presence of an ashtray. Being this is a European ship, smoking is allowed in most areas when it’s overseas. Not so much here in the United States where even the Casino is smoke-free – a bone of contention among many onboard. While you can’t smoke in your stateroom or on your balcony, the ashtray remains.
The second is a toilet brush. The brush became a topic of conversation on my Quantum of the Seas cruise where they were also in the bathrooms. Some people called them “disgusting” and weren’t pleased with them being in their bathroom, while others simply didn’t care. Personally, I find the toilet brush to be a welcome addition to the bathroom considering that the vacuum toilets on ships really don’t do a good job of giving you a fresh bowl on the first flush. So having the porcelain god’s toothbrush nearby is a good thing… especially if you came running back to your room after enjoying the curry on the buffet.
Now, we all know we Italians love wine, beer, and rosary beads. Overseas I guess they love beer so much that it was necessary to install bottle openers in the bathroom. Congratulations Divina, you are the first ship I’ve been on with a bottle opener in the head!
As I was checking out what other interesting things lie within my sleeping quarters, my luggage arrived. I started unpacking only to realize I was out of closet space. The room has a small closet with two doors and a third closet with one door that contains the safe and about a half-dozen drawers. I did my best so squeeze everything in, but for those traveling as a couple, I’m sure they will have a hard time with closet space. My suitcases did fit under the bed.
As the afternoon went on, I started to realize something was different about Divina. She’s not an Americanized ship, she’s definitely European. Announcements are made in English as well as five other languages, signage throughout the ship is in multiple languages, some signs denoting a dollar amount are listed in Euros, Gelato is made fresh onboard daily, a Nutella stand is at the bar where you can have Nutella crepes made for $3.90, and pizza is sold by the meter!
At 5pm, one of the cruise directors came on the public address system announcing the start of the mandatory muster drill. Again, the announcement was made in English and five other languages. After experiencing a disorganized muster on Quantum of the Seas, I was hoping for something a little more civilized on Divina.
I was mistaken.
First, all passengers were required to bring their life jackets to the muster drill. Most cruise lines stopped doing this a while ago, so I started to make my way down the hall to the stairs when a crew member told me to return to my room and get my life jacket. Once at my assigned muster station, people talked – loudly – and did not pay attention to any of the announcements which instructed us on how to put on the life vest. The crew did not try to quiet the crowd, but they did go around and assist people with vest installation.
Basically, this muster drill was a lesson in how to don a life jacket and nothing more. In fact, ships photographers were going around taking pictures of people wearing the fluorescent orange fashion statement.
Before the sinking of the Costa Concordia, it was common to be able to skip out on attending muster drills. Since then, you’re required to check in at your station where you’re ticked off the list and if you don’t arrive, you’re tracked down and brought to your station. Shortly after the sinking, muster drills were taken more seriously by everyone and they were somber reminders that ships do indeed sink. Over time, as memories fade, musters began to turn into clusters once again, and sadly this is something I’ve seen on my past two cruises.
The safety of life at sea is something everyone needs to take seriously. Just this week alone, two cruise ships had engine fires. The Oceania Insignia had an engine catch fire while it was docked in port, luckily it was not out at sea at the time. Unfortunately, three people were killed in the fire. The Costa Luminosa also suffered an engine room fire on the same day as the Oceania incident. Take muster drills seriously folks, you never know when an incident is going to occur or when you’re going to need to muster!
After the drill, I did more exploring of Divina and her public areas. Again, the décor is flashy yet classy. Almost everywhere you can see the European influence on design, from artwork to finishings. In some areas, you see a lot of glitz, and in some areas you see none.
Not wanting to eat in the main dining room at a table with 9 other strangers, I made my way down to one of the ship’s two main dining rooms (Black Crab and Villa Rossa) to inquire about reservations in Divina’s specialty restaurants.
There were several people in line wanting to change from early to late seating, and vice versa. On Divina, there are two set times for dining, a staple of cruising, and something missing on Quantum of the Seas which made for many unhappy passengers. It was here I learned that the ship was sailing at full occupancy and those wanting to make a change were unable to. Unfortunately, there is no open seating on Divina, you either have early or late, unless you’re in the ship’s Yacht Club accommodations and take advantage of Le Muse, an open-seating restaurant available exclusively to those passengers, or you booked the Aurea experience package along with your stateroom at an additional charge. The Aurea experience package allows those who paid to take advantage of a section of the ship’s Black Crab restaurant which is set aside as an open-seating venue.
When it was my turn, I handed over my Cruise Card and one of the two restaurant staff members looked up my account I was taken aside and sat down at a table where the crew member introduced himself. I then explained that I wanted to experience all the different dining options on board, including the main dining room one night, if I could get a table for one. He said he would set me up in Eataly Steakhouse the first night, the Galaxy restaurant (billed as Mediterranean-fusion) the second, and Restaurant Italiano the third. He said he would get with me later in the week with other options.
As I enjoyed a few dirty martini’s at the pool bar, the Divina began to pull out of PortMiami for two days at sea as we head towards our first port-of-call, Saint Maarten. Time flew by and the martinis went down easy. It was then I realized that I missed the evening’s show in the Pantheon Theatre and it was a show I wanted to see – a Frank Sinatra tribute called “Frank Forever, My Way.”
Oh well. Time for another dirty.
As the last olive was chewed, it was time to get ready for dinner in Eataly Steakhouse.
When I arrived at the restaurant, I was a little taken aback by the décor. Since it’s the ship’s steakhouse, I was expecting wood, crisp white linen, and your typical steakhouse feel. Not here. This is one of those design issues I mentioned earlier when I said some places you see the glitz, others you don’t.
Eataly was bare bones. Butcher block top tables, acrylic chairs, bright lights, paper napkins, more Italian than a steakhouse. I was also the only one in the restaurant. I asked my server whether it was a popular spot or not and he said they usually do about 30 covers a night.
Eataly is an a la carte restaurant where appetizers to desserts all have a price tag. This may be a reason why the restaurant is not a popular place. Steakhouses on other lines are usually $25 – $35 a head inclusive of everything you eat and are normally booked full each night, not so much here.
Upon sitting, I was brought over a bag of different kinds of bread served with Italian olive oil and balsamic vinegar. For an appetizer, my server suggested the Parma vs San Daniele – a plate of two types of famous Italian Prosciutto ($12) – which was delicious and more than one person could possibly eat, but I made quick work of it.
Next up was the pasta course. I chose the Afeltra Gragnano Spaghettone ($8.50) a rustic, very tasty, large portion of spaghetti with tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil. This was enough for a meal.
For my main course, I chose the 8.5oz Angus Beef Tenderloin ($25) served rare. It was perfectly grilled and lightly seasoned. A good choice. For the ultimate steak lover, they offer a $60, 35oz Porterhouse for two.
Not wanting to leave without dessert, my server recommended the gelato and fresh strawberries. Well, let’s just say you can’t go wrong with that!
After a few walks around the almost-a-wrap-around-promenade deck to burn off the calories and I headed down to the ship’s Cigar Bar where I enjoyed a Fuente and a few Disaronnos before calling it a night. It was here where I met a few ladies from Mexico who were on their first cruise, a man from Scottsdale, AZ who kept telling me over and over how “successful” he was in business and bought me drink after drink, in the hopes I’d work my magic and get him hooked up with the two ladies from Mexico.
I’m good, but not that good.
Thanks for the drinks.
At about 1am I called it a night, made my way to my stateroom on Deck 12, and discovered that there were only two power outlets, not enough to charge my devices. Advice on this one? Bring a power strip next time.
Today we are at sea, and it’s a bit cool and breezy, but still enjoyable.
The ship is crowded and you can tell you’re one of 3,500 onboard. All the pool areas are packed as was the buffet this morning for breakfast. Oh, these holidaymakers!
In tomorrow’s update, I’ll talk about my fellow passengers, why there are so many kids on board, and the high price of keeping connected at sea.
Until then, Ciao Bambina!
Personal Day-By-Day MSC Divina Cruise Review:
Photo Tour of the MSC Divina:
Photography is a key aspect of preserving vacation memories, and my recent voyage aboard the MSC Divina was no exception. From the ship’s striking interior design and inviting swimming pools to my own cozy cabin, I captured numerous photos that showcase the highlights of my journey. If you’d like to take a look at my snapshots, feel free to check out the MSC Divina Photo Tour or browse the daily cruise review by clicking on the links provided above.