It’s a cloudy, dreary day outside as the MSC Divina is sailing along the coast of the Bahamas en route to our alternate port-of-call today, Nassau. You will recall that the other night, the ship had to return to San Juan, Puerto Rico to medically disembark an ill passenger. The return resulted in a several-hour delay which would not allow us to make our scheduled call in Great Stirrup Cay. So instead, it was announced that we would be making a brief stop in Nassau – 2pm arrival, all aboard at 5:30pm. Just enough time for those who want to go feel terra-firma to do so before the final run to Miami.
Based on the weather outside this morning, it wouldn’t have been a very good beach day anyway, and based on the number of people in the buffet at 11am ET – it’s a better day to eat than it is to lay out at the pool!
Yesterday, Day 6, saw us at sea. It was a simply glorious day outside with smooth seas, a warm (aka hot) sun, and for a change, a mild breeze. It was the perfect day to lay outside and soak up the sun without worrying about whether or not you were getting windburned or sunburned!
Now when I’m on vacation, I’m one of these people who doesn’t worry about getting up at a certain time. I’m simply not going to be the one trying to figure out how to set the automated wake-up call thing on the phone. I’m going to get up either when my bladder tells me it’s time to get up or I just can’t stand to lay in bed any longer. In other words, don’t expect me up and about until well after 10am.
My neighbors in 11165, the connecting room that connects us by a 1″ thick piece of man-made, fireproof, SOLAS-approved material door, decided that 6:15am would be the ideal time to crank up salsa music. These are the same folks who decided to do a closet inspection at 4am the other morning and slammed all six drawers and three closet doors for no apparent reason. The music lasted until exactly 6:30am when they left their room, presumably wide awake and ready to take on the day.
I was not amused.
I’m still considering downloading “Slayer’s Greatest Hits” and returning their random acts of kindness in the wee hours of the morning before we disembark.
I mentioned the other day that cruise ship cabins are not the most soundproof places. In other words, you hear everything! In the case of a connecting stateroom, that thin door makes it much easier for sound to travel back and forth because there’s an opening around the entire door frame. So a word of advice fellow cruisers, for those of you who like to do your best Fred Sanford imitation (I’m coming Elizabeth!) before bed, do it quietly!
Now, I had one thing to do today… one thing! Head to the Pantheon Theatre at 3pm to see the opera. Well, guess what? I got so caught up laying out on my balcony that I fell asleep in the sun, covered in Hawaiian Tropic, I totally lost track of time and my mind and missed the show. Unfortunately, this was the one and only time during the cruise that this show was being offered and it was not being repeated in prime time.
Since I missed the opera, I went for pizza. Yeah, the pizza ovens up on Deck 15 were calling my name and with the pizza being so incredible on the MSC Divina, I wasn’t going to let their beckoning go unanswered. At 4pm in the afternoon, the line for pizza was deep. People were scooping up slices faster than the pizza bakers could keep the pies coming out. White with onion, pepperoni, olives, spicy ham, and capicola, several different varieties were being served and at one point, one of the bakers had to break up a fight and begged people for patience as they could only make so much pizza at one time.
I guess you can say the pizza is so great on Divina that people fight over it!
Back in my stateroom a sure sign that the cruise was coming to an end was waiting for me on my bed. No, not Svetlana the masseuse from the Spa, but luggage tags and a letter about disembarkation. On Divina, regardless of what time you are scheduled to get off the ship, you must vacate your stateroom by 7am and head to one of the public areas to await your scheduled disembarkation time. Luckily for me, my yellow luggage tags mean I’m scheduled to be off at 7:15am, so I won’t have to wait around the ship.
If the folks in 11165 are reading this, if you could slam some closet doors or blast some salsa music around 6:45am, that would be helpful to get me up on time.
Before I talk about the evening’s activities, some notes, and observations so far.
Internet – Internet access has been great and not that expensive. Speed is not an issue, WiFi is available throughout the ship and I’ve had no connectivity issues whatsoever.
Phone Calls – On Divina, they are offering satellite phone calls for less than $2 per minute plus a $1 connection fee. They say that this rate is a holiday promotion, but whether it is or isn’t, compared to other ships that charge upwards of $9 a minute, it’s a pretty good deal. I can only assume that demand has driven the cost of satellite communication at sea down. With the Internet connection onboard, I’ve been able to make voice calls through Google Hangouts and video calls on FaceTime without quality issues. There have been a few “poor connection” warnings during a video call, but for the most part, it’s easy to use your own device to communicate back home.
Service – I have noticed an incredible improvement in service from my last time onboard Divina. While 300 crew members have been swapped out for Divina’s return to America, some familiar faces remain. More Filipino and Indian crew members are on board and while last time many crew members did not have a firm grasp of English, that is not the case now. In fact, I ran into one crew member who last year had a terrible command of the English language. We spoke for a while the other night and said that they now have English language classes onboard for the crew on an ongoing basis.
Most common complaint from fellow passengers – Last cruise it was about the quality of the food. I haven’t heard one person raise that issue this time. However, I have heard many people grumbling that there is no comedian or comedy club on board. Many are trying to compare MSC to Royal or Carnival or Holland. One has to realize that each line offers a somewhat unique product. If they all did the same thing cruising would be, well…. boring.
Now onto the events of the evening. The show was one that I don’t recall seeing on the Divina last year. I will have to go back and look at the daily programs from last December to see if this was a performance offered back then or not. “Treasure Island” was a pirate-themed song, dance, and “Cirque” show centered around the tale of Billy Bones the pirate. Once again the elaborate costumes of the performers took the place of a set and from my best observation, both the spoken word and vocals were lip-synched. I will admit that I had a hard time understanding some of the spoken words as the dialogue was done in a heavy pirate accent. That didn’t take away from the main focus – the performers. All did an excellent job, and by recollection, this show had the most cast members on the stage at one time than the other shows so far.
(Side note: As I’m sitting here writing this, a couple is telling another couple that they removed their gratuities from their account over the missed port call in Great Stirrup Cay. Shameful and quite frankly selfish. The gratuities that are added to each passenger’s shipboard account daily are divided among the entire ship’s crew – from people you see every day, to those you don’t see working behind the scenes. The gratuity is what makes up the majority of the salary the crew members make, to pull that away from them over a missed port due to no fault of the crew or cruise line, is just unthinkable. Then to go and tell others to do the same? Ugh. I want to scream!)
After the show, I headed to the ship’s Sports Bar, the American-themed bar/restaurant that serves up burgers, hot dogs, onion rings, fries, and even fish & chips, along with beer, sports, and mini-bowling. I arrived around 8pm and it was empty except for a father and daughter who were playing a couple of games of mini bowling ($8). As 8:30pm rolled around, the bar filled up with those coming in for Thursday Night Football. As rabid football fans started to secure their seats for the big game, I headed out and up to Deck 16 to the ship’s disco. Not to dance, but to eat.
The Galaxy Disco on the Divina plays double duty. One-half has a large dance floor and serves as the ship’s nightclub. The other half is a bar and for-fee specialty restaurant. It offers panoramic views of the Aqua Park and the sea via floor-to-ceiling windows. I arrived at 8:30pm and there was no host or hostess to greet me. After standing around, I walked up to the bartender and said, “I’m here for dinner.” He pointed to the restaurant and said, “there.” I said, “should I just seat myself?” He said, “anywhere.”
As I started walking to a table, one of the servers who remembered me from my last time onboard, took over and seated me at a table along the window. Last year, there was a host/hostess who met you at the door as well as live entertainment during dinner – usually a sax player. Both were noticeably absent this time around.
I was presented with a menu, this time a paper version. Last year, the menu was a tablet PC you scrolled through. While the “method” of the menu was different, the offerings were pretty much the same. In addition to a la carte selections, there were three fixed-priced menus available at $25, $35, and $61.
Before the meal, small rolls are presented as well as a few olives stuffed with tuna (strange thing to stuff an olive with, but they were tasty).
I started out with the Duck Breast Morsels (teriyaki glazed, Stracchino cheese mousse). Three nugget-sized pieces of duck that were tender and paired well with the teriyaki glaze. As a duck fan, these were very good. $7.50.
Next up was the pasta course, and I went with a pasta that I had several times on my last cruise, mainly because it was so delicious and frankly – addicting. The Tagliolini with Lobster (handcrafted taglioni pasta, cognac flambeed lobster, bisque sauce, and tomato concasse) was cooked like all pasta has been on Divina so far – al dente. The lobster was plentiful, tender, and flavorful, but what was a rich red sauce last year is gone with the reconstruction of the dish. Overall, it was still a very good pasta dish, although I prefer the recipe from last year over this one. $9.00.
For my main course, I went with the Pistachio-crusted Rack of Lamb Saddle (sour cherry demi-glace, green peppercorn mashed potatoes). The lamb was cooked to medium temperature and had a good flavor to it, however, it was a very small rack and not very filling, so if you’re considering this dish, be sure to order a pasta course as well. $13.00.
When it came time for dessert, I chose the Vacherin Glace a la Fraise (strawberry sorbet with crunchy meringue, and chantilly cream). Needless to say…. delicious! $5.00.
Overall, the meal at Galaxy was very good. I still haven’t had one to beat out Italian Night in the main dining room, but there is one more restaurant to try and that’s Eataly Steakhouse tonight. Service in Galaxy was on point once the initial confusion about what to do at the door was cleared up. I did miss the entertainment during the meal as that is something that set Galaxy apart from the other restaurants onboard.
In addition to the steakhouse tonight, the evening show was one that was the best last year on Divina and was the one that got the best reviews from passengers – the Michael Jackson tribute show. It was standing room only last year and I expect the same tonight.
Fog is all around us as and rain has begun to fall as we continue to sail along the Bahamas coast making our way to Nassau. Not the best weather day to be out and about ashore, but I can guarantee you one thing… there won’t be a problem finding a lounge chair around the pool today!
More from the MSC Divina tomorrow, including the full cruise wrap-up, as this 7-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise comes to an end.
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.