August 16, 2024

3 Things We Loved and 3 Things We Didn't Love on our MSC Divina Cruise

With any cruise, there will always be things you loved about it and things you didn’t. Today, we share with you 3 Things We Loved and 3 Things We Didn’t Love on our 3 night cruise with MSC Divina.

Loved:

1. Buffet Food

The Buffet Food was very good. There was always a great selection everyday. Their pizza is probably the best pizza on any cruise line and is a must try. They have a wide selection of desserts and fruits. A huge bonus: they use actual Nutella for dishes with hazelnut spread and not cheap alternatives.

2. Shows

The Divina offers entertaining traditional shows. Don’t expect Broadway shows here, but expect to be entertained. Their shows were fun with solid talent. They are music and dance based which made it easy for anyone to enjoy.

3. Affordability

MSC offers some of the more affordable cruise trips in the industry. We paid only $265 USD per person for our 3 night interior guaranteed room. That's less than a hundred dollars per person per night. Compare that to some other cruise lines where we have seen it be at least triple the price; this cruise price is a steal.

Did Not Love:

1. Main Dining Room

The main dining room was well decorated and had a nice vibe with good service. Unfortunately, we did not enjoy their food. The quality of the food was not on par with some other main dining rooms on other cruise lines we have been on. We also did not enjoy having to dine with others, especially when our desire on this vacation was to relax and just spend quality time with each other.

2. Customer Service at Front Desk

Customer service was not great on this cruise line. We felt the front desk staff were not the friendliest and dismissive. We had a situation about having a strong paint smell in our balcony room only to be told that it will ‘pass’ by the front desk. The boarding and disembarkation was also slow, a bit messy, and the terminal was not in the best shape.

3. Old Ship and Old App/Technology

The MSC Divina is over 12 years old. Yes, we could see there were some attempts to maintain and refresh the ship, but visually you can see it is older. This can be seen in the bathrooms, the carpet, and the rusted and weathered exterior. The MSC app also feels outdated and is in need of an upgrade.

Bonus Note!

One bonus note: as BIPOC travelers, we noticed the diversity of passengers on this trip was the most we’ve seen compared to other trips on different cruise lines. You could hear so many different languages being spoken and it feels very multicultural. While this also means there may be groups with different cultural norms in terms of lining up, smoking or personal space, we found it interesting.

With all things factored, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses to us, this was still a great cruise line and definitely one we would go on again. Have you been on an MSC cruise? Share with us what you thought about it. Safe travels and thanks for reading!

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