Susan DiRanna a écrit un avis (sept. 2021)

Merritt Island, Floride105 contributions51 votes utiles

My husband just got off the MSC Divina today. We’ve watched videos and read reviews that have not been very favorable for MSC. But my husband and I take those with a grain of salt as we know many people just aren’t accustomed to sailing on European lines.

We knew that there would probably be some returning pains… embarkation was very bumpy. Between their computer systems going up and down, and no one directing passengers out of the line we happened to be in to an open agent to check us in and standing in place for over 40 minutes before I got out of line and elicited the help of a supervisor to get our line moving… it wasn’t a great way to start.

A couple days prior to our cruise we had received an email that our cabin number had been changed… which was frustrating because I picked a very specific cabin for our anniversary cruise. When I called into MSC I wasn’t given a reason about the change, but maybe it had to do with them needing to close out whole decks due to CDC conditions for restart. I confirmed yet again about the $557 credit I had because we had originally booked a family suite and had to let that go as my daughter couldn’t be vaccinated due to medical reasons. I was told that would be on our shipboard credit.

We went to the guest services desk which was full of many other guests all there for the same reasons. They cabins had been moved without explanation and they were all not happy either. We found out that our original deck had not been closed and there was still no explanation as to why our cabin was moved. It was moved to a less desirable balcony which was again, frustrating. After spending almost an hour between the line and a guest services representative - our cabin was moved to the cabin location I had picked - just a few decks up. But in doing this, we missed our first night of dining at the main dining room.

We found out this first day too that there was no formal night. We were also the ONLY couple who dressed up for 70’s night that night.

Lunch at the Buffett was served by the crew. We had cheeseburgers. We were on the ship at 130pm…. My cheeseburger was cold and the bun was completely soggy on the bottom. It was not even edible. I returned to the buffet to get a salad and some meat and cheese. The salad was COVERED in ranch dressing it was drowning. Lunch was a major disappointment.

We had also signed up that day for the premium drink package because we had such a large shipboard credit (so I was told) and we also signed up for the Chefs Table at Butchers Cut for the 18th at 8pm for our Anniversary Dinner.

The next day we arrived into the Bahamas at Nassau. It has changed a bit since last being there due to the construction they have going on at the port. All the vendor huts have moved, and has greatly reduced in size, I’m sure that was probably because of COVID. We had lunch off the ship and did a little souvenir shopping.

We returned to the ship and got ready for dinner. I was completely shocked that the staff allowed passengers into the main dining room where you are supposed to dress in a dress or pant suit for women, and pants and collared shirt for men, to come in cut off jean shorts and tank tops. It was completely off putting to be around people who dressed like they were at McDonalds.

Service at dinner was mediocre at best, and the food was terrible. I had French onion soup. The cheese was completely congealed and it was extremely salty. The Roasted chicken was over cooked and dry. The fish of the day was not cooked fully. The spinach side was overcooked and the rice pilaf was white rice. My husband had a creole pasta that was bland and chalky tasting. The other couple at our table said their food was also not good. There maybe 40 people at most dining in the main dining room at our time. There was no excuse of not having proper service.

We attended the night main show - and we spoke with many other passengers who were just as confused as we were at the show. It was so bizarre, we took that with a grain of salt because it is an Italian cruise line, but the main female singer was NOT good. We saw a trio on the Jazz lounge later who were fantastic. I suggest they think about replacing the main singer at the main show, she was so off key so many times it was ear piercing.

The next day we went to their private island. We were hoping it was going to be a fun day. We booked the shipwreck snorkeling trip and then we had planned to sit at the Sunset Beach area of the island as we brought our own snorkeling gear and were going to snorkel that area as that is designated a good area for diving and snorkeling with a reef on that part of the island. Before exiting the ship they made an announcement that since it was the private island, we would no longer need to wear our masks. Great!! But after getting on the Catamaran for the snorkeling trip we were asked as we were underway to put our masks on…. Odd… we all got on without them on, sat through a demonstration and then asked to put them on underway… we drove at slow speed about 1 mile away from the ship to the shipwreck. They then placed a buoyed rope in the water and told us that was where we could snorkel and then some staff were on Kayaks or flotation devices and keeping us corralled in a very small area for 45 snorkelers. That was a lot of people in one confined space… I was so irritated and bored, I got back onto the catamaran. The excursion was $66 a piece. Definitely not worth it.

The cruise director Jean also played up the island, the food trucks, the blue blue water, the amenities. What he failed to communicate is they had most of the island closed off. We were unable to go to the Sunset Beach part of the island. There was only one food truck open that we came across and it was a premium (not included) like all the closed food trucks we walked by. Also the closed the main area they were serving buffet style lunch at 2pm… we were walking up at 220pm to find out they were closed and there was no other place to get food on the island without paying. The bar staff hung out at the bar and were not coming out to offer drinks. We had to go up each time to get drinks. Not a problem but why have bar servers standing around? Again, poor service.

I had made a hair appointment in the Salon as we were dressing up this night for our Chefs Table anniversary dinner. The stylist did a great job and he was very personable. Thank you Kumar.

We arrived at Butchers and told them we were there for our 8pm reservation. She couldn’t find our names. But sat us. The waiter came over and told us to scan the QR code for the menu. We explained that we had purchased a dining package for dinner there that evening. There was a lot of back and forth and two different managers at our table. Apparently the gentlemen we had signed up with the day of embarkation for the Chefs Table never put in our package OR our reservation. After waiting almost 1 full hour, we finally received the first course which was the Seafood tower. The sommelier came out with our first bottle of wine - a white wine. Explained the wine, poured the wine, and came back and refilled the glass one more time. We never saw him again, and he was supposed to be there for the next bottle of wine to do the same. Our server disappeared towards the end of our meal, and we were being served by the bus person. The meal - the steaks were okay. My husbands was overcooked, just like many of the other patrons we overheard at their tables. The cream corn my husband ordered as a side was so hot, it had jalapeños in it, but it was more like the corn was soaked in jalapeños. Oh and BTW the sides were an additional $3 each… seriously? We paid $188 for that dinner not including the sides. And we LOVE spicy food, but neither of us could eat it. My Brussels sprouts were overcooked. The sauces - the bearnaise sauce was okay. The chimichurri was awful. The mushroom sauce was very good and the peppercorn sauce was SALTY.

The cheesecake my husband ordered for dinner was a no bake cheesecake - my lava cake was good. Dinner there took over two hours because of the screw ups.

We decided to go to the Jazz bar again to see the trio. They had told us the night before they would be playing again from 5pm until midnight. We got to the Jazz bar and one side was roped off, so we tried to go in through the entrance from the sports bar, but there were ladders, and workers inside. So no idea what happened, and we couldn’t find them elsewhere as we looked around to see if they had been moved to another venue to play. It was a super disappointing evening for our 2nd anniversary.

After we went back to our room to change in more comfortable clothes, we went to go check on our room folio. But the machine to check that was out of order, so we went to the guest services desk. We were handed our bill and find out that the $557 I was supposed to have as a ship board credit was not there. The gentleman at the desk told me if I had checked with them on day one, they could’ve reached them off shore to verify, but because I didn’t - there was nothing they could do and I would need to email customer service… WOW… so I was supposed to know I had to check yet again, after confirming with 3 different agents the various times I called about our cruise booking, that it would be there as a shipboard credit… we were NOT happy. And I’m sure it’s going to be agonizing trying to deal with them after the fact.

Other things to mention. We ordered one of their drinks on the menu - a baileys Alexander at 3 different locations on the ship. Not one time did we receive the same looking drink. There was zero consistency. Only ONE time I was asked to present my room card for a drink order, every other server only took my husbands card. I questioned the server who asked for my card too, as I was curious, and he said it was for contact tracing that they were supposed to take both cards. Makes total sense, too bad he was the only server doing his job as he was told to do it.

The staff was all very friendly. I truly think they were so happy to have other faces to look at and talk to. We never felt anyone was rude (maybe not helpful at the guest services desk the last night) Aline the first night was helpful though. Though I could see she was definitely frustrated with all that had transpired with the moving of cabins.

Also nice was the Latin duo at the piano bar, and the entertainment people during the name that tune 70’s and hosting the Karaoke night. We only saw the cruise director once at the main show the 2nd night. KInd of odd for a cruise director.

They did a good job of social distancing spaces. Blocking seats with signage, hand sanitizers everywhere, making people sanitize before going into dining venues, temperature checks. The ship was very empty we heard there were a tad over 950 passengers on board. The other thing I do appreciate that MSC does that no other cruise line does that I’m aware of, is matching status with other cruise lines or hotel status. So we had an upgraded status right away which did give us a few extra perks and discount. However, we will not utilize that again, as we will not sail on MSC again based on this poor experience. My husband has only sailed one other time and he was very disappointed. I have sailed many times on many lines and this was a huge let down.

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Date de départ : septembre 2021

Type de cabine : Balcony

Type de voyage :

Destination : Bahamas

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Piscines et terrasses sur les ponts

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Cet avis est l'opinion subjective d'un membre de Tripadvisor et non de TripAdvisor LLC.

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