New Year Cruise on MSC Divina

My best cruise buddies and I went on our annual new year cruise, this time departing from Miami on the MSC Divina, December 28. I flew to FLL on Dec 25 to stay with Suzie who has a condo in Ft Lauderdale. We have not seen each other since the previous year's cruise (on Virgin) and had a great time catching up while drinking wine on the balcony. Two days later our two other friends joined us. We had a great Korean hot pot and BBQ dinner before getting an Uber to the Miami cruise terminal. The drive was stressful as the tunnel to the terminal was closed and traffic was backed up for at least an hour. We could not understand why they would close the tunnel on embarkation day for many of the cruise lines. Fortunately, just when our driver was about to turn around and go the long way, the tunnel opened and we go through.

After that it was relatively easy to check in and board. This is the first time we cruise on MSC. Unfortunately we were not impressed by the service, the food, nor the entertainment. First of all, they played Christmas music for most of the cruise, remember, we boarded on Dec 28, past Christmas. The food was so so, we went for a couple of speciality restaurants, and it was OK, not spectacular. I joined most of the exercise sessions (like Zumba) and a couple of dance classes, plus trivia. The highlight was a "top chef" type of game where everyone who showed up answered a quiz related to cooking. Amazingly I one of 6 people with the highest points for correct answers. We went up to the stage, paired up, put on chef hats and apron and were given a short time to come up with a dessert with the provided mystery ingredients. Although I'm not one who like to be in the limelight, it was a lot of fun. No, my partner and I did not win.

The lounges and bars were OK, although I did enjoy the meet and greet session with the ship's officers. The officers invited ladies to dance, and I got to waltz with two different officers for a minute or so. Pretty cool and unique!

All in, I would say this was not one of the best cruise experience I've had, although the excursion in the Dominican Republic was fun (more on that in the next post). Some photos of the food at dinner: