Day 6, Sea Day
I have not talked much about my mom’s hand after the accident on MSC Divina. To be honest, I think I avoided the topic, because it really did make me feel bad. The day her hand was feeling better. Or so she tells me. She tends to lie to me with things like this, so I won’t get worried. I did see some swelling in the hand, but I guess that’s normal for someone falling with the entire body weight on the hand.
On the other hand, I was already really happy that day, I had rescued all my data and I could look forward to share it.
By the way I am not sure you noticed, but so far not one towel animal in the room. I am not quite sure if this is an MSC thing or a European thing. While towel animals don’t break a cruise, I will say that I did miss them. I guess you never know how much you miss something until it’s gone. I am sure my uncle would have enjoyed them very much if we had them on that voyage. My mom specifically told me she missed them dearly.
I also forgot to mention the fact that the day before my mom’s safe broke and locked everything inside. We had to go to guest services so they could send someone to fix. The fix was fast, and after that there were no issues with it. I guess we could have used the phone to ask for help. I am not sure why we went down. I reckon it might have been to also ask for the account statement. Oh about that.
The account statements are only available on the TV system 24 hours before disembarking. What is that about? They obviously have the capabilities and the system to make it work on the tv, so why is it that it is only accessible right before getting off MSC Divina. I never understood that.
Anyway, let get this day started.
You will notice on this map that the paths that the cruise has sailed in the past stay in the map. I enjoy it much better when the ship resets the path each time you board.
It looked like another fantastic day aboard MSC Divina.
You always see people working around MSC Divina. Maintenance seems to be a #1 priority for them. That is great to know!
We decided to go up to the buffet. Initially we had planned to go to the MDR, but since we were going to do both lunch and dinner there, we felt it was too much.
You will notice two of the drink stations in the buffet are badly placed. They are inside a no-end area that is also the entrance the for the crew into the food area. It gets clogged often and it has very poor circulation. I also noticed that there are a few lines in the buffet. I mainly this is due to the lack of options. The lines do move quite fast, so that is not an issue.
And here is mine.
We really did not have any plans for that day, personally I was looking into relaxing as much as possible. Port days tend to use up a lot of my energy, and relaxing on the Lido deck sounded just right. We all went down to guest services to ask for the account statement, after noting that everything was in order we headed up to the room to get changed.
My family usually takes a long time while getting changed, so I relaxed for a little while and watched some TV. I noticed that the office was on. So I relaxed on the bed and enjoyed the episode. I am a big fan of the office. What a shame it was when Steve Carell left the show, and that led to the cancelling of the show. Then again it was getting kind of old.
Soon enough they were knocking on my door, and we took the elevator to the Lido deck.
It was a bright and hot day. I used a bunch of sunblock at that point.
Here you have one of the activities that they hold for the kids outside of the club.
We went to the Jacuzzi and noticed that it was empty, maybe it had something to do with the temperature that day. I am not sure if I had mentioned this before, but the temperature of the water in the Jacuzzis is the warmest that I have experienced from all my cruises. Oh, I forgot, the jets are incurably powerful! On one occasion, someone told us “welcome to the Jacuzzi on steroids!”, they were incredibly powerful.
I enjoyed myself for a little while, but the sun was too much to tolerate. I moved one of the lounges against the wall to try to get some shade.
The rest of my family pretty much did the same a few minutes later.
I actually took a short nap there and then I was awakened by some loud Spanish music coming from nearby. He actually had some really cool songs, and my uncle and aunt ended singing to the songs together with 10 other people. Everyone was having a good time and enjoying themselves.
Some time must have passed and we decided to head to the aft pool for a little while. They play really nice music in that area. It is a really nice environment to relax and enjoy yourself.
The pool was packed!
I got a few drinks, and we enjoyed them pool side. I believe that my uncle left at some point to do one of his famous walks
. Getting a drink at the bar is very quick. I believe that there was a total of 4 bartenders, at that bar. For the most part, the bar staff is very friendly. We always tipped them an extra $1 per drink. BTW, I’ve been told that MSC discourages from tipping? I am not sure if that is true. I never saw anything that stated that anywhere.
We also tipped our room steward extra as we always do in all our cruises. In this, one in particular, she deserved extra because of all the bed moving from one stateroom to the other stateroom.
My uncle reappeared at some point, it must of been lunch time by then. I think he said he was playing with the MSC Divina cameras. We decided to go get changed and head down to the MDR to eat lunch.
It was a busy day.
I love the vivid colors in this picture.
We got to the MDR and were told to follow a server with the menus. We did so, next thing I know he was attempting at sitting us with a group that had 3 children! NO WAY!!! I told him we wanted to be seated alone, and he said no problem. They sat us near the aft of MSC Divina with a great view of the wake.
Here is the lunch menu for that day.
For the first course we all had the coconut shrimp, it was to die for! Very nice and crispy!
For the second course I had prosciutto and mozzarella. It was really good, I seemed to be hitting all the good stuff that day.
They all ordered a salad…
For lunch I picked the Cobb salad. It was ok I guess, nothing to write home about. Then again, here I am writing about it
They all had the Cioppino, it was really, really good!!! But it was tinny!!! Personally, I thought it could have used a lot less peas, and so did my uncle.
The strawberry cake. I am not sure who got it. I think it was mom. I tried it, and it was just ok I guess. A little dry.
Two of them got the Key lime pie, they said it was to die for. I thought it was just ok.
I got the Paris Brest. It was the winner of the day!!! Like my uncle says EXCELLENTE!!!
I shared most of the dessert, they all wanted it 
Service that day was again very slow, unlike the other lunch we had. Initially I had high hopes that it was going to be quick and efficient. But if I recall correctly, it took us 1:30 to eat lunch that day.
Here is our view.
We headed up to the room for a little while to let the dinner settle down a little.
I have never seen this before. Thought it was funny!
You can see my room is starting to take place
I relaxed for a little while. My guess is that they did the same. Later I decided to switch to the fisheye lens, and get some pictures of MSC Divina with that lens. On this cruise I failed to take a lot of video, mainly it was due to the lack of memory cards and I feared running out of space. I guess technically I could’ve bought a card on MSC Divina before the one I bought in St. Maarten. But I was panicking half of the time over space and a possible failure.
So I swapped lenses and we went out to tour MSC Divina with that lens.
I really love this lens.
They had some kind of trivia going on here.
That night’s show was Michael Jackson, we were looking forward to it.
When we got into the theater, they had the meet the captain event going on. I took some note of what was discussed there.
My uncle sat in the front because he wanted to ask a question. His question you ask? He was obsessed with the fact that no one in MSC Divina knew where a picture of Sophia Loren (the Godmother) was located, other than in the Sophia Loren suite. And you know what, he did have a point, especially considering that everywhere in MSC Divina there are pictures of celebrities of the era. Kind of odd, don’t you think? And trust me he tried, he must of asked over 30 people during the course of the cruise. He did not get to ask his question to the captain, and he had his hand up the entire time. I told him they did not select him because they saw him fooling around with the ship cameras all the time , oh well.
Anyway, here are some of the Q & A from that day
One person in the audience was an aspiring captain and about to start his education to get there. He was a US citizen and was concerned with the lack of US captains. In the past this was something that I considered, but after some deliberation, I realized that there was no day I could do that job. The captain told him that RCCL had a couple of US captains in their fleet. He also told him that while it was not common, he should go ahead and accomplish his dreams, nothing should be holding him back. That said, he suggested that he looked instead into becoming a pilot. He said the pay was very good, and most of his fellow officers’ friends have taken that route in the recent years.
Someone in the back of the theater in a wheelchair was concerned by how inaccessible MSC Divina was for handicap people. To tell you the truth this is something that I had noticed already. For example, to get to the aft Jacuzzis is nearly impossible on a wheel chair. He was also forced to stay at the far end of the theater because of the lack of a ramp. Understandably so he was not a happy camper. The captain started by telling him how sorry he was about this, and that he wishes he could do something to fix that for this voyage. He kept on going and told him that he has already brought this concern to upper management and that they plan to something about it. But my main concern about this, is that the only way that I can see this being solved is during dry dock. Am I wrong? Are all their ships built this way? MSC is not a new company for this to be an issue that they are just figuring out.
I am not sure if I have stated this before, if I did, my apologies. The first thing is that MSC Divina is one of the most complicated ships that I have found out to navigate through. Usually I board the vessel and by the second day I know the ship pretty well. With MSC Divina, I was still confused on the fifth day. I am not entirely sure what it is, but it just seems like the layout of MSC Divina is partitioned too often. The second thing I would like to mention is that it is a true shame that MSC decided that since I am a non-Yacht Club paying passenger, my access to the bow of MSC Divina is nearly impossible. The entire front Lido deck is only for the Yacht Club members, and the only way for you to enjoy the view of the bow of the ship is from the gym. I think this is the first time that I have experienced this on a cruise, and while this is not an area that I tend to frequent, I still like to have it available.
I cannot exactly recall what the next question was, but it involved pool talk. The pools are all salt water and they get drained daily. While the ships are at sea, the water is constantly circulating. During port day, the water has to be treated with chlorine at all times. As you can imagine the amount of chlorine is substantial and logs have to be kept to show to the authorities when the information is requested.
Someone asked the captain about his personal quarters. He said that since MSC Divina was newer, he did have a balcony in his room. He stated to his room had an office that also worked as a living room and also a bedroom. He noted that it was nothing lavish, and that you have to keep in mind that this is done because elf the crew. It was noted that the crew’s sleeping quarters are tight. There cannot be a separation of classes. So, while he does have more space, the space is well utilized. I also want to note that our room steward was on-board MSC Divina with her husband. He worked in the MDR. They both stay in the room, and she stated that since this was a newer ship her accommodations were nicer than some she has been in the past. The contract that they were serving on this particular cruise was for 8 months.
There were several other topics discussed during the event, but I got there a little late, so I missed half of the talk.
After it was over, we decided to leave and continue our walk around MSC Divina. My uncle was a little bummed out that his question went unanswered.
