I received a complimentary cruise for myself and family in exchange for sharing my honest opinion.

My husband and I went on a cruise about nine years ago and have been dying to go back ever since.  Then we had kids and thought going on a cruise would have to wait until they are older.  I was worried they would get sick. I worried they’d be bored or stir crazy.  I worried about my sons allergies.  Excuse after excuse for why cruising with kids was not going to work.  Then there was the cost of it of course.

Well last month my family and I boarded the MSC Divina for a Caribbean cruise!  How was our trip?  A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  Seriously my kids have asked every day when are we going back on the cruise!  I will say honestly I was worried about the MSC Cruises as there wasn’t many pictures online about the MSC Divina and the reviews were so/so.

Honestly out of 5 stars, I’d give 4 stars.  I only took away a point because I do wish there was more for kids as far as the pools go and entertainment activities.  There were some pools that were just a few inches of water, more for toddlers, and the rest of the pools were 4-6 feet.  My boys can swim but are not 100% confident in the water without help and the waves from the ocean made the water higher and a little crazy at times.  Each night there was entertainment before our dinner time (there are two different dinner sessions, we had the later one) and they were not all kid-friendly.  Not that the entertainment was in-appropriate but they just weren’t ones my kids would enjoy, specifically the two nights they had operas.  We did though enjoy some of the shows which were a Michael Jackson impersonator who sang his songs and danced just like him, a pirate show with a super cool skull prop, and an Alice in Wonderland show (where you’d swear it was Johnny Depp up there!)  It was a little funny too how all the shows had similar acts but they changed up the costumes, still though we looked forward to seeing the shows.

I have compiled a list of some of the Pros and Cons of cruising aboard the MSC Divina, I am not comparing the ship to other cruise ships since I have only cruised once before and that was a long time ago.  Some of these might be standard on cruise ships but I wanted to point them out, especially for those who haven’t cruised before!

PROS of the MSC Divina:

• Food – I read reviews that the food wasn’t the great but honestly I didn’t have any problems with it.  The homemade pizza was amazing and I probably ate too much of it!
• Free soft serve ice cream everyday from 2-5
• Drink specials – since alcohol is not included I was worried it would cost an arm and a leg but it actually was affordable with the drink specials of about $6 a drink
• The buffet is open all day, so whenever you want you can pop in and grab something!
• Scheduled activities throughout the dance including Bingo, dance lessons, exercise classes and more
• Affordable excursions – we booked one excursion through the cruise that was a special of $100 for a family of four for a tour of the island and private beach.
• The rooms were big enough for our family of five, granted my kids are young but the three of them fit just fine on the pull-out sofa.  We had a regular balcony room which had a bed that was almost King sized and a pull out sofa.
• Staff was very friendly with kids
• Boat was very clean, staff was constantly cleaning something and honestly, I can’t recall seeing any trash out of place or dirt anywhere!
• Basketball court and soccer nets set up
• Waterslide
• Arcade for kids (casino for adults)
• Foosball and games available
• Tipping in included, you are charged a certain amount each day per family member – but its nice to not worry about individual tipping throughout your cruise
• You literally need nothing but your room key card as you can charge stuff to the room with it
• Your room is cleaned in the morning and then a turndown service for the beds is done in evening

CONS of the MSC Divina:

• No lifejackets for kids for the pools (I hadn’t brought them for my boys since I assumed the pools would have them)
• Not enough entertainment geared towards kids
• A little of a communication barrier – the staff was mostly foreign and didn’t always understand what we were asking for
• I mentioned a waterslide as a PRO, but it is also a CON as it is supposed to be for kids ages 8 and up.  There was no waterslides or splash pads for younger kids.
• Daily newsletter came late each night (around 9PM) so it was hard to plan your day ahead of time
• If you expect towel animals don’t get your hopes up, we only got them one night

Here are just some of the pictures from our cruise:

Our balcony stateroom:

Inside by one of the hot tubs, the ceiling opened up on nice days!

An example of the Daily newsletter we got each night:

The kids area:

Stairs by the elevators which we took often for exercise and it was faster sometimes than waiting for the elevator:

Each floor had a map on it with where you were and where everything was:

The waterslide:

Overall, I highly recommend MSC Cruises.  I brought my kids who are 2, 5, and 7 years old and they all loved it.  I will say though it would have been more relaxing for my husband and I if my daughter was 3 (and potty trained) since that is the minimum age for the kid’s club but she did still have fun!  They do have a babysitter type of service I read about but I didn’t see the costs and we never used it.  For families the cruise is affordable, especially with their Kids Cruise Free program!

Since I have so many pictures to share, I figured I’d break down our cruise into separate posts, so if you want to read more about our cruise experience read my other cruise posts and check out my YouTube slideshows I made of the MSC Divina!

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