everybody it's Bruce here with traveling with Bruce how you doing today I have a
video and a story about the MSC divina today a good buddy of mine just got off
this ship he was on a 20 day cruise with his wife and I asked him to let me know
how this trip worked out he took notes and he called me up the other day and
said brisee boy have I got a story for you
get ready here we go I said all right doc to me he said well we got to the
ship in Marseille France and we took the ship across the Atlantic we went through
the Mediterranean first and you can see why the map here we went to Barcelona
Cadiz Lisbon ponta delgada Kings Wharf in Bermuda New York and Miami 20-day
cruise and one way only of course so he took a trip to Europe with his wife
first which they enjoyed very much went to Marseilles got on the ship here's the
port in Marseilles all went well here no problem got on the onboard the ship no
problem and they booked an inside room now he's giving me a perspective of what
it was like on this ship for 20 days in an inside room now they had a
handicapped room so it was a little roomier and they had the beds put
together so it might look a little more like this but I asked him what was the
what was the TV like in there your bathroom and all that and he said well
it's a small room don't let these pictures of these professional pictures
fool you it was a small room but the bed was fine
functional no problem but the TV was tiny he could see one right there very
tiny it was up on the side there on top of the one counter and in the bathroom
on the other side but you know that's what it is it's an inside room and he
got a good deal on it so they figured we'll just make the ship our living room
our rec room and you know the bedroom was just gonna be a place to sleep so I
said what was the ship like he said I loved it the ship was beautiful the ship
was beautiful really pretty gorgeous colors lots of
brass and marble and really you know nice-looking ship the problem isn't with
the ship he says it's with the staff and it's with the layout and how they
function everything it's a whole other issue the the look of the ship the
restaurants they look fantastic the problem is that you can't eat without
having staff serve you and the staff was the big problem here I asked about the
main dining room he said the main dining room was beautiful a very spacious very
very classy nice nice decor here's a nice shot of
the main dining room here no problem at all he said that the problem is with the
menus and the people serving if that's where the problem came in I said all
right what about the rest of the ship he said oh man the lobby is great the
elevators are really nice everything works well not a problem with the ship
4200 people were on this ship it's a big foot vessel packed the the repositioning
cruise was completely fact what about the pool area what about that he said
they have an outdoor pool area and an indoor pool area this is the indoor with
the roof over top so in lousy weather you can still go to the hot tub there
and hop into the pool lie down to some loungers not a problem on beautiful
sunny days you go outside and grab the outside pool and enjoy yourself their
problem is with 4200 people everybody wants to be here and so it can get very
very crowded and very noisy he told me that there were at least six languages
being spoken because all the announcements were made over the PA
system in six languages that was annoying he found it was extremely loud
on the ship because people seemed to be yelling at each other he just found that
a lot a lot of frustration forty-two hundred people on a vessel like this he
just felt it filled that felt crowded I said what about other issues well go for
a walk on the promenade deck you're not gonna like it because you can only go up
and down the sides you can't walk around the front
the back and you have to contend with these lifeboats the other problem is
that these decks are smoking decks there are smokers out here
he says you cannot believe at 200 Italians wearing Speedos
smoking cigarettes all day long on these promenade decks not a fun experience
people were complaining about the smell of smoke coming into their cabins
through balconies because they were smoking so much this upper deck deck 14
had the jogging track also allowed smoking on here too and the joggers were
having a tough time because people put their loungers in the track what about
the food I asked the buffet he said it was sparse not a great selection of food
quality wasn't very good usually by the time you got your food to your table but
the food was cold he said we tried for 20 days to have a decent meal we just
gave up we knew that the meal would just work out for the restaurant you would
order a meal you know way to go downstairs bring their meal bring it up
to you it was a crapshoot because the meal would be made by the chefs it would
be waiting to be picked up not made on a per order basis boat was just made and
that the waiters would pick up the meal and bring it to you sometimes it was ice
cold when it got to you you wanted to dessert afterwards you went to that
gelato bar 7 euros for an ice cream extra you want to play bowling 8 euros a
game if you want to play bowling you want to go to the bar like this great go
to the bar you don't want to stay in this bar you want to go from one into
the ship the other you have to walk through the middle of the bar there's no
way around it all of these amenities were designed we
had to walk through them the theater was nice as far as the look of the theater
and the lighting and so on but the entertainment was lacking puppet
operators the first night a ventriloquist the second night telling
the same joke in six languages got tiring and then it was opera opera opera
and lame dancing he was not impressed he and his wife loved to go out for
entertainment and they were not impressed at all it was depressing
prices for drinks oh my god you could buy drink packages but you're talking
about 13 hundred dollars for twenty days per
person you want to drop twenty six hundred bucks to drink on the drink
package for that deal good luck on that they bought ala carte and avoided all of
these packages they didn't like it it was a cruise from hell I said if you
were offered a free cruise would you take it he said not a chance I don't
ever want to go on this cruise line again I don't want anything to do with
this the help staff at the desk terrible 30-minute weights and they
couldn't have cared less for your concerns I've heard this before about
the seaside now I'm hearing it from a buddy of mine on the davina unbelievable
story what can I say it's what happened to a buddy of mine and I believe them
joined me Monday to Friday five o'clock Eastern and Saturdays at 2:00 Eastern we
talked cruise ships everyday and if you have any questions about cruising let me
know I'm more than happy to answer anything you want to know about going on
a cruise talk to you next time everybody bye for now