MSC DIVINA SAILS AWAY FROM MIAMI!

MSC Divina

Leaving the Port of Miami, Florida

73-66F, sunny – rainy

Since TK knows the route to the Port of Miami quite well, we arrived in timely fashion. MSC is a new cruise line for us—the line was offering special discounts for those who were “Platinum” on other cruise lines since they are trying to break into the American market.  Since we are platinum on three cruise lines (NCL, Princess, and Carnival), we were upgraded to “Priority Guests. We were on the lovely Divina by noon and had a light lunch in the “Calumet” buffet.

Our stateroom is a bit smaller than usual, but the balcony is suitable. Storage area is definitely spare. 

Stateroom 8240

Our desk

Photo does not show that we have a bathtub (with shower), a first for us

New ship rules for us:

No water or soda can be brought on board

No room service at our level of stateroom

At 4:30 p.m., our luggage still has not arrived and the muster safety drill is scheduled for 4:45. We have walked around the ship to acclimate ourselves somewhat. The public areas are creatively appointed.

This is easily the theater we have seen on a cruise ship--there are balconies on each side too.

The ship is 1100 ft long and 223 ft high, with 18 decks. There are 4345 guests aboard and 1388 crew members. Four pools. The rest we have to figure out.

We set up Wi-Fi with a package that provides 7 gigs for 10 days. Obviously I am going to write before I log into the blog!

After muster and dinner

Muster was easy and our fellow passengers seemed friendly. Since one piece of luggage had not yet arrived, TK unpacked before dinner. The room is sort of smallish, but I think everything will fit.

We met up with Donna and Lawrence at dinner—we are so much alike. We have a table for four and our servers are accommodating, and by tomorrow night they will know our foibles. TK will switch from iced tea to soda—small glass without ice, dark dark dark. European version of iced tea. The potato gnocchi was tasty and apple crisp was very good.  TK had pork loin. The portions are smaller, but that is OK with me.

After dinner Donna wanted to show me her room and it ended up being far far away—we did not think Lawrence was there and then he jumped out and scared me. He knows my reaction will be a scream, I am glad it was their room and not ours.  Donna showed me her newly received Ancestry DNA results and we were analyzing them, but I knew I needed to get back to our room to finish unpacking. Donna also wanted me to see how Lawrence packed, a version of throwing everything haphazardly into his suitcase. She picked up a plastic bag of underwear-we laughed to think of how he packed.

Back in our room, I just finished putting everything away when Donna called to tell me that bag she showed me was actually Lawrence’s dirty underwear. Oh my Oh my. I sure hope TK never does such a demo on our dirty underwear bag.  And so it goes, we will laugh and giggle this whole cruise. I won’t be reporting everything, that is for sure.

It is 10 p.m. now, the ship left port at 7 p.m. (much later than we usually depart, but many passengers on MSC are from Europe). Announcements are made in at least 5 languages, and I like the diversity.

In the meantime,  it is freezing with a polar vortex in Erie and I sure hope our family and our house is OK. 

TK’s Takes: So many people text while driving, whether on a six lane or eight lane highway, 65-75 mph. Apparently Florida does not have a law about texting and driving.