When I told people I was heading out on a MSC cruise I got one of two results. They loved it or they hated it. Well, you can add me to the love it category.

I had the most amazing time, and I think the 13 other people I traveled with loved it too. I think cruising is a lot of what you make of it. I traveled with my son on a Casino deal (click more for details on that here). My friend Sunny Breezes Mary specializes in group cruise travel. We ended up with 14 of us on this cruise. All ages from all over the Southeast.

Check-in was a breeze we had done everything online before we got to the cruise port and this made the process painless. We dropped our belongings off in our room and headed to the buffet. The buffet had a super nice assortment but I knew I wanted the pizza. I had heard they had the best pizza at sea and I can tell you their sauce is superior.

Sorry I took a bite before the pic. It was that good!

We then went to explore the ship. Here is one of the pool areas.

MSC has you watch a safety video in your room dial a code then go to your muster station. This was probably the only hiccup on the cruise. My son and I both went to the muster station. They told us we only needed to scan one card per room. It was chaotic and they didn’t record him being there with me. So that night we received a letter in the room that he needed to attend again at 9:30 the next morning. I was irritated because I am an extreme rule follower and it bothered me we were on the list. When we explained at the muster station the next morning they scanned his card it wasn’t a big deal. It was a minor inconvenience to get this done but we understand it was important. Things happen.

Since I was on a casino deal I needed to put some time in the casino. The Casino was beautiful. I like Video Blackjack and they had 6 machines with it on there. I thought the casino was huge for a cruise ship but the Casino Manager told me there were much bigger casinos on other ships. Regardless, I really enjoyed spending some free time in here. I ended up teaching blackjack to quite a few people in our group. Here is my dad joining me for lessons.

You only had to be 18 to gamble on this cruise and since I had a pretty good week in the Casino. I took the two 18-year-olds in our group to the casino and gave them $20 each to play with. Of course, that was gone before I could give them their first lesson so I had them come over to the Blackjack machine and I talked them through how to play the game. We were betting a dollar a hand but they loved winning!

First time in the casino with Shirley Temples!

Our cruise had two days at Ocean Cay and a stop in Nassau. We loved Ocean Cay it was beautiful.

The third day was in Nassau. I didn’t get off the ship in Nassau; instead, I hung out on the ship, Playing cards with my family. I had a blackjack boot camp.

Our service on MSC was amazing. I had heard they didn’t have good service. They had many bars, and I never waited long to get a drink. Our server for dinner was probably the best server I have ever had on a cruise. Our table was huge with 3 people who could not have gluten. Our servers made sure everyone got exactly what they wanted. The wine was flowing and we all enjoyed our sit-down dinner each night.

Some of our group with our amazing server!

I don’t go on cruises for the entertainment. I walk out of a lot of shows. I usually sit in the balcony for a quick getaway However, I didn’t walk out of one on MSC. I thought the talent on the ship was amazing. I ended up at 3 shows in 4 days. I only missed the first night because I was in a piano bar enjoying the talent in there.

Overall, I loved my time on MSC and I have already reached out to friends trying to get another group to go! It was a definite win in my book.

why i adore the msc divina

bonus day - Miami

valley of fire state park & Hoover dam