We have been on NCL's Haven several times and enjoyed this immensely. However, their pricing has gone through the roof, and since we're also Canadian, NCL for now priced itself out of our range. We learned that MSC's Yacht Club (YC) on Divina could be a great alternative, with much more reasonable prices. Given the price difference, we knew to not expect the same high quality product as on NCL or Celebrity for that matter, but we anticipated at least something really good, especially being in the Yacht Club.

We stayed in stateroom 15025. It was lovely. Great Butler (Sidonie). The balcony was sized appropriately. The room was clean and maintained well. However, on boarding we noted black water coming out of our bathroom tap! We were told this was due to recent maintenance of the plumbing, which is fine as the water cleared up after about 10 minutes of running it.

Dining was a bit of a minefield. You had to listen closely to your waiter when he described the menu and then hopefully could guide you as to a good choice of entree etc. However, several waiters really did not offer this type of guidance. And in the end, no matter what one chose from the menu, there were problems. Mind you, they made the best lobster tails we've had at sea or even on land, but that's it. Other dishes were plated poorly to say the least and some were virtually inedible. I often just went for the alternate entrees that are always available. So almost every dinner I had the filet of beef. The meat quality was poor, and had a consistency suggesting that the meats were tenderized (e.g. with papain). We ate in two alternate dining rooms, Eataly and Galaxy. The former used to be their steak restaurant but no more. It's basically an Italian restaurant with admittedly excellent pizza! The Galaxy is mainly Asian tending to Japanese. The sushi here was interesting. The fish was obviously fresh and tasty but the use of rice was seriously overdone! When ordering you could substitute (say you don't like eel, and ask instead for salmon), you were charged even if you had a free dining package. But the charges were minimal; just annoying. We also noted that unlike the Haven or Sky Suite level on Celebrity we were asked for our Sea Passes way too often. On the other lines, once they know you, they don't ask again. To sum up the dining experience then, it did not even reach a level that we anticipated given the lower fare prices we paid. Apart from some standouts (lobster/pizza), the best compliment we could give for any one meal was, it wasn't bad! Finally in relation to dining, the outside buffet was limited in YC but the pasta chef there was excellent! So this was where we generally had lunch. Read more