MSC Divina Bahamas Cruise With Kids: Our Honest First Cruise Review
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Our first Bahamas cruise cost around €1,000 for our family of four — and we even got a free upgrade to a balcony cabin.
Sounds pretty good, right?
Well…
During our Florida road trip in February 2024, we decided to try something completely different and booked a 3-night MSC Divina Bahamas cruise from Miami.
It would be our first cruise ever.
The plan was simple: sail from Miami, spend a day exploring Nassau, visit MSC’s private island Ocean Cay and then return to Miami.
The kids loved it.
Us?
Let’s just say we didn’t immediately start searching for our next cruise. 😂
Nassau was great, the kids club was a massive hit, we enjoyed the evening shows and sailing away from Miami was genuinely special.
But my wife got seasick, bad weather meant we never made it to Ocean Cay, and an unexpected full day aboard made us realise that cruising might not be our favourite way to travel.
Luckily, they make a decent Espresso Martini.
So here’s what our first MSC Divina Bahamas cruise with kids was really like — what we loved, what we didn’t, how much we paid and whether we’d do it again.
We sailed in February 2024. Some facilities, prices, packages and procedures may have changed since our cruise.
How Much Did Our MSC Divina Bahamas Cruise Cost?
We paid around €1,000 in total for our family of four for the three-night cruise.
Our Wi-Fi and gratuities were included in our booking, while drinks were not.
Then, shortly before sailing, we got a very nice surprise:
MSC upgraded us to a balcony cabin for free.
For our first cruise, that was a huge win.
MSC Divina currently has several categories of balcony accommodation, although cabin categories and booking conditions can change.
Having our own balcony made the whole experience feel much more special. You could step outside, watch the ocean and actually enjoy some quiet away from the busy public areas of the ship.
And waking up, opening the curtains and discovering that you’ve arrived somewhere completely different?
I’ll give cruising that one.
That’s pretty cool.
For roughly €1,000 for four people, considering accommodation, meals, entertainment and transport to the Bahamas were all part of the experience, we felt we’d got a pretty good deal.
Whether we actually liked cruising is another question. 😂
Day 1: Boarding MSC Divina in Miami
Our cruise fitted neatly into the middle of our Florida road trip.
After exploring Miami, the Everglades and Florida Keys in our Mustang, it was time to say goodbye to the car.
We dropped it off, ordered an Uber and headed towards the cruise terminal in Miami.
We left our larger luggage, checked in and eventually walked aboard MSC Divina.
And because this was our first cruise, the first few hours were basically:
Where are we?
Where’s our room?
Where’s the food?
How big is this thing?!
We found our balcony cabin, dropped off our things and started exploring.
Then came our first surprise.
Wait… There’s an Emergency Drill?
This makes complete sense when you’ve thought about it for more than five seconds.
We hadn’t.
Before we could properly start enjoying the cruise, we had to go through the mandatory safety procedure and learn what to do in an emergency.
Welcome aboard.
Here’s your cabin.
Here’s the pool.
And here’s what to do if the ship starts sinking.
Excellent. 😂
Once that was out of the way, our holiday properly began.
Exploring MSC Divina With Kids
We spent most of that first afternoon discovering the ship.
Lunch first.
Then more exploring.
Then the kids club.
Then the pool.
Then more exploring.
MSC Divina is a big ship, and because we’d never been on a cruise before, simply walking around it was entertaining.
There were pools, restaurants, bars, entertainment areas and what felt like endless corridors and decks.
MSC still lists pools, kids’ and teens’ clubs and the Pantheon Theatre among Divina’s facilities today.
On the first day, there was always something new around the next corner.
By Day 3?
We knew those corners pretty well.
Sailing Away From Miami
That evening, we had dinner and then went outside as MSC Divina sailed away from Miami.
This was one of my favourite moments of the entire cruise.
Watching the Miami skyline slowly disappear while standing on the deck of a huge cruise ship felt like the point where the trip really started.
Despite everything I’m going to say later in this review…
I’d happily experience that again.
Then it was time for our first evening show before heading back to the cabin.
And somehow we’d gone from driving through Florida that morning to falling asleep somewhere in the Atlantic.
Not bad.
MSC Divina Kids Club: A Massive Win
If you asked our children to review MSC Divina, this article would probably be considerably more positive.
They loved the kids club.
MSC currently operates age-specific children’s clubs across its ships, with organised games and activities, although exact schedules can vary by ship and itinerary.
On our February 2024 sailing, our kids wanted to keep going back.
And I’m not going to pretend we complained about that.
Because while they were happily occupied…
Mum and Dad suddenly discovered this strange thing called free time.
On a family holiday.
Imagine that. 😂
The kids club ended up being one of the strongest arguments for cruising as a family.
The children were having fun without us needing to organise every minute of the day, and we got some time to ourselves.
Everybody wins.
The Evening Shows Were Another Surprise
Something else that became part of our daily routine was going to the theatre.
Every evening we’d watch a show with singing, dancing, acrobatics and other performances.
MSC Divina’s large Pantheon Theatre remains one of the ship’s main entertainment venues.
We didn’t board the ship thinking:
I can’t wait for the cruise-ship theatre.
But we ended up going every night.
It became our little evening routine:
Dinner → show → explore → bed.
And the kids had a lot of fun.
Day 2: Waking Up in Nassau
This was the day that sold me most on the idea of cruising.
You go to sleep in one place.
Then you wake up, pull back the curtains…
and you’re in the Bahamas.
Okay, cruise people.
I understand this part. 😂
After breakfast, we got off MSC Divina and headed into Nassau.
We didn’t have some massive organised itinerary.
We just wanted to explore.
And Nassau ended up being one of our favourite parts of the cruise.
Exploring Nassau With Kids
We walked through Nassau and visited some of its best-known sights.
One of our first stops was the Queen’s Staircase, followed by the fort at the top of the hill.
From there we continued exploring and visited the Pirates of Nassau Museum, which was a fun stop with the kids and fitted the city’s pirate history perfectly.
Then we wandered.
That’s usually our favourite way to discover a new place anyway.
Eventually we made our way towards the beach.
And that’s where we had one of those small family travel milestones:
Our First Swim in the Caribbean 🌴
Until this trip, none of us had ever swum in the Caribbean Sea.
Now we had.
In February.
During a random Wednesday in the middle of a Florida road trip.
Not a bad life. 😅
Nassau was actually one of those places where I would have happily stayed longer.
After swimming, we continued walking around, visited a market near the port and eventually started making our way back towards MSC Divina.
Which brings us to perhaps the greatest financial crime committed during our entire Florida trip.
We Paid $40 for Four Scoops of Ice Cream
Before returning to the ship, we walked through the new cruise-port area.
It looked nice.
The kids wanted ice cream.
Fine.
Four scoops, please.
$40.
😂
Not four massive desserts.
Not four elaborate sundaes.
Four scoops of ice cream.
It’s amazing how you can forget the price of an attraction two years later but remember with perfect clarity the day somebody charged you $40 for ice cream.
Travel memories. ❤️
After financially recovering from the ice cream, we returned to MSC Divina.
The kids went back to the kids club, we enjoyed some adult time, had dinner, watched another show and went to sleep.
At this point, our first cruise was going pretty well.
Tomorrow we’d wake up at Ocean Cay.
At least that was the plan.
Day 3: Our Ocean Cay Stop Was Cancelled
We woke up to some pretty strange weather.
It quickly became obvious that something wasn’t right.
The captain tried to bring MSC Divina into Ocean Cay.
It didn’t work.
So we sailed away.
For a while, it looked as though that was it.
Then we turned around and came back.
They tried again.
Still no luck.
Eventually it became clear that we weren’t going ashore.
Our day at Ocean Cay was cancelled.
MSC describes Ocean Cay as its private marine reserve in the Bahamas and features it heavily on its Bahamas itineraries.
So on a three-night Bahamas cruise, losing that stop was a pretty big deal.
Instead of spending the day on an island, we suddenly had an unexpected day at sea.
And this is where our feelings about cruising started changing.
An Unexpected Full Day at Sea
The kids?
They were absolutely fine.
Kids club.
Food.
Activities.
Walking around.
More kids club.
For them, the ship itself was a destination.
For us…
we were bored. 😅
There. I said it.
We explored some more.
Had lunch.
Walked around.
Sat down.
Walked around again.
Looked at the ocean.
Still there.
More ocean.
😂
And this was probably the moment when I realised why cruising isn’t naturally our style of travelling.
On a road trip, if something goes wrong, we change the plan.
Bad weather?
Drive somewhere else.
Attraction closed?
Find another one.
Don’t like a place?
Leave.
When you’re on a cruise ship in the middle of the sea…
You’re on the cruise ship.
That’s it.
And after spending the previous couple of days driving around Florida and stopping wherever we wanted, suddenly having absolutely nowhere else to go felt surprisingly restrictive.
Luckily…
Espresso Martini to the Rescue 🍸
I’m not saying Espresso Martinis saved our marriage, our cruise or our day at sea.
I’m just saying they helped.
We ate lunch, spent more time around the ship, checked on the kids and eventually made it through our unexpected sea day.
It wasn’t terrible.
But it was definitely our least favourite day of the cruise.
And Then There Was the Seasickness…
Unfortunately, the rougher conditions brought another problem.
My wife got seasick.
Quite badly at times.
And obviously, if you feel sick whenever the ship starts moving more noticeably, cruising loses some of its appeal.
Before taking our first cruise, seasickness was one of those things we knew existed but didn’t really think much about.
You don’t know how your body will react until you’re actually on the ship.
I was fine.
The kids were fine.
Tjaša?
Not so much. 😅
And that undoubtedly influenced how we felt about the whole cruise.
Had the weather been perfect, had we successfully visited Ocean Cay and had nobody felt sick, our final opinion might have been different.
But that’s not the cruise we had.
Our Final Night on MSC Divina
Thankfully, the cruise ended on a much better note.
There was a final party aboard the ship, the kids were having a brilliant time, and we went to another evening show.
Watching them that night made one thing pretty obvious:
Our kids were much more impressed by cruising than we were. 😂
And I completely understand why.
Think about cruising from a child’s perspective.
There’s a swimming pool.
Food everywhere.
Shows every night.
A kids club full of other children.
A massive ship to explore.
You go to sleep and wake up somewhere new.
Then Mum and Dad occasionally disappear and return suspiciously happier after drinking Espresso Martinis.
What’s not to love?
Waking Up Back in Miami
The next morning we opened the curtains…
Miami.
Our three-night MSC Divina Bahamas cruise was over.
Disembarking took a bit longer than we’d expected, but eventually we were back on solid ground.
We ordered an Uber and headed to another rental-car company to continue our Florida road trip.
And I have to admit…
Getting back into a car felt pretty good. 😂
What We Loved About MSC Divina With Kids
There was actually quite a lot.
The free balcony upgrade was fantastic and probably made a bigger difference than we expected.
The kids club was a huge success.
We enjoyed the theatre shows.
Sailing away from Miami was memorable.
Waking up somewhere completely different was genuinely cool.
And Nassau?
We loved Nassau.
Then there’s the price.
At approximately €1,000 for four people, our particular booking represented pretty impressive value.
Three nights of accommodation.
Food.
Entertainment.
Kids club.
Transport from Miami to the Bahamas and back.
And a balcony cabin.
Purely from a value perspective, I really can’t complain.
What Didn’t We Like?
Interestingly, most of our negatives weren’t specifically about MSC Divina.
They were about cruising.
We didn’t love having such little control over the itinerary.
Missing Ocean Cay demonstrated that perfectly.
The weather changed.
The stop disappeared.
And suddenly our exciting island day became a full day aboard the ship.
For people who love sea days, that might sound great.
For us?
Nope. 😂
Then there was Tjaša’s seasickness.
And while there was plenty happening aboard the ship, after three days we felt like we’d seen most of what interested us.
Meanwhile, the kids could probably have stayed another week.
Was MSC Divina Worth €1,000 for a Family of Four?
For what we received, absolutely.
And there’s an important distinction here.
Something can be good value without being your favourite type of holiday.
Our €1,000 got four people accommodation, meals, entertainment, children’s activities and a trip to the Bahamas.
We even received a free balcony upgrade.
From a purely financial perspective, I think we did very well.
Our mixed feelings weren’t because we felt ripped off.
Quite the opposite.
We simply discovered that the style of travel didn’t suit us as naturally as a road trip does.
Is MSC Divina Good for Kids?
Based on our February 2024 experience, our kids would say yes without hesitation.
The kids club alone was a massive success.
They also loved the pools, exploring the ship, evening shows and final party.
MSC still promotes Divina as a family-friendly ship with children’s and teens’ clubs, pools and entertainment facilities.
For parents considering MSC Divina with kids, that’s probably the biggest positive from our experience:
Our children were rarely bored.
Ironically, on our unexpected sea day, their parents were. 😂
Would We Take Another Cruise?
I wouldn’t rule it out.
And that’s probably the biggest compliment I can give cruising after this trip.
I don’t think we’d book another cruise simply to spend days aboard a ship.
But I’d definitely consider one with an itinerary we really wanted to experience.
I’d probably choose something with more port days and perhaps a newer or larger ship with more activities that appealed to us as adults.
And we’d definitely prepare better for seasickness.
Because I also know our first experience wasn’t exactly ideal.
If we’d had calm weather and spent Day 3 swimming at Ocean Cay rather than staring at it from a ship that couldn’t dock, this review might sound quite different.
So yes.
I’d try cruising again.
I just wouldn’t replace our road trips with it.
Is an MSC Divina Bahamas Cruise Worth It?
For families, I can see why MSC Divina works.
Our kids loved the experience, the kids club was excellent for us, the evening entertainment was fun and we thought our particular cruise represented very good value.
Nassau was also a genuine highlight.
But our first cruise taught us something useful about ourselves as travellers.
We like freedom.
We like having a car.
We like changing our plans.
We like randomly stopping somewhere because we saw something interesting from the road.
Cruising takes a lot of that control away.
And while some people probably see that as relaxing…
We apparently see it as a problem.
Still, for around €1,000, we got three nights aboard MSC Divina, a balcony cabin, our first visit to the Bahamas, our first swim in the Caribbean, a great day exploring Nassau, plenty of entertainment and two very happy kids.
We also got seasickness, a cancelled island stop and a $40 ice cream.
You can’t say it wasn’t memorable.
The kids would cruise again tomorrow.
Their parents?
Ask us after another Espresso Martini. 🍸😂
Was this guide useful? Buy TravelDad a coffee. It probably won’t pay for the next family trip, but it might cover an airport coffee.
FAQ: MSC Divina Bahamas Cruise With Kids
Is MSC Divina good for families?
It was for ours. Our kids particularly loved the kids club, pools and evening entertainment. MSC continues to offer dedicated kids’ and teen facilities aboard Divina.
How much did our MSC Divina cruise cost?
We paid approximately €1,000 for our family of four for a three-night Bahamas cruise in February 2024. We also received a free upgrade to a balcony cabin.
Were drinks included?
Not in our booking. Wi-Fi and gratuities were included for us, but drinks weren’t. Packages and inclusions depend on the booking, so readers should check the conditions of their own fare rather than treating ours as current MSC policy.
Did we visit Nassau?
Yes. Nassau was actually one of our favourite parts of the cruise. We visited the Queen’s Staircase, the fort, Pirates of Nassau Museum, explored the city and went swimming.
Why didn’t we visit Ocean Cay?
Weather conditions prevented our ship from docking during our sailing. The captain attempted to approach again later, but we ultimately couldn’t go ashore.
Did anyone get seasick?
Yes. My wife struggled with seasickness, particularly when the weather became rougher.
Would we book MSC Divina again?
We wouldn’t rule it out, although we’d probably choose our next cruise based more heavily on the itinerary and number of port days. Our kids were much more enthusiastic about cruising than we were.
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