MSC Divina

November 2024 was the maiden US voyage of the MSC Divina, and we decided to experience that as our first sailing with the company. From what I can gather, MSC Cruises is an Italian based company that started sailing from the US in 2019 and we wanted to try short 4-day cruise to see what we thought. The cruise had two ports of call, Ocean Cay and Nassau, both in the Bahamas. This posting isn't going to share details about the experiences we had on board, but rather will share the beauty we saw there.

Ocean Cay

MSC holds a 100-year lease on an island it calls Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve. The island was created in the 1960's by dredging and was used to mine aragonite sand.

The company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars removing mining equipment, planting indigenous trees, shrubs and wildlife, constructing buildings, and starting a coral restoration project. When we were there, construction was still going on.

Nassau

Our second port of call was at the city of Nassau on the island of New Providence. Nassau is the capitol city of the Bahamas and the island reported nearly 300,000 people living there. the island is a popular tourist attraction and we were not the only cruise ship there. The Divina is the second from the right.

According to our tour guide, there are 200 employees who live on the island and the construction was to provide better accommodations for the staff, more bars and food venues for the cruise guests, and a complete science lab for the restoration of coral in the area.