Newleno

On 12/15/2015 at 1:33 PM, Tonsoffun44 said:

Glad I just put Cash down for my sign an sail card, no need for these machines if they have them onboard. Hope they have someone standing nearby for those that can't figure out the machines. Heck in line at the bank it can take 5min for some people to figure out which way to swipe their ATM card to make a transaction at the teller.

I put some usa $dollars in on a European cruise and received an absolutely horrible exchange rate.  Would have been better using the credit card with no foreign transaction fees

15 hours ago, odyssyus said:

No one on this board knows anything about you or your likes/dislikes.  Asking random people on the internet for their 'recommendation' of anything is silly.  Making your own informed decision is probably best.

One gets information to make informed decisions, information from people with experience helps.  Would you prefer a rap concert or classical concert?

I have cruised 9 companies, this msc splendida was a tough go compared to the others.  With all of the other cruiselines when a problem occurs it gets taken care of.  MSC is a different animal, Laissez faire and good enough seems to be their motto.  Their prices are  very competitive now so I would do them again just be advised they do things differently.  The food was good , a lot of swimming pools, but not much else going on with the splendida

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

We did Japan out of Shanghai maybe 4-5 years ago.  It was probably the most interesting, and surprising, cruise/trip I have been on.  I still have at least 5 years left on my 10 year China Visa, but not sure I'll use it within that time span.

Yes the same Holland cruise we had 2 nights in Shanghai, the first day we were the first off the ship, went straight to the airport to fly (2 1/2 hours flight) to Xian to see the terracotta warriors and flew back the same day, and still had one day left for Shanghai, hmm now where is my old passport with the Chinese Visa I think I still have a few years left.  The older ships seem to have bigger rooms, more older ships have a full promenade deck.

Interesting thread, Recently took Splendida due to itinerary, was unaware there was virtually no sport activities, it would be hard to take that ship again with a bad itinerary cause not much else to do.  We took a cruise on an old Holland America ship with 2 nights in downtown Tokyo, a newer ship would have never made it under the bridge.  We also took one of the brand new ships of NCL from RIO to Florida with no stops after the Brazilian Olympics, a lot of fun because there was plenty to do on board.

3 hours ago, LiquidWu said:

I can well understand you, because being sent away after a long overseas flight is unimaginable.

But I was also on the Splendida even in beginning of November (from 9 Nov) and I found it very relaxing. There were no more checks during check-in and no more temperature measurements on board.

Thats great, glad you had a splendid time.  I am a very active person, love to play all type of sports so it was very frustrating for me.  I never buy ice cream at home and every cruiseline (9) I had traveled on always had free ice cream. (A cruise indulgence) Also "checking" I was summoned 3 times on a 8 day cruise to present my Saudi Arabia Visa and my Egyptian Visa.  Why? Wasnt once enough, I found it odd that I had to buy the Egyptian Visa when we never had a scheduled port for Egypt, (we did go thru the SUEZ canal)

17 hours ago, Aussie Jeep said:

When did you take this cruise?  

November of 2022, I would have never booked the cruise and flown to Rome knowing I had to have a Covid Test, (MSC phone customer service gave wrong information BEFORE I booked) the risk is just to great, if the test was positive I would have lost all my monies and would have been stuck in Rome at great expensive plus had to buy a flight back after quarantine was over.  Later I discovered that MSC used a type of Loop Hole to mandate the test.  At the time a European cruise did not require a test, nor did a red Sea Cruise, however a combination of the two (grand voyage for 8 days LOL) did mandate testing.

8 hours ago, Nikita4 said:

Do you have a drink package? And in wich experience do you choose? With Bella you can't choose your dining time.
It's normal on MSC there is no free decaf Coffee, no chocolate milk and no free ice cream. There is only water for free all day long. It's an european cruise line.
And the bow area is only for Yacht Club.
For the sport material you have to go to the indoor pool, they have all sports materials for the outdoor court.

The covid testing requirement was clear for the repo cruise (Grand Voyage), but in Civitavecchia no one controls the test certificates but in Genova they control it.

I was the cruise before on the MSC Splendida and the service and shows are good and normal. The tenor was very, very good!
And with customer service I never have a problem, but I'm cruising always in the YC.

With MSC you get what you paid for, for Bella you paid less but also the service level (Dining, cabins, Customer Service...) ist low. 

I can assure you , you certainly dont go down to the pool to pick up basketball HOOPS,  or to drag tennis nets across the ship,  LOL, Etc.., the court was completely void,  Most cruise lines you see a show once, they had the same piano player 3 times and the same tenor twice, any other major cruiseline would rarely or ever do this. My review is full of facts. Lol many know that customer service is not a strong suit of  MSC - example you call , you get wrong answer, you call again they give you wrong email, you finally get correct email they dont respond back.

On other major cruise lines they will open a bow area for viewing places of significance, like panama canal, napoli coast , new zealand straights.  MSC is just a different animal.  So the review will be most helpful with cruisers that have past experiences with different cruise lines. Cruisers that have certain expectations.  MSC is just different.

I found out Petra Port was delayed (the biggest reason the cruise was taken) from the tv as i was getting ready in the morning, no explanation was given. (Hey things happen but you got to let us know, we were at Sea 40 hours before this port but MSC never informed us of the delay nor reason for it.)

Their  on board app was clunky better off getting a daily paper version of happenings for the day. ( although not much was going on )

If the price was right I would cruise them again. If you have kids not much activity on the Splendida, at least not on the Nov 15-23 cruise.

There was no cold milk in cartons, there were small coffee type container vats for room temperature milk, (but only at breakfast) there was   no chocolate milk, no free ice cream except at dinner time but only if you ate in the dining room (I did not because my assigned dining time was 9:15.)

I did the same from NCL, on NCL you receive 2 specialty dinners, some wine, bottled water,  a bag of laundry

MSC not so much, one hour at thermal spa , whoopie!

Long Over Due

Pro's - Inside cabin was spacious, Pizza was excellent, house keeping good, only ate at buffet, food not a lot of choice but quality,  coffee good, plenty of swimming pools, sight lines from the stern, port, and starburst sides from top decks were excellent, internet great, 2 of the production shows were good, price I paid for the cruise was excellent, 

Con's - Incorrect information about documentation for Covid testing (cost many of us about $60 extra during embarkation), Saudi Arabia transit Visa program was abhorrent (finally after months I got most of my money back), No mini excursion nor any type of msc bus transportation to Jeddah airport on disembarkation day, the port of Petra was delayed by 2 hours with no significant notification nor explanation, no sight lines from the bow of the ship, bow areas were not opened to view transit of Suez Canal, Not many activities on board, there was a court but all sports were taken off, no bball hoops, no tennis, no volleyball, no pickle ball, nothing just an empty court, no golf netting, no shuffle board pushers nor pucks, for the first 3 days there was no cream for coffee, decaf coffee was never offered, no free cold drinks (only water) except some very sweet juice at breakfast (also after day 3), Maitre D would not change my 9:15 pm dining time so i ate at buffet, the same main event show was offered 3 times a pianist accompanied by a tenor Twice, one night no show was offered at all,  only one show time  per night and 3 times it ran past seated dining time, hardly any music on the ship, ( some old tired music after 5pm)  a live band never performed at the main pool area, they had these court jester types "dancers" part of the cruise director crew they were very annoying but always had a crowd of about 30 by the main pool, 

Customer Service and MSC really dont go together, so much wrong information or they just dont get back to you at all.

Just not a lot to do on the Splendida  ship so if you have kids it might be a consideration.

Price was right, I would cruise with them again if cheap (itinerary was most important) but disappointed.   I Did get to experience Petra, Awesome

1 hour ago, RedgeToo said:

To clarify - it's 10-16 weeks for a response to my TAs email, not the refund itself

I received a letter in my stateroom about receiving on board credit (due to their error), never received the credit, called MSC customer service line, they did nothing except give me wrong email to address the issue, finally got correct email, sent all documentation and have heard nothing back from them.  I believe this is typical MSC operating procedure.  "good enough" is their motto.  However the price of the cruise was dirt cheap and would book them again for that type of price but if things are basically equal between cruiselines I would not choose MSC.

17 hours ago, Noncon said:

I think you missed the period [.] between pay and Nothing.  ...you apply and pay, then nothing happens until...

How much did you pay?

12 hours ago, stephenSJ said:

The way the transit visa works is you apply and pay. Nothing then happens until 48hrs before the ship docks when MSC send the ships manifest to the Saudi visa people. They check the ships manifest and if you have successfully applied for a transit visa it is emailed to you. If MSC send the manifest late the visas are late . You will not get a transit visa sooner than MSC submit the manifest. 

You are saying you paid nothing for the transit visa, you applied and paid nothing, you got the transit visa for free?

On 1/6/2023 at 11:40 AM, Aeroplex said:

 
Same here. Transit Visa came afternoon the night before to the first port. 
 

Just apply and be patient. 

Hmm cost of this "transit" visa

24 minutes ago, katlew said:

We keep saying we could rant & rave & really have a worse time or make the best of the hand dealt to us. We will come back, though probably not as a cruise. 

If you have time please consider staying down under, great cruises for that part of the world this January (example balcony on princess $866, 13 days on jan 16, hits all the places you missed, tell Viking to compensate you in CASH, then book another cruise line).  Not just Princess, that was just one great deal of all the great deals on main stream cruiselines in January,  New Zealand is magnificent by cruise.  

42 minutes ago, nagster said:

I just did a solo Princess cruise with no supplement and MSC in Feb was no supplement as well. I was excited to see it becoming a little better.

 

Yeah the splendida currently has no supplement for the current middle east cruise schedule.

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

For most ports, having included transfers are vastly overrated.  Yes, there are ports like Civitavecchia, Valparaiso and Beijing where there are some significant distances.  But in most other places, it's easy to get to and from the ship.

 

Wondering what that "associated support" is?

A few weeks ago I paid $11.40 (usa dollars)from FCO to Civitavecchia, Valparaiso not much of a problem, Beijing yeah that's an issue, I would have loved to have a free transfer there!

2 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Either way, most unfortunate to have yet another mishap for Viking, especially so soon after the Antarctica and riverboat incidents. 

Dont forget the Viking Sky,  Although sloppy journalism and rumors have stated that this very expensive trip of a life time Christmas/New Years cruise have not even made it to one port.  

13 hours ago, katlew said:

If you see my latest post, the boat was passed as clean in quite a few countries before this trip. They did not expect the inspection in NZ to be any different. We do have travel insurance & will see what Viking plans to compensate us & then see if we need to contact them. We were getting a 50% voucher but now have been told they will call us about compensation when we get home.

So the ship was inspected for the same issue numerous times in recent history and passed but it failed to pass the NZ inspection?  Wow that fungus must grow quick.  I might have to start looking at more then just health insurance for my cruise travels.  Feel so bad for all you that dreamed of this trip only for it to be spoiled.  

On 12/26/2022 at 9:58 AM, Viking-nightmare said:

Hi,

 

My parents have an AUS and NZ cruise booked from Christmas to past new years. It was going to be their first trying with viking and first time to that part of the world. They were so excited. They flights were also booked through Viking and they had purchased additional insurance. Due to the Winter Cyclone in the US their flights were cancelled. They then could not contact Viking due to the office being closed for Christmas. The emergency number said they could not get flights rebooked.

 

Now they are on the phone with customer service and are being told that they can’t get flights, can’t get a refund, can’t be given any credit, and the insurance is saying it does not cover this scenario.

 

At this point they feel scammed out of an enormous amount of money with nothing to show for it. They thought viking was a high end line but are left with nothing and no recourse.

 

Does anyone have any contact for someone at Viking that can make this right?

 

At this point I just have to warn everyone to read through all your contracts you sign with Viking carefully because they are the kind of company that will trick you out of your money and not deliver anything back. Be warned!

 

I am happy to provide more details, but would have to ask my parents. No doubt it is my parents “fault” for giving this company their money, but they are absolutely devastated over Christmas. What a shame!

 

 

Hopefully you will get the resolution and then you can give us your update.  Thank you for the information because I falsely assumed that if you booked the flights with Viking Package then problems like this would be covered by Viking, I falsely assumed that they would either get you to the ship or make you whole.  I was indeed ignorant about what the Viking Flight package entailed.  Good Luck to you.

2 hours ago, Nikita4 said:

Its not only MSC, all european cruise lines dont have cold ice tea for free. The ice tea is an american thing.

Critical thinking/reading comprehension is important, what complementary cold drinks besides water did the splendida have for lunch/dinner and during the day/evening to drink from Nov 15 - Nov 23 in the year 2022?  I will give you the answer, NONE.  So I went to the grocery store and walked right through security after putting a grocery bag of 3 big bottles of soda through the "X-Ray" machine.  The key here which I have repeated numerous times is "free cold drinks besides water" please learn it, love it live it.

On 12/28/2022 at 8:05 AM, perakcruiser said:

No, all European or Asian cruise lines will not offer cold ice tea. It is something totally US, very strange that you expect it everywhere in the world. 

Strange Indeed was your post, I had first hand knowledge from my November cruise about bringing drinks on board and why I left  the ship to buy them,  a concerned traveler asked me if there was unsweetened tea as a cold drink on board,  I answered them,  I did not bring up the subject.  Yes it is very strange that you would say such a thing.  In addition I have cruised or took an expedition ship to every single continent and there was always some type of cold "free" drinks besides water.  MSC, nope not on my Mediterranea/Red Sea cruise, MSC is a little different (not in a good way) from other cruise lines.

5 hours ago, BertieRulesOK said:

The buffet had juice in the mornings and water at all times, plus tea and coffee.  It's a bargain cruise, so you pay for your drinks or buy a package.

I have been on 9 different cruiselines over 500 days of cruising, all the other cruiselines had cold ice tea 24/7 included in your bargain rate,  MSC is just different. 

7 hours ago, asalligo said:

No free cold drinks at all, no juice, milk, unsweetened tea? Nothing?  

No Juice, No unsweetened tea, no cold milk - for breakfast there was luke warm milk in coffee type containers.  Actually it wasnt until day 4 that there was luke warm milk for afternoon/evening  coffee, before that I was drinking it black except for breakfast. No decaf coffee ever on the 8 day trip.