Mini Review Splendida Nov 15-23

[Newleno]

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

[Newleno]

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.)

[Aussie Jeep]

When did you take this cruise?  

[Nikita4]

7 hours ago, Newleno said:

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.)

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. 

[Newleno]

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.

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Newleno

[Newleno]

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.

[LiquidWu]

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.

[Newleno]

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)