The MSC Splendida is well suited for families, but its price range, interesting itineraries, and excellent common areas will also appeal to couples and singles. The cruise ship caters primarily to Europeans, but North Americans who enjoy a European-flavored, multi-lingual hotels in phoenix vacation will appreciate the value of the ship's programs.
I had a confirmed reservation and confirmed airport pickup when I arrived in Rome for my cruise. hotels in phoenix Upon my arrival in Rome, there was no airport pick up. I called hotels in phoenix for my pickup, and the office told me they were stuck in traffic. The driver shows up two hours later and takes us to the cruise ship. I was initially led to believe I would be driving in a car, but it was large 15 passenger Mercedes Bus. Upon my arrival, check in was rather quick. They were very persistent on keeping our passports. I insisted on getting my passport back as I trust no one with my passport. When we got on board, the ship was very nice and clean. The room exceeded my expectations. Once the ship set sail for Genoa, I proceeded to the tour desk on the 6th floor to make arrangements for tours for my trip. To my surprise, during the hours of normal operation for the desk, no one was to be found.
My next issue came about 30 minutes later. I just realized my confirmed reservation for a small table for 2 people and first seating has been moved to table of 5-7 people for the second seating. Considering my wife and I flew in from Asia 6 hours ahead of the cruise line, it was like asking us to eat dinner at 3am. I had a choice, I could be moved to a private table, and I could get first seating, or I can stick with my current seating hotels in phoenix and not offend the other people at the table. My wife made me choose not offending other people. As a result we missed a total of 6 dinners on a 10 day cruise.
Next is the wake up call system. hotels in phoenix I tried to use the phone system to dial for a wake up call. It didn t work. I called the front desk asking for a wake up call. Called 3 times in 15 minutes. No answer. Housekeeping hotels in phoenix woke us at 9pm for turn down service as we should have been at dinner. Housekeeping informed hotels in phoenix us that they wouldn t serve us food in the room since we missed dinner and if we wanted to eat we had to pay for it. Food is available for a limited amount of time on the cruise. If you miss the meal you already paid for, you have to eat at one of their dining restaurants that you have to pay for. Those restaurants hotels in phoenix are only open to 3am. If you don t eat by 3am, you will have to wait until breakfast. There is room service available. You can order it by phone or through the television. However, there is a total of 12 different items for food, three are salads, there are two sandwiches, and the rest have to be purchased with alcohol. There is a large alcohol selection for room service. To give you an idea how bad room service is, let me recap the conversation I had with them:
Here is the next issue, the entire staff has English as a second language. hotels in phoenix A majority of the work force is either from Indonesia, Italy, hotels in phoenix or Honduras. The staff try to help, but they are very quick to say no if they don t know. The staff aren t knowledgeable. If the staff doesn t know, the first place they will refer you to is the front desk. The front desk is like standing hotels in phoenix in line at a gas station when there is a gas crisis. There is no organization, it is over crowded, and not enough people working at the front desk. The front desk is the only shining beacon of support on the boat, but they are really limited on what they can do. In fact they had no knowledge of my confirmed hotels in phoenix reservation. There is a serious hotels in phoenix disconnect here between the travel agent, MSC cruises, and the staff on the MSC Splendida. Between the three of them they butchered every aspect of my reservation except for my room number and that I was to board on that boat at that date and time.
Now the next concern is the food. Overall it is ok. At first it will seem good, but after day 3 it will seem repetitious. The breakfast buffet or the sit down breakfast are almost identical on a daily basis. The only thing that is free is juice at this meal. You will pay for drinks water, juice, anything else for any other meal. The juices will be served in a glass that is sufficient to hold 8 ounces of water maximum. If you are thirsty, order 3-4 glasses at a time. After breakfast, yes you will be paying for water, even if they told you wouldn t be.
Cruise entertainment. I saw a few shows in the theater. Horrible. Very boring. I fell asleep through every performance and left early it was that bad. I know they tried their best, but it was bad. I wanted hotels in phoenix a refund for my time as I could have used it elsewhere.
Cruise Events They have a helpful publishing that states everything that is going on for the day. This is a plus for the cruise. However, it doesn t always fully explain what is going on. Events are hardly ever on time. I went to the table tennis event and was told I couldn t play because I didn t have a partner. If the magazine said doubles table tennis, I never would have shown up. The prizes they give away, if they give anything away is a small cheap trinket with the MSC logo on it. Events are very limited and there are several hours of poor events where you feel you are left to find your own entertainment.
hotels in phoenix Bar Television is open for 24 hours. Food service stops at 3. This is the only place to watch sports on the cruise that isn t Eurosport. Eurosport is good if you like watching obscure European sports like handball and ski jumping. If you want to watch ESPN, a football match, a basketball match, or just any entertaining sport, go to the sports bar and hope they left your channel.
In room television If you speak English and only English, you will hate this. There is a total of 3 English channels on the boat (unless you go to the bar). All 3 English Channels are news. You can go for Pay Per View where they have a somewhat decent collection of over priced movies for you to view. Be careful, if you have kids they can navigate their way to the adult movie section and see the covers hotels in phoenix of porno movies.
Shops They are opened for limited hours. It took me 4 days to get to the pool shop. The cruise claims the store was opened, but I kept going back there during normal operating hours to find a closed store. Supplies are limited. If you need something, bring it with you, don t expect them to have anything you want or need. Ladies forgot a swimsuit, don t expect to buy one here. Men, need a formal sport coat for dinner? Keep looking.
Drinks You will pay for everything except for juices at breakfast. Yes, you will pay for water and soda. In my opinion water should be free as that is a safety concern as guests should be properly hydrated. The wines are horrible. Either I got every corked bottle or those wines were horrible. I have had my fair share of wine and I can tell what fruits are in wines. The fact that the MSC states that a sommelier even pair the meals to these wines are offensive. I don t think any worthwhile sommelier would match the wines served with the dishes served.
Passport MSC likes to hold your passport. They demand to keep it. You ask to get it back. They give it back to you later. By the time you dock again, they will send you a message saying they need it back. You return it. You go back to the front desk to get it back, they refuse to give it back to you. You insist hotels in phoenix they still refuse. By the time you disembark, the front desk has everyone s passport. If you are in a hurry to disembark, don t count on it.
Tours Overpriced and bad tour guides. It is half price if you go to the place yourself and ignore the guide. Example Genoa Aquarium: 25 euro for the tour. If you walk 1/2 mile to the place it is 17 euro for the aquarium ticket. The tour guides don t do a good job of explaining the area and are quicker to show you pictures of their cat instead hotels in phoenix of answering a question about the terrain.
hotels in phoenix Disembarking I hope you aren t in a rush. Disembarking is a long process. First they will have your passport, good luck getting that back. Next find your black suit case in a pile of 500 suitcases of the same color. After that, you can choose a method of transportation. There is no organization. The MSC bus drivers will not help you nor open the bus storage doors to store your bags, but you can t take your bag on the bus. I had to wait through 4 buses to catch one in spite of being at the front of the line for two of the buses. As well MSC cruises and my travel agent failed to notify me that I had no transportation back to the airport. I had to pay 150 euro out of pocket to get back to the airport to make my flight.
I and my family hotels in phoenix joined the MSC Splendida in 2009. We are Australian-Filipinos. Overall, me, my wife and my 2 adult daughters hotels in phoenix enjoyed our trip. The routes we took (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia) were excellent. The staff and officers were decent and accommodating. There is large variety of food which you can choose. But from the recent travel of my friends (Australian/Filipino/Chinese) last May to the same ship, they say that they have had a really bad experience from staff to food. The time they traveled was raining bad and there was this volcano smoke from Iceland hovering in Europe. I also thought the service and food will suffer due to the global economic crisis. Being seasoned travelers, they were disappointed. I cannot speak for them, but during our travel, we already expected the lack of Englis-speaking staff tourists in the ship. We also are aware that Italian good manners are considered load and intimidating with Americans and Asians. We also anticipate that Italian food may be significantly different from the way the Italians serve it in Australia. hotels in phoenix But my family and I adapt to these changes and we rose to the challenge! In the end, we made friends and enjoyed the fantastic ports that we visited.
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