Med Cruise

xeroshero

Hi All,

I, along with 10 others, are going on a med cruise in two weeks - going on teh MSC Splendida ship. Any experiences here of this ship? (or even its sister ship - the fantasia)

Main questions are wuth regrad to prices on teh boat - drinks etc - what kind of price are we looking at for a bottle of coke/beer/wine etc? I steh up front €37 per night worth it? (is this all inclusive - you ca drink what you like, whe you like and as much as you like?)

Dad is not a paste lover - what were the food selections like (minus pasta dishes?) Any hints or tips? Even from anyone who has been ona cruise at all? Trips - worth doing? Or are we better off to explore the countried/cities ourselves? Any info/help.hints appreciated....

GavinH

Hi,

My self and my wife and 2 kids are also booked on this ship in May for 7 nights out of Barcelona. I would be very interested to learn how you got on with the vouchers etc.

Enjoy.

Gavin

xeroshero

Hi Gavin...

I returned from my Med cruise this morning. When are you going?

Herre's my honest opinions on everything (I may need to break this and come back later due to time constraints) 11 of us went - ranging in age from 16 to mid 60's (8 ppl between 55-65, one female late 30's, one female 24 (me) and my brother who's 16 - just to give ya an idea of where I'm coming from.

Firstly - the ship - AMAZING... When the 11 of us saw the ship from our mini bus - everyone of us actually said "WOW" - it was quite funny. So much bigger than you can imagine/expect. Internally - lap of luxury... Everything is SPOTLESS - they clean non-stop and you couldn't find a piece of dirt if you went looking for it! Spotlessly clean - they were painting the external on a daily basis! Gorgeous ship - two of our party have been on three crusises before -Med and Carribean, they hadn't seen a ship like this one.

Food: Our group are food lovers, well some of them are anyway and my Dad is a pasta hater, and we had two very picky eaters - everyone was completely satisified with teh food - it was excellent (thats some compliment coming from some of our group). Breakfast - cereals, fruit, pastries, hot food - all you can eat. Lunch - buffet - all you can eat - everything available - pasta, pastries, fruit, meat... Dinner - SEVEN course sit down meal - very good quality - they serve dinner from a differetn italian region each night. Dress code is either Gala (first night when leaving Barca and third night I think, maybe fourth), informal and casual - anything is acceptablke really to be hinest - once there's no shorts! (they say no jeans for formal nights - jeans are fine - once you make some kind of effort. Lunch can be buffet or you can have a ist down lunch - same set up as dinner (different menu). You are assigned a restuaurant (one or two) and a dinner time for the duration of your trip - we were on the second sitting - 9pm or 10pm - depending on day trips - this was a downfall for teh cruise, we were still eating at 11:30 - too late to be eating a big dinner, no time/energy for few drinks after. Kids are assigned to early sitting as far as I could see (should suit you)

Ok, I gotta run now - will finish this tomorrow. Shout if you have any Q's so far.

xeroshero

OK - short version this time:

People: I had read abouit certain nationalities being pushy/skipped queues etc - this is SO true! One of the best bits of advice I think I can give you - GO PREPARED TO FIGHT YOU WAY!!! Esp at lifts etc - there is no such thing as a queue or a line - you could be standing waiting ofr a lift for two or three mins, it would arrive and somebody would walk straight in and push you out of the way to get in there beofre you! This wasnoted at the lunch time buffet also. This ship got very busy for our two or three day s- alo tof people seemed to embark at Genoa. Honestly - the ship was too busy for our final few days, esp around the pool area - there was always plenty of foods, seating etc in the restaurants (you assigned your table for night time dinner so numbers didn't affect this)

Packages: We went for the large beers package - 14 beers for approx €16 (works out you get about 3 beers free), the cocktail package - 12 coocktails for approx €70 and the 2nd wine package - 3 bottles of white, 3 red, 1 rose and 7 bottles of water for about €135. One point to note is that EVERYTHING has a 15% "cabin charge" added to it - this is a tax as such - so the cocktail package is advertised as €65 but it works out at something like €71. This goes for ALL purchases on the ship. You don't tip on the boat - there is €50 added per adult, €25 per child at the end - this covers all tipping - we found this handy - didn't have to worry about who to tip, or how much or worry about carrying money around (you need money on board teh ship at all unless going to the casino/games room) - you use your MSC card on board for everything - runs up a tab which you clear at teh end using you credit card or cash - whichever you prefer.

We did one MSC tour - 5 hour bus tour of Rome - three hours were spent rravelling to/from Rome, tour was a little disappointing - due to time comstraints. We did teh local bus tour in every other country - we found this to the best way of seeing the cities we stopped in.

I think that covers most things, oh wait, disembarkation - if you are like us your flight back to Dublin (?) will be at 10:55 am? If this is the case - contact reception the night befor you leave - or mention it to your proter - tell them you have an early flight and need to be off teh ship asap in the morning. We met at our metting poimnts at 7:50 (we were split up due to diff cabin types) I was still sitting on teh ship at 9:10 - no sign of movement - our pick up bus was outside at 8:15 - eventually we just got up and walked out - I have no idea what the hold up was but they were letting ppl off depending on the colour of their luggage tag (I was yellow) I think Green was called first, then, red, blue, brown, yellow.... We def would have mnissed our flight if we waited to be called as yellow!!! Plus hanging around in a bar for a couple of hours at the time is not gonna be much fun with two kids!

Enjoy the trip and shout if you have any Q's.

GavinH

Hi,

Thanks for putting the time in writing the review.

We are boarding on the 24th of May in Barcelona. Flying in from Cork on the Friday night and spending 3 nights in Barc. Did many get on in Barc?

So one thing I was wondering about, was where did you go to board the Ship, was there a terminal you go into first. What time did you arrive to board? Did it take long to get on and settled?

Did you try any of the restuarants that require a surplus, if so where the nice?

On the bear package is it a once off payment of 16E for the 14 bears over the 7 nights?

What time do the bars close?

What was your cabin like, was it an outside one with balcony, which deck?

Was there many kids on board?

Cheers and Thanks

Gavin

xeroshero

Hi Gavin.

Ok, boarding in Barce - it's very simple and quick. You give your ago them outside they put a tag on it and bring in to your cabin later in the day) You Queue (only for about 5 minutes) There about 20 check-in desks in the terminal so waiting around is not required. Point to note - they sell all the beer packages etc in teh terminal before you border - seems a bit stupid to me because it's kinda in the way and just delays things - you can get all the info and buy the packages from any of teh bars. You go straight onto teh boat - you re immediately shown to your cabin by one of teh crew members (they are all standing there in tehir uniforms waiting for people to board)

The (large) beer package - works out at around 55euro I think (I will check with my Dad) you can buy it in any of the bars (there are 17 bars on the ship!) Sorry - I meant to say €60 up above, not €16.... You can use the packages in any of the bar - its just a book of vouchers - use them as/when you want. So, for example, if two of ye are drinking beer, it can be two drinks each for teh 7 days. These vouchers only apply to draught beer (Becks of Stella Artois) they also sell bottled beer - don't think their are offers/vouchers for these tho.

The cabins are nice. I was in an internal cabin (no window or balcony) on deck 11, my parents had a blacony on deck 12. Both rooms were very nice. The showers are great (I love a good shower!) I was in a twin room - two beds, a small table with armchair, TV and a dresser - my parewnts room was for three - my bro was with them - he was on a pull out couch - the beds and couch were all VERY comfy (I also love my bed!)

The bars stayed open late - different bars opened/closed at different times - there is always at least one bar open.

Regards the food for the suprplus - we tried to chicken wings in the sports bar - nice (BBQ sauce is SPICY!) Honestly - we had no need to pay for food - we had lunch in the cities that we visited if docked at that time and the dinner at night time was very good - def no need/reason to go anywhere else.

Yep, quite a few kids. As (I presume) you know - kids go free on the Splendida so... Having said that - I wouldn't say there were too many kids, just a nice number really....