Reds4life

Istanbul, Corfu, Bari, Trieste,Olympia, Athens, Kusadasi. We didn't do any MSC excursions so I didn't feel it was relevant

That Purple Rain rendition was amazing. MSC has some great talent! That has improved since our first cruise in 2017 on Divina

We just got off the ship and I wanted to share a brief review while still fresh in my mind. This is mainly from an American first time European traveler perspective and probably just to give folks like myself a decent idea of what to expect. Embarkation was easy and efficient. Galataport is a nice place and was modern and easy to navigate. We stayed at Union Hotel before and after. Highly recommend. They walked us to the port and the hospitality was impressive. Our rooms were great as were our room attendants. Very clean and well kept. Service was excellent. Cleaned twice per day. Top notch! Food was good and bad. The buffet was one of the best we have been to on a cruise. Pizza is legendary of course. Fruit and salad was always fresh. Good variety of dishes.The carving roasts were very good and they always had good fish. We did however miss some degree of ethnic variety. No Asian food, rarely Indian or Mexican. Burgers were school cafeteria level but adequate if that's your craving. The scrambled eggs in the morning were oddly greasy or buttery. I almost thought they had cheese in them since they had a weird consistency and taste but several of the workers said no cheese. They were terrible but the premade omelets were ok. Waffles and pancakes were school cafeteria style again. Something very very odd for an American was no maple syrup unless you ask and no BBQ sauce. No shrimp or fried fish which was a disappointment. But overall the buffet was outstanding in enough spots to make it excellent overall. Just some weird MSC omissions of items. Now, the Main Dining Room...it was just not very good. The menus were very limited. Starters were terrible except for a few items like the Frito Misto Seafood. Too much cold cuts and odd salads. They didn't have the typical North American Always Available selection of steak, chicken, Caesar salad (isn't this Italian? 😃) which was a terrible omission. The main entrees were a pasta, rice dish, and fish dish and two odd meat dishes and a vegetarian dish. One time in 9 days they had chicken. And, almost every meat has what we now call "MSC gravy" which is the same brown gravy on everything. We struggled to get the wait staff to bring us ice, bread and butter. We really don't understand why people wouldn't want to drink cold beverages. Regardless, save the trouble of going to the dining room. Just eat the buffet. Lastly, we absolutely missed free lemonade,vitamin water, and some soft serve ice cream. The shows were some of the best we have seen in about a dozen cruises. Truly excellent singers and enough variety for everyone. They really should bring these folks to America though to be recognized. They sang an amazing performance of "Purple Rain" and "Shallow" and barely got a golf clap. We could probably do without the Turkish Dancers and Broadway night but the rest were spectacular. Great job! Splendida has plenty of pools and deck space, gym is small but nice. Nice amount of kids activities with bowling, 4D theater, race car, water slide. There was hardly any activities during the day though. Maybe hard with different nationalities? But we enjoyed ourselves. Probably the worst thing was the smoking...everywhere. Balconies, pool deck, casino, and anywhere in between at a given time. One guy was vaping in the theater. That's gross. Ports were all spectacular and a great itinerary. Overall, a great cruise, just the usual MSC oddities and some things that could be better, namely the Main Dining Room menu which was the worst ever. But a nice trip the Texas Roadhouse on the way home and a great big ICE cold Diet Mountain Dew will fix that lol. This cruise was a once in a lifetime trip for us and we enjoyed it tremendously 😉

That would be even better. As long as someone gets some use from it. Hate to see it go to waste. Like I said we would appreciate a few cans of Diet Coke instead and probably cost MSC less.

We usually give the room attendant my wife's free bottle of champagne from being Diamond. We don't drink and MSC won't give us Diet Coke instead so it goes to waste unless we donate it. They have always appreciated it

Thanks so much!

If I may ask, from your trip, one of the menus posted had a "Grilled Beef Minute Steak" under Always Available #27. Is that for lunch?

Thank you so much!

Do you guys possibly have photos of the menus? We were all good until my daughters found out that there may not be the always available steak or chicken breast in the MDR. They're all about trying new things as long as they have that to fall back on lol

Hi, I am looking for PDFs or photos of as many menus from the MDR from MSC European cruises. I am somewhat at a loss after searching the internet, YouTube, and message boards. What I find is lots of inconsistency and I'm not sure if that's the norm or not. Mainly I want to know what EXACTLY is on the "Always Available" section. I have found three different varieties so far and would appreciate any input on what is currently being offered. This may not be important to others but it is to us. Considering there is a separate thread for YC menus at each meal, I would think there should be a place for regular MDR as well.

Thanks so much!

I found some YouTube videos and it looks like the "Always Available" section tends to vary somewhat. Is this just random or seasonal? One video has Chicken Breast and Steak Tagliata as always available. Another had Steak Palliard. Like I mentioned, my daughter looks forward to a steak every day if she can and I am trying to either give her piece of mind or break the bad news lol. Man, this is tough in Europe. Just not much information available.

Wow thanks so much!!!

If you can supply the pictures of the menus even in a different language that would be much appreciated. I don't mind translating them at all. I find that interesting lol

Hey could I possibly bother you for the photos of the menus? I would appreciate it very much!

Any links to the menus from previous sailings? I don't really see them when I search for the live threads One of my daughters is pretty concerned about no steak or grilled chicken. They all like pizza though lol.

That all looks amazing to me! I love seafood though. Is there a generic always available chicken breast or something?

Thanks for the information. Glad the dress will be adequate. Packing for our trip will be minimal with multiple flights so it is good to hear.

My wife is always talking about trying a "Mediterranean Diet" so she will get the real thing sounds like! It should be a good experience for us. Thanks to all for the information

Thanks so much for the information! So I guess no "always available " NY Strip? Did you post the menus you have somewhere? I would love to check them out. I'm sure we will be fine and eat way too much either way

Hello, We are leaving June 13 for a 9 Night cruise from Istanbul. We're experienced MSC cruisers in North America but wanted to see what some differences were in Europe and get some questions answered ahead of time. Thanks in advance! 1. It says we get free mineral water and coffee. On North American sailings it has been coffee, iced tea, lemonade, sometimes vitamin water and in the morning juice. How is this different in Europe? Is mineral water bottled water? 2. I know MSC is usually a little more dressy for the MDR. I usually wear dress pants with a polo or button up dress shirt and the girls wear dresses. Is this acceptable? 3. Do they still have the Fun Pass on Splendida? Years ago we bought one for the whole cabin on Divina and one at a discount rate on Seaside I think. What is the rate and what does it include? 4. Any recent menus from MSC Europe? I heard they are different from the US based cruises. We are looking forward to trying new things but do they always have steak available in Europe or at least a beef dish? Sorry but we are pretty American like that lol. 5. Our Embarkation time is 1pm but my wife is Diamond and we get priority boarding and want to get on as soon as possible. What is the earliest time we can board?

Thanks!

If you don't want to go then I would be glad to take your place if it isn't in your name specifically. Kidding but not kidding lol

I also would drive to the casino from Ohio for a free cruise! That's awesome. Congrats!

Where is this at? I want to visit and like MSC lol