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Newleno

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    am i the only critic on cruise critic?

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  1. Newleno

    credit cards

    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
  2. One gets information to make informed decisions, information from people with experience helps. Would you prefer a rap concert or classical concert?
  3. 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
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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)
  7. 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. 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.
  9. 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.)
  10. 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!
  11. 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
  12. 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.
  13. You are saying you paid nothing for the transit visa, you applied and paid nothing, you got the transit visa for free?
  14. Hmm cost of this "transit" visa
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