Back! Splendida 5-16th March

Wrote up a pretty rough review. Hope it helps some people :)

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=64921

I was getting a little worried before we went with some peoples opinions, but still went open minded & had a great time. It didn't go too fast which was great, having 11 nights instead of 7 makes for a much more relaxing time I think.

Nice fair review. Love your sense of humor. It appears your expectations were realistic to begin with and the cruise met them. You obviously did your homework!

Thank you for the enlightening write up. We are considering an MSC cruise out of Genoa in October to wrap up a family trip in Tuscany. Have never used MSC so it sounds like an adventure:) Just being in Europe will be an adventure for us and it sounds like MSC will give us a European experience.

Where did you stay in Genoa? How did you select it and reserve it? Did you spend the night after leaving the ship? We would be taking the train up from Pisa or Florence, through Milan, so not too different from what you did. Probably flying out of Pisa also, so will probably need to spend a night after the cruise.

I'm confused about the water issue in the MDR, but I guess I'll learn more from reading more here. Do they just not pour a glass of regular tap water/ice water to have with dinner? I guess I'll just bring my water bottle with water from the room. Seems odd, but we'll figure it out. :)

Thank you for a well balanced review. It gave me a better idea of what to expect.

Thanks for your good review

we leave tomorrow so I am happy to read someone who is realistic and somewhat happy with the experience

will post a review myself when back!

We flew into Milan, stayed there the night & then caught the train to Genoa. We stayed in the Alexander Hotel. It is right near the metro/main station & is across the road from the cruise terminal (about 5 minute walk with suitcase in tow.

I booked the hotel via Expedia.ca. The room was fine, bed wasn't the best, but it made it nice to sleep in our nice bed on the ship ;)

I'm sure you could ask for tap water, or like you said, bring a bottle from the room.

You will find you will buy a bottle of water when you meet in your excursion meeting point. They are $1 euro & redeemed from your excursion voucher. We always had lots of bottles in our cabin we could have taken to dinner & I am sure noone would look twice at you.

Check out the drink/wine packages though, more economical to grab that & be done with your water at dinner. They are 1 litre ones too.:)

Great balanced review!!

Just one question , can you use the 704 package for lunch and dinner or is it just dinner?

Thanks

Mairead

Both, just glasses of wine for lunch instead of dinner. A couple of Heinekins at lunch goes down well :)

2nd waitress tried to say they couldnt give bottled Heinekins but got told they could, after that no problems :)

We did lunch in the dining room once. It was pretty bad. We were heading to our mdr only to run into our dinner partners who were going to the other mdr. We joined them & I thought we had it bad.

The wait staff that aren't in La Reggia were very poor, mind you they were understaffed. Why they can't make a call up to Bora Bora to get reinforcements is beyond me. I got 1 beer then after pleading for it. The lunch served was pretty ordinary, no doubt the worst dining experience we had.

Best part was he put our friends drinks on my card so it cost them nothing since what they had was part of my package :)

We flew into Milan, stayed there the night & then caught the train to Genoa. We stayed in the Alexander Hotel. It is right near the metro/main station & is across the road from the cruise terminal (about 5 minute walk with suitcase in tow.

 

I booked the hotel via Expedia.ca. The room was fine, bed wasn't the best, but it made it nice to sleep in our nice bed on the ship ;)

 

I'm sure you could ask for tap water, or like you said, bring a bottle from the room.

 

You will find you will buy a bottle of water when you meet in your excursion meeting point. They are $1 euro & redeemed from your excursion voucher. We always had lots of bottles in our cabin we could have taken to dinner & I am sure noone would look twice at you.

 

Check out the drink/wine packages though, more economical to grab that & be done with your water at dinner. They are 1 litre ones too.:)

Thanks AxisSally for the valuable tips. I'm really getting into the planning groove now :D

welcome :)