Splendida or Orchestra?

[pamesacruisin]

Need help figuring out which ship and itinerary to spend a week cruising in Europe. DH and I are staying a week in Tuscany, Italy with family and then want to take a week and cruise to see some more of Europe. None of the others want to cruise which does not make any sense to me:rolleyes:. Looking at Med. cruises in September, 2013. Narrowed it down to either the Splendida or the Orchestra sailing out of Genoa as that seems to be the closest port from where we will be staying in Italy. This will be our first time on an MSC ship. The Splendida ports are Genoa, Rome, Tunis, Marseille, Valencia, and Barcelona. The Orchestra ports are Genoa, Rome, Palermo, Ibiza, Palma De Mallorca, and Villefranche. Please help me decide.

[Skier52]

Need help figuring out which ship and itinerary to spend a week cruising in Europe. DH and I are staying a week in Tuscany, Italy with family and then want to take a week and cruise to see some more of Europe. None of the others want to cruise which does not make any sense to me:rolleyes:. Looking at Med. cruises in September, 2013. Narrowed it down to either the Splendida or the Orchestra sailing out of Genoa as that seems to be the closest port from where we will be staying in Italy. This will be our first time on an MSC ship. The Splendida ports are Genoa, Rome, Tunis, Marseille, Valencia, and Barcelona. The Orchestra ports are Genoa, Rome, Palermo, Ibiza, Palma De Mallorca, and Villefranche. Please help me decide.

Looking at the itinerary, I choose Splendida as the ports of Rome, Barcelona are brilliant and Vallenca has some fantasstic architeture and a fabulous Marine park, the ports on the other itinerary, apart from Rome, are second division.

 

The other advatage of Splendida is that if you like space the cat. !2 balcony cabins are 50% bigger (290 square ft) than average balcony cabins. Orchestra has cat 12 ( at 250 sq. ft.) which are very long and narrow unlike Splendida's which have a much squarer shape.

There are only eight of these cabins on Splendida and they sell out fast. I've been in them on both my sailings on her.

 

If you want to be completely spoilt then go for the Yacht club, (which inludes an All inclusive drinks menu in the price). It's SOOOOOOOO good, I went in the YC on Divina (at a price £100 less than a cat. 11 + AI)

 

If you are looking for less expensive cabins, then like for like those on Splendida are bigger.

 

 

Inside Splend. 183 sq. ft. Orch. 140 sq.ft.

 

Outside Splend. 183 sq. ft. Orch. 140 sq.ft.

 

Balconies Splend. 193 sq. ft. Orch. 178 sq. ft.

 

So given the itinerares and cabin sq. ft., I'd go for Splendida on these two criteria of which itinerary is the more important.

 

 

 

 

Pete