currently on splendida, YC with kids

[arboreal]

On the Splendida, staying in yacht club... feel free to ask any questions if you have them. Have two young children, so if you're curious about traveling with the little ones, I'm happy to answer questions.

[hatjohn]

Booked on her in May, is the inside pool heated? What are the shows like? Smoking how bad around the ship?

[Antonintassie]

Hi are you in a deck 12 YC2 suite and if so how is the sofa bed ? I have a tall teen who would be sleeping on it

 

Kind Regards

 

Tony

[phider]

Sorry, but it would probably be relevant to state how old your kids are. Maybe its just me.

 

Philip

[arboreal]

Hatjohn - inside pool (L'equatore) is heated to 30 degrees (80 fahrenheit I think?) but quite deep... 5'7 at its shallowest point so too deep for me to stand. 3 hot tubs in that area as well. all pools and hot tubs were drained during our at sea day - which was a surprise to me, but I'm new to cruising. outside pools are open now, even in december, but it's a bit too windy. the hot tubs on deck 18 (yacht club area) have nice windbreaks though.

 

Haven't seen any of the shows - young children, so no nightlife for us. :) we've walked through the lounges while there have been performances going, standard lounge singer type shows, and they seem nice. the dance floor is regularly filled. but we haven't made it to the theater for a show yet.

 

It does feel smoky in some areas, but it can be avoided. We smell smoke whenever we're walking to dinner at olivo, via decks 6 and 7, because it's right above the casino. There are some designated smoking areas on the ship, but no smoking in the main public areas. There's even a smoking area in the Yacht club lounge (top sail lounge) which really surprised me, but as long as you're on the other side of the room, you can't smell it. And I'm hyper-sensitive to cigarette smoke. So I'd say in general, you can avoid the smell.

 

Tony - we're in a YC1 cabin on deck 15, but using the sofa bed, and it seems pretty long. My husband was on it for a night or two until we conquered our toddler's jet lag. My 6'4 brother is staying next door - I can have him check it out for you if you want. :)

 

Philip - sorry to not be specific, we have a 2 year old and a 6-month baby. Everyone has been really helpful with the children - it's not easy cruising with two this young but the staff has been incredible with them. We actually have to leave extra time when walking to dinner because everyone on staff wants to say hi to the kids, especially the baby.

[hatjohn]

Thank you so much for the prompt reply.

 

Am booked on the divina in jan. Splendida may & preziosa in oct next year can't come quick enough!

 

Where is the ship at the moment , can't imagine May people in the out doors pools now?

 

What's the cost for using wifi? Reasonable ? Maybe cheaper than roaming costs

 

John

[Antonintassie]

Thanks for the reply the sofa bed sounds like it will be ok our son is 6 2 " the smoking sounds reasonably well managed we are all non smokers .

We are looking at 22 days in Europe over Dec/Jan 2015 so outdoors will be hit and miss anyway but we will get plenty of sun in Tasmania / Dubai anyway.

Jet lag is hard with younger kids we used to fly Australia to Calgary which was tough

[salvat55]

I will on a January 2014 Caribbean cruise staying in the Yacht Club.

Are you allowed to have guest in your Yacht Club suite that not

staying in the Yacht Club ?

If yes are their any limits such as number of people or number of occasions ?

 

Thanks

[arboreal]

Hatjohn - we were in Genoa yesterday, Marseille today. It's pretty chilly - from 3 to 12 degrees C. So we're sticking to the indoor pools. The wifi is crazy expensive, I'm afraid. We bought a 24-hour pass (which is a total of 24 hours of internet access to be used over the entire week, not 24 hours straight), and it cost about $200 US - can't remember how many Euros. It's probably more than the average family would need but we have two university professors in our party who needed to keep up with work email. If you buy the package, remember to log out every time (there are more specifics in the forum, this has been discussed at length I think) - if you stay logged in, even after you shut off your computer or device, the clock keeps ticking. Hope you have three fantastic trips! We're really enjoying ours, can't believe it comes to an end tomorrow. :(

 

Tony - even though it's been chilly, it's been pretty sunny... and Tunisia will definitely be warmer than France/Italy. What a great trip you have planned! I think our older one is finally over the jet lag... knock on wood. :)

 

Salvat55 - From what I understand, this is strongly discouraged. We originally explored having my parents stay in yacht club, while my brother and my husband and I stayed in regular staterooms. They made it clear that it would be difficult to visit regularly - "once or twice" was all that they would allow. Since we didn't want to be separated, we all ended up in yacht club, despite the substantial expense. The yacht club hallways are only accessible by key pass - otherwise you literally can't get to the area. If you're traveling as a group, they want everyone in the group to be in the yacht club. Hope that helps.

[Antonintassie]

Hi Thanks for the reply

I am self employed so internet is one of those items I just end up paying for ,are the speeds ok for web based email communications ? and is the phone reception ok ? it was very patchy on our Royal Princess cruise in Sept .

I do appreciate the larger MSC inet packages they offer I ended up having two order 2 x of the largest Princess offered .

 

As an aside can anyone advise me if the UK and mainland Europe have a holiday break over Christmas / New Year and how long it is ?

 

Kind Regards

 

Tony

[arboreal]

Hi Tony,

 

The internet speed was adequate but not great. If you need to upload or download files, it'll take a while. For checking webmail, it's fine but not the most efficient. Phone reception was fine for me when we were in port... but American cell phones run on a totally different network, so I'm not sure it's comparable.

 

We left the Splendida today... already miss it! :(

[AmoMondo]

Hi Thanks for the reply

I am self employed so internet is one of those items I just end up paying for ,are the speeds ok for web based email communications ? and is the phone reception ok ? it was very patchy on our Royal Princess cruise in Sept .

I do appreciate the larger MSC inet packages they offer I ended up having two order 2 x of the largest Princess offered .

 

As an aside can anyone advise me if the UK and mainland Europe have a holiday break over Christmas / New Year and how long it is ?

 

Kind Regards

 

Tony

 

Holidays in the UK are 25th & 26th Dec and 1st Jan. 2nd jan is also a holiday in Scotland but not England and Wales. Not sure about Northern Ireland.

[Skipper Tim]

Holidays in the UK are 25th & 26th Dec and 1st Jan. 2nd jan is also a holiday in Scotland but not England and Wales. Not sure about Northern Ireland.

 

The UK public holidays site is apparently the Government's most popular by far:

 

https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays

[Antonintassie]

Thanks Gents

[Kiwimills]

Hi,

We got on at marseille dec 8th and off 15 th. Were we on board at the same time?

I wrote a review here

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10703-k7049034-Family_of_6_just_back_from_MSC_splendida_cruise-Cruises.html

We were in the bowels of the ship though!!

 

We have 4 kids, 11-17 ( and a 5th already in the uk)

And I think we might have been the only kiwis on board...we met 2 Aussie families and that was it. Hard to tell though as people don't really sit and chat with you.

 

Anyway, hope you had a good time, we did :)

We were on splendida

Did western med.

[arboreal]

Yep, Kiwimills, we overlapped... just by a day. :) We got off in Barcelona on Dec. 9th. And it was a great trip... we loved it. Didn't meet any Kiwis, just two Aussies and lots of Spanish/French/Italian. One other American couple, that was it. A very memorable trip. Glad you had fun too!

[Kiwimills]

I met an Aussie in the lift, from qld. Had long blonde hair, she was getting off in Barcelona too..the next day!

Other than that, I didn't have a whole lot of chit chatting going on other than with the husband...grrr.

 

We had calm seas the whole way, I hope you did too. It made it really nice to sail.

Glad you had fun!