Splendida Dubai general questions

[phillipr]

Hello, I'll be on a MSC Splendida cruise out of Dubai and have a bunch of questions:

 

1. My assigned boarding time is around 6 pm. Are we allowed to arrive earlier just to explore the ship and/or have lunch on board? I won't mind if room isn't ready. 
2. Is there any where on the ship that offers free good quality drinking water throughout the day? I have a mildly sensitive stomach so I'm a bit worried whether the cabin tap water would sit well with me.
3. If I buy a sealed bag of candy in a city as a gift for someone back home, can I bring it on board or can the cruise ship hold onto it and give it back to me on the last day of cruise when I check-out? 
4. Is it possible to get a scone with clotted cream at any of ship's restaurants? :)
5. For Sir Bani Yas Island: 
      a) Is free food/water available on the island?
      b) Should I wear water shoes if swimming? (e.g. due to rocky shoreline) 
      c) Is it easy to get a beach chair in the shade? Do I need to worry about people 'stealing' chairs? (i.e. moving my stuff off it)
6. On last day of cruise, I need to check-out of the cruise early around 2 am to catch a flight out of Dubai International Airport 😞
      a) Are lots of taxis available at Port Rashid at 2 am? 
      b) Am I able to check luggage and/or print airport luggage tags at Port Rashid?

 

Thanks!

[Nunagoras]

18 hours ago, phillipr said:

Hello, I'll be on a MSC Splendida cruise out of Dubai and have a bunch of questions:

 

1. My assigned boarding time is around 6 pm. Are we allowed to arrive earlier just to explore the ship and/or have lunch on board? I won't mind if room isn't ready.  Yes as far as boarding has started till all aboard time on generally the 2 days stop in Dubai. Beware though that the Dubai authorities are generally very strict by forbidding anyone to stand static inside the terminal building. You can only stand by your check-in desk or the security desk or if there is a line for both. From the time you enter the building to the time you enter the ship you're supposed to go always walking!
2. Is there any where on the ship that offers free good quality drinking water throughout the day? I have a mildly sensitive stomach so I'm a bit worried whether the cabin tap water would sit well with me. The buffet has some filtered tap water, but in your case it seems better to purchase their bottled water packages. They're pretty inexpensive these days. I believe some 30EUR for a (1 litter, 14 bottles) booklet to use anywhere else on the ship.
3. If I buy a sealed bag of candy in a city as a gift for someone back home, can I bring it on board or can the cruise ship hold onto it and give it back to me on the last day of cruise when I check-out? Generally no problems with purchases on any of the port. The port authorities might find some items unelectable to go ahead when you pass security there. I believe that not being the case.
4. Is it possible to get a scone with clotted cream at any of ship's restaurants? 🙂 Perhaps at the pastry shop or at the Venchy gelato place?...
5. For Sir Bani Yas Island: 
      a) Is free food/water available on the island?
      b) Should I wear water shoes if swimming? (e.g. due to rocky shoreline) 
      c) Is it easy to get a beach chair in the shade? Do I need to worry about people 'stealing' chairs? (i.e. moving my stuff off it) Not so nice whether made us to make Sir Bani Yas just another see day, so unfortunately no answer on that one.
6. On last day of cruise, I need to check-out of the cruise early around 2 am to catch a flight out of Dubai International Airport 😞
      a) Are lots of taxis available at Port Rashid at 2 am? Yes. Port Rashid is a "city that doesn't sleep"...
      b) Am I able to check luggage and/or print airport luggage tags at Port Rashid? I believe not. Plenty of representatives for check in at the Airport though!

Hope to have helped a little!

 

Thanks! Have a nice day!... 🙂

 

[CruiseIreland]

• My assigned boarding time is
• For Sir Bani Yas Island: 
     a) Is free food/water available on the island? YES. FULL BUFFET AND BAR SERVICE ON BEACH
     b) Should I wear water shoes if swimming? (e.g. due to rocky shoreline) YES, BIT ROCKY
     c) Is it easy to get a beach chair in the shade? Do I need to worry about people 'stealing' chairs? (i.e. moving my stuff off it) ONLY SHADE IS THATCHED UMBRELLAS OVER SUNBEDS. IF BUSY, YOU MAY STRUGGLE BUT FOLK WON'T STEAL YOUR BED.

Edited December 20, 2018 by CruiseIreland

[cruiser man 60]

I had the same in my e ticket, boardint time 19.00, who is going to board then and miss lunch and possibly dinner if you are early sitting?

if last departure from ship is c10am why do they put such stupid times on tickets for boarding?

[jay888]

My boarding is 21:00 but the transfer from the hotel is 11:00

[framboesa]

When do you know the boarding times? I only cruise on March 16th, maybe one month before? 

We will arrive to Dubai 3 days before and because we have been to similar ships as splendida we prefer to enjoy the city as much as possible rather than early boarding, but would love to see our boarding time to organize our day 😊

[jay888]

2 hours ago, framboesa said:

When do you know the boarding times? I only cruise on March 16th, maybe one month before? 

We will arrive to Dubai 3 days before and because we have been to similar ships as splendida we prefer to enjoy the city as much as possible rather than early boarding, but would love to see our boarding time to organize our day 😊

I didn’t know until I received my tickets

[Enrg1999]

Hi everybody,

I’ve called MSC a few days ago and they told me that boarding start at 5 PM and that after that threshold you can board whenever you wish(the boarding time on your tickets it’s just a suggestion and it isn’t enforced)

Guess it’s uselles to go earlier...

Plus, the bottled water package you mentioned is no longer available, from December onward only all-inclusive packages are sold and their prices raised too 😞

Edited December 25, 2018 by Enrg1999

[cruiser man 60]

I cannot see most passengers waiting until 5pm to board especially if they have landed on the early morning flight at c7am as many do.

i am having an overnight in Dubai to avoid the overnights flight so will not impact us as much but will still be aiming to get to terminal early afternoon.

[lambs2]

Yikes! We have to check out of our Guest House in Dubai by noon and were hoping to at least get onboard to pur some stuff in our stateroom and safe before joining a tour at 3pm to the desert! We are Blackcard members. Will leaving our luggage at the ship even be posible so we can take that tour (not a ship excursion)?

[cruiser man 60]

We just got off Splendida after a great cruise on her. We got on ship at noon after taking taxi from hotel , there were no queues and boarded about 10 minutes later.

others on our dinner table boarded at 10.30 after a MSC transfer bus collection from overnight flight.

when we were disemabarking yesterday there were passengers boarding at 9am and heading up for breakfast. So I would say head down about 11 .

[Quantum cruiser]

On 12/26/2018 at 6:48 PM, cruiser man 60 said:

I cannot see most passengers waiting until 5pm to board especially if they have landed on the early morning flight at c7am as many do.

 

Same here, arriving on the morning flight (6 am),  waiting until late afternoon for boarding would not be pleasant. And if so leaving your luggage at the terminal hopefully possible, could take a taxi to The Hard Rock Café,  visited everyone on our destinations so far where there is one...

[framboesa]

.

Edited January 21, 2019 by framboesa
duplicate

[framboesa]

1 minute ago, framboesa said:

Same here, arriving on the morning flight (6 am),  waiting until late afternoon for boarding would not be pleasant. And if so leaving your luggage at the terminal hopefully possible, could take a taxi to The Hard Rock Café,  visited everyone on our destinations so far where there is one...

 

During the last day (after the check out) we booked our flight to 2.45 a.m. (I guess we will be the last couple leaving the ship :D ) So we will have one entire day in Dubai; we will leave our luggage at the Emirates mall for free so we can enjoy the day, but we can leave it at the airport too for a fee (that is accessible by subway/metro) maybe the ones arriving early can do this too :)

[cruiser man 60]

As mentioned above you can board  the ship well before any time stated on etickets, if you are an overnight flight with MSC they will collect you at airport and take you to cruise terminal. If you stay overnight in Dubai like us just check out late morning and get taxi to terminal and board.

[Mister cruise lover]

I am just going to reserve cabin for MSC cruise from Dubai. Is in Dubai harbour there a nice view to skyscrapers from balcony cabin? From which side of MSC Splendida there is better this kind of view when ship is docked?

Thank you very much all tips for this question.

[cruiser man 60]

There's not much of a view from Dubai port as its well away from the main sights, although you can get a distant view of Burj Kalifa if a clear day and see the lights at night.

[Quantum cruiser]

On 12/23/2018 at 8:53 AM, framboesa said:

When do you know the boarding times? I only cruise on March 16th, maybe one month before? 

We will arrive to Dubai 3 days before and because we have been to similar ships as splendida we prefer to enjoy the city as much as possible rather than early boarding, but would love to see our boarding time to organize our day 😊

Just received tickets from our TA for the week before you, cruise that departs the 9th. Boarding time states 13:00. We'll be arriving in the cruise terminal somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 am. Travel agent promises to get us on board as soon as possible (we're part of a group accompanied by tour leader). Hoping it's possible, no lust of hanging around in that terminal for 5 hours!

[framboesa]

14 hours ago, Quantum cruiser said:

Just received tickets from our TA for the week before you, cruise that departs the 9th. Boarding time states 13:00. We'll be arriving in the cruise terminal somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 am. Travel agent promises to get us on board as soon as possible (we're part of a group accompanied by tour leader). Hoping it's possible, no lust of hanging around in that terminal for 5 hours!

Thank you for your input. We have lots of things to do in Dubai so we are not worried to board too early ;) maybe will arrive around 4 pm 

[ryan1228]

Adding to this topic and being a first time cruiser...  Family of 6 flying into Dubai and arriving about 4 hours before embarkation at 11:00pm.  We have pre-booked transportation from the airport to the cruise terminal and I understand that boarding closes about 90 minutes prior to leaving, how long does the boarding process usually take?  I've never been on a cruise ship before and I have no idea what to expect.

[Quantum cruiser]

16 hours ago, ryan1228 said:

Adding to this topic and being a first time cruiser...  Family of 6 flying into Dubai and arriving about 4 hours before embarkation at 11:00pm.  We have pre-booked transportation from the airport to the cruise terminal and I understand that boarding closes about 90 minutes prior to leaving, how long does the boarding process usually take?  I've never been on a cruise ship before and I have no idea what to expect.

Boarding process  obviously depends on the amount of people being there at the same time. All in all the process is pretty smooth. Is time of embarkation really 11:00 pm? Thought that was departure time of the ship? Quite risky to my opinion arriving only 4 hours before that time. Any flight delay could cause being just in time!

[SeaTheW0rld]

18 hours ago, ryan1228 said:

Adding to this topic and being a first time cruiser...  Family of 6 flying into Dubai and arriving about 4 hours before embarkation at 11:00pm.  We have pre-booked transportation from the airport to the cruise terminal and I understand that boarding closes about 90 minutes prior to leaving, how long does the boarding process usually take?  I've never been on a cruise ship before and I have no idea what to expect.

 

Where are you flying in from? Nationality can make a difference in getting through customs and immigration. 

 

Four hours is close, but doable. No dawdling along the way. 

[ryan1228]

35 minutes ago, SeaTheW0rld said:

 

Where are you flying in from? Nationality can make a difference in getting through customs and immigration. 

 

Four hours is close, but doable. No dawdling along the way. 

 

I know we’re cutting it close, but everyone knows that we need to move quickly through the airport.  We’re flying in from Chicago, all on US passports.

[SeaTheW0rld]

8 minutes ago, ryan1228 said:

 

I know we’re cutting it close, but everyone knows that we need to move quickly through the airport.  We’re flying in from Chicago, all on US passports.

 

Good.  If you haven't done so already, find a contact for the ship.  Your TA should be able to provide this.  

 

Do you have a plan "b"? What's the next place you could catch the ship (in the event the worst happens). 

 

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

[framboesa]

The information in the MSC webpage of my country says that In Dubai you must board 2 hours before the departure time. Don't want to bother you, but try to figure a plan B just in case and just to make you feel safe...You should contact MSC telling them that you will arrive late so they can give you some advice. We always arrive the day before our cruises, until last year when our flight was canceled...now we plan to arrive 2 days before (actually will arrive 4 days before to enjoy Dubai). Once again, don't want to scare you, just be prepared. ;)