New Year's Eve on the Splendida

[Alex71]

We just came across a special for a Dec 29 - Jan 5 cruise on the Spledida, that was just too good to let it pass. How does New Year's Eve on board look like? Do they have a special menu, fireworks, a party?

[The_Big_M]

I was on it last year. They do celebrate the event but there are too many passengers for a single area, so they have different celebrations all over the place which, to be honest, felt a bit limiting. There's nothing major like fireworks, as I recall there was a separate menu, but nothing majorly stand-out.

[Alex71]

Thanks for the info, Big M. Helps to go in with realistic expectations so that we won't be disappointed. What's a little bit of a shame is that we'll dock in Barcelona on New Year's Eve but we'll head out long before midnight. Would have been cool to watch the activities there from the ship.

[AmoMondo]

I did New Year on the Opera a few years ago and it was great. Being a smaller ship thenparty was held on deck. It was meant to end at around 2 but we left atnaround 4.30. We had the most wonderful experience (best New Year ever) but that was down to us being sitting off Funchal at anchor. The island parishes compete to out do each other with their fireworks display. The fact it was so mild there at that time of year, also made the huge deck party possible.

 

We had a special gala dinner. Everyone really made the effort to dressmup - lots of long gowns, quite a few tuxes and even 5 in full highland dress.

[The_Big_M]

Wow, very different experiences.

 

It seems like this is one thing that the biggest ships can't do as well, as there are just too many people for the deck. As we were sailing in the Med late at night it's also too cold to hang around outside then.

 

I compare it to my NY experience on Celebrity Millennium and it's more like you describe, everyone on top deck, champagne handed out, people dressed up and party gear supplied, big party band, ice carving for the new year and using the pools as well, dancing til late and fireworks from the city (Melbourne in our case) - very memorable.

 

I pulled up last year's "Buon Anno" menu by the way to give you an idea:

Appetizers:

Fanned out marlin and Smoked Salmon

Crispy Pastry Nest

Exotic Fruit Carousel

 

Salad of the Day

Festive Salad

 

Soups

Crab Veloute with poppy seed puff pastry twists

Duck Consomme with angel hair pasta and julienne vegtables

 

Pasta

Ravioli, filled with pumpkin and amaretti

Risotto with monkfish bites and artichoke hearts

 

Main course

Seared sea-bass accompanied by a delicate chive lemon sauce

Backed supreme of turkey with chestnut and apple stuffing

Woronoff beef fillet

Millefeuille of eggplant and smoked cheese

 

Desserts

Chocolate New Year Log

Nougat parfait with caramel sauce

New Year's Eve ice cream sundae

Festive cookies

Traditional panettone

[Alex71]

Thanks a lot, AmoMondo and The Big M. We'll see how it goes. In case our experience will be closer to Big M's, we won't be disappointed, in case it's closer to AmoMondo's, we'll be pleasently surprised.

[mayzee mitchell]

We are a partyof 4 on this NY cruise - thank you for all the information - whatever we do we will have a good time. Any idea about boarding times in Barcelona? Is there a roll call for this cruise?

[Alex71]

We're getting on in Genoa on the 29th. I started a role call, but with no interest so far: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1723245