MSC Splendida photo review.

[TheCaveman]

A little background on us. We are a married couple, age 33 & 34 years old.

I’m South African / Irish and my wife is Polish, but we are living in Ireland for the last 10 years.

This was our 8th cruise and second with MSC. Last year we did a group cruise on Fantasia and had a great time, but the cruise was overshadowed by terrible customer service we received on board. Anyhow we decided to give MSC a second chance and we booked another group cruise on board Splendida.

Let’s start with day -1.

 

We had to go to work first, and left work at 3pm and took the good old Dublin Aircoach to the airport.

Check in was a breeze, than had to kill a 2 hour wait by eating a gourmet meal at Burger King, washed down with a pint of Coors light.

 

Went to our gate, we were 30 min early, and finally boarded. Aer Lingus to Barcelona flight. We booked emergency seats, in row 13, as I’m quite tall and need the extra legroom....

 

 

 

Wife looks happy to be at the airport and on her way...

 

 

 

Our Plane

 

Wife's wine

 

 

Inflight entertainment consisted of an eBook reader, iPad and mp3 player.

Drinks inflight were of a glass of wine for the wife, and Martell and coke for me....

So after an uneventful flight we landed, check into our hotel at Barcelona airport at 11pm, and call it a night.

[TheCaveman]

We stayed in the Barcelona Airport Hotel. located a few minuted outside hte airport.

 

 

 

 

Hotel room, seen one, seen them all...

 

 

Clean bathroom with good shower...

 

Day 1 of the cruise.

 

So we have a decent hotel breakfast then went back to the airport, to pick up the other 8 people in our group, who were only arriving in Barcelona that morning; we jump in the pre-arranged shuttle bus, and off we go to our cruise on MSC Splendida…

 

 

Waiting on the Shuttle to take us to the Airport, than to the Cruiseport.

[TheCaveman]

Our group on the way to the cruise...

 

 

WE spotted the ship on the way...

 

 

We got to the port and waited patiently for our turn to check in.

One of our friends, who was with us, chanced his arm and went to one of the cruise check-in staff asking if we could board earlier as a past guests… We knew very well, we are not VIP’s, Yacht Club etc., but we just politely asked anyway. Worst case scenario, they would just say no. To our surprise, the guy agreed to let us check in early, all 10 of us, but I think it was due to the fact, that it was still quite early and not too many people were in the terminal yet.

So, a group of 10 people, good friends, all with Allegrissimo, what can go wrong ;)

 

 

Wife checking documents,

 

 

Nearly There...

 

 

[MotownVoice]

Gee those people in the back of that shuttle look so SAD!

 

...

 

...oh...wait....

 

Had my smartphone upside down...

 

AH there it is!!! :-)

Edited May 18, 2014 by MotownVoice

[TheCaveman]

 

 

 

 

Boing.... Ok, that is from Carnival, no sounds here, but we are onboard...

 

So, after we board, some of us had to go to guest services, to put cash down for on board spending. Whilst there we notice a bar, all empty,,,, so ,we thought, why not break the seal,,, have 1 drink before we go to the lido deck

 

Waiting for our first order to be delivered

 

 

 

cheers...

[TheCaveman]

3 rounds and few vodka and b52 shots later, we arrive on deck 13, ready for lunch at the buffet.

 

We'll a buffet is buffet, but wife thinks this time food was even better than on the last cruise. After we filled the gap with food, we wanted to get some sun.

 

We meet up next to the pool, have a few more rounds, and, it is 13:30 ish and our cabins will, or should be ready. So we went our separate ways to hunt down our cabins.

 

 

Random Ship Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

View from our aft balcony.

 

We are on deck 13, aft cabin 13205, sold as an ocean view, but it actually got semi-balcony. Brilliant deal.

 

[TheCaveman]

 

Drink on the lido deck...

 

 

 

Me, enjoying one of many...

[TheCaveman]

At the cabin, only the wife's luggage was there, so she changed into her bikini, and we set off to the Jacuzzi.

 

Everybody have their swimming clothes, except me, so I just sat on a lounge chair with and drink of course.

 

 

They all enjoyed the Jacuzzi for an hour or so, and after a Jameson or 5, ( I was in the Navy for 5 years, and now I am Irish…) it was time for Munster drill… or monster drill like we call it.

 

Once done, we had a small meet in our aft cabin for our own sailaway mini party.

We find out tonight was gala night, so we have to dress up for dinner…which wasn’t ideal for us, but we understand that Barcelona wasn’t the main embarkation port and most of guests were already few days into the cruise.

 

 

 

View from Balcony

 

 

 

 

AS we sailed away, there were loads of seagulls, and people were feeding them pizza.

 

 

 

[TheCaveman]

In the main restaurant, we had a table for 10 ( think it was a table for 8 but they added 2 places)

 

 

 

 

We did not take notes of of the dishes, but did take pictures, so we have no idea what it is called

 

 

 

 

The house white wine that is included in Allegrissimo. For the wine experts out there, it is OK, but, after a bottle, it gets much better :D

[TheCaveman]

 

Veggie soup

 

 

 

Cheese Risotto

 

During dinner, they had the Baked Alaska Presentation

 

 

 

[TheCaveman]

Main course below

 

 

 

The Prawns were really good

 

 

The Duck was also

absolutely delicious

 

 

 

Cheese platter

 

 

Baked Alaska

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review.

[TheCaveman]

Dinner was great, food arrived super quickly, all the courses was great, nothing but great service. Our waiter and his help did a brilliant job.

 

A few bottles of wine later, and a really good gala dinner comes to an end.

 

So, we head over to the theatre foe some Bingo.

 

We won... Well one of the guys in our group was first to shout bingo, and won €600 euro,,, great way to start a cruise....

 

After that, we go to the purple bar for a drink, as playing bingo is thirsty work, and we decide to go watch the show Lunapark.

 

 

 

Assistant Cruise director confirming the win

 

 

€600 later....

 

Now we had to celebrate, and had a few of these...

 

 

 

B52 shots...

 

 

[TheCaveman]

The show,

 

It was good, not great, some type of circus show, good acrobats, and contortionist, some dude on a ring doing neat tricks... Good, but not breath taking for us, as we’ve seen many shows on different ships and some elements are just repetitive.

 

One thing ,,,, a lot of people took pictures non stop during the show, all the camera flashes was a bit off putting, some people were even recording, but, we will not complain, as we are on a cruise. It was just surprise that there was no announcement from the cruise director / staff on not using cameras and recording devices during the show. But, like they say, when in Rome….

 

 

 

 

[MotownVoice]

Great shots!

 

Awesome about the bingo win. Talk about starting off on the right foot!

[TheCaveman]

Back in the cabin, I thought it will be a good time to count the receipts of the wife and I drinking for the day, as I kept all the receipts.

 

But one thing to remember, as we are a big group, quite often, one person will order multiple drinks, and we won't get a receipt for that drink.

 

So, I only kept the receipts for the drinks the wife and I drank, and the total for day was over €200

I am not sure if I should be impressed or disappointed, as it sure felt like much more alcohol was involved,

But, considering Allegrissimo cost €322 for 2 people for 7 days, I had a good idea tomorrow we will surpass that total,,,,

 

So, we call it a night, day one comes to an end,,, tomorrow Marseilles

 

[Elmartellama]

Thank you for the review, nice start!

 

All those cocktails look amazing

[soloadventurer]

Brilliant review and pics - well done on the win :D

 

 

What time did you's arrive at the port and what time did they starting boarding at - on her not this Fri but next ;)

[TheCaveman]

We arrived about 11:30ish, and were on board in less than 30 min

 

Will continue review tomorrow after work

[papcx]

 

Now we had to celebrate, and had a few of these...

 

 

 

B52 shots...

 

 

 

 

Love B52s. Personally I like heavy on the Kalua, light on the Gran Marnia.

 

Great start to your review, I shall be tagging along.

[Katgoesonholiday]

I'm loving the photos!!!

[Wookiee]

I'm loving the alcohol intake!

 

(Makes me feel like less of an alky...) :)

[Keith1010]

Thank you for the write-ups and the photos.

 

Keith

[TheCaveman]

Day 2

 

We arrived in Marseille around 8am. It was nice and sunny morning, however not hot, just warm.

 

We had a breakfast at the buffet. Got off the ship around 10 and started walking towards the port gates. After few hundred meters we noticed a free shuttle bus to port gates and we took it. We went to City centre and decided to take a city bus tour. Went around on a 1,5 hour tour, saw the sites, got off at the Notre Dame Basilica on the top of the mountain, and had a wonderful view of the city. After the tour, we went back to the ship, and went to the aft pool to catch some sun.

 

 

Pulling into Port

 

 

Off the ship ready to explore.

 

We had no plan, just see what happened...

 

 

[TheCaveman]

Cant remember the place's name :o

 

 

Random street art...