MSC Splendida Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Use MSC because it has good itineraries and good staffing and good ships and good prices. I like the international customer base.

I won't do another MSC cruise. I usually give things a 2nd chance but not this time.

Stay Away, this company has a lot to catch up with its peers. No customer service, poor organization and communication. Visa process for some ports was a complete nightmare. Just go with the other guys.

I would suggest if you are looking to continue looking at the wonderful locations outside of Rome this was basically a continuation of it. Would do it again without hesitation

MSC Splendida severely disappointed me. The Ports of call were fantastic but the cruise ship itself was terrible.

The destination was great, but overall the service didn't meet the standards.

disappointed with this msc trip... heard many complaints from fellow passengers

Only travel on MSC if you upgrade to the yacht club. Unless its a last minute decision or looking for a budget trip don't travel on this cruise line.

We had a very relaxing time on the cruise and enjoyed nearly every minute. The MSC Splendida was a nice cruise ship for its type. This is not a luxury cruise ship, but is clean and well kept. We feel that the ratings of MSC are lower than they should be, at least based on our experience. The majority of the passengers were of course European. North American, Australian and New Zealand travelers may find the European passengers "cold" or less open to talk. There was an obvious socio-cultural difference we noticed and sensed that some of the passengers were a bit taken a back by this.

My favorite part of the cruise was Palma De Mallodrca.  I thought that the majority of the cruise help were awesome.  I thought that the Customer Service Representatives were awful and not helpful at all in fact I found them to be hostile.  I have been on several cruises and yours was the first one where I was denied juice and beverages and made to pay for them.  Over all I would not recommend this particular cruise to anyone and I don't think that I will cruise on MSC ever again. We were charged for TV service that we never received and were initially told that the charge would be taken off our account but it wasn't.  The culture of some of the clients was one of hostility and aggression.  I deal with aggression everyday at work.  I go on a cruise to get away from that.  I felt that I had to put on my "game face" in order to eat, participate in excursions or to disembark the boat.  Your company should put something in place to combat this type of culture.  You should set the example of care and concern for your customers.

Nice ship and itinerary, too crowded at times. We liked to food, but the selections didn't change much. Enjoyed the entertainment, but most of it was difficult to understand since it was in Italian. Prices for drinks and excursions were reasonable. Overall, it was just too crowed to enjoy most of the time.

We originally booked this cruise becsuse of the ports having never been on MSC becore. The guests changed at every port so it was constant caos!! We felt like no one ever settled down! You could NEVER get a place at the pool because as you were off on excursion, new people boarded and went straight to the pool. If you stood in line for and waited your turn someone would walk to to the front of the line and butt in.

We chose this cruise for the ports, we were sad to miss a couple of them due to the weather.  

The food was not very good in the buffets for breakfast.  There was very little selection and the same food items were served throughout the entire cruise.  Dinner was hit or miss, I wish there would have been selections for more picky eaters.  No one wants to eat a plain chicken breast every time they don't want the evening's offering.

The evening entertainment was sparse and the production value was low.  The pools and hot tubs closed early and we didn't have much chance to use them due to excursions and dinner times.  

We really struggled with our expectations during the cruise wondering if we were being nit picky, we have come to the conclusion after some discussion that there were no large problems but the small issues took away from our overall experience.  

Let me first single out our Cabin Steward (Derma) and the Asst Maitre'd (Antonio).  They both went above and beyond what was expected and MSC is fortunate to have them in their employ.

The best part of the cruise was visiting Malta, the Flamenco Dance show and the finale Italian Music show.  Other than that it was ordinary and boring.  The constant pressure to sell you a "drink package" (everything from hard liquor to what they a "coffee cuddle") at every single port was annoying and intrusive.  In other words, if you did not want to drink filtered water in the buffet, make your own tea or try to stomach their horrible self serve coffee, it was going to cost you money.

In addition to the pressure to sell you a drink package, there was constant pressure throughout every public area of the ship to sell you a photo package (at lest 5-times what each picture is worth but they will give you a discount "buy 1 and get 1 free" - so you will only pay 2-1/2 times its value).

The buffet was the same almost every day (except for the "feature meat of the day at dinner").  The formal restaurant had a better selection but with extremely small potions.  And we are a part of 8 adults and 1 baby, all but 2 of us got sick from the food (bad enough to have to stay in the cabin almost a full day - lucky for me it was the day completely at sea so I did not miss anything, not so lucky for my step-daughter and her husband missing the bicycle tour of Genova).

I have traveled on other cruise lines and never was there this much pressure to upsell, or just being cheap (not even ice tea or lemonade in the buffet without a charge per serving or refill).

One more point I need to bring up, I have a disability (spinal problems).  As such I cannot stand for very long in a line.  Getting back on the ship in Barcelona, I showed my government issued photo disability ID card to the first "security guard" just before he directed you to the lines for the metal detector and xray scanners.  I told him I had a disability and asked to use the handicap entrance.  His response "no way - impossible."  After standing in the very long line, clearing the scans and having to rest 2 hours in my cabin, I went to Guest Services to file a complaint.  As of this writing 1-week later, I have still not had a response from MSC regarding the incident.

Highly doubtful I will ever cruise with MSC again anywhere in the world.

The entire Yacht Club experience was wonderful.  The lounge and perks and overall service was better than any expectations  We appreciate everyone involved.

Great Itinerary.  Very clean ship.  Upgrading to the Yacht Club is worth the money.  

We will take a future MSC Cruise to Greece.  Not a whole of kids on this trip.  The quality of the food was fresh each day.  

The good part of this cruise was the schedule of port arrivals--always in the morning, which allowed enough time for on shore outings.

Improvements are needed for:

1. Music, base noise in cabins goes on until early hours of the morning, making sleeping very difficult.

2. Entertainment mediocre only.  The seats in the Strand theater were very uncomfortable--seats themselves leaned downward; no legroom; no support

3. Computer connections very slow and expensive

4.Food offerings generally were mediocre at best-almost everything tasted the same; salad dressings too vinegary and again it all tasted the same. Pizzas  were runny and soggy.

5.The gym had only one elliptical

6.Library hours and content very poor.

7. Hair dryer location in staterooms is stupid.

Overall the cruise is reasonably good.  The food is acceptable but could be better.  The quality of the food can be improved.  The housekeeping personnel did keep the rooms cleans, and worked efficiently.  The biggest complaint we have is that the pillows and blankets appeared to be used over and over by one cruise after another without actually being laundered.  There was a pretty bad and stale odor, especially the pillows.  They were so bad that they kept us awake frequently, and we eventually had to wrap the pillows with the towels to reduce the odor.  I don't know if the blankets and pillows are ever cleaned.

Love this cruiseline.  We had aurea experience which meant checkin was super fast, despite being told that preferred checkin is only available in Italy.  We were dealt with immediately at embarkation in front of hundreds of people queuing.  The balcony stateroom was beautiful, large, spotless, extra touches like bathrobes and slippers, the steward made different animals from towels every night which had us in stitches.  My choice dining was excellent.  We met many nationalities and were served immediately, whatever time we arrived. Food was good to excellent.  The inclusive drinks package is a must.  I won't go on P and O anymore because they don't have an all inclusive drinks package.  Lisbon was our favourite port, Casablanca our least favourite - dirty, not a real 'bazaar' like Tangier, nothing to do.  Very disappointing.  We are now looking for another MSC cruise.  The service in cabin and restaurant is superb. 

All the staff spoke at least broken English, your dinner friends maybe not. We really enjoyed this line, and would cruise it again. Staff was very friendly, and the ship was meticulously cleaned.