Hopefully this review will help cruisers in making a choice of booking a cruise on the MSC Splendida.

Myself and my wife are both first time cruisers and given the many varied reviews of the Splendida we were worried that our experience would be a bad one leaving a bitter taste in the mouth and a much bigger hole in the pocket after our annual holiday. Well from the outset our experience was very positive, we both had a wonderful cruise although there were things that MSC could improve on which would have made our cruise even more enjoyable - these will be listed in the review. Hopefully the following will be of use to others.

Embarkation: Could not have been more simpler - after passing through security and as we had used the on line check in facility we were ushered into a seperate check in line and when the next available desk became available we were checked in, cruise cards issued all within the space of no more than 5 minutes. As we made our way round to the main entrance to the liner we were asked about booking a drinks package and we explained that we had pre-booked the allegrissimo package. The attendant checked both our cards and discovered that mine had no details of the package printed on it. He advised us to go to reception on Deck 5 to get this rectified. This we did and after an apology from the desk staff a new card was issued within 20 minutes. Before entering the liner we had the obligatory photo taken, bought a few things in duty free and then proceeded on board. Read more