MSC Splendida Review

MSC - Minimum Service Cruise (they clean your toilets with your toothbrush)

Review for Europe Cruise on MSC Splendida
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amy.cannons@magnetic.com
6-10 Cruises • Age 30s

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Value for Money
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Additional details

Sail Date: Sep 2016
Cabin: Balcony Stateroom

For context - I went on this cruise with my fiance (we are young professionals, in mid-20's, from America). We are both very low maintenance and easy to please. My fiance has been on 12-15 cruises in his lifetime, and we have been on 5 cruises in the last 2 years with lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian. This is our first MSC, and will most certainly be our last MSC cruise.

We selected this cruise based on the amazing itinerary and decent price for a good room (we indulged in a balcony room for the first time as it was a reasonable cost). The ports - Hamburg, Paris (Le Havre), London (South Hampton), Bruges (Zebrugges), and Amsterdam - did not disappoint. Each one was unique and enjoyable.

Unfortunately, this is where my positive feedback on the cruise ends. We had one VERY unfortunate event on the trip (which I'll explain in the next paragraph), but before I delve into that let me explain our general MSC experience. We joked with other cruisers sharing the same negative experience that MSC stood for "Minimum Service Cruise". The service at formal dinner dining, the breakfast/lunch buffet, and nearly all the bars was slow, rude, and sometimes plain non-existent. Numerous times on the trip we would walk up to a bar with only 1-2 other customers present; 6-8 staff would be near or behind the bar and would completely ignore us (no "What can I get you" or "how can I help you" - they would completely avoid eye contact). The food at the dinners was not great and the menu selection was unimpressive (also, you have to pay for water at dinner and they didn't serve coffee at dinner - wtf), food at the buffet was really not very good at all. Pretty disappointing, as we're used to having great food and variety with Royal, Carnival, etc. Also, along the lines of poor service again, our housekeeper was nowhere to be found at most times (we would leave the "clean our room" sign out for 24+ hours before our room was touched....much slower than we're used to).

Cabin Review

Balcony Stateroom

Cabin B2

Fine cabin - comfy bed and has a couch/desk setup as well. Balcony was nice though not very private (could see right through partition between cabins balconies). TV was very small, though, and only had one channel in english.

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