On 7 Feb 10, my wife and I board the MSC Splendida in the port of Genoa for a trip in the eastern Mediterranean. I chose the line since the ship seems new and beautiful and the price offered by my travel agency include three days in Rome with hotel. I entered the trip with eyes wide open knowing that it was an Italian line with different cultural approaches. The itineary included Israel and Jerusalem which seemed very attractive.

Pre-Cruise: We flew coach on Delta Airlines (great service) to Rome and were transferred free of fees to the Dominia Hotel in the Campanella section of Rome. The hotel was quite nice and the service was faily good, but there were very few places to eat and nothing to do near it. Americans usually have to look carefully for dining options since restaurants in Italy are very expensive and the Euro to dollar exchange rate is not very favorable. One can figure doubling the price of a meal in Italy over American prices for comparable food. Though tourist sites were far away, the hotel did transfer us to the subway station each day at no cost and the metro could be used for one Euro to go to any station on the line. The tickets were good for 75 minutes before timing out. With a map of the subway and a tourist map of Rome, we found everything very easily. Travelers should be careful of pick pocket on the subway. The worst part of this arrangement was getting back to the hotel. The subway ran frequently, but the hotel only provided early evening transfers from the metro station back to the hotel so the time frames became inconvenient. The bottom line is that you were stuck in Rome from 2 PM to almost 6 PM unless you used a taxi which was about 50 Euros ($75) back to the hotel. The buses involved changes and were somewhat confusing.

Boarding: We left Rome aboard a very early morning transfer bus (0545 AM loading time) and traveled six hours to Genoa. The transfer on to the ship was easy, but unfortunately, it took until 9 PM for my wife to receive her luggage and she was forced to dine in clothing she had worn since 4:30 AM. Read more