We booked an 11 day cruise with the MSC Splendida due to the itinary and price. Having cruised several US based cruise lines before, I had an idea of how the experience can vary based on cruise line as well as ship to ship. We were immediately impressed by the Splendida. She is a beautiful ship. The decor was beautiful throughout, and our balcony room was fairly spacious with plenty of storage. The bathroom was pretty standard of that I have had on every ship I've been on. The service in the room was also pretty standard. We were way in the back of the boat. I mean, very back. This ship is supposed to be new...and when we backed up we nearly vibrated out of bed. We talked to people who were close to the front of the ship and they said even they felt it. You don't need a wake up call. When the ship backs into port it will wake you. I generally like being near the very front of back of the ship as there is less hallway noise (true on this ship as well). I have never felt a ship shake like this one does.

Check-in...what a freakin' nightmare. Or could have been anyway. We arrived so early we weren't even sure we would be able to check in yet. The line was so long it was literally out the door. There were 2 lines. One for yacht club members and people who had pre registered and had express passes and another for everyone else. Thank god I had pre registered. We waited about 15 minutes, got our on board payment squared away and received our roomcards. Then we took a walk through the building where processing was done. We hit another line, very poorly organized, with overhead announcements we could barely hear. And couldn't understand. We waited about an hour through this line. They took our US passports and let us board the ship.

The food is my biggest gripe of all. The buffet was TERRIBLE both at lunch and breakfast. Everything that should be hot was served cold (hence the title of my review). The selection was pretty limited, the lunch buffet closed way too early, too. Forget eating upon returning from an excursion. There was no dinner buffet at all. You either eat in the main dining room, or you pay to eat in another restaurant. There is no option. Early dining was at 6, and late dining at 8:30. We requested early dining and were put in late dining. Thank goodness they were able to change it once on board. We dined with another English speaking couple from England (it seemed they tried to seat people of the same language together). Food in the main dining room was OK. Never any steak or lobster, as we usually see at least once on an american cruise line. Our dinner tablemates said this was the best food they had ever had on an MSC cruise...and they have been on many. If this was the best I can not imagine how horrible the other ships' food is. The service was fair; our waiter's english wasn't great. There was no bar service in the main dining rooms. You can get wine or 2 kinds of beer. No cocktails at all. Never saw a head waiter for matre d'. The food was a serious low point on the ship. Read more