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MSC Splendida

Nevis

After you have cruised many times with different cruise lines, I think you start asking yourself why you choose a particular cruise line instead of the others. In our case a very important role is the itinerary and the price-value relationship. Nowadays many cruise lines travel the itinerary that we want to travel to very reasonable prices. We do choose however MSC cruises over other cruise lines for the transatlantic crossings because of some reasons:

1) we like those long journeys from Europe to South America and vice versa on well appointed and modern ships like the MSC Splendida,

2) we enjoy the Italian way of cruising with Italian music and Italian food,

3) we like very much the activities on board, specially Tai Chi with well qualified instructors, which makes a crossing very pleasant and contributes to our well being,

4) we enjoy the shows and the entertainment and 

5) we look forward for the changing regional food offerings.

Our crossing with the MSC Splendida from Genoa to Santos met those criteria. We have enjoyed the crossing. Our cabin 11132 was a good midship cabin. We have appreciated the effort of the cabin attendant, of the waiters, of the crew members and of the officers. We have not missed one Tai Chi lesson. We have enjoyed the Brazilian singers at the main lobby every evening and we have loved the elegance of the ship.

We do find however, that there is room for improvement in some areas. For example the dancing music was according to our opinion, way to slow and repetitive. There was a duo in one small venue, which was also kind of a walking path, which alternated the music with a solo singer every evening. This place was actually the only place to dance before 22.00 pm and unfortunately, during the whole transatlantic, every evening the music was the same, slow and boring. What a pity... We felt like zombies moving at the rhythm of a music played without much enthusiasm as if the players would have been instructed to play music to listen but not to dance.

Unfortunately in the after lounge the band there, according to our opinion, did not really manage to motivate public to dance. There were dance lessons at 20.30 pm more or less. What an odd time for dance lessons...at that time people should be able to dance, not to wait for some dance lessons to end. Once the dance lessons finished, and the band took over, again many people left, because the music was not very conducive. 

Now we are talking about a public in which the majority were Brazilians, who dance well and happily. Where were they? Listening to very good Brazilian music at the lobby. The two duos were excelent. Why were the two duos always in the lobby and did not change place to another venue, in which people could dance? I am sure the lovely bosa nova, which they were playing would have brought many people, including us, to the dance floor.

Another thing that we have missed was the classic music at the lobby. This is also from our perspective another value added from MSC Cruises in their journeys (we consider Tai Chi another main value added). No one used that grand piano at the lobby, although there were a pianist and a violin player, which could have provided for good entertainment.

Another area of improvement lies on the wines offered as part of the inclusive package. Without being exceptionally good, they are Ok for no more than one week, but if you are doing a crossing of at least 18 nights, it is extremely boring to always be offered the same wine. Is it really so difficult to offer other wines for a similar price as part of the inclusive package? Other cruise lines change the wines after a couple of days, so I guess it might be possible.

Another small issue, is that in our previous cruises with the Splendida, we remember hearing the lovely Italian song "Com te partiro" when the ship was leaving a port. This was nice and became something to look forward to it. Other cruise lines, play other songs, for example Crystal Cruises always plays "What a wonderful world". Unfortunately on the crossing in November with the Splendida, there was no song played in every port. I think only once was played "Com te partiro" in Brazilian waters. It is a pity because hearing to a particular song, makes leaving the port so much nicer and every time that song plays outside a cruise ship, we evoke the sailings...

Despite the points listed as having room for improvement, we have enjoyed our crossing. We wish to thank those hard working crew members, members of the entertainment team and officers, who always make a cruise,  a special one for us.

Transatlantic with the MSC Splendida

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