It's been a looooong time since I posted on this blog, but I am ressurecting this to review our recent cruise on the MSC Splendida becuase there is not a lot of information about this ship out there in English--and I know I appreciate being able to research, so I try to pay it forward when I can.
This will not be photo heavy----for many lovely photos of all areas of the ship, I suggest you check out the following website (it is in German, but very simple to navigate the photos). In fact, this is my go to resource for ship photos most of the time; I cannot recomend it highly enough:
http://www.cruisetricks.de/bilder/msc-splendida/ (Splendida photos)
http://www.cruisetricks.de/bilder/ (all ship photos on the website)
So, I'll start with a little background:
We have been cruising as our top vacation choice since 1999. When the kids were young, and their prices sstill competitive, we mostly sailed Disney (though Princess was also in there from time to time). As the kids have grown, prices have risen on Disney to astronomical levels, and we now live in Europe and like to sail here, we have shifted to sailing mostly Royal Caribbean with some Celebrity and Princess cruises as well.
Soon after moving to Europe we spoke to a few people who had had bad expereinces on both Costa and MSC (the major European based lines which market to the English speaking crowd as well). So, we never really considered them.
Recently MSC has branched out in a huge way (I think they have something like 11 ships on order for the next few years!) and made major efforts to be more international and not just cater to Italians. As part of this, they have introduced what might be the most brilliant marketing move I have ever seen in the travel industry--the status match program. Basically, cruiselines have loyalty programs and it DOES become fairly worthwhile to stick with one or two lines once you move up in the ranks (on Royal we get free cocktails every evening, and free photos, etc and on Disney little gifts and a free dinner at their adults only restraunt, for example). MSC is offering to match your status from another line--meaing our top status on RCI or DCL gets us equally high status and perks on MSC. That was enough to get our attention----and MSC has the HUGE advantage that they sail Europe through the winter, so off I went resaerching, and eventually booking a week long sailing on the MSC Splendida in the Yacht Club for early September.
We booked a "suite" in the Yacht Club (it is often noted that MSC suites are not nearly as larage as a room called a suite on most other lines), a more exclusive "cruise within a cruise" experience which seems to be spreading to other lines, but I believe it originated with MSC. Here is how they explain it:
"
An all-inclusive sanctuary of refinement
Discover a private and exclusive area only for those sailing in MSC Yacht Club. Where you can indulge in the luxury of a private club, while enjoying access to the myriad of recreation and entertainment possibilities throughout the rest of the ship.
Welcome to all-inclusive cruises in the MSC Yacht Club, a cruise experience like no other"
We were able to get an excellenr price on a room for 3 in the YC, so booked ourselves a week of pampering in cabin 16033.
(this is one of the larger, square, rooms in the YC. The narrower rooms only sleep 2 and we are told that if you are a party of two and book a square, you might be bumped down to a smaller room if a party of 3 comes along).
MSC has lots of package and products that you can prebook online before boarding---more than I have seen on other lines. I prebooked a laundry package which included up to 40 items washed and pressed and folded or hung throughout the week, a teenager spa packet for Rio which included a facial, massage and haircut, and parking right at the port (I really like that MSC has detailed instructions on how to get to the nearest parking to the port for ALL of their embarkation ports) and we headed off to Hamburg to begin our adventure.
Getting to the Hamburg Cruise Port by car was very easy, and the parking lot is just steps from the cruise terminal. We'd been told to head straight for the white Yacht Club tent and not drop our luggage with the main porters. The tent was easy to find and luggage drop off was quick and easy. Before we knew it we were ushered into the roped of seating area of the terminal for check in.
We had arrived around 10:30, though our cruise paperwork said to come at 15:30---and we fully expected to have to wait a bit to board and then wait to get into our room once we did--but knew that the YC boarding area would have refreshments so figured we might as well head over to the port oncce we were all ready for the day and just see how things went. I have no complaints about the boarding process at all, but will observe that it was a bit awkard. We were taken to the seating area, and encouraged by one of the butlers to fix ourselves a drink or snack from the table near the desk. The very moment we sat down with our drinks/snacks we were called, by name, up to the desk to check in. So we left those by our seats and went to check in. I noticed a butler hovering by them to keep watch I guess? Sitting back down after check in, less than one minute passed before a butler arrived, with another couple waiting behind him and said he'd like to take us onboard then. With the other couple waiting it felt like we needed to abandon the snacks and GO--which was fine, I'd rather be onboard anyway if we have the chance, but it felt funny to me that we were actively encouraged to get a snack if we were to then be scurried off before having any time to consume it.
Onboard, we followed the butler through a maze of public rooms and then the stateroom hallways of the YC and eventually into the reception/lobby area of the Yacht Club where we were asked to sit and wait a few more minutes and then were shown around the lounge, private pool area and then taken to our room (wow--to be in our room by 11:00!)--champagne and fresh fruit awaited us (we're still not sure if that was a YC perk or a perk of our Black status or both):
We sipped some champagne before heading out to explore the ship a bit. Here are some photos of the room (16033). It was really well laid out and pretty---the only problem was the walk in closet was narrow so only one person at a time could access the clothing, a minor issue:
(we didn't discover that the mirror swings open until the last day--there is a TON of storage back there!)
and here is a shot of the room once the third bed was pulled out for the evening:
This is it for the "play by play" style reviewing----part 2 will look at various aspects of the cruise and the YC experience just to provide some comparisons and our experiences with the line.
--Hadley
No comments:
Post a Comment