A totally Splendida day out, well almost…

Last Friday as we enjoyed the beginning of a heatwave weekend I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours on board the MSC Splendida at the port of Southampton prior to her departing on her Northern European itinerary.

As I left my Devon home just before 8am to travel the beautiful coastal road to Southampton, the sun was shining, my summer dress on and passport in my handbag I felt calm, relaxed and almost in holiday mode.. My journey along the A35 & A31, accompanied by my new polite Sat Nav system occassionally interupting my new CD of Bon Jovi playing as I passed the jnction of Puddletown and Troy town and pulled over for the Convoi Exceptionale of someone repositioning their own private yacht I totally believed Jon Bon Jovi telling me to Have a Nice Day..

If you don’t know the track have a listen here..

With good traffic and weather conditions it made for an easy journey and as I had plenty of time to spare before our 11.00 meeting time I decided to stop for a nice refreshing cool smoothing at a nearby fast food chain.. you know the one with the golden arches.. well they also have lovely gold envelopes for their parking charge notices for the small town girl who didn’t realise that you have to get a ticket from the pay & display machine even though it was still free !!.. Still the view of the Splendida from the restaurant car park was amazing and I could see that the rest of my day could only get better…

I then proceeded the remaining 5 minutes of my journey to the City Cruise Terminal, a delightful small cruise terminal, and took my seat in the waiting area with some colleagues until it was time for us to board.  MSC had a lovely set-up of refreshing juices freely available for customers who were already on board returning to the ship from their visit ashore and also for new passengers joining the cruise at Southampton.  For those getting on it is customary for the ships official photographer to take your photo in front of the staged banner of the ship – and I rather cheekily managed to get him to take one for me.. !!

Owing to a short delay due to security inspections it was nearing 12 o’clock before we embarked but it was totally worth the wait – as we entered the main foyer area of the ship the true elegance of her shone through from the Swarovski crystal adorned staircases, to the same jewel encrusted grand piano the main reception area is a sight to behold.  Although the passenger capacity is some 4,300 she has a  very intimate feel about her.  Whilst waiting for the restaurant staff to be ready for our group this was a great opportunity to take a few pictures of the stunning atrium..

With grumbling stomachs it was now time for lunch – served in the beautiful 2 tiered restaurant the La Reggia, we were shown to our table and presented with the 7 course lunch menu and told to order as much, or as little as we wanted…

Well you guessed it.. you have to try these things so I decided to skip the soup & cheese courses but went for the 5 course option.. Now this is where opinions differed amongst the group of us at our table, I personally thought the food was fine – not 5* silver service lunch but then you are not paying 5* prices either.. I also can’t remember at any point, even on a full 2 week cruise, where I have ever gone into a main restaurant for lunch. I would normally be ashore exploring or if on a day at sea quite happy to have a snack from the buffet and save myself for Dinner as the main event.  From talking to staff – Dinner service menu is very different to the lunch menu so very hard to judge the full food quality on what we had.

As I said the food itself was fine, presentation a little lacking in creativity but overall quite tasty.. My menu consisted of:

Appetizer: Speck & Kiwi Fruit Rosette, over Pineapple Carpaccio

Salad: Summer Salad – Lettuce, diced melon, baby shrimp (only found 2 !!), walnuts, cucumber & a yoghurt chive sauce.. Waiter was very adaptable and I actually had this without the walnuts..

Pasta: Crespelle gratinate in forno – Crepes au gratin, filled with cooked ham and fontina cheese

Main Course: Meat – Chicken Tikka served with basmati rice and raita sauce…. Not really what you would expect as a main course on a cruise ship ?

Fresh Fruit Plate….exactly what it said on the menu – to be fair.

Overall maybe just a little more flair with the presentation of the food to match the interior of the ship would go a long way and may change a lot of peoples opinions on the food on board.

Following lunch we partook in a tour of the ships facilities including visiting the pool deck area, which I must say I was most impressed with.  A beautiful outdoor sun deck area, leading through to a covered area with a retractable roof.  With the sun shining on the pool deck, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the Mediterranean..  One of my favourite inside areas of the ship was the La Piazzatte – a beautiful area  set out to resemble an Italian pavement cafe area with twinkling stars above and serving the most delicious looking of ship-made ice-creams & cakes/pastries.. I could just imagine sitting here enjoying these tasty treats.  We also visited the many bars of the ships including the purple jazz bar bar, the l’espresso coffee bar  and my favourite the sports bar housing much memorabilia to football, Formula 1 and other European sports, along with bowling lanes. Sadly we did not get to see the teen area, the formula 1 simulator & the 4d cinema on board but they are meant to be fantastic areas for the family enjoyment.

Overall I am so glad that I made the journey to Southampton, other than my parking charge, to see the Splendida – she is a totally stunning ship and I am sure she will be a big hit for her sailings from the UK this year and next.. Maybe not appropriate if you are a die hard foodie but overall it is all about the ship & the itineraries she sails..

MSC Splendida will mainly be sailing out of Hamburg during the summer before return to Southampton for some more itineraries in September/October.. If you like what you have seen here and would like to get on board call me for the best deals still available…