Splendida yes or no ?

I am back at my desk after a week on board the MSC Splendida which debuted in 2009 and is the oldest of the Fantasia Class of ships and is identical to Preziosa and Fantasia (also Divina I believe although experienced her). So identical it was weird a feeling of have I been here before. This ship with being a little older was a touch worn but the service we received sure made up for that. I have talked about MSC many times and it all comes down to value for money and personal expectations. The amount of times I quoted “you get what you pay” for was countless and I heard so many people discussing other lines and comparing past experiences.

I do hold a soft spot for MSC, as I do feel they do not always get a fair chance. It made a lovely change to speak to a young couple last week who had done 10 MSC and loved each one. They did say to me do I think they have low expectations as they could find no faults. The drinks package alone was the most amazing value. (Although some of the cocktails we had last year were taken off this time).

When speaking to customers it is always the food and the service that reportedly let them down. Now is that another can or worms “service”. A 9 Euro service charge is automatically added to your on board account, however you can ask to have removed altogether or adjusted to how much you want to pay. I have paid this every year and think nothing of it, until this time. we were told by some crew that they do not see any of this in their salaries but are all aware we pay it. When questioned reception I was politely told that it is divided between all the staff including the back scenes crew. If they do not get any of this I can understand why the service may seem poor but we had excellent service on all areas. Our cabin was kept spotless some mornings we did not leave it till midday but we were never hassled or missed a service. Our meals were always hot and very prompt and we never waited too long for a drink

Mind you with a waiter as handsome as Marcio from Brazil we would not have noticed anyway. The sparkly stairs twinkled like stars as they do on all MSC ship and maybe some guests found the decor ott but a girl loves a bit of bling

We did not use the outside space that often as a Northern Europe cruise and we were very unlucky with the weather however this again was clean and tidy at every part of the day.

I cannot wait to see the latest edition to the fleet although she will be much larger I have already noticed prices are a lot higher, I can only assume MSC have something special in store for us.