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Published: June 26th 2017
It's the day of embarkation. The weather looked overcast but at least it was dry. After a leisurely breakfast we checked out just before 10am. Leaving our bags at the hotel, I persuaded Roisin to travel up the funicular/lift to Castel Albertini where you would be able to spy the MSC Splendida, which would become our home for the next 7 days.
Having travelled this particular funicular/lift last time we were here I knew what to expect. I could see Roisin was nervous. I described to her that the experience was akin to boarding Thunderbird 2. I told her to hum the Thunderbirds tune in her head. I find this always helps. Between you and me, I don't think I was selling it to Roisin. The fact that I added this type of lift moves both horizontal then vertical and is the biggest in the world (they always are, aren't they??!) didn't move things along
We waited for several lifts to come and go before, as the buzzer sounded for the third time to signal the lifts imminent departure, I decided to cash in some of my Brownie points for the Boccelli opera. Roisin suddenly burst in to action,
said '
Lets do it!' and before I could say ‘Mama mia' she had darted into the single carriage and perched herself on the edge of a seat.
The spec for this lift stated a maximum of 23 persons. I counted 7 seats and handrails for a further 6 persons. I would not like to be enclosed in this glass cage during peak time. Talk about up close and personal.
Our ship had come in (so to speak!!) It was huge. The MSC Splendida is 131,500 tons and 333.3 feet long. Our previous biggest ship was the Sapphire Princess weighing in at a paltry 118,000 tons. There are 13 passenger decks on the Splendida, 4 pools and 13 hot tubs. The ship can accommodate 3,900 passengers. Now I'm no mathematician but say, for example, we have blistering hot days, 3,900 passengers piled in to 4 pools will be a bit snug!! The theatre has seating for 1,700 persons. That's not too bad as there are 2 shows every evening.
After suffering ‘taxi rip off' last time, we walked down to the cruise terminal with luggage in hand. It only took 20 minutes and was down hill. That saved
us at least 15 euro to get ‘ripped off' elsewhere for a change!!
Roisin summed up our first impression of the ship as ‘
blingy'. From the sparkling central staircases to the Purple Lounge, (so named for reasons that will become obvious later!!) everything seemed to glisten. I'm not sure this was down to the staff polishing the brass. It was probably more to do with the number of lights left on. Not a very good advert for energy conservation. I was always brought up to switch lights off if not being used!!
The ship is so big; I hear there are actually rough areas!!
Our cabin was on deck 9, Tintorello. If I knew how far it was from the point of boarding, I would have brought a packed lunch! There were no cabin stewards to ask so we started the ‘hike'. After about 5 minutes 3 crew appeared, all wanting to offer their service. I don't know. You wait ages for a cabin steward and then 3 come along together!!!
We had been on the ship for almost an hour and the captain
Mattia Manzi had not yet come up and introduced himself to us
personally. I would have thought that in the light of recent tragedies, all Italian captains would have to do a lot of boot licking to regain the confidence of the masses. Furthermore, it would be nice to put a face to a name as if he was to jog through the dining room during dinner with his life jacket on, we would know whom to follow!!!
There was no sail away party on deck which is usually traditional. However, they did pipe over the PA system: ‘
Time to say goodbye' by none other than Andrea Boccelli.
While we were settling in our cabin, the phone rang. The voice said that there is a package for us and is it OK to bring it up. Several minutes later it arrived. The rose petal package is not, as it sounds, a bunch of flowers but a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket, a couple of souvenir champagne flutes (and not the plastic kind either but real glass!!) and 9 petit fours. Well I'm guessing they're petit fours not having seen any before!! Why 9??! Is it significant to provide an odd number? I managed to shove one in my
gob before Roisin saw the platter. ‘
There - problem, solved. 4 each', I thought.
‘Oh no! I forgot she tends to read this blog before I publish it…Doh!!!' It is a cash free zone on board. Each passenger is provided with a cruise card. This contains essential info such as muster station, dining room name and states 1
st or 2
nd sitting, table number and of course cabin number. This is used for any purchases on board and then your account is settled on departure. Another customary event on cruises is for me to lose my cruise card. This time was no exception. However, it was in world record time!! I mislaid it even before we had set sail!! I registered for the on board wi-fi and my card was taken to note the details. The logon and passwords were provided to me but I did not receive my card back. I did not realise until we had returned to our cabin. I did retrieve it some time later. It had been kept in a safe place near reception. I'm sure they have a note on my record.
‘Has a tendency to lose cruise card'. The MSC Splendida set
sail at 16:00 and at 16:30 it was time for the muster drill. This is when, after seven short blasts on the horn followed by one long blast, everyone is to return to their cabin, pick up their life vests and head to their muster station as printed on the life jacket. This has always been carried out on our previous ships so came as no surprise. This time, however, I have never seen people move so fast!! Whether some of them thought that it wasn't a drill, I don't know!!!
We headed to the dining room at just before 8:30, dress code informal. We were shown to table 525 where Pam and Alan were already studying the menu. Pam and Alan are in-laws and come from the London area. We were shortly joined by Liz from Bedford. We learned early on that her husband doesn't like travelling so she packed a bag and with a ‘
sod you' attitude, came on her own!! We didn't finish our meal until 10:30 and were all starting to feel the events of the past 48 hours catch up with us.
As we passed the Purple lounge, the cha cha
lesson could wait. The aft lounge was blurting our yet another reprise of ‘Volare'. We were even too tired to crack open our champagne. I hear champagne improves with age anyway unlike my memory!!. It's 357 nautical miles to Barcelona, renown for a decent footie team and Manuel from Fawlty Towers. Can't wait!!!
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marie and don
non-member comment
very funny, can't wait for the next one