On August 11th of 2019 I was invited by MSC Cruises to visit one of their older ships, MSC Sinfonia! The visit took place in Split, Croatia, a beautiful city on the Dalmatian coast. A tourist hub for tourists travalling to many Croatian islands. Since I’ve never been on a smaller MSC ship, this was a huge opportunity to check out what MSC offers on their older, smaller ships!
About the ship:
MSC Sinfonia is one of the oldest ships in MSC’s fleet. She started her career as European Stars in 2002. Festival cruises, the company which owned her at the time, went bankrupt in January 2004. European Stars was impounded and laid up in Barcelona on 19th of January 2004. She remained there for several months until she was sold to MSC cruises and was renamed MSC Sinfonia. She also has an older identical sister ship MSC Armonia(European Vision), which shared the same fate as her sister. Sinfonia entered service with MSC in March 2005.
Quick facts:
| Class and type: | Lirica class cruise ship |
| Tonnage: | 58,625 GT 65,542 GT (after renovation) |
| Length: | 251.25 m (824.3 ft) 274.9 m (902 ft) (after renovation) |
| Beam: | 28.8 m (94 ft) 32 m (105 ft) (after renovation) |
| Height: | 54 m (177 ft) |
| Draught: | 6.8 m (22 ft 4 in) |
| Depth: | 6.6 m (22 ft) |
| Decks: | 9 (passenger accessible) 13 (total) |
| Speed: | 21.1 knots (39.1 km/h; 24.3 mph) |
| Capacity: | 2,087 passengers (double occupancy) 2,679 passengers (maximum after renovation) |
| Crew: | 721 |
Time for a visit!
I boarded the ship at approx. 9 AM. The ship was already docked in Split for a couple of hours so many passangers were already off. The boarding was pretty painless, I had to show my visitors pass and proper identification. As soon as you board the ship you enter the main atrium which is not big, but it is a stunner. Atrium covers two decks, decks 5 and 6. At the atrium you will find the reception desk, a bar, a lounge and a beautiful water feature. A cascading water wall which gives the atrium a serene and peacefull vibe. Foward of the atrium is the main theatre which seats around 700 people and this is where the main shows are performed twice a night so everyone has a chance too see them. Have you noticed that newer ships have no water features or fountains that older ships have?
As I continued to explore the ship, I came across many bars and lounges such as Budha piano bar, Sinfonia lounge (which includes a small library with a variety of books in many lanuages), Manhattan bar and of course Shelagh’s House Irish Pub. You can find an Irish pub on every MSC ship! Each bar and lounge is themed beautifully so they are all unique and they are all spread out nicely so they do not get crowded.
Dining onboard
This ship has two main restaurants. First one called II Galeone on Deck 5 and the second one called II Covo on Deck 6. In these restaurants you can eat all 3 included meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) Breakfast and lunch will be served in a buffet style manner.
If you’re NOT the main reastaurant type, don’t worry. MSC Sinfonia has a beautiful buffet on deck 11 called La Terrazza Buffet. Something that I’ve never seen before but heard about was a really helpful Buffet map. It shows you what there is to eat and where is it in the buffet! How helpful, every cruise line should have this! Slightly foward of the buffet on Deck 11 is the Hamburger Paradise and Pizza & Pasta shop which are both also included in your cruise fare and offer fast food type of snacks and pizza. I had a chance to eat breakfast and lunch on this ship, and I must say the food was DELICIOUS. Sometimes I am a picky eater but on this ship there was something for everyone, truly the variety of food was as big as it was on my previous cruise on Costa Venezia, which is a ship many times larger than Sinfonia. If you’re cruising only because of food , then this is the ship for you!
Activities
On deck 11 you can also find two pools and a Doremi spray park which was added after her huge refit in which the ship was lengthend by 25 meters! Foward of the pool area is a small but not lacking spa and a gym with awesome foward facing sea views! On Deck 12 there is not much to talk about other than sun bed spaces and a Pasha club disco, which offers amazing aft views from the dop deck.
The ship also has dedicated children areas which look awesome, themed and sponsored by LEGO, they make me want to be a kid again just to be allowed in those areas! There is also a basketball court on the top deck and a mini golf area.
I love this ship class because it offers open aft public decks. These open decks offer you those amazing wake views we all love.
In conclusion I didn’t know what to expect since Sinfonia is an older ship and was not built for MSC, unlike her newer step-sisters MSC Lirica and Opera. But I was positively surprised by the state of the ship is in and by the ammenities it offers. I would reccomend this ship to anyone who knows what to expect on a cruise ship that is older than a couple of years. No, you will not find go karts or rock climbing walls on this ship. What you will find is a ship full of beautiful spaces to relax in, kick back and watch the world go by! Isn’t that the point of cruising?
This ship really made me wonder what other MSC ships have to offer and what they look like. I will for sure sail with MSC after what I’ve seen, I can only imagine what their bigger ships have to offer!
Have you sailed with MSC? What are your experiences?
Thanks for reading, Dominik!
Cruise Ship Paradise 