MSC Fantasia Cruise Reviews - Reviews

esperienza buona,cibo 8/10- intrattenimento 4/10- pulizia 9/10 . escursioni 2/10 (care ed inutili).meglio organozzarsi soli per visitare i porti dove ci si ferma. la nave era in condizioni buone, impeccabile la pulizia ma ahimè intrattenimento quasi inesistente.questa è la maggiore pecca di msc

Did go to a similar MSC cruise trip couple years ago on the Eastern Med. This time is much better experience. I can tell that MSC has improved a lot from management all the way to every workers on the floor. The food are much better and the other hotel related arrangements are also well conducted. As a whole, I cannot find anything I should complain. Of course there is room to improve here and there but for me it is GOOD enough. My wife and I also 4 other friends (2 also on previous MSC cruises) are very happy for MSC also enjoyed our vacations.

Ports and excursions - Itinerary was good although most port calls were significantly too short.  The MSC Olympia and Sh

opping excursion was pretty good although you weren't left to go shopping on your own.  They took you to a souvenir mini-mall of sorts and then to a nice jewelry store.  No time for anything else.  We did not like the Best of Santorini or the Athens, Acropolis and Plaka tours.  Neither one allowed enough free time.  If you are English speaking and want to book a tour, make sure it will be an English only tour BEFORE you book it.  One of our tours was English and French and not only did it take twice as long and eat away any free time we were to have, but it was difficult to hear the guide all the time because the "other half" of the group was talking to each other when the guide wasn't speaking in their language - and she did nothing to try to control that. No trouble booking the tours the day before.  They run shuttle buses into Corfu and Dubrovnik, you have to book it at the excursions office.  Favorite port was Dubrovnik. 

Food and drinks - buffet was boring and the same every day but served a purpose nonetheless.  We really enjoyed the dining room food.  5-6 courses on offer every night, we usually ate 4.  Service in the dining room was good.  We had the early sitting at 7:00 which we liked.  We talked to a few people who had the late sitting at 9:30 and they said they didn't like eating that late.  You can go to reception to get it changed but maybe not the first day.  Service

 at bars was slow.  Buy the drinks pakage.  We are not (usually) heavy drinkers but we "spent" almost double what the Allegrissimo (Classic) package cost us.  Kids and parents alike enjoyed having the freedom to have a drink whenever we wanted.

Kids - supervised kids club for ages 3-11.  Nothing is "organized" for older kids - our kids 11 and 12 too young to go to the disco by themselves at night.  Pools were always super busy - tried to avoid them in the late afternoons.  They have a waterslide that is open certain hours.  Our kids said it was whimpy.  Ping pong and foosball inside hot atrium and difficult to find them available.   Had to collect the balls from somewhere else before playing.  Other than that we didn't seek out onboard entertainment. 

As you may have read on other reviews ship seems crowded at times particularly before early morning port calls when everybody is on the same schedule and then again just after all onboard when leaving ports.  Hardly any English speakers onboard, a few Aussies and Brits.  Continental Europeans can be very rude and pushy - quite literally!

Value for money.  I did quite a lot of looking at other itineraries and costs before booking.  I was booking 4 months prior to departure.  A lot of the US cruise companies were already sold out of their kids go free deals so US carriers would have been too much more.  We did not get kids free but MSC was still more affordable.  Our only previous cruise was on Princess.   I feel a bit that it's comparing apples to oranges.

We just returned from our 7 day MSC cruise. Overall we enjoyed our experience. The itinerary was excellent, it made the trip great. The Ship Fantasia was beautiful, and clean. Our room was larger then expected as we had an inside cabin. Cabins are well maintained cabin stewarts are always around ensuring everything is clean with new towels twice a day. Evening dinners were excellent, staff were friendly and the food was excellent.  The pool bars had the best bar servers with friendly and fast service.

The areas we found required improvement were the pool space and the buffet service and quality.  The pool was too small for the amount of guests, kids jumping over your shoulder to get into the pool.  We still enjoyed the pool just something to think of.  The buffet staff are not friendly or very interested in providing any service.  If you do find a server the drinks take very long to arrive to your table.  Food is just ok.  Same items daily as expected at a buffet.  Don't miss you evening dinners as we did not want to  have 3 meals at the buffet. 

Despite some issues we did enjoy the experience, it is an Italian cruise line so you have a lot of European travelers.  The MSC was very organised at all ports, they ensure you get on and off your boat safely and efficiently.  Look at pre booking one of the drink packages. They are well priced and worth it as single drinks can be expensive.  We choose the 24 hour drink package which includes bottled water, coffee and ice cream. On hot days we enjoyed the bottle water and ice cream a few times a day

In March 2013 we took our first cruise with MSC, had a great time, and purchased two vouchers from the MSC Musica Cruise Consultant on board before disembarking – to be used for €200 on-board credit on our next cruise. We also signed up as members and were told the vouchers were documented and the serial numbers of each were attached to our account.  We booked our next cruise for May 2014 soon after, and provided the serial numbers of the vouchers to our travel agent, who documented them and said that we needed to hang on to them to present when we embark on the cruise.

Upon check in at the Venice terminal, we were told by two separate MSC staff members that checked us in that we were to keep the vouchers until we get our invoices at the end of the cruise.  Once we got on the ship, we checked at Reception/Guest Services and were again told to wait until the end of the cruise when we received our invoices. 

On the second to last day of the cruise, I inquired at Reception/Guest Services to see a copy of our invoice thus far.  They had mistakenly charged us for 4 drink packages instead of 2, and they were able to immediately call and have the 2 extra charges removed.  I presented the vouchers for the fourth time, and was told to go upstairs to the Cruise Consultant, Maria Giovana Guarracino, as she was the only MSC Staff Member aboard the ship that could handle the vouchers.

We went to see Ms. Guarracino, and relayed to her the information that I had been given thus far and the four separate times I presented the vouchers to various MSC Staff Members.  Ms. Guarracino then told us that it was “TOO LATE” to apply the vouchers to our bill.  I of course protested, telling her again of all the different attempts that were made to apply the vouchers, as well as the fact that they were so easily able to call and remove the extra drink package charges.  She said that there was nothing she could do, as the main MSC offices were closed for the weekend and could not make that kind of adjustment to the bill until Monday. 

I was then instructed to call on Monday after we returned home from our cruise, and that the MSC Customer Service office would handle it and would be able to have both €200 vouchers credited back onto our card or issue us a check for the amount.

I called on Monday, and was told to go through my travel agency.  I called my travel agency, who tried contacting MSC but couldn’t get through. They left a message. This happened for three days. Finally on Thursday, customer service was able to get through to speak with someone at MSC, and she was told it would “NOT BE POSSIBLE” to apply the vouchers to our bill, because again it was “TOO LATE”. 

UNACCEPTABLE. My travel agency has filed a formal complaint to MSC on our behalf as of Thursday, and I will be continuing to call every day until this is rectified.

I would like to hear from anyone else that has had this happen to them as well. How long did it take for you to be appropriately reimbursed?

Great ship, very good entertainment Lack of food hygiene and safety training for guests in the buffet area. Lots of hands in the food. Both the tv and Internet service did not work properly. Many repeated charges for lost time

It was my first cruise and I loved it. I had my doubts before about cruises but changed my mind immediately. We felt good taken care of. The food was great. Had the best time at the theater, super shows.

Ship was built in 2008, but appears new in every respect.

The ship was beautiful. The cruise was great. As frequent cruisers we found everything better than most. Except the food, this was one of the best cruises we have ever been on.

The ship was very impressive and beautiful. The staff was very friendly, helpful and impressively spoke multiple languages to accommodate the different guests. The cruise itself might have been too long... I'd probably recommend a shorter cruise but that's just personally. The stops were very interesting. The ship however did not have enough activities (like competitions etc) throughout the day especially days at sea. The shows at night were very amateurish and not very impressive. Otherwise, great cruise!

I liked this very much.. was wonderful to meet many ppl from europe.. to taste thier food and enjoy the way they did things. loved any different languages.. met many nice ppl. When in Rome do as the Romans

The ship is fine, new and clean. Our room steward was good. The food was okay but the service was very slow and the waiters do not know how to serve and remove dishes properly. The staff overall do not smile and are often rude and short tempered. Other than the Michael Jackson show, the shows are nothing special. The overall impression is that MSC is just out for another euro whenever and wherever they can get it. Overall, we'd say take a cruise with someone else.

Well kept.

The ship itself was clean and well maintained.

The ship is beautiful, however, the general staff is very rude. Our cabin steward and the gentlemen who waited on us for dinner were very nice and customer service oriented. It is an Italian ship so we expected the food to be very good. The food was less than average, although the menu's were well varied and sounded good. Breakfast was very cold, whether in the dining room or at the buffet. The taste of the food was average to poor. I would not recommend this cruise ship to anyone.

Ship itself was nice but staff and service was very dissapointing, bathroom didn't work for 3 days and they said they were coming to fix but waited for days.

Huge, something for everyone .

some of the staff were very rude, needs training and how to deal with people. Lack of elevators, breakfast was terrible.

I felt I lost my vacation

Overall I would give the MSC Fantasia cruise 3 out of 5 stars. I think two of the destinations we docked at should have been reconsidered. My husband and I took the city tour bus when we arrived at the port in Naples, Italy. The whole thing was so unorganized and took so long we only had time for one of the 4 routes offered throughout the city. One of the routes was completely blocked off due to construction and the red route was extremely pointless as we saw nothing but graffiti (including swastikas) and garbage. The city was an absolute dump. We did find a lovely little Italian Pizzeria which served homemade pizza and wine. It was by far the best restaurant we dined at in Italy! I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant, but I only remember the older gentlemans name who served us Antonio. We attempted another little Pizzeria prior to this one and it was absolutely atrocious. The pizza they served me was cold and contained cut up hotdogs and French fries. The other stop which could have been reconsidered or scheduled for a better date was the stop in Palermo, Sicily. We arrived on a national holiday so 90% of the shops in the city were closed, which in my opinion is devastating to any tourist. We decided to take a horse drawn carriage ride which was definitely worth the 60 Euros. (hint: its easy to negotiate the price down) The sites were beautiful and we were so happy with the experience. One recommendation I have for those scheduled to stop in Genoa is to book the Portofino excursion at the front desk. It is absolutely worth the cost! Portofino is a lovely, quaint town about a 35 minute drive and 15 minute boat ride from Genoa. Unfortunately, many of the restaurants didnt open in time for us to experience. We were only in Portofino for about an hour and a half before we had to be back at the boat to head back to the port. The food served on the ship left much to be desired. The menus were repeated daily with the exception of dinner. The day we embarked in Barcelona, we had our first dinner together with 3 other American couples. One of the couples bought a wine package which offered 5 bottles of wine. When they purchased the package, they specifically asked if they could have the same type of wine each evening at dinner if they so desired and were told they could. Once they were seated and mentioned this to the head waiter he informed them they could not request the same type of wine for each meal and would have to try each variety listed. Perhaps Im accustomed to American services where this would not be a problem to adjust to, but I was rather disgusted with the staffs inability to accommodate to their guests. The couple I just mentioned also celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary while on board. They went to the reception desk and requested a small celebration at dinner on the night of their anniversary. The receptionist told them a marriage certificate was required as proof and when asked why, she simply stated because they would be receiving a free cake and champagne. They were disgusted with her attitude and lack of customer service. They talked to the dinner staff, which were much more accommodating and provided the cake and champagne without a problem. In my opinion, anyone who can afford a luxury cruise can afford a cheap bottle of champagne and a cake. Its ludicrous to expect people to bring documentation aside from what is required at each countrys entry point. Aside from juice and coffee in the morning, every other beverage (including water) had to be paid for. I can understand paying for alcoholic beverages, but not water. The ship has a 4D Cinema on board which plays a movie that lasts approximately 6 minutes and costs 6 Euros to watch. Also, they had a clay pigeon shooting contest with a Frisbee and fake pellet-type guns, which also required a fee to play. For the cost of such a vacation, it seems ridiculous to nickel and dime the guests while onboard.