MSC Fantasia Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Good itinerary.  Sir Ban Yas island is a nice in-between for a shore-day. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are beautiful impressive cities to visit (very easy to do with taxi!). Bahrein (Manamah) was a little less.

It is my second time on MSC Fantasia, for sure the first time the service was better, which doesn't mean it was a bad experience. This time on the UAE, Oman & Qatar was a little bit different the day we embarked the service was really bad every single waiter/waitress was rude I don't know why, but by the time they already know the guests started to be friendly which they should be nice since the beginning. The food was really good I don't have any complaint, I guess it depends on the time you get to the buffet there was always a schedule which was indicated on the daily program it is not like in other cruise companies that have 24hs buffet, which if you read and followed what the daily program said was good. The beverage allegrissimo package is a must otherwise you will spend a lot of money in coffee, water, ice cream and alcoholic beverages. In general the cruise was ok, it's worth the price it was. The service can be better.

We enjoyed this cruise. Yacht Club was worth the extra money. Nightly entertainment was wonderful. Great cruise

Beware MSC not a patch on P&O very disappointed with our Xmas cruise. Food awful, rude staff, shambles, had to pay full price at speciality restaurant (only one) steak was sent back because it was rubbish, cabin was nice bit didn't get cleaned properly, drinks r expensive if you don't have a drinks package! Would not book again

a very nice roundtrip with my family Dubai etc is beautifull

We got a gorgeous suite at the front of the boat, staff were fantastic and food was lovely.  Absolutely no complaints and would go back in a heartbeat!!

Took a last minute Mediterranean cruise to see as much of Spain, France and Italy as we could in August, which is a crowded time to be in Europe anyway. Cruise was lovely in general. Food was very good, some days better than others. There were very few English speakers, but most of the staff could help us out when needed. We met a lovely couple from Dublin at dinner so we ate with them most evenings! Some crew members were kinder than others, but overall, we had a good experience. Biggest complaint would be that the excursions didn't allow you enough time on shore. You could explore and shop or eat lunch, but there was seldom enough time to do both! We skipped Naples and did Capri, skipped Genoa and did Portifino. Fell in love with both and wished we had more time there!

This was a first time cruise for my daughter and I . We loved the whole experience.

The staff was amazing. The cruise ship was beautiful. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to do a European cruise.

WARN EVERYONE AGAINST MSC!!!!!!

This is my 10th cruise.  By FAR the worst!!   Royal Caribbean looks like Viking in comparison!!  And I thought RC bad.....  

The food was BAD. Everyone we talked to agreed. It was the biggest topic of conversation everywhere.  

Cheap food, and always COLD.  To quote one of the many Germans (80% of the 3,000 passengers), "Ist KALT!!  IMMER (always) KALT!!"  I LOST weight on this cruise. I went without lunch 2 days - just couldn't face the buffet on Deck 14.   No coffee with dinner. What?  We had to PAY for water with dinner or breakfast.  We had to PAY for water to brush our teeth!!  In fact, pay extra for everything!

Service bad, too, except for the poor lowly probably miserably underpaid souls like deck stewards who were very nice - both of ours were quitting asap. Had to scrap our Athens tour booked with you because they offered NO help in getting to the meeting place.  Any chance of reimbursement?? 🙏🙏

Huge ship, but lovely-looking elevators worked sporadically. 

More service again:  One had to back up to see all the elevators, then race if it actually opened - (we missed more than we got. Usually ended up hiking 4-5 flights of stairs).  I tripped backing up. A crew member standing right there totally ignored me, & when I expressed regret over spilling my coffee & asked for help with a refill (still lying flat on my back), he said: "Get it yourself."  So much for passenger care....  Can you believe it?

They cancelled our MSC tour for Genoa with nothing else to offer. We got into  town, but didn't learn anything about Genoa. 

BUT!!!  The other tours we booked with you for Israel were fabulous!!! 😍😍

You would have to PAY me a LOT to ever book MSC again. 

Please warn people. 

           We booked a cruise back in February 9, 2016, with Fantasia embarking from Rome Civitavecchia  at 19:00.  That was the disembarkation time listed on my itinerary, however, by the time we made it to the port at 

around 1700, the ship had just left the port leaving us standing on the port feeling desesparate, confused, scared and angry because we were in a foreign country, and we did not speak the language.  At the very 

moment when my daughter exclaimed, “Oh my God, Mom the ship is moving,” confused and teary,  I then, realized that we had been left behind stranded in a foreign country.  I had not the slightest ideas 

what to do, because I was still in shocked.  I took a few minutes to recomposed myself, and then, I managed to figure out a plan to catch the ship at the next port.  Luckily for us, the next port was only 4 hrs away from 

Civitavecchia an it was accessible by train and automobile.  We had to spend the night at a hotel and kept my one day rental car for another day.  We had to drive 4 hrs from Civitavecchia to Geneva to meet the ship at the 

port.  

I'd give them another star if it weren't for their customer service.  This was the first leg of a back to back cruise.  Our issues started before the cruise.  The US reps couldn't answer many of our questions regarding procedures and had no inclination to find out the answers. On board, the difficulties continued. For instance, we were supposed to receive tickets for drinks, which we were told would be in our cabin.  Not there.  At Guest Services they had never even heard of such a package.  After some discussion, they called the bar manager who recognized the package and said it would take a couple of hours to get it - we should come back later.  We did at the appointed time, nothing was there.  Call the bar manager again.  Someone came up 10 minutes later.  A complete waste of time and lack of service.  Otherwise, a great trip.  Excellent waiters and some good servers and bartenders.  Cabin stewards were very good.  Pasta and pizza excellent.

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.

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.

To be short and straight to the point - this cruise was the worst cruise in my life and this thought would share at least 1/3 of the ship. Very poor quality and choices of food, very poor entertainment and careless customer service. 

6 out of 11 days there was no internet service on the whole ship and they cared less what people think about that fact. 

The only good thing aboit this cruise is a nice ship and clean rooms.