8-Day Mediterranean Cruise aboard MSC FANTASIA

My family and I took a one-week Alaska cruise with MSC after saving for a long time. We traveled from California to Seattle with a group of about 30 people and were extremely excited.

The staff was excellent—friendly, hardworking, and always willing to help. Unfortunately, the food was very disappointing. I mostly ate pizza and hamburgers because the quality and variety of other options did not meet our expectations. Even the Captain’s Dinner was disappointing.

Entertainment was also limited. Karaoke and the nightclub were our favorite activities, but they only lasted a short time.

Our biggest frustration came from approximately $1,300 in gratuity charges after we had already personally tipped workers, plus a $350 internet charge from a misunderstanding for service we didn’t use.

Alaska was beautiful and the staff deserves five stars, but considering the food, entertainment, unexpected charges, and customer service afterward, our overall experience was 2/5 stars.

It îs my 6th experience with MSC cruises, and I can relate, it is the worst one. Poor organisation, no Galla dinner , no White Party, no meeting with the captain during the week itinerary. Also, once we left our things on the sunbeds and went to the pool for 40 min. On returning, we had the unpleasant surprise, that our things were taken by the cruise staff....And we were far from being the only people like that. This situation was really stupid! The buffet is always full. Practically never available tables. The itinerary was good, but we had just a few hours of stay- for example In Corfu only 5- 6 hours and in Bari- the same.....Entertaining was terrible, except for ABBA and Disco 70/80 party.

The cabin was with a balcony, and it was very nice. The cleaning was OK, though the linen was changed once, a day before desimbarcation, which seemed also strange...

Msc Fantasia 2

Complacency creeping in.

It is clear from this cruise, that msc are showing less interest or commitment to its older class ships, than its world class offerings and the US market.

I'm writing this review as a loyal msc diamond voyager club member, who has given my last 3 msc cruises 5 stars.

The embarkation was busier than usual. Despite getting priority queue jumping twice, it took longer than we would have preferred.

I couldn't finish my fish dish in the main dining room. Due to the fish being so dry. There was a slight improvement the following night. But I was rescued by my free Speciality Meal on the 3rd night.

The main dining room lacked quality and variety. However, i fear msc won't mind this as they would prefer you to purchase a Speciality Dining package anyway.

They seemed to be low on stock for the first day. I couldn't get a cider or Heineken 0 until day 2. This i think is an example of taking the older ships and it's customers for granted.

I was disappointed with building work and the ‘insulting’ letter from the captain. Why would passengers be interested in improvements for when they have left the ship?

The theatre was impressive for the size of ship and always seats available. However, this maybe down to the unpopularity of msc shows.

The cruise director was impressive in how she floated smoothly from one language to another. However, i never saw her once, other than making announcements.

I enjoyed my drinks package immensely. I think the easy package at £238 is great value. I dont like signing for each drink. However, the issue is having to buy one for every person in the cabin, when kids are happy with water and your partner doesn't need it.

A suggestion for msc and other cruiselines, is to have limited and unlimited drinks packages. Perhaps 30 drinks a day package for a 75% of the unlimited price. Then it cannot be abused even if people share. It just runs out if over used.

This way you don't have to pay £98 for your kids to drink water or £238 for your partner to have one glass of wine a day.

We had two cabins. So I got the drinks package for the cabin with the smallest amount of people and the ones who would use the drinks package.

It certainly elevated Our cruise experience, having unlimited sodas and bottled waters, plus wine and beer whenever we needed it. I went nowhere near the 15 alcohol drink limit.

I found it strange that you could not use the easy or non-alcoholic drinks packages at the speciality restaurants. I got caught off gaurd on my last cruise. Like in the main dining room, when they offered me still or sparkling water, I thought it was free. Until I saw my bill.

This is nikel and diming that is inconsistent with cruise culture or etiquette. Upselling is one thing. But sneaky ways to make people spend more money is off putting.

Perhaps It's a way to recoup some of the money lost to diamond members who get a totally free Speciality meal.

I had to go out to the La Cantina Toscana bar next door to the Butchers cut, to get my drinks using my easy drinks package. I left my table 3 times to get drinks outside.

You could see the staff saw the humour in it. Why pay for drinks, when I can get them 20 metres away for free.

For the second time on the Fantasia, we didn't know the change in closing time of the kids club until the day of the change. We had a Speciality meal booked for some much needed husband and wife time. Only to find out the kids club was closing at 8pm instead of 11pm. Meaning we had to bring the kids with us and also now pay for them to be in Speciality restaurant.

This is why we go on cruises. The only time we get a break from the kids, is when they are in the kids club on a cruise. If the kids club is then closed without prior warning. This is a major disappointment.

During the day I found the sports bar completely empty and a nice place to chill in peace. However, the bar itself had no staff.

We are a family of 5. So needed two cabins. We booked one as single occupancy and paid a single occupancy rate. However, they gave us a 4 berth cabin, which was great.

Msc always do this. They give you the same size cabin, regardless of how many family members you allocate. So my wife and i stayed In the single occupancy cabin. Whilst the 18, 9 and 6 yearolds stayed in the other cabin.

No cruiselines are exempt from making mistakes or performing poorly in certain areas. However, with msc this is often compensated by areas where they were outstanding. Therefore making them back up to 5 stars.

However, the Fantasia did nothing to an outstanding or above and beyond level. Hence my 3 out of rating.