MSC FANTASIA Reviews

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.

I had sailed on MSC before, back in 2014, and I really liked it so I decided for my solo trip back to Argentina to take an inside cabin at a very good rate at the Fantasia. Having done almost the same transatlantic experience last year with NCL STAR, the comparaison was inevitable - I loooved NCL- and my final impresion on MsC is mixed...The ship itself has a very nice layout, comfortable, with lots of bars and excellent musicians playing constantly. Got an accessible inside cabin on deck 8 which was huge and very comfortable...I loved my cabin. The only critic is that the bedside light wasn't strong enough for reading!!!

BOARDING

Getting to the msc cruite terminal in Barcelona was easy...catching a Blue-bus from the Colon Monument area. The embarcation process was fast and I had access to the stateroom as soon as I got onboard.

FOOD

Food was OK at the Buffet and at the main restaurant. Nothing fancy neither delicious which in my case, it helped me with my diet. Not too many temptations...I don't drink alcohol so drink packages are usefull for me. Prices are in Euros and a small can of Pepsi is 3,50 euros. At the buffet, they have free cofee and Tap water and only at Breakfast they offer juices...Depending on the fare or where you booked your cruise, you might have to pay for bottled mineral water at the main restaurant.

CREW

Compare to other lines, crew is multilingual...and quite friendly. I had the impression that MSC has less crew members than usual...I could tell from the food and dishes remaining on the tables at the buffet, the state of public restrooms, the number of rooms my steward had to clean...

I did had an issue with a Guest Service employee, I complaint and I've been called by the responsible of the area: she apologized to me and at least she's been very kind listening to all that happened.

CRUISE DIRECTOR

Non-existant!!!!

COMMUNICATION

This was , for me, the worst part. They hardly use the speakers to announce disembarcation deck, weather, time zone change...They do offer the daily program but you have to ask for it at the front desk...if not, the daily information - non exhaustive - appears on the App...and not very clear (my complaint at guest services was about how it appeared on the app...confusing!!!)...None of the 4 time-zone-changes has been announced clearly to all the passengers. Same with disembarcation decks on ports.

SHOWS

Production shows were OK...very "Cruise/wedding" style...and some of the fill-in performers for this long journey were OK. I liked a lot Serge Massot, a ventriloquist. The best were all the musicians and singers in the bars and Atrium....excellent all of them!!!!!

PUBLIC

As italo-argentinian myself, I was expecting more argentinians on board..even though I guess there was 60/70 % of them...the rest was mainly from Europe. The good thing is that there were almost no kids..The bad thing, to me, was the peoples attitude: they reserve tables, chair, benches with towels, books, etc and they disappear...and when you ask.."this place is taken" not to mention that they speak loud when in group.

ACTIVITIES

Some un-hosted meetings ("solo" travelers and LGBT) weren't not publised daily on the program so...these interruptions made the groups vanished. Dance lessons were fun same as the Quiz games.

CONCLUSION

I always had in mind what I paid for and considering this, I had a good experience. This was a repositioning cruise to be based in Buenos Aires so most of the service and the activites (shows, music, food...) were focused on argentine passengers...Some friends on board said that this same ship, in Europe, has a better service...and I can imagine why.

ADVICE

I never had issues on getting a table at the buffet or a bech by the Jacuzzi or a bike at the gym....I go "against" the crows: breakfast at 10.30, lunch at 2.30/3 PM..GYM at 1 PM and Jacuzzi at 4.30 PM...

I want to say that this was the worst cruise we've ever been on, and this was our 13th cruise.

The Good:

The food is very good everywhere.

The service in the main restaurant is very good; the waiters were very attentive and polite, not intrusive.

It's convenient that you can find a table yourself in the main restaurant and don't have to stand in line and wait to be seated.

Some excursions were good.

The shows were all good.

Many musicians and singers throughout the ship, playing until late.

The ship's decor is nice.

Many bars and relaxation areas, lounges.

The Bad:

The Room:

The room was poorly cleaned; we found dirt on the sink.

Sometimes they forgot to provide clean towels.

The cleaning lady didn't change the beach towels when she took the used ones.

There was water on the balcony, making it impossible to walk on, and it wasn't cleaned. We had to ask for it to be cleaned.

The tissue dispenser was closed, and no tissues were provided at all; we had to use toilet paper.

The room was only cleaned in the morning.

They only started bringing paper schedules on the 6th day. We didn't even know they were distributed until they suddenly brought them to us.

For the first 5 days, we received messages and documents only in Spanish.

The front door lock was jamming; we had to call the service desk. After the repair, it worked better, but sometimes it still jammed, and we had to forcefully bang on the door to open it.

Music plays constantly in the corridors, and it can be heard in the cabin, disturbing sleep.

The Buffet Restaurant:

Terrible coffee. I've never drunk worse coffee, and this is in coffee-growing countries.

Awful, tasteless juices; they didn't replenish the concentrates.

Everything is designed so that people have to pay for drinks.

The glasses are small, and it's difficult to even make iced tea in them.

Ice isn't always available, and you have to look for it elsewhere.

Not very hygienic. The beverage dispensing areas were not disinfected.

Food was not always replenished on time.

The breakfast food was the same every day.

The water dispensers didn't work properly everywhere; you had to be very careful not to get soaked, pressing the lever with one hand and holding the glass with the other, and they were positioned very low, which was very inconvenient.

There was no decaffeinated coffee or tea.

Excursions

Poorly organized excursions. Sometimes we had to wait an hour to disembark.

Since there was a tender boat at almost every stop, except for Rio and Montevideo, we had to wait for an hour in the scorching sun to board. The staff didn't even bother to check if everything was alright with the passengers in the queue, and there were very elderly people, people with canes, people with limited mobility, and small children who should have been allowed to go ahead of the queue, but nobody cared about that.

The tour guide deliberately wasted time; where it would have taken 10 minutes to walk, we drove in traffic for 20 minutes.

Service desk

Rude staff, arguing with passengers.

Since the majority of people on the ship were Spanish-speaking, there was little translation into English, sometimes no translation at all. We felt like second-class citizens.

They forgot to announce when disembarkation was possible, and announcements in general were poor, sometimes important announcements were missing. They only announced advertisements for the shops.

Swimming pool

Everything was poorly organized.

When we left our belongings on a sun lounger and went to breakfast, our things were taken away, and we barely found them two hours later after a lot of stress and rudeness from the staff at the service desk. Several other people suffered the same fate. How could they even touch other people's personal belongings?

They added new rules and didn't even inform the passengers, instead of putting up signs near the pools.

Elevators

The elevators were terrible, they broke down and jammed. We had to wait a long time for them. They stopped on every floor for no reason.

When we were disembarking from the ship, the elevators refused to work at all.

Toilets

The public toilets on the ship were in poor condition. The toilet near the pool had no toilet paper. We had to use paper towels.

And this happened for 2 days in a row.

The toilet paper holders were broken everywhere.

There are no emergency call buttons in the toilets. You could feel unwell or fall, and no one would find you.

General

The route was poorly planned; instead of making a stop in São Paulo, the ship stopped opposite a nondescript island with a beach and nothing else, where we had to jump onto rubber boats from the ship to get to the beach, which is difficult for elderly people.

There was little attention paid to people; when we were standing in line for the tender, under the scorching sun, not a single member of the ship's staff came up and asked if we were alright or offered us something to drink.

The food in the evening restaurants and the shows started very late: shows at 10:30 pm, restaurant entry at 7:45 pm.

The cruise director was very unpleasant; his jokes were flat and based on mocking his deputy, who pretended to be mentally challenged. In addition, he doesn't speak English very well, and it's not always clear what he's saying. And in this position, he should speak very well. He forgot to give announcements on the ship, which are part of his duties.

In general, it was a mess on the ship, and the captain is to blame for this.

The navigation team was unprofessional; they couldn't dock in the port in a light wind and stole 2 hours from us in Montevideo.

Because of all of the above, it follows that we overpaid a lot of money, as the cruise was too expensive, and it's not worth that money. It would be fair to receive compensation for all these inconveniences, because this cruise is not worth the money.