MSC To Base 2nd Fantasia class vessel in Germany 2016

Hi All

Picked this up from Seatrade Insider.

Resulting from strong demand, MSC will base 2 Fantasia class vessels in Germany in 2016

So Germany will have:

MSC Splendida in Hamburg

MSC Opera in Warnemunde

MSC Fantasia in Kiel

Annie

No return to the UK for any of them yet then in 2016 ... :(

No return to the UK for any of them yet then in 2016 ... :(

It doesn't look like it - maybe too much competition ex SOTON.

Annie

Annie ... You may well be right plus when you look at the fares being extracted for sailings from Germany to the Baltics and UK i doubt there will be many ex UK passengers onboard them.

Hi All

 

Picked this up from Seatrade Insider.

 

Resulting from strong demand, MSC will base 2 Fantasia class vessels in Germany in 2016

 

So Germany will have:

 

MSC Splendida in Hamburg

MSC Opera in Warnemunde

MSC Fantasia in Kiel

 

Annie

That's great news. Hopefully, prices will come down a bit. It would be great to have a few more of the slightly longer tours that spend two days in St. Petersburg.

I saw that on the 2016 itineraries. It's not really 2016 full time, it's just 3 or 4 months actually since they sail northern itineraries.

Having been on a Fantasia ship in the Med, I don't really think this ship is appropriate for some itineraries like the Fjords. Handling 4500 people in such a small space, or when they use tenders to disembark ends up being chaotic.

We're doing the MSC Orchestra from Kiel to the Fjords this year, and I'm really glad it's a smaller ship. I'll miss the covered pool and the Fantasia class style, but you need a smaller vessel in some places.

On the other hand the Baltics itinerary is more appropriate for that kind of size, and it's quite appealing.

 

 

So Germany will have:

 

MSC Splendida in Hamburg

MSC Opera in Warnemunde

MSC Fantasia in Kiel

 

:DWhoohoooo --- bring em on!:D

Stef

Having been on a Fantasia ship in the Med, I don't really think this ship is appropriate for some itineraries like the Fjords. Handling 4500 people in such a small space, or when they use tenders to disembark ends up being chaotic.

 

We're doing the MSC Orchestra from Kiel to the Fjords this year, and I'm really glad it's a smaller ship. I'll miss the covered pool and the Fantasia class style, but you need a smaller vessel in some places.

That's an interesting point. We recently booked the Splendida for this July, the 14-night all the way up to Spitsbergen. We'll have a lot of sea days and I was looking forward to the covered pool. But now I'm worried about all those people getting off at those small ports! :eek: I've never been on such a large ship.

That's an interesting point. We recently booked the Splendida for this July, the 14-night all the way up to Spitsbergen. We'll have a lot of sea days and I was looking forward to the covered pool. But now I'm worried about all those people getting off at those small ports! :eek: I've never been on such a large ship.

On a cruise last year out of Venice we had to use the tenders twice. It was pure chaos in Dubrovnik (you are not supposed to tender there).

We knew beforehand how the situation would be like, and picked the tender ticket quite soon, others had to wait several hours to get off, in a 6 hours stopover. It was so bad, they had to delay departure one hour, otherwise hundreds of people would have been stranded.

Back in 2012, we used the tender of the Liberty of the seas in Cannes, and had no problem, since the stopover was 12 hours long.

I'm not saying you'll have problems, but it is a huge ship at it takes a while for everyone to get off safely by a tender.

If you book an excursion you are supposed to not worry about it, but we had no excursions and where always the first off the ship.

Thanks for the warning! It looks like we will have several tender ports. We'll have to pay attention and get our tender tickets promptly.