MSC not for me!

A brief review of our 7 night cruise on Fantasia from which we have just returned.

Embarkation was quite fast & efficient considering the amount of people boarding.

I'll start by saying that the itinerary was great and was why I booked this cruise. We would have liked longer time in the ports than was available but we knew this when we booked. We booked an MSC excursion from Bari to see the trullo houses in Alberobello and that was very enjoyable and the guide was fun and informative. I booked another company to take us to Olympia from Katakolon which was cheaper and also provided a guide for the site. We prefer to avoid cruiseship excursion where possible as they tend to include shopping or other unwanted activities. The other ports we did on our own using either local transportation or tours which worked out fine. No sea days was fine with us also.

The ship is well kept,clean and very glamourously decorated but there are just too many people onboard and it was a nightmare at breakfast and at other peak times to find a table, even at the back of the buffet. We found ourselves walking round and round the buffet looking for a place to sit.

Our cabin was large enough for the 2 of us, pleasingly decorated and comfortable. We had a larger than usual, odd shaped balcony as it was at the point were the ship widened out at the back. It was rather enclosed by a over hang from the deck above and was somewhat cave-like. Since we were off the ship every day, we didn't use it much anyway.

Our cabin steward seemed very stressed and got quite upset when we dialled the housekeeping number to ask for the beds to be split or request a guest feedback form that hadn't been delivered to our room (which other guests had told us they had received it the night before). He wasn't always around so how else were we to organize these things? He did keep the room clean and tidy enough and I left him a tip on the last day. Having worked myself in hotels and restaurants I know that the job can be hard work and I feel some sympathy for the staff onboard who sometimes are asked a lot of. Unless they are very surly or rude, I will not complain. In general they were friendly and helpful.

Our big problem was with the food. As we are vegetarian the choices were very very limited but even for non vegetarians there was not much choice. We have sailed on other lines and they have far greater and more appetizing choices. The quality of the meals was so very poor and never arrived at the table hot. We gave up on the dining room as the options were so limited for non meat/fish eaters but the buffet was not much better. The service was adequate in the dining room though and I have no complaints about that.

We wound up eating salad most nights from a very uninspiring salad bar in the buffet. The few non meat options (vegetable lasagne etc.) looked like they had been sitting there for hours and were barely warm. Mushroom pizza were you were lucky to find more than 2 tiny mushroom pieces on a slice. The whole impression was of cost saving and no effort put into making things look attractive. It surprises me that a great food loving nation can produce such disappointing cuisine.

We met 2 other couples who were equally disappointed with the food, they also had issues with their cabins, which we thankfully did not.

The shows were glitzy and sparkly and mostly worth watching. I just wish they had put that much effort into their dining experiences.

We didn't use the pools but there seemed to be too few loungers for everyone who wanted one. We also saw toddlers and babies in the pools who should not have been there, for hygiene reasons. Talking of hygiene nobody seemed to use the hand sanitizers onboard nor was it ever requested by the staff.

The tendering process at Santorini & Dubrovnik was also chaotic. The queues for the tender tickets were extremely long (an hour wait) due to just 2 staff members handing them out. A few more staff would have helped the process go much faster and stopped the aggressive reactions of guests, who got very upset at people who tried to push in the queue, which did happen. Once down at the exit nobody took any notice of the time on the tender tickets anyway. What a waste of time!

Guests were supposed to vacate the cabins at 8 AM on disembarkation day but since the ship was late in docking, 9AM, this meant many people had to hang around for a long time to leave the ship. We disembarked ourselves so had no problem getting off when we wanted to. We left the cabin at 10AM when the cabin steward came knocking the door to clean the room.

For me it was all Style over Substance and I wouldn't sail MSC again.

While I agree that buffets are overcrowded at several times, and that tendering can be an issue in Dubrovnik and Santorini, I don't share the same opinion about the food.

I understand you may have difficulty in finding variety for vegetarians, but fur non vegetarians (like you also mention) that was just not the case for us.

You may dislike the food, but saying there is no variety in the buffet or MDR is not really accurate in my opinion. There are many dishes to choose from, in both places.

I can't comment on buffet diners because we never went there, so I might be wrong in that regard.

Thank you for taking the time to give a review. My husband and I will soon be sailing with MSC and I have to say that am expecting to get what I paid for : ) The price was quite inexpensive. I have read many many reviews and your comments have been echoed many times over...both the good and bad ones. I find it hard to believe there isn't truth to them. Food is subjective as they say but many people feel the same way you do. I will go with lowered expectations and hopefully will be happily surprised.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Thank you for sharing yours.

I returned from the Fantasia a couple of weeks ago myself. I did note that there was not a real focus placed on the hand sanitizers so they did seem a bit of a token deal. I do believe that it's taken more seriously on other lines that I've been on and in fact on some lines you weren't even allowed to enter the buffet without cleaning your hands. Now..having said that the layout of the buffet makes enforcement impossible of course!

I loved the ship..beautiful..sparkling..calm. It was the smoothest cruise that I've ever been on in fact and I could easily forget (and did) that I was on a cruiseship! I do agree that this was also the first time where a ship felt crowded to me as well..the buffet was a definite zoo during the last couple of days and it was frustrating to say the least. I know it would have made more sense to wait for the rush to subside but unfortunately my stomach didn't agree with that..lol!! I adored the shows every night..very well done. Let me take my hat off right now to the entertainment team. They were such fun and very dedicated and present on the ship. I've been on other ships where it didn't seem like they even existed. And..what can I say about the cruise director and her ability to switch between five different languages so effortlessly? I know that some people find it annoying (I don't at all) but it's an amazing gift that she possesses and she makes other cruise directors on other lines who don't have the challenge of juggling languages and cultures on a daily basis to appear to have a much easier job than she does!

I know that food is subjective but I thought that the food was very good. I felt it was a bit better at the buffet than in the dining room (loved the international corner) but still enjoyable. I do take the point and agree with the fact that I would have loved to have seen more vegetarian options in the dining room though. I thought that the buffet had some lovely vegetarian dishes to choose from most of the time. The desserts were lovely too.

I can well imagine that tendering must have been a nightmare with those numbers on board. I thank my friends here at Cruise Critic for giving the heads up about that..we simply waited for the rush to be over and when we decided it was time we simply went to the tender boat and were immediately accomodated..painless!

I enjoyed all the ports though I do agree that it would have been nice to be able to linger a bit longer. Unfortunately we visited Bari when most things were closed so I'd like to go back one day when that's not the case.

Santorini was quite the experience and I thought of Ellmartellama (grazie!!)when he wrote in his wonderful review about the brides who come to get married there!! We saw a couple as well..lovely! We decided to descend on foot rather than by cable car and it was quite an adventure for sure. Sooo many donkeys waiting patiently at either end and you definitely had to watch where you placed your feet! We didn't take any of the ship's tours..preferring to take the shuttle in and just explore. I love getting the feel of the places that way.

All in all I will have wonderful memories of this cruise and wouldn't hesitate to return to MSC. Itineraries are great..prices are great..and the little things I might change (or might like better on other lines) aren't enough to cross it off my list.on the contrary..though I mainly cruise with Princess..MSC will still be one of my choices the next time I plan a cruise.

Thanks to everyone who provided such great information beforehand..it was very useful! It seems that this has turned out to be a mini-review and I hope that in turn will help a future MSC cruiser!

Camelia

Thank you for taking the time to give a review. My husband and I will soon be sailing with MSC and I have to say that am expecting to get what I paid for : ) The price was quite inexpensive. I have read many many reviews and your comments have been echoed many times over...both the good and bad ones. I find it hard to believe there isn't truth to them. Food is subjective as they say but many people feel the same way you do. I will go with lowered expectations and hopefully will be happily surprised.

 

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Thank you for sharing yours.

I hope you enjoy your cruise!

Some things are more important than others to different people and many seem to be happy with MSC. I am not trying to put anyone off just giving my personal view.

Been on several MSC Cruises and found them to be excellent value. Especially if you get the Allegrissimo package

A brief review of our 7 night cruise on Fantasia from which we have just returned.

 

Embarkation was quite fast & efficient considering the amount of people boarding.

 

I'll start by saying that the itinerary was great and was why I booked this cruise. We would have liked longer time in the ports than was available but we knew this when we booked. We booked an MSC excursion from Bari to see the trullo houses in Alberobello and that was very enjoyable and the guide was fun and informative. I booked another company to take us to Olympia from Katakolon which was cheaper and also provided a guide for the site. We prefer to avoid cruiseship excursion where possible as they tend to include shopping or other unwanted activities. The other ports we did on our own using either local transportation or tours which worked out fine. No sea days was fine with us also.

 

The ship is well kept,clean and very glamourously decorated but there are just too many people onboard and it was a nightmare at breakfast and at other peak times to find a table, even at the back of the buffet. We found ourselves walking round and round the buffet looking for a place to sit.

 

Our cabin was large enough for the 2 of us, pleasingly decorated and comfortable. We had a larger than usual, odd shaped balcony as it was at the point were the ship widened out at the back. It was rather enclosed by a over hang from the deck above and was somewhat cave-like. Since we were off the ship every day, we didn't use it much anyway.

 

Our cabin steward seemed very stressed and got quite upset when we dialled the housekeeping number to ask for the beds to be split or request a guest feedback form that hadn't been delivered to our room (which other guests had told us they had received it the night before). He wasn't always around so how else were we to organize these things? He did keep the room clean and tidy enough and I left him a tip on the last day. Having worked myself in hotels and restaurants I know that the job can be hard work and I feel some sympathy for the staff onboard who sometimes are asked a lot of. Unless they are very surly or rude, I will not complain. In general they were friendly and helpful.

 

Our big problem was with the food. As we are vegetarian the choices were very very limited but even for non vegetarians there was not much choice. We have sailed on other lines and they have far greater and more appetizing choices. The quality of the meals was so very poor and never arrived at the table hot. We gave up on the dining room as the options were so limited for non meat/fish eaters but the buffet was not much better. The service was adequate in the dining room though and I have no complaints about that.

 

We wound up eating salad most nights from a very uninspiring salad bar in the buffet. The few non meat options (vegetable lasagne etc.) looked like they had been sitting there for hours and were barely warm. Mushroom pizza were you were lucky to find more than 2 tiny mushroom pieces on a slice. The whole impression was of cost saving and no effort put into making things look attractive. It surprises me that a great food loving nation can produce such disappointing cuisine.

 

We met 2 other couples who were equally disappointed with the food, they also had issues with their cabins, which we thankfully did not.

 

The shows were glitzy and sparkly and mostly worth watching. I just wish they had put that much effort into their dining experiences.

 

We didn't use the pools but there seemed to be too few loungers for everyone who wanted one. We also saw toddlers and babies in the pools who should not have been there, for hygiene reasons. Talking of hygiene nobody seemed to use the hand sanitizers onboard nor was it ever requested by the staff.

 

The tendering process at Santorini & Dubrovnik was also chaotic. The queues for the tender tickets were extremely long (an hour wait) due to just 2 staff members handing them out. A few more staff would have helped the process go much faster and stopped the aggressive reactions of guests, who got very upset at people who tried to push in the queue, which did happen. Once down at the exit nobody took any notice of the time on the tender tickets anyway. What a waste of time!

 

Guests were supposed to vacate the cabins at 8 AM on disembarkation day but since the ship was late in docking, 9AM, this meant many people had to hang around for a long time to leave the ship. We disembarked ourselves so had no problem getting off when we wanted to. We left the cabin at 10AM when the cabin steward came knocking the door to clean the room.

 

For me it was all Style over Substance and I wouldn't sail MSC again.

- Starting your day one hour earlier solves the issue with crowded buffets and tender queues

- The buffet is huge! To know everything being offered it is necessary to take a good walk; I know food quality is very subjective but I was more then happy with the choices offered

- I had the same issue that the feedback form was not available: So I called guest services and they picked up on the second ring and helped me out. No need to request it to your cabin steward.

Cheers!