MSC Fantasia Yacht Club

I'm guessing it's not permissable to include links to other sites on here, so here's the text from the start of my blog - i'll add to this thread as I continue to complete the review

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 12.0px}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Day 1 - 10th April

MSC’s Yacht Club offering is that of a ship within a ship - a luxurious enclave of suites and private areas reserved solely for Yacht Club Guests on Fantasia class ships and above (ie Meraviglia and Seaside, and the soon to launch Seaview).

This experience offers fine dining, calmer areas than the hustle and bustle of mega ships and exquisite service from highly trained butlers.

Having cruised many times with MSC in a variety of cabins across the fleet, this was our first experience of the MSC Yacht Club and was for a Trans-Atlantic crossing from Barbados to Genoa in April 2018.

The flight to Barbados was at 9am with Virgin Atlantic from London Gatwick, so we stayed at the Hilton the night before - not the best hotel I’ve stayed in with an uncomfortable bed and the room was a trek from reception!

We were able to check in our bags the night before the flight, and to our surprise there were MSC representatives available to check the cruise documentation and passports, presumably to speed up the check-in process and because of the lack of facilities at Barbados. We only had our flight documentation with us so were unable to complete the cruise check in at that point. The bags were duly taken by Virgin and we were lucky enough to get two extra leg room seats for the flight as a gift for my partner’s birthday - thank you Virgin!

The following morning we went back to the airport terminal with the MSC paperwork and were given the ‘ok’ by the MSC rep - headed to the lounge and had an uneventful, pleasant flight to Barbados.

Getting through customs at Barbados took about half an hour and we were soon on the bus to the ship. As the bus entered the port area a rep asked if there were any Yacht Club passengers - we left the bus near the front of the ship and were escorted onboard by a butler.

As there’s no cruise terminal at the Barbados pier the embarkation was a little different to the usual Yacht Club experience where you wait in a lounge at the port prior to being escorted onboard by your butler, however we were soon sat in the reception area of the Yacht Club with a glass of prosecco whilst our cruise cards were sorted.

Our butler, Suantara Wayan introduced himself to us and escorted us up the golden Swarovski crystal staircase to our suite, 16011, where a bottle of pro secco and some treats were waiting for us.

The Yacht Club suites are about 1.5 times the size of a normal balcony cabin, if not bigger, with a bathroom with bath, walk in wardrobe with plenty of storage, king size bed and a 2 seat sofa, plus the balcony which was no bigger than usual but not a problem to us.

Cabin 16011 has a metal balcony rather than glass screen, which we found we actually quite like as my partner is afraid of heights - not great when you’re so high up! We tend to rarely use a balcony anyway but it’s nice to have!

As we were tired from the flight we asked Suantara if he would help us unpack and that was no trouble - a nice to have service. Knowing we’d be pretty low maintenance we didn’t feel to cheeky asking but it really was a lovely touch.

We changed in to some shorts and went to explore the Yacht Club area. We met with the Head Butler, Dany, who gave me his phone number should we ever have any issues or need him (I kept the post it note all week but never even needed to look at it to even think about contacting him).

On Fantasia Class ships the front of the ship containing the Yacht Club consists of the Top Sail Lounge, which houses the bar, a small buffet area and (no surprises from the name) - a lounge area. Smoking is allowed in a small corner of the lounge however it is big enough for this not to be a problem - plenty of room to sit away from that corner if you’re a non smoker.

Although the One Pool area has a small buffet we knew there were friends onboard so we went to grab a slice of the excellent MSC pizza from the main buffet on Deck 14, then head to the Gaudi Bar on Deck 15 Aft to meet up with friends and have a drink.

We saw the sail away from Bridgetown from the One Pool Deck and enjoyed a glass of Prosecco with our friends.

After travelling all day we were thankful that the first night was casual dress. I may have mentioned before how MSC are pretty laid back on dress code, and it really is a case of wearing what you feel comfortable in, as long as you’re not looking like you’ve just come off the beach it’s not a problem. I’ll come back to this later with an anecdote from the first elegant night.

Dinner in L’Etoile was fantastic - service from our waiters Claudio and Penny was excellent. Although Yacht Club includes premium drinks, the wines at dinner are from a selection and rotate nightly (although if you have a particular favourite just ask and it will be provided!). I couldn’t decide what to have for dessert so enjoyed both a chocolate cake and tiramisu! (Please forgive me Slimming World for I have over-Synned!)

Day 2 - 11th April

The next morning day was a day at sea, and as I’d had such a hectic weekend and with al the travelling I had a good rest in the cabin. The sea was a little bit choppy with some high winds - ginger beer was in order!

There were plenty of activities available during the day from arts and crafts (chargeable) to quizzes and dance classes.

It really was a chill out day, Andy met up with our friends, I read the paper etc. Dinner service was yet again fantastic with excellent food.

12th April is Andy’s birthday, so I had a word with Suantara, our butler to ask if there was something we could do to surprise him. His response was to leave it with him and asked about what time we might want breakfast in the morning.

We enjoyed a night out around the various bard of the ship before heading back to the Top Sail Lounge and to bed at about 12:30, having toasted in Andy’s birthday with a glass of fizz.

Very nice review!... :) Keep the good news coming!... Many thanks and have a nice day!... :)

Thanks for sharing! Enjoying your review.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 12.0px}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Ain’t no party like a Yacht Club party!!

Apologies for the delay in the next instalment, it’s been a busy week since getting home, with getting stuck in to a new job and preparing for our forthcoming wedding.

Day 3 - 12th April

As mentioned in the last post, today is Andy’s birthday and also gala night! Our butler had asked us what time we would like to be woken in the morning, we’d said 9am but we were awake before this - I think the time changes had been playing with our body clocks! We got up, had a bath and headed to the Top Sail Lounge for a refreshing glass of fresh orange juice while Andy opened his birthday cards and gift from me.

We were then approached by Dany, the head butler to advise of a problem in the room and asked us to return to the cabin with him.

All I can say is WOW!!! There was a full line-up of the butlers waiting for Andy, singing happy birthday with a huge continental breakfast, bottle of fizz and a card from the Captain. This was one of those moments that makes memories. We went back downstairs with the fizz and the cake to finish opening cards etc.

We were quite happy to take the remainder of the bottle back upstairs with us to have with some of the breakfast items that had been put out when one of the butlers said he would take it. I made a comment that there wasn’t much left to which he offered to bring another bottle should we so wish! This is just another example of the service being second to none.

The continental breakfast was an amazing spread with smoked salmon, cold cuts, fruit, pastries, cereals, the list goes on and on!

It was another day at sea, which was also set to be the first Elegant / Gala night. With this in mind, some well-deserved time on deck was required for rest and relaxation, together with out usual walks around the ship.

The weather was somewhat stormy, which meant that the pools around the ship were closed - at one point a wave in the indoor pool on deck 14 hit the magrodrome roof! It simply wouldn’t have been safe to swim, however since returning home I have read complaints of the pools being shut - this is the obvious reason why!

At one point, whilst sat on deck, we were ushered back inside because we were heading towards some rain - again another example of the fabulous service in the MSC Yacht Club!

The evening’s menu was once again incredibly impressive, with lobster and rib steak featuring. The food was once again sublime with excellent service. We were a table of four as our friends Lesley and Tony joined us for Andy’s birthday celebration.

Now I’ll mention about one of the issues we had (which was beyond MSC’s control) and that is surrounding dress code and the attitude of other guests. During our meal I needed to take a comfort break and on my way back in to the restaurant a Welsh woman said to her husband “Another one that’s not made an effort” which was clearly in relation to my outfit.

Owing to the passenger mix on MSC it is impossible to tell who speaks English and therefore may understand what you’re saying if you’re rude enough to talk about other people. I was wearing lounge suit trousers and a nice shirt with cufflinks. I was not wearing a tie and had left my jacket at the table as it was very warm. This comment was quite upsetting. As mentioned previously the dress code on MSC is laid back and just suggested with those who wear tuxedoes being somewhat in the minority.

To be brutally honest this woman and her husband’s dress sense left a lot to be desired but I wouldn’t have been so rude to say anything about it at the time, to them or anyone else. If it hadn’t have been for the fact I didn’t want the hassle and wanted to return to the table I would have challenged them on what was said. Instead I just avoided them for the rest of the cruise - their loss in my eyes.

From here on I’ll be changing the format of the blog slightly and just writing about the particular highlights rather than a day by day encounter - there are only so many times I can write how amazing something was before it gets repetitive - but trust me - it was amazing!

Thank you for taking the time to let us cruise vicariously through you!

Seems like you had a wonderful time!

Kr sandra