MSC Fantasia from Guadeloupe

I was wondering if somebody already experienced a cruise starting from Guadeloupe. We are considering it for April 2018 on MSC Fantasia. I assume that there are going to be majority of guests from France-am I right? How is going to be communication on the ship? Can we expect that the staff speaks mostly English or do they speak mostly French?

For me English is the second language,and I have no knowledge of French at all. I do remember on my first ever cruise years ago with stop in St.Barth's,I had a problem with being served a cup of coffee at the seaside café because I had not ordered it in French. I could,probably, experience this at a hotel in Guadeloupe but won't be happy to live through the same situation on the ship.

I,as myself of European origin,enjoy mixed clientele on cruises,but need to have a chance to communicate with staff.

Any experience and/or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

From MSC website

The company uses six main languages for its communications: English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. The order in which these languages appear is determined exclusively by the number of guests in each language group as a proportion of our total guests.*

***

The cabin information booklet and other printed material used on board are available in different versions for each of the six languages listed above. The order of the languages used in our menus changes depending on the area of the world in which each ship is located.

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Thank you,Mabbiesmom. It partly confirms my assumption that there will be lots of French language spoken; as long as I can get English written menu and find an English speaking person in Guest Services,I should be OK.

I would still love to hear from someone with "hands on" experience on a similar cruise.

I was wondering if somebody already experienced a cruise starting from Guadeloupe. We are considering it for April 2018 on MSC Fantasia. I assume that there are going to be majority of guests from France-am I right? How is going to be communication on the ship? Can we expect that the staff speaks mostly English or do they speak mostly French?

For me English is the second language,and I have no knowledge of French at all. I do remember on my first ever cruise years ago with stop in St.Barth's,I had a problem with being served a cup of coffee at the seaside café because I had not ordered it in French. I could,probably, experience this at a hotel in Guadeloupe but won't be happy to live through the same situation on the ship.

I,as myself of European origin,enjoy mixed clientele on cruises,but need to have a chance to communicate with staff.

Any experience and/or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Did a 14 night cruise around the Antilles in April 16 which had Guadeloupe on the itinerary twice . the majority of guests spoke French , but I had no problem communicating with any of the crew who were, for the most part, much happier speaking English than French.

I'm English and speak no other language.

my experience of Travelling in France echoes your experience of Guadeloupe, which after all is a department of France,. I think it is part of French culture to expect people visiting France to use French, much as we Brits expect everybody to speak English which ever part of the world we are in. It's the colonial heritage.

ALL written information is available in English

Hope this puts your mind at rest

enjoy your cruise

Pete

Here's a link to my review of my cruise in case you're interested

http://www.cruisingmates.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=270&t=11371

I did a repositioning cruise from guadeloupe with Costa and had no problem with languages as there was a good mix of people on the boat you will have no problem at all in my opinion

Thank you,Mabbiesmom. It partly confirms my assumption that there will be lots of French language spoken; as long as I can get English written menu and find an English speaking person in Guest Services,I should be OK.

 

I would still love to hear from someone with "hands on" experience on a similar cruise.

Considering MSC is an Italian cruise company then you would expect it to be all Italians, but as stated by Mabbiesmom the ship is multi-lingual. I was on the Fantasia from Dubia their were passengers from Brazil on the ship. They were able to understand using Portuguese. Just because the ship is embarking in Guadeloupe does not mean loads of French will be boarding. We are on the same cruise but boarding in Barbados, we are Scottish. Passengers arrive from around the globe to join the ship. We are actually flying from Spain to start the cruise in Barbados.

In reference to the menu, once you board they will know you are Canadian, in fact they may ask if you want the French menu. All paperwork and the daily newsletter will be in your chosen language.

Thank you all who responded to my post. I was getting excited and ready to book this cruise,but- unfortunately- my travel companion who is American travel agent decided not to go on this cruise. She didn't like dealing with MSC office in the past (we had taken two cruises on the Divina together),and in general said that beside the interesting itinerary there is nothing she would like. I will try to get somebody else to go with me,but it is not easy,and the cabins are booked fast.:loudcry:

I,specifically, want to thank a lot to Pete/Skier. I have been reading your comments and many advices to other cruisers for years,and I like the review of your Caribbean/TA cruise very much. Maybe I will do the same one day.....

Thanks again!

Suzy