Just of the Beautiful Fantasia

Please feel free to ask me anything.. I'll do my best to give you answers...

Wendy:)

Brain still in cruise mode... That was meant to be "off" the Fantasia...oops

Wendy:)

Hello Wendy

We are a group of 4 Aussies travelling on the Fantasia in October and I have a couple of questions:-

1. Did you arrange a drinks package prior to your trip. If not were drinks including water at a reasonable price,

2. Did you have any language problems, with the crew during your cruise,

3. Did you arrange your own excursions or use the MSC arranged excursions,

4. Were there any ports of call that you would not recommend disembarking at and

5. Did you go to Tunis. If so is it worthwhile going on an excursion to this port.

Hello Wendy

 

We are a group of 4 Aussies travelling on the Fantasia in October and I have a couple of questions:-

 

1. Did you arrange a drinks package prior to your trip. If not were drinks including water at a reasonable price,

2. Did you have any language problems, with the crew during your cruise,

3. Did you arrange your own excursions or use the MSC arranged excursions,

4. Were there any ports of call that you would not recommend disembarking at and

5. Did you go to Tunis. If so is it worthwhile going on an excursion to this port.

Hi LennoxRooster,

1. We did not do the drinks package because it was our understanding we were in the yacht club (free drinks) however with a change in programming our once "royal suite" was no longer part of the club..lol Last year we bought a soda card for our son and did the wine packages.. we never got through them because they give you tickets that you have to show (we always forgot to bring them from the cabin) instead of having it applied to your card like some other lines do... Without the package this year it was fine. The cruise is so port intensive, we ate and drank off the ship everyday except for the sea day (obviously..lol)...

2. We speak only english and we had NO problems at all. If someone did not quite understand you at reception, there were plenty of fully english speaking people there. Your cabin staff in most cases will be really happy that you speak english.. from what I saw, none were italian.

3. We did everything on our own. It is so easy and if you are prepared and know what and where you want to go it is no problem. We simply walked off the ship to the taxi line.. There are information people to assist you and the taxi drivers will give you a flat rate if you want a set number of hours... We like to set a flat rate and have the same person take us back to the ship. Just incase you are somewhere you can't get a taxi back. My only note for caution is that if you are doing your own tour ensure that your plans have you back to the ship one hour prior to the last boarding time... give yourself a buffer for traffic or any incident..the ship will wait for a late ship tour, but if you are not there on your own tour the ship will leave on time, without you.

4. We did not get off in Tunis this year. We went last year and it was too hot and it really did not do anything for us.. I would not do a private tour in Tunis. Last year we did a MSC tour to a beach club.. (big mistake) We had planned on doing a Spice Market this year but changed our minds at the last minute.

5. See #4... There are things to see there that are worthwhile. We just found that this time, we had such a busy itinerary that missing a day there wasn't a bad idea..

Hope that helps..

You've got a very impressive cruise history, Wendy and a couple more to look forward to ;) lucky you!

We like to eat in the MDR and know that we will be allocated meal times but are we able to change them, once onboard? We don't like to eat too early. Also,did you find that most of the pax spoke english? Many thanks.

does the buffet still open all day?

Please feel free to ask me anything.. I'll do my best to give you answers...

 

Wendy:)

Great that you liked the beautiful MSC Fantasia:) How did you like the Yacht Club concept?

I'm also just off Fantasia.

Tunis? We got a cab off the line and went everywhere we wanted for 40 Euros.

It was worth doing one time. If I was on a ship in Tunis again, I'd probably stay on the ship.

Our cab did get stopped at a roadblock by cops with machineguns. They just wanted to see the driver's papers. Didn't say anything to us.

And I want to warn that the wifi is expensive because it is so slow. Dont count on it.

Oh, the drink package.... The wife and I paid $466 for the two of us for a 7 day cruise.

I saved all the receips and would you believe....it came out to $466 and change!

The package paid for almost exactly what we paid for the package.

No complaints, but you do need to do some drinking if you are going to take advantage of the drink package.

Fantasia is a great ship and well worth the price of the cruise.

I'm also just off Fantasia.

Tunis? We got a cab off the line and went everywhere we wanted for 40 Euros.

It was worth doing one time. If I was on a ship in Tunis again, I'd probably stay on the ship.

Our cab did get stopped at a roadblock by cops with machineguns. They just wanted to see the driver's papers. Didn't say anything to us.

 

And I want to warn that the wifi is expensive because it is so slow. Dont count on it.

 

Oh, the drink package.... The wife and I paid $466 for the two of us for a 7 day cruise.

I saved all the receips and would you believe....it came out to $466 and change!

The package paid for almost exactly what we paid for the package.

No complaints, but you do need to do some drinking if you are going to take advantage of the drink package.

 

Fantasia is a great ship and well worth the price of the cruise.

Did that include the 15% service charge or is in effect that the amount you saved?

Cheers,

Yes, after adding up all the drink and other orders paid for by the package, I added 15% back to the total.

My wife doesn't drink as much as I do, so I think if the drink package was for me and my brother, we would have been able to beat the system with ease.

You've got a very impressive cruise history, Wendy and a couple more to look forward to ;) lucky you!

 

We like to eat in the MDR and know that we will be allocated meal times but are we able to change them, once onboard? We don't like to eat too early. Also,did you find that most of the pax spoke english? Many thanks.

Hi! We had the early 7pm seating. We only ate once at our table. We couldn't change for the later one. Plus the 9:30pm seating we thought was too late. That was our only real problem with the cruise. We ate at the TexMex each night.

Most pax that we came across spoke some English but the majority were Italian.

does the buffet still open all day?

Parts of the buffet close at different times. I am not positive that it is always open but each time we walked through there was some part open.

Hi! We had the early 7pm seating. We only ate once at our table. We couldn't change for the later one. Plus the 9:30pm seating we thought was too late. That was our only real problem with the cruise. We ate at the TexMex each night.

 

Most pax that we came across spoke some English but the majority were Italian.

Thanks Wendy. Wow, 9.30 for dinner - that's past my bedtime lol :p hope we get the early sitting! Do you have to pay for meals in the TexMex or any of the other restaurants?

 

4. We did not get off in Tunis this year. We went last year and it was too hot and it really did not do anything for us.. I would not do a private tour in Tunis. Last year we did a MSC tour to a beach club.. (big mistake) We had planned on doing a Spice Market this year but changed our minds at the last minute.

 

5. See #4... There are things to see there that are worthwhile. We just found that this time, we had such a busy itinerary that missing a day there wasn't a bad idea..

 

Hope that helps..

What was wrong with the beach club in Tunis?

Would there be anything for children to see in Tunisia? (An 8 year old and an 11 year old).

I speak Spanish and I know some Italian. So I think it would be fun to be a linguistic minority. But my kids don't speak any foreign languages. Were there many English speaking children on board?

Great that you liked the beautiful MSC Fantasia:) How did you like the Yacht Club concept?

Hi There, As it turned out, sometime in the recent past MSC changed which cabins were in the yacht club. We were in 11010, with documents that stated "Royal Suite" which are only in the Yacht Club area, however they now only include decks 15 and up... We were fully expecting it and I must say we were quite shocked. It turned out that it was a *********** issue.. So sorry I can't comment.. We tried to upgrade but the ship was full and we asked to pay extra to have the access and they wouldn't allow that (which I can understand)....It now my mission with *********** to find out what happened....:mad:

What was wrong with the beach club in Tunis?

 

Would there be anything for children to see in Tunisia? (An 8 year old and an 11 year old).

 

I speak Spanish and I know some Italian. So I think it would be fun to be a linguistic minority. But my kids don't speak any foreign languages. Were there many English speaking children on board?

We took our then 7yr old to the beach club... It was just too hot that time of year... The Sea was hot, you couldn't walk on the sand it was too hot, no shade or breeze.... Then we moved from the "beach" to the resort area, and it was so busy and the pool water was as salty as the Sea and so warm... we just couldn't cool down.... The food at pool side wasn't very good either... Didn't spoil our day, we just wouldn't do it again..

I am not a complainer.. We really just go with the flow... You may like this excursion. For us, it was not an enjoyable day and that is why we didn't get off the ship this year...lol bad memories...lol... Depends when you are traveling. We were in Tunisia, in July both yrs... the hottest time to go...

As for children, we picked the beach club excursion because we were with our son.. we played a bit, they had camel rides on the beach... your family may really enjoy it... :)

Thanks Wendy. Wow, 9.30 for dinner - that's past my bedtime lol :p hope we get the early sitting! Do you have to pay for meals in the TexMex or any of the other restaurants?

Yes, 7 is too early and 9:30 too late...lol 8pm is when we ate at TexMex each night.. Yes we had to pay, but it was 4 euros for apps... really inexpensive.. plus wine or whatever you drink... we had excellent food quality each time... steaks are thin compared to North American standards, but ours were cooked well and staff were great!:)

on our last splendida cruise in june - july the buffet was open almost all day serving grills and pizza for all day...

it was mentioned in the booklet as well

Hi There, As it turned out, sometime in the recent past MSC changed which cabins were in the yacht club. We were in 11010, with documents that stated "Royal Suite" which are only in the Yacht Club area, however they now only include decks 15 and up... We were fully expecting it and I must say we were quite shocked. It turned out that it was a *********** issue.. So sorry I can't comment.. We tried to upgrade but the ship was full and we asked to pay extra to have the access and they wouldn't allow that (which I can understand)....It now my mission with *********** to find out what happened....:mad:

The YC is only on deck 15 and 16. They changed this last year and the former YC cabins on deck 10 and 11 are now Aurea Spa Suites.

http://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/6261-msc-introduces-new-aura-suites-.html

Just booked this exactly same cabin for a Med cruise next January. Now they are offered as Aurea Suites and it seems that we have a choice of when to have dinner as well as a alegrissimo drinks package included. Lets hope we also do not find any surprising changes at embarkation.

hope you enjoyed the cabin and the location