Return to the MSC Fantasia: A 12-day winter cruise diary!

[moomoocow]

Wishing you and Jules a great cruise ;-)

 

 

I've been looking forward to this too! I'm on the cruise with Jules and co.

 

I did this itinerary on Splendida in October 2015 so it's also interesting to compare.

 

 

From my ipad

[IluvZ]

Wishing you and Jules a great cruise ;-)

 

Thanks. so excited for MSC. And to met Jules and our other CC cohort, Carol.

 

You have some great photos, I actually loved the one of your hands!

[CarolGS]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great information. So glad that you had a good time. I'm the fourth gal on these boards that will be on the March 24th/25th sailing. (Hi Jules, Robin and moomoocow! - 4 weeks to go! Can't wait to meet you all.)

 

Bea, can you tell me what times the 1st and 2nd seating were?

 

Thanks!

[JulesAS]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great information. So glad that you had a good time. I'm the fourth gal on these boards that will be on the March 24th/25th sailing. (Hi Jules, Robin and moomoocow! - 4 weeks to go! Can't wait to meet you all.)

 

Bea, can you tell me what times the 1st and 2nd seating were?

 

Thanks!

 

So excited too!

[Bra_BE2014]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great information. So glad that you had a good time. I'm the fourth gal on these boards that will be on the March 24th/25th sailing. (Hi Jules, Robin and moomoocow! - 4 weeks to go! Can't wait to meet you all.)

 

Bea, can you tell me what times the 1st and 2nd seating were?

 

Thanks!

 

Hi, sure! The first seating was 18:15h and the second 20:45h.

[Bra_BE2014]

Day 4 - Casablanca

 

Let's start day 4 by admitting something: I suck at formatting and editing pictures. There, I said what you all were thinking, hahahaha

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you who might have thought the Golden Jasmin package at EUR 299 was expensive, check these next promotion prices up and think again :D

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

This day was a very weird day! My mother was still not feeling well, she abused the pizza station the day before and was now cautious and didn't feel like being too far away from a bathroom; conclusion: I went alone to the Casablanca excursion.

 

It was a half day excursion, which would focus on a local market, the casbah (or casbah?!) that was featured in the movie Casablanca, a stop at Lourdes church followed by a visit to the Hassan II Mosquee.

 

It might be a good moment to mention that the seas were rough everyday during the 12 days, meaning we had a lot of motion. I have zero problem with motion and never get sea sick. But it was funny to see lots of small blue bags appearing suddenly all over the ship!! I guess that was one of the factors contributing to my mom being indisposed.

 

Anyway, the 'daily' was saying that my meeting point was at 7:45h (ugh) at la vanguard theater. There, I discovered that the excursion would be shared by English and French speakers. Cool! An opportunity to practice my non existent French.

 

So there we went to get off the ship, and I must confess: Casablanca port is ugly and dirty. There was this oily substance that sticks to your shoes all over the ground, blargh

 

The bus was full and there was a major change from the excursions I did in 2014 - If you read my 2014 review, you might remember that Buses were democratic and there were no Yatch club preferential treatment there. Well, that changed, the fist seats on the bus were reserved for YC guests. Wanna know the best part? They didn't show up, so we lost 30 min of our excursion. Nice, uh?

 

Soon the excursion began and simoultaniously the rain began :eek:

Nothing to do, except to sing in my head Toto's Africa until we stopped

 

"I bless the rains down in Africaaaaaaaaaa"

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around the local produce market, which was small but picturesque. We then proceeded to the lourdes church, whose stained glass window was brought all the way from Chartres, France

 

 

 

No flash allowed, so the pic is dark:

 

[Bra_BE2014]

Inside the Casbah:

 

 

 

Hand of Fatima, to protect the inhabitants of the house from all evil:

 

 

 

 

We hopped again on the bus and drove through the beach side as we approached the mosque::

 

 

 

 

It was beautiful and no pictures do justice to it! I'll try anyway ;)

 

 

 

 

See those chandeliers? They are made from Murano glass and the columns from Carrara marble

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

Our wonderful tour guide:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

We were back to ship around 14h, so I went for some refreshment and food in the buffet:

 

 

 

All the religious sightings inspired me, so I purchased this rosary ring I'm wearing in the picture.

 

My mom was feeling better in the afternoon so we went to the 3D Cinema:

 

 

It was EUR6,00 per person and there was some serious shaking involved. Be warned! It was fun though :-)

 

Sadly, there was no show tonight, I suspect because the motion was too strong. Instead, they had two rounds of belly dancing class in the ineolito lounge, where the theme parties were held. So far, we only had casual parties, so this would be the fist time the daily encouraged 'costume' as a dress code.

 

We skipped it :D

 

We had one last dinner at the buffett! As of the following day, we would finally manage to go to the restaurant for dinner and meet our table mates, stay tuned!

[Bra_BE2014]

Day 5 - Sea day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 5, otherwise known as Valentine's day. Suggested dress code was red (shocking!!) and lots of serenades and cupid's parties being announced in the daily.

 

Once again, I didn't know what to do with myself.....wasting a day doing things I usually do at home like reading, watching tv and resting felt like such a shame. I prefer to stop at a port everyday. Who knew?! Maybe in the summer I would feel differently, as the wind made it impossible to take many walks outside.

 

I chose to soothe myself with a Prossecco and people watching in the atrium followed by some shopping on the promotion stands they would set up on all sea days. Some of those prices were not bed! Although, the duty free on Brussel's airport was cheaper for perfumes. For instance, my perfume of choice, Miss dior - blooming bouquet was EUR100 on the ship shop and EUR85 on the airport's duty free. Apart from that, we spent the day eating, drinking and napping :D

 

One thing I really enjoyed, was the 3 MSC oriented channels on TV. One was dedicated to show samples of what people would see on shore excursions; the second was the safety guidelines in different languages and the third and best was a recap of the previous day, showing highlights of the activities, parties and evening show. It was pure entertainment :D They actually showed it in an attempt to allure people into buying the DVD's of the trip but as a bônus it made for awesome television, hehehe.

 

They had 2 Spanish channels, two Italian channels, CNN and BBC (news), some german channels, the dedicated channels for the ship Cam's and those MSC channels I mentioned first.

 

All this resting served a purpose to get us ready for Tenerife the following day, which would also be the second gala night.

Edited February 27, 2016 by Bra_BE2014

[CarolGS]

Hi, sure! The first seating was 18:15h and the second 20:45h.

 

Thanks for posting the dinner times.

 

BTW, I love the way that you put an "h" after the time...e.g 18:15h. I know you are being precise but I keep reading it as "18:15ish" and thinking that the scheduled times on board are just approximations! "What time do you want to eat?" "Eh...how about 18:15ish?" :)

[maurs_hunny]

Thanks for posting the Spa Menu. As a regular visitor to Bali, I am certainly laughing at the prices that they are charging for Balinese spa treatments. I'm use to paying just $10 per hour for a massage and maybe $25 for any special treatments....

[Bra_BE2014]

Hi guys, today was my first day back at work after 3 weeks vacation. Needless to say, I'm slightly depressed, so writing this review helps me reliving some great moments :)

 

Day 6 - Tenerife

 

Today was a historical day on this cruise, several important, pivotal moments took place that up'ed the fun level 1000%!

 

It all started with a beautiful day in Tenerife. I didn't know much about Tenerife except that it was part of the Canary Islands (duh)

 

For those who decided to stay in the ship, this was the program:

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

Meeting point was early morning, as usual, and it was a bit cloudy though the temperature was pleasant. We enjoyed a nice 20 minute bus drive while our guide explained to us that there were 250 volcanoes in Tenerife :eek:

 

Thankfully, they all behaved!! First stop: Botanical gardens:

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

The gardens were not very big, you could easily cover everything in 30 minutes. But there were loads of exotic plants, with interesting explanations next to each of them. There were even many plants from Brazil, which was fun to identify and remanesce about.

 

Next stop was the center of the town to see some historical buildings that had wooden balconies. I never heard about them before, but had lots of fun anyway! specially because the sun made an appearance!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

A walking tour f the city introduced us to some beautiful scenery:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

It was a half day excursion, so we returned to the ship around 14h-ish (ha!)

 

We had lunch and a nap to prepare for the evening. Tonight would be the second gala night, and I was determined to attend it! My mom felt the spirit too and we went all well rested and fresh to watch the show 'Totem' at 19h. sharp, hehehehe

 

It was loosely western inspired and it was one of my favourite shows of the trip. Such fun!

 

Now please behold, the most important, most delicious and precious tip I will give you on this report:

 

......

 

 

 

Drum roll :D

 

 

 

......

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMG, you guys, how on earth it took me 5 days to go to 'La Cantina Toscana'!!!! It is awesome and my mouth is watering just by remembering this delicious wine sampler. Whenever you ordered something, you could choose any of the finger food available, as much as you wanted.

 

Everything tasted fresh and light and the options of finger food changed every night. Needless to say, I would pass by after the show every night for a wine sampler for the rest of the trip :D

[Bra_BE2014]

I was already on cloud nine but the night got even better as we went for the first time to dinner on Red velvet. We were seated at a large table for 8 but only one couple was there. They were very friendly and also from Belgium like us, which was nice as we could speak Dutch with them.

 

The gala menu was awesome and the food was hot and and tasty:

 

King Prawns:

 

 

 

Some fancy bird I don't remember the name, in Dutch it is parelhoen:

 

 

 

 

Chocolate mousse:

 

 

 

We were very happy with our day and went to bad happy and looking forward to Madeira. After all, as Brazilians our ancestors are Portuguese :)

[JulesAS]

Thanks again for this great report. I have a question regarding leaving the ship at port. How does it work on the Fantasia? Do you stand in line to get tickets that giving you a debarkation number/time? Just curious because we've not booked any tours with MSC and will be DIYing all of our shore excursions.

 

Thanks in advance!

[jimbri]

Wonderful photos!

[1fifthavenue]

Thanks again for this great report. I have a question regarding leaving the ship at port. How does it work on the Fantasia? Do you stand in line to get tickets that giving you a debarkation number/time? Just curious because we've not booked any tours with MSC and will be DIYing all of our shore excursions.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi Jules

 

Depending on whether you have an MSC organised flight or transfer is part of what decides what time you leave the ship. When we were on Fantasia before Christmas, we were given colour coded luggage tags (to leave on your bags outside the night before), and a time and meeting point from where we would be escorted off the ship. This is usually organised in groups of buses to take you to the airport or your onward destination.

[Bra_BE2014]

Thanks again for this great report. I have a question regarding leaving the ship at port. How does it work on the Fantasia? Do you stand in line to get tickets that giving you a debarkation number/time? Just curious because we've not booked any tours with MSC and will be DIYing all of our shore excursions.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

I'm glad you are enjoying it! To disembark in the ports of call was super easy, you just check out the estimated time of arrival at the daily and off you go when it's time :-)

 

A little patience is required with the multitude of clueless people that queue to leave the ship without having the cruise card at hand and make the process longer then necessary. You need to have your card scanned to leave and to get back in. Hope this helps!

[Bra_BE2014]

Wonderful photos!

 

Thanks :-)

[Bra_BE2014]

Loving this review

 

Thanks a lot :-)