MSC Fantasia 9/28-10/5

[jenniferop]

I posted this during the downtime – so not sure it was seen and thought I would provide a quick review for the Fantasia – I didn’t see many reviews before I left.



DH and I were in 16016 and my DM and DS were in 16018 (Dwi was our Butler and Yatim was our Waiter in the L’Etoile Dining room) we arrived for Boarding in Civitavecchia around 12:30pm – the place was EMPTY and we walked right in with a Butler that met us at the car, he took our luggage put Yacht Club tags on and carried our hand luggage. He handled all the documents and escorted us right to the concierge desk were we got a Yacht Club briefing and met our Butler for the week. She showed us to our room(s) and gave us our cards. We loaded our CC at the Kiosk and then went to Deck 18 to the One Pool and Bar for our first drink and a snack.

The whole week was Top notch – this was our first experience with MSC, the Yacht Club and the Mediterranean Itinerary as we normally cruise the Caribbean on other lines. From being escorted down to our Tour bus while in Port, to having seats at the front of the Bus tagged for Yacht Club guests, Everything was great... ok almost everything. The food could be improved upon slightly. Although good – the portions are small and the food comes out slow and at varying temperatures – so if after you eat the first course and then the main course if you are still hungry it could be another 30 minutes before you could get another dish…many nights DH was over slowness of the dining room and was ready to hit the buffet. The most disappointing night was the second to last night, my DS Ossobuco had SUCH a BIG BONE and no meat. And our Fish was so tiny. DH was almost ready to not return. The Last night (for us, Ajaccio) was Lobster night and they did redeem themselves. We ate one night midweek in the TEX MEX specialty restaurant because DH had been status matched to black and it was complementary – DS and DM paid for their meal and got a different menu than we did (theirs looked better) I would not use the free meal again and would pre-pay for the spec restaurant.

We attempted to see one of the shows in the theater but Opera was not really our thing so we did not return to the theater. We enjoyed the Dining Under the Stars up at the One Pool, if the Lounge had better AC we would have enjoyed being in there more but in the afternoon at the front of the ship with all the windows it got HOT. The week went by fast and we loved 99.5% of our time on the MSC Fantasia. Our rooms were always clean and the mini bar was always stocked (I know we could have asked for things specifically but we just drank what was in there and didn’t go crazy although DM and DS did eat their chocolate covered peanuts every day).

Disembarkation was just as easy as arriving. We had arranged for a car to pick us up at 10am so we had some time to kill. We left our room a little after 8 – Dwi picked up my picture order from the photography studio, we ate breakfast in the lounge had a few drinks. We told Dwi we were ready to leave about 9:15am, she escorted us down to the gangway, found our luggage and led us outside to the waiting area with chairs – our car arrived about 15 minutes later and we were off to Rome spending 3 days before flying back to the states. We flew Norwegian Air Premium cabin round trip and had great flights.

 

Happy to answer any questions about Fantasia or Yacht Club. Looking at another MSC cruise for next year.