Armonia - Fantastica Balcony and My Choice Dining

[Jersey42]

We have never cruised on MSC before and we just booked a last minute cruise on the Armonia.  On other lines, we normally book OV cabins and use "anytime dining", or whatever it is called on the specific cruise line. This time we took a B2 Fantastica Balcony, primarily to get the My Choice dining benefit. Since we booked, I have been reading through these boards to find out more about MSC and the Armonia.  I just stumbled upon one post that indicated My Choice dining on the Armonia was not available for Fantastica Balconies, it was only Fantastica Suites. Can anyone who has been on this ship recently confirm the actual policy aboard the ship?

 

Here is a link to the MSC website page that mentions this benefit:

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Discover-MSC/MSC-Experiences.aspx

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Jersey42

[Beamafar]

Having spent a total of 42 nights between Armonia and her sister ship Sinfonia, I can confirm that only Fantastica and Aurea suites have MyChoice dining - those in Fantastica balcony cabins have set dining times in an alternative MDR to the one that those in suites dine in.

Edited September 21, 2019 by Beamafar

[Até]

This has been discussed on other threads and cannot believe MSC still has this erroneous information on their US website.  I would think they get complaints on every cruise.  Maybe they will fix it after this next Armonia "renovation".

[Jersey42]

@Beamafar and @Até:  Thanks for the info.  It turns out the the thread both of you contributed to in April ended up being the one I stumbled upon earlier.  I had not found anything else, and certainly nothing since then.  Since the info is still on the MSC web site, I figured I would ask here.   I think I will bring a copy of the web page with me and see how they respond.  I will go into this with no expectations.  If anything changes, I will post here.

 

 

[versuco]

We just sailed on the Armonia departing 9/9.  We had a fantastica balcony and my choice dining was included with our experience in La Pergola restaurant.   Ask for Christian as your server, he was awesome and his section is at the aft of the ship with great views while dining.  At lunch, you can also request to dine outside.  Its a beautiful ship with a great crew and wonderful service.  Enjoy!

[Jersey42]

2 minutes ago, versuco said:

We just sailed on the Armonia departing 9/9.  We had a fantastica balcony and my choice dining was included with our experience in La Pergola restaurant.   Ask for Christian as your server, he was awesome and his section is at the aft of the ship with great views while dining.  At lunch, you can also request to dine outside.  Its a beautiful ship with a great crew and wonderful service.  Enjoy!

Great - My expectations have just gone up.  We depart on Monday.

[versuco]

We went with low expectations figuring we had our balcony and the ocean if everything else was bad.  The cruise far exceeded our expectations and we are looking forward to cruising Armonia again when it moves to Tampa.  I have been on Divina and Seaside, and had a lot more fun on the Armonia.   The ship is not perfect, but in very good shape for her age.  There are a few spots on the lido deck where the floor is buckling, but other than that we didn't notice any major issues.   

[Jersey42]

25 minutes ago, versuco said:

We went with low expectations figuring we had our balcony and the ocean if everything else was bad.  The cruise far exceeded our expectations and we are looking forward to cruising Armonia again when it moves to Tampa.  I have been on Divina and Seaside, and had a lot more fun on the Armonia.   The ship is not perfect, but in very good shape for her age.  There are a few spots on the lido deck where the floor is buckling, but other than that we didn't notice any major issues.   

Sounds like us.  With the elimination of Cuba, plus the Monday departures, MSC has been offering great deals to fill the ship. We have never been on MSC, but we have had recent cruises on similar era/size ships from HAL and Princess. All of them worked out great.  Our expectations for this cruise were low, but from your comments along with other things I have read, I hope we will be pleasantly surprised.    

[sandpiper35]

1 hour ago, versuco said:

There are a few spots on the lido deck where the floor is buckling, but other than that we didn't notice any major issues.   

What’s a little structural damage among friends? From the pictures, the ship looks very nice to me. Looking forward to sailing her.

 

Cheers.

[toyztoyz]

Just remember room service is not included in the fantastica experience. The “American Breakfast” is upcharged by 7.95 plus 15% service charge. I am on her today and wow was I disappointed. Watch your step on deck eleven as the floor has holes in the rubber and is ripped.  

[gkbiiii]

Is this true for suites as well?

[Jersey42]

3 hours ago, toyztoyz said:

I am on her today and wow was I disappointed.

Are you disappointed primarily because of the room service charges, or are there more things (besides the deck 11 floor)?

[kidless]

10 hours ago, Jersey42 said:

Great - My expectations have just gone up.  We depart on Monday.

We also will be on ship Monday! Our first time on MSC! Looking forward to it! 

[kidless]

6 hours ago, toyztoyz said:

Just remember room service is not included in the fantastica experience. The “American Breakfast” is upcharged by 7.95 plus 15% service charge. I am on her today and wow was I disappointed. Watch your step on deck eleven as the floor has holes in the rubber and is ripped.  

On their website it says room service is included with Fantastica experience....... ????

[toyztoyz]

I’m sorry. Don’t get me wrong for the most part this has been a relaxing cruise. I was just disappointed with the room service situation. The web site states included but menu states otherwise and I was charged. I went to customer service to inquire and the lady looked at me as if I were stupid because I did not realize that the 7.95 service charge for room service American breakfast was not included in the fantastica experience. Then add another 15% so it’s service charge on service charge. Overall this is a low average cruise but average non the less. I am a Royal Caribbean cruiser and will continue with royal as I was not Wowed on MSC 

[Jersey42]

OP here.  We are back from our cruise and we got My Choice dining in the La Pergola restaurant. We had booked a Fantastica balcony guarantee, but when we got to the ship we were given an Aurea suite.  There was no dining assignment on our cruise card. I went down to the Marco Polo dining room on the day we boarded to meet with the dining room staff.  I told them we were supposed to be in My Choice dining, but nothing was printed on our card, so should we just show up. He looked at the computer, made some changes and said we were all set.  Now that we were in, I did not want to ask if we had My Choice because of the Fantastica balcony, or because of the free Suite upgrade. Thus, I am not 100% positive if we would have had My Choice dining if were actually were in the balcony cabin we booked.  

 

Our experience in La Pergola was decent and as @versuco suggested, we ended up having Christian as a waiter for the second half of the trip.  He was excellent.