Spain, France, Italy & Tunisia from Barcelona with Stay, 16 January 2025 (9 nights)

The ship was far too busy and not enough beds when we were the day at sea. Shower curtains in the toilet are old fashioned and the carpet edges had never been hoovered. I could feel the bobbly mattress protector through the sheets. The ships bars and restaurants were very nice and decadent and we always received great service. I reported things being stolen off my subbed and the receptionist just said fill out a lost property form and made out it was my fault for leaving the stuff on the bed, even though The majority of passengers left their stuff on the sun beds. The service at times was slow at the bars but again it was just far too busy. I have been on better class of ships before.

Won't be cruising with MSC again , it was the first and last time , The ship was lovely , but hand washing and sanitizing was hardly ever enforced , in fact we had to go looking for the sanitizer every time we wanted to use it . The economy drinks package was very limited , 2 beers and small cocktails , no frozen large ones in package , so we had to upgrade on the 1st day . The food in the main restaurant was awful , small portions , luke warm and more like 3 star that 5 star fine dining , cheese board on Gala evening was 3 small triangles of cheese and 3 crackers in a packet put in front of you , baked alaska was a square piece of cake , looked more slice of ice cream , buffet food not much better , curry but no rice , lamb , beef etc , no veg or potatoes to go with them , people pushing and shouting everywhere , never known so many rude passengers on a cruise , mainly french and Italian on board , We have cruised more than 25 times and we can honestly say , if this was our first , we'd never have done a second one . don't waste your money , I can highly recommend RCI , NCL or P and O , food , entertainment and service on these other ships is excellent , but avoid MSC at all costs , they try and push to get you to eat in the better restaurants , this is at a cost of between 30 and 60 dollars a time , every announcement is made in 5 languages and can even be heard in the toilets , I could go on , but would be here all day :(

We cruised on MSC Fantasia 1-8th June 2019...we had a lovely holiday and there were things we loved about the ship and others that were not so good! Firstly the ship is stunning! Very elegant and stylish. The layout of the cabin gave more usable floor space and therefore seemed bigger than other ships we’ve been on. The entertainment was not the greatest but I suppose there is a limit to acts that can perform to an international, multilingual audience. So it’s mainly singing and dancing of an evening with a wide variety of genres to suit all tastes. We took a couple of excursions and they were both great. The guides were very informative and extremely accommodating of my husband and his mobility needs. Word of caution book your trips online before you go as they are cheaper than when onboard. Most of the ports had a shuttle bus service to and from the main town/point of interest which seemed a reasonable price and the buses were located as soon as you got off the ship which avoided some very long cruise terminal walks to other forms of transportation etc. The not so good points... we were allocated first set dining at 6.30pm which is in fact WAY to early for most ports of call and the restaurant was always half full with no atmosphere! The food on the first few nights was cold! Then we were busy so didn’t bother going again... we met other people who were sharing our table and the said they’d been and the food was hot so we decided to try again on what was supposed to be a gala night... 6 people, 6 stone cold meals! We all complained and some meals were replaced and came out hot the 2nd time but by then I’d lost my appetite! For the last 2 nights we managed to get a table on the 2nd sitting which was a totally different experience! The atmosphere in the restaurant was buzzing and the food was hot! The times of the sittings are the problem I think, 6.30pm or 9pm... one is just a little too early and the other is just a little too late... The buffet is HUGE! At peak times it can get very busy and my husband found it difficult to get around with the amount of people and with them coming from all different directions! There was plenty of choice and mostly the food was hot but with all buffet type arrangements I’ve never found one that can keep food piping hot yet. So it was a bit of potluck as to whether you got hot food or not! The dress code was never enforced... we dressed up on the Captains night and found we were in a minority of about 20% of the boat. That’s fine if people don’t want to dress up but on other ships we’ve been on your not allowed in the main restaurant without at least a jacket and trouser in formal night and to be sitting there in full regalia to have someone next to you in shorts and a hoodie just ruined the occasion. So unfortunately this cruise didn’t live up to our usual expectations of the reason we fell in love with cruising. If you’re looking for AMAZING food and dressing elegantly at times this is not the cruise ship for you. We got an absolute bargain of a price for our cruise and the ports of call were varied and excellent which is what we chose the trip for. I’m not saying we wouldn’t ever cruise with MSC again we would for the right price and with ports of call that are of interest but we would definitely know what to expect re the food and dress code etc. Re the drinks package... we didn’t have it because my husband doesn’t drink much and so couldn’t justify the prepayment. We met friends who did have a drinks package and in some bars the staff allowed them to have as many drinks as they wanted so they got us the odd drink. Obviously at times they were refused the extras but that’s understandable as that’s the rules. A bottle of house wine worked out to just over 20€ a bottle with the tax whilst onboard and was very drinkable. Spirits are very expensive at around 15€ for a double! They are very strict with not allowing alcohol onboard at ports too... so depending on how much you drink etc decide whether the package is needed or not. I’ve tried to leave an honest review that may help people to decide whether MSC aid the cruise line for them etc...

Nice ship, very attractive bars and common areas. Very good shows, daily. Cabins a bit small and poorly laid out, service very patchy, organisation very poor, excursions terrible value even by cruise ship standards, food not very good, customer service useless. If you do use Fantasia, tip the staff who serve you well and opt out of the flat service charge per cabin. Drinks packages (7 of them!) very confusing because you can have certain things in certain places, but not in others. It's stupid and embarrassing, but MSC don't care.