The embarkation process was catastrophic, it took me 6 hours to get onboard. Unacceptable. The cruise was fine, with some good points during the trip, such as the animation team, and bad ones, such as the pool water color (green) during some days. The cabin was very good. The restaurants handled well all the people onboard, and the food variety was very good. However, the Red Velvet restaurant does not match the intent to have a more intimate and full service restaurant. Very crowded, the opposite of the idea. The schedule was not met in any destination. As a result, one of the planned stops, at Ilhabela, could not be done, resulting in a $100 credit for all cabins. I found it unfair, as one passenger could be alone in a cabin while others, such as myself, could have a family of three, for which $100 is almost nothing (3 drinks and 3 hot chocolates during the day and that's it!). The shows inside the ship were OK, with some better than others. In summary, the trip was fine but nothing beyond average. Read Less

The bars and restaurants structure are beautiful, lots of yellow marble and Svarowski crystals. The maintence of several areas are very bad, roof gutters in some places, the pool area always dirty and the swimming pool very dirt all the time. The service is mostly bad, unfrendlly attendants, exception the attendent of the sollarium bar, I Putu and Ana, an watress from the pool restaurant, they are very kind and funny. The aurea experience not worth, the price is very high and the exsclusive package have very little things. The food on board is good, the service os drinks is very bad, Few waiters. Very few sea food, lots of chicken and pork, cheap meats only. All the public bathrooms are very dirty and have maintence problems. The activities are very poor, The itinerary is the same as every ship that come to Brazil Is a ship to go once and never go back. Read Less

My wife and I embarked on the MSC Fantasia on December 8, 2018, on a cruise that departed from Rio de Janeiro, heading for Buenos Aires, returning to Punta Del Este and Ilha Grande. The trip was my wife's birthday present, and what should have been of the dreams turned out to be a big disappointment. But I prefer to start with the good points: the cabin cleaning service was excellent, the waiters and, in general, the employees who occupied the most humble functions, mostly of Asian or Brazilian origin were kind and helpful, Chinese cooks and cooks, rude and moody. As for food, raw fruits and vegetables were of good quality. In addition, the trip was limited to delays, exaggerated mercantilism, bad food, animation and mediocre shows. Starting the week before the departure of the cruise. Affordable drink packages, which went on sale on the internet that were no longer cheap, were taken from the site. These same packages, traditionally also sold at the time of shipment, this time were not offered, being offered only on the ship for abusive prices. On delays, these occurred in all shipments and landings, damaging the stays in the scheduled ports, which were no longer long. The departure, scheduled for 5:00 pm, only happened around 8:00 pm, after an 8-hour wait in an uncomfortable terminal with huge queues for baggage check-in, entrance to the terminal, passage through the police and access to the ship. On the way from Rio to Buenos Aires, there was an unforeseen event. One passenger who needed medical attention had to be removed by helicopter, which entailed an additional 2 hours delay. The arrival in Buenos Aires scheduled for 9:00 am on December 13, only happened at 5:00 p.m., and we were only able to leave the ship at 7:00 p.m. A stop originally scheduled for the entire day of arrival plus the night and the half of the following day was reduced to the night of arrival, plus half the next day, harming both passengers who purchased excursions and those who planned independent tours and purchases . In Punta Del Este it was worse, in the landing made by boats that should be ready to transport the passengers, since the small time of stay on land, made us wait more than 2 hours, using a minimum number of boats, shortening the duration of the excursions and making it impossible to land many passengers who had to stay on the ship. Finally, having already compensated for all delays, the commander informs the cancellation of the landing in Ilha Grande, alleging bad weather and anticipating the arrival in Rio scheduled for December 16 at 7am, to December 15 at 9pm, unilaterally crediting the cabin bill, ridiculous $ 100 ($ 50 per person) without a simple apology. At the landing, in another giant row, I, who turned 60 this year, was prevented from entering the preferential line, since, according to the MSC employee, the queue was reserved for people over 65, contrary to Brazilian law . In the luggage shed, we took out our suitcase, without anyone having checked our tag number. In addition, I can summarize: - Second-class meats, served at the buffet and restaurant, except on the last day they served a better menu. - "Grilled" dipped in oil and sausages of very low quality. - Service charge charged on drinks taken at the counter, although this is already included in the ticket price. - Net price of drink charged on the order above that set in the menu (in my case, wine glasses). - Repetitive theater shows, always with the same numbers of juggling and acrobatics, changing only the costumes and songs. To conclude, I decided to make this trip under the influence of my brother who lives in Europe and made several cruises there, including MSC and was surprised by what happened and commented that incidents such as these reported would never be accepted, but with a large financial compensation or with significant All this burden caused by delays, lack of planning and logistics incompatibility was passed on from the company to the customer. The conclusion that I have reached is that these companies organize their trips according to the classification of passengers, and unfortunately for them, we are considered second class citizens and we are also reserved 2nd treatment, either in food, in shows or in treatment dispensed, which causes me great indignation to consider that this treatment was given to us in our yard. I advise anyone who has never done a cruise to not buy routes in Brazil or South America, because it will buy remains from Europe where it is winter and these ships would be idle if they stayed there. They sell their trips for the same price charged there and offer a misleading and low quality product. If you want stewardship, go to an "all inclusive" resort, or travel through Brazil or abroad and truly short the cities and beaches without time limitation, choosing your tours, accommodations, food and with much less probability of unforeseen. But if you still insist on taking a cruise, avoid this company. Read Less

Overview: Cancelled ALL final airport excursions Had an issue receiving water each day Loud and pushy passengers Everyday passengers ON and OFF ship (Cattle run) 7th Floor walking deck (especially on sea days) was also a SMOKING deck? No Washie-Washie Happy-Happy (80% of Ship was SICK) Cabin phone stuck on German Front Desk missed confirmed wake-up call on final morning of cruise Elevator's slow, packed, and random if they stopped on your floor Pool deck microphone was WAY TOO LOUD, and disturbed everyone when they played their games Passengers waited up to 6 HOURS to EMBARK the ship at the start of the cruise Took our passports at start of cruise Docked farthest away...less expensive Evening Ship entertainment was 50/50 Bugged by staff to buy "Drink Packages" Medical Staff...FAIL Constantly bugged by some of the Photographers Breakfast - Juice ONLY AVAILABLE at breakfast...blocked-off lunch and supper Brazil's computer screen map was white and blue...they chose WHITE for the WATER when they could have chose BLUE...just about sums-up their Company Overall Ship - Good Crew - Great (especially the hands-on workers) MSC Company - FAIL - Illogical standing orders, lack of support to staff, and the staff had to always compensate or take verbal arguments Suggestions: 1. I am sure there are more fun games to be played...perhaps using the pool...and a better volume on the pool deck microphone while playing activities 2. MANDATORY - Washie-Washie Happy-Happy 3. Same language guest party at start of cruise - English, French, Portuguese, etc...get to know people who speak your language...the rest you will meet by smiles and hand signals throughout the cruise...lol Read Less

We have cruised about 15 times prior to this cruise so we knew what to expect. Our embarkation went smoothly in Barcelona, but no amount of prior cruising knowledge could prepare you for this cruise. Our room was probably the best part of our cruise. We paid for an inside room and received a balcony. The beds were clean and the bathroom was adequate. There was gum all along the cupboard and the TV cut out right before our 5 straight sea days when MSC decided to give everyone 10 free movies. After calling front desk more than once and them never sending anyone to look at the TV we told the cabin attendant as a last resort. The TV never ended up working. In the barfet (previously known as the buffet) we saw an Italian woman holding a banana up to her ear pretending to talk to MSC staff... nothing could sum up this cruise better than that image I have of her doing that. No one is there to listen, you might as well be talking into a banana. The barfet itself was just as the name implies. We had pizza every day (which was actually pretty good for ship pizza) as everything else was cold or inedible. The desserts were so unappetizing I may have lost a few pounds on this cruise. The barfet repeated the meals pretty much daily. You could consider yourself lucky if you didn’t get pushed out of the way while waiting in line for food by the hungry Portuguese, and even luckier if you could find a seat that wasn’t all the way at the back. If you try ordering water from the back bar they give you a hard time trying to convince you that you’re only allowed to at the other bar. The water at dinner was a whole other story. We have cruised only this once with MSC (and believe me this is the last time) and we received bottled water every night at dinner. Our dinner mates however weren’t so fortunate. They have cruised with MSC multiple times now and MSC couldn’t even supply them with one bottle of water every night. We ended up sharing ours with them and eventually they even started bringing their own water. We have never seen a cruise line that doesn’t provide water at dinner. The dining room experience was much better than the barfet as the food was actually proper temperature. The waiters were very accommodating despite everything falling apart around them. We missed the drill on the first day. We read in the newsletter when it would be taking place so we waited for an announcement in our room but it never came. Turns out they made one announcement but it was only heard in the hallway. We then got a letter to attend the next day but it was during the time of one of our excursions. We never made it to the drill. Our cruise friends met this woman with a rash. They decided to tell the ships doctor about it as it was contagious. We went down there with them and got there at 2 pm. The doctor was not there until 4 pm. We had the unfortunate experience of talking to the nurse. I’m convinced she was the was the most incompetent worker on this entire ship. She told us MSC can’t do anything about it, if she wants to come down to get it checked out she can. They asked what if it spreads to other passengers? She opened the door for us and told us to leave. We were so disgusted with the experience we told front desk. They told us to fill out a form... it never got acknowledged. After reading other reviews I should’ve known better not to expect any call back. As far as entertainment goes, we did trivia a few of the days. One day one of the women cheated. The next day we got the same amount right as the winners of trivia (7/10) and the entertainment staff didn’t acknowledge that we won (they took our paper to mark). We asked to see it and she refused. Clearly the English speaking guests were on the back burner. I can’t say the shows were much better. They ended up repeating a lot of the acts. The excursions were ok... a little disorganized but that is to be expected from MSC. We left an hour late for the 6 hour drive (3 there, 3 back) to Marrakech. We also had no free time there.. all very structured. On the ride back there was no stops for bathroom during the whole 3 hours, and no bathroom on the bus. For another excursion in Ilheus, they took us to a beach with Portuguese man of war (one of the most dangerous jellyfish), seems like they wanted one less person at the barfet. Our third excursion we got taken to the city in Tenerife. There was no way they could mess up dropping us off in the city, right? Wrong... as our bus pulled off to head back to the ship, the tour guide realized she left two passengers behind. The only reason she realized it was because they were running up to the bus. The elevators play tricks with you, it is really just better to take the stairs on this cruise. Not that you’ll be eating much since the barfet doesn’t have many options. This cruise would make a good cruise if you’re looking to go on a diet. All in all, we won’t be cruising with MSC again. Read Less

The enticement? Interesting ports in Europe, Africa and South America. Our first cruise experience. We agree it might be the last one. Looking back it was frantic from the moment of embarkation in Genoa. Long line ups, hours of waiting. It's true that the ship houses over 3000 passengers, but knowing that beforehand, the process should have been smother. The cabin we had , with balcony, was really nice. Crew attendant for the cabin was hard working and really personable as were the people serving in the restaurant. The rest of the staff was silent, in general not very friendly. The food in the buffet wasn't so bad, but very salty and considering that most passengers were seniors, not healthy. Menu in the buffet section was almost the same every day and this was a 20 day cruise. The quality of the water and coffee was bad. However, the most problematic circumstances of all were the contaminated air circulating in the ship, with the result that the majority of people were sick. Another really vexing situation was the total isolation we endured during the crossing of the Atlantic, almost six days. No TV, no internet, no information. Movies offered in the cabin, did not display well. The price of the internet connection offered in fliers to the cabin was misleading as they would charge more if you signed for it. We believe that the economics of scale for such a huge crowd have something to do with this situation. We probably will think twice before signing up for this kind of cruise. Read Less

I am writing to report my experience in the MSC FANTASIA Cruise from Genoa to Santos between November 4th to 24th 2018. This was our third cruise, but the first with MSC. We have never experienced or expected a ship being run so poorly by the Master and his crew. I will provide the details below. The embarkment took place in the port of Genoa on November 4th; from the beginning it was a complete chaos, a process that should take a couple of hours took at least six, they even have started the embarkment two hours earlier to make it easier. Numbers were distributed to the passengers to assist with the registration, but they were not followed; the staff members will jump numbers and then will go back again, a total chaos. Many crew members were rude and have no customer services skills, the majority look very unhappy. There were some crew members very polite and did a good job, but it was the minority. The safety box was not working in the cabin, I called the front desk and they sent a technician to fix it, he replaced the batteries. After about 30 minutes it stopped working, I called again, and they told me they will send a technician within 30 minutes, nothing happens, I reported at least five times in the next few days. Finally they sent a technician, according to him it was the cover of the batteries that was interfering, he removed it, put a piece of paper to make it tight and left, after one hour the safety box stopped working again. I checked myself and to my surprise I found one of the battery contacts sulfated, I scraped it and clean it and never have any problem again. The light in the night table burned out, I told the cabin assistant and he reported at least in two occasions. I started calling the front desk asking them if they could give me a bulb so that I could replace it, they told me they could not, and they will have to send a technician to check it out. I have to wait five days to have the burned-out light replaced. We had a balcony suit, located beside the deck and outside stairs. During the cruise they left a note in my cabin that they will be painting the balcony and to keep the curtains closed. They did paint, but they also spilled paint all over the two chairs, table and floor, they never cleaned it. I never have seen a sloppy job like this. During the cruise they left at least in four occasions notes that they will be doing maintenance in the balcony, in one occasion they flooded the balconies from one extreme to the other and left the water standing until the water evaporated by itself. One of the last evenings, they poured lot of water from the top floor, we could have been totally soaked if we were in the balcony. They cleaned the outside stairs and deck every morning about 4 am, and every time our balcony will be left with water and dirt on it. They never cleaned the balcony, we have to clean the hand rail and chairs our self. It was great to have a balcony, but because of their neglect we could seldom use it. When we cross the ocean, which lasted six days, the satellite services were disconnected, we did not have any news and were totally isolated. The explanation given was the satellite services did not work because we were too far away from land, but this happened even when we were 50 kilometres from the coast of Brazil. This never happened in any other cruise we have taken. They offered 16 free movies that you could watch in your cabin, but the audio of the movies was absolutely terrible, you could not understand anything; when I called the front desk, they said they have problem with the system. The hygiene practices in the cruise was terrible, there were dispensers with sanitizers, but most of them were empty, the crew members never encourage the passengers to use them. Some passengers will pick with their hands bred or other food from the buffet areas and the crew members never told these passengers not to do it, they will not get involved and ignore it. Some passengers will fill their personal bottles in the water or juice machines directly into the faucet touching them and of course contaminating them. Painting was performed in corridors and food dispensing areas; the smell was extremely strong. Painting in areas were food is dispensed and people are walking by is totally unacceptable. All the tours obtained through MSC started late. The crew members in charge in the meeting places were confused and they did not provide proper information. After a week people started to get sick. Many crew members and passengers got sick, sneezing, coughing and with flu symptoms. The situation started to get worse when we start crossing the Atlantic, the ship had to disembark a sick passenger in Cabo Verde in front of Africa because the passenger was too sick. The situation got worse and by the time we reach Brazil most of the passengers were coughing, sneezing and with flu symptoms. We were eight people travelling together and seven got sick. The passport return process was another chaos, two crew members were doing this process, but they have difficulties to find the passports even that they were classified by countries. During the last couple of days, we noticed a change in the attitude of the crew members in relation to hygiene in the food areas, the sanitizer dispensers were filled, the supervisors started to give direct instructions to waitresses to remove dirty dishes and clean the different areas. When we arrive to Santos the Health Authorities were waiting; they recommended to passengers before disembarking to use the disinfectant their hands with the gel provided and see their personal doctors, they also informed us there was a possible case of measles aboard. The disembarkation in Santos was another chaos, they asked the passenger to meet in the theatre and wait for instructions, but the theatre have steps and all passengers have carry-on bags. After a couple of hours, the Health Authorities allowed the disembarkment; the passengers were asked to take shuttle busses to the terminal. The buses had very narrow aisles, and the passengers have to claim with their bags since they did not open the bag carriers on the belly of the buses. The Master of the ship is the person responsible for the well being and health of the crew and passengers and the training of the crew. Therefore, he is responsible for the poor service provided by the crew and the bad hygiene practices on his ship. I saw him only once in the entire trip when he welcomes the passengers assisting a function. He never talked to the passengers on the speakers to provide explanations or information; what a difference with other Captains from other companies that I have had the opportunity to travel with. This was the first time that we travel in a MSC Cruise and possible will be the last. Read Less

We chose this re-positioning cruise because of the itinerary which was incredible. The ship was typical MSC glitz which we expected. After may complications (which I will get into later), we got a starboard 11th floor balcony, which was awesome. The cabin was spacious and well-appointed with the usual amenities of desk, hanging clothes closet (roomy enough for two 28-inch suitcases) and a closet with 6 drawers, a safe and two shelves. If you are American, and not accustomed to the European culture of customer service, you are in for a shock. Communication regarding important announcements (i.e. when and where to pick up your Passport) are non-existent. The announcements are far and few between, except when to play Bingo or shop for handbags. Even in the Daily pamphlet, the instructions for picking up your Passports (which were collected upon embarkation for Brazil authorities), was in print 1/8th the size of the Bingo and Valentino handbag advertisements. Every announcement (even in the theater) is done in 6 or 7 languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and the shortest announcement time was in English; which was expected as this cruise went through 3 continents and 5 different countries). The food was disappointingly just okay. We expected so much more from an Italian cruise line! Entertainment: the entertainers were great, the shows not-so-much. Many of them were perplexing. For instance, one show was touted as The Totem and depicted a picture of cowboys and Indians, which made us scratch our heads to begin with and didn't get any better during the performance. The Woodstock Revival show had no songs from Woodstock, only one song from the 60s, the rest were more recent. I am beginning to understand why Europeans don't understand Americans after this cruise. Speaking of which, a lot of the patrons of this cruise, were pushy, rude, loud, obnoxious and disrespectful of everyone. The Cruise itself was one giant, "Hop-On/Hop-Off" cruise with new people getting on and off at every port. Apparently, this is what MSC does everywhere but the U.S.A. Our personal experience with MSC Europe was less than stellar from the start, with customer service being ghastly. We booked through MSC directly in Dec. 2017 and was told by their agent that by booking an inside guarantee, you always get upgraded. We followed that advice and in Feb. 2018 were assigned cabin 13200. We were excited as this was a rear-facing Juliette balcony spa cabin (we would not get the spa experience as we booked a Fantastica experience, but that was okay with us). However, in October, 10 days before cruising on a Friday night, we received an email stating that we needed to reprint out tickets. When we went to do so, we found that we were reassigned a new cabin, Inside, which was located (basically) inside the crew staircase and elevators. Anger ensued! We called our MSC agent (who was nowhere to be found), and over the course of a week spoke to three agents, two supervisors and had numerous emails with Miami Customer Service. One agent told us "too bad, so sad" and offered us a balcony for $4,000. This prompted us to cancel our upcoming MSC U.S.A. cruise in January 2019. So, we went to Rome to get on the cruise and found that on the MSC website our reservation was completely gone. We frantically emailed MSC Miami, to find out what was going on, but with the time difference, we didn't hear back from them prior to sailing. (One email from MSC Miami, did offer $50 OBC for each of us as compensation.) Fortunately, our reservation for the inside cabin was still good, and we were able to get on the ship. A trip down to customer service onboard had us so horrified with the attitude of one lady, who yelled at us that we "got what we paid for", that she "was in charge", and that we couldn't speak to her manager as she was "too busy" and had other things to do. After she frantically typed into her computer and hit enter, she informed us that the Customer Service Officer wanted to see us. Giada Mangione, was gracious, understanding, and had already sent a bottle of champagne and a note to our cabin to come and see her. She explained that there were a series of errors, apologized and said that she was unable to give us back the room originally assigned, and that the ship was full for the next two days. However, upon arrival in Genoa, we will be given a balcony cabin, with sincerest apologies for the mix up. Giada Mangione was the nicest customer service person we have ever met or dealt with on MSC (not because she gave us a balcony, but because she took to time to understand our frustration, was kind, and not demeaning), and we thanked her for her gracious offer. From a business standpoint, we fully understand that MSC has the right to change a cabin at any time for any reason; and that the "spa" cabin we were given was far more expensive than the inside cabin we booked. However, we have been upgraded, similarly, on other cruise lines and never had anything like this happen. On a side note, overall the crew were very nice and did try to accommodate whenever possible. Many of them did say that MSC's standard of service has diminished through the years, as their workload had increased leaving them only enough time to tend to their duties and not give the personal service they used to provide. This saddened them greatly. Read Less

The employees are overworked, they all seem very tired. The services are overall very good, but they clearly have to hire more resources, everyone was looking exhausted during the entire cruise. The cabins look pretty good, the only thing that I didn't like was the fact the the most of the tv shows were in Italian. The ship is a little crowded. Other ships with the same size have half of th number of passengers. Also, they don't have a lot of shops and most of the prices exceed the ones from the shore, so they're not real duty free. The games that they have for the kids are not free, which was an unpleasant surprise. The food is pretty good. The entertainment needs an upgrade, they don't have a live band so the experience is not complete. The activities that they have during the day aren't very so much fun and there's not many of them. Even though it was a 5 days cruise, I found myself bored during the day because of the lack of entertaning activities. I filled in a form in order to receive the survey from them, it's been 6 days since the disembarkation and didn't get it yet. The organization is terrible, starting with the checkin and disembarkation. We bought a transfer from them and because of the fact that we bought it on board, out names didn't show up on their lists. Due to this, ourselves and the rest of the passengers that were on the same transfer had to wait for them to clear things up. Some of the passangers lost their train because of this. During the discussions that we had we them they were just asking us to wait and explaining that they're very busy. Some of the guys that were coordinationg this were really rude to us. Even though the services were good, I wouldn't recommend anyone to go on a cruise with them, it's just not worth the stress and to be treated like they're doing us a favor for a service that we paid. Read Less

My C/L and i are from Canada and joined Fantasia ship in Barcelona for a 7 day cruise. It was our first cruise ever! On a scale from one to ten, our trip was a 10! Everything is so well organised it was amazing! We were both so impressed by the service offered by staff in making sure everything was perfect! Our cabin was very clean and a good size! Very happy to have piced a balcony stateroom. We had picked our daily escursion on line prior to doing it on the boat. Im very happy we did that. This saved us money and valuable time that we did not spend in lineups to be told that most cruises were full. We picked 6 cruises out of our 7 days on the boat. I would not change anything in that decision. The excursions were great, well organised and very comfortable on very comfortable motorcouchs. We also felt safer to book true MSC rather than local offers from various vendors who also offers different deals. We preferred to play safe and make sure to get back on the ship on time. Several passengers we talked to did not take any esscursions, prefering just walking of the ship and do their own thing. The food was very good a every meals. We had our daily breakfast in the cafeteria. Great choices and food was good. We went at every night in the dining room with assigned sears. This was great and very good food. The rooms were cleaned twice a day. We were too tired at night for any nightlife on the boat. We did not attend any shows other than one night. It was however very nice. Overall, we were pleases and return on this ship on a heart beat! And chage nothing. The only 2 things we can caution people is the dink package and the smoking on the boat. First, before and when we got on the boat we had read about this package and it was not clear what we were alowed to have free of charge and not. Well it tourns out that we were not allowed much. We ended up buying a drink package unlimited for both. We did not regret at all, altough i dont drink alcohol, my wife had all kinds of drinks, different very good coffee and we could have unlimited bottle water for our excursions. I would read more about it when you book and pick what package you prefer. On the boat, we paid 209 euro each for unlimited for our 7 day cruise. We felt we did not loose any money in this deal. The part of smoking is the one i could not get used to it! There are designated areas for smokers which i support 100% but we saw on several occasions that people would smoke were they felt like it. You cant smoke on your balcony for safety reasons of coyrse but everyday, we had hashs fron higher balconys fall on our balcony. We heard several people complaining about it but nothing seemed to change. That was our only negative for our trip. We will go back on this boat and will go back. Read Less