We thought the price was exceptional and we were very interested in all the ports that we got to stop at. I had read a lot of negative reviews before our cruise and if I had read them before booking I definitely would not have chosen to sail on the MSC Fantasia. I am happy to report though, that I loved the cruise and feel that staff did their best to accomodate our needs and at all times we found the staff to be very friendly and helpful. Food was great despite the numerous negative reviews that I had read. I did not find the food to be lukewarm as reported. There was lots of variety and we found that the food that we personally liked the best was towards the back of the ship where different varieties of ethnic food could be found. We also noticed that sitting at the back of the restaurant to be a lot quieter than up the front where everyone congregated. The only annoying experience we had was when we went to the theatre each night to watch the live performance we had to sit through a rather long introduction to each show, which was then related back in another six languages to accomodate all the guests. We would have loved to have not had to been put through the agony of listening to the host chattering on, but the only way to ensure that we had good seating for the show was to arrive early.

We found the days at sea could be a bit boring due to the lack of entertainment other than dancing lessons or specially selected singers entertaining on the top deck in the pool area. It was often cool up on deck and not very inviting to sit out exposed to the cool winds. Due to the language barriers between passengers it was understandable that it would be difficult to arrange a lot of entertainment or educational demonstrations that we're going to suit everyone.

We found that all staff we approached could understand English and this made our cruising experience much more enjoyable. There was definitely a language barrier between us and other passengers but this did not pose a problem. We were a group of six travelling together and this helped us to not feel out of place amongst so many different cultures. Read more