cruiser608

found this in my camera roll. here is what the fantastica vouchers look like. the red are non alcoholic and the gray are alcoholic. each can be used for an item at or under $7.50, including at the venchi bars for hot chocolate and gelato, but not for venchi retail items.

A TIP: Order the “espresso with 3 pralines” at Venchi and you get 3 venchi chocolates for free with your espresso for you to try!

You have the exact same package as us, vouchers, mealtime drinks, and a coffee package. The only difference is we have a small village of kids who will get the non alcoholic vouchers. Were you able to use vouchers for gelato? Could you use the coffee package for fancy coffees at Venchi or their hot chocolate? Thanks for the great review!!!

 

 

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you can use the vouchers at venchi for anything at or under $7.50!

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i was on your sailing and absolutely agree with you! had the best time! we only smelt the sewage smell strongly when we were disembarking at nassau. buffet was exceptional - great dishes and a variety of choices!

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deck 8, right outside the marketplace buffet and across from the sports bar. both in the piazza grande. usually have trivia held there as well

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Thank you for you review! Was the chocolate gellato drink included in the class drink package?

yes it was!

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usually seaview lounge

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I second that, although the Asian package is tempting :)

 

 

 

Just wondering if any of your kids tried out the kids' club? We are sailing in March with our kids who are 9 & 5, and haven't seen too many comments about it. They loved Camp Ocean on Carnival and are hoping MSC is just as good.

 

 

 

Thanks.

since there was a group between the toddlers and the teens no one found it necessary to go to the kids club but we did see them around doing various activities and the center itself is very nice

Thanks for your review, we are leaving in next month and are really looking forward to the trip. A couple question, first room service, after reading all of the review's it appears room service does not exist. You talked about the smell, again the reviews talked about sewage smell in cabins and throw-out the ship. Did you find this to be the case.

 

Thank again

room service exists and there is a menu up somewhere, but i do not ever use room service & find it better to go up and get some food so i have no experience with it. there was a smell but i only ever smelled it next to the waterslides and paid it no mind.

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meal time package is only available in the MDR and buffet, no specialty restaurants

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Arthur! I've been following and commenting on your daily posts in the FB group. Thanks for coming here to post your review as well. We sail in 5 weeks and I can't wait

awesome!! enjoy your cruise, it was an amazing 7 days!

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Thank you for posting your review. It was fantastic. I have a question. Is the classic favorites on the menu every night?

every night except mediterranean night and elegant night

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Thank you! I've been reading about cabins within the Super Family Plus not even being assigned the same dining time, so was wondering if I should even bother linking all the other cabins. Glad to hear of a positive experience.

we had a super family plus with us and they were automatically seated together in the beginning before we had our own little area :)

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Thank you for the review. Love the food photos!

 

I'll be travelling with a big group too. Wondering how you arranged to be seated together in the MDR? Were your reservations linked and it was automatically assigned together, or did you have to go work it out once you boarded? Thank you!

in my day 2 review i went over it a little bit, but our TA linked our reservations together and we were originally all seated at the same time but we went to the Maitre’d and had our tables

places near each other and also had one big table for 14

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Hi. Loved your review. Thanks for taking the time to post. I have a question. You mentioned the White Party and Dressy Night. Are there any other theme nights?

pirate night, 70s night, gatsby night

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I have a question about the “fun pass” ive read there has been a deal where you purchase $25 and msc gives you an extra $5 so a total of$30..and other denominations woth added $$ as well..my question is , Is the fun pass a seperate card in other words could I purchase 60$ all on one card and use it for myhubby and I or would I have to put 30$ on my sail card and 30$ on his sail card.?

i posted a picture of the fun pass guidelines and it explains it. it is just a “package” on your card that you can use for amusement park areas. it won’t take money off our actual card when you spend money on amusement parks, instead it’ll take credit from the pass

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Thank you x 1,000,000! What fantastic and super sharp photos! I was so happy to read your review and learn more things about the ship. It was truly informative and entertaining to read. Back to the photos: my mouth is watering over the pasta dishes and I can’t wait to show my wife the yummy looking ice creams. Really glad you posted this. THANK YOU for putting in the time and effort on this, it’s extremely helpful. Do you mind a couple of questions? Was there any sewer smell, or any trouble with your cabin (doors, toilet, shower, etc)? Any problems with the elevators? And finally, since you said getting drinks in the MDR was sometimes a problem, could you buy drinks elsewhere and just bring them with you? Thank you so much again!!

 

Edited to say never mind about the smell, I see where you posted about that on another thread. Glad it wasn’t a big deal.

 

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There was a smell, but really, it was NO BIG DEAL! It was usually next to the waterslides, which is probably from the machinery or the sewage system. It is not widespread. No troubles with the cabin, and sometimes the elevators did not work or were very full. However they were the still very functional. I took the stairs a lot as well (worked off the buffet) Yes you can just take drinks from a different bar into the MDR with you, but make sure they make it on time! Bar service could be iffy and the one time we did that it took about 15 minutes to make us Mango Mojitos and we were late to dinner

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the smell is odd, yes, but it’s not in every part of the ship and goes away quickly. i’m sure they’ll fix it

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just got off the ship. always had bread served in the beginning and in the middle with 2 different types of butter. it’s just BUTTER!!! who CARES!!!!

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DAY 7 PHOTOS CONTINUED (OVERALL REVIEW POSTED ABOVE):

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DAY 7:

Our last day here at the Bahamas! Unfortunately it was extremely windy today so we decided to go to the pool and disembark at 12 PM to walk around and do some tax free shopping! The zip line was closed as well, and only 2 water slides were working unfortunately. There are plenty of stores around within walking distance, including high end brands like Gucci & Cartier. There’s a free shuttle right when you get off the ship to take you into downtown so you don’t have to walk. We got back at around 3:30 so unfortunately the Marketplace buffet on deck 8 was about to close and had almost no options left. The Biscayne Buffet on deck 16, however, was fully open for afternoon snack but was limited, which is the main difference between the two buffets. It had pizza, burgers, fries, and kid’s food like chicken nuggets and fish sticks. I posted the MDR dinner for this night and we got the chance to say goodbye to our waiter John. He was amazing! Extremely funny and made sure to memorize all of our names. We came specifically just for him. He made sure we always got our drinks and if they were taking too long went and got them himself. Julius at the Venchi Chocolate Bar was also great, remembering all of us when we come and waving to us. His hot chocolates and shakes are simply amazing. Service in the MDR was always fast, and on average we finished in about an hour. We also got to go bowling finally! You need to make reservations the day of and book for either an hour or 30 minutes. Each lane holds 6 people. $25 for 30 minutes or $45 for an hour. NOTE: If you want to purchase something on your Fun Pass, you need to make sure that you have enough to cover the entire cost as they cannot take off partial costs. I had $11 on my Fun Pass and I couldn’t pay for Bowling with my Fun Pass since it was $25 and I did not have enough. Today is also the Peter Punk show, a tribute to Peter Pan, but unfortunately no BeerProv as they go on from Saturday-Friday. We chose to do the Express Walk Way to disembark, which allows us to leave early from 6:30-7:30 but we need to carry our own luggage off the ship.

OVERALL:

There were a lot of different nationalities on the ship, not only American, and it is was great to experience some diversity and hear some different languages. People came from all over the world, from the UK and from Sweden. Crew members are also from different parts of the world including Italy and the Philippines, and although there is sometimes a language barrier, it’s not significant at all. Overall we all had a great time on the ship. Some highlights include the Venchi Chocolate Bar and Gelato, Waterslides & Ziplines, and the interior design of the ship. The ship itself is beautiful, but some parts of the design is very odd. For example, the 16th deck is split in two sections, one for the Biscayne Buffet and Pool, and one for the speciality restaurants, and you can’t access them unless you go up a floor. Service in the MDR was excellent, but drink service is iffy - sometimes we waited 20 minutes, sometimes we waited 5 minutes. One odd thing was that the bars never knew how to properly make an ice coffee, and usually made it with Baileys Creamer. We were only able to get a proper ice coffee once in the Marketplace Bar and they weren’t able to make it again. I highly suggest getting an All Inclusive Package as we had the Non Alcoholic Classic Package upgraded from the Mealtime Package for $90 and gave away our vouchers to family members. WiFi service was great with better than average speeds and worked throughout the entire ship. Food in the buffet and MDR was always hot and fresh and the pizza was absolutely mouthwatering! I loved all 7 Days and having sailed with RCL, NCL, and Celebrity, MSC has been great to me as a first cruiser and I would definitely sail with them again.

DAY 6 PHOTOS CONTINUED:

DAY 6:

A fun and warm day at sea today! The zip line was finally open and we were able to ride, along with all of the water slides. The zip line was $10 for a single ride or $50 for an unlimited pass for the entire cabin. During our cruise, getting the $50 pass would’ve been a waste considering it was closed the first two days and only open on the port days and the final sea day. It was a panoramic and slow ride, only lasting about 30 seconds or so. Tonight was also formal night in the MDR, which is different from the other cruises since it was on the final sea day. Some people were dressed up & some were not since the rule was not really enforced. We also had lunch in the MDR which took about 45 minutes in total. It’s only open from 12-1:30 and the wait staff is a little slow, so keep that in mind. I wouldn’t have it every day as the buffet is a lot faster with more variety, but the food we had was great! (I attached the menu & pictures) We also saw Timeless, which we consider the best show out of all of them so far. It had an “American” theme at the end which was clearly catered towards the new market MSC is in. They played the National Anthem at the end also, which was odd and didn’t really fit with the rest of the show. We also got to do all of the 5D Cinema Games and the F1 Simulator. The 5D Cinema games are short but very fun. However, the F1 Simulator is very hard to control and glitched out on us multiple times. Tomorrow we will hopefully make reservations to try the Bowling on our Fun Pass!

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DAY 5 PHOTOS CONTINUED:

DAY 5:

St. Thomas was great today! We got here at 7 AM and disembarked at 8:30 AM. There were a ton of seats open at the Marketplace and the weather was great. We got a $9 taxi to Coki Beach with a representative right at the port and were there in 20 minutes. Coki Beach was great with clear and warm waters and had chair and umbrella rentals, bathrooms, and bars. We left at about 2 PM and went for lunch at the Marketplace again and wanted to finally try the Zip Line but it began to heavily rain. I attached the photos from the MDR and we also got to see the “Life In Music” show which was a bunch of small performances to different songs and went to the BeerProv show today. A little bit of a slow day today, but really no complaints and drinks were always timely!

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DAY 4 PHOTOS CONTINUED:

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