joseph123

Does anyone know on which side of the ship smoking is allowed on outside decks of the Fantasia? I have an aft cabin right next to an open deck area on the starboard side and want to make sure that if smoking out there is allowed it won't drift over to my balcony.

Having a website go totally down for over a week time and again with inadequate customer service phone staff to back them up and no communications out to customers would put most companies out of business in this day and age, the onboard experience must be pretty darn good for even the most loyal of customers to put up with this type of poor service. I can't say I have experienced anything this bad in my dealings with any other travel company, or any other company for that matter, in the age of e-commerce. I booked my cruise at a rock bottom price so am willing to put up with it, however if I were paying a premium I would not be a happy camper. If you have experienced the customer service with Celebrity, Princess, or Royal Caribbean, there would be no comparison!

Not sure how a cruise line could survive in this day and age with such a horrible website. The site has been out of commission for almost a whole week now, and I am surprised concerned people are not cancelling bookings left and right. I have had far superior web experiences on cruises I booked 10+ years ago. If it were not for the itinerary and price of the cruise I have booked I would never in a million years choose this line again based on the web experience and the very inconsistent phone customer service provided from the US. I am sure as a privately run company they will probably be taken over by one of the larger lines soon if their infrastructure is so lacking, and will probably be better off if that happens. Unbelievable!

Try logging in again. It seems to be working for me today, although when I use my general log in and password I cannot see all of my booking details, I need to log in with my booking # to see them. This has been an ongoing issue for me though. Let us know if you can get in.

Website seems to be bugging out again. I tried logging in and could not access my booking, keep getting the captcha. Last time this happened I was not able to access for over a month and got no help whatsoever when contacting customer service. Hopefully it will get fixed so I can verify I have a cruise booked??? MSC is a decade behind other cruise lines in terms of the reliability and efficiency of their website. Can't believe they can compete with others with such a bad interface.

Specialty dining options look a bit light on the Fantasia for non-Yacht Club members. Only Toscana and a Tex-Mex restaurant. I also would be interested in learning more about what types of menus are offered and if the experience would be worth it over the general dining alternative.

This is good to know. I too would like to know if I will need to purchase a package for each device or idk the minutes can be shared across multiple devices. If someone could let us know it would be appreciated.

I found a page on the MSC US site that does confirm that the gratuity is 9 euro per night for a Med cruise.

Hoping someone can clarify for me what the automatic gratuity charge per person will be for a 7 day Mediterranean cruise. MSC customer service is telling me it is $12 per day, but on the Cruise Critic site is says 12 euro per day for US and 6 euro per day for European cruises. Might it be that they charge more for US customers per day that take a European cruise? If any US passengers that have recently taken a Mediterranean cruise could clarify it would be appreciated.

Cost is much cheaper than pre-purchasing. Did they start offering the half price deal at the start of the cruise? Seems like it might make sense to wait and purchase onboard. Thanks for sharing this.

Thanks so much for all of the great info. Hopefully the ship will get in early and I will be able to walk off the ship with the luggage to get to the train on time. If not I will need to get a later train Also good to know that the ticket needs to be validated. Would that be that case even if the ticket is purchased at the station or ordered online from Trentitalia? I need to purchase one ticket at the station and have an online ticket in hand with a PNR code that I ordered online for another journey. The instruction for the online ticket was to bring it onboard and it would be scanned by the conductor.

Wondering if anyone can tell me if I can walk off the ship with my luggage in Genoa when disembarking and how soon I could plan to get off of the ship. I need to catch a train and am hoping to be able to get to the Principe train station which is walking distance to the ship by 9:15 AM. Can anyone advise as to if that will be possible?

Yes, I too hope that the credit for the drinks is 20 per person. I have been given conflicting info from MSC, some have told me that it is 20 drinks per cabin and I can find find nothing in print that clarifies what the "Red Carnet" package is. I have learned from past experiences with these credits to make sure you are clear and have documentation as to what you should receive before boarding.

Funny that no one knows the answer to this, they have been giving these out for many of the cruises booked from the US site. Can't find anything on their website about it either.

Thanks much for all of the input, feeling much better about staying put and having access to another deck space and stairway just outside my door, can't wait!

Thanks much for your replies. I will consider moving down a few cabins, but all in all happy with the choice of the aft cabin and think having access to the aft stairwells will be a plus as long as not too noisy being right next to it.

Thanks for the input, did you notice any smoking out on the stairway decks? My main concern is that there would be smoke making its way over to my balcony. I might consider seeing if I can move it down a few cabins away from the doorway. I originally thought it would be nice to be right next to another outdoor space but would not want to be near it if busy or smokey. Others had mentioned the stairways do not get all that much traffic.

Yes, I realize the Davina is being discussed vs the Fantasia, but are they not almost identical in their deck plans? Thanks. Any input on a similar cabin on the Davina would be appreciated.

I double checked, 9244 is an aft balcony cabin on the very end on the Fantasia. You had me nervous there for a sec!

Any thoughts on the rear aft balconies? I am in 9244 at the very end near the common stairway. Just a bit concerned there might be noise from the heavy door leading out or smoking on that common deck space.

As part of my upcoming cruise I am getting a "Carnet Red" drink package along with shipboard credits and a specialty restaurant dinner. Can anyone confirm exactly how many drinks will be included? Not sure whether it is 20 drinks per person or 20 drinks total per cabin. The other credit with the promotion, a $200 OBC, specifically states it is per person, but the drink credit is not clear.

I was finally able to book a flight directly into Genoa and out of Nice from the US, so will only need to take the train to Nice one way once the cruise is over. MSC does not offer air inclusive packages for US customers, so that was not an option for me. Looks like there is now direct train service between the cities and a bus from the Nice airport which would be convenient if flying out of Nice. I also explored flying into Milan, which seemed more complicated to me.

FINALLY, I am happy to report that the website is now fully functioning as it was before the upgrade. Never received any explanations or response from customer service on this after months of calls and emails, but was able just today to change my password and get in the site through the normal log in process.

The website has been this way for a few months now. i honestly don't know why they cannot fix and how they can conduct business online and remain competitive in this day and age with such bad e-commerce abilities. I have still not been able to get beyond the captcha to access my account since the new site went live as has been documented in previous posts.

Does anyone know what type of changes are being made?