What a great time....

[donnasperls]

I have just returned from the MSC Melody 25/03/2011 - 05/04/2011 and the MSC Fantasia 05/04/2011 - 16/04/2011. If anyone has any questions let me know.

 

MSC Melody (which I now lovingly call "The Barge" after also being on the Fantasia) is a small ship but I enjoyed the cruise and the staff so much.

 

The MSC Fantasia is huge. The staff again were fantastic and we also met some awesome people.

 

I heard a lot about the complaints on the ship and just have to say......really? They are such small things and in no way affected my enjoyment of the cruise.

 

I also had a prepaid drinks package 907 which worked great and can supply information on that.

 

This was my first cruise and I will be cruising again.

 

Alaska I think....or maybe China. Ummmm

[Capricruiser]

Welcome back Donnasperls. I leave Wednesday on the Melody for a 24 day B2B cruise. Glad to hear you liked "the Barge" and hope I'll have a similar experience. She's small and old but goes places the big ones can't get into. If you get a chance write a review for the CC cruise reviews (I'll write one also).

[AmoMondo]

Glad to hear you had a great time Donnasperls. Must have been some contrast going straight from the melody on to the Fantasia.

[donnasperls]

I am not a great writer but I will be doing a review.

 

I have just started work again so I may be sometime.

 

All I can say is that I enjoyed both ships but would like to try a medium size ship. The Melody was wonderful and the customer service was awesome. The crew knew my name and my drink order very quickly.

 

The Fantasia was also great. As there were so many customers the service was not as personal but still very very friendly. Any problems that I had were handled very quickly. How anyone can complain about the service is beyond me?

 

As with others I noted the Melody's times in port varied greatly from the initial intinerary with sometimes short port times. However I was able to work around these and ended up with an extra hour in Istanbul so I was stoked about that.

 

Both ships were exceptional clean.

 

The food....there was SO MUCH food. The quality..... I would have to say that for dinner the appertisers and pastas were usually very good but the mains were a bit hit and miss. I felt that the meat was usually over cooked as well as the fish. However there was so much food I just didn't need to eat mains. I noticed that you could order multiple appertisers etc if you wanted. Really the staff would let you order anything just as long as they could keep you happy.

 

The menu was the same for the Melody as it was for the Fantasia. Therefore I would have to say that the Melody was slightly better.

[Capricruiser]

I'm looking at the Melody right now from the balcony of my Genoa hotel room. I'll be checking in and boarding her in a couple hours - hoping for the best!

[Jayhawk]

Looking forward to the review...you had a longer cruise so not sure which ports you were in that we will be doing, so I will wait to hear and ask more questions then. I am curious about formal nights too, which nights they will be. We haven't received any documentation or luggage tags at all, nothing other than the original confirmation, and are within 30 days of our cruise.

Do they send you something with all the rest of the information?

[AmoMondo]

Hi Jayhawk

Tickets are sent 2-3 weeks before cruise departure. Often it's e-tickets rather than actual tickets these days. Don't worry if you don't get luggage tags, they'll issue you with them at the port.

[Jayhawk]

Thank you! Usually at a month out I start wondering...I will try not to worry too much, I guess as long as I have my copy of our reservation. This is the first time I haven't had printed information (including excursions) mailed way in advance. Not sure if it's because it's an Italian line, or perhaps they are just progressive in the way of all things virtual! :)

[donnasperls]

The ports that I went to are:

 

Rome

Nafplion - tour

Yalta

Odessa (did not get to disembark because the port was closed because of very heavy fog)

Istanbul

Messina

Sorrento - tour

Genoa

Barcelona

Casablanca - tour

Tenerife

Funchal

Malaga

 

I did most ports by myself but my travel partner did tours so I should be able to help both ways.

 

BTW the person who gave me the tip that if you go on a tour in Casablanca to Meerakesh to sit on the right side of the bus....thank you so much. The was the best CC information. It made the trip so good as we had no sun both ways and were able to enjoy the scenery.