Onboard ship

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Since the last blog we have been to Barcelona, Casablanca and Tenerife. All great places but before i got there, I thought I'd share life aboard MSC Fantasia.


It's very large ship with about 4000 passengers and 1500 crew. It's pretty full on especially at breakfast time. The majority of passengers are Italian and german so announcements are made in multiple languages. Despite the language "soup"everyone seems to muddle along quite well I seem to be able to understand a bit of German and Italian is decipherable. Peter can do Spanish and French.

We've had some great mealtime pantomimes especially breakfast the first day which I swear was scripted by John Cleese. Manuel and several of his brothers served our table that morning! Our ship the Fantasia has a bit of a reputation for poor food and average service. Unfortunately, it has lived up to this reputation. For example, we have ordered risotto almost every night and it comes out looking like boiled rice with a tiny bit of cheese chucked in. Strangely, during the day it's called pilaff!

We have learned to order strategically and are definitely not starving but just a bit disappointed it's not like other cruises we have been on. I think we've been spoiled by the Royal Caribbean cruises. You can see the difference between American/Australian cruises and European ones. First world problems did I hear you say...absolutely. Time to stop whingeing.

There are some fantastic things about the ship. The cabins are beautiful. We have a very spacious balcony cabin which is next door to our friends' (Alan and Liz Stephens) cabin. They are fantastic company. Numerous tall tales and true have been shared over glasses of wine and the odd whisky or two.

The ship's decor is "interesting". There's a lot of mission brown and orange around resulting in a somewhat tasteful version the 70's. There is also a pink disco lounge which I haven't frequented because I unfortunately left my flares at home. You can also see the rather bright striped lounge. Very tasteful!

Apart from a lot of Bing Crosby, Christmas hasn't really hit the ship yet. There are a couple of decorated stair rails but not much more. This restraint seems to have been practiced in the last few cities we have visited.

Love sandra and peter xx

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