Pyong Bricole

MSC Fantasia, Pros and Cons

MSC Fantasia, originally uploaded by laperlenoire.

We happened to be on this boat Inaugural Cruise from 20-28 December 2008. Overall of my satisfaction of this cruise is C+. First of all, let me make it clear, this is,also, my first cruise with MSC, so you can be sure I have no bias in giving my opinion about MSC Fantasia.

Let's starts with the Cons.
The management of this boat is NULL. We've arrived on the terminal at about 1 PM and then started to be put in the queue until early evening. It's already a big chaos just to enter the terminal. There is 2 enterances to the terminal building that brought everybody to the one small main enterance to the check-in area. It's a tight bottleneck traffic while people really tried to squeeze each other without care those who were disabled, travelling with young children or the eldery. No staff were tried to manage this traffic, people just tried to find their own way to enter the building.
in the check-in area, there is barely queue lines. Meaning...it's just a big mess of people standing up everywhere or could say tried to make a short cut to the check-in desk.
I happened to wait for 5 hours on the check-in area until I could made my way to the check-in desk, after arguing with the staff and a bit fighting with people around me.
Arrived on the check-in table, I found they've put us on the 2nd service for the dinner. When I did my booking, I already request for the 1st service for the dinner considering the age of my children, 2 and 5. And the worse, they even put my children on the different table than us, me and my husband. When I asked them to change, they told me to change it at the restaurant inside the boat.
When I tried to change the seat and service time for our dinner in the restaurant, again, I've put on another 1-hour queue. And when it's my turned, the only answer they gave me is go the self-service restaurant if I am not happy with their organization. Luckily I fight my right with the manager of the restaurant. After 30 minutes long and strong arguments, he finally found a seat for me. Meaning : IF I NEVER FOUGHT, HE WILL NEVER GAVE ME THAT TABLE.

BASICALLY...I REALLY LOST MY WHOLE AFTERNOON AND EVENING FOR THIS STUPID CHECK-IN PROCEDURES

By the time to leave, we got disembarked at 10.30 AM, but the transfer by the cruise for us won't be ready until 1.30 PM. When I asked if we could stay in the boat until the arrival of the bus, because it's freezing in Genoa by that day, they said, we could only wait in the terminal without heating. We had to go out of the terminal to buy some hot sandwich cause all they had on the terminal is only 3 vending machines for drinks. When it's about time to leave, we have to went outside to look for the bus ourselves cause they didn't made annoucement at all after all the Germany's passangers leaved , we're from Switzerland. And in the bus, they didn't even signed the seat number for each passangers, ended up, if you can't tag any seat for other of your family member, you are risked to be separated from the other.

Again, we've wasted the whole morning and early afternoon waiting for nothing in the cold.

Now is the PROS. I couldn't denied that MSC Fantasia is the most beautiful , interiorly speaking, cruise ship I ever see in my life. All the designs and details they put is so elegant and give the luxury glamour feeling. Cabins are designed in the contemporary style. And different restaurants and bars designed diffrently according to the theme it carries.

Foods are also another thumbs up for this boat. Right size for the portions, the freshness of the ingredients, the variety of the menu, I will give an A+ for that. Even for the restaurants and bars with supplements, the price is correct and sometimes cheaper than inland. Don't forget to stop by the Piazza for a bowl of a fresh made gelato or a slice of super delicious chocolate cake.

Spa is another great service from MSC Fantasia. All Spa staff are Balinese with a great massage skills. And the price is reasonably great. No 15% taxes extra changers. All prices for the Spa services are Nett, any gratitute from clients are welcome but not a must.

The best about MSC Fantasia is the crew members. The crew onboard MSC Fantasia is unbelievely friendly. I could say, that's the kindness of the crew that made my stay on this boat most memorable. I am talking about all the people who gave services directly to clients, member of the management team doesn't count in this matter. For other than management team of MSC Fantasia, I will give A++ for their services.

Funky Santa

Santa doesn't always mean a classic jolly chubby old man, look at what they, from left to right - Noa, Sebastien, Kim and Regina, found during our cruise with MSC Fantasia (the inaugural cruise), they found themselves a funky Santa. They ran after him, at first, to ask for present but all they got is this souvenir picture with Santa Javier hahaha

I saw the wonder of the world

Just finished our trip of the day visited pyramids in Giza, the Citadel and Great Mosque at Cairo an at last late lunch on the Nile cruise. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Wish you all a happy holidays!

SAVE THE CAT!!!

I just finished reading the most outraged news article on AP's website about CAT ON THE MENU IN CHINA. Eating snake, turtle or even crocodile meat....OK it's not something nobel, but it's not something surprising, considering THE CHINESE HUGE APPETIT. Eating dog's meat, even it's unacceptable for me, but I know it's not something unusual. But eating CAT...come on, this is the first time I heard about it...come on, did they forget how they were so desperate to cure themselves from SARS just couple years back???

Suddenly, I feel ashamed to be a Chinese in general and CANTONESE in particular. Really....... we could not even spare a life of a little animal, should we, Chinese, still call ourselves HUMAN?

A woman holding a picture of a trapped cat cries as she takes part in a protest, where animal-loving residents unfurled banners in urging a southern Chinese province to stop the "cruel slaughter" of cats for food, in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec.18, 2008. The protesters say as many as 5,000 cats across the country, mostly strays, have been caught in the past week by traders and transported to Guangdong province _ to be killed for food. (AP Photo/ Elizabeth Dalziel)

  They said that they consumed cat's meat for nutrition reason, yeah right, the day after the BIG CAT a.k.a TIGERs say they need to eat human to survive their winter hibernation, they went to the city of Guangzhou and eat some people and I will see if those CANTONESE people will ever let those TIGERs leaving Guangzhou safely.

Hasn't the chinese learns in their life once that playing fire you will get burn, playing water you will get wet? Seems like they had totally forgotten about SARS.....hopefully they will wake up before the next SARS makes a come back to remind them that IT'S NOT OK TO EAT ALL LIVING CREATURES.

Sleigh all the way

It has been 2 days we got battered by the snow storm, we have about 1 meter or 3 feet of fresh now in the garden. Tonight, there is the Fete de St. Nicolas, one of the big festival here. Rue de Prado and Grand Place were closed as a makeshift pedestrian zone for the street party. We went out to enjoy the ambience, luckily we took the sleigh with us, with the amount of snow we have today, it's really a lot easier to move around with racquet or sleigh than with the heavy snow boots LOL

PERFECT BIRTHDAY

Last Friday, I celebrated my birthday at the office. It's one of those perfect days in my life...early morning, Regina already sang the birthday song for me, later on Julien surprised me with a jewelry sets, after everyone head out to work and school, Sebastien helped me to mop the floor with the Swiffer (woohoo). And that afternoon....they surprised me with a Mousse au Chocolate and a bottle of champagne in the office.WHAT A PERFECT BIRTHDAY I had!