MSC Fantasia: a first time cruiser adventure!

I was a bit nervous about going to Venice as I had nothing booked in advance for transport. I did posted a thread on the Venice forums asking for advice and I received lots of great advice.

We decided that the best and cheapest option was to take the water bus from the terminal to piazza San Marco as our hotel was on a street adjacent to the square.

You can check this website to see the routes http://www.alilaguna.it/en

When leaving the ship, we saw a white booth written 'TICKETS' right next to the building where we were supposed to collect our bags. So I figured that was the right place to go to buy our tickets, hahahahaah! I'm so smart :eek:

The lady on the booth only spoke Italian and the people in line were having a hard time. So when it was our turn i smiled and made 'two' with my hands. aha asked 'bags'? I showed her 2 again and said 'piazza san marco'- mission accomplished, she smiled back and said 'thanks' with a nice italian accent. I already knew it was EUR 8 per person and EUR3 per big bag, so I didn't need to wait for her to try to explain the price, whewww!

From there, it was a bit of a walk. There are plenty of signs and boards all over the cruise terminal showing the direction to go to catch the water bus or the water taxi - Note that the water bus is EUR8 and the water taxi EUR100!!!!

We walked around 10 minutes but it felt like an eternity because we were carrying our luggage. Thank God for luggage on wheels! There was a long line but thankfully the water bus was very big and could accommodate everyone. Your bags need to stay at the entrance, an employee arranges them all neatly while people can move forward and take a seat inside. It was a short ride until piazza san Marco, it felt like 5 minutes. The city was crazy full of people, much more then we anticipated. So the first order of the day was to find our hotel and get rid of our luggage.

We walked around a bit but couldn't find it; so I stopped at a beautiful jewalry shop to ask directions as it was empty. The lovely lady was super helpful and phoned the hotel for us to ask for directions. It was such a lovely gestured, we thanked her a thousand times.

After that, it was easy, there it was:

It was very well recommended on trip advisor and it was actually one of the cheapest that was right next to the square. The location was superb, in front of a gondola stop and in the middle of the fancy shops street - so there we were, surrounded by Versace, Prada, well, a girl can get used to it :)

I really enjoyed reading your review. Glad you had such a good time!

DAY 8 - Disembarkation day (cont)

Yep, I'm still going to bore you with our last overnight in Venice and finish off with some after thoughts, thank you for putting up with me if you made it this far :D

So after we found our hotel, it was still too early to check in but it was okay to leave the bags there. The staff was very friendly and asked us to come back after 2PM to check in. It was around 11 PM, so we decided to go exploring and grab some lunch. We wanted to get a bit away from the square and try to find a small, authentic italian-food place. we walked around until we found a suitable place. We didn't regret it, it was great - touristy but great!

I chose to have a Gnocchi ao vongole and my mom took Gnocchi bolognese. We each had a prosecco to toast our fun times at the cruise.

Now it's the moment to confess that I was a bit disappointed with the ship's Tiramisu. It tasted good, but it wasn't what I imagined it would be. Don't get me wrong, I ate the whole thing, hahaha but somehow I expected a more artisanal feel to it. So I felt morally obligated to order a tiramisu and it was all I could dream of! Just look at this beauty!!!!!!

With our bellies full we continue dot walk around until we found some famous sights like the Rialto bridge. It was then that we learned why it was so super crowded that day: it was regata storica, a gondola race taking place in the main canals of Venice.

That killed our plan to take a water bus to murano because in the afternoon the main canal would be closed for the race. So instead, we had fun walking from bridge to bridge to discover colourful gondolas gathering for the race!!!

It then started to get really, really, super crowded! On top of everything, the film festival of Venice was also ongoing, so after a while we stopped enjoying the sights and just concentrated in navigating the sea of people on our way back to the hotel. We did stop for Ice cream on our way there, so that marked a total of 8 ice cream balls each for the week, hehehehe, yummy!

By now it was 5:30 PM so we could check in and go to get freshened up. We were so exhausted and we were not really feeling like fighting the crowds again so we went to sleep - I kid you not - and only woke on on the next day at 7 AM for breakfast :eek:

DAY 9 - Return to Belgium

We woke up feeling refreshed after having a much needed long rest. Our vacation was officially over (boooooo) and all left to do was breakfast and take a taxi to the airport for our 11:30 AM flight.

I can't recommend enough this hotel Violin d'oro, it was total silence during the night and very peaceful in the morning. It had a main building and an annex - we were actually staying in the annex so we walked a few seconds through a picturesque alley to get to the main building for breakfast. There were lots of choices and we indulged in a little goodbye feast!

We were instructed by the receptionist to alert her to call for our taxi before check out so it would be ready when we left. We decided that a water taxi was the best, fastest option, specially because there is a taxi stop in front of the hotel.

It was expensive: 2 people and 2 big bags for EUR 130 but it was worth every cent! We needed to be at the airport 2 hours prior, so 9:30AM. The receptionist suggested we took our taxi at 9AM because it was around 30 min to the airport.

It was a great way to say good by to Venice: watching the city slowly wake up from the water in our private water taxi!

Here you can see our driver in action and the interior of the boat:

We checked in, walked around window shopping the beautiful designer shops inside the gate area and boarded our plain. Our flight only took 1h:20min to get in Brussels airport where we collected our car to drive home.

THE END!

- Still to come: I will sum up our first time cruiser experience and MSC impression with some bullet pointed after thoughts.

We checked in, walked around window shopping the beautiful designer shops inside the gate area and boarded our plain. Our flight only took 1h:20min to get in Brussels airport where we collected our car to drive home.

 

THE END!

 

- Still to come: I will sum up our first time cruiser experience and MSC impression with some bullet pointed after thoughts.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences with us. I've really enjoyed joining you on your journey day by day.

loving your review, a Fantasia was our first MSC cruise and Danellia was our CD glad to hear she is still on board.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences with us. I've really enjoyed joining you on your journey day by day.

Thanks, it means a lot!

loving your review, a Fantasia was our first MSC cruise and Danellia was our CD glad to hear she is still on board.

I'm glad you liked it!

Sorry guys, I didn't mean to drag this on but life and work got in the way: I'll finish off the final thoughts by the weekend! Cheers :)

Well, I'm in the process of choosing my second cruise and it's so funny how travel agents try to push you the 'fantastica' experience or higher. I have no intention of doing that :D This cruise I had 'bella' experience and it was excellent. Okay, so I didn't have room service for 'free' - but hey, why would I want room service with a whole ship to explore? Also I had a lower deck balcony....which is just perfect I had less motion then high up and I was only 1 flight of stairs away from the main action!!!!! So beware new cruisers, try to think for yourself if those things are important for you! Have a great week!

Well, I'm in the process of choosing my second cruise and it's so funny how travel agents try to push you the 'fantastica' experience or higher. I have no intention of doing that :D This cruise I had 'bella' experience and it was excellent. Okay, so I didn't have room service for 'free' - but hey, why would I want room service with a whole ship to explore? Also I had a lower deck balcony....which is just perfect I had less motion then high up and I was only 1 flight of stairs away from the main action!!!!! So beware new cruisers, try to think for yourself if those things are important for you! Have a great week!

I've Lways thought it weird that the evidently best and most expensive cabins are in the absolutely worst location should seas be rough. Had a suite a few times but top deck at the front is the last place you want to be when the ship is rolling and pitching.

I enjoyed your review. My wife and I will be sailing on the Divina from Miami in February, From what I have read I am certain we will enjoy it!

I wish i could afford flying out to do one of their Mediterranian itineraries, hopefully in the future!

I enjoyed your review. My wife and I will be sailing on the Divina from Miami in February, From what I have read I am certain we will enjoy it!

 

I wish i could afford flying out to do one of their Mediterranian itineraries, hopefully in the future!

I'm sure you'll have a lovely time! The Divina will be in the med soon again, so I might take a chance on her!

Marry Christmas and Happy new year everyone with lots of cruising :)

Thanks for the tips!

Thanks for sharing, I haven't found a lot of trip reports for the Fantasia (maybe I'm not looking in the right places) so I enjoyed reading yours. Thanks for spending the time sharing.

Thanks for sharing, I haven't found a lot of trip reports for the Fantasia (maybe I'm not looking in the right places) so I enjoyed reading yours. Thanks for spending the time sharing.

There is a great review written by Elmartellama, I believe this is the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2060313

Have fun!

There is a great review written by Elmartellama, I believe this is the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2060313

 

Have fun!

Thanks very much , that's was really useful :)

Fantastic review, feeling really confident with choosing Msc , Preziosa med cruise on 26th