Return to the MSC Fantasia: A 12-day winter cruise diary!

[Bra_BE2014]

Thanks for posting the dinner times.

 

BTW, I love the way that you put an "h" after the time...e.g 18:15h. I know you are being precise but I keep reading it as "18:15ish" and thinking that the scheduled times on board are just approximations! "What time do you want to eat?" "Eh...how about 18:15ish?" :)

 

My mind can't wrap around AM/PM concept, I'm way to use to 'h' by now :D

[Bra_BE2014]

Day 7 - Funchal, Madeira

 

This was one strange day! Lots of emotions, positive and negative, lots of adventures. It reminded me of my first cruise when we stopped at Santorini: Beautiful until you remember you are afraid of heights while you are on a tall island with precarious roads through the mountains precipices :eek:

 

Funchal port was very clean and modern-looking. We hoped bright and early on our excursion bus to explore this beautiful island. As usual, we had to wait around 30 minutes for the very considerate Yatch club guests who reserved seats but didn't bother to show up. hmpf. I still wonder if it was the same people or different one every time it happened. I'll never now :D

 

 

First things first, here is the daily details:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

 

When I was choosing which excursion we would do, the one I preferred had a warning for people with heart and/or blood pressure to avoid it as we would go yo high altitudes. Bummer, my mom has heart issues!

 

No biggie, I picked another one that would drive by Eira do Serrado, visit Nossa Senhora do Monte church, go down by cable car and stop for a wine tasty and visit to a embroidery factory.

 

We were 32 people leaving on that bus, some French, some English speaker. 32! Remember this number for later!!!

 

If you happened to have read my previous review, you might remember that I was petrified in Santorini. So obviously, the bus starts driving up, up and up and I start wondering. Yep, there we go through winding roads around the mountain side with scenic views from 3000 meters above sea level. Marvellous...... Needless to say, I had my eyes closed the whole time, I am that chicken :D

 

 

The lesson to be learned here is beware of the word 'scenic' - If an excursion is described using 'scenic route', then you betcha it is a trap!!!!!

 

 

It took 45 minutes to get there because Murphy's law is strong in me :D We eventually made it to the top and were rewarded with the most beautiful rainbow in between the valley mountains. I tried and failed to take pictures because my hands were shaking so badly, hihihihi, damn fear of heights.

 

After that, we went back to town by the same route we came from (because obviously once is not enough) and went out to enjoy safer sights

 

 

Thank you baby Jesus and our Lady, we made it!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[

[Bra_BE2014]

A fun-looking ride available on the streets! I'd recommend a helmet, though!

 

 

 

 

Then it was cable car time, just a short walk from the church. There was also some botanic gardens on the way, but we didn't stop there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our guide went down first to wait for us all on the exit of the cable car. He explained the directions to hop back on the bus and continued there to wait for the remaining people coming down.

 

20 min later, where is everyone? Only 25 of us made it back to the bus, oh-oh

[Bra_BE2014]

It was a hot sunny day, so people dispersed and didn't bother coming back, which left our guide in that awkward position of waiting or leaving for the next stop? Eventually we left. The port was very close to the city, so there would be no issue walking back to the ship. But sorry, I don't understand what prevents people from advising the guide they won't be returning.

 

The embroidery factory was a fiasco as we only had 15 min left due to all the waiting around for the renegade excursion passengers. So Mom and I elected to stay on the air-conditioned bus for 15 min while people saw the factory.

 

We were soon on our way back to ship and were greeted by a mercifully empty buffet for lunch:

 

 

 

We rested a bit before getting ready for dinner. This night was red, white and green theme, which meant Italian party. A day not to be missed at the MDR, as they have the tiramisu parade with music and colourful napkins in the air!

 

Our food was hot and delicious, I could eat the risotto everyday, yum!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good night everyone, coming next: second last sea day!!

[JulesAS]

I'm glad you are enjoying it! To disembark in the ports of call was super easy, you just check out the estimated time of arrival at the daily and off you go when it's time :-)

 

A little patience is required with the multitude of clueless people that queue to leave the ship without having the cruise card at hand and make the process longer then necessary. You need to have your card scanned to leave and to get back in. Hope this helps!

 

Thank you!

[JulesAS]

Hi Jules

 

Depending on whether you have an MSC organised flight or transfer is part of what decides what time you leave the ship. When we were on Fantasia before Christmas, we were given colour coded luggage tags (to leave on your bags outside the night before), and a time and meeting point from where we would be escorted off the ship. This is usually organised in groups of buses to take you to the airport or your onward destination.

 

Thank you!

[IluvZ]

It's so fun reading the trip report, not only because we are on soon as you know, but you are visiting some of the same ports (Tenerife, Casa, and Madeira) we went to two years ago. So far the only thing we both saw was the Mosque in Casablanca. We hit a different botanical garden in Madeira as we heard the lines for the cable car and those little sleds could be really long. Both places we just fell in love with!

[Bra_BE2014]

Day 8 - Sea day

 

 

Another sea day! I was actually happy to wake up later, with no alarm clock. After the usual way-to much-food for breakfast, I had to go to the shore excursion desk as I received a letter that the English speaking excursion to malaga was canceled due to lack of english speakers......again! sigh....

 

I originally chose an excursion that would be gastronomic, to go around and taste tapas. After reviewing the option on the interactive TV, I chose the 4-hour city tour. While on the shore excursion office, spotted something interesting: Behind-the-scenes ship tour on the last sea day for EUR39. Ooooooooooh, I'm so in!!

 

I enrolled mom and I and continued to chill around the ship until lunch time.

 

 

 

 

We missed the show yesterday (Sogno Italiano) because we had already seen it in September 2014. Tonight would be a condensed version of 'LA Traviata' and the masochist in me wanted to see it :D

 

Why masochist? Because the soprano's name on the poster was the same of the previous okra-related shows. Although she sang well, she sang way too loud, and the sound guys should have turned her volume down a notch on ALL shows. It either made you laugh hysterically or run away. You decide what I did, lol

[Bra_BE2014]

Lunch time! Some delicious potato Gnocchi:

 

 

 

 

Speaking of food, I saw on other threads some people wonder about the room service menu, so here it goes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I remember there is also a 24h Pizza delivery service at a charge, but it was on a separate card.

[Bra_BE2014]

I forgot to mention yesterday, that we had a Bali massage before dinner, at the time we would have been on the theatre. It surprised me that by 'Bali massage' they mean a full body massage, for some reason I thought it would be just a back massage.

 

 

We killed some time at the Spa doing some sauna. As before, I felt a bit lost, without knowing what to do next, so why not eat some more :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Service on the restaurant was superb, fast and friendly. I asked our waiter to take a picture of our table and that's what he did, hahahahaha

 

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Tomorrow I will cover Malaga, it was a great day!

[Bra_BE2014]

Day 9 - Malaga, Spain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

I didn't know much about Malaga, so I had very little idea about what to expect. In a sad turn of events, it was raining and cold so the 'costa del sol' of it all was nowhere to be seen :D

 

Slowly but surely, we were approaching the end of the cruise so we were determined to make the most of it, with or without rain! We still had lots to look forward to, specially the behind-the scenes toor tomorrow, wuhuuuuu,

 

So after the usual buffet breakfast, we went to our meeting point of the excursion. It was a short stop at Malaga, only until 13:30, I think on a sunny day I would have been disappointed.

 

We started the excursion by going to the citadel on top of the hill:

 

 

 

 

 

Views from the bull fight arena from the Citadel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

We then proceeded on a walking tour of the center to see the square where Picasso used to live. We found him chilling in a bench:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We kept walking and came across a roman amphitheatre:

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

By now I was feeling very cold and uncomfortable from the humidity, so I was very happy that we had 1 hour free time. The city center was very easy to navigate, so people spread in diffrent direction to do whatever they wanted.

 

We had a plan: to find a nice place for a steaming cup of coffee! We found just the place, only locals inside and very picturesque looking. We were offered a complimentary tortilla to go with the coffee, which made me a very, very, happy girl!!

 

It was soooooooo good and just what I needed to get in the walking-in-the-rain mood again.

 

 

 

 

Next stop: the very beautiful cathedral

 

 

 

 

 

One tower is complete

 

 

 

The other is not!

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

Some stunning decorations inside:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

Tonight would the the last gala night of the trip, we had 3 in total. I was looking forward to it, since normally the baked alaska parade happens in the MDR on the last gala night. It is by far one the nicest nights to have dinner in the MDR as the Menu is usually top of the line for the last gala evening.

 

First thing we did was to take a hot shower to shake off the cold rain: the shower pressure was excellent and the water temperature could be adjusted from cold to very, very hot, so be careful to test before you get yourself under boiling water.

 

 

We took a nap and continued our routine of watching the show and going for wine in Cantine Toscana before dinner at 20:45h.

 

The show "Tin Tin' was loosely based on the Popular Belgium detective adventures (Kuifje) and it was very entertaining. Kudos to the acrobats who managed to deliver flawlessly despite the ship's dancing around.

 

 

Next stop: fooooood! Oh boy, it didn't disappoint and my mouth is watering just by looking at the pictures:

 

 

 

 

Yum!

 

 

 

 

The baked alaska is coming!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got very generous portions of desert but I was so eager, I forgot to take a picture, oooops

 

Another great day done, tomorrow woul bring another sea day, our blue coral facial treatment at the spa, and preparing for rome!

[Bra_BE2014]

It's so fun reading the trip report, not only because we are on soon as you know, but you are visiting some of the same ports (Tenerife, Casa, and Madeira) we went to two years ago. So far the only thing we both saw was the Mosque in Casablanca. We hit a different botanical garden in Madeira as we heard the lines for the cable car and those little sleds could be really long. Both places we just fell in love with!

 

It is indeed a great itinerary, I loved it! Your Cruise is getting closer and closer, so exciting!

[Bra_BE2014]

Day 10 - Sea day

 

 

Although I wasn't really enjoying much the sea days, I was really excited for this one!

 

We had the ship tour at 9 AM8 We were not entirely sure what to expect in terms of duration, the description said 'a few hours' and it mentioned a souvenir and a surprise would be included. Exciting!!!!

 

We had a quick breakfast and headed to the meeting point at the theatre. We were around 30 people in total, split in two groups: French and English speaker with one guide, and the other group some more English speaker and Germans.

 

I was surprised more people were not interested, I was dying to see the how the pantry would look like with only one full day to left to go Rome!) before disembarkation day (booooooo)

 

We were allowed to take pictures of places, but not pictures of people. Fair enough!

 

I didn't take pictures, except for two, you'll see :D

 

The program we covered was:

 

- Theater: Stage, props, backstage, changing room, costumes, masks and wigs and a few words with the head choreographer.

 

- Down the stairs to the crew area: Laundry rooms (huge machines), ironing machine ( a dream come true: sheets enter washed by one side and leave by the other side ironed and folded)

 

- Hallway with crew rooms but no actual rooms were open to respect privacy

 

- Pantry: a cold room (brrrr) and a dry pantry, which was shockingly almost empty

 

- Yatch club: tour of top sail lounge, the one pool and concierge desk

 

- Kitchens: so clean and impressive! we saw all the station, from the bakery (yum!) to the butcher and sea food corner.

Very interesting to see that the spaces for meat and fish are contamination risks so they are contained by jail-stile bars locked at all times while people are working. Just like a prison! All chefs, assistants and crew in general were friendly.

 

There was a boss in the kitchen indication that this sailing had 3,700 passengers and around 1,300 crew members.

 

By the way, we had to wear this cute outfit to tour the kitchens:

 

 

 

Last stop of the ship tour was at the restaurant Tex Mex, which is a la carte.

By now it was 12 PM and we were hungry!!! So we were delighted to get a chef's demonstration on how to cook a Taco and then to be able to enjoy the fruits of his labour along with complimentary glass of wine! It was delicious!

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

Oh, forgot to mentioned: the theatre choreograph explained that the weather shows are reviewed every 2 years and that the ones we were having had just been 'updated', yuhuuuu!

 

So even though tonight we would see 'Starwalker', the Michael Jackson show, it would not be the exact same we saw in 2014, the songs and acts had me refreshed. Great news!

 

Programs:

 

 

 

 

 

[Bra_BE2014]

We had our last SPA treatment this evening, which was a fantastic facial treatment including head massage. very relaxing! I can't compliment enough the SPA receptionists, they greeted us by name every time we went there and did their best to speak whatever they could of Portuguese to show their hospitality.

 

After that, we sang along with Michael Jackson and had a blast! it was the show with the biggest crowd, so it is good to show up a few minutes before if you want good seats.

 

Then time for food:

 

Calamaris risoto, yum!

 

 

 

 

Pork cotelette

 

 

 

 

I was feeling greedy, so I ordered two deserts!!! 1 Strawberry sorbet and chocolate swiss roles, all fantastic. I didn't have any bad meals, very good food all around.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I'll cover Rome, our last full day! thanks if you didn't get bored and made it so far :D

[MeiFong]

'Bedankt' for your great review. I did a similar itinerary last year, so it brings back good memories and at the same time it is good preparation for my cruise on Fantasia coming September.

[JulesAS]

What was the souvenir and surprise!?

[Bra_BE2014]

'Bedankt' for your great review. I did a similar itinerary last year, so it brings back good memories and at the same time it is good preparation for my cruise on Fantasia coming September.

 

Graag gedaan :) Have a great cruise!

[Bra_BE2014]

What was the souvenir and surprise!?

 

The surprise was the lunch on the Tex Mex and the gift was a MSC bag/backpack type thing. I'll take a picture to post it!