My Genoa Experience & MSC Fantasia – Part 3

So after 3 nights stay in the city of Genoa, it was now time to board MSC Fantasia for 7 nights around the Western Mediterranean. Firstly though I wanted to find out how easy it was enough to get to the ship. As we are having breakfast on the roof terrace we could easily see both MSC Fantasia and MSC Seaview moored up in the distance, which to be fair did not look too far away. So I decided to take a walk myself to see how easy and how quick it would take to walk to the ship rather than taking a taxi – Anything to save money! The walk took me approximately 10 minutes in total, with just a few steps to contend with on the way. So whilst I was there I could see there was MSC staff around the embarkation point and explained would it be okay to embark earlier rather than waiting till our 1:30pm allocation time. The lady was very accommodating and explained that will be fine, but obviously that doesn’t guarantee your cases will be in your cabin any earlier, which we fully understood.

So after going back, collecting luggage and  explaining to my family and friends that we could board earlier, we were on-board just after 11:00am after going through all the security checks and checking-in. First impressions were Wow, with our friends being overawed of the experience as it was their first time on-board a cruise ship. The atrium area which is the main hub of the cruise ship was impressive with the Swarovski crystal staircase sparkling and  taking centre stage of the area. After a quick look around and to get our bearings on the 138,000 gross tonnage and 3,900 passenger vessel we had lunch at the buffet restaurant on deck 14. Which had a wide range of options whether you wanting a quick snack or to something more substantial.

After lunch it was time for a few beverages and trying out some of the Cocktails on offer, which we had included as we bought the all-inclusive package in advance. At only £23 per per adult per day, this is well worth it as the drinks on-board are not cheap with a small bottle of beer at nearly 5 euros, glass of wine at 5.50 euros and even a Coke was 3 euros. It would not take you long to get your monies worth out of this deal. Luckily we packed my daughters swimming costume in some hand luggage so she was just happy enough swimming in the pool and going down the slides, whilst we waited for our cabin to be available and wait for our luggage to be delivered.

Next time I will talk about the ports of call we visited, and some tips in these ports.