Are you dreaming of that perfect holiday, with qualified staff to look after your every need, anticipating your every wish?

Close your eyes and think of a long sea voyage visiting places steeped in history and cultural – a trip made special by the service of a butler, who will undertake to look after your clothes, five o’clock tea, room service, restaurant booking, confirming a beauty treatment or massage, and a shore excursion – turning your cruise into an unforgettable holiday.

All this will become a reality on board MSC Fantasia and sister ship MSC Splendida, the biggest ships built by a European ship builder. These two new ships will join the fleet in November 2008 and spring 2009 respectively. This is the beginning of a new concept for cruises and a new era for holidays at sea.

MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida are the first ships to have an exclusive VIP area. On board MSC Fantasia, this will be called the “MSC Yacht Club” and will consist of 99 spacious suites. Other reserved areas will include a bar, solarium, two jacuzzis, one pool with a skydome, an observation lounge (an area with its own bar and concierge plus a magnificent panoramic view) but above all, a 24/7 butler service, with one butler for every five suites.

The butler service will provide assistance from check-in, to transporting luggage and if requested, unpacking and organising personal belongings such as clothes, serving English tea after five o’clock, meals in the cabin on request, as well as cigars, wines, liquors and champagne. The butler will also be in charge of booking spa treatments at the Aquaea SPA on board, booking a table at the restaurants and excursions – even organising a small party in the suite.

To provide the perfect butler service on board MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida, Giovanni Mautone, dining services manager of MSC Cruises will be in charge of this new and special onboard service. To equip himself with the necessary qualification, he completed an eight-week course at the The International Butler Academy in Warnsveld, The Netherlands.

MSC Fantasia and sister ship MSC Splendida will be 135,00 tonnes each, 333 metres long, 38 metres wide and 60 metres high. These two giants of the seas will be six times than the Tower of Pisa, 10 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower and as tall as a 23-storey building. Maximum speed will be 23 knots, with a 40 mega watt intake for the propulsion equivalent to that of a 120 Ferrari. The ships will also have a total of 1,800km of electric cabling (the distance from Naples to Nantes) and 65,000 power points.

Onboard facilities will include:

• 1,637 cabins, to host 3,900 passengers and 1,300 crew: 80% of the cabins will be outside cabins of which 109 will be suites

• 27,000 square metres of public space will include a theatre (seating capacity 1,700), Aquae Spa – the well-being centre (occupying 1,500 square metres) with a thermal cave, five restaurants (including a Tex Mex with its open kitchen and a panoramic restaurant), four pools (three outside and one covered with a transparent ceiling) with hydromassage and jacuzzi, a sports bar and jazz bar, shops, casino, disco, Formula 1 simulator and interactive 3D cinema – all geared up to provide maximum enjoyment for the onboard guests

• The children’s area will cover 400 square metres, dedicated to equally important “younger” guests and will feature a water Slide ( this will be located one one side of the disco and span the height of two decks, offering an impressive visual impact)

MSC Cruises are represented exclusively in the Maltese Islands by their general sales agents, Hamilton Travel Ltd of 4, St Publius Street, Floriana, tel. 2124-1292.