Back from MSC Lirica 2-10 Aug 2014 from Marseille

[MavisCruet]

Just spent a week on the Lirica 2nd MSC cruise 1st being on the Splendida last year.

Few good points of this cruise:

Cost was cheap

Food was lovely, my daughter is Veggie and she is very well catered for which is amazing as we struggle in most European countries.

The all inclusive, its great, not to have to worry about all the mocktails my daughter drinks costing me a fortune

Bad points

Outside cabin small and air conditioning struggled with 4 of us to keep cool.

Shower was tiny and curtain absolutely useless once 2nd person of the day showered water soaked carpet in the main bedroom.

Staff - Did not meet our room steward at all, did not bother to introduce himself, sent some laundry which we had to chase up 3 days later! Waiter in main restuarant had very limited English to the point where I was trying to tell him how much I enjoyed a meal one night and I think he thought I was complaining.

Dress Code - Is there one, we pack with clothes to wear for the evening according to their dress code policy but the maitre'd does not seem to stop anyone entering the "fine dining" restuarant no matter what, eg see men wearing shorts on gala night and one other night see a man dressed in a vest style top and shorts!

Booked this cruise as was stopping at La Spezia and our daughter wanted to see the leaning tower of pisa. Got the tickets the night before delivered to our room. Just by chance the kids popped back at 8.45pm and found a letter to day was cancelled due to lack of English speaking people booking. Very disappointed daughter and staff at desk couldn't offer any other advice.

 

Overall I would say you get what you pay for so was value for money but will try fantasia class again next year.

[oreosmile]

I wonder if a good strategy when booking ship excursions on a ship where your language is not common is to find an alternative source of info about the site and just go on the tour with another group and rely on your own materials? At least you would get there and back and have time to check out the destination. That must have been very disappointing.

 

We were lucky last year on the Splendida that we had no issues, but we only did one ship's tour - the rest was just us puttering around or finding local transportation to the places we wanted to be.

[Got2Cruise]

What about going with another language tour if that is all there is? Better than not seeing it at all. Even though I agree there are DIY methods

[cruiseclues]

Thank you for your review. :):):):)