MSC Lirica - A pretty concise review with tips

[tampablueman]

MSC Lirica 3/9-20/2006

 

Shipshapegal…just got back from our 11 day cruise on the Lirica to the South Caribbean. I appreciated your posts (I printed them out and took them along!) and wanted to add to it a little.

Staff: I found most of the waitstaff and hardworking jobs filled by Indonesians, but a ton of Italian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and a few German staff as well

Shows: We are in our 30’s, so we skipped the Strings At Sea show, but loved the Latin, Oriental, and Variety Shows. Hated the ventriloquist…horrible voice and totally not funny. We sat up front and were chosen to help with the acrobatic act! The juggler, magician, and acrobats were all excellent.

Ship

 

Room: We were greeted by the white gloved staff that showed us to our room and explained how to use everything. We had a suite. Very well appointed, plenty of room, walk-in closet with 15 hangers, 7 drawer dresser, floor room for luggage, 2 shelves and a high shelf for shoes and 3 life-vests. In addition to the walk-in there were two closets in hall with 1 small shelf, 3 medium, and one large shelf, separated by a large 3’ glass shelf, with floor length mirror behind it. Daily fruit bowl left here. Main room with corner desk with large hinged mirror that opens to a safe, and shelves. Two 3’ wide floor length mirrors in main room. Love seat that folds out to a bed, with nice coffee table. . Bureau with 3 doors with 2 shelves on either side, middle is mini-bar. TV on top, as well as ice/water tray. The cabin steward refills a few times during the day. Occasionally I would go to the pantry (every door in the ship is labeled, and most of the non-guest rooms on 10 are on the inside of the ship) for ice, or to drop off a tray that I didn’t want in the room anymore. Just know that the 10th floor (mostly suites) is just below the pool deck 11. You will hear them when they put out the lounge chairs, when the few kids on board run, or when they have the pool party it can be loud.

TV has few channels:

1 – CNBC World English

2 – CNN Headline News English

3 – CNN Live English

4 – CNN Headline News English (same as 2)

5 – CNN in Spanish

6 – Cartoon Network English with Spanish subtitles

7 – TNT – English

8 – ESPN – Italian

9 – TCM – English

10 – Ship Info

11 – Movies in French

12 – Movies in German

13 – Movies in Spanish

14 – Ships Movie of the Day English

15 – Movie in Spanish

16 – View of Bow

17 – DW TV (German?)

18 - Blank

19 – Excursion TV (English)

20 - RAI TV Italian

21 – English

22 – Discover Style (Shopping)

23 – Cruise Review Video

24 – MSC Bar TV

25 – Evacuation Video

CREW

 

Anna Maria was our cabin steward. Very nice, Italian lady. Always asked if there was anything at all we needed, very sweet. I gave her $20 the first day and although with her, I think we would have gotten excellent service anyway, she was superb. At times, or when there are heavy seas, they have a robotic balcony/window washer, they will notify you the night before, so you don’t sleep with the balcony open!) But other days, if you want to spend time on the balcony, just ask (or leave a note) for them to wash your balcony down for you. I was surprised at the amount of salt that accumulates on the balcony!

Alin (Romanian) at the fore bar on deck 11 (La Canzone de la Mar fore) was also excellent. Very good service excellent espressos and very friendly.

Mateus the gym instructor is also nice. Attended the free 8am stretch class. Make sure to check out the Turkish steam room and sauna. Beautifully appointed. The best view for locker rooms I’ve EVER seen. The Balinese women are constantly trying to give you a ‘free’ 5 minute chair massage…(especially if you go near the gym) I declined…because I knew that once they started…I’d sign up for the whole package…and they are expensive.

Jose in the Blue Bar disco is a good bartender. Courteous and attentive.

Andrea Olivieri is the cruise director. Very nice guy. Since our cruise was primarily Italian, German, Dutch, French, and English – he announced everything in each language on the loud speakers and in introducing the shows…he doesn’t even take a breath between translations and his use of the language seems perfect. Listening to him is entertaining in and of itself!

FOOD

 

Lunches and Dinners in the restaurant. We only attended one dinner and one lunch…eating at a table with others is ok, but we weren’t in the mood to dress up and we had an early seating and preferred to eat later anyway. Had lunch one day at La Bussola. Service both times was horrible. The people we had dinner with said that the three previous nights were horrible as well. One problem, if you don’t go to the pizza buffet or the burger/hot dog buffet on 11 aft behind the pool on either side of the bar by 8pm, you have to wait until the “Midnight Buffet” which at times can be anything from a fruit Flambé to a full on tropical buffet, but unpredictable. Deserts were fair at best. Drinks somewhat expensive even for a cruise…we asked our cabin steward to keep us stocked on Miller Light in our rooms…just about the best deal – except for the $4.50 large Heinekens on tap at the bars – about 1.5 bottles worth.

Mini Bar:

Spirits –

Campari – 4.25

Gordons Gin – 5.60

Absolut Vodka – 5.60

Congnac Remy Martin VSOP 7.50

Johnny Walker Red 5.90

Limoncello – 5.60

Wines – 5.50

Friulvini Prosecco

Bertani White Wine

Bertani Red Wine

Soft Drinks – 2.15

Tonic, Sprite, Fanta, Coke, Coke Light (diet)

Mineral Water –

Panna sm.1.50 lg 3.20

San Pellegrino sm. 1.50 lg. 3.20

Beer

Miller Lite -3.50

Heineken – 4.50

Snacks

Arachildi Nut Club – 2.75

Chocolate Bar – 1.95

They don’t allow you to bring your own alcohol on board, but we and many others did anyway with NO problem at all. Security seems pretty lax. I did however, put my Seagram’s 7 (amber) in a large, cleaned Hydrogen Peroxide bottle, and my rum (clear) in a large, cleaned rubbing alcohol bottle. Then mixed it with sprite, or orange juice (ordered extra with breakfast)

Room Service: 24hours and quick

Soup of the Day. Excellent, but only served till 10PM

MSC Club Sandwich. Small, crust cut off, has chicken, hard boiled egg slices, wilted lettuce and tomato, mayo and sub-par bacon with chips. We ordered this most.

Tuna Salad Sandwich – pretty good

Fresh Mixed Salad – fresh, plain

Chicken Caesar Salad. Very plain with small bits of chicken, but good

Mixed Cheese Platter – 3 triangular chunks of various cheeses with 3 packages of saltines.

Fresh Fruit Platter - usually a slice of pineapple, watermelon, and papaya

Sweet Temptations – Brownie with ice cream. Occasionally a different desert of the day was offered. Their ice cream is excellent though. Don’t buy it at the ice cream bar on deck 11 aft – you can get it free with room service.

Breakfast – just fill out card and hang on door. Always came at requested time.

Coffee - very good, and strong. Comes in a cute pourer (about 3-4 cups)

Decaf

Tea

Cold Milk

Warm Milk

Chocolate – hot chocolate milk in a pitcher. (ordered once thinking it was the Nutella)

Yogurt – 4oz. Assorted flavors blended, non fat.

Honey. Smuckers package

Brioches – EXCELLENT, nicely baked with a sprinkle of sugar.

Croissants – good, but three times I ordered they had a spot of mold.

Rolls – dry bland. Good to throw overboard and see if the fishes eat it in port.

Butter.

Rye bread

Wheat Bead

Orange Juice – good, no pulp

Grapefruit

Jam/Marmelade – very good little Italian jars of strawberry jam

Grab some Nutella at the breakfast buffet for your room when you order room service.

The espresso on the ship is EXCELLENT at 1.50/shot (I would order a double and add it to my coffee for that added ‘kick’).

Ports of Call

 

The ship was always right on time as stated in the itinerary.

San Juan – walked around Old San Juan, up to the Fort (bought some sodas to replace the ones I used in the Mini Bar)

St. Maarten – 2nd favorite port! Used Joe the cab driver to get to Lucky Stables ($15) for a 1 hour ride in the hills and out into the beach. Michel was our Venezuelan guide…excellent! Gave us a great tour (saw John Travoltas house) and then he showed us some of the foals, the largest horse there, and their semi-albino horse. Then Joe met us at the stable and gave us a complete guided tour of the island for ($40).

Grenada – make sure your taxi driver is licensed and has a pic ID and will actually be your driver. They have commissioned guys begging for your business and will promise you the world and then turn you over to another driver that will know nothing of your demands, requests…be careful. Demand A/C…a lot don’t have it. We walked first up to the Fort / old prison. Then got the taxi (our guy was also a constable during the evenings) and had him take us on a tour ($35) to a spice stand on the side of the road with a great view of the valley. The lady gave us a great spice demonstration and we bought some goods. We saw two waterfalls, and had him take us to Grand Etang to see the volcanic lake at the top. It was raining, so our views were limited. Had dinner at Deynas on Mellville St in St. George before embarking. Food was homemade and good.

Barbados – be careful here too. We just walked around the port. And got back on ship.

Antigua – 1st favorite stop. By far the most beautiful island on the cruise. Do rent a car, call ahead, Dollar will pick you up and take you the Factory Road office. You have to get a 3mo Antiguan Drivers License for $20. Plus request an SUV, roads can be potholed and they don’t cover tires. Drive to Jolly Harbour, then through Fig Tree Drive…buy some home made preserves, etc from Elaine at “The Cultural Shop”…walk up to the Dam behind her stand and pet the cute donkeys. Watch for mongoose, pretty birds, etc. Go to Abracadaba for lunch in Nelson’s Dockyard, then try Shirley Heights for a good view ($5 to the park). Then try Half Moon Bay…best beach they say (of the 365 they have). Then drive to Devils Bridge for a natural limestone ‘bridge’ you can stand on while the surf pounds on either side of you.

Tortola – Tied for 2nd fave stop. One of the prettiest islands. Walk up the port past the scooters and rent a car at Itgo. They gave us a 20% discount on a Range Rover because we were going to be back at 1pm to get on the ship by 1:30. Make sure you have enough time to gas up, and find the way back to the agency…the roads are a little confusing in Road Town. Take a drive to Beef Island (the first turn off on the right after the bridge has a beautiful beach near Well Bay). Then drive back along Ridge Road for spectacular, if not precarious views. We drove up Lambert Rd, and saw the unpublicized prison! Oops. We wanted to go to The Baths, which requires a ferry to Virgin Gorda, but we didn’t want to be rushed to see it, as we will probably be at the beach all day tomorrow. In Cayo Levantado.

Cayo Levantado – this island, only used for about 4 years and doesn’t have a port…so you are tendered to the island. Ask your cabin steward for an early number…she gave us a #1lottery number. (I heard it go up to about 12 or more) that way you can be off the ship earlier, as you have to be back pretty soon – it will give you more time on Cayo. (They also give you large beach towels to use the night before with your lottery number) We got right to the island and staked out our lounge chairs. When you get off the tender boat, there are MSC tents along the walk. We grabbed a map and made our way to near the “Pelican Nest” (a rock that Pelicans land on?) We got our lounge chairs poised between two palm trees so no one could park near us. We wanted to nap in the shade…this is the perfect spot. Just far away enough to hear the steel band, but far away enough to relax. When they serve lunch, (more burgers, dogs, chicken breasts) you just leave your towel on the lounge and pop over the hill, grab lunch and we ate at our ‘spot’. The whale watch area was under construction and inaccessible when we went.

Tips

 

-If you live in FL (or near your cruise port), rent an economy car – for like $20 and just drop it off at the location. There is a Dollar Rent A Car near where I live and the Ft. Lauderdale Airport has a free shuttle to the cruise port. This way I avoided parking at like $15/day, mileage on my car, and got better mileage (I have an SUV). Same for going home…the bus picks you up at the exit of the cruise terminal and drops you off at Dollar’s door. (Just be sure to fill up on gas before turning it in…they charge $4.99/gal.

-Get a couple of Cruising / Caribbean books. We used the 2006 Fodors Caribbean and a dated 2001 Cruise Vacations for Dummies (Frommers). Both were VERY helpful.

-Print up labels for the people you might want to send postcards to on clear address labels. That way when you are ready to send them, all you have to do it stick the address on. This makes it much easier.

-Get your stamps and postcards together (most vendors that sell postcards, also sell stamps but run out at the end of the day) Then drop them at a post office or box where you are…most stamps are only valid in the country that they are for, you can only use US postage in Puerto Rico.

-Bring a couple packages of flushable wipes. The toilet paper is pretty dry on board.

-Bring bug spray

-Bring assorted sized baggies and bags (to save snacks for later, put passport, wallet in to keep dry, grab a handful of sugar white sand or shells whatever.

-Bring an alarm clock – they don’t have one in the room

-Bring a hair dryer – theirs sucks

-Bring an electric power bar, they only have two plug sockets at the desk, you might need it for recharging your phone, laptop, battery charger, hair dryer, etc.

-Bring DVD’s and a player (or your laptop). (Or some good books) Their movies are very repetitive and boring.

-Bring a couple dimes and elastic bands for motion sickness wristbands. They sell the same idea at the pharmacy for a lot more money. Just put the dimes on your inside wrist about two finger widths above the palm (near your pulse). It works!

-Turn your phones off before you go to bed the night before you get to Puerto Rico, Cayo Levantado, and back to Ft. Lauderdale (although you may pick up reception passing Puerto Rico at about 6:30 the night before, but if not)…they have Verizon cell towers in these areas and you will be woken up early by your voicemails coming through.

-In Cayo Levantado it was suggested to try to get up early that day if you can, they say that about 3000 humpback whales winter off the coast of Samana from Dec to March. You may see some on your way in/out of Samana to the island of Cayo Levantado. I didn’t see any myself though. That way you don’t have to pay for a whale watching excursion…you may have your own free one.

-Bring a travel iron on board. I usually figure on my clothes getting wrinkled in travel and plan to just iron them when I get there…They don’t have any for you to use, and don’t have self-serve laundry on board. Their prices are pretty expensive for laundering and/or ironing. Shirts and trousers or jeans are 2.20 ironed, 4.30 laundered and ironed

Pants dry cleaned are 2.50 ironed, 10.00 laundered and ironed

Shorts are 1.30 ironed and 2.50 laundered and ironed. I just washed some things in the sink and hung them to dry in the shower on the retractable cord provided.

-You can adjust your tipping any way you want; they will charge you $12/day per adult automatically. We just had a couple people we used, and tipped them in cash accordingly. And adjusted our automatic tips to cover room service etc, and you can write the amount and who you want to receive the tip, on your form at the accounting desk.

-Embarking and Disembarking are a cinch! We walked on AND off the boat without having to wait at all. When leaving, they separate the US from Foreign passengers. Just have your room key and passport handy, they keep the key when you leave. They give you a color coded tag for your luggage and ask you to put what you want them to carry off the ship to the terminal at your door. I wasn’t about to do that (I read on an earlier post that MSC lost someones luggage and expected the passenger to pay the shipping from Italy and wouldn’t budge) But the color of your tags tell you what order you will be called to get off the ship. Depending on if people have an early flight, etc., and they ask you to be out of your room by 8am. Two things. We asked our maid if we could just wait in our room, she of course agreed to clean our room last. Secondly, some of the passengers did say that they weren’t strict about waiting for your color tag to be called and left early. We were orange and weren’t called to leave till 10am.

-Don’t take any fruit off the ship. Make sure your kids don’t pack any away either. Customs charges $250 per piece. I had $2000 worth of pears, kiwi, oranges, apples that were left in our room from the daily fruit basket filling – thankfully I had it in one bag. There was a family behind us whose kid put a couple apples in their backpack and almost got charged $500.

Well, as you can see, I had a lot of time on the trip to type this. Hope it helps and answers some of the questions for you that I had before leaving. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any other questions at blueman1@tampabay.rr.com

Dale

[mkazmer]

Dale - thanks for the great review it was very thorough

[asctony]

Excellent and honest review! Please give us more details on why:

'Barbados – be careful here too. We just walked around the port. And got back on ship.'

We are going this soon. Thank you and Happy Cruising!

[tampablueman]

The port seemed dirty and somewhat unfriendly...we went in to town just outside the port and weren't impressed. A few people had told us horror stories, one of a girl being raped on the beach and the cops wouldn't get involved or let anyone help for fear of added violence. Another of a lot of theft and crime. It has a reputation of being second in crime only to The Dominican Republic. I may be overreacting, but by Barbados we were tired anyway, so we were happy to just get off the ship for an hour or two and get back on. We may have missed something that draws people to Barbados, but since we self-excursion, we decided to stick close to ship. Let me know if anyone has other opinions.

[asctony]

The port seemed dirty and somewhat unfriendly...we went in to town just outside the port and weren't impressed. A few people had told us horror stories, one of a girl being raped on the beach and the cops wouldn't get involved or let anyone help for fear of added violence. Another of a lot of theft and crime. It has a reputation of being second in crime only to The Dominican Republic. I may be overreacting, but by Barbados we were tired anyway, so we were happy to just get off the ship for an hour or two and get back on. We may have missed something that draws people to Barbados, but since we self-excursion, we decided to stick close to ship. Let me know if anyone has other opinions.

Thank you for your opinion. We visit Barbados and take a taxi into town. We have been there many times and go one block from the main street where there is some excellent shopping. People seem very friendly, helpful, and never try to push anything on you. We know some of the shop owners and they seem and treat us very well. Never had a problem or were bothered by anyone. We consider this much safer than Jamaica, Venezuela, and some of the other islands. We were shocked when we saw 60 Minutes give some facts about St. Thomas being bad and corrupt, as we always walk into town from Havenside. So, you can never tell. Happy Cruising!

[shipshapegal]

Tampablueman,

 

Loved your review but I respectfully disagree with you about the dining room. We ate there for almost all meals and loved it. We tipped the Maitre di (sp?) $20 the first night and again on the third night and he fell over getting us everything we could posibly want. When we went in for lunch or breakfast (open seating) he ran over to us and seated us and told the servers we were special guests. It was really worth it to spend the money early on I think. He was also very charming. He gave us his card to visit him in Italy. Our waiter and assistant were so nice and helpful and we loved (almost) all of the food. I didn't like the buffet because there was smoking and I liked the clean air in the dining room. Otherwise you are dead on. The rolls on the balcony in the morning with the Nutella were sooooo nice. We live in a condo and I just can't get my doorman to bring me rolls and coffee in the morning! (smile)

 

Shipshapegal

[voyagerfl]

1. What the Heck is Nutella ?
   
2. We felt very safe in Barbados, the people were pretty charming. We were walking along and started to asked a police man if we were walking back to the ship, he did not hear me and a local lady, flagged him down and was like "Officer, these men wanted to speak to you"
   
3. You did not like the service at dinner.....How did you like the food ? If you did not like the food..What didn't you like?..was it because it is different than the Americanized Italian food we are used to ??

Thanks for your post we leave in less than 2 weeks..

[shipshapegal]

Nutella is a hazelnut chocolate spread with a consistency like peanut butter but soooo much better on those hard rolls with coffee!!! Have a great cruise, I certainly did.

[mdelacono]

I WAS ABOARD THIS SHIP FOR 17 NIGHTS, TRANSATLANTIC.

 

THE CROISSANTS WERE WONDERFUL, EVERY DAY. THEY GO TOO QUICKLY TO MOLD.

 

THE FOOD AND THE SERVICE WERE WONDERFUL IN THE DINING ROOM.

 

IN FACT............NOTHING THAT HAPPENED TO YOU, HAPPENED TO US.

 

YOU SURE HAD PLENTY OF TIME TO TAKE NOTES FOR A REVIEW. I GUESS WE WERE JUST BUSY HAVING A GOOD TIME.................:confused:

[wrahn2002]

Tampablueman,

 

Best review I've ever seen on Cruise Critic.

 

Thanks,

Wes

[travelersrwe]

Thanks for taking the time for the review, we sail the 22nd

[tampablueman]

mdelacono - Yes the croissants that weren't moldy were great! But the ones with big green patches on them I didn't try. In reference to the time I took to write my review, each morning (or before going to bed) I would get up early and write a little bit on my laptop, and I kind of used a format that shipseagal had started in her post. Over all I had a great time, we got out a lot and visited each port. Your remarks lean towards sarcasm. This is a forum for honest review, not for insinuations that I sat in my room and complained.

[cruisegirl06]

I thought Barbados was pretty nice, as with all ports you should be cautious and aware of your surroundings. I would suggest looking up places to go before you get there (i.e. beaches near resort areas, downtown, etc.) so that you aren't overwhelmed when you get off the ship in Barbados (the area immediately around the port is not the nicest). Get a legitimate cab service to the beach, stay in groups of people and you should be fine. I really loved the beach here and had a lot of fun parasailing, tanning and relaxing, sorry I can't remember which beach it was, but it was really nice.