MSC Lirica ; 28 Dec 2007

[germanstudent]

Hi cruisinggirl247 and everybody,

i'm so happy too to have this thread! I hope there will be some young people aboard. My sister has been once in the USA (Wisonsin, Chicago and New York)

during her student exchange for 3 weeks. She's fallen in love with the States. She loves the Americans. She says they are all soo friendly. I've never been in the USA, but am looking forward to visit Fort Lauderdale and South Florida when we stay there for 5 days pre-cruise. Can anyone tell me what are to do and see in South Florida? Has anyone already been abroad MSC Lirica? We know only Aida Aura. It was a great ship. There aren't 2 periods of dinner.

How far is Sawmill from Ft. Lauderdale Beach? Oh, I'm a she:)!

[builder63]

Hi cruiseingirl247 and welcome aboard. I beleave this will be a very good cruise. Germanstudent, one place you & your family need to go is the 15th street fisheries restaurant you can go to their web at www.15streetfisheries.com. you can take a tour of the everglades. :) more later.

[cruisingirl247]

hello germanstudent

i haven't been on any MSC line and neither have my parents so about the lirica i can't tell u much and for that i am sorry. i am not American, i am Canadian..... I'm hoping this cruise will be fun and don't worry there are alot of fun things to do in south of florida just be careful because there is the right side of the tracks and than the very wrong side. i travel alot and love cruising out of everything i do with my family i'm sure we all will have a ball.:)

[cruisingirl247]

Hello

i was wondering if anyone knows what the kids activities are like we are doing a DCL cruise on the 16 and i know it will be nothing like disney but we have also sailed on HAL , celebrity, RCCL and I was wondering I have a 10 year old sister and I am hoping the kids activities are as good as some of them well except HAL my sister hated it. Does any one have kids around 10 or 9 or 11?? how do they separate the groups??? We are going with people and they have a child as well that's 9 and I'm hoping there will be kids around their age to keep them company.:) thanks so much.

[cruisingirl247]

Hello

i was wondering if anyone knows what the kids activities are like we are doing a DCL cruise on the 16 and i know it will be nothing like disney but we have also sailed on HAL , celebrity, RCCL and I was wondering I have a 10 year old sister and I am hoping the kids activities are as good as some of them well except HAL my sister hated it. Does any one have kids around 10 or 9 or 11?? how do they separate the groups??? We are going with people and they have a child as well that's 9 and I'm hoping there will be kids around their age to keep them company.:) thanks so much.

[cruisingirl247]

Hello

i was wondering if anyone knows what the kids activities are like we are doing a DCL cruise on the 16 and i know it will be nothing like disney but we have also sailed on HAL , celebrity, RCCL and I was wondering I have a 10 year old sister and I am hoping the kids activities are as good as some of them well except HAL my sister hated it. Does any one have kids around 10 or 9 or 11?? how do they separate the groups??? We are going with people and they have a child as well that's 9 and I'm hoping there will be kids around their age to keep them company.:) thanks so much.

[cruisingirl247]

I'm sooo sorry i didn't mean to double post my internet is acting up

[cruisingirl247]

we have 27 days til we leave i'm so excited and so is our group and my family. i hope other people are as excited as we are.

[mbaxende]

We are also sailing on this cruise. First time on MSC. We have been on DCL 3 times and I hope were not too disappointed. We have 2 kids: DD 10 and DS 13. I hope there are others for them to hang with.........

[builder63]

welcome aboard mbaxende:) we have a DGD 6, 13 on the 31 Dec. and her friend 12. this thread has been slow or people going don't know about cruise critic. how much snow did you get? I have a niece and her DH from Ct. going. "I'M SICK AND NEED TO GO TO THE DOCK":D

[mbaxende]

I found this site. It seems like a great place to spend the day.

http://www.cozumelcruiseexcursions.com/AllInclusiveResort.htm

[builder63]

Hi baxende, I also found that same site. You do know we don't get to Cozumel until 1200 noon!:eek: I didn't think that gave us enough time to go. it will be about 1:00 pm before we get off the ship. I just found out we are being tender from the ship too.:eek: unless we are able to dock and out time changes.

[chicagogal01]

Hello everyone: Just back from this cruise. We will only cruise this line again if Kids Cruise Free promotion is in effect. Heres why:

 

The Good: Cruise ship is immaculate. Embarking was a breeze! Waiters work very hard as do cabin attendants. The shows were quite good and the staff was friendly doing what you asked. The italian dishes were very good as was the soup (which was a surprise). They really knew what they were doing with these dishes as you would expect.

 

The Mediocre: The food, otherwise, was very average. The staff, while very accomodating and pleasant, were so poorly trained that I felt bad for them, esp. waiters. It is really shameful that Matire D's do nothing to assist or train waiters. They were so harried. The food quality was very hit and miss. Some nights dishes were very good, other nights they were barely edible.

 

The truly bad: The complete lack of information provided about almost everything including the ports to be visited, arrival times and disebmarking at ports as well as the excursions, except throught nighly program dropped off at the cabin.

 

Also the excursion prices were overpriced by about 20%. We found our own options and did far better booking only one through the ship.

 

Also, why on earth were formal nights on in-port nights? This was just silly. It made everything rush-rush. In addition almost everyone at first dinner seating missed lobster night (which it is silly, I guess to wish to attend) but it seemed interesting that they picked this night on a night when the ship was in port and didn't sail until 8:00 P.m. and didn't call it a "formal night" I suppose they knew most passengers would be out and about? Just dumb.

 

Bottom line: The price must be absolutely right for us to cruise again with MSC, which I would under the right circumstances. However, MSC has a lot to learn about the US/Canadian market if they expect to compete in the Carribean with Royal Carribean, Celebrity, Norwegain (all of which we have sailed and all of which were better in categories of service and food quality) If you're European, you probably think this was a fine experience, however. Just remember you get what you pay for and you won't be disappointed.