MSC LIRICA Reviews

My First Experience with MSC

This was my first cruise with MSC. I regularly cruise with American cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, so I was prepared for a somewhat different experience — and it certainly was.

One of the biggest positives was the quality of the food, especially in the buffet. The selection can be quite repetitive, with a lot of pasta and bread, but the overall quality was good. We also tried one of the specialty restaurants, the sushi restaurant, which I would rate as average.

The ship is clearly showing its age, which is particularly noticeable in the corridors and some of the common areas. The biggest disappointment for me was the bathroom in our Ocean View cabin. Having a shower curtain instead of a proper glass shower door felt outdated and, personally, I found it quite unpleasant.

The entertainment was also quite disappointing from my perspective. In the evenings, there was mostly live music in the various bars, while the shows in the theater were, in my opinion, below average.

The service in the bars and cafés was another weak point. What particularly bothered me was seeing members of the crew — especially senior officers and managers — spending quite a lot of time sitting in the cafés rather than actively overseeing operations and looking after guests. It was not unusual to see as many as six officers sitting behind or around a bar in the morning, having coffee and chatting. From a guest's perspective, this gave the impression that management was not sufficiently focused on the actual operation and service.

One thing I have to praise, however, is the embarkation and disembarkation process. Both were handled extremely well and were among the smoothest I have experienced.

Overall, I would say the cost-to-benefit ratio is reasonable. However, if you are used to cruising with American cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean or Celebrity, you may be somewhat surprised — and potentially disappointed — by the differences in service, entertainment, and overall onboard experience.

For me, MSC was an interesting experience, but based on this cruise, I would still prefer the overall experience offered by the American cruise lines I am accustomed to.

My main warning: stay away from the onboard casino. During a game of Bingo, the first prize was awarded to the wrong person by mistake, and casino manager refused to correct it. The casino manager insisted nothing could be done because the game was already “closed.”

A mistake is forgivable. Refusing to correct it is not.

Reception was also very slow, and on several occasions they called our cabin in the middle of the night – once around 5 a.m. – asking whether we had booked our roomservice. Not what you want when you’re trying to sleep.

We had also pre-booked three excursions, and two of them were cancelled the day before.

On the positive side: the staff in the restaurants and around the ship were genuinely great, and the food and drinks were very good throughout. It’s just a shame the service issues stood out as much as they did.

We booked this cruise as we were visiting Venice, and liked the stops the cruise was going to! It was a cheap price as we booked it 6 days before it left so we did get a great deal, thank god for that.

The staff are mostly rude other than the dining and house keeping staff. Had multiple staff push in front of us at buffet, and just have zero manners at all.

The buffet is the smallest cruise buffet I have ever seen with barley any variety or quality.

Got harassed to take a picture at dinner by their photographer even though we declined multiple times. They have zero entertainment in English (all live shows in IT). My biggest surprise was to see they don’t even have a soft serve ice cream machine for free. It’s a 3.5 euro charge. They also have gelato where the soft serve machines are, but again they are all 3.5-4 euros which is more money then off the ship in all the ports!

Our blankets on our bed have yellow stains on them… they are washed and clean… but why re use blankets that have gross unpleasant stains like that?

Me and my partner prefer to not have anyone enter our room to clean ect during the day or anytime… so we chose to clean ourselves… which isn’t a big deal as there isn’t much to do on this ship for North Americans anyways. But we were hounded down by our cleaner multiple times after the first two days of having the do not disturb sign constantly in. After telling him politely how we feel, the next day we got a call from guest services asking if all is okay and that they were notified that the do not disturb was in the door for over 48hr… ridiculous to have to explain we prefer to not have anyone come in. And we explained it’s not due to not trusting our cleaner personally, it’s just how we are.

On our boat tender back from Mykonos there was staff coming back from visiting the island as well, and while getting off the tender to the boat stairs… the group of 7-8 staff (including 4 males) shoved and squeezed in front of my girlfriend hitting her and did not even look back to apologize.

This ship is so cheap they don’t even offer juice like standard on other ships during any hours other than breakfast. And the juice isn’t even real juice. It’s the fake stuff you mix in water. I have been on 8+ other cruises and have NEVER seen this. The only options during the day is water, or tea & coffee… unless you have the drink package of course.

There is a few other things I could mention, but I’ll leave it at that. Thankfully we paid just around. $520 CAD per person for interior cabin that sleeps 2, and were upgraded to a window room without request before boarding the ship.

The ports were all beautiful which was great… but for the two sea days we had… it was draining. If I didn’t buy the wifi package, I’m not too sure what we would have done for those days.

Again I didn’t expect luxury as I know this is an older ship, but juice and soft serve ice cream, as well as ALL staff being friendly is generally standard business on any cruise I have ever been on.

Not saying don’t take this cruise, but make sure you are aware of these things, and please book as late as possible to save $. I know someone who booked same interior room for $1100 per person and didn’t even get upgraded… and they have cruised with MSC multiple times. This was our first.

This is my 7th or 8th cruise and by far this is the worst. If I could jump off this ship safely and swim back to Venice I would! Where to start?

The food! This is the worst food I’ve had to endure since I worked at a Texas Penitentiary and would occasionally eat there. Yesterday I got a waffle, waffles should be a safe food to get? Nope! It was frozen. The bread is super hard. The noodles are tasteless. I walked away from ravioli- which I LOVE usually. You know how ice cream is free on other cruise ships —- NOT HERE!! 5 euro for one scoop and it wasn’t even mouth-watering gelato I’ve gotten in Florence. I’m so glad I bought Lindt chocolate in Zurich because that is what I’ve been eating on the ship. Thank goodness for port days so I can eat a real meal. - MSC nickels and dimes you from a $500 cruise to double or triple for what is generally included in cruise packages.

Next up entertainment or the complete lack thereof. One singer Davide was very good. The others are like watching a middle school talent show that Regina George choreographed. We have walked out on several. No comedy show, other dance or get together events start at 11p or midnight. Bingo- one game blackout. It seemed that all of the crew who have taken the time to speak have only been on this ship a week - new crew?? Maybe kinks haven’t been worked out yet.

The cabin- 10th floor corner room, clean and kept however - under the bar and pool - extremely loud all night long. Carts being pushed, tables moved, running heavy footsteps all night and all day. We didn’t get a moment’s peace.

The crew- most of the crew are friendly and helpful or at least appear to be helpful. I mentioned the food not being good the young lady asked me what they could do to improve, my answer- heat it and make it taste better.

The passengers - it is multinational- German, French, Italian, Spanish - maybe more. A whole lot of elderly and a good many children - all RUDE!!!! I go out of my way to be polite and dispel the rude American view of Americans but let me tell you - it is NOT Americans who are rude. We have been pushed, walked on, cut in front of, stood in front of and yelled at by non-Americans. The loudness and obnoxious behavior has not come from Americans or other English speakers. The children are unsupervised and unruly. Running around.

Overall a trip I thought would be a dream come true has been and still is a nightmare, one I hope I will get to wake up from! If Carnival is the Dollar General of cruises then MSC is the secondhand thrift store.

I will not be cruising with MSC again unless they make me an offer I can’t refuse. And that would have to be some offer.

A few years ago I booked the MSC Lirica on a western Mediterranean cruise. I enjoyed that cruise so much that this year I booked the Lirica on its eastern Mediterranean cruise.

The MSC Lirica is an older (built in 2003) ship that has since been lengthened and refurbished. It is still very attractive and is beautifully maintained.

Because of its medium size (about 2,500 passengers maximum), it lacks some of the exotic amenities of the new megaships. But that is the reason I enjoy it. It looks and feels like a real ship and not a floating amusement park. And the smaller size makes getting on and off (and around) the ship easy — with almost no lines anywhere.

The crew and hotel staff all do a great job. Their service is excellent, and they are very responsive to requests. When I had a minor problem with my cabin, it was solved immediately.

The food is not as elaborate as on some of the mega ships, but the main dining room and the buffet always had something delicious for each course of each meal, and the presentation is always attractive.

One of the things I like most about MSC's Mediterranean cruises is that passengers can choose any port on the itinerary for embarkation (and disembarkation seven days later). That means there is no hectic turnaround day of all passengers at one of the ports, so passengers can plan an extension in the port city of their choice and/or select the connecting airport that is most convenient.

Another thing I like is that the passengers are a mix of many languages and many nationalities — an interesting international crowd. Yes, announcements are made in multiple languages, but that is important for safety, and I respect that. And American-booked passengers get special attention, such as the free bottled water in the main dining room.

Another thing I like is that MSC cruises, especially this one, are a great value. And MSC is especially kind to single travelers like myself. Most other cruise lines charge me double the usual per passenger fare, yet they give couples a 50% discount for the second passenger. The low (or no) single supplement makes MSC my favorite cruise line, and the best value in the cruise industry as far I am concerned.

Each of the ports on this itinerary (Istanbul, Corfu, Bari, Athens, and Izmir, plus two sea days) is easy to enjoy on one's own. Port excursions are available for those who prefer or who have mobility issues, but public transit works well in every port for those who want to sightsee independently. Tap-to-pay credit/debit cards are honored almost everywhere, so local currencies (euros and Turkish lira) are not an issue in ports.

I give this cruise 5 stars in all categories — highly recommended!