MSC lirica 7 Night Eastern Mediterranean (Venice Roundtrip) Sep 2018
MSC Lirica Cruise Review to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 94
7 Night Eastern Mediterranean (Venice Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 14, 2018
Ship: MSC Lirica
Cabin type: Oceanview
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
The ship itself is small carrying less than 2000 people the main issues we found is that there is no functional space big enough to accommodate passengers wishing to watch the shows provided by the animation team. This resulted in even if you found a seat, passenger standing in front of you obscuring your view with a result that you too had to stand to watch the show. That said the ship is very clean. The Cabins as you would expect are of a good standard we were in the new section of the ship added in the past few years so ours was not as old some of the others. On the most part I did not hear anything bad about the cabins or the service of the attendants ours seem to speak very little English and did not truly make herself known to us to provide the one on one service that you come to expect when booking a cruise. The ship has good dining rooms and facilities. We only used the buffet restaurant once choosing to have all our meals in the main restaurants this we found to be a great option with a greater array of choice. Without the greater numbers of people the noise and the pushing, barging and lack of tables that we found on our one visit to the buffet restaurants. The restaurant staff were very good always polite happy and willing to serve. The only issue that we found was that they did not seem do you want to serve tea or coffee at the end of the meal the option was never offered. That said they were in no hurry to push you out of the restaurant. The dining overall was fair but it was noted that the same menus were offered this year as were offered last year with no variance so even though we had a choice it did seem a repetition and that you had been there before. Again as with our previous trip. It was noted that the level of competent staff seem to have dropped, this again can be attributed to the launch of the new MSC mega cruise ships. Again a few staff seem to have been moved into positions that they were struggling to provide the level of service required. When spending this kind of money you expect first class service at all times. The ship seems to mainly cater for the Italians who seem to make up the vast majority after passengers. This caused many issues with some passenger who had never sailed with MSC before who thought they were treated as second rate passengers and pushed to the back of the que where service was concerned. There was a great push for you to buy the on-board packages provided this was especially true with the drinks package, a few people who had brought the drink package mentioned and it was indeed the case that the service in the bars was very slow. People that we spoke to were of the opinion that this was so you drink less and therefore could not use the drinks package to its full potential. We did observe servers in the bars ignoring passengers who had recently arrived and were waiting to be served. I myself opted to go to the bar on more than one occasion to get served as this had happened to me. I did find the bar staff in most cases to be helpful but again I did notice passengers orders were being combined by the servers to be taken out at one time instead of being taken out when you order was completed this meant that some servers carrying as many as 10 to 15 drinks on a tray at one time. This resulted in some passengers waiting up to 30 minutes to get their drinks. Where two or three trips could have to have been made to better service the passengers and reduce just waiting time that so annoyed most passengers. I know of at least 4 groups of passengers who refused to pay the service charges mainly due the level of service they received in the bar areas of the ship. This cannot be a great thing for MSC. MSC need to realise that they are judged as a brand on all their fleet. The older and smaller cruise ships with lower standards of service affect how passengers and potential customers perceive the brand. Whilst talking to passengers a number stated that they would never use MSC again based solely on the experience of this Cruise. We have another cruise booked with MSC in May next year and I am hoping that there is a vast improvement in the level of service that we receive or that to maybe the last MSC cruise we undertake. The itinerary for the cruise looked wonderful with great destinations what we did find was that on closer investigation some of the stops were only 6 hours this resulted in rushed time ashore with the constant worry and an eye on the time you had to be back on the ship. That said it did not take away from the beautiful locations that were visitedEmbarkation
The ship was late in due to the fog so everything was a little backed up and more like a cattle market with passengers hanging around to board and herded through the embarking process
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Lord Nelson Pub
They serve real British Ale here on the all inclusive we spent a lot of time in this bar there is a smoking half to this bar which I know was a hit with smokers
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
remember the safe is behind the mirror A general Tip for all Cruises remember to pack a 2 way plug extension as you can then use the sockets for the table lamps to charge your phones by the bed
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
My tips for Venice if visiting from a ship is to take the hop on hop off water bus that has all the main attractions on it stops. You can pick this up the cruise port and is reasonably price enjoy the beauty of Venice with the knowledge that you can back get back to your ship with plenty of time to spare.
a wonderful old town if you choose not to take an excursion the new town can be easily walked from the ship and self-visited there are a few land trains offering a ride walking tour of the Old Town we found this to be a little long-winded and time-consuming we would probably opt to self-explore this area if we go again as there were loads that we missed
A truly lovely place on the cruise the ship was docked nearly 12 hours so there was plenty of time to explore the island or even the island of Delos there are a few boats that travel to the island of Delos throughout the day.
Is an enchanted place my advice would be get off the boat as yes you can Grab a taxi from the dock they are 13 euros it will drop you at the gates just inside on the left you will find the ticket booths to walk the walls. payment can be made by card, the gates don't open till 8 you need to get a ticket before going up onto the wall . The advantage to getting up on the wall early is that it is cooler temperatures it can get very warm when walking the wall and there is little shade so the earlier you can do this the better and the cooler it will be. You can explore whilst walking the streets below in the hotter part of the day.
Disembarkation
Easy we got off as early so we could enjoy longer in Venice before flying home
Traveler Photos
