First cruise ever!

Item: MSC Lirica
Rating: 5
Author: Corinab79

MSC Lirica Cruise Review

Corinab79

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 50

Overall rating:

5 out of 5

10 Night Panama (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 19, 2008

Ship: MSC Lirica

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

Eleven day cruise on a primarily Italian ship. There was some snobbery with some of the crew but the overall staff was friendly and fun. The ports were great and I have been hooked on cruises ever since.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Lots of games, trivia, and prizes! Fun keepsakes if you win!!

Entertainment

5 out of 5

The ship was multilingual with Italian being the primary language of the crew. The shows were great and the activities staff were super fun (though there was a language barrier with some). The announcements were made in at least three languages every time and there were an incredible amount of non-English speaking passengers!

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Room stewards and wait staff were amazing! We did discover the difference between staff and crew! There is definitely a status delineation on this cruise line. I found it to be very sad. There was a “crew” hot tub on the front of the ship on the camera monitors that was almost always empty. I asked the waiter if they used it often and he said “oh, no. That’s only for the crew” I asked what he was and he said he was “only a staff member.”

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

We somehow got booked in a handicap room so the beds didn’t convert to a king but apparently it gave us a LOT more square footage than a comparable room.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

5 out of 5

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

5 out of 5

“Pura vida!” We went zip-lining and it was incredible!! The tour guide shared interesting facts about Costa Rica along the way as it was about an hour’s drive (approximately). Exhilarating fun!!!

Thumbs Up 1

Cartagena, Colombia

5 out of 5

Cristobal, Panama

5 out of 5

My husband and I took a taxi and asked to go to a zoo where we can see exotic animals like monkeys and jaguars. The driver took us to a place that did have said monkeys and some birds. But their most “exotic” animal they were so excited to share...was a deer. Something I see nearly every day where I live. It was hilarious!

Thumbs Up 1

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

3 Comments

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

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Cruiserike0322 4 years ago

Good review, thank you

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bobduck1993 4 years ago

So happy that you enjoyed the cruise!

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