Lirica Christmas Cruise Review

[crusin mom n daughter]

I just got back from our cruise with my family (daughter 20, son, 18) my sister and her daughters (15 and 17) my mother (71) and my niece and her husband and their 2 babies. We decided to go with MSC only because the kids were free. We could not see paying almost a full fare on the more mainstream lines to have the little ones come along.

 

The Ship:

The ship was immaculate and tastefully decorated although not very Christmasy as was expected.

 

We all booked inside cabins which were small in comparison to Carnival who we have cruised in the past. We had two men over 6 feet and they did have problems with the shower situation as it is very small and the handle bar is situated in such a way that it is even more difficult to move around. Other than that, there was enough storage space and lots of mirrors.

 

Personnel:

We had the most difficulty with the ship's staff. W knew that English would not be the first language of many of them and anticipated the language barrier, but we found it especially difficult in the dining room. If you asked the waiter what was in a ish, they looked at you like you were crazy. Either they d not understand at all or had no idea how to tell you in English. Otherewise the wait staff were very pleasant and were excellent with our 2 babies.

The cabins were always cleaned thoroughly and whatever we asked for was promplty brought. Our steward was excellent and brought warm milk for the babies every night without being asked.

 

The Food:

Mediocre at best. If you have cruised other lines you will likely be dissappointed. Although there were some very good meals, the majority of the food was either very salty (the risotto) or quite bland. My daughter asked for hot sauce and they had it waiting for her every night (never hurts to ask)

I would definitely reccommend the dining room over the buffet for dinner though and even lunch if you can swing it. The variety in the buffet was minimal. I was surprised to know that the "always available menu" in the dining room is not available on gala nights as my son found out.

 

Entertainment:

It was actually a lot better than I expected. My daughter was on Costa last year and said this was much better. The shows in the thetre were reminscent of cirque de soleil with lots of acrobatics and non verbal acts due to the variety of languages. The poolside entertainment could use a little improvement with games like hot potato and musical chairs, but I guess it was fun to watch. The trivia takes a whiole because of the languages, but still fun to try. The entertainment staff were very friendly and seemed to really enjoy their jobs. I also think the guys really enjoyed dressing in drag haha!

 

Ports:

Cayo Levantado:

This is a tender port, but there will still be plenty of time to spend on the beach. It is a very nice beach, but you have to walk through a "shopping area" first. Some of the vendors were quite pushy, but they are more than willing to haggle with you! Some nice wood carvings here. The sea lion encounter is right on the beach so you can stand and watch. Very cute! All in all a nice beach day, but it gets very crowded later in the day

 

Tortola:

We decided to go to the baths on Virgin Gorda on our own. We got off the ship when it docked for an hour which worked out well otherwise we would not have had to time to do the tour ourselves. We took the Speedys ferry over and got a taxi to the entrance for a total of $38US each + a $3 admission fee into the park as compared to the $75 ship excursion. I would highly reccommend this if you can handle about a 15 minute walk over uneven terrain. The beach is gorgeous and do the caves (take the swimming route, it was a blast!) The beach on the other side of the cave is beautiful as well but the main baths is the first beach. Abot another 15 minute walk back up a different path. Great island!

 

St. Maarten:

This is the place to shop if you are going to do it. Tons of high end shops as well as souvenir and duty free shops. One of the other people in our party had been to the beach before (Oreint Bay) and said that was also beautiful. I really enjoyed this island, the people are very friendly. We did have to tender here and had problems due to rough seas which was delaying the tendering process. There is definitely room for improvement with the tendering.

 

Nassau:

We did not loke Nassau at all, it was dirty, the people were rude and there was very little to do there. Unless you want to sit on a beach all day, this is not a high prority port, the beaches were nice from what we heard though. We ended up coming back on the ship fairly quickly. The port hours were unacceptable though, (2pm to 7pm) If you waned to go to the beach it was almost too late. I would not reccommend staying on this island after dark. There are lots of small alleyways, it just seems dangerous.

 

All in all we had a great trip. There is always something that could be improved, but just ignore it, you are on vacation. do not let the little things bother you. Speak slowly and be patient with the staff, they are quite freindly once they understand you. We just enjoyed the time with our family and had a wonderful Christmas.

 

Feel free to ask any questions, I will do my best to aswer them quickly

Happy Cruising everyone

[royandjenn]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. It's neat to read two different reviews for the same cruise. Do they have a band that plays in the evening by the pool? Just curious. One cruise we went on they would have a reggae band play once in a while, and it was pretty fun. Anyway, thanks again, and happy new year!

[dawnrae]

Did the teens join in any teen activities that were scheduled? Thanks for posting your review.

 

Dawnrae

[crusin mom n daughter]

It is interesting how people can have such a different experience on the same cruise, but it is all what you make of it i guess.

 

No there was not a band near the pool at night or at any time for that matter. They had a soundtrack that was the same every day playing by the pool area a lot of up beat dance music with a little island flare.

They did have a mariachi type band playing in the outside buffet area a lot of the time though.

 

No the kids did not take part in any of the teen activities, but there did seem to be a fair amount going on for them during the day and later at night.

 

Any more questions I would be happy to answer!

[royandjenn]

thanks for the reply! I read that u can't wear shorts or tshirts after 6pm, is this true? My hubby is a jeans only kind of a guy, and nice shorts though kind of a guy, haha. His mouth dropped when I told him! Thanks again!

[crusin mom n daughter]

As far as the clothing goes we found it to be quite casual, even in the dining room.

My son hates to get dressed up, but we saw lots of men in the dining room wearing jeans and a nice t shirt (a polo or something and some just a regular cotton tee) They did not enforce the dress code at all.

On formal night, it is not necessary to wear a suit and tie. The men with us wore a nice pair of pants with a button down top, nothing too fancy.

 

If you are planning to eat in the buffet none of this matters. You are free to wear whatever you want around the rest of the ship.

[jjgoo]

thanks for the review.

[dis2cruise]

thanks for your review, you said your kids didn't take part in the teen program but was there a teens program available for kids if they wanted to attend??

[crusin mom n daughter]

yes there was a kids and a teens club with various activities throughout the day and evening. They send a flyer to your cabin every evening outlining the events for the following day for both the clubs

[yoyis47]

Any idea of what kind of activities they have for teenagers, taking my 16 year old and afraid she'll get "bored" you know how teenagers can get bored so easy.

 

Thanks

[yoyis47]

any idea of the activities for teeangers?

 

Thanks

[happy1]

Sorry - neither of my teens had any interest in the club so I didn't pay any attention to the teen activities. I do recall there being time in the disco each evening. Saw lots of teens playing cards around the ship.

[sailaway211]

They did not have activites for the over 12 crowd. My kids were very bored but made the best of it.