MSC Lirica, MSC Cruises

The experience started with a very poor embarkation. We queued for almost an hour in order to get through to departures. There followed another long queue to eventually get onto the ship. The ship itself was very spacious with good drinking and entertainment venues. The cabin, although not large, was perfectly adequate for our needs. Our biggest problem was that most mornings the toilet wouldn't flush. This meant having to go outside of our cabin to find another toilet to use. Most times this was fixed within a couple of hours but no apology was ever offered. The main restaurant was madly busy and the poor waiters were very overstretched. The food was of an average quality but not outstanding as we've previously had on other cruises with different cruise lines. For most of the excursions we had quite a short time in port and had to pay for our transfers which we have never had to do before and proved quite costly. When you have paid for a cruise it seems greedy to charge for this on top of the initial price. On other cruises that we've done the staff have been courteous and polite and every member of staff would greet you. This was not the case on MSC. The staff in the Lord Nelson pub were very friendly but this was not the case in other areas. The guest services/reception staff were the most rude and miserable that we have ever encountered. When complaining about the toilet situation, initially they totally ignored our questions and then they made us feel as if it were our fault. At 10 € per person per night for gratuities this was a joke! Disembarkation was as bad as embarkation. We had to vacate our cabins by 7.30am and after a lengthy delay we finally got off the ship at 11 am. Never before have we encountered such a shambles. My partner booked this cruise for my 50th birthday and also surprised me by proposing to me so we made sure that we had the best time, and would not let a less than adequate cruise line spoil this special occasion but we would never choose to go with MSC again.