We were looking for different ports to visit, so decided to try MSC's Lirica. The ship is lovely, with pleasant pastel colors and nice decor throughout the ship. We had a very nice room with veranda. To our dismay, we had cigar smokers on both sides of us, so we couldn't always enjoy the veranda without that disgusting smoke. Now for the food. My husband cruises to eat, but he was sorely disappointed on this cruise. Though the pasta and veal dishes were often very good, the fish and beef dishes were truly terrible. There were no extravagant desserts. Service was very slow and disorganized, often taking 2 hours at dinner. The ship ran out of butter, so served margarine that tasted like lard. No brewed decaf coffee, only little packets of dried coffee. Re the gym, there are only 3 treadmills with no sign-up sheets. And these were shut down during siesa time, from 12 noon to 3 every day. The entertainment was adequate, though repetitious, with the same acts reappearing with different costumes and routines. The Animation Team, a group designated to instill laughs in the passengers, was supposed to be slapstick--but actually bordered on cruel, using passengers and their own sidekicks as pawns. There were no movies on board except on the TV, and these were repeated over and over. The "new" ports were the best part, with beauty to be found in St. Lucia, Grenada, and Tortola--but St. Barts is just a collection of expensive boutiques. We would not choose to travel on MSC again. They are young, new and learning a difficult trade. But we are not willing to be their victims, paying good money for a bad experience. They need to learn fast or depend on first-time customers for their profits, for they won't get many repeaters.