There were ten of us that boarded the MSC Lirica,this was our third cruise but two couples were experiencing their first. Embarkation was a breeze thanks to our flight being delayed and arriving late at the dock, the staff was very accommodating and showed us to our cabins very quickly. We had all chosen cabins with verandas, which on MSC are mini-suites. The cabins were very nice with a lot of storage and a large closet with numerous hangers provided. The bath included cabinets and shelves and a bathtub. One review we read said the hairdryer was useless, none of us found that to be true.
The ship is clean and very easy to navigate, above us was the pool deck and the buffet, the two dining rooms were on deck 5 & 6. Our group was assigned to La Bussola restaurant for the evenings, early seating. We were surprised but pleased that the dining room was available the first night since the ship was to leave at 7 (Delayed and actually left at 8) there was a limited selection the first evening. There was a show also the first night but we chose to unpack and get settled, wandered around and got our bearings.
The first day of our journey was at sea on our way to Jamaica, we had coffee delivered to our cabin and were delighted with the timely arrival but not too impressed with the limited offering. Our habit is to rise early and the continental breakfast is not offered in your cabin until 7:30AM, that worked great for our neighbors but for us was just too late. The outside buffet on deck 12 offered coffee and continental breakfast at 6, the regular buffet and restaurants opened at 7.