This was the worst cruise we ever had. Embarcation in Genova took almost 5 hours. Disembarkation in Durban took more than 3 hours. Because of the bad airconditioning half the passengers were ill after the first week with serious influenca. The food was very low mass production and below any cruiseship standard. Fresh fruit excisted of melon green, red or yellow with the ocasionsal appel. Food was tasteless and prepared with no finesd whatsoever. I.e. perri perri praen were served just defrosted with a sprikel of perri perri powder. Beef was uneatable from a cow that must have been 105 years old. Salad came without any dressing. Barservice was slow. The price for drinks was unacceptable. A glad of table wine 6€ a glas of beer 5€ . After 3 weeks they ran out of wine for the prepaid drinks package.. no upgrade of course. The excursions were totally overpriced. In Cania/ Greece they offered a shuttle bus for € 9.90 where as the public bus was € 3.40 without que and waiting time. They keep you uninformed for most of the times and if you tried resception they would give you a very serious look and a stupid answer Read Less

chosen purely because of itinerary.Got off to a bad start when pick up bus at Nice Station didn't park where stated. First night on board,air conditioning noise in room was not put right until midnight.Next 2 days,no shower due to thermostat non function producing only boiling hot water.Tried to fix but didn't work,no shower that evening.Next day,put new thermo,didn't work either and again no shower that evening. Was I offered other room,shower elsewhere etc Big NO is the answer despite my protestations.Got no response from reception,cabin management or English rep for Costa.Eventually fixed by reversing the taps.Offered bowl of fruit as compensation and bottle of Prosecco,NO Thanks.Long Queues at reception for two mornings resulting in most giving up due to lack of staff.No lack of staff on trips booking desk though???? One of the last stops we made was Al Fujairah.What a dump of a port,full of shipping for oil tankers,oil storage tanks etc.You really have no choice but to pay to get out and do anything.Must be visited due to cheap berthing costs we be my bet.Will be writing to Costa re compensation.( was offered 150 Euros by Casino,but only because of my extensive spend in the casino) Final port Dubai was docked at 8am,had no choice but to get off as first passenger as my flight home was at 11.55 am,because passport was taken by Dubai immigration with others and I was only able to disembark near to 9am with all my luggage to visit immigration which did not open till 9am then to locate my transit car to airport.All of this was pointed out previous day but no assistance given,nor any help when I was panicking to ensure I wouldn't miss my flights back home and connections.Reception desk on board was one of the most unreceptive both in assistance and in language that I have ever encountered. The buffet restaurant food was OK but like most,served on cold [plates which means when you find a place,your food is cold.Difficulty in getting a hot plate when asked.The coordination of programmes on board interfering with other programmes was hopeless as were the English announcements made over the tanhoy and during events on board where because of lack of the English language were incomprehensible.This company is not one I would recommend to anyone from UK.I had difficulties,yet I speak French fluently,enough German,Italian,Spanish etc to make myself understood.Pity they could not reciprocate.The best English speakers were the Russians and the Philipinos. I rest my case,never and which is why I tore up my 150 euro gift. Read Less

This was the Lirica's first cruise since being refurbished and I have to wonder if they were really ready to set sail. We have enjoyed several MSC cruises in the past but the service on this one was terrible. We paid extra for the Aurea package. We had many problems during the cruise from finding hair in food, to dirty plates and cups, to the toilet in our room not working and having to find a public toilet in the middle of the night (luckily this happened toward the end of the cruise as there was no attempt by staff to fix the toilet!). We paid for a photo package but found out the DVD was blank when we got home. Complaints were mainly dismissed by the staff which prompted me to write a formal letter of complaint to MSC when we returned home. I received the same dismissive treatment from head office! The ports we visited where great as were the shore excursions (some English speaking excursions were cancelled at the last minute and we had to tag along with other groups). I did not enjoy the 5 consecutive days at sea as English speaking activities were very limited. They were not able to get the English TV channel working during the entire 3 weeks of the cruise. The Lirica is a smallish ship so public areas are limited. Read Less