I surprised my wife with this cruise for our 10th anniversary after we talked about visiting Greece for this anniversary since last year. I chose this cruise based on the itinerary and the price for these great ports of call. The ports of call did not disappoint at all, whether it was Bari (go down to Polignano a Mare for a little bit while at this port), Mykonos (absolutely spectacular), Heraklion, Crete (a solid stop but didn't have enough time there to explore outside the city to see more impressive Cretan sights), Corfu (nearly as spectacular as Mykonos), Dubrovnik (incredibly beautiful as well), and of course Venice (which is amazing)!

When my wife and I reviewed the MSC shore excursions after booking the cruise, we were disappointed in their offerings and asked our travel agent for her advice on what else we could do. She recommended Viator and we were very happy with their tours. We planned our own excursions in Bari/Heraklion/Venice, and used Viator for excursions in the other three ports. Viator had more interesting and MUCH less expensive excursions than the cruise ship offered. As an example, we did the Achillieon Palace excursion in Corfu through Viator and it ended up as a private tour (it was supposed to be up to 10-12 people but the tour guide chose not to cancel even though only my wife and I were booked for that day). The similar MSC excursion cost ~$15/person more and was large groups of people crammed on buses. Do a little bit of homework ahead of time and you can have phenomenal experiences for a lot less than you would pay through the cruise ship.

The MSC Lirica was "stretched" a few years ago which added additional cabins but, as far as we could tell, no meaningful additional common spaces. This leads to the ship feeling cramped at times, particularly during the one full day at sea. Just temper your expectations with this ship and know that it is an older ship and not laid out to comfortably accommodate all the passengers. The service on the ship was excellent, from our room steward to the servers in the restaurants. They were very attentive and willing to help with anything. Since this ship is more of a value ship, they try to do lots of upsells from the moment you walk onto the ship. Whether it is the all inclusive drink package or a water package or a soda package, be prepared for people plugging these packages throughout the entire cruise. Our stateroom package included 12 vouchers each (total 24) for any drinks throughout the cruise (excluding premium drinks) and we didn't need any additional vouchers or packages. If you like to enjoy multiple drinks a day then you'll probably want to get one of the other packages at some point during your cruise. Up on the pool deck, you'll notice a delicious looking gelato bar, but unless you've purchased at least the all-inclusive standard drink package, you can't get any of that gelato without paying extra. Read more