“Worst cruise we have ever done!!! First time with MSC ... NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!”

Questions about the MSC Lirica

• • How did you like your cabin number 8099?
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• • Your comment on cabin 8099:
  • Cabin was filthy when we arrived including dirty linens.
    Overall cabin is old and run down. For example parts of the bathroom cabinet door are broken off and never got repaired. A lot of the build-in wood desks are coming apart (desk and bathroom cabinet). It would be a lovely and cozy cabin even it is very small and I could not imagine being in that cabin with four adult or teenagers (Seems impossible). It was VERY tight with two kids and one of our daughters is two and slept in our bed with us. TV was disappointing. We are fluent in two languages (english and german) and struggled to find movies to watch. At least one kids channel would be good. When we complained about the dirty cabin, the cabin got deep cleaned so we had no access to it for pretty much half a day. While that sounds great, it was a true disappointment since there was still mounts of dirt below the bed etc.
    The Bircher Muesli is NOT Bircher Muesli! Bircher Muesli sits over night. It is not oats in milk soup. One day a lady working on the boat even had the guts to dump a whole bag of oats into the Bircher Muesli bowl WHILE I was trying to scoop some out. Overall staff seems very unhappy. We heard multiple staff members comply about never having a day off and counting their days until they can get off the boat. Sanitizers don't work or work with struggles on the boat which makes people not use them. Have someone smiley greet people before walking into the restaurant/buffet to greet them and offer them some sanitizer. Train your staff better and rearrange your buffet area. I was debating on writing a detailed suggestion on how to reorganize your buffet because a few little changes would make everyones lives so much easier but I ended up being too upset with the cruise and the way we got treated on board that I decided not to give you my time and expertise for free. No towel animals in the cabin were a huge disappointment. What do you expect to tip 20 Euros a day for? Having our beds made and fresh towels put in? Sorry but we do not tip that much whenever we stay in a 5* hotel where we get all the bells and whistles that you can think of.
• • How would you rate the selection and quality of the food and beverages offered on the ship MSC Lirica?
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• • How did you like the entertainment program?
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• • How much did you like the sports facilities aboard the ship MSC Lirica?
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• • Would you recommend a cruise with the ship MSC Lirica to travelers with children?
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• • How do you rate the service in the bars and restaurants?
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• • What is your overall impression of the ship MSC Lirica?
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• • Would you like to note some more short remarks about the ship MSC Lirica?
  • The food was absolutely terrible. The quality of the food is extremely poor. The variety is poor. The presentation is poor. On a lot of days the food was not eatable. On good day it tasted bland. Out of 12 nights/13 days we can tell you exactly what was good: 1 soup (Gazpacho) and 1 dessert (Coconut ice-cream). Portions in the restaurant were tiny.We had to wait for service in the restaurant for ever (WE nearly walked out two or three times due to not getting any service while seeing our waiter keep walking past us). At least twice we left the restaurant with me crying because the food was so disgusting. Most food is gluten based (bread, pasta, pizza, burgers, desserts, ...) and the salad bars are a joke. I am gluten free and have never struggled finding food in any place and I have been to 49 countries in my life. Being forced to eat gluten during the cruise made me put on 5kg in 12 days. That is absolutely insane! Rotten lettuce was the daily norm on the salad bar. No food variety at all. Most food absolutely bland. Once day there was a large major jar sitting upside down on the buss station by the burger bar... in the sun. I informed a manager to please get it into the cooler to not get everyone sick. It was still sitting there when we walked back to our cabin about 45 min later. Shocking. The kids' splash area had garbage flying around in, just the way it was all over the deck. Having the library in the smokey pub is ridiculous. We tried to utilize it with our children, since there was pretty much minimal family entertainment on board, and we could not stay in it because of the severe smell of smoke (We tried to work on the puzzle). The mini-golf area is a joke. Sorry but that is not a mini-golf. You might be able to call it a putting green but definitely not a mini-gold since it has no obstacles. The running track does not exist. Yes, you could run but where is the track? Why do you have the smoking area next to the main entertainment area on board? It makes in unbearable for people that don't smoke as well as children. The entertainment on board is already absolutely poor so losing the main area of entertainment makes it even worse. More quizzes, sudoku, family treasure hunts, ... would be lovely to see.

Questions about the tour operator MSC Cruises

• • How well was the embarkation/disembarkation organized?
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• • How would you rate the extra expenses on board (5 = very affordable, 1 = very high)
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• • How would you rate the cruise line's shore excursions in terms of quality and value for money?
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• • Would you travel again with MSC Cruises?
  • no
• • Comments about MSC Cruises
  • Why were we not allowed to get on board before 18:28? We live 20minutes from the port and lost a whole day on the boat. Other people were on board by 7am. To top it off you had us get off the boat early. We were expected to be out of the cabin by 7am and in the gathering area by 7:20am. Other guests were allowed to stay on board until 13:00. We expect an explanation and a compensation for that. We complained on board about the late check-in time as well as the dirty cabin and the food and a lot of the other items mentioned but only received a 50 Euro onboard credit which is a joke when you think that we traveled with 4 people. Oh and we got a "gift" sent to the room ... canopies which are gluten and fish so we could not eat it and put the untouched platter right outside the cabin. The fruit in chocolate was not good at all so we did not really eat them either (Even the kids did not enjoy them). Khasab was an absolute disappointment. Why did we go there? There was NOTHING there to do. The docking spot in Bahrain was so far away from the city which was disappointing. All arranged tours were overpriced and the offered shuttles were an absolute rip-off.

Questions about seascanner.com

• • This was the first cruise that I booked over the internet:
  • no
• • How satisfied are you with your travel agency seascanner.com?
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• • Would you recommend seascanner.com?
  • no
• • Comments about the service of seascanner.com
  • Nobody could explain the late check-in time to us and we pretty much got told: "This is it. Your time is 18:28"
    Nobody seemed helpful. No solution or reimbursement has been offered. We have cruised seven times over the past few years with a larger family. This was a terrible cruise and we felt VERY unsupported. Never had such issues before.
    
    This cruise was a total waste of time and money!