MSC Lirica vs. Celebrity Summit

We love : good food, diverse crowds, a great kids program and an interesting
intinerary. We are 3 time Celebrity cruisers who like the Lirica's intinerary
for the dates we are looking at.
You all talked me out of Costa because since great food is important to us,
apparently they are lacking in that area.
Any recent MSC cruisers out there care to give their point of view?
Thanks in advance.
Sue

We considered the Lirica for our family this summer. Amazing, I still have
this link--it is a compilation of links to Lirica reviews. http://cruiseclues.com/lirica/reviews.htm

I gather the onboard experience will be very European. That's not a bad thing
at all--except for one factor which was a biggie for us: expect lots of smoking.
Another thing to consider is how comfortable (or not) your kids might be
if they are a minority of sorts in the kids program groups. Generally, kids
seem to work all of that out very nicely on their own, but sometimes it does
take a day or two. It might be harder for a child who is, by nature, shy
or less confident about his/her social skills.

Good luck in making your decision! Ultimately, for a variety of reasons,
we decided on the Celeb Millennium doing an attractive 12-night Med itin.


Diana Ball
near Houston, TX



(Bisous3) wrote:
We love : good food, diverse crowds, a great kids program and an interesting
intinerary. We are 3 time Celebrity cruisers who like the Lirica's intinerary
for the dates we are looking at.
You all talked me out of Costa because since great food is important to
us,
apparently they are lacking in that area.
Any recent MSC cruisers out there care to give their point of view?
Thanks in advance.
Sue

Oops, I just read the full message header and realized by your reference to
the Summit that you must be thinking about trying the Lirica in the Carib?
If that's the case, then ignore my comments. IIRC, from what I read when
looking at the Lirica for summer back in her home Med waters, her onboard
character changes when she comes to the Med because the pax make-up includes
more Americans and Brits. You should be able to access some helpful reviews
from the link I mentioned.

Diana Ball
near Houston, TX

Good luck in making your decision! Ultimately, for a variety of reasons,
we decided on the Celeb Millennium doing an attractive 12-night Med itin.

Diana
We sailed the Millie on Thanksgiving. Great ship.
Enjoy!
Sue

Check out the message board comments on cruisecritic.com.
Unfortunately they are not very favorable for the Lirica.

(Bisous3) wrote in message ...
Good luck in making your decision! Ultimately, for a variety of reasons,
we decided on the Celeb Millennium doing an attractive 12-night Med itin.

Diana
We sailed the Millie on Thanksgiving. Great ship.
Enjoy!
Sue

But an American lady on our cruise did. She ordered 'French
Toast' for breakfast and was up in arms because she got real European
"French Toast" and not the pancakes covered in Maple Syrup one has in
the US Quite funny listening to her rattle on

Not having, ever, ordered French Toast on ANY cruiseline I can't say what
should be expected..BUT, french toast, anywhere, in the USA is, definately
NOT pancakes! Though, they both come dripping in maple syrup. Not really,
syrup is served on the side, but most people love to see them drippin'.

Eileen


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Just got back from the 11 day (01/26 sailing) in the Western Carribean. Spend your money well, take the Celebirity.

We are frequent cruisers and this cruise was the absolute worse in terms of quality and variety of food, service, personnel was rude to put it mildly, no redeeming qualities except a very nice cabin which we spent a lot of time in because of the lack of activities on board.

I doubt this ship will be back in the Carribean next year.

I wrote to the OP:

Ultimately, for a variety of reasons, we decided on the Celeb Millennium
doing an attractive 12-night Med itin.

Pam wrote:

In the Med I would pick a European ship.. why not, it's Europe,
experience the customs. In the Caribbean or the US I pick a US based
line, experience the US way. Round Britain, N Europe, take a British
based ship. All are different and it makes things more interesting.

--
Pam

Pam,

I agree 100% with your enthusiasm for the idea of Americans getting out of
their skins and trying to "do as the Romans do" when traveling. Nonetheless,
I, personally, don't think a cruise ship of any stripe offers a representative
experience of a particular culture.

Further, a Med. cruise features such a port-intensive itin., the ship is
almost irrelevant except that it needs to well-serve the function of floating
hotel & restaurant--for us, then, the choice was keyed first to itinerary,
second to accommodations & dining, and third to price. The fact was, the
Euro lines' itineraries weren't ideal for what we wanted to achieve with
the cruise segment of a bigger, 4+ week trip. Moreoever, I wasn't about to
risk our comfort on that travel segment to a smokey environment (most of
the reviews of the Lirica echo that, your experience notwithstanding) and
lousy food (again, most pax--not just Americans--note the overall food quality
is just fair save the Italian dishes, natch) just for the sake of making
what some might consider the more "PC" cultural selection.

Don't get me wrong, the Lirica (and the MSC line generally) was very intriguing
to me, probably more so than most Euro lines because I'm crazy about anything
Italian. (I love Italy so much my husband has said he wouldn't go back with
me 'til I saw some other parts of the world first! Well, I managed to slip
in some pre-cruise time in Venice + a few Italian ports by selecting the
Millie cruise, so I'm a very happy camper.) But I definitely don't feel as
though our experience will be compromised by not having chosen the Lirica
or some other Euro line. Indeed, I rather imagine that spending some time
on a Celebrity ship will be a welcome thing that juncture in our travels.
--- Having expectations that you can count on being met can be a very good
thing when you're on the road.

Happy travels!

Diana Ball
Near Houston, TX
http://www.dianaball.net

Next up: Celebrity Millennium – Med – June 04
RCI Mariner – E Carib – Holidays 03
RCI Serenade – Transatlantic – Maiden 08/04/03
Star Princess – Mex Riviera – Holidays 02
Dawn Princess – Alaska – July 02
NCL Star – Hawaii – June 02
RCI Rhapsody – W Carib – Holidays 01 (back-to-back)
RCI Explorer – E Carib – Holidays 00
NCL Sea – W Carib – Holidays 99