Lirica in Split, Croatia
MSC Lirica has the same standard cabin types as most cruise ships with suites as well as balcony, oceanview, and interior cabins. These cabins come with varying degrees of service, with the higher service levels going to the suites or staterooms considered most desirable and therefore higher in price and the lowest level of service in the least expensive cabins. Desirability is based on location within the ship as well as on the type of room. Their most basic or Bella service only goes to interior cabins at the bow and stern of deck 7, the lowest level of the ship with passenger cabins, as well as interior cabins to the stern of deck 8 and extreme stern of deck 9.
Some cabins labeled obstructed view actually do have a view – like this one.
Ocean view cabins with obstructed views on deck 7 also have the Bella service. All other interior rooms as well as non-obstructed ocean view cabins, and the lowest priced balcony staterooms and suites have Fantastica service, which is their mid-level service and similar to the standard service on most other lines. This level includes a free room service breakfast menu, which is not available to Bella cabins. The highest service level called Aurea, is available only in premium balcony cabins and suites. This is the only level that has access to their My Choice dining program where you can go to the dining room anytime during its open hours rather than a specific set time and table. Aurea service also includes some free drinks and massages, a private sun deck, and priority boarding. These service levels relate more to amenities than to actual service to the stateroom. They all get cleaned daily with nightly turndown service.
balcony cabin
Balcony cabins are generally toward the center of the ship, with the rooms out near the ends falling into the oceanview category having just a window. There are no rear facing or corner wraparound balcony rooms as both forward and rear balcony areas are public spaces, though only the rear ones have deck chairs. There are some ocean view cabins with windows facing those decks.
oceanview cabin
Oceanview cabins are found at both ends of the decks with passenger cabins on them. Interior cabins sit across the hallway from the oceanview and balcony cabins. In some of the wider areas of the ship there are also additional short hallways leading to more interior cabins. Also a row at the front of deck 7.
interior cabin
Inside cabins are generally the same as oceanview without the window, although the arrangement of the furniture varies from one cabin to another and there are both smaller and larger cabins. The biggest ones are the accessible cabins, as is usually the case with the largest cabins in any category.
when more sleeping space is needed, the bunk folds down from the wall
Balcony, oceanview, and inside cabins are all close to the same size and furnished with 2 beds that can be set separately or together, 2 nightstands with cupboards, a minibar/refrigerator in a cupboard with a shelf over the refrigerator and a TV on top the cabinet, a corner desk with tall narrow cupboards on each end, and a closet with 2 doors leading to hanging space and the third door leading to drawers and shelves. The beds have enough space underneath to store even a large suitcase, and there are 2 shelves in the bathroom to hold toiletries and things so there is quite a lot of storage space.
suite
Suites on the Lirica are definitely bigger than the other cabins and have more furniture, but they are not as fancy or oversized as those found on some ships. Somewhat like what would be an extra-large mini-suite compared to ships that have really big fancy suites.
a bunk not used for sleeping works for laundry hanging space
While the standard cabins sleep 2, there are cabins with space for additional guests. Some of them have bunks. The Lirica has the old-style bunks that fold down from the wall, which are not recessed into it at all. They stick out into the room when not in use, although we found the one in our cabin useful as a place to hang not-quite-dry laundry when we needed to either take down the clothesline in order to use the shower, or use it for wetter clothes. Newer ships have bunks that completely fold up into the ceiling without protruding into the room at all when not in use. Lirica has no self-serve passenger laundries so on a long cruise options are to send laundry out for the crew to wash or handwash in your cabin.
standard bathroom on MSC Lirica
The shower is quite small which means not much hanging space for laundry as well as not a lot of room for a person between the shower curtain and the wall. I felt cramped in the shower and I’m a small person. It didn’t help that our shower curtain was missing a couple key hooks that would have kept it out at the bends of the track rather than going straight across so that the standing area in the shower behind the curtain did not extend all the way to the edge of the shower floor as it would have if the curtain had stayed out at the track. The space we ended up with was about half what it should have been. Crazy what a difference a couple shower curtain hooks would have made.
There are 4 outlets over the desk. Two are 220V European style and 2 are 110V American style. Having the appropriate adapters makes using all of them possible as long as you are careful what you plug into the ones with the adapters – things that can handle other voltage than your standard like phones or computers. We also had a travel plug with 3 outlets upping our space for american style plugs to 4 without taking up much luggage space.
view through the window of an ocean view cabin
For some reason Europeans don’t use washcloths. Traveling through Europe, only one of the hotels we stayed in had any, and when we first boarded the ship our cabin did not have any either. We asked the steward for some and then he kept our room supplied, but they are not a standard item so you only get them if you ask. Kind of like extra hangers. Cruise ship closets don’t often have enough, but if you ask the steward for some they always have more. Or at least they have so far every time we’ve asked on a variety of cruise lines.
The bathroom came supplied with a liquid soap dispenser at the sink, and a shampoo and body wash dispenser in the shower. No conditioner. It had a kleenex holder in the side of the bathroom counter, but there was nothing in it so we had to ask for a box of kleenex. No idea if this is a per request item on this ship or if the steward had just not noticed there was nothing there.
Balcony cabin with bunk
Items in the mini-bar cost a fortune, and you are not allowed to bring any water or alcohol on board on boarding day, but on our cruise they never cared if people brought in things like bottles of water or even beer or wine from port stops.
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