Ship Visit Information

Ship: MSC Lirica
Visit Date: 13 April, 2013
Port: Harwich
Cruise Line: MSC Cruises
Review Author: Harry Cotterill

On Friday 13th April 2012, Cruise Cotterill had the honour of joining a group of Travel Agents aboard MSC Lirica, whilst the vessel was berthed alongside the cruise terminal at Harwich International Port.

We had originally contacted MSC Cruises earlier this year to discuss with them the possibility of visiting the ship whilst berthed in Harwich and to request permission to both board the ship, but to also officially present an especially assigned drawing of the vessel to the Captain and his crew.

MSC Cruises were kind enough to offer us such an opportunity and granted us permission to join a group of Travel Agents aboard MSC Lirica, during her first of 2 visits to Harwich International Port during the 2012 cruise season.

Visitors were asked to arrive at 10:30 to proceed with embarkation to be aboard MSC Lirica by 11:00. I was joined on board for the visit with my parents. We arrived at Harwich International Port at 10:00 and before starting embarkation took the chance to take a number of photographs with Harry’s drawing with the ship berthed directly behind.

At approximately 10:30 embarkation started, were each of the visitors were issued their passes to board MSC Lirica. Before we were taken aboard with the second group of Travel Agents visiting the ship and were met by Vanessa Tomasselli, Senior Group Executives, MSC Cruises, who had arranged for them to visit the ship and for the drawing presentation to take place.

We were taken aboard the ship just before 11:00, where we  were directed to the ship’s atrium and reception. The ship’s hostess then introduced herself to us and we began to tour MSC Lirica, exploring her numerous on board facilities throughout her 9 passenger decks. We were even lucky enough to view a small number of passenger cabins too, which were quite spacious and pleasant.

At approximately 11:45 we were personally escorted to the ship’s atrium by Vanessa Tomasselli, Senior Group Executives, MSC Cruises, whilst the Travel Agents continued their tour of the ship’s upper decks with the ship’s hostess. They awaited in the atrium by the ship’s main reception whilst the Captain made his way down from the navigation bridge to meet them.

A short moment later, I was met by the Captain and was given the opportunity to officially present his brand new especially assigned drawing of MSC Lirica to the Captain personally. The ship’s on board photographer was also there to capture the meeting and presentation too!

The Captain was delighted with my drawing and showed quite an interested. In fact, he was so enthusiastic and generally interested that we took the chance to show him one of our other drawing which we had assigned of MSC Cruises’ newest ship, MSC Divina which is due to enter service in May 2012.

In return for our drawing, the Captain presented me with a splendid model of MSC Magnifica, another MSC Cruises’ vessel and a fantastic book, ‘Cruising In Style’. What a lovely surprised and how kind!

Once the presentation was complete, Vanessa Tomasselli, Senior Group Executives, MSC Cruises then escorted us to ‘The Lirica Lounge’, where they joined the Travel Agents on board for a video presentation, which was then followed by a Q&A session, where snacks and refreshments were available. This gave the visitors the chance to ask any question they might have about the ship of MSC Cruises in general, whilst learning more about the company and what it has to offer guests on board.

Both of the groups of visitors where then invited to enjoy lunch on board MSC Lirica in one of the ship’s on board restaurants, ‘La Bussola’. Lunch was then followed by Tea & Coffee in ‘The Beverly Hills Bar’ adjacent to the restaurant where their lunch was served.

We were then escorted to reception to collect the photographs which had been printed from the official drawing presentation earlier that afternoon. The photographs are truly fantastic and we were delighted to be presented with so many of them too!  Visitors then disembarked MSC Lirica, after a truly wonderful time aboard.

Photo Gallery