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First timer on Costa from the perspective of a suite guest


Laurin612
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Hello everyone! My family and I are back from our Land of the

Vikings cruise on the lovely Costa Favolosa.

 

I will add to this review later and include some pics, but I thought I'd start now.

 

As I mentioned previously, we booked a suite (7291) back in November, before the new suite benefits were announced. We were really excited to hear on the Costa forum here that there were additional valuable benefits being included starting in June. My husband and I both called Costa prior to the cruise because we received nothing from Costa about these new benefits and they were not reflected on our paperwork. We were assured that they would make a notation on our booking and we would have the new suite benefits.

 

When we boarded and went to our room, our cards only showed the WATERUSA package and the bartender told us he did not see anything about a drink package on our card, so we had to sign for our first round of drinks. My husband went to Guest Services to get it sorted and was told they would correct it that night. He went back to the pool bar and told the bartender what we was told and the bartender said he would keep our bar slips to the side until the situation was fixed. We then went to a kiosk to register our credit card and there was a helpful Guest Services clerk helping people with the kiosk. My husband mentioned our issue to her and she immediately took his card and went into the office to look into it. About ten minutes later she returned with new cards for all four of us reflecting that we had the Intenditore beverage package. We had no issues after that. We did, however, find ourselves wondering whether the other suite guests actually received the beverage package they were entitled to!

 

Our assigned dining room was Club Favolosa, one of the "pay" restaurants. It is on Deck 11 at the back of the ship and had a dining area on each side of the ship, separated by a buffet/salad bar area that was in operation for breakfast and lunch. Probably 40 tables in the whole place. We really enjoyed the peace and quiet in that restaurant, and the service was excellent. The food was MUCH better than we had expected, but that may be because it was the pay restaurant. We found the lunch and dinner menu to be quite seafood heavy--on some days almost every option was fish or had seafood of some sort in it, much to the dismay of my seafood hating daughter. Grilled beef filets with bearnaise sauce were always available, so that was often her "go to". One day we had an afternoon excursion and had had a later breakfast so we decided to check out the buffet. It was PACKED, frenetic and had few seats, but we grabbed some food and ate by the pool. I hope it doesn't sound elitist, but we were happy to be back in our serene Club Favolosa bubble after that experience.

 

Our suite benefits included unlimited use of the room minibar. The kids were thrilled with the Pringles chips, Kit Kat and Bounty bars, as well as the Red Bull. I really only drank the Pepsi Light and bottled water, but my husband also enjoyed the Tuborg beer. Although we had use of a butler, we didn't utilize him except to specify what we wanted more of in the minibar. We didn't use room service at all, but it was indeed free.

 

Regarding other cruisers, I would estimate that at least 50% were Italian. Then German, French, Spanish and Danish. We only encountered one other couple who were native English speakers--and they said the same about us! It was a strange experience for us at first, but we got used to it quickly. We were very impressed that so many of Costa's staff is multilingual. We had no language issues with any staff.

 

The Teen Club was a bust. They no longer have a designated club area, so they just meet up in the disco at 10:30 and for occasional sports games on the ship. Our son only found one teen (a German boy) who spoke some English so after the first day or two he didn't bother going. He did spend quite a bit of time in the sports court dazzling people with his basketball/dunking skills. [emoji28]Staff from the Teen Club offered to allow my 18 year old daughter to participate if she wanted, but she didn't. She will be heading off to college in August, so it was actually nice to spend so much time as a family. On our Carnival cruises we barely saw the kids except for excursions and meals because they spent so much time with their new teen club friends.

 

More later. Jet lag is hitting me hard! *yawn*

Edited by Laurin612
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Great review, we have never cruised Costa looking into a suite for 10 days. Were you able to order full breakfast to yiu room? Any particular suite you would recommend ? We have looked at Pamaroma for the huge balcony looking at the Deliziosa

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Great review, we have never cruised Costa looking into a suite for 10 days. Were you able to order full breakfast to yiu room? Any particular suite you would recommend ? We have looked at Pamaroma for the huge balcony looking at the Deliziosa

 

 

There was a menu you could leave on your door for continental breakfast, coffee, etc., but you could also order full breakfast items through the TV ordering system.

 

This was our first time on Costa, so I am not really able to recommend a particular suite. Ours was just a regular suite and located midship a few doors down from the glass elevators. We all thought it was a great location.

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There was a menu you could leave on your door for continental breakfast, coffee, etc., but you could also order full breakfast items through the TV ordering system.

 

This was our first time on Costa, so I am not really able to recommend a particular suite. Ours was just a regular suite and located midship a few doors down from the glass elevators. We all thought it was a great location.

 

Thanks very much 😊

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Thanks for the mini-review Lauren612!

Glad you were able to sort out the AI drink package issue so quickly. Growing pains for Costa since this is such a new suite perk I'm sure.

So you weren't able to utilize the Club Favolosa for all meals?? Just breakfast and lunch?

Did you go to the main dining room for dinner or?? How was that experience?

What about the preferred seating at the theater-any chance to use this perk?

Sorry to hear the teens club(s) didn't work for your children..

Thanks for the info all the same!!

tnt10

Edited by tnt10
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Thanks for the mini-review Lauren612!

 

Glad you were able to sort out the AI drink package issue so quickly. Growing pains for Costa since this is such a new suite perk I'm sure.

 

So you weren't able to utilize the Club Favolosa for all meals?? Just breakfast and lunch?

 

Did you go to the main dining room for dinner or?? How was that experience?

 

What about the preferred seating at the theater-any chance to use this perk?

 

Sorry to hear the teens club(s) didn't work for your children..

 

Thanks for the info all the same!!

 

tnt10

 

 

Our designated dining room was Club Favolosa, so all of our dining room meals were there- breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was wonderful! Club Favolosa for suite guests is open seating so you could go whenever they were open.

 

In the theater, the first two rows of the center section were marked as reserved for Suite and Diamond Pearl guests. We got a seat there every time except the night that they had an aerialist show--there was only one reserved row that night.

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Also, ice cream was NOT available other than from buying it from a cart by the pool or from a cart by the Chocolate Bar later in the day. Prices were reasonable, I suppose. €1.75 for one scoop up to €4.50 for four scoops. That said, I did not see even one single person either purchasing or eating an ice cream cone during the entire cruise! I'm sure some people bought them, but I didn't personally see it.

 

We looked at the menu from the Duca d'Orleans dining room one evening and it was different than the Club Favolosa menu. Items from Club Favolosa menu could be purchased in the main dining room for a fee €10 for the filet, €5 for grilled shrimp and €5 for the desserts.

Edited by Laurin612
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Also, ice cream was NOT available other than from buying it from a cart by the pool or from a cart by the Chocolate Bar later in the day. Prices were reasonable, I suppose. €1.75 for one scoop up to €4.50 for four scoops. That said, I did not see even one single person either purchasing or eating an ice cream cone during the entire cruise! I'm sure some people bought them, but I didn't personally see it.

 

We looked at the menu from the Duca d'Orleans dining room one evening and it was different than the Club Favolosa menu. Items from Club Favolosa menu could be purchased in the main dining room for a fee €10 for the filet, €5 for grilled shrimp and €5 for the desserts.

 

Thanks for the clarifications Laurin612. So, the Club Favolosa was now a "Suite" dining room? Were there others there "For a fee" or was it strictly for suite guests only?

What was the Duca d'Orleans dining room? Was that another specialty dining room? (I thought the main dining room was called the Albatros dining room-has that changed?)

 

All in all, did you and yours have a good time? Would you go again knowing what you now know?

 

Thanks for all the info you're providing...

tnt10

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Restaurant Albatros id the MDR on the Deliziosa.

 

On the Favolosa, the main MDRs are, Restaurant Duca d’Orléans (aft) and Restaurant Duca di Borgogna (midships).

 

The Club Favolosa Restaurant, is not only for suite passengers Cost Club Pearl Diamond can aslo eat breakfast, lunch and dinner there. Cost Club Pearl and Pearl Gold get a free dinner there, also other passengers can go there as fee payers.

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Club Favolosa was not just for suite guests, but it is the designated dining room for suite guests. I'm not sure if it is the designated dining room for others, but according to G.M.T. it is for Diamond Pearl guests.

 

There were people paying for breakfast, lunch and dinner there. One German gentleman seemed very surprised after having seated himself that he would have to pay 5 Euros for breakfast, but he agreed to pay it. It was 5 Euros for breakfast, 10 for lunch and 28 (up from 25, apparently) for dinner.

 

We had a great time and felt very spoiled (and a bit out of our element--this was our first time in a full-on Suite). We all joked that this cruise has ruined us for future cruises because we usually just book a balcony quad room--no free minibar, no free drink package, no private dining room, no reserved seats at shows. :D We've already checked the pricing for suites on upcoming Costa cruises and they have significantly raised the prices accordingly. :rolleyes:

 

Some additional observations:

 

Embarkation

 

We were surprised how simple and quick the embarkation process was with Costa. You check in and they simply verify your contact information, passport information and, if you are not a European passport holder they take your passport until the 2nd to last day of the cruise. My husband was a bit concerned about that, but I told him that was normal as I had previously learned about it here in the Costa forum. ;) Then you are off to the ship where they take your photo from a handheld device. Once aboard the ship, you are directed to Deck 9. Once the rooms are ready, you can go to your stateroom and pick up your room keys.

 

Drinks

 

The regular coffee was much better than the coffee we had had previously on Carnival, Princess and Royal Caribbean. That said, since we had an included beverage package more often than not we ordered cappuccino.

 

Re the drinks package, from the bartenders' reactions when they saw our cards, we all got the impression that very few people get the Intenditore package. They all made a point to say, "Wow! You have the best package! You can get pretty much anything." or other similar comments. Several made sure to point out the premium liquors that we could order.

 

Thanks for the tip on the Baileys Banana Colada--that became my daughter's and my "go to" drink. And we improved it by having the bartenders add a shot of Bacardi 8. Otherwise, it was too weak with just a shot of Bailey's.

 

My 14 year old son loved being able to order "cold chocolate" from the Chocolate Bar. He would order it and it would not really be cold, but sort of room temperature, so he would take it back to the room and put it in the mini bar fridge. It would thicken a bit and he would eat it cold. Very rich!

 

The Intenditore package was great and we were happy to have had it included for free as suite guests, but I could never justify paying $49 a day per person for it.

 

Food

 

As previously mentioned on the Costa forum, many menu items were marked with a #. We didn't notice until about halfway into the cruise what the # meant--that items had been previously frozen. We truly didn't notice and nothing seemed like a frozen dinner. We liked all of our dishes except my husband got one fish entree that he didn't like. Overall, we thought the food was quite good, but, again we were assigned to the "Pay" dining room, so I cannot comment on the food in the regular dining rooms. As I mentioned previously, we went to the buffet for one lunch and the food was OK--typical buffet fare, but there was something for everyone. Although we didn't eat any of the desserts on the buffet, there was a wide selection and they looked really good. In contrast, on Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas the only dessert options on the lunch buffet was gelatin, some kind of jelly roll with cream and chocolate chip cookies. EVERY DAY.

 

DRESS

 

We were really surprised (and happy) at how casually dressed most people were, even on formal/gala night. We were probably the most dressed up people in our dining room on formal night and my husband and son were wearing dress shirts, ties and dress pants and my daughter and I wore dresses. We are not big fans of having to dress up, so we were glad we could dress more casually at dinner the rest of the cruise. The theme nights were White (dress all in white) and Italian (dress in red, green and white). We weren't aware, so we didn't bring anything in these colors.

 

TV in room

 

OK, I don't want to give the impression that we spend a significant amount of time watching television in our stateroom, because we don't. However, we were a bit surprised that there were only 3 English speaking channels and only 2 of those were working. One was a Costa information channel and the other was Eurovision news. So we were kept well apprised of the bombing in Turkey and Brexit, but that was about it. It was the same for French, German, Spanish and Portuguese--3 channels each. There were 40+ Italian channels! Also, it cost 9 Euros to watch a movie on demand in your room. So we didn't.

 

Feel free to ask if you have specific questions.

 

Laurin

Edited by Laurin612
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POOLS/HOT TUBS

 

We were surprised that there was no designated "Adults Only" area on the Favolosa. Apparently, there is a "No one under 16 allowed" rule in ALL hot tubs, which was kind of nice because on Carnival we've had kids snorkeling in the hot tubs! Around the main pool the security guards were strictly enforcing the "No one under 16" rule. Luckily, our 14 year old son is almost 6 feet tall and very athletic/muscular so he was able to get away with using the hot tub with us. I think the 16 age minimum is a bit much--I would say by age 12 most kids would know not to snorkel or splash in the hot tubs. I will say the hot tubs seemed much cleaner without young children in them. :p

 

The only pool that seemed to have many people using it was the covered main/midship pool. Very few people used the others, mostly because the weather was generally 50-70 fahrenheit most of the time and they are not covered.

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How about the spa use?

 

Was that included as a suite perk as promised?

 

Thanks again for all the info!

 

tnt10

 

 

Sorry about that! Yes, we were able to use the spa but it was only a one day pass. It was nice while it lasted, though! The only restriction was that it couldn't be used on a sea day.

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Sorry about that! Yes, we were able to use the spa but it was only a one day pass. It was nice while it lasted, though! The only restriction was that it couldn't be used on a sea day.

 

That's very disappointing.

Thanks,

tnt10

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