Ibis

We have just received boarding passes and final documents for next Wednesday 15 May boarding Fascinosa in Marseille and very surprised to see a boarding time of 14:30 with the notation it was important to follow this instruction. We had planned to arrive between 13:00 and 13:30. Does anyone know how imperative it is to arrive no earlier than the stated time? Obviously, we would not look forward to a long wait in the terminal, so if this is written in stone we would try to adjust our arrival time. Just can’t ever remember boarding so late but then this is our first Costa. Often, on other lines boarding times are a bit flexible so look forward to info from Costa veterans:-) Thanks in advance!

Keith, thanks for your reply. I think your guess of two formal nights is correct and I will email OBGS to verify. Also will mention our interest in Vintage Room reservations. We just made our specialty dinner reservations and the excitement mounts! Always love UmiUma and can’t wait to return to the Osteria. We are among those who think it is leaps and bounds above Prago! Thank you again😊

For the crossing from Las Palmas to Miami, I have just accessed the itinerary dress code on Crystal and it shows every night as resort casual. We are very surprised and disappointed there are no formal evenings scheduled on 12 night Transatlantic. Also surprising since this is the last segment of the World Cruise and passengers on board would already be prepared for formal evenings. Perhaps I missed previous conversation about this?? Do I remember this was mentioned earlier🤔 One other question, is it possible to reserve Vintage Room lunches or dinners before boarding? And for those currently on board, do you have any indication of what the passenger count might be on this segment from Las Palmas to Miami? Just wondering many World Cruisers are currently on board? Thanks in advance for any information 😄

Thank you very much for this interesting information!

Thanks so much! Hoping someone will have a more recent experience and can give us info on the availability of Franciacorta. Once again, thank you for your comments.

We look forward to boarding Serenity on May 27 in Las Palmas to Miami. Anyone else? Would love to have more reports here from those currently on board but we understand not everyone posts here whereas we are not on Facebook. In any case, counting the days😊

We are looking forward to our first Costa cruise departing Marseille on May 15. Just wondering if others who have cruised on Costa before remember seeing Franciacorta on any of the wine lists either for purchase by the glass or by the bottle. Franciacorta is good quality Italian sparkling wine produced in the Champagne method that comes from, you guessed it, the Franciacorta region of Italy 🙂 Thanks in advance for any information!

Yes, FetaCheese, that is the Champane that we referred to as being the only one available on the beverage package. Just our opinion, but if you are willing to spend the cost of the package we would say spend $10.00 more and buy a sort of decent bottle of the Jacquart instead. Everyone has their own preference and we enjoy hearing everyone’s opinion😊 In any case..Cheers!

Totally agree about asking and we did ask. Only sparkling wines in The Restaurant being offered are a rather low quality sweet Californian sparkling wine and a sweet German sparkling wine. In Manfredi’s we were offered a sparkling wine with a Viking label, also, in our opinion, below even just an average standard. We said no thank you to all three. We’ll ask again and see if anything else surfaces. I’m not surprised someone tipping the sommelier with cash early on in the cruise might just be offered other options, but what a pity that’s the way the game is played on Viking. We are just more comfortable knowing up front what is available to all of us, since Viking does advertise wine included at dinner.

Currently on board Star as well and we both agree with the OP that the wine selection currently being offered on board is very disappointing. First of all, the included wines, just in our opinion; others may disagree, are totally uninteresting. We asked to taste the included sparkling wines and found them both, one from Germany and one from California to be sweet and for us, undrinkable. If we had chosen the beverage package we would have access to only one of the three Champagnes offered on the list. It is the lowest price Champagne on the list and one we have never heard of before. We have been around a few years ;-). We are very glad we decided at the last minute to purchase a wine suitcase and we have brought our own bottles. There was a Jacquard Champagne in our mini fridge on arrival. We asked the room steward to remove the four mini bottles of liquor and all soft drinks as we don’t drink any of those and could those, since they are included, be substituted with a second bottle of Jacquard? The steward checked with his supervisor and the answer was a definite “no” but we could have one bottle of the included wine. We said no thank you. Seems Viking is making out well with us.. we drink none of their included beverages. We have cruised enough to understand that ship location can effect variety and availability but decent wines are available world wide. Having said that, there are cruise lines that manage to have plenty of reliable, decent stock on board, no matter their location; ie, Crystal always has plenty of the included Jacquard and Regent and Seabourn are not known to run out of their included Montaudon.

Many thanks for the helpful responses. As we are local, we can keep our plan to arrive around 12:15 without worries of flight delays. Does any one know if this cruise is fully booked? Thanks again!

That should read Star!

For Monday’s departure we were planning to arrive in the port around 12:15 to 12:30 but just noticed our confirmation mentions 1:00 PM. How firm is that? Should we delay our arrival in Port Everglades to avoid a long wait in the terminal or will boarding actually start earlier? Thanks for any information.

Thanks for your reply and so sorry about your Red Sea Cruise cancellation. We would still love to hear about a recent experience if there is anyone out there:-)

Very happy with Symphony and Serenity! And thrilled they are back😍. Our experience on Serenity in November 2023 was so far superior to any other cruise line it “makes you sorry for the rest”! No comparison and it was wonderful to be reunited with the amazing crew. It’s the people that make the difference. Eager to rejoin her in May😊