Stefan_Varong

12 hours ago, BVILady said:

US-site only shows including April 2022. It only shows the World Cruise January 2023 as a later cruise.

I checked it already before answering - still strange!

According to the site I linked above not. Other EU countries restrict Brazil or India right now.

AstraZeneca has EMA approval, so it is fine for travelling to Spain and the rest of the EU. Just please note that restictions can be made at any time for travelling from countries where mutations are found that are considered to be dangerous.

I was booked on NCL Dawn for Greek Islands from Venice in October 2021 - cancelled yesterday.

For February 2022 on Costa Luminosa from Buenos Aires to Fireland, back along the East coast, the Amazonas up to Manaus and back to Barcelona - cancelled, rebooked on the same cruise in 2023.

And as replacement for South America in January 2022 on the Costa Deliziosa around the world.

The EU travel ban is more and more lifted and member states are not forced to be as strict as the EU rules are, Costa as an Italian registered line with Italian flagged ships needs to fulfil Italian law. Important is that this travel ban isn’t mainly based on nationality (EU citizens additional rights might give some extra possibilities), but the place where you stayed is most important. Pandemic issues are not related to passports! Since for example Spain allows already now everybody fully vaccinated to enter it would be enough to stay two weeks in Spain before boarding a Costa ship under Italian law. Italy itself has no rules for vaccinated persons yet, but I expect them to be introduced soon.
 
For more information see the official EU site https://reopen.europa.eu/en/

On 6/23/2021 at 9:09 AM, Wiggster said:

Well, my Costa Fascinosa Cruise from Barcelona 11 November was cancelled last week as my tour agent advised that Costa were delaying cruising till next year..

My Luminosa cruise to South America early 2022 was cancelled two weeks ago and today I got the confirmation for my rebooking at same conditions for 2023. Better than their conditions offered for 2023, but no further discount. Brazil seems to be the common limiting factor.

On 6/23/2021 at 1:23 PM, BVILady said:

Have booked summer-cruises for my family for 2022, not on Costa since they are still not showing any cruises for summer 2022.

This is strange, on costacruise.eu I can see and book up to April 2023.

18 hours ago, drsel said:

That was on purpose, he actually meant it!

It's quite true also

Well, it was both, mistake and purpose. When I was typing I recognised what I was writing instead of hospitality desk. I decided that hostility desk was too much to the point to correct it.

The Costa app is free to use, data traffic that remains on the ship itself (bookings, menus, communication with other guests and so on) is free. You don’t need a sim card for that, this is done through the ship’s wifi connection. Sending mails, reading facebook and other internet use leaving the ship is not for free, you can buy either packages for x GB data or a social media package (mycosta.com). Some I travelled with, who had no relevant traffic, used free wifi somewhere on shore. BTW internet on the ship is along an often pretty bad satellite connection - from a moving vessel. Seen the price ask your son to disable automatic updates, otherwise you run out of data without knowing why (I had an automatic windows update once). A sim card you need for calling and sms, for data only when you have no wifi. Emergency calls generally work even if no sim card is in the phone. Purchase of a sim card depends on you, whether you need that and if it would offer something additional value for you. Not all countries allow the use of foreign sim cards (India for example), the networks just reject them.

On 6/16/2021 at 8:32 PM, BVILady said:

I think you need to be a resident there, at least that is what it says on the US and Caribbean site.

Not that sure. In 2017 I sat at a table with a Dutch lady, who’s ticked was bought in the USA. I booked Costa cruises through their “rest of Europe” pages (as applicable regionally for my residence), several times in Germany and right now for the first time on their Dutch website. The country of residence was automatically changed to Netherlands, while all the other data remained correct. This was a drop down menu and countries from all over the world were available as choice and easily corrected.

On 6/15/2021 at 10:14 PM, BVILady said:

The restrictions of the country you are boarding at will probably be the deciding factor when it comes to your cruise. Seems like the countries permitted change on a daily/weekly basis.

EU law applies and this week the decision was taken to lift the travel ban on US citizens and other countries where the situation improved, will be in force soon. Costa right now still links a document that only allows those living in EU / EEA / UK on board, depending on the local situation with or even without PCR test (swab tests for everybody while boarding). From July 1st we will have at least within the EU the possibility to travel freely for all being vaccinated completely, things will change further.

On 5/28/2021 at 8:36 PM, Stockjock said:

I wonder if anyone has had a good or bad experience with them?  Also, for those who have sailed on both Costa and MSC, any opinions or comparisons you would like to share would be helpful.

To begin with the reviews that seem to be very divided, some are really happy, others deadly upset. Every cruise line is influenced by its home market of course. The only time I sailed on an UK ship it was really taking into the account the special wishes of British public. Understand me well, I had a great time, just remarked the differences. The same does Costa in Italian style. That Americans are used to a different culture is understandable, but there is no reason to say that Costa would be bad for being different. True, there is no free pizza any more and ice-cream in the MDR only if on the menu, who has no packet gets even no free water in the MDR (USA bookings have “water USA” package as an option for free to serve that market better). True is that English native speakers are not the largest group on their ships, but English is for communication aboard even more important than Italian. Although I am no native speaker I always address to the staff in English, because it is a must for all of them and for me way easier than with my ten words Italian or hoping to meet someone who speaks something else I do as well. Of course announcements are made in five, sometimes even six languages, English is always among them. But I also read reviews that especially that was a problem to travellers, this is extremely egocentric of course. It is all about things one could know in advance and should not come as surprise. The same about the 10 € service charge, which is only included in the fare in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is not too hard to calculate it in advance.
 
And to compare MSC with Costa. I sailed Costa a couple of times, MSC only once. I understand that problems can and will occur, just with MSC it happened both way too often and staff showed no interest to solve them. To start with I had a toilet that didn’t flush by lack of water. Reception was not available on the phone, after queuing in person to report they asked me what they could do in this question. Calling a technician perhaps? For immigration to Israel we had to go to the theatre, where immigration officers handled the process. For getting my passport with the immigration form I had to show my board card and according to the cabin number on it someone from MSC staff gave me my passport. No complicated thing - one should think. After my visit at the immigration desk I wanted to bring my passport to my cabin. I stood in front of my door and the key card didn’t work. Was I at the wrong door? No. Still didn’t work, I looked at the card and I wasn’t only at a cabin that was not printed onto the card, I was on the wrong deck and my name was also changed into Anastasia! So if I had no rapid gender change I got the wrong card back from the MSC woman that gave me my passport. Down again to the theatre, but this young lady was not interested in the case, she sent me to the hostility desk. I had to wait for 45 minutes to get a new card, a long time for someone, who might have had the idea to use my card for searching my cabin for valuables. One morning in the buffet restaurant I wanted to have a fast breakfast before an excursion and after taking the first thing I thought, why does the plate have such a strange reflection? It was greasy and it was not the only one. Staff told me to take that or to leave it. I did the latter. I spoke to a Dutch couple the last day and they had exactly the same experience about lacking hygiene in the buffet as I had. But worst was that MSC invented something great to arrange the way to leave the ship in Haifa. I had an independent excursion and those without a MSC excursion were called in the diary to wait in the atrium. I thought fine, I’d take a coffee there and would leave when possible, so I was early close to a staircase that was shut-off by a rope. While waiting MSC pushed more and more people into the atrium. Who was “caught” in the staircases or lifts was pressed into the atrium as well. Way too many people on way too little space. Parents started to lift their children onto their shoulders and still more people were taken out of the lifts and pressed at the opposite side into the atrium. I am huge, strong and not easy to scare, but I looked for a way to flee out in case a panic would start somewhere in the way too much overcrowded place. It was just luck that everybody stayed calm and anybody was hurt. A group commented this by shouting “Costa, Costa!” through this MSC vessel. From MSC customers service on shore I never had a reaction on my complaints.
 
I never even thought about sailing with MSC again. If with Costa occurs a smaller issue, something is broken or what ever, it is solved, people are engaged in what they are doing and try to keep the guests happy. On all my Costa cruises I had it once that I reported an unpleasant situation with someone from the excursion desk, while I regularly include in surveys the names of those, who did a splendid job. In about 12 times more nights at Costa in total hadn’t so many issues as in one MSC cruise and none of them was even close to be dangerous.
 
I did about half of my cruises with Costa, the others I booked with different lines. They offer great value - especially for solo travellers - and who enjoys staying in Italy, loves real Italian food (not spaghetti with meat-balls) doesn’t make a mistake by booking Costa. In October I’ll be on a short cruise with NCL and for January 22 I am booked for 127 days on Costa.

Hi everyone! I am a sole gay traveller and booked this cruise a couple of days ago. Anyone else on board?

On 2/22/2019 at 9:35 AM, jerseylily said:

Anyone know when Costa started charging for reserved sun loungers in a quiet zone? 

I don't know, but quite a couple of years ago I saw it first, but not seen it on my cruise next month. So it might be on selected ships only. I didn't do, but have seen these zones. Positive as there are still so many people blocking deck chairs with towels early in the morning and you have one in any case, negative as you need to pay for.

Hello, gay man, solo travelling on this cruise. Anybody else?

1 hour ago, Magnelasagne said:

But think it sounds strange if you can have the package under Pio Gusto and only pay 2-3$ the times you want a coctail. Guess noone would bother to upgrade then 

The price difference between the packages Brindiamo and Più gusto is about that if you book them individually: it is 3 € per person and night. So it is no big difference anyway, not about twice the price as the top package for famous brands e.g.

23 minutes ago, Magnelasagne said:

and upgraded to the itenditore package. For me it is an easy choice as I want to order whatever whenever

Sure, it is all depending on the personal taste. If you really like more expensive brands and compare the Costa packages to some other lines Intenditore might be the best choice. Everybody enjoying a cappuccino once a week and bound to a few glasses of water every day shouldn’t take a package at all. For my personal habits Brindiamo would cover most, but seen the very small price difference I generally take the Più gusto package to enlarge the possibilities according to my wishes concerning just a few cocktails I like, while Intenditore for me personally is something, what wouldn’t pay out. As everything everywhere else available I use in my cabin perhaps one bottle of water a week - if I use that much. But as I said before: it is all depending on the personal taste.

Yes, cocktails are a bit more expensive than for example long drinks - if you buy them one by one. But attention: the days that the package is linked to the price are gone! You have for example drinks in the most expensive Intenditore package only, that are even a bit cheaper than some others of the Più gusto package, what is included or not can be found by colour codes only. Main difference between Brindiamo and Più gusto that there is no cocktail at all in the Brindiamo package. In every case you buy something what is considered to be above your package you need to pay the full price plus service charge, although you are entitled to unlimited drinks - just not this special one. £ 88 is the equivalent of about 10 or 11 cocktails during the entire voyage.

I wouldn’t even send a container with MSC! Done MSC once and from handing back the wrong cruise card (my door didn’t open, am I at the right door? No, not even on the right deck and since when is my name Anastasia?) over dirty plates in the buffet (“so what” was the reaction from the staff) up to really dangerous situation by pressing more and more people into the already overly full atrium, where people already were unable to stand. It would have been sufficient that one got in panic. I am no anxious person, but in my job I need to pay attention to escape routes and know what mustn’t happen in any time. In that case I did what I never did before: I looked where to escape to in case of an eventuality and especially where no masses of people would follow. MSC? Never again!

On 1/27/2019 at 4:27 PM, Dancer Bob said:

I have shareholder OBC which can't be used for service charge.

Bob, indeed, you're right. Today I got mine with the information "I would like to remind you that the Carnival Shareholder Benefit is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash and cannot be used to pay Casino Charges or Service Charges".

9 hours ago, tim716 said:

The credit limit of the Count of Monte Cristo? ;)

Would make things easy of course, but no need to. If you have spent 1,000 € your card should have a limit of 1,000 € (no problem of course if it is higher, but no need to).

Preapprovals are made to ensure your card will bear the bill, for nothing else. Worst case happened to me, when my bank's system detected a card fraud, while I was abord a ship and the entire card was blocked. I went to the hospitality service to discuss the problem, but it had no effect at all to the preapprovals and my bill was paid as it should.

The only situation that more might get blocked than the actual bill is if you book something that doesn't happen and will be cancelled from your definitive bill, relase of a preapproval takes a couple of days, while putting them on your card happens immedeately.

Generally drinking package and service charge (if to be paid on board) are blocked directly, excursions when tickets are issued (a couple of prebooked tickets you might find in your cabin on arrival, perhaps even all). If you buy anything aboard it will be preapproved at the moment you buy...

I've never seen any regulation that a shareholder OBC mustn't be used for the service charge. Up to now I just got a notification that my claim is approved - without any restrictions. I usually register my credit card aboard and the balance is taken from the card. Last time and with my cruise over a couple of weeks the service charge had already been included into the price anyway, so it doesn't appear on my bill at the end of the voyage.

Debit cards are not accepted by Costa, but nobody knows whether a credit card is linked to a credit or is prepaid. The difference is just that you either need a spending limit high enough or enough money on that card, both nobody knows - except you and the issuer of course. My bank allows even to transfer money onto my credit card as well to expend spending limits above my credit limit - and even pays a relative high interest, although in these days even that is...

Well, rules and enforcement are not always the same:

No drinks and food during embarkation. Once I had half a bottle of water and because there was no waste bin I put it just aside. Costa staff attended me that I forgot my bottle. No alcohol from the shore aboard. On Martinique I bought rum - as being on a TA and Martinique being within the EU quite a coupleof bottles, also as presents. Packed in the bags with the name of the destille on it they went through the scanner and I took them to my cabin. According to the rules I would have gotten them back before debarkation only. Anyway, I have my drinking packages and opened the first bottle at home.

I never tried to order a bottle of wine to my cabin, but it shouldn't be a problem. As a club member I got already a free bottle to my cabin. You only mustn't take open drinks to your cabin (package drinks are not allowed in the cabin and not handed out in bottles). Just as you may take a bottle of water to your cabin, you also may buy a bottle of wine and take it to your cabin.

All for your health is allowed, contact Costa as soon as possible (I know, they are not very responsive) and what they don't provide anyway take with you. Your waiter in the MDR will take care of your dietary needs, I had a guest at my table with multiple problems once, who got a personal menu with remarks what could be ordered and what not. Even if not about your health, they try their best to please you, I remember a guest every evening getting an extra large portion spaghetti - nothing else. Taking rare meat to your cabin would cause a problem I suppose and would be pretty understandable. But originally packed industrial products not needing any cooling should be fine, especially if you have a note of your doctor.

Club members get a small OBC, I think it is 20 € for Perla, not grown above that yet. And shareholders (at least 100 shares) get an OBC depending on the length of the cruise. Reminds me to apply for mine. Others you might get on occasion (I got one for delayed bording, since the ship wasn't in port on time), but I don't know about other regular programms.

Generally you have the choice between cash and card. But regarding an Italian law you mustn't pay any more than 999,99 € cash. If paying cash you need to pay a deposit, as I know correctly at least 150 €. If you spent about that amount you will have to add funds to keep your card working. Separately booked drinking packages are taken at the beginning of your cruise, the rest - including service charge, if not already included in your fare - on daily basis. Cash will only be returned if the deposit has been higher than your actual spending and you did not use a credit card for amounts above the legal limit.

If you use your credit card they'll block an amount. If your spending is higher they will block more. But it is never higger than what you booked before your cruise plus your additional costs aboard. On a longer cruise you can get a row of approvals, but at the end only one amount will be booked from your card (I can see all approvals and bookings by internet banking). Regularly you won't have a higer amount blocked from your card than to be paid, of course for example an excursion blocked from your card, that didn't take place by any reason, will not be billed at the end and that amount will be released. There won't be amounts blocked plus amounts billed, this is not how credit cards work and if somebody makes such a kind of error this is not your fault, and as you said that double amount won't be approved by your bank anyway.

At the end of your cruise you will get a bill to your cabin, but if you used your card you don't need to do anything as long as the bill is correct, you just leave the ship. Remaining cash you need to collect in person, time and place will be announced. From the TV in your cabin you can regard your account in real time whenever you want, if there might be a problem just report it.

By the way: you also might buy a prepaid card and wire there the money needed. I don't know whether you have them in Russia, but you can get them from another country as well, there are companies accepting customers from all over the world. It just needs to be a physical card, not a virtual one, as you need to put it into a machine aboard to link it to your cruise card(s). I use one for some internet transactions, never have a lot of money on it, but as long as it is no payment service offered by a reputated bank or pay pal I protect my regular cards this way.

On 10/1/2018 at 1:37 PM, Chris Holland said:

It will depend on your type of trip, but you should carefully check if it's possible to stick to the e-visa. As the trip also stops in Sri Lanka and the Maldives you will re-enter the country and that means you will need to apply for a double or multiple entry visa. This is not possible with the e-visa, only with a normal visa.

From the governmental website: " Instructions for e-Visa ... 8. The validity of e-Visa will be 60 days from the date of arrival in India. Double entry is permitted on e-Tourist Visa and e-Business Visa. Triple entry will be permitted on e-Medical Visa." You may apply for 3 visa in one year. Besides 26 airports you can arrive through the following ports only: Cochin, Goa, Mangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, but leaving through any checkpoint is permitted.

I hope that this information is practically usable at all. When cruising from Italy to India in 2017 the e-visa was just extended as quoted, but Costa told that we need a multi-entry from the Indian embassy (got one but single entry would have been sufficient according to the embassy as my journey ended with the first visit of India although visiting two ports). Obviously there were people with e-visa aboard as we had quite a lot of announcements for those travelling with e-visa. As far as I know Mumbai seaport had none of the needed e-Visa facilities at all those days.