gerryuk

If you think you are not getting good service you cannot go to reception and ask them to remove the daily charge, as it is part of the contract.

The port in Gran Canaria is right in the city centre. The nearest beach is about 10 minutes walk from the port, but its only a small beach next to the marina, mainly used by locals. If you walk through the city in a straight line you will come to Las Canteras beach which is one of the best city beaches in the world. Next to the port entrance there is the bus station, bus 30 will get you to Maspalomas beach in about 1 hour. Maspalomas with its sand dunes is one of the greatest beaches in Europe. Maspalomas beach Las Canteras beach

I book on UK site and get the option to pay balance on the website as shown in my earlier post.

On Costa you cannot skip your bill, you are charged daily. The emergency contact is in case you fall ill and they have somebody to contact on your behalf. In extremes they have somebody to contact if the ship sinks and the like. If you are medically evac from the ship then they will contact the name you have given to give details of location of hospital and the like. As to removing life support and the like, that is down to the next of kin, nothing to do with the cruise line and may not have anything to do with the emergency contact name you give.

Most cruise lines including luxury lines are not to strict on dress code on the first night of the cruise. As for Costa, they operate embarkation / disembarkation at most ports of call. So for many it will be their first night of the cruise even though you have been on the ship for days. As long as you don't turn up swim wear, don't worry about it.

Go on to the Costa website, click sign in, on the sign in page there is the option to pay your balance on the left hand side of the page.

If you just want the internet for emails and the like, then most ports have free internet when you leave the ship. There are obviously some exceptions, i have just come off Fortuna from Barcelona that included Istanbul. Of all the ports visited only Savona, Santorini and one other did not have free internet. In those cases places like McDonalds are your friend.

I would have thought that you can hand your luggage in as soon as you get to the port, as long as there are staff available at that time. If you have a long wait to board there are plenty of shops, bars etc directly across the road from the port in Kiel.

Did Toscana from Barcelona to Dubai and Dubai to Genoa. The ship and staff were top notch. On both sailings the ship was just over half full. Not sure what it would be like with more than 5000 pax on board, though.

If sailing solo and price is a factor, have you considered Costa? Price shown is internal (15 days) and for September this year.

I may be wrong but don't cruise ships have to have their bottom (below the waterline) cleaned. within so many days of entering a New Zealand port?

Lets not forget many people will sleep in late, many will have a afternoon snooze and the last thing they want is to be bombarded with the latest sales on the PA system. Leave the cabins well alone.

Why on earth would you want to hear announcements in your cabin? Is there not enough noise outside your cabin with the piped music and announcements? On many cruise ships the only place to escape the noise is your cabin.

From bitter experience if you are planning on going on a long cruise, only do it on a ship that you have been on before, and liked. I did Costa Toscana for 23 days from Barcelona to Dubai last November and did the return from Dubai to Europe in March. The Toscana was one of the best cruise ships i have ever been on, everything about it was just perfect. In April i boarded the Costa Firenze in Rio for 5 weeks to Kiel in Germany, it was a back to back. The Firenze was the worse cruise ship i have ever boarded, by a country mile. I will never do a long cruise again on a ship i have never been on and experienced before.

I am loyal to Costa and have done many of their ships, but i have to say this was the worst ship i have ever been on. I started in Rio and left in Kiel on Friday. The first part of the cruise from Rio to Savona was just awful. All the staff in the buffet looked utterly demoralised, not one of them smiled, not one of them said good morning (in any language) and their managers just walked about with their chins scrapping the floor. Unlike all the other Costa ships, the buffet was not set up in stations. On Firenze there was just one station to get everything and the queues were, on many days, just horrific. I would queue for 20 minutes just to get cereal then the same again to get cold milk at the coffee station. Then another 20 minutes to get warm breakfast then back to the queue to get coffee, awful experience. At lunch and dinner they served the food on plates no bigger than saucers for mugs. You literally had to beg for food. There were only 2 pools and hot tubs on the ship (perhaps not a Chinees thing) and when the weather was hot, they were very busy. There was no ware on the ship to escape the music unless you were in your cabin, but that's the same on all Costa ships. The bars were good and the entertainment was the usual Costa fare. Did not do any excursions but heard plenty of complaints. The internet was very expensive but you could get free internet in most ports. Best port calls for me on the entire cruise were Fortaleza in Brazil and Skagen in Denmark. The worst was Tarragona (over 1 hour walk to get out of the port) in Spain. Most port calls were not very long which limited the places you could go. Embarkation in Rio and Disembarkation in Kiel was chaos. I don't think there was over 3000 people on the entire cruise and this ship holds over 5k. How this ship would cope with full occupancy, is beyond me. I was on Toscana in March and that ship was 20 times better than this. I would not recommend Firenze to anybody.

Don't think you will loose any points this year, next year is another matter. I am silver and just got off Toscana, got a free bottle of wine and a free pizza but no gift.

On the Costa website, at the top of the page there is a phone number you can ring or get them to ring you back. If its a round trip there will usually be embarking and disembarking at each port call, that's my experience with Costa. Also check the cruise on the Costa site you are interested in, then check the same cruise on other Costa sites around the world. A typical cruise from Dubai to Barcelona may be available on the UK site but on the French site it may be Dubai to Savona, yet its the same cruise. You may find the locations you are interested in on another Costa website, other than the site in your location. Costa do let you book on their sites abroad, that's been my experience.

Don't most cruise lines put kettles in rooms if the cruise starts from the UK, even if they don't on other itinerary's?

Costa is defiantly a Italian cruise line catering for Italians, MSC is far more European. I did Toscana from Barcelona to Dubai in November and have just returned on the return voyage back to Europe from Dubai. The vast majority of the customers are Italians, however there are plenty of English speakers on board and all the crew speak English. I have done Costa Fascinosia and the Diadema a number of times and again there are plenty of English speakers on board, but the vast majority are Italians. Perhaps, before you booked you should have done some research on Costa. There will have been plenty of clues on these boards regarding the language on Costa ships. You say that they need to stop English speakers from booking their cruises, utter nonsense. Many English speakers who travel with Costa, travel for the Italian experience and many of them like myself are repeat customers.

Just received this email from Costa regarding points.

Barcelona to Dubai, on that trip the casino was open every night. The ship then did round trips around the AUE, don't know if the casino was open. Doubt Costa would do this if they had to close the casino. Will be back on the Toscana end of this week from Dubai to Genoa.

Costa Toscana, although big is a beautiful ship.

Always remember your safety. If on ship excursions, there is generally safety in numbers. I do not do ship excursions as a rule, but some ports, particularly in South America, i would not want to get of the ship and do my own thing.. Don't know how safe, ports in Mexico are though. Remember if you leave the ship on your own, it will not wait for you if you are late back for whatever reason. It will wait if you are on an excursion.

I did Toscana from Barcelona to Dubai in November, will be doing the return in a couple of weeks. I know there is a free shuttle bus in Abu Dhabi, from the port to the main shopping mall. The Toscana will be in Dubai port for 3 nights when i board, do you know if there is a free shuttle bus in Dubai port?

There is a free shuttle bus from the ship to the port entrance at Civitavecchia. From there its a 10 minute walk (straight walk no turning corners) to the train station. The train to the Vatican (direct, no changes) takes around 50 minutes and costs around 4 / 5 euros. The station at the Vatican is called Roma S Pietro. From there is a 10 minute walk to the Vatican, just follow the dome in the distance. Don't buy train tickets in advance as you will have to catch the train listed. There is a ticket office and machines in the station. The Basilica is free (unless you want to go up the dome) but go early to avoid the the masses. The Sistine Chapel is in the Vatican Museum and is not free. To avoid the masses, buy tickets online to your smart phone. Its a 20 / 30 minute walk from the Basilica to the Museum entrance. You can walk from the Vatican to the Colosseum in under 1 hour. My ship arrived at 08.00 and had to be back on board at 17.30, everything you ask is doable doing it yourself, unless there are mobility issues.