At7Seas

Today I read this as I am preparing for my own first world cruise next year. Here how I decided and why: To define first a question raised earlier: I want to circumvent the globe. I already did a number of grand voyages touching most continents, now it is time for something new. When I booked the 2022 edition, which was cancelled, the cruise should sail away from the same port as it where it should end. Just this won’t happen because different neighbouring ports will be used for embarkation and disembarkation. At least before and after the cruise I am booked in the same hotel. Of course a lot of things said here sound familiar. The number of sea days for example. Technically hard to avoid and I am as well ready to admit that days at sea are great to recover after intense visits. The question is how often you call a port and that you stay in the very most cases at least the entire day. Rushing around the globe with significantly more sea days than days in port does not appeal to me. I want to see the world. Starting and ending in Europe I regard as huge advantage, those living on other continents might see this quite different of course. Indeed, the price matters. Surprisingly enough also I can spend every Euro once only. If I have the choice to travel two times on a good level I really enjoy or to travel once at twice the price a little bit better I will travel twice. Generally I am willing to spend money, there are many other details to be considered, but I saw prices quite out of all proportions as well. I disagree with those who want as many things for free as possible - not only because no single item will be for free, it is just included in the fare - but mostly because included items can be in the end very expensive. Financially all depends on the grand total only. Just one example: I know how often I change clothes and can calculate how often I need to use the laundry service. I have now pre-booked at a value of 240 € and adding it to the price of the cruise is not really hard. And for this I will have everything washed, ironed and folded, which is not the case if I pay more for a ship with washing machines for guest use. Of course this calculation is possible with all the other items as well and I know both what I use aboard and my bills paid in the past. On the other side it doesn’t make sense paying for included items I would never use. The same is valid about packages, it is all a question of calculations. Important to me is value for money regarding the grand total. Yes, I agree, there are differences between American and European cruise lines, I just experienced differences in opposite to the posters before from the European point of view. I sailed besides with American mass market lines with those targeting only the UK and only the German speaking markets, as well as both the Swiss and Italian multi-language cruise lines. Perhaps I am too European and lived in too many countries, I just can’t understand that a crowd using several languages could be a problem. Finding a common language is no problem in most cases, often the solution is English. Quite obviously from what I wrote before I am not loyal to a single company, my needs need to be fulfilled and very important the ship needs to sail the region I want to visit - or in this case circumvent the globe. Already this reduces the possibilities a lot. Since I am not new to cruising I think I was well able to exclude companies for my world cruise without further looking at their offer and feeling comfortable with others. A very personal view of course. I for my part never use cabin service and despite I can’t remember that cabin service would have not been offered on any ship I sailed with, somebody mentioned this item as being important. Wishes and needs can be very different. I did compromise recently, and took the only cruise line that offered a cruise from Cape Town to Europe visiting the islands in the Indian Ocean. A huge mistake! A lot has been written about MSC. Never! Not only Americans have a problem with this line. MSC is the mistake I made recently, because no other line offered anything comparable. I was prepared for a low scale ferry standard and still was deeply disappointed. I sailed on the by far most run-down ship I ever had been on - and I sailed on much older ships as well. The oldest ship was 38 years old at the time I was sailing and she was perfectly maintained. It is the decision of the cruise line whether an old ship sails as comfortable classic ship or as a wreck. MSC decided not to maintain. Worst food ever, dinner talks were about what could be eatable at all. Not really the typical topic on a cruise during dinner. I never before returned so many dishes as being completely uneatable. Everybody complained and in the same sentence the ever-same excuse was heard: MSC is cheap. Everything went wrong and everything was my fault, regardless whether the information I got from the main office was simply not true (and never was), or MSC did not offer things that were available according to their website. Yes, the item is according to the website not available on cruises ending in China and it was my fault that I didn’t know that Venice is no longer in Italy, but in China now?!? Or the lies about the bureaucratic needs to get on a private excursions, just because MSC decided that a shuttle bus to move around within the port would be too expensive. It took me two hours to move the few hundred meters to the parking inside the port, just because I forwarded exactly this wrong information to the company I booked privately. The tour company did not apply for the permit to go to the quay, but showed the documentation MSC told, documents that allow to get to the parking inside the port, but not further onto the quay. Getting back aboard wasn’t easy as well. The car wasn’t allowed to bring me to the quay, walking was forbidden and security wanted that I use the shuttle bus - which was too expensive for MSC. All my fault of course. I could have booked an MSC excursion. An expensive suggestion! With a private car, driver and guide, all for me alone, I didn’t pay more than the MSC excursion was sold for, but saw all the things expressively excluded by MSC, they needed the time for bringing people half the time from one shop to the other. Generally MSC excursions were terribly overpriced. Aboard all day long high pressure to buy something, while entertainment was very limited - both in quality and quantity. Obviously many guests have cancelled the service charge regarding the circumstances aboard and after they were treated badly that MSC made it is really compulsory now, reduction or cancelling is no longer possible. And I was treated so badly so often by so many that I would have cancelled. BTW as far as I know it is the only cruise line that does not guarantee that the money collected through the service charge is distributed among the staff. That I was happy being finally able to leave the ship tells everything. I wouldn’t book their world cruise if it would be for free! Cunard also was mentioned several times. Sailing with a Queen around the globe sounded interesting to me on first glimpse only. Although I am a friend of cultivated dining (I know, others opposed exactly to this) the time involved - it was below 100 days for the 2022 world cruise I wanted to do originally - made it uninteresting. I will now travel an entire month longer! Also travelling as single does not make Cunard very attractive regarding the supplement involved. In the end I booked with Costa, because the total picture fits. I really like the itinerary that includes Easter Island, Australia, Japan and South Korea. Seven overnights, for the evening in Sydney I have already bought a ticket for the Opera House. The price is good - also for singles. They add 50%, which is compared to others quite little. Here I happily oppose an earlier comment. The single supplement indeed went up on the 2024 world cruise short before it sold out, but it is no general rule, the supplement neither was raised on the 2025 world cruise, nor on other cruises. It is really good news for all solo cruisers. Most additional costs aboard are reasonable, the really overpriced things are not essential to me. I have often enough made cruises on Costa to know that they offer a product I like. I also sailed on the ship that is used for the world cruise. My longest stay on one of their ships was 34 days - four times longer has a different dimension of course. They have beautiful ships and offer quite a good service. What a lot of people complained about, that the cabin being tidied up only once a day, is today growing more and more to the standard in the industry. Besides, I still can’t imagine that someone makes such a mess that twice a day would be needed. I never had the slightest problem with this practice. I am a fan of traditional style Italian food. Costa offers this, but surprises with destination dishes as well. I like testing new food. Of course I have my preferences and not everything new I try I regard being a great success, but I am well able to understand whether I don’t like the taste one of the ingredients or the cook has no clue what he is doing. In the very end I have returned only in a single case ever a Costa dish, which had been prepared badly. I am very content with the entertainment aboard, Costa has always a good selection of musicians and show acts, from time to time completed with guest artists. Enough variation to please everybody. And if I want a quiet place I can find this as well. As everywhere things can go wrong. But if something was broken or an error occurred they just did everything to fix the problem. After taking everything into the account, this is an itinerary I want to do, a cruise line I can imagine to travel with such a long time, and the total costs are very reasonable.

True, a restaurant shouldn‘t be among the places where phones are the central object, while I can accept a compromise for orders. My phone has a button to switch it off, which I am not only able to find, but I also use it. A lot of people find annoying that I am not available 24/7, but I simply want to control the technique in my life, not the technique to control my life. After I first heard about the problems around the app I had difficulties to believe it as well. I was sure that connectivity can‘t be the problem, as I pointed out above, so I did a quick search and Mr. Apple has indeed quite complex geographical limits. There are workarounds on the internet including those advising things as cheating with fake identities and adresses. Not only the Costa app seems to conflict with these restrictions.

I do have the app and it is not essential for cruising. Largest difference since I have it is that I can leave the Oggi in the cabin, it is useful but not more than nice to have. Next month I will be able to try the digital drill, but as far as I know walking to the muster station and scanning the cruise card (not the phone) remains part of the game and the digital drill is an additional offer, not the only one. For menus or the bar list the app is not needed at all, these come through wifi as pdf from the board intranet (local internet aboard, for connection you just need to identify with the number of the cruise card). The URL for download can be scanned as QR code or typed in the browser, both are found on tabletop displays and stickers all around. I still have menus directly downloaded to my laptop, while the app can‘t be installed on a laptop at all. Of course these downloads and use of the app aboard are free of charge, one doesn‘t need to buy an internet package to access. The app definitely works, but why the app doesn‘t work on all phones? Let me approach the reason by eliminating possibilities that can be excluded by known facts. For this I will be a little bit technical now. Phones can basically connect with two different technologies enabling long distance communications. Through mobile phone networks and wifi networks. There are phone networks in different standards. A phone needs to fit to the available network standard to connect and if abroad roaming needs to be allowed in that network. All this is needed for regular phone calls and use of data is possible. But although this has been discussed here on cruise critic before neither phone standards no roaming limits can be the reason! The answer why is very easy to understand: if a phone uses data connection through the phone network the Costa app generally can be started, but does not offer all features, because the app needs data connection to the board wifi network for full use, for example the Oggi is available through onboard wifi intranet only. This is clearly communicated by Costa as well. If I try to access these items at home the app tells me that it is an onboard only function. Wifi is the second technique available on a phone and offers a much easier connectivity, because you don‘t have several incompatible standards and for access in worst case you need a password to log in, which is as said above your cruise card number. I never heard that connecting to the internet aboard of Costa ships through board wifi would be impossible for those who bought an internet package. The outcry would be loud and with a reason in this case. All together it means that the phone standard and roaming limits are not relevant for using the app and wifi connection to the board intranet is not the limiting factor. Another fact is that on some phones, especially Iphones, there are both geographical restrictions regarding the use of apps and to make it worse different restrictions regarding the country where a phone is bought. Although it is ridiculous that a travel app could be restricted by the geographical safety properties of a phone I suspect after eliminating all the other possible problems that the phone is simply not fit for travel. This also explains why European phones don‘t have this problem. Compare it with credit cards that are limited to use in the home country only, it is hard to blame the restaurant on the tropical island far away from home that the bill can‘t be paid. BTW a problem that again is common only in parts of the world, my credit cards never were limited this way.

I completely agree. But thinking to be the centre of the universe doesn‘t really help exploring the world. Honestly, I had kind of a culture shock when I once cruised with Marella as probably only foreign guest aboard. And no, it wasn‘t bad, it was different. In the end we can learn that we shouldn‘t just look at the valuation given in reviews only. We also should try to understand why someone tells that things were bad. Trying to figure out whether it is a serious incident or even a structural problem or just a cultural difference the reviewer didn‘t like.

Oh, I really can believe it. I have no personal experience on Princess and would put MSC by far to the end of all cruise lines. If I am surprised about something it is that 1/3 of reviews did give MSC more than the worst possible number of points. In the video there is stated that MSC has in opposite to Costa no “excuse” not to follow the American way of cruising, because MSC massively tries getting US guests. I couldn’t disagree more. First there is no excuse for being bad. Second there is no excuse needed for not being American. In the video there are quoted a lot of ridiculous remarks about Costa. How one can complain that Costa offers pasta? Italian traditional menus have a pasta course, how could one complain that on an Italian menu the first main course, in Italian called either primo (first) or pasta (!), is a pasta course? Is it bad that all Mediterranean kitchens don’t serve food boiling hot but warm - and Costa doesn’t do differently - or is it part of the Mediterranean way of life? For Italians a good dinner is very important and Costa attracts the largest percentage of Italian guests of all cruise lines, while they are not the only cruise line offering Italian language services. Somehow they seem to do it very well - but many reviews crack them down for not being totally Americanised. From my European view Americans in service orientated jobs often tend to overdo in terms of artificial kindness and subservience. What is regarded as a perfect friendly behaviour in Europe is often regarded as being rude by Americans. While MSC has a blame-the-customer policy I this never experienced on Costa. If one doesn’t like foreign cultures it is it the fault of the foreign culture? Yes, there are aspects of entertainment left out on Costa. Everything language based isn’t done by obvious reasons on a ship where so many languages are spoken. Despite this they offer a main act of different disciplines every single evening and have a lot of musicians around the ship. Not mentioned in the video, but there are enough reviewers regarding themselves as superior enough that they think their own language has to be used first, even on an Italian vessel run by an Italian company with as often largest group aboard being Italians. While MSC tries being a cheap copy of American cruise lines Costa even sells itself as being Italian. So where is the surprise? A lot of complaints are just about having the wrong expectations. One may expect a clean and maintained cabin (see my MSC pictures above), food prepared as it should and a friendly, competent and well functioning service environment. But has a cruise line to surrender to the cultural expectations of a small part of their foreign guests and neglect the majority from their home markets? Who is fault, the one who expects to be the centre of the universe or the company following it’s own national way of life and invites others to become part of this experience?

Perhaps I wasn‘t specific enough. The buffet I wrote about isn‘t locked, but for example breakfast service often stops at 11 and resumes at noon for lunch. Again: every timing is depending on port times. While the doors of the MDRs can and often will be closed out of service hours this would be problematic with the buffet, since it connects areas on the same deck, on some ships it is even situated between two pool areas. And yes, the time between services is used for cleaning. As I said before, it doesn‘t mean that there wouldn‘t be food available elsewhere. Where one can eat is depending on the ship, the larger ones have more restaurants, but this shouldn‘t be a surprise. And in the very end there is much more food available than one could eat. BTW free dining options don’t end at 9 PM, in the MDR are the orders for the second sitting collected or first antipasti served at this time.

If you prebook a package you don‘t pay a service fee for your drinks as long as these are included in your package. You only pay 15% service fee for drinks billed aboard - if you have no package at all or you order a drink that is not covered by your package. It‘s quite easy to know, there are colored dots in the bar list and every package has another color. You might be surprised by the choice you will find on Costa. Of course you always can ask a waiter. Whether minibar is included depends on the package. Mostly you find something to eat from 7 AM to 5 AM, in ports called early in the morning breakfast starts earlier. Talking about the included food: for the main meals you can either go into the MDR or the buffet. The opening times of the MDR for breakfast and lunch are shorter than in the buffet. Costa cleans the buffet area and closes it for mostly one hour between breakfast, lunch, teatime and dinner. Costa is Italian and this means that the focus is laid on the MDR for dinner, for Italians this means celebrating a full four course dinner. In result only a few guests use the buffet and so opening times of the buffet are limited in the evening. If you really need something to eat at 3 AM it is available, but a small fee is involved. The quality of food in the Costa MDR is already so much better than on MSC that you probably don‘t feel the need of using the special dining. However, if you want to experience something special it is not the worst idea to try that as well. At least within the EU the prices of Costa website and travel agencies are identical in the same country. Between the countries there are differences. But of course every agency may offer you a discount on his own account.

For my winter in Southern Africa I flew to Johannesburg and travelled by car through not only South Africa, but also through eSwatini (former Swaziland) and with detours to Lesotho and Botswana and returned by cruise back to Europe. I drove myself in Kruger National Park and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (situated in South Africa and Botswana) and these parks were absolute highlights. While in Kruger you have a lot of tarred roads and the dirt roads are mostly very well maintained and can be used by all kinds of cars (only convertibles are forbidden) there is no tarred road in Kgalagadi and a lot of tracks are only open for 4x4s. Generally Kruger is much closer to civilisation than Kgalagadi is. For me it is part of the experience - but you need to live without mobile phone... Kgalagadi you need to book far in advance, there is not a lot of accommodation available and I would have loved to stay longer, but eight months in advance the offer was pretty limited already. In Kruger a 4x4 is definitely not needed, but it makes sense to rent a SUV for sitting higher and having a better view. In Kruger I had great elephant sightings (there are none in Kgalagadi), but staying in Addo Elephant National Park is a great experience as well. Addo is a quite small, but if you do the Garden Route you should include it. If you do Kruger the Far North area is really worth it, not only the most popular South, which is closest to Johannesburg. In the parks I used the state owned rest camps only. In the main camps you have a choice from campsites to cottages, sometimes guesthouses are available as well. The cottages are basic, but clean and well usable. As it is South Africa all have braai (barbecue) facilities. The main camps in Kruger have restaurants (in Kgalagadi only the one at the entrance gate), all main camps have shops (limited food offer) and petrol stations, many satellite camps are just a short drive from a main camp, only a few need good logistics for being very remote. Especially the private lodges in Greater Kruger are said to be top quality, but so are the prices. Negative part is that these are mostly isolated from the road network of the park, the trip from Pafuri to Crocodile Bridge all through the park as I made it is only possible with use of the state owned rest camps. In most camps there was the possibility to participate in game drives early morning, during, or after sunset, these are times you mustn‘t move around in the park alone and a lot of animals become active you can hardly see during the day. As far as we visited parks together there was no issue at all and there were other male couples as well. When planing don‘t underestimate travel times in the parks. Google Maps tells you quite well how long it takes from A to B within the speed limits (between 30 and 50 km/h), but allow at least double that time for watching animals and taking the one or other loop for visiting waterholes or other view points. Sanparks offers you a good overview over South African national parks: https://www.sanparks.org/ I really would like to explore Botswana further, especially the Okavango. Victoria Falls are for sure great, but if at all I would consider it during a day trip from Kasane in Northern Botswana. Zimbabwe and Zambia are very anti-gay countries and prosecuting intensively, I am not sure whether I want going there even for some hours. Angola abolished anti-gay legislation, but is for my taste the country is not safe enough for travelling, independent of sexual orientation. Namibia has also an anti-gay legislation, but according to the German foreign office‘s publication of travel advises they have no information that these laws would be applied. To East African states with exception of Mozambique I wouldn‘t go with a partner, Malawi is a country I as a gay man wouldn‘t even go to alone. In eSwatini and Lesotho I would be at least very decent when travelling with a partner not to get into troubles. The situation in South Africa is completely the opposite, legal rights are very well protected, anti-discrimination rules and gay marriage are constitutional rights. In fact we could have called the police in the incident I described. Just to put it into a context: I remember an announcement about a gay event on radio. A man called in and told something about the bible. He got from the moderator as answer that South Africa would be a constitutional democracy, not a biblical democracy. Well, even here in Europe we have countries where this moderator would have risked his job with this statement. I wouldn‘t hesitate to travel in South Africa as part of a gay couple again, in fact it is very likely. As everywhere some haters are around, but if this would make me staying at home I wouldn‘t even step in front of the door.

Sure, central (!) Cape Town is regarding social acceptance not the same as a remote village, while the also in international comparison tough South African anti-discrimination rules are the same in the entire country. But I am afraid that social acceptance is not the same in the different regions of most countries. Of course we mustn‘t forget the influence of tourism, not only by opening the mind of the people, but also in tolerating to benefit the own business. Egyptians tend to be masters in the latter discipline, but back to South Africa. While quite often small local communities without massive influx of tourists are worldwide not so welcoming indeed my experience in the rural hotel in a tiny and highly religious community within Cederberg Wilderness proves that this is a not always applicable rule. That in a typical tourist destination as Augrabies Falls the receptionist of a four star hotel discriminated surprised me as well. Also the expectation that younger persons would be much more used to diversity than older ones exactly this young woman proved wrong - the same did the elderly lady who gave us a warm welcome before and after understanding that we are gay. I could add that the staff of National Parks (remoteness by definition) and the state owned rest camps therein cares much more about safety rules than about who is entering. The “who” was only relevant for the entrance fee, since international travellers pay more than South African citizens. Yes, I agree that in some parts of the world a group and a guide can be very useful not to get into troubles. But regarding South Africa this is generally not needed. The opposite is true, this country is ideal for exploring individually. Joining a guided tour through a city or participating in a game drive at the destinations are great as add-ons. The only exception from visiting individually are trips to townships - there everybody should have a guide, because of the high level of violent crime. This includes large parts of Cape Town and most South Africans wouldn’t go there at all and even avoid passing them.

Okay, the disinfectant thing I also experienced in the middle of Europe during an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, about this part I wouldn‘t worry. And being questioned why two men are travelling is luckily no reason to worry any longer at the border of Botswana. There is no reason of gay men being suspected of possibly having plans to commit a crime according to local laws. Criminalisation has been ruled as being unconstitutional perhaps two years ago, long after your visit. At least a few things move to the better in this world.

Well, although South Africa is by law very gay friendly it does not mean that all people are treating a gay couple friendly. I travelled last winter for several months, of which most time I spent in South Africa. There I met a local man whom I asked to accompany me. He took off and some time later he joined me indeed. When we checked in at a hotel in Augrabies - our reservation I had made for a double bedroom for two - the receptionist first told us that we have to take two rooms. Two men, black and white in one room was obviously too much for her. Since we refused she wanted us to stay in a room with separate beds. After insisting again she finally gave up and accompanied us to our reserved room. But she told us to eat in our room and not in the restaurant. My friend grew up under the apartheid regime and worst memories came up. The receptionist was what South Africans call coloured - mixed race. So he mentioned that her pure existence is owed to black and white couples… She did everything not to talk to us again and the other staff treated us respectfully. Of course we did not eat in our room and - surprise, surprise - no uprising occurred, the most intense interaction with other guests was small talk. Of course I notice hate speech of extremists, hear or read about crimes. But on such a personal level the last time something similar happened to me in the 80’s. To be fair, this receptionist wasn’t typical. In a very religious part of the country I was a bit concerned after the previous experience. But we checked in without comment, we just were told that on Sunday all restaurants in town would be closed. When we went to our room after dinner on Saturday evening the waiter there didn‘t wish a “good night”, but “have fun”. Okay, he obviously was one of us. In another location an elderly lady excused several times that she didn’t understand immediately that we were a couple after offering us an alternative apartment with single beds instead of the booked one with a double bed. BTW, Botswana did the important step of decriminalisation recently. So besides being convicted also the possibilities of blackmailing and so on are abolished. Of course the way to acceptance is long, but an important step is done. I for my part decided not to do Victoria Falls and to avoid travelling to Zimbabwe or Zambia.

In that case you would usually get together with your excursion tickets a note when arriving aboard, definitely not late in the evening before the excursion starts. There is no fix rule, but Costa decides to cancel for having not enough participants for a good part on pre-cruise bookings. Only on long cruises they don’t cancel all excursions immediately by lack of bookings, but yours could be short enough to know everything on embarkation day. If by other reasons an excursion can’t happen you might get a cancellation before boarding already, while short notice cancellations are related to unplanned circumstances, as I had once with the cable car on the Teide, which simply didn’t operate because of too hard winds.

Although Costa always advises an early booking you also can book excursions aboard. More than once I re-booked aboard, among them both a slightly different tour and the originally booked excursion in another language. If you go after a cancellation directly to the tour office you make good chances, there are many guests aboard deciding in the last possible second what to do the next day.

Costa is in the very most details just as other mass-market cruise lines, most things are as you are probably used to already. About the Firenze I can‘t tell you anything, I will sail on her in September as well, I am booked on the repositioning cruise from Kiel to the Mediterranean. Costa in general is not focused on the English speaking market, but is in core Italian and catering an international crowd. The staff has to speak English, it is for them the common working language, so for me English is the first choice when talking to somebody. All announcements are made in several languages - including English. If in rare cases it is not in English it is not for you, for example if a French guest is called to contact reception they do it in French only. Since not so many English speakers are aboard it happens that excursions in this language are cancelled. Generally spoken about excursions: Costa has sometimes really good deals, sometimes they are terribly overpriced, so do your homework. Often Italians are the largest group aboard, but on Norway cruises from Kiel you make a chance that Germans will be. Nevertheless life will be tinted Italian. Some things look as there would be chaos, but things are surprisingly exactly put to the right spot. As in Italy you will have for example a four course dinner (antipasti, primo or first course, which is mainly pasta, secondo, the second course mainly featuring fish or meat, and dolce, which means sweet). You can perfectly live without special dining, but the times I did it was great and the prices are way below comparable prices ashore. If you didn‘t book already think about a drinking package, the drink prices are not really cheap and the package prices are moderate.

Thanks, it works from here as well - for some cruises. I tested it and it is available for cruises up to some month in the future, but not for all cruises offered. This explains why I never got this information, because I am used to book far in advance.

@newoncruise, May I ask on which Costa site you took the screen shots? On my local site I see at this spot the excursions, but not the prices.

Prices of Costa excursions are variable - in both directions. For a cancelled cruise (covid) I was booked on an excursion, which I am now again booked on. One long day excursion is now 31 € cheaper, while for another excursion on this cruise a few days after my booking the price was raised (not for me, because I booked already). It doesn’t happen frequently, but happens. You can see the prices as soon as you booked on mycosta.com, as you need your booking reference to log in. If you book as option only you already can log in and add excursions (and other items) and it doesn‘t cost a cent if you decide not to confirm the cruise. It makes sense to book excursions early, you pay excursions aboard only and are free to cancel an excursion and book again if the price drops.

Very bad experience, this should not happen! But just to clarify: Princess does not operate the spa. I am not aware of any cruise line doing this. Princess as many from Azamara to Crystal, Windstar to NCL, Royal Caribbean to Virgin and so on have their spas run by One Spa World. So the question to address to the spa manager is very understandable, since Princess has no possibility to determine the operation of the spa in detail, cannot even guarantee that a male masseur is aboard the ship. I‘d suggest to confront One Spa World with your experience and complain with Carnival Corporation & Plc as owner of Princess, since it is the largest single contract partner of One Spa World at sea and the spa company shouldn‘t scare away their cruise guests. Regarding the sometimes thoughtfully planned gatherings and the sometimes completely useless announcements even on ships of the same line I have the idea that it depends on the level knowledge of staff aboard. When someone just knows that he has to schedule a time and no further information - or personal experience - this might be the result. I am happy when I am treated as all the other human beings, don't need massive decorations on a cruise, but at least a bit of visibility should be, may it just be used to enable navigation to the right place.

Thanks, you could be right. I asked Aunt Google and there were several problems of ships not allowed entering New Zealand indeed - including a sister brand of Costa. I didn‘t hear about that earlier. If Costa - or even Carnival as whole - was unable to establish a procedure New Zealand accepts this could be a reason. Not to forget that arrival in New Zealand was planned for day 56 on this cruise.

Generally about noise and movements on the ship: Lower decks have machine sound and vibrations are possible, more in the rear than in the front. Add winches when docking or anchoring, all the hydraulics needed when opening or closing doors are noises heard on lower decks. The theatre produces mainly noise during the shows and rehearsals, add cleaning activities. Kitchen and restaurants are pretty active areas, when I cruised the Fascinosa last year Otto e Mezzo, the midship MDR, was closed for breakfast. In the bars every night will be party until late. Besides hosting a bar the atrium is also a very busy place all day long. Don‘t forget that public areas are mainly cleaned during closing time… Moving through the waves is felt the most on higher decks towards to the bow and in a bit lesser near the stern, least movement in the centre. When the ship splashes into a trough of waves it can be loud in front, but this happens only with rough sea. I am personally pretty sensitive when it comes to noise, but completely fine with the movements of a ship, actually I like them. Your personal experience can be very different of course. Whether you prefer going to sleep early or late, you want sleeping long or whether you’re getting up early can have an impact on the choice of a cabin. I only can give you some facts to make your own decision. I did them all, inside, outside and balcony cabins. Again from my personal experience the cabin is for me a place to sleep, where my bathroom and wardrobe are. Some people are very keen on their balcony. Since I don‘t smoke I don‘t need a personal smoking area attached to my cabin (Costa opposite to most other cruise lines allows smoking on balconies). As solo traveller I won‘t have a romantic time on a balcony. I prefer sitting in a public area and having a waiter around. And even in an internal cabin you can use the perspective of the captain: there is a TV channel showing alternating both webcams in real time and you know when you will be approaching land and it is time bringing your camera to the upper decks - https://www.costacruises.com/fleet/fascinosa/webcam.html

I am booked on the full cruise and got yesterday a notification that there would be problems visiting New Zealand and the new calls in Samoa, Tonga, Fidji, Vanatu and two destinations in New Caledonia. Tasmania seems to be too far away from our new route. New Zealand is a destination I was really interested in and I have no idea why visiting could be problematic. BTW there is a roll call on the world cruise as well: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2806805-costa-deliziosa-world-cruise-january-2024/#comment-61974408

Honestly, I would avoid deck 2 completely. All these cabins mentioned are below restaurants and kitchen (the large area without any description on deck 3 between the MDRs is the main kitchen), atrium and theatre are above the cabins further to the front. According to my plan cabin 2338 is an internal cabin, not an ocean view. The cabins on deck 6 you mention should be above the backstage area. After the second show there won‘t be a lot noise from below, but in the morning staff might begin early. My favourite on the Fascinosa is deck 7, since you don‘t have noisy public spaces above or below - but there you don‘t have ocean view cabins. Whether you should take a cabin in front at a higher deck or not depends on you and how sensitive you are regarding movements of the ship. That not a lot of land will be close when sailing is on this cruise very true, there are simply no long passages through fjords or between islands, generally most distance will be made in international waters. Danish islands will be passed at night. Take your photos from the upper decks or the promenade, it‘s very easy to switch the side for example when departing through the Kieler Förde the city and the locks of the Kiel Canal are on port side, the former fishing villages and monuments on starboard side. It is not likely an excursion is now already sold out, without taking at least an option on this cruise you won‘t even know whether this special excursion is offered on your cruise. With booking reference you can look what is actually for sale on mycosta.com. And excursions can and will be cancelled still when you are aboard if not enough guests book them. Costa reserves the contractual right to cancel excursions, but this is very normal in the cruise industry. Luckily you don’t need to pay in advance when sailing with Costa, but excursions will be deducted from your board account. Either you won‘t get a ticket for a cancelled excursion or get a letter and sometimes both, so check your tickets as soon as possible. You will be able to join a group in another language or can take an alternative excursion similar to your original choice. In case of a cancellation you need to contact the excursion desk aboard as soon as possible, because Costa won‘t automatically rebook you on an Italian language excursion or force you on an excursion you didn‘t book. If there is an excursion you want so much that you would cancel your cruise all together if this excursion doesn‘t happen you should consider taking a private excursion.

I don’t think it’s very thoughtfully designed, but it definitely is part of the personal set of data and I often saw reminders to use exactly data as stated in the passport already when booking. There are simply no two sets of data for the same passenger and there are international agreements what must be collected. One possibility I see would be leaving this question out of the booking form completely, which might upset those who want to see their Mr or Mrs on the bill and other documents. So only workable solution would be making this answer non-compulsory during booking - until passport details are needed. Now you should convince the cruise lines that the effort of changing their booking systems will result in more business.

I only can comment from the situation of a gay man who made quite a number of cruises in many parts of the world. But as such I never experienced or witnessed any kind of discrimination from any cruise line or staff aboard. Even the worst cruise line did not discriminate. Perhaps unawareness of some people occurred, but not to a higher degree as elsewhere in real life. In this context I would regard cruise ships generally as a safe place for your friends on their honeymoon. Our personal data are not only used for the contract we have with the cruise company, but for immigration into the countries visited as well - and these data must match. Some of these countries visited might maintain a high level of acceptance of the diverse human nature, others might be very restrictive and legally maintain the idea that gender is either male or female as stated in a birth certificate. This is not limited to cruising, but effects travelling generally. In most cases cruising is even easier from a practical view, because the face check in front of foreign border officers is the exception when cruising. Please understand that it is a pragmatic thing to deal with foreign immigration authorities and not the place to fight for human rights. If the passport shows an F or M just use exactly that, if not it becomes more complicated, just because it is no legal option in many countries. Practically this could be choosing a cruise first and thereafter contacting that company and asking for advice in the exact situation. This could be using the more likely binary match regarding the given name in the passport, even if this causes inconvenient feelings. We all are so much more than the few data submitted by a cruise line and limited choice in a digital form should not limit our lives.

I don‘t know whether on your cruise the package is available. Last year I used it and on my two upcoming cruises with Costa it is not available. My Explorations offers a selection of excursions, which one you van see on My Costa, these excursions are tagged. Generally the half-day excursions have been up to 4 hours. In case you are not sure you can test it individually: reserve the package first and thereafter put the excursions you are interested in into the cart and look at the price charged. The first eligible excursions you put into your cart are free, the others you can book with a discount. So it makes sense to book the most expensive eligible excursions first. And if you are not happy with the choice you can cancel everything for free up to a few days before the cruise starts. Unlike some other cruise lines you won‘t be charged for the excursions at time of reservation, but aboard.