CASPALL

I’m just hoping that things will be different (better) in the Caribbean.

There was another group that came on in the Grand Bar - late at night. They weren’t very good and the dancers quickly cleared the floor either to the disco or to bed.

There were a few things on our 7 night cruise from Venice that put a dampener on our cruise

We were cruising with our friends and determined to have a good time anyway.

Our friends were in an aft suite with wraparound balcony - it was sumptuous. This was their free upgrade. We cruise too many times to get this 🤔

We were happy with our midships balcony cabin apart from the noisy family next door who bounced off the walls and slammed the doors every few minutes - but apart from that.....

We ate in the club restaurant with our friends. This was the nicest place on the ship. Comfortable chairs and beautiful decor, wonderful waiters and delicious meals. All perfect except for one night when they had a noisy party in the atrium and boy did the sound carry all the way up to deck 10! 

The head waiter was going around apologising as he was getting all the complaints. 

I blame this entirely on the cruise director who never seemed to get anything organised properly. This noisy disco party with balloons popping should’ve been held in the disco surely!

The chocolate bar was never open through the day  - only from 4pm!

A waste of a good bar.

We would have coffee in the Grand Bar ( usually a noisy dance class or quiz taking place) or the Atrium which was mostly hi jacked by the shops. The chairs in the Atrium are so low and laid back that you fall into them and need a hand to get up again! 

Getting served was usually a problem as there seemed to be a severe staff cut. Never seen so few bar staff on any Costa cruise! 

At the pool bar they were cutting off the bar stools ( what a stench of burning metal!) supposedly so more people can queue at the bar as there was NO bar waiters there at all - ever!! Get your own or do without! It’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt as people are walking off with cups of hot drinks trying not to knock into someone in the crush.

it seemed strange that the bar was open with the sparks flying from the machinery cutting the metal ( I will add picture)

Elegant night confused a lot of people who thought it was Gala so there were a few tuxedo clad folks out but no gala dinner which must have puzzled them.

The Diario was reduced to a small news sheet folded in 3. It never had the info we wanted eg who was playing in which bar at what time. 

Again this was the cruise director to blame.

There was only one lot of musicians worth listening to and that was Sweet Sound Duo. They had the crowd in their hands then they go off and the animation team come on doing some ridiculous childish nonsense. It really annoys me that they try to take me up to dance when I am sitting with my husband and 2 other people having a conversation. So ignorant and rude!

On the second last night just as we were about to have dinner the captain made an announcement to inform us that we wouldn’t be able to go to Venice as the port was closed due to fog. Instead we would be going to Trieste. A letter would be sent to our cabins.

Well that spoiled our night a bit and the next morning as we had to find out how to get to Venice Marco Polo from Trieste ( 2hr bus journey)Costa would put buses back to the port but would not put us to Marco Polo Airport. 

So our last day was quite stressful. We had booked a private transfer from the port of Venice to the airport but we wouldn’t get there for an hour later. 

We decided we would take our luggage off ourselves and thank heavens we did or our friends would’ve missed their flight to LGW. 

Nobody on Costa Deliziosa was helpful with this matter and the English host Gemma was completely useless. 

We have another 2 cruises booked on Deliziosa (mistake?) I just assumed she’d be much the same as every other Costa ship but she wasn’t. The decor was very brown and dark  and I just felt there wasn’t much to do except eat and drink - though finding a nice spot for a pre dinner drink was hard. Do the spa girls have to be in the Atrium selling their products at that time of night! 

The library was really small and not manned when it was supposed to be. 

I think Deliziosa staff need some direction .

The itinerary and the company made this cruise for us. Pity we only had a half day in Santorini but  never

Hope I haven’t bored you all too much - for those of you still reading! 😴

I just want to pass this on to Costa cruisers as there are quite a few people who get confused over Elegant night. A few men in suits and tuxedos and their partners in their gala wear were walking around thinking it was Gala night. 

I spoke to reception in the afternoon to check if it was Gala or not and was told “No madam - Gala night is in 2 days time”

I don’t know what it’s all about - maybe they’re trying to get the vest and shorts people to smarten up? 😐 

Caryl

Well said tenpin!

its come to something when the crew are the better dressed - even the cabin stewards look smarter than some of the passengers!

Caryl

My friend bought coffee pods to take with him - much cheaper than paying Costa.

Christmas/New year are always dressier Cruises imo

christmas day and New Year’s Eve are definite Gala nights, but I reckon you will  have at least 3 gala nights. We had 2 on our 10 night cruise last new year (31st Dec). Ladies had some stunning dresses on that cruise. 

I love dressing up so I take a dress for every night

caryl

I’m sorry to hear this as Mediterranea is my favourite ship ☹️ 

Our cruise in January  was reduced by £200 a few weeks ago so I phoned Costa and they adjusted our balance (we already paid deposit)

Today I phoned Costa again as it’s time to pay the bill. We checked the price and it had gone down again by nearly £200

No problem with Costa - they gave us the cruise at the new price - no problem. 

I just think of the money we wasted on other cruise lines in years gone by , by booking too early.

thanks Costa 

caryl

Departing from Amsterdam 

Hi Riana

the fake grass has gone and there’s new decking there now I think. One of my pics is of the aft bar. We liked that area except for the smoking!

caryl

We really enjoyed our Victoria cruise. The food was excellent and the ship had a friendly feel to it. Staff were wonderful

hope you have a great cruise 

caryl

At last I can post photos on cruise critic!

here are some photos from my Costa Victoria cruise in May 2018

I would book a 10 am to be on the safe side

When we were on Diadema from 31st Dec to 7th Jan , we were allocated to Samsara restaurant for dinner as the club restaurant was too busy. The Samsara was reasonably quiet but we were not impressed by the service in there. On the last night we were asked to go into the club restaurant as Samsara was busy ( people having their freebie) and we really enjoyed our meal as the service was top notch.

My tip to you is don’t put up with bad service. If you’re unhappy with anything then talk to the restaurant manager. It’s your cruise and you want every aspect to be pretty much perfect. I hope you have a lovely time.

Caryl

A taxi from the cruise terminal to the airport costs 39euros.

I’m pretty sure you will be able to buy a Costa transfer on the ship.

We asked if there was one in Marseille and the answer was “of course”

They usually leave at 10 am

Caryl

Sorry Wansbrough!

Here’s hoping the executive chef goes on leave - there’s a good chance that could happen. Their contracts are far shorter than waiters and cabin stewards

I’m sure you will enjoy your 3 nights onboard.

Caryl

We arrived in Amsterdam on a Sunday morning. Train from airport to Central Station then started walking to the cruise terminal. We thought there would be a cafe en route where we could stop for a rest but the only cafe we saw was closed. It took us roughly 25 mins to walk to the terminal - would’ve been a far quicker walk if we hadn’t been pulling heavy cases.

The cruise terminal is quite pleasant inside and we were given our number 1 card for boarding as we are Diamante level. A Costa representative told us we would be boarding between 11 and 12 so that was a nice surprise. Not so good that we only started boarding at 12.35! The queue had started a while before this with everyone pushing to get through them when the announcement was made. People with number 5 were trying to get on first and were told to step back but they still blocked the way through.

It was all smooth and easy after that and we immediately went to our cabin to pick up our Costa cards before heading to the restaurant.

We had hoped we would get our meals in the Club restaurant on deck 10 but there were too many Diamante members on board so that restaurant was for suite guests. We were given anytime dining in a room off the main restaurant. It was full of tables for 2 but they were very close together.

The lunch menu had nothing to get excited about (this continued throughout the cruise) so I ordered a fillet steak. Always available were fillet steaks, breaded veal chop, lobster, prawns and Italian ham.

The food on this cruise was probably the worst we have experienced after doing 16 Costa Cruises before this one.

Food was lukewarm most of the time. There seemed to be a shortage of vegetables as we never seemed to get many. The vegetable soup had them all though - it was the tastiest thing I had the whole cruise!

I think I put 4 dinners back that were so disgusting I couldn’t eat them - a chicken leg with an ugly brown coating - pink in the middle, being the worst.

We had a mid ship premium balcony cabin and it was cleaned beautifully by our female cabin steward. We got a pillow menu so we ordered up 2 very comfortable pillows - can’t remember what they were called. I do love the Costa beds as they are so comfortable.

The entertainment on this cruise was pretty poor apart from Pete and the Jetsets who played real music!

Service on Mediterranea was good apart from surly bartenders at the outdoor bar at the back of the ship. It was a struggle to get them to serve you as they just served the rude people who shouted their order first. We felt there were never enough bar waiters on deck.

We do love Mediterranea and this was our fourth cruise on her. The variety of bars is excellent and you can always find a place to sit.

We only went to one show - the crew show. It was very good.

We never met any British people on board but there were a lot of Americans and so many German and French passengers.

Our lifeboat drill was easy. We turned up after the signal went , stood in line for about 3 minutes and they only fid English! How great was that!:D

We disembarked at Marseille , took a taxi to the train station 20 euros, found left luggage and deposited our 2 big cases in a locker for 9.50 euros. We were free to explore Marseille for the day. After walking around and having lunch we then went back to collect our luggage and walked to the other end of the train station to the bus station. Airport bus every 15 mins. I think it was 8.50 each. There only downside was that the bus drops you at terminal 2 at the airport. That’s easyJet, Ryanair etc. We had to walk to terminal 1 in the 30c heat pulling our cases. It took about 5 mins.

All in all it was a very good cruise, but if Mediterranea had a different /better executive chef it could have been a fantastic cruise.

Caryl

The only free water on Costa ships is the awful stuff in the buffet areas at breakfast and lunchtime

We always buy the drinks package so we get bottled water poured for us when we are in the restaurant

Caryl

I am curious to know what happened Monikats holiday!

This must have been very disappointing

Caryl

I do wish I could put on my pictures I took onboard Victoria. This website just won’t seem to let me upload anything!

Caryl

Yes , we were on Diadema 2 yrs ago early to mid November and had some lovely sunny days

There is no guarantee!

Caryl

Try putting this on Costa Roll Call Brian and you might get some replies

Sounds like a good cruise to have booked :cool:

Caryl

I prefer Costa, but MSC is nearly as good imo

:)