volvof11

On 4/8/2020 at 10:32 AM, SeaDays4Us said:

The companies that are handling this unique situation with refunds and not charging fees will be remembered  and will survive.  I know exactly who I will not be using in the future.

I agree and I think everyone will think the same. I pity the companies that don't play fair as public opinion can make or break a company. I realise it's hard at the moment for cruise companies but when some from the same mother company play fair and others don't, which one will people pick. I was told yesterday by Cruise Guru that when I book another Costa cruise with them I will have to pay a deposit on top of my FCC and I can only use my FCC with the original agent I booked through and the port charges could be a cash payment on top of my FCC. I really don't think anyone knows what being offered and by whom. It's got to be illegal to charge a second deposit surely. 

16 hours ago, SeaDays4Us said:

😁You got it

 

We can only get a voucher from Costa Cruises for the full amount we cant even get our port charges and taxes back.

I know " you get what you paid for" I hadnt been on Costa before but thought I would give it ago.

I think if they offered to take #

$300 out I would still want the refund over a credit that has to be booked by March 2021 and fully used by Nov 30th 2021.

We have tried to get a refund but they arnt budging. I have pushed our large Aust travel agent but its hard to get a reply as they dont know.

I rang Costa myself as my agent said she had only an email address but I found the number by Googling, funny that. But in Australia we deal with Costa Asia and they havnt a clue. I had to let my agent know the cruise had been cancelled 1 day before we were due to fly out.

My agent asked me yesterday if I would like to pick a future cruise on Costa, I went onto Costa site but unless your from the USA you cant book a future cruise so I went onto Costa page here and they have no cruises at all nor has Cruise Guru or Vacations to Go either.I have been onto other roll calls on Costa and people from the UK and the US are getting full refunds. I ask you how is that fair.

Its illegal as far as Im concerned.I have really pushed hard with Cruise Guru and Costa but to no avail.

We were to get the cruise from Mauritius and we had our flights booked from Perth to Mauritius with Air Mauritius, we received an email from them stating we can cancel if we wanted, so I replied that I would like to cancel and get a refund. I received an email back saying that we would indeed get a refund in 2 weeks but they will charge us $250 AUD EACH and that they are not obliged to pay us the $140 each extra we paid for the exit row seats, so we are down approx $780. Absolutely terrible. So now its 4 weeks on and we received an email from them stating that they will give a full credit voucher. So I promptly asked for the money to be refunded after a longgggggg phone call, a week later still no refund.

But hey we are alive and healthy and thats the main thing.

Sorry for the windge.

Pauline 

Hi Guys,

Is it better to get a Japanese sim in Japan than use our prepaid Telstra phone. We have about $300 credit on our phones that we can use from overseas but as are going to be there for 1 month, I wonder if thats enough. We get free wi-fi in our hotels and I know theres hot spots but we're mainly going to use the data for maps and translator if needed.

Is it easy to get a sim in Japan and the cost of course. I believe there pretty cheap.

I have googled and searched and theres so many different opinions out there, I thought I'd go to the people who know.

Thanks in advance

Pauline

On 4/27/2019 at 9:46 PM, sussanahrose said:

Are there any Aussies out there  that have done a cruise to Cuba (particularly on Norwegian, leaving and returning to Florida, USA)?

 

We're wondering about visas and if they were organised by the ship. Smarttraveller is pretty useless when it comes to getting accurate information when cruising and we're getting the run around between the travel agent and NCL both telling us to contact the other etc etc!

 

Appreciate any help and also any recommendations for tours in Classic Cars in Havana. Have checked out a few but it's hard to choose one over another.

 

Thanks!

Hi,

We went to Cuba with RCL and they organized the visa. We had to fill in what we were going to Cuba for and I think we were advised to tick something about cultural experience or something to do with people.

I think from memory you bring back 2 or 4 cigars because you are going back into the US and you have to abide by their rules same with rum. Havana Rum for a 1 ltr bottle was only something like $7 usd. We only stayed overnite but it was a fabulous place.

We went to the Museum but not much was in english but a great place to visit.

We loved Cuba and we will go back if possible.

We did everything on our own and we had a great cruise around in an open huge car.

We went to the Havana show, I cant recall its name but a great night with all the show girls and music. You get a full bottle rum for four people and four bottles of hot coke. Great night we just brought tickets on line and got a taxi there and back for nothing really very cheap. We organized for the driver to wait and he did.

The people were nice and we would definitely go back.

We felt safe all the time

Hope this helps 

Pauline

On 2/3/2019 at 4:32 AM, sparkledust61 said:

Thanks - that's really helpful. Think we may end up on the ship tour for Petra but we will see...Eilat I'm a bit stuck on what is best to do. We wanted to fit in both Wadi Rum and Petra so thought we could do one from Eilat, maybe, and the other from Aqaba, but it seems difficult to get across the border to Jordan? And in that case not sure what to do in Eilat - what are your plans? We love history, nature, and cramming as much into a day (i.e. avoiding leisurely lunches and too many organised excursions). Once you hear back on Oman visas would you be able to post on here? It would be very helpful to know.
It looks like there's no actual roll call for our ship though?? Have either of you been on Costa before? We usually do P+O or Celebrity or Royal Caribbean, but the itinerary on this was too wonderful to miss!

Hi,

I'm not on this cruise but we are doing it next year 2020 and just having a quick look.

We have been to Aqaba and have done a Petra tour with a Local company which was absolutely fantastic, couldn't of asked for a better tour. But my sister and her husband did Wadi Rum and Petra in the same tour. Theirs  was longer than ours as they visited Bedouin tribe as well. Be warned that walking back up the Petra road to the bus was exhausting and it wasn't really hot. Its on a slope so can be a bit difficult. Take plenty of water as there's no shade. Dont be afraid of doing a local tour with a reputable  tour company, have a look on tripadvisor they give great advise and you can read the reviews.

Hope this helps

Pauline

1 hour ago, tenpin said:

Hi Pauline,

                 As far as the UK is concerned the Classic cabins get nothing added. These are selected cabins and you will not get a choice of dining times. However you can go to see Maître 'd & maybe get your choice of times if any are available. 

 

The premium cabins come with a drink package and choice of dining times all in all if you like a couple of glasses of water & wine with your meal then the premium cabins are worth the extra money.

 

Yes with Costa different Countries sometimes have different terms but overall these above apply to most.

 

I believe there was an effort to have Costa provide water free in Australia like the US, but never heard the outcome.

 

The general rule with Costa is 4/5 drinks or coffees a day is more than enough to cover up-grade to Premium.

Thanks so much its pretty much what I sort of found out but nearly everything you read is different. Very confusing

Thanks again

Pauline

Hi Guys,

I am from Australia and I am getting confused as theres different information for different countries and what you actually get with the packages.

So does anyone know what you get with

Classic... do you get beer, wine and soft drink at dinner time or nothing.

Premium ... do you get a free drinks package, I know you get a better position of cabin. Do you have a different dining room or just the MDR.

As I said I have looked on different Costa sites and they vary with what you get. Very confusing.

So if someone can please help that would be great.

Thanks

Pauline

AUSTRALIA

50 minutes ago, Blue Elephant said:

We cruised on the Costa Magica in May 2017 from Savona to Amsterdam. It was extremely Port intensive and a good price, so we figured we would take a chance.

 

We were delighted with the cruise. My husband is vegetarian and he found the food was excellent for his needs. They took the MDR menu through a tour of the various Italian regions and catered for the omnivores just as well as the herbivores.

 

They took the safety aspects of the muster drill VERY seriously. You don your life jacket for the walk down the fire stairs and there is no fiddling with electronic devices or cameras during muster drill.

 

They handled the multilingual passenger load very well. Our ship excursion in Tangier’s, Morocco was English/GErman and was led by a local with excellent knowledge of both languages as well as Arabic. Our Mont St Michel excursion was English/Spanish , again led by someone with all 3 languages under control.

 

We would cruise with Costa again in a heartbeat and we often look to see what Costa has on offer. Btw, we speak reasonable Italian and have travelled a lot in Italy, but we would have been fine with only English. Prices in the shops on board were extremely reasonable - not out to make every buck they could.

 

My one irritation with the Costa Magica was the design of the ship where you have parts of floors blocked off for things like the Casino. Seemed more finicky in that respect than any other cruise ship.

Thanks so much

Pauline

23 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

It is likely they couldn't match it due to the fly stay element of the package.

Hi McCanberra,

No it was actually just the cruise, which surprized us no end as USA is definitely cheaper on every other cruise. Perhaps Costa is trying to get into the Aust market, but it was surprizing it was $1000 usd dearer for a couple than Aust.

Pauline

15 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Costa sometimes cancels their cruises if they are not selling. They cancelled our Costa Atlantica cruise of east coast of USA/Canada, some years ago, the cruise was not selling and they rescheduled the ship to the Med. After 3 months got my money back, but lost airfares, neither Costa or Travel Insurance would cough up for 'rescheduling.'  Sure some good deals, but be careful.

Thanks for the advice but this cruise hasn't nearly any balcony cabins left.

A cruise company had a deal for balcony $5499 with a  FLY/STAY/CRUISE DEAL, it was sold on the first day it was advertised and they have it offered now for $5999 and when I rang they only had a few balconies left on that one.

We ended up going with Cruise guru and the price was as stated, even our agent in the USA couldn't match the price which is strange as he usually beats it easy with more perks.

Thanks for your help

Pauline

Thanks guys, we arnt expecting much so hopefully our expectations will be exceeded. And as stated by MicCanberra they go to fabulous places and are reasonably cheap, at least they don't add free drinks package that's really included in the price of the cruise and keep their prices low. I like to choose if I want a drinks package or not and I would rather pay less for the cruise.

I guess if we have to pay for water at meal times its still a cheap cruise and the places we will visit will be amazing.

Just a thought you hear of people taking large quanities of bottled water on board, I wonder if that's allowed on Costa.

I believe they have a water card (I think I read it somewhere ). But its the places I like and Costa has many good cruises out there.

And if we flew to all places it goes and add food ect it would be way above $10,000.

So I will write a review when I get back.

Thanks again

Thanks for the help, yes the cruises go to some terrific places so I guess the rest is what it is.

Pauline

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anybody has been on Costa MEDITERRANEA or any Costa ship lately.

We are looking at a 27 nt cruise from Mauritius in a balcony for only $7003 for the two of us.

I have read a few reviews but they dont answer the questions I need answered.

1. Do they allow smoking on Balcony's ( I hope not)

2. whats the dining food like

3. do they give you water at meal times free , not bottled water but usual water in your glasses.

4. Activities on sea days 

5. can you get coffee  and hot water all day from the buffet like on Celebrity and the other cruise lines

6. do they have afternoon tea ect

Costas site is terrible for info.

I know you pay for what you get but if its really bad I'd rather do a shorter trip with some other cruise line but it does go to some fabulous places.

Thanks in advance

Pauline

I still get a kick reading the posts from the people that think the staff work for peanuts.

I agree, we met a friend of ours on board who actually was the officer accountant aboard Celebrity Constellation on an Alaska cruise and I asked him about the wages of the normal staff not the officers and he said most cruises the staff get more than some of the officers. He didn't say by how much or how much they get but he did say as well that get paid very well that's after the grats have been paid out.

But I agree grats should be included but it has to be across the board not just in Aust or NZ.

I can admit we didn't pay our grats to our dining staff as we didn't get good service from our waiters either of them, they were too interested hanging around the table of 10 Americans than our table of 10 Aussies, too the point of people from our table chose to eat in the buffet or changing tables. On the last night the waiters had shook hands with Americans and then chose to come to our table which by then was only us left, he didn't leave us all through dinner just about. We deliberated about paying the grats but in the end we went down and got them to take of the grats for the dining room off but left the other half for the others. And unbeknownst to us the girl on reception said that we weren't the only ones on our table to do that and they would look into it.

We have been on many cruises and its the only time we have done that. But that was a Carnival ship not Celebrity.

Just my experience

Thanks

Pauline

Hello, Pauline.

It's very simple.

The packages are unlimited -- with regard to the NUMBER of drinks that you can consume. (There are other limitations -- e.g., the categories of the drinks that are included, and/or the maximum price of the drinks that are included. You can learn those limitations by reading all the rest of this thread, above your post.)

 

Yours is not a "stupid question," because I know that another cruise line has a limited coffee card (fifteen punches).

Thanks jg51 I did read the above quotes but none of them actually said it was unlimited so thankyou so much for your answer and your help.

Pauline

This may be a stupid question but are the drinks packages UNLIMITED.

How do they actually work say if we get the classic.

Is it a card with X amount of drinks on it and when you use you are finished.

Can you please explain to a newby.

Thanks

Pauline

As to credit card free travel insurance you can ring the Insurance company direct to ask them all sorts of questions and they are only to happy to help.Not many Insurance Co will cover insolvency of any T/A, cruise Co or airline for that matter.

As to not being able to book through a US T/A has anybody been refused to be let on a cruise yet. Actually got to the cruise line counter and been refused to passage because you have actually used a US T/A and not an Aust T/A. Surely if the US T/A (a good one) says its ok to book you whats the problem.

I went on line to the HAL internet site and looked up for one of their US T/A and contacted the agency to be told it was OK to book Australian through her. This is a recommended agent by HAL and my sister lives in the US and uses her all the time. It asked for a zip code I gave my sisters.And another large very prominent T/A on the internet had no problems and have booked previous Australian as well

I would really love to hear once and for all about this thread as I too hate being ripped off and we shouldnt be. Iam so confused now as we travel alot and book everything ourselves online for all over the world using all online T/A.

I hope someone can help

Pauline