GUEST080219

When I started cruising in 2010 I was still concerned about dress codes. If you look at the mirror before leaving the room and like what you see all is good.

And yes I would rather have someone at my table in good fitting jeans and a tank top who is wearing a style that fits the body than someone in his best clothes that might have been fitting 15 years ago but not anymore now.

The guest services person was jut bad. When I had a complaint about a crew member acting, in a way I believed was inappropriate, they called the assistant manager of the department and he showed me a picture of the crew member fitting my description. I never asked what the outcome of it was but at least they seemed to care and were interested in an internal investigation.

WRONG. I was on Escape last week and it was advertised that the free perk is valued at $125, and you could upgrade to Basic Unlimited Wi-fi for $90 or Premium Unlimited Wi-fi for $120, which I did. See this post: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=55512211&postcount=98

So you have to do the upgrade on board and then don't get the reduced internet rate? Meh

I don't think so many people are actually late. Most are just 20 minutes or so early for the drill.

I always try and start moving towards the muster station when they sound the general emergency alarm requesting the passengers to proceed to the muster station at this time. Otherwise you are sitting around bored and getting shouted at by crew members for using your phone or talking to loudly even though they know the muster drill isn't going to start for 10 minutes or so.

Thank you so much. If Nathaniel is the guy who was playing the piano a couple of years back on the Jade I hope he will still be around in May. Have good memories about him. No pizza in La Cucina on the Gem last month. Really excited about the additional choice.

For a different perspective. I enjoy, even more than the food, a more attentive service in a quiet setting. As you have seen in the responses there is a bit of a consensus on the strategy so I would rather go with a port day. Unless it is a cruise with a very south European or south American demographic I feel like most people tend to dine early so it would be port days around 9.30pm for me. Best chance to get a nice dinner.

At least for me I feel more fresh and ready for a good dinner after a long day in port, without to much alcohol and food the whole day than after a seaday that was pretty much eating and drinking and sleeping the whole time.

I can't see the photos, is it just me?

Photos work here for me, safari on mac

I don't feel bad for them. They are adults, can vote and get active for their own interests. If they don't do but sheepishly accept it no one else will.

There is one thing I needed a while to understand and accept and that is that NCL is doing what the majority of their guests like even though for me it sometimes is so unbelievable bad and wrong. I wasn't on the Breakaway but on the Gem with bad weather and a change in the itinerary as well. I was annoyed by the lack of information, especially useful information. The information delivered to the cabin was pretty much similar useless as the captains mornings navigational and weather update "we are expecting adverse weather" and "be careful" which is for me not exactly informational. Even when asking Guest Services for a detailed forecast and data they were unable to deliver it at first. During the discussion someone in white brought a printout of the forecast map though. Later that evening they actually had three printouts with forecasts in 12h intervals showing the original and modified route with sea state and wind information. Exactly what I believe should have done from the beginning on and even delivered to every stateroom. Then there would have been no doubt why we did what we did. They could have even done a lecture about it on the following sea days. Even the next announcements no word about the additional information available at Guest Services.

But whenever I talked to people the next days the itinerary change and weather was a topic but no one had a clue and surprisingly no one cared enough to actually ask for more information. So if that is the standard of response they get from their guests, why should they do announcements like you and probably I would expect and enjoy? Risking more follow up questions and work for them than just keeping quiet.

Similar on a longer repositioning cruise a while ago. I talked to the F&B director why there was nothing inspiring and out of the ordinary NCL offerings done on the additional sea days. Edutainment sessions from the different F&B departments, food offerings combined with entertainment during the night. Something creative to try out with the many days normally not available on their regular itineraries. He was pretty and honest and admitted that they are not putting in more effort which might have a low guest response as the overwhelming majority was absolutely happy with what was offered. And looking around the next days he obviously was correct.

I still believe that this laziness of NCL will get back at them in the near future but so far there is no reason for them to try harder. So don't blame the cruise line, blame the fellow guests ;)

Exciting especially with the pictures. I will be on the Jewel in May so subscribing to this thread.

I can't remember all of them. Two parties, the 80's rock and a second one with the Caribbean band was actually with life music outside on the pool deck after the second theatre shows. They put out a small buffet at topsiders outside during that time was well.

The white hot party and probably others are done with music from the on board DJ.

Kids are always allowed, the only place adults only is Bliss lounge after 11(.30?)pm

There is no need to buy clothes for that. Most do wear white but not everyone does or is expected to do so. I thought the white hot party, especially being held in the Spinnaker, did lack atmosphere on the Gem last week. With the right crowd it might be a great party but it is far from being the hottest party on sea. Compared to the Breakaway Glow Party last year in January pretty much a joke. NCL could take a lesson from Costa to learn how to do big party right.

I just returned in the Gem yesterday and it was annoying with > 2 days confined mostly inside. Even though their crappy information made it sound much worse than it actually was over the long time it did affect my mood. And surprisingly quite an amount of NCL staff was affected by the motion as well. Must be tough for them getting back into those conditions again.

Wouldn’t bullying include doing it on purpose. I am sure I violated whatever the etiquette is dozens of times like everyone else. Being busy talking reading the freestyle daily or using the phone, being overly tired and not paying attention, being drunk, ...

And no I don’t feel bad about it.

My cruise was booked in May 2017 for May 2018, so it was booked after the changes, so you might be correct about that. But it might also have something to do with that it was booked through NCL Europe (and yours booked through the US branch of NCL?). There are other differences between cruises booked through the two NCL branches, so it might be that European laws require it to be deducted at the time of booking the shore excursion??? (I am just taking a wild guess..... :) )

Nope, I have one booking through a US travel agent and one through a german one. In my ncl.com account I get the 15% discount at checkout for shore excursions on both cruises.

wrong thread :/

Reviews are different to interpret as you hardly get a feel who was traveling and what their expectations were. I for sure wasn't happy with my two Costa cruises even without being american, but I still had a good vacation. You can take something positive out of the trip and still conclude that it wasn't worth the time, money or both and that you would neither make that decision again or recommend it to friends.

Just a word about the language as that is one of my complains as well. It is not about people not being capable to speak english but about how the dynamics on board change when there is no common language. IMHO that has such a big impact on many different aspects of the cruise.

But as you don't have a choice anyway due to travel dates just enjoy the time. What else can you do ;)

Interesting, in 2015 I asked NCL because of that before booking and they confirmed all tax was already included in the UBP. I can't find the emails anymore but I know that on a later cruise on the Spirit they did charged tax for individual drinks even though the UBP was bought online before but I got the money back after the cruise.

I will get a confirmation in writing that it is still the case before eventually booking a february cruise on the Spirit.

Just some brief thoughts about our 20 days going from Savona to Santos. I will just briefly touch some areas if there is interest in something more detailed just ask.

Itinerary:

24.11.2017 Savona

25.11.2017 Barcelona

28.11.2017 Cadiz

30.11.2017 Arrecife

01.12.2017 Las Palmas

08.12.2017 Recife

09.12.2017 Maceio

10.12.2017 Salvador da Bahia

11.12.2017 Ilheus

13.12.2017 Rio De Janeiro

14.12.2017 Santos

Transfer and boarding

Booked through Costa. Flight from Cologne to Mailand via Munich was okay. Bus transfer from MXP to Savona cruise terminal horrible. More than an hour wait at MXP until all the flights arrived, just two staff members sorting all the guests from two cruise ships for a couple of buses. Even after boarding the bus I had to wait more than an hour until everything was sorted out. The bus transfer was okay, we had a toilet/cigarette break in between with free toilets.

Check-In was a mess, not sure why as Savona wasn’t busy with just two ships. No information in the terminal. Good to know, when Costa announces boarding number 16 they actually mean 16 to 19. I have seen guests with up to three numbers ahead being allowed to board without problems. Not sure if the document check with just 2-3 people or the 2! xray machines was the bottle neck.

I would never again use the Costa transfer to Savona, stupid decision and totally my fault as I should have expected something like that.

Activities

The most brain stimulating were probably the italian and portuguese language lessons. I wasn’t able to attend them as they happened to early in the morning though. Apart from that pretty much only embarrassing pool games with a hyperactive animation team and always the same 20 guests participating. No destination lectures, history or anything similar. The themed parties were nice, the short music parties in the Atrium between the dinner seatings were getting boring as the DJ seemed to only have one music set. The white night was awkwardly scheduled during the busy Brazilian port days. Not sure why with so many sea days. They had planned a black and white party on the deck 9 aft open deck but had to cancel it because of rain. Not only the animation team was busy with talking to friends instead of informing the guests coming up but the didn’t even organise an replacement event inside.

Theatre shows

Fire and Ice was without doubt the best show. It lacked a bit of the wow compared to NCL’s elements because of the smaller amount of cast. But still overall a good one. The other production cast shows were average at best. Guest entertainers were okay, some pretty decent and some quite questionable but that is to be expected.

Food

For the vegan options you get every night an individual menu where you can mark the dishes you want you have for the night, as the waiter can’t use his mobile device to order. In theory it sounds great but when you got your dish you were questioning your memory if that really was what you ordered. I heard this complain from guests with the regular menu as well. For example they advertised a vegan lentils burger. What I got were some lentils in the form of a burger patty but that was it. No bun, salad, vegan cheese or anything else. So I stopped going there after a while even though their cold soups were nice.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner in the buffet was really good though. Attentive staff, hot food and good quality. Nothing negative to say at all and I was always able to find a seat.

Excursions

I booked Costa shore excursions for every port in Brazil. All were well organised and used modern buses. The quality of the guides was mixed but I don’t expect to much and can’t remember lots of detailed historic details anyway. One interesting detail is that especially the tour duration on the description when booking online and those on board was different (shorter on board and in reality than what was advertised online). Most of the descriptions are so vague especially with the times (transportation, beach time, …) that some guests were more disappointed but it worked out well for me.

Guests

Unbelievable. I have never before seen so many rude and disrespecting rules guests like on this ship. Especially in the buffet, if there were no tongues for pastries it was interpreted as an invitation to use the hands, water bottles were refilled even though there were signs everywhere telling us not to do so. And the staff didn’t even care when standing half a meter away. People continued to slowly walk on the jogging track next to each other holding hands?!? Hardly anyone who acknowledged other guests when meeting them on hallways, in the elevator or bars.

In addition there is no common language on board what makes it a very weird atmosphere compared to other cruise lines.

Bar

Atrium bar by far the best staff and tasty drinks. Just like on American ships being a regular customer and tipping improves the quality of the cocktails a lot. In general as soon as the bars got more busy the staff was completely overwhelmed and wait times got annoying. However other cruise lines do it they seem to be more effective and better organised.

Staff

Lots of brazilian staff but I can’t say anything bad about them. Sure it is a different mentality than philippines or indian staff but they worked hard and did a good job. Never encountered anyone rude.

Musicians

The two real bands playing in the evening in the Salon Moliere were good, especially the one with the male singer but they only played there and at some of the big parties. The two guys at the atrium were the usual one guy at the piano/keyboard singing and playing over taped background music. At the other places I only stopped briefly over the days but never heard anything that would make me stop there for longer. I always miss that the musicians don’t change the venue and their music repertoire more often to make it a bit more diverse over the 20 days. Completely missing was something like in the rock club on the Diadema. Even in the piano bar I never heard the crowd really singing along.

Room

Inside on deck 2. Not as spacy as on the Diadema but sufficient and in good shape. I could chose wether to have my room steward cleaning in the morning or evening. No more morning cleaning and turn down service.

Conclusion

Biggest annoyance for me were the many languages. Not only that there was no common language you could use to talk to fellow guests, especially for the activities and shows it got super tiring that they repeated every sentence randomly in 3 to 5 languages. With such a diverse group of nationalities on board I had expected to have the primary language as english or at least only italian and english.

Of course it was a worthwhile trip, vacation and with Brazil a new country but with so much competition available Costa really needs to get more quality especially into activities, shows and music.

since NCL is giving you the on board credit, it make sense for it to be non refundable obc.

 

That is my concern. If you do a shorex on the very last day, it would not appear on your folio overnight and so be available on the LAST (debarkation) day. How would you spend it?

Isn't the balance calculated when the account gets closed? So that the order of the expenses and OBC's don't matter. SUM(all your expenses during the cruise) - SUM(OBC's) = remaining payment.

The only time getting the OBC after the tour would be difficult is when you do a disembarkation shore excursion.

How does MSC compare?

Never been on MSC because I found their price and availability policies for solo travellers not very customer friendly. But what I heard from people changing over from NCL Haven to MSC yacht club was quite positive.

I've been cruising for several years. I like to try new cruise lines to sample different styles of cruising. I've been wondering if I should go on Costa. I'm American, so it would not be the most natural choice compared to other cruise lines. I'm up for an adventure, but I know that it would be different from other cruise lines. Before I'd think about going, I'd want to know if I would be prepared to face the differences, and anything that could prohibit me from enjoying the experience. I'd appreciate insight anyone can offer on the matter.

Short answer No. Not because costa would be European, which is in itself a weird statement as I am still looking for he common European characteristics shared between for example Sweden, Germany, Italy and Greece.

But a clear no because of quality, service and value. They are doing pretty much what NCL, RCI and others do just worse.

As I am on the favolosa right now I would say their email communication pre cruise has been better than what is going on on the ship.

I am on board of Costa Mediterranea now. Social Pack 24 hours cost 5 EUR + 3 EUR activation fee (paid first time only).

I am on the Favolosa. Interesting for those on longer itineraries. One day 5€, 20 days 49€. I think that is really fair.

I had something similar happen on a flight to Barcelona. I lost my iPad, absolutely my own stupidity. So I used the form of the airline and was pretty sure I would get it back. The workflow wasn't the most customer friendly anyway so when I got the message that it wasn't found I was pretty annoyed as I was sure the airline just didn't care.

But a bit later I got the gps position of my iPad near a park and public library in Barcelona. So I guess someone was stupid enough taking it and either risking his job or getting caught by the police for such little value.

Same might have happened after you checked out and the staff opens all passenger doors for easy turnover of the rooms.