nicksd

Thanks for the response. We've gone ahead with this cruise, figured it be a nice entry level cruise to get a feel for things and then take it from there.

 

Is the dinner buffet available at an extra charge? I could find no mention of it. Is it at the Bellagio restaurant?

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner buffets are included in the price. Bellagio (deck 9) is where the buffet is served.

Hi NICKDS

 

Hi Tuibird,

 

.......... Was thinking of obtaining some cash before I go but not sure how easy it will be to use as I've heard Sweden is going cashless.

I was able to get my 3 days pre-cruise in Stockholm without any cash. I paid everything using my no foreign transaction fee credit cards: museum, metro pass, restaurants, street vendors, taxi.... so I had a small amount of Euro with me but I didn't need it at all.

 

.......Did you book any of the Costa excursions? If so I would be interested to hear your thoughts. I will actually be continuing on with Costa from Stockholm to Milan and note that two of the ports chosen -

 

I didn't use any Costa excursion as cruise ship excursion is overpriced and crowded. Since you travel by yourself, it's a great option to use the roll call to join other small private excursion group. You can save money and don't have to be on the big bus with 50+ other people.

.......I'm also curious to know if there were lots of families on board and were they predominantly Italian or a good mix of Nationalities. I am a solo traveller so not used to being around families or lots of children.

There were not a lot of kids on my cruise. I think it really depends on the lengths of cruise and school calendar. Longer cruises tent to have less kids.

 

Did any of your party use the gym (which I assume was free to use) or partake of any other facilities?

No I did not use any gym (my pedometer showed that I walked 7-9 miles per day....good enough for me ;p)

I would appreciate any comments you can make so I can be better prepared.

Thanks

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Hey nicksd, thanks for posting this! It seems that you had mixed feelings about your experience. Would you recommend this cruise to a first time cruiser? It's definitely very price friendly compared to other cruises that are available around the same time.

It's really sad to hear that the food was not to your liking as this is one of the most important aspects of this cruise. Did you pick the premium option which gave you the choice of first and second seating, and does that make any difference in terms of the food you get? Also, you mentioned that you skipped the dining room altogether for certain meals; did you order food in to your cabin, was it at an extra charge, and was there an a la carte menu to order from?

 

Thanks again for a really insightful review!

Hi. It's only my opinion when I compared to other cruises in the past. Since it's you first time cruiser, it will be fun as you get to explore the ship and food options.

No I did not have premium option. Makes no difference whether you have 1st or 2nd seating since it's the same menu. I skipped the main dinning room for the dinner buffet.

Nick............You said very little about St. Petersburg which I would imagine is the highlight of this cruise. Is there a reason? Were you disappointed with Russia?

I apologized for neglecting the details of our 2 days excursion in St. Petersburg. I sent out emails to several tour companies, and I selected Dancing Bears which offered a private "Two-Day St Petersburg Must See Must Do Shore Excursion" tour for 8 people at $220 USD/each. They were also willing to modify the tour to meet our needs. The reviews were positive.

St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with rich history, our tour guide was attentive and knowledgeable. We're lucky to be in St. Petersburg during the World Cup so the city atmosphere could not have been better. The only negative was we ran into big crowds every where we went in the city. We were picked up on time in a new 15 seat Mercedes Sprinter.

Day 1: We tour Upper and Lower parts of Peterhof, lunch (included), Subway ride, Catherine Palace (Amber room), and St. Isaac Cathedral.

Day 2: Faberge Museum, Hermitage, short boat ride, Church of Savior. The kids really enjoyed the Faberge Museum but I wish the egg collection could be more expansive.

I feel that we only scratched the surface with 2 days in St. Petersburg but the private tour gave us the most efficient way to make the most out of our short time there Our tour guide did a great job adjusting the program and communicating with the driver as he always pulled up when we came out of a place.

We were taken to a place for souvenirs for 20 minutes, prices and quality were not great. We were aware that tour operator probable received kickback but there was no pressure to buy anything. If you're interested in matrioshka dolls, I would wait to buy them in Estonia where you can walk around on your own from shop to shop and the quality seemed better as well.

..... I am having trouble understanding what is included for the basic categories. We would probably expect things to be similar to our recent experiences on Carnival and RC, so not sure whether these other lines would be the right fit for us.......

From what I understand, the "basic categories" is like booking a guarantee cabin with food and services similar to other cruise lines as stated here on Costa's web site. One big difference is tap water which will only be provided for guests booking from the US travel sites otherwise you'll have to pay. Other than below average quality of food and very hard bed, everything else is similar to Carnival and RC. We received very good services from Costa crew members. Hope it helps.

Hello,

My family of (7) just came back from 7 days Baltic cruise with Costa Magica, my 9 previous cruises were with Carnival, NCL, Holland, Celebrity and RCL but 1st time with Costa. My family booked 3 guarantee cabins (2 OV and 1 BAL); we all received upgrades to 2 BAL and 1 Suite. The following are my (subjective) observations:

We arrived 3 days early in Stockholm and used Flygbussarna (doorto gate) shuttle for airport pick-up and drop-off. The shuttle can take up to 9 people but I decided to book shared transfer instead of private (686 SEK using discount code CHINA vs. 1039 SEK each way). However, we had the shuttle all to ourselves for both trips. If you decide to book with this company, I highly suggest that you download their apps which will allow you to modify pick-up times, add additional pick-up instruction, use check-in feature to let them know that you’ve arrived.

The embarkation in Stockholm was the shortest and easiest I have seen, we're assigned group number at the baggage drop-off area. We arrived at 12:30 P.M. and it took about 30 minute f or us to get to the Lido deck for lunch buffet.

The ship announcements were in 4 languages which can be very long and annoying after awhile especially if youtry to take a nap in your cabin.

Dining room: We linked our booking together but we were assignment separate tables and different dining rooms.I had to come down to speak with Maitre D so we could seat together. The 2nd night, we’re all assigned to different dining room. Water was free for US customers but we only ate dinner at the dining room for the 1st 2 nights since we didn't care for the food. I understand that food is very subjective but I could not remember last time my family decided to skip the dining room dinner all together. Lamb was very tough, grilled fish was so soggy that my sister thought it should have been steamed fish, I only found steak in the up charge menu, the food felt cheap overall.

Buffet: The buffet line etiquette is different on Costa where buffet lines can start from both ends as people do not follow instruction, it was normal for people to reach over you to get to the items they want. I found breakfast buffet was comparable to other cruises minus the omelet stations. Lunch buffet was good but the burger patties were not good at all. Dinner was the worse I have seen as the menu stayed almost the same the remaining 5 days we ate there. There was no steak except 1 night and no carving station. Everything was not very good except pastry and desserts. There were TVs in the buffet area that showed live all World Cup games.

Debarkation: The debarkation was also the easiest we have seen as we waited until 10 AM to leave the ship but we didn’t really notice any line before that at all.

Port:

We use Dancing Bears for our 2 days in St. Petersburg.

Other Ports: I decided to share my notes which I copied from some posts here and added some links and details for myself. Hope it helps

Stockholm

Moovit apps or Stockholm Rail apps

Gamla Stan (Old Town)

Free Walking Tour

Royal Palace changing guards (12:15 every day,1:15 Sunday)-Love marching band on horseback.

Vasa Museum

Under the bridge tour

M/S Emelie (100SEK/day, under 13 free) Hammarby Sjöstad Stop.

From Frihamnen port, follow blue line, cross the street toyour left. Use Visa or Master to purchase ticket. Bus 76 to Slottsbackenstop in Gamla Stan or Djurgårdsbron for Vasa museum

Helsinki

8AM-6PM West Harbour and Hernesaari LMA (You'll need transport to the centre, about 10 - 15 minutes by ship's shuttle or taxi, and ho-ho buses stop at the cruise port. Centre is the market place, here you'll find boat trips and tram routes and some sights).

We took Tram 7 (or 6T weekend/evening) from the cruise ship in West Harbour (quay LMA) there is a bit of walkingas you follow the blue line once you reached the tram tracks you'll see Terminal 1 to the left and Terminal 2 to the right across the street, both about equal long way to walk to. Terminal 1 is the one closer to the city. The tram stops outside the terminals have ticket machines that take credit cards(Visa and Master Card, I assume only with chip) or Euro coins, NOT notes. Länsiterminaali Västra terminalen…………….Stop Senaatintori (Senate Square).

Suomenlinna fortress requires taking a ferry from Market Square. The ferry station is right next to the Market square, I asked a vendor and she pointed it out for me.

Tallinne:

Download Rick Steve’s map

Follow people as you get off the ship, there will be lots of people walking to old town, a very easy 1 mile walk. If you have to take taxi 10 Euro is a suggested price.

Free tour : May-September every day at 10:00, 12:00 and 15:00. Show up in front of the Tallinn Tourist Information at Niguliste 2 a little before the starting time.

Nick

Our cruise ship docks in Civitavecchia at 6:00 AM on Wednesday October 26 and departs at 7:00 PM. Has anyone with a similar schedule made it to the Wednesday morning Papal Audience? If so, how did you get there in time?

Ideally we want to see the Papal Audience, tour St. Peter's Basilica and see the Vatican Museum. My wife uses a cane and has trouble with steps and walking any distance so our transportation choices are limited.

All input is appreciated. Thank you.

Timolin

I have done it once when we were in Rome but not from the cruise. We obtained the tickets through Santa Susana Church the day before. I looked around but I could not figure out how you can get the tickets the same day and that could be your biggest issue. I found a post that showed various ways to obtain tickets but not on the same day.

You have be on board by 9:00 PM.

 

Two hours prior.

 

 

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Thank you. That will give us a full day to tour Venice as we plan to leave our bags with the hotel after checking out.

Thanks everyone for great info as we'll be on Spirit in December. We'll be in Venice the day before. What's the latest time we can check in for 11PM departure? I am hoping to stay in Venice as long as possible without having to go back and forth. Thanks

I read a post earlier today that stated they got to Labadee late and had a shortened call.

I just got off FOS this morning. We got to Labadee around 1:20 PM and stayed until 4:30 PM (originally scheduled to leave at 3:30). I had a cabana reserved 6 mos ago but I cancelled it due to short time in port. I saw an older gentlemen leaving the ship on a stretcher with what appeared to be his wife and several members of his family including a baby. They had an ambulance waiting and a taxi van pulling in to pick them up. I felt so bad for him and his family. Hope he's doing OK.