Sheila3
-
Posts
64 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Store
Blogs
Downloads
Events
Gallery
Posts posted by Sheila3
-
-
Yes, we are a couple from The Netherlands and are booked on this cruise :)
-
Looks like your sailing 23.00. Muster drill should be about 9 PM, make that latest boarding. Cabins are usually ready by 2 PM. 12.30 is a bit early unless you're coming straight from hotel check out, I think this is Deliziosa's first US stop, USCG inspection may be unusually slow. 3 PM should avoid the initial crowd.
Very usefull advice!
Last year we debarked in FLL as it was the end of our Transatlantic cruise. It was an unorganized mess in the arrivals hall and I suspect that the embarkation will be slow on that day too.
-
Hello,
FYI
This also aplies for The Netherlands: All Costa ships and departures from April 1st 2018 (Costa Magica from April 21 2018) The rest of Europe will soon follow I guess :)
-
What did you find with the music in the Grand Bar? On Pacifica and Diadema, the second group in the Grand Bar has been eliminated. The dance group I'm with in January is trying to find out if they've done the same thing on Deliziosa- it makes a difference to her music schedule, and her contact at Costa doesn't know/won't tell. (They replaced it with recorded music, which is fine in theory, but only a single one, and whoever put it together didn't know what they were doing.)
Hello Dancer Bob,
I like ballroom dancing too!.
To give you an idea of their schedule in Grand Bar while on TA:
6:00pm recorded music
7:00-9:00pm live music on some evenings, on other evenings 7:00-8:15 when entertainment team had an event there.
10:00 - 11:30 live music, again on some evenings partly replaced by party from animation team (which means line dancing or games)
After 11:30 recorded music, still people dancing but not a lot going on in Grand Bar.
For the whole cruise only La Dolce Vita Band played live in Grand Bar.
Greetings!
-
Wow, thight flight schedule!
I would definitely contact Costa on this matter, get a written answer from them to avoid discussions later.
Getting to next port can be expensive, isn't day after Guadeloupe a sea day and after that Santo Domingo D.R.?
-
Hi Sheila, Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts so openly! And for including the daily programs.
My wife and I will be on the Mediterranea in March, you mentioned there's not a lot of meat--but is there chicken and fish? I ask because we try to eat fairly low carb.
For breakfast on the buffet is there cheese, deli meats, yogurt?
Eric
Thanks Eric!
Chicken and fish are on the menu almost daily, does come with sauces and or cheese though. They are not quite willing to make changes in dishes. A ceasar salad no cheese no anchovies for example was not possible.
Breakfast is merely european style so plain, unsweetend yoghurt and lots of fruits available. Cheeses and cold cuts available. No boiled eggs in buffet only omelets and fried eggs there. Want a boiled egg, go to MDR :)
Greetings!
-
Was not able to edit post so here are some other things I would like to mention:
Entertainment
Shows were good, they speak some English but most of the times they speak Italian or Spanish, glad I understand these languages.
Shows consist of singing, dancing, acrobats, illusionists, The Voice of the Sea and only one evening of this 20 days there was no show, an ABBA concert was showed on the screen in theater.
Animators were good and present, lively and upbeat. If you like (ballroom) dancing: this is your cruiseline! Lots of ballroom and latin dancing opportunities, music well sang and played.
Daily activities ok, 4 Italian lessons by Salvatore were great and included a certificate and prosecco toast on day 4! Was missing an "Exploration Guide" like on HAL cruises though... Only info on ports you get is how great the ship excursions are and how to buy them...
We saw the cruise director Max only 3 minutes a day during shows. Held his talk in 5, 6 languages after the show and after the first (Italian) half of theater was empty, day in day out. I speak multiple languages and noticed he did say different things in different languages. After a couple of days he skipped German and left it out for rest of the cruise.
Disembarkation
Received luggage tags day before departure in afternoon, no explanation on the color code (time slot). Was in room several times that evening but got Diario di bordo very late so only after 12 in the evening I found out that we were given a time slot wich was too late for our flight plans. Was already in pajamas so got dressed again and up to guest services to change.
They expected long waiting times as the whole ship including crew and staff had to go through immigration (entering USA). So glad that we skipped the "sit and wait in theater until it's your turn to debark" We were stubborn and took a peak at deck 3 (exit ship). We saw a disembarking group walking and walked behind them and off the ship we where :)
Outside was a long, very long line for immigration that took over 2 hours to get passport stamped. Costa hired US personnel (not the immigration officers) to lead the process and lines but they weren't the best...
-
Hello,
I would like to share our thoughts on our trans Atlantic cruise with Costa Deliziosa from 2 December until 21 December 2016.
A little about us: We are from The Netherlands, I am 35, he is 43, no kids, started cruising in 2010 and cruise 2-3 times a year.
I have attached 2 daily programs to this post, one from a sea day and one from the day in Casablanca.
Embarkation
We took a flight to Nice and came with the Costa transfer bus to Savona for embarkation. We were quite late in Savona, bus had to wait for delayed flight of other passengers and embarkation was quick and efficient. However what I found strange that Costa asked for a printed version of the ESTA. We did print this but it was not asked to bring in the paperwork I received from Costa. Lunch buffet closed 20 minutes after we embarked.
Stateroom and stateroom steward
Booked and received an inside stateroom, we were in #1314, a large square inside cabin with a queen bed and a sofa.
Stateroom steward, Carlos from Honduras was friendly an efficient, did a good job and was visible.
General state of the ship
Liked the layout of the ship. Public areas looked nice, were well kept and clean. This cannot be said for public restrooms. Clogged closets, no toilet paper, no hand towels, no soap. Not all the times but a lot of times at least 1 of mentioned things were not clean or missing.
Locker room, sports and sauna
Missed towels and sanitizer in the gym. Sauna was great, hot and well visited on this cruise. Of two showers in ladies locker room 1 had broken thermostat so only lukewarm shower. No bath gel in dispenser the first 3 days, others days I was missing towels, toilet paper...
Food and service in Main Dining Room
Were on 1st seating on embarkation day but we changed to late dining day after.
First night late dining we were on a French speaking table. The night after, already sitting there, we were told by waiter that we weren't sitting on the right table and he told us we should move to another table. He made us feel clumsy and awkward, not a nice experience.
For the whole cruise we had a large table just for us, which we liked. Service by Reymond and his assistant in evenings was good, fast and efficient. No wonder, later that cruise I found out that Reymond was in training to become a manager.
Lunches in MDR however were a disaster. No matter what you are seated with other people, no option for a "table for 2". What I really don't like is that they just fill up tables at lunch. That means that you are eating soup while others on same table are almost finished with there main course...
At lunch you can and will get the wrong dish, they forget about courses, drinks. For people at our table getting water and some ketchup for their young kids took 20 minutes! Needless to say that these poor, well behaved kids did not eat their hamburger...
Service is slow and servers seemed rushed, not friendly, no apologies for mistakes.
Breakfast in MDR is similar to lunch so went only 2 times. They only serve omelets, eggs etc. There is a buffet in MDR for other items. No refills for coffee, ask for it!
Most dishes were prepared well and came at the right temperature. We like pasta so we ate well. Do not expect a lot of meat, steaks etc.
We saw the Maitre'd almost every night... at the table next to us... and talking to and offering different dishes then on menu to the people from Austria who were sitting there. He never spoke to us...
Food and service Lido buffet
Food on Lido was good for breakfast and lunch. Lido dinner menu was very repetitive and had not the same selections as in MDR. For dinner only 2 stations were open so expect long lines.
At breakfast: if you ask for 1 egg sunny side up the worker points at already made omelets from buffet, I guess he wasn't ready yet to bake an egg for me...
A lot of times I found workers in buffet overworked, not interested or trying to do as little as possible. An example: saw female worker accidentally dropping cleaning cloth which fell under a table. She and male co-worker saw it, they looked at each other (so both knew) but never picked up the cloth. 15 min. later a supervisor came, saw the cloth and asked worker to pick it up which she did.
I also saw workers getting reprimanded in public by their supervisor.
In my opinion there are some serious service issues going on, I suspect these issues are fleet wide and not only present on Costa Deliziosa. Too little crew workers for tasks, not well trained crew and very hierarchic supervisors.
La merenda (tea time) in buffet was very well visited, long lines for fruit, cookies and small sandwiches. If you have food allergy: they will easily replace a salmon sandwich with roast beef sandwich...
They serve drinks in plastic cups on lido, fine for water, not so fine when drinking beer or wine.
Talking about water: It took us 2 weeks getting to know their "rituals" in terms of opening and closing water and coffee and tea stations, workers close stations in front of you and can't or won't tell which other station is still open.
Bars
In general service was OK and coffee and drinks well prepared. Had one incident though where a cocktail waitress kept us waiting for over 20 minutes and eventually ignored us, even standing next to us serving other guests.
Past Guest event
We got an invitation for the Costa Club past guest event with the captain. It was held on elegant night in theater after the show.
Got a glass of sparkling wine at the entrance. We sat in middle of theater and waited a long, long time for the second glass of wine so toasting with captain with an empty champagne glass... No wonder, there were only 3 workers present that had to serve the sparkling wine out of bottles for a well filled theater, finger food never came to us... so much for planning and organisation.
Guest Services
They call it "Hospitality Service Desk", an ambitious name. After 10 days or so I reported the service issues and complaints, most of them also mentioned above. First the lady from guest services asked me to mention these issues in the survey the send after the cruise. That sounded weird to me, these were serious issues that occurred and in my opinion need to be addressed while on the cruise not after you return. I insisted and made official complaints, gave several examples.
Next day I was called by the manager of guest services and she invited me for a meeting with the food and beverage manager. The meeting was in his office, guest service manager was also present but only on background nodding, not speaking. He asked me to talk further of the examples and told me he would talk with supervisors. I also mentioned my opinion it being a fleet wide problem (lack of crew, lack of training, hierarchy), he only smiled and then asked, quite sarcastic in my opinion, if I could also mention some positive things about this cruise and asked me if this was my first cruise. I almost fell of my chair... I invested time to come to the service desk, answering phone call and attending this meeting! Didn't want this to ruin my day so kept polite and finished conversation and returned to my room to dress for the evening.
Next day, however, just after lunch a bottle of good prosecco, a plate of cookies with a postcard with written "enjoy the rest of your cruise" arrived, signed by the food and beverage manager.
We decided to indeed enjoy the bottle, along with the cruise and can only hope that my signals and those of other guests are picked up by Costa ships and headquarters.
I spoke to a lot of other guests from The Netherlands, Germany and USA and a lot of them found service below standards.
Would I cruise with Costa again?
We like to cruise often and select merely based on itinerary, travel period and price. I would cruise with them again but only if itinerary is better and prices are much lower than HAL, Carnival, NCL, Princess etc.
-
Hello,
This concerns Costa but also all other Cruise Lines when booked through Germany, see also: http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.kreuzfahrten-aerger-ueber-zwangstrinkgeld.f3480675-0cc3-4665-8c63-3571aa7c8dab.html
-
I realize that this is a post from may 2016 but I would like to comment.
Service Charges on cruise ships are no longer compulsory for German cruisers, since the Bundesgerichtshof (court) in 2015 decided that the Service Charges should be included in the advertised price of the cruise.
This, however is not applicable for cruise guests from other European countries.
-
We where on the Magica in august and didn´t book a premium cabin (what´s premium about an inside cabin on a low deck anyway...)
Long story short: you have to be persistent but it is possible to change the time...
We did request a change in dining time once onboard. The Maitre first told us that it was not possible to change... then he would put us on a list, a day later no answer so sorted it out trough guest services.
-
I was on the Costa Magica last august.
When we booked we knew that there was no evening or midnight buffet and only the fixed seating.
I booked a guarantee stateroom but was given what Carnival would call a 1A stateroom at the very front of the ship on deck 2. Carnival Triumph, sister ship of the Costa Magica actually sells these as 1A... After some phone calls to their office in Belgium they changed the room. I had the impression that the people I spoke to do not know the layout of the ship or staterooms.
Not being able to grab a snack from the buffet at night or simply drink a cup of coffee/tea of just have some water did bother us though.
The water and coffee machines at the buffet were not always filled, also often no ice available. When we woke up a little later one day we really had to walk though the lido over to at least 4 machines just to get some coffee, juice and some milk for my coffee.
The for a fee pizza at night wasn´t an option for us on this ship because the lack of atmosphere (they serve the pizza in the buffet area).
In september I did a ship visit in Hamburg and was on the Coste neoRomantica for a couple of hours. Over there the pizza restaurant was a separate venue and looked very nice. The pizza there was great and so was the wine and dessert :).
Back to the Magica: We had to go through a lot of trouble to change our fixed dining time to late seating. The first reaction from the Maitre was quote: "Not possible¨
Compared to other lines I the staff in the dining room was quite unfriendly, even asking for butter with my dinner rolls was too much.
I can confirm that the breakfast in the Lido has no eggs, waffles, bacon and so on. There is a buffet setup at the MDR and there you can order eggs etc.
The dining room almost only has tables for 6 or more people, if you want dinner for two or a breakfast for two your only options are room service or the paid steak restaurant for dinner.
About the open seating: If your Costa ship has an open seating, it is wise to look where the open seating is held. For example on the Costa Diadema the open seating is where the lido buffet is during the day... Not what I would call a nice and romantic dinner.
For a quick and very cheap getaway I would cruise with Costa again. If there are other options (and mostly there are other options), I would choose an other cruise line.
-
HI Ray
Have just seen this ( mainly because I just booked another costa cruise from Savona yesterday) :-)
We contacted the costa cruise email address ( I think it should be on their website) to arrange times and booking of the transfer. In fact we've just priced one today and it's £18 one way transfer from Savona to Nice airport.
Milan is slightly higher at £24
Kind regards
Glenda
Hi Glenda, thanks so much for sharing this!
We have done quite some cruises with other lines and will be going on the Costa Magica in august. Before you've mentioned it I didn't look at the Costa transfers because of our experience with the other cruiselines (HAL charges about $50 one way...)
Besides that it is is very economical for us to fly to Nice! All in all you have just saved us €250 for 2 pax. Thanks again!
-
I have never seen this on any Costa ship, Costa would serve tap water if you asked for it in the MDR, but this was stopped about 2 years ago.
US cruisers currently have a sticker on their Costa Card that says "USA Water" and withn thta they can get free pitchers of iced (tap) water in the MDR.
Wow! I am from the Netherlands and am planning a cruise with Costa. I am definitely going to ask for the sticker for 'free' water in de MDR. Quite ridiculous that Europeans should pay for tap water.
-
Thanks for reviewing the Getaway.
Glad you liked the ship.
-
Had a spa pass on the Epic transatlantic, for such an itinerary it was worth it.
For a seven day Caribbean itinerary I think the price of 199 dollars is too high.
You can compare the thermal suite with one at a good hotel or so.
From my European point of view the saunas are not hot enough and proper sauna-etiquette or rules aren't followed.
-
Now I am really curious if there is at least a shower that I can use in the gym locker room.
Last April on the Epic there were showers in both the locker rooms for thermal suite and the gym.
Would be very amazed if there is no shower in the gym locker room op Getaway.
Hope someone knows the answer to this, thanks!
-
Thanks for answering my question too!
Was able to look up my cabin nr. yesterday. Booked an inside guarantee and got cabin 11415. Happy with the location.
-
Thanks for answering my question too!
-
Same menu on Freedom last december, demo was @noon, so samples were a very nice lunch.
Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk
-
Love the value of an inside stateroom.
However I wouldn't book a guarantee if ship is likely to sail full, bigger chance you will get. the "bad" room and won't be able to switch rooms while on board.
Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk
-
Hi we were on the transatlantic cruise. Had Dominican Flavor as the Latin band on board, they were great. I am quite sure they will have a Latin band also while sailing in Europe, lots of Spanish and Italian passengers who like Latin music.
Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk
-
Thank you for posting this review.
Think I will bring a lighted make-up mirror with me.
Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk
-
First of all, there is only one cabin per booking with NCL so there are two separate bookings even if you have linked them.
Secondly, you need to split up. The terminals are determined by the deck of the cabin, even decks in one terminal and odd decks in another terminal. Keycards are pre-printed and trying to check-in through wrong terminal will cause a big delay with your check-in because the check-in personnel will have to walk to the other terminal to search and fetch the other keycards.
Thank you very much for your answer, will save us a lot of hassle.
Pullmantur from Cartagena or Curacao?
in Pullmantur Cruises
Posted
Sure, there are plenty of taxi's in Cartagena at both cruise port and airport.
Maybe a point to consider: There will be a lot more people embarking and disembarking in Cartagena than in Curacao so I personally would pick Curacao.