itscamparitime

8 minutes ago, mickey89 said:

 

Where did they announce it, can't see it on their official web site.  Surely that's the place for it ....... ?

we can't find it either !

On 1/11/2019 at 2:03 PM, tim716 said:

Thank you very much for your answer! I'll be very grateful for any useful advice.

The matter which worries me about the pier operators is that in this case it's only my responsibility to return to the ship on time. And February is a rainy season there (that's what can make my ongoing cruise very different from yours indeed). What if I go on an excursion, and then it starts raining (pouring) in the afternoon making the timely return impossible?

What did the roads look like (to the places you went)? Hard surface, stones or dirt, which I guess can make the road undriveable during hard rain?

Malaria concerns me too, thank you for the reminder. Unfortunately there's no chance to buy Malarone in Russia or Mauritius. And by the way it's really toxic to the liver, so I wouldn't like to take it "just in case". What I'm gonna do is buy Coartem and an express test in Madagascar, and in case of any illness after Madagascar promptly make the test and take Coartem if positive. And repellents for skin and clothes of course (even Costa recommends them for shore excursions).

What I hope for is we won't spend any nights in Madagascar, and I heard the moscito species transmitting malaria are active only in evenings and nights.

Hello sorry for delay in getting back to you. Firstly I will say that being November we had amazing weather, with hardly any rain that bothered us. In Mauritius we arrived very late at our hotel which was located in Tombeau Bay and travelled by taxi the roads were fine, hard surfaces much like the normal road surfaces in most countries. The following day we took our hotel courtesy bus into Port Louis, and here we did everything ourselves on foot deciding not to venture too far as still tired from our long flights the previous day ( also we knew we would be back in Mauritius  at end ) the next day we went to the port around 12 30 and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly embarkation was, we were on board within an hour.  When we arrived in Victoria Seychelles we decided after doing some research to do our own thing and walked to the bus station and took a bus to Beau Vallon which was a lovely beach/seaside resort . It is very reasonable on public transport, We saw lots of people from our cruise here who had taken the cruise tour which was exactly the same as what we did on our own, and hugely expensive in comparison. The next day in Victoria we took a tour from outside the port it left around 7 30 am ( the lady who accompanied us was called Danielle and she had lots of knowledge, she operated the tour but unfortunatly I cannot find her details ) and we did some Island hopping  we visited a nature reserve and back to Victoria by 6pm the roads once again were all fine and there wasnt any rush to get back to ship as we were in port overnight, the next day we did our own thing again and went to the Botanic Gardens just around 25 min walk from the port we had a couple of hours here and had a comfortable walk back to the port ready for our departure to Madagascar. At Nosy B, we were tendered in , here we took a 4 x 4 vehicle again from outside of the port and did a tour around with some fellow passengers we had got friendly with,  again the roads were all fine, we did a street market, the trail of the crosses, we saw the Baobab trees, we saw lemurs,  In Tamatave we did a Costa Tour which took us to an indoor market, a visit to a nature reserve . In Madagascar you have to remember that it is a very poor country, outside the port are hundreds of locals trying to offer trips so be prepared to negotiate a deal , also just something our friends did, they took photos of the vehicle and the driver as they felt a bit uneasy, but we didn't have any problems, also be prepared to be stopped en-route by local police, who it would seem are corrupt and extort money from the drivers, calling them to one side and out of sight of the passengers. Because of this you might consider that the safety of the ship tours might be best, as the one we went on, we all left in separate buses in an cavalcade, we all went out together and returned together. I'm afraid I cannot comment of Reunion Island as we didn't get ashore due to the riots in France which had occurred in Reunion also, The airport and the Port were closed so we instead headed back to Mauritius early. I wish you well on your trip, out of all the ships we have travelled on Victoria was not my favourite, having some problems from day one with bathrooms both around the ship and our stateroom, It has had a recent refit, but still feel it needs something extra doing. The shows in my estimation could have been better as some we had to leave as just not worth sitting through, having said this it was a great itinery and we didn't have any problems with the food it was all edible. Enjoy !!

1 hour ago, tim716 said:

Hi everybody!

 

I'm on this cruise Feb 2 2019. Trying to plan the shore excursions for the ports now, I as well think the ship's excursions prices are exorbitant, so I'm planning to minimize the costs by taking as much local agency tours as possible. I'd like to see as many places as possible as this is probably gonna be the only opportunity to see those places in my life.

I'd be very grateful for any reviews or tips from anyone who already completed the itinerary. (Thank you kremerlorraine, your message is priceless to me).

I especially need the info on a few things:

- Which of the ports of call are tendered? (this is quite strangely not shown on the official itinerary). What was the situation with the tender tickets/early tender access? Did it disrupt your local agency excursion plans? Also by my experience tendered ports are 10x times more probable to get missed due to weather.

- How did you plan for Tamatave where the ship visits for only half the day?

- What places did you like the most?

- Please please the contacts of the local tour agencies which you used and were happy with! For any port. I copied Madabest for Diego Suarez, will contact them.

- In Seychelles, how to make a day excursion to Praslin and La Digue on budget? The cheapest price I've found so far is about $200.

- Did anybody take Piu Gusto or another all inc drink package onboard? How well did it work?

I'd be also very grateful for any other tips and advice.

Hello we did this cruise in November so I can probably give you some information about it later on as haven't got sufficient time at the moment! What I will say is that right outside the port is any number of tour operators and that we used a few in different ports only doing one with the ship! I'll get back to you! The important thing to do though is make sure you have anti malarial tabs! Madagascar is a red flag for mosquitoes and you are advised that because of this all visitors should have them! See my previous posts as I have the details of which tablets you need for the ports in Madagascar 

Belle 

On 11/2/2018 at 11:35 PM, Spambo2 said:

I'm going on this one over Christmas. 

 

I love the itinerary - my expectations are very low of the ship and the weather so hopefully things can only be better 🙂

 

Please let let me know how you get on, I'm especially interested in the shore excursions. 

On 11/2/2018 at 11:35 PM, Spambo2 said:

I'm going on this one over Christmas. 

 

I love the itinerary - my expectations are very low of the ship and the weather so hopefully things can only be better 🙂

 

Please let let me know how you get on, I'm especially interested in the shore excursions. 

Hi there we have travelled many times with Costa and we really haven't had a real problem only once and it was sorted out very quickly for us! I realise that the weather could be a bit of a issue but tbh we've had a few rainy days in European ports in summer/autumn seasons we have just made the best of the situation and always go prepared with our umbrella /raincoat just in case! Food entertainment cleanliness has always been very good as are the staff! In fact our worst cruise ever was last year with Royal Caribbean it was dreadful! Tired ship, the smallest cabin ever with bed up against the bulk head so I had to scramble in and out of bed, lack of storage, rude cabin lady the entertainment was so bad the highlight was when the Captain came armed with guitar and sang Mustang Sally the highlight of our holiday on board! We've never been on Victoria before and from some pictures that where posted on one of the forums on here it looks fine to us it's not quite as glitzy as some of their other ships but we don't mind that. Keep posted to this forum as sure that you'll get some info on the excursions! Hope some other people enroll soon on your roll call! Belle 

On ‎10‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 11:07 PM, itscamparitime said:

Hello, yes myself and other half are, there are quite a few others as well, if you go to Costa roll call forum you can see us all there. We are Carl and Belle from Wiral travelling out from Manchester on 8th with 2 night pre cruise hotel stay

 

sorry I put the wrong date we leave Manchester on 6th Nov

Hi there, no not in any of the cabins we have been in maybe in a suite! Specialist coffee is available but if you don't have a package/coffee voucher you will have to buy you can get coffee from a machine in the buffet which you don't have to pay for but only available at meal times! If you register on the Costa club you will be able to see any coffee deals available! Hope this helps ☺ 

Hello I can give some information regarding Costa cruise ships as just about to embark on our next trip with this company in November. One thing you will find is that the majority of travellers on these ships will be Italian, they will mostly be quite loud, they like to party and can be quite pushy especially if  queueing but there is always a lively atmosphere, so if youre looking to have a quiet cruise you probably won't get that with Costa. Our first trip was just a few months after the tragedy of the Concordia and I'll admit I was very dubious about this however my other half who is ex navy told me that because of that tragedy the one thing that would be first class would be the safety for the ship and for the passengers and he wasn't wrong. We have never really had any issues, oh apart from once when we hard a very noisy cabin this was not for long though as we went and spoke to the reception and later that afternoon we were given an upgrade to a nice quiet cabin. There is plenty of food both in the buffet and in the restaurants with lots and lots of choice . In the main restaurants the menu is usually 7 courses and again lots of choice they also have pizza, burger bars and afternoon sandwiches/snacks. The entertainment is varied and generally very good. Our cabins have always been immaculately clean and staff very friendly all in all excellent value for money. Think we are now on 9th cruise with Costa, we also travel with other cruise lines but value wise Costa wins. If you like a drink the packages they offer are the best value, if you book before you leave on line they are usually cheaper than on board, but when you consider a cocktail is usually 7 euros it really is far cheaper to get a drinks package. hope this helps a little.  

On ‎10‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 8:35 PM, Ian 1936 said:

Anyone travelln on Costa Vicoria in Indian Ocean  on 10th Nov.  Looking for fellow travellers perhaps to do taxi tours.   Enjoy everyone.!

Hello, yes myself and other half are, there are quite a few others as well, if you go to Costa roll call forum you can see us all there. We are Carl and Belle from Wiral travelling out from Manchester on 8th with 2 night pre cruise hotel stay

Any members travelling on this cruise 10th Nov 18 , as usual most of the reviews on this ship are pretty unfavourable

We've travelled with Costa many times, and don't usually take too much notice of reviews and mostly we've had a good holiday.

Hi

 

There were evening trips with the same company. Ballet and such. Suggest you email the company you decide to use and check whether they are taking people to the football.

 

Just a word of warning. Both days are jam packed seeing stuff and you will get back to the ship absolutely dead tired after the first day. We just had a shower , supper and bed if I recall because the next morning was even earlier.

 

Riana

Thank you Riana for all your help we will make further enquiries as suggested. Belle :cool:

If you book a tour the visas will be included. Not sure about the ship excursions. I won't try DIY in St Petersburg. I think I mentioned we went with Alla tours. Have a look at their website. They have all the info there.

 

Good luck.

 

Alicat

 

Sent from my SM-G965F using Forums mobile app

Thanks for the info we are there when the world cup semi final is on so my other half is keen to be ashore if at all possible in the evening after we've done our daytime sightseeing not sure if you would know if this is possible :)

Hi there

 

It is good to see a different name. By the way I also like Campari.

 

You will love the Baltic cruise. We did it a few years ago on the Luminosa. Talinn was lovely-DIY, just walk and you are in the town. We did a 2 day St.P tour with Alla. It was amazing and extremely good value. They book you with others in max 16 people. We were the only ones from Costa. All the others were from a Princess ship. We managed to get off the ship very early and quickly. Walked around Helsinki and enjoyed the market. Ho-Ho in Stockhold. Not great, make other plans if you can.

 

Alicat

We're looking forward to our Baltic cruise ,we've been to Tallinn and Helsinki before but not to the other ports of call we just need to find out about visas for St Petersburg :)

My goodness! I have managed to wake a few of you up.

 

I have only been on Cruise Critic for a few years now and to me it looks very active in general. I love looking at other cruiser's travels and photos. Where has everyone gone if they are not on Cruise Critic?

 

I disagree with Ron about the blandness. If you look at itineraries they are just about the same for all the lines in the various areas. I think the exceptions are the Far East cruises. Look at the Med, all the lines go to the same ports-East and West. Fjords, ditto. Baltics-ditto, Caribbean-the same places.

 

We've been on a Baltics cruise and it was great. It would not be one that I would repeat. I am not keen on the really cold weather ones so Alaska and even the Fjords I am not sure about.

 

It is a pity Costa does not do many new itineraries. Having said that we enjoyed our India and Singapore cruises immensely. Both American Coasts would be great.

 

Now , I would like to know how one manages to pierce your right hand with a garden fork. I think he is fibbing. MinL did it. Own up Ron, that's what has happened is it not.

 

Alicat(Riana

Hi can you tell me if we have to get visas as doing Baltic cruise in July with Costa and not sure what is required for St Petersburg as we will be there for 2 days thank you

It is very lonely on the Costa boards at the moment. I have been sneaking a peek at some old threads and there used to be so many Costa cruisers.

 

Has just about everybody jumped ship?

Alicat

Hi there I am still aboard heading on Baltic cruise on Magica in July ! You are right though it's very quiet on here at the moment ;):confused:

I have seen all the amazing posts about the MSC status match but just wondered what evidence you supplied when applying for the match.

 

On the form it says you need a copy of your membership card for the other loyalty scheme. We are RCCL crown and anchor members but can’t recall ever having a membership card or if ever did it’s been lost a long time ago! Does anyone know if they accept anything else as evidence to prove your membership level?

 

Many thanks

Hi there we took a screen shot of our current status from our previous cruise company we signed into our account which stated the level we had reached as well as points and forwarded copy via attachment which was accepted hope this helps

Hi Belle! Here is the link for the status match https://www.msccruises.co.uk/en-gb/MSC-Voyagers-Club/Status-Match-Form.aspx

 

I had mine back within 24 hours. I attached a screen shot from My Cruises which showed my status.

 

No I have not been on Fantasia but I have Meraviglia booked this month and Magnifica booked next month ( and then 4 with RCI to restore the status quo..!)

Hello I have just realised that I didn't get back to you to say thank you for the information you gave regarding status match, we eventually had it all sorted out and now look forward to seeing what MSC has to offer, we are off to Barbados in 3 weeks repositioning to the Med and looking forward to escaping the awful weather we have been experiencing here in the UK.:cool:

After about 50+ cruises within the RCI/Celebrity/Azamara family (and a few on NCL), a cruise on MSC was not really on my radar. I’m not sure how I found this cruise …perhaps an ad flashing up on my screen. Let’s start by saying it was cheap! Just £632 ($835) for 2 of us for a 7n cruise from Southampton round to Genoa in an ocean view cabin. That is cheap right? For that price how bad could it be! When I then found out that their drinks package was only £20pppd ($26.50pppd) I decided to book.

Firstly MSC have very smartly introduced a Loyalty Match to tempt cruisers from other lines. You simply send in proof of your loyalty tier, and 24 hours later you are enrolled. As I am D+ with RCI I was straight in at Black on MSC. Black is their top tier….and I hadn’t set foot on one of their ships yet! Blacks automatically get 5% discount on the booking price, and on board they get perks such as a complimentary dinner on board in one of the specialty restaurants, and a welcome bottle of champage (proscecco), a welcome gift like the baseball caps RCI used to give out, free photo and a chocolate ship. All good so far.

Now starts the story of needing to do your research! MSC have a ‘class system’ that would not look out of place on the Titanic or on Cunard…..I booked an oceanview within the Bella Category (which is the lowest category) and I expected (foolishly it would appear) that all the usual ‘stuff’ you get on a cruise would be included. No: I then learnt that Bella cabins were not entitled to free room service, Bella cabins were not able to utilise My Time Dining, Bella cabins were not guaranteed to get a table at their preferred dining time in the MDR, Bella cabins may sometimes get allocated a table for dinner in the buffet, Bella cabins have to bring their own toilet paper….ok I lied about that last one but you get the general picture. This somewhat took the shine off the cruise but it was too late! I could always drink myself to death if it was that bad.

The Preziosa is a Fantasia Class ship of just under 140,000 tonnes; with a maximum capacity of 4345; she was christened by Sophia Loren in March 2013; and she was originally being built for the Gadaffi Libyan family, complete with a shark tank on board! When they couldn't 'ahem' complete the purchase due to other commitments, MSC took her over. The ship looks new, and rather ‘bling’ with a pair of Swarovski crystal grand staircases.

Reviews often commented on the food and how it ‘wasn’t very good’ so to make sure we didn’t starve we booked a 2n dining package which gave us dinners at Eataly and Galaxy for £24pp ($31.75pp) in addition to our Black free meal!. I was certainly noticing that the on board costs were considerably cheaper than on RCI.

Have I mentioned that the drinks package is £20pppd?! Each person in the cabin has to book the drinks package. Apart from alcohol this also covered coffees and even ice cream, The Italians should be able to make good ice cream I think.

We also prepaid the gratuities at £49pp ($64.75) which is slightly cheaper than the €10pp (€70pp for the week/$82.65) payable on board.

Wifi was £14/$18.50 for the week. I understand this gives you surf access but no streaming.

MSC seems to operate their cruises like a bus.

People can board at ports along the route, meaning that there are Muster Drills on a daily basis and seems to mean that the formal nights could be on the night you board. Because of the international clientele the announcements on board are in up to 6 languages.

We also noted that the times in port were very short compared to RCI. The itinerary was

 

Wed: sail from Southampton at 1800

Thurs: at sea

Fri: La Coruna, Spain from 0800 – 1500

Sat: Lisbon, Portugal from 1300 – 2000

Sun: Gibraltar from 1500 – 2100

Mon: at sea

Tues: Barcelona, Spain from 0800 – 1400

Wed: Genoa, Italy arriving at 0900 and disembarking

……..I mean, who on earth goes to Gibraltar at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon??!!

There was a small but select CC group, most were newbies taking their first steps on board. We were all going to be in the same boat together!

So next up will be boarding and first impressions.

If you have any questions please ask.

Hello

We met this time last year RCI cruise from Dubai, and like yourself are now venturing away with MSC for the first time 10th April Barbados-Genoa on Fantasia I was interested to read about the loyalty match system but finding it hard to enrol on the site, can you give me any hints about this, also have you cruised on Fantasia yourself

Regards

Belle

Your review is very interesting and keen to see the remainder of your trip ! Two weeks today we will be en-route to London for our evening flight out ! Just out of interest what is deemed acceptable clothing for both male and female visitors ashore ?

Hi

Going on a costa cruise in April (first costa cruise) and have purchased the all inc. drinks package.

 

I have received my tickets for the cruise and the drinks package is included on the ticket but it also states "dining room 11pm" can anyone tell me what that means.

 

I hope that is not the time the drink package starts, my wife will be tearing her hair out if she has to wait that long to start her nightly 10 pints worth. :D

 

Thanks

Gary M.

Hi there

We did our 1st Costa cruise about 15 months ago, and we have done a couple with other cruise lines in-between.

The deal with the all inclusive package is fantastic, and if I remember correctly there is no given start time for you to obtain your 1st drinks, but as another member mentioned make sure your card is marked for a/inc otherwise like us you will have to go to the help desk to get it sorted out.

You can also get soft drinks, coffees and if going on excursions water to take ashore, although I did see on here that someone mentioned they were told they would have to pay for the water, so make sure you take some bottles from the bar to your room when you retire, then if you are going ashore you will have some to take with you. Please note any drinks taken from the Mini Bar in stateroom are chargeable We are off on 25th April on Serena from Barcelona - Western Med :)

Hope you have fun on your 1st Costa cruise WE DID !!

Hello

I was wondering if anyone is travelling on the Serena on the above date, this will be our 2nd cruise with Costa, our 1st was on Magica about 15 months ago.

My partner & I had a lovely time, apart from the huge delays in embarkation at Venice it was a great holiday ! especially considering the price:) just hope we have as good a holiday on this ship

Hello everyone,

 

My apologies if you see a duplicate post from me, as I can't seem to find the one I wrote first, it seems to have disappeared!

 

It has been my dream to visit Europe and I have started doing research. I am a 41 year old female who would be traveling alone. I am from the USA and only speak English. I thought it would be a good idea to take a cruise in Europe due to a few facts. I'd like to visit the W. Mediterranean and would want to visit Spain, France and Italy. As a single female traveler who speaks only English, I thought it may be easiest to take shore excursions off the ship and use the ship obviously for transportation since I thought it may be really confusing to use transit like train/bus/taxi if I can't understand French/Italian/Spanish. After doing some research, I landed on Costa because it visits the ports that I am interested in. The Costa Serena out of Savona to be exact.

 

Then I started reading the reviews from English speaking passengers and am concerned that the entire reason I was considering this, may be just as much of an issue. Reviews say that the crew speaks SOME English, but that most of the passengers do not. What concerns me is the crew as they'd be responsible for advising me and pointing me in the right direction. One of the reviews I read said that the ship they were embarking could not be docked in the original location so they were put on a shuttle to drive to the next location. However, the Costa rep only spoke in Italian and didn't explain anything in English which left the couple confused and frustrated not knowing what was going on. I do not want to feel this way being that I'd be a single female traveler.

 

Please don't get me wrong, I want to be immersed in the culture, I want to hear the different languages, I'd even like to learn some! But when it comes to my safety and feeling comfortable, I don't want to get myself into a bad situation.

 

Can any English speaking past Costa passengers weigh in on this at all? Many thanks for any help you can offer.

Hi there,

First just let me say that although English speaking people on Costa ships seem to be in the minority, this in no way spoilt it for my partner and I on our 1st Costa cruise 15 months ago.

We met some lovely people & plenty spoke English but you do have to remember that this is predominently an Italian cruise line. On our dinner table we were placed together with fellow English speaking people, one a lady who came on her own due to her friends father taking ill the night before they were due to sail out !

Costa have a meeting for anybody on board travelling alone, which we thought was a great idea, it gave this lady a lot more confidence and she thoroughly enjoyed her 1st cruise even though she did travel alone!

I travelled with my partner and we booked independently from the ship for a excursions with ' cruising excursions ', they were great and so much cheaper than the ships prices, please don't feel daunted by any uncertainty over the language issues, it would be a shame to miss out on an adventure due to worries over the language. We are travelling again with Costa on the Serena on April 25th and can't wait ! May be we'll see you there :)