Back from Favolosa TA to Santos

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.

Michael, I enjoyed reading your review/trip report.

Keith