Costa Allegra review and Cyclone report

[Spike's mum]

Just returned from our cruise Singapore to Hong Kong. Will write a brief review now and more later, plus will answer any questions if any requests. Our outside cabin on Deck 4 Lautrec was spacious, with 2 very large portholes covered by roller blind plus drapes. V comfy bed good quality linen. Heaps of cupboards and drawers. Lots of mirrors including full length one. Good size bathroom, no where to hang washing, have to improvise. TV with 10 stations, plus 4 movie channels (one in English) movies on every 3 hours. You can order room service breakfast (including cappucino! - only place you dont need to pay for one)X1 package great value. Happy hour at 11-12 and also 5.30 - 7, buy 2, pay for 1. Meals were good, some better than others. We mainly ate in restaurant as we found Yacht club buffet too hot and usually crowded. Ports were excellent, we did our own thing with taxis as we found the tours v expensive (approx 80 euros each average) (Taxis $20US each for the day)

Tropical Cyclone Koppu - we were unlucky to hit this storm at 2pm the afternoon before arriving into Hong Kong. Seas were very rough and our TV broadcast winds of 135k prior to losing transmission. Things got worse with the only safe comfortable place to lay on your bed in cabin. Restaurants did not open for dinner as it was too dangerous to walk around. Montmarte Restaurant all dinner plates smashed, parts of casino roof fell in - our friends had to crawl through wiring to get out. One lady broke her leg in bathroom. Large percentage of passengers and crew very sea sick. All shop shelves emptied onto the floor, one passenger reported missing and we never found out if he was located. Many passengers did not want to continue past HK. Captain must have had stressful night as storm did not abate until around 3 am. He did a great job getting us in safely. I am not exaggerating, I could go on. But it has put me off cruising again. I know you cant help the weather, but I would rather be on land in these conditions.

Good luck to those heading off this week! No complaints with anything on the ship from me.

regards

 

Spike's mum

[Grainstore]

Hiya Spikes Mum

Just been in and read your review what a nightmare for you all. Hope ship is okay for all of us getting on next week. Must check it out. A bit frightening really. Glad you found ship good and X1 package worth it. Will take elastic wash line with me. I have just went on roll call and arranged for us all to meet before sailaway in Hong Kong on Friday 25th Sept. We have booked trips for Ho Chi Min City and Da Nang any tips for Singapore What should we wear to visit Raffles for a Singapore Sling and are we allowed in the main door Bet your glad your home!!!! Phoned Costa to see if all was okay with ship and they have heard nothing but weather was very very bad last week as well. They are going to contact me if any updates Was their lots of British on the ship??

JOAN :)

[Lindylooj]

Wow Spikes mum - what an experience to have to go through, thanks for the updates though, we are on trip on 25th too so I do hope the weather improves, I would be scared stiff. Looking forward to any more updates.

[G.M.T.]

Good size bathroom' date=' no where to hang washing, have to improvise.

 

Large percentage of passengers and crew very sea sick.

Spike's mum[/quote']

Ther used to be a pull out washing/drying line in the shower unit.

 

Now I know hoe the old Shanty got its name::eek:

 

Hooray, and up she rises

Ron

[Spike's mum]

Hi Joan and others, would recommend the hop on-hop off bus in Singapore, also you must travel on the underground rail system - spotlessly clean no graffiti, so quick and easy and cheap. Hong Kong also has very similar system. Botanical gardens in Singapore beautiful, if you can spare 1hr, worth the trip (on the bus route) China Town fantastic, the Lau Pa Sat building - like a food court, so cheap and beautiful, all the locals eat there. (try the carrot cakes - savoury pancake - and the Char Kway Teow a local noodle dish)

 

Chinatown market lots of great stalls, heaps of copy articles, bags, watches , clothing etc. They do like local currency, however didnt knock back US$. You must bargain, they will eventually come down by 50% if you walk off. Vivocity shopping mall at the harbourfront good shopping and cool! You can go into Raffles as long as you both wear long slacks and no sandals. Vietnam such a contrast, so poor, but happy friendly people. You will love it. Our trip was about 50% Aussie, 25% Italian and 25% Brits. But lots of British/aussies from Perth Australia. No line in our shower unit, however some cabins may be different i guess. I have been surprised there is no report anywhere on the web re the conditions we went through. Maybe it was all a dream (nightmare!) :-)

 

regards

 

Spike's mum

[Waratah21]

Hi Spike's Mum

 

Sounds like you had a very eventful trip! Hope the weather improves for ours. Thanks for your tips on Singapore and Vietnam. What did you do in the other ports?

My 2 boys have a very important question to ask. What programs were on the TV? They don't want to miss out on seeing the Footy Grand Final from Melbourne on 26 September especially if the Saints are in it. We are at sea that day. Were there any international sports programs?

 

Cheers

Jill

[Spike's mum]

Hi Jill, your boys will be pleased to know we got LIVE coverage of AFL on the ship. Cabins have "Australia Channel" and we were amazed to get the footy live - as long as weather permits the satellite cover is good. This was also the case in Singapore and HK hotels.

Apart from Singapore and Vietnam, the only other port we were in was Hong Kong. We took an excellent morning tour of Hong Kong Island (through Hotel concierge) quite cheap about $35 AU. Included a visit to a great jewellery workshop, where the Visa got a battering. Also took us up on the Peak tram, a must do while in HK> Then did a trip on the MRT train network which was fun. In early evening we did a tour which included the Jumbo floating restaurant. If you get the chance walk down Nathan Road - mind boggling stuff.

I hope you are not bingo fans. We checked it out, just for something to do. (we did not play) One ticket cost 20 euro, if you bought 2 tickets (40 euro) you got a 3rd free. Only about 50 takers at that price, although prizes were not bad. One line paid 50 euro, and full card 500 euro (shared by 2 people). The whole thing only lasted about half hour. We have been on other cruises with about 700 people in the auditorium, and it was real entertainment.

 

regards

 

Spike's mum

[cruise aussie]

Hi Spikes Mum,

We are going on a cruise on the Allegra in a few weeks and was just wondering what their power supply is. I need to take an adaptor to charge my phone etc. Thanks

Kathy

[Spike's mum]

Hi Spikes Mum,

We are going on a cruise on the Allegra in a few weeks and was just wondering what their power supply is. I need to take an adaptor to charge my phone etc. Thanks

Kathy

Hi Kathy, you will need a european adaptor, (2 round plugs). There is one available power point in cabin, tv is in the other one. The bathroom only has the shaver type. Worked fine with my adaptor.

regards

Spike's mum

[j2ink]

Hi Spikes Mum,

I really hate to ask this question, because there has been so much written about it on these boards. However, a few people have recently raised additional questions by writing that they heard the X-1 package has changed since about mid-July or August, and that it can now be used only in the dining room. When and where were you able to use it?

[Spike's mum]

Hi Spikes Mum,

I really hate to ask this question, because there has been so much written about it on these boards. However, a few people have recently raised additional questions by writing that they heard the X-1 package has changed since about mid-July or August, and that it can now be used only in the dining room. When and where were you able to use it?

Hi j2ink,

we purchased the package about late July, sailed on 5 Sept. We used it in both Montmartre Restaurant and Yacht Club. We never tried anywhere else. Yacht Club provided plastic cups, while the restaurant was in glasses. We only had one X1 per couple, and had no problems ordering beer plus "girls" drinks (wine). We also took 2 bottles still water back to our cabin each night for next day, as we were not keen on the water available in cabin and yacht club. Not sure if this applies to other ships or just Allegra. Hope this helps.

 

regards

 

Spike's mum

[CtheW0rld]

Hi Spikes Mum,

We are going on a cruise on the Allegra in a few weeks and was just wondering what their power supply is. I need to take an adaptor to charge my phone etc. Thanks

Kathy

 

there is also a USA type plug.

[G.M.T.]

I have been surprised there is no report anywhere on the web re the conditions we went through. Maybe it was all a dream (nightmare!) :-)

Spike's mum

German TV carry a video report Monday evening about the flooding in Hon Kong and the BBC Web site are reportong about Tropical Cyclone Koppu. Haven't seen or heard anything about a missing person (i.e. CruiseJunkie).

 

Here are the BBC links:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8257960.stm

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8257998.stm

 

Ron