Costa Atlantica NYC to Dover May 2010/x1

[glf2710]

Having just come back from a wonderful 2 week cruise I thought I would just let you all know about our experience with Costa Cruise.

 

We found the ship to be absolutely stunning - we were lucky enough to be upgraded to a balcony room which was wonderful.

 

The food was very good - not quite on a par with Independance of the Seas - but certainly no complaints from us. Plenty of choice and portion sizes were good.

 

Staff were incredibly helpful and always happy to help.

 

The first 2 nights were in New York - which in itself was an incredible experience. We only booked one excursion which was the all day NYC tour on the 2nd day in NY - we didn't want to be worrying about not getting back to the boat. All in all the tour was excellent. However, we were told that our coach would be English speaking passengers - our poor tour guide thought he was only taking French guests so at the last minute he found he had English and French on board which did make things a little chaotic - but he did a wonderful job. One sour note, however, was our coach driver - he shouted racial abuse at a lady in a car who had pulled in front of him - he went out of his way to pursue this car through the traffic until he could pull along side her to shout at her!!!!! I've referred this to Costa as as far as we were concerned it was unacceptable behaviour - no tip for him!!

 

For the rest of the trip we just got off the ship and made our own way about - excursions are always expensive and Costa are no different - but there was always plenty to do for the independant guest.

 

Drinks on board are VERY expensive - 15% gratuity is added and if you are in a USA port when you buy a drink there is also an extra 20% port tax which I have never come across before - so in NY we bought a drink which then had 35% added on top! We overheard a lot of our fellow brits moaning about the cost of drinks - to be honest I have no sympathy for them - yes drinks are expensive - but it doesn't take much to do a bit of research to find this out - we were aware of the cost and it's just something you have to be aware of.

 

We decided to get the X1 package (9.60 Euro per day each) - after mulling this over we thought it was the best option. There's been a lot of postings on the X1 so I thought I would share my experience.

 

The wine is not great - it's drinkable but that's it. On one occasion we were brought a different wine to the usual one and couldn't believe how fantastic it was - until the waiter came over and told us he had brought the wrong bottle which was in fact for the table next to us who had bought it!!! We could keep the glass that was poured for us but the bottle was taken away - only to be given to the couple on the next table who were told because it had been opened they could have it for free!!!!!

 

The brand of wine did change towards the end of the first week - clearly they were running out of the cheaper rubbish and so from then on the wine was a little better.

 

During the day you could use the X1 pretty much from 11.30 am if you were sitting around the pool which was next to the buffet restaurant. We frequently ordered drinks with lunch - then as we were leaving grab a few cans from the guy with the drinks cart and take them to our room and keep them in the fridge - this meant we had a plentiful supply of drinks which we could take anywhere around the ship.

 

At evening meals we ordered wine and bottles of water - wine came by the bottle - usually we would take that out with us - together with the water which was very useful as you have to pay for the bottled water in the room.

 

Usually the waiter would ask my husband towards the end of the meal if he wanted a beer - which he would then take out with us if we were then going on to our show or another bar. The trick with the X1 is really to use it to your advantage even if it means grabbing a few drinks when you don't want them - the cans were really handy if we wanted to read in some of the lounges around the ship if it was too chilly to sit out.

 

The shows are a bit of a let down - clearly they have to show things that appeal to a multilingual audience - and yes they're not bad - but a little amateurish and certainly not a patch on RCI.

 

I would defintaly recommend Costa - we paid £760 for 2 weeks (with balcony) - the time spent in New York (with flights and Hotel) would have been more than that - well worth it.

[Stanley]

Can you tell me if it is required that if one person in the cabin wants the X1 package does the other person have to? My husband drinks wine and I don't.

 

We have never cruised on Costa before and never cruised on a ship that offered a drink package. Is there another package other than one for wine?

 

Thanks

[glf2710]

Both of you need to take out the package - it stops it being abused apparently :)

[yankin]

Please tell me what the night life was like. Not the shows but the disco/bars:D?

[glf2710]

Didn't go in Dantes (the nightclub) but the bars were always busy with plenty going on - to be honest as we were on the late sitting for dinner, and with the almost daily event of putting the clocks forward an hour, we rarely went to the bars.