Black Sea cruise on the Costa mediterranea

[Moby9]

Our journey started on Eurostar in London and ended in Genoa with an overnight stay and transfer to Savona, both hotel [The Star President ] and the transfer were booked through Costa. Hotel was excellent and in a lovely walking area of the city. The transfer was a new Mercedes with running commentary all the way to Savona, I say running because he was traveling at 140k for most of the journey.

Embarkation.

Embarkation was slow and they took our passports! Only about 40-45 non Euros on the ship, so there were multi languages spoken all the time for info.

A long line-up to get our room card and then it didn't work! so another line-up to get it righted. No champagne welcome while this was going on as other ships sometimes have. The main rooms of the Mediterranea are over the top with marble, granite, mirrors and glass...even the floors are either mosaic or marble, this can be very confusing for a monocular person such as myself!

The stateroom was a disappointment, the room was clean but the windows weren't.The balcony glass had so much varvnish spilled on it you could hardly see the view when sitting down. The bathroom needed a makeover the molded marble sink and counter was cracked and the underside of the toilet lid was badly stained! the only toiletries were a shampoo/soap dispenser in the shower and a bar of hand soap. No face cloths.Plenty of towels.The balcony door was a nightmare to open and would slam shut as was evidenced by the noise coming from other staterooms.We phoned down to housekeeping several times and told out steward that it needed to be seen to, it wasn't until I took a chunk out of my finger and had to go to the ship's hospital that it finally was adjusted....it took 3 minutes!

We never did find out why the water in the cabin would, a) turn brown, or b) turn off altogether. This happened many times throughout the cruise.

Captains cocktail reception was a stage presentation, no mingling with guests, ....and then they were gone.

Dining.

Breakfast ...fair.

Lunch... excellent.

Dinner.

Early was 7/7.30 or late 9.30. Seeing as there was no evening buffet, plenty of hungry and crying chidren in the main dining room, which seemed very cramped. The food selection was poor to say the least, we only order 3 courses so there was usually a 50 minute wait between first and second course. We tried the later dining, but that did not suit us at all. Yes we had a table for 2, so it was not as though we were waiting for other diners to eat. Ended up taking pizza back to our verandah and eating in peace and quiet for the last 3 nights.

Order the specialty coffees, the reg, is awful.

Staff and services.

We were told by our dining waiter that if we ordered all 5 courses that then we wouldn't have the wait! They were more interested in serving wine than food. Bar personnel were great, chatty, and always smiling.

Entertainment

The above was geared to 5 year olds. A young woman blowing bubbles for an hour ...the kids loved it.

Ports of call.

This is why we took the cruise.

Beware the taxi prices and always ask "How much" before hand.

Mykonos.

Didn't have enough time to see more of this island, shopping was good.A lovely waterfront dining area and if you like fish...to die for.

Katakolon.

Very crowded the day we were there and once again not enough time.

Bougainvillea everywhere. and very colourful...lots of blue and white!

Izmir.

What a lovely clean city, even vacuum the streets. Lots of outdoor cafes with great coffee and pastries, very friendly and helpful.

Did all the tourist destinations. Wonderful to see the Blue Mosque and the Sophia Hagia and hear of the latters history.

Constanza.

Here we nearly ran into trouble trying to get a cab., we were asking how much for a tour of the city, when the port authority guard came and told us not to get in this cab! Apparently taxis have to pay a fee to enter the port terminal and he was a rogue driver.They put us on a bus and we saw the same thing for free. We gave the driver a good tip. The city in certain parts is very old and needs some help in saving what they have.

Odessa

Great tour here, vineyards and quite hilly with lovely views over the city and ocean. Very green.

Yalta

If you are a history buff here it is, both ancient and modern. Our tour took us up very narrow winding roads, past residences that had once been hospitals, those recovering from many diseases, and plenty of vineyards here too.

Disembarkation.

We had an early train to catch and were on tenterhooks because most were querying their bill and this was causing a hold up. We made it.

Summary.

Where it says "No children in adult pool" enforce it. Not nice to see a dirty diaper being changed in front of you!

Where it says "No children in Casino" enforce it.

It would be nice to have signed beer taps and a better choice of same.

Never Costa again

[Capricruiser]

You don't say when you took your cruise but we just came off a cruise with the Costa Mediterranea last month and had none of your problems. Granted we were in a suite which had amenities that a standard cabin didn't have (see my review in the CC Costa cruise reviews) but our dining experience was completely positive. We always choose the second seating on our cruises to avoid the "hungry and crying children" problem. Regarding food selection, with three or four (or more) first courses and the same amount of second courses (as well as appetizers, soups, salad, cheese, desserts, etc.), I would say there's got to be something on the menu that appeals to most everyone. At the beginning of the meal the waiter goes around with his form taking everyones order and from there as one course is finished out comes the next. Naturally if someone wants to skip the appetizer and first course, he may have to wait a bit before the entrees come out. The entertainment and shore excursions on our cruise were of course different because of the cruise itinerary. With the cabin problems you had, I can understand much of your unhappiness, but I'm sorry to see another "Never again" poster. One bad experience shouldn't mean the entire ship or fleet needs to be condemned.

[gabriele58]

Our journey started on Eurostar in London and ended in Genoa with an overnight stay and transfer to Savona, both hotel [The Star President ] and the transfer were booked through Costa. Hotel was excellent and in a lovely walking area of the city. The transfer was a new Mercedes with running commentary all the way to Savona, I say running because he was traveling at 140k for most of the journey.

Embarkation.

Embarkation was slow and they took our passports! Only about 40-45 non Euros on the ship, so there were multi languages spoken all the time for info.

A long line-up to get our room card and then it didn't work! so another line-up to get it righted. No champagne welcome while this was going on as other ships sometimes have. The main rooms of the Mediterranea are over the top with marble, granite, mirrors and glass...even the floors are either mosaic or marble, this can be very confusing for a monocular person such as myself!

The stateroom was a disappointment, the room was clean but the windows weren't.The balcony glass had so much varvnish spilled on it you could hardly see the view when sitting down. The bathroom needed a makeover the molded marble sink and counter was cracked and the underside of the toilet lid was badly stained! the only toiletries were a shampoo/soap dispenser in the shower and a bar of hand soap. No face cloths.Plenty of towels.The balcony door was a nightmare to open and would slam shut as was evidenced by the noise coming from other staterooms.We phoned down to housekeeping several times and told out steward that it needed to be seen to, it wasn't until I took a chunk out of my finger and had to go to the ship's hospital that it finally was adjusted....it took 3 minutes!

We never did find out why the water in the cabin would, a) turn brown, or b) turn off altogether. This happened many times throughout the cruise.

Captains cocktail reception was a stage presentation, no mingling with guests, ....and then they were gone.

Dining.

Breakfast ...fair.

Lunch... excellent.

Dinner.

Early was 7/7.30 or late 9.30. Seeing as there was no evening buffet, plenty of hungry and crying chidren in the main dining room, which seemed very cramped. The food selection was poor to say the least, we only order 3 courses so there was usually a 50 minute wait between first and second course. We tried the later dining, but that did not suit us at all. Yes we had a table for 2, so it was not as though we were waiting for other diners to eat. Ended up taking pizza back to our verandah and eating in peace and quiet for the last 3 nights.

Order the specialty coffees, the reg, is awful.

Staff and services.

We were told by our dining waiter that if we ordered all 5 courses that then we wouldn't have the wait! They were more interested in serving wine than food. Bar personnel were great, chatty, and always smiling.

Entertainment

The above was geared to 5 year olds. A young woman blowing bubbles for an hour ...the kids loved it.

Ports of call.

This is why we took the cruise.

Beware the taxi prices and always ask "How much" before hand.

Mykonos.

Didn't have enough time to see more of this island, shopping was good.A lovely waterfront dining area and if you like fish...to die for.

Katakolon.

Very crowded the day we were there and once again not enough time.

Bougainvillea everywhere. and very colourful...lots of blue and white!

Izmir.

What a lovely clean city, even vacuum the streets. Lots of outdoor cafes with great coffee and pastries, very friendly and helpful.

Did all the tourist destinations. Wonderful to see the Blue Mosque and the Sophia Hagia and hear of the latters history.

Constanza.

Here we nearly ran into trouble trying to get a cab., we were asking how much for a tour of the city, when the port authority guard came and told us not to get in this cab! Apparently taxis have to pay a fee to enter the port terminal and he was a rogue driver.They put us on a bus and we saw the same thing for free. We gave the driver a good tip. The city in certain parts is very old and needs some help in saving what they have.

Odessa

Great tour here, vineyards and quite hilly with lovely views over the city and ocean. Very green.

Yalta

If you are a history buff here it is, both ancient and modern. Our tour took us up very narrow winding roads, past residences that had once been hospitals, those recovering from many diseases, and plenty of vineyards here too.

Disembarkation.

We had an early train to catch and were on tenterhooks because most were querying their bill and this was causing a hold up. We made it.

Summary.

Where it says "No children in adult pool" enforce it. Not nice to see a dirty diaper being changed in front of you!

Where it says "No children in Casino" enforce it.

It would be nice to have signed beer taps and a better choice of same.

Never Costa again

 

 

 

 

you are totaly negative, are you a friend of cool cruiser GRUMPY?? please do not no come back in costa pleaseeeeeeeeee, byeeeeeeeeeeeee, levae costa for the guests that really like to enjoy their cruise...:)

[Gerbar]

Sounds like the same cruise we took in August/September 2010 (as per my review on CC Members Reviews), but couldn't agree with you more on all the issues you raised! Standards should not be allowed to drop at the cost of passengers' enjoyment.