Would I ever sail Costa again

[Blanche Vesuvio]

By "their culture" I meant Costa's

[KatetheWanderer]

You know, I read her reviews and she actually says more good things than bad in all her reviews. I'd be upset if what happened with her bathroom happened to my family.

 

She doesn't complain as much as "documents". She gives very precise almost minute by minute reviews.

 

I've met people like her before. They love to get free things. So what's wrong with that. She's more concerned about what she gets for free and happy about it more than anything else. Some people are just like that. They may be annoying but they are harmless.

 

You know, after reading her itemized reviews I actually think she's kind of cute. I love her comments about the "Big hunk of Italian" and "Big hunk of a French Canadian". I thought she was funny actually. Totally harmless.

 

I think RCCL has the right to ask them not to sail again on their ships but in fact I think it is freak'n stupid! She has more nice things to say than bad. I really don't see her as a complainer as much as I see her as someone who has to talk about every little thing she did on her cruise and about all the free stuff she gets. I wasn't bothered by it at all. And she's been loyal...A Diamond level cruiser. RCCL was dumb to drop them as customers IMHO. I think they just didn't like that she told people about the bathroom incident. She has a right to complain about that. In her place, I too would have told the cruiseline to take a hike if they tried to take away my right to free speech!

 

Like I said she documents everything I don't think of her as a real whinny complainer. At the end of every review she states what a great time she had.

 

Just MHO.

 

The bathroom sewage did seem a bit much. I don't know what the options were though if all the rooms were booked. However, I would expect compensation wayabove a future cruise discount if I had to smell doo doo for my whole cruise.

 

I will catch myself starting to pick apart a cruise when I'm actually having the time of my life. It's as though I think I'm suddenly royal with a thousand servants at my command. It is so stressful to dwell on the negatives but I can force myself to recall some of the very bad things that happened to me on Costa.

 

Come to think of it, there was no lobster night on the Atlantica, the embarkation was a disaster and they mistakenly added a beer to my mini-bar tab which it took two times to the desk to correct. Let's see what else. Oh, the burgers were way undercooked on their private island barbecue (but the chicken and pasta were delicious so somehow I survived). I had fabulous steak, grilled salmon, prime rib and many more yummy items but one time they brought me a dark blue rice pile under shrimp. The rice was colored from the ink of an octopus. The ink was apparently noted on the menu. Nasty. If anyone out there thinks it was good or understands what it is, then you're probably really weird. You probably eat blood sausage too. I had to order something else which was quite good.

 

Btw, do Italians know how to do burgers? Don't get me started on how large numbers of certain nationalities cut lines. I probably should complain more. I'm frequently concerned about getting people in trouble for trivial things. Did I mention that my steward didn't do towel animals? Sob! How he could have done that to me? So what if he was a peach in every other respect, kept my room sparkling and even neatly wound my cell phone charger cord every day.

[Nicatravels]

I've been reading this thread with professional interest since I have been travel agent for over 33 yrs and have my MCC (master cruise counselor). I have sailed on many cruise lines and done site inspections on many others. Every cruise line has their own target market. Not every line is for everyone. Some clients are solely driven by price and you do get what you pay for. I took a group on MSC in November and they loved the diversity of languages and nationalities onboard. If you like casual, cruise on NCL. younger minded crowd-Carnival, more sophistication Celebrity, older crowd-Holland America etc......Would I cruise on Costa? Yes........ On Sunday I actually watched the news story about Costa from the deck of the NCL Spirit and talked to some crew members who also watched with the viewpoint of one who lives on ships. Everyone was horrified. You can't blame the whole company for the actions of a few. I think this whole tragedy will make people take those lifeboat drills a bit more seriously. My prayers go out to those hurt and still not found. God Bless those who helped with the rescue effort.

[fathercop]

I know each is entitled to their own opinion on this issue and I can respect that. As my wife and I the last few months we were considering some of Costa's sailings because they were ports we were interested in. My wife has been on other cruise lines, while I have only sailed with Princess. My opinion is that I would probably sail with Costa if, the itinerary is the one we want and the subsequent investigation does not reveal any willful negligence on the part of the company.

 

I will be on the Crown Princess next month and their is video on the internet from her listing during a turn few years ago. The list caused tables to move, dinnerware to crash, people to get injured, etc., but I am putting my confidence in Princess that such a repeat will not happen again.

 

No one can be certain of anything, but everyone has to make their own decisions.

 

If you do not sail with Costa, that is entirely up to you, but wherever you do sail, good luck to you and enjoy your next cruise.

[Boy Blue]

I would say to NO (responding to the origial thread question). Their culture seems to be all wrong. Entilted Italians at the front desk on up to the "I'm so dashing" officers. There is really something wrong with that line. Sadly, very sadly, it played out with the Concordia.

 

 

Have you sailed Costa?

[KC Traveler]

Would I sail Costa again? Absolutely!!! Will be booking the Costa Deliziosa for April 10th and I have no reservations in doing so. I have been on 6 cruises over the past 7 years, four of which have been Costa. I love the international flavor of Costa and have nothing but wonderful times on their ships, so I will not let a very unfortunate incident change my mind. If anything, I believe I will feel safer on my next cruise due to the heavy scutiny ships and their staff will now be receiving.

[sidari]

Funny how we see other people, we had a minor problem regarding our obc on our Deliziosa cruise on 22nd December and went to the cutomer services desk. A youg German girl listened to our problem took photo copies of our paperwork and the issue was resolved that day,no fuss, no arguements.

 

Thr trouble is if you start off with an Attitude towards people then you are likely to get one back! be polite and usually they will be polite back.

[sylmack]

Some pretty bad things can happen in foreign airports, museums, hotels, on trains, the subway and in train stations. Quite a few have been the targets of terrorism and other mayhem and mishap. The announcements are probably critical if something bad happens. If you confine your travel to the UK, U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia and any other English priority airports, airplanes and trains, then you should be fine for all announcements in English. Well, maybe not Miami. I would avoid all trips to anywhere else in Europe, especially on any form of non-priority English speaking foreign transit. Hotels can catch fire, trains can be bombed etc, planes can crash or roll, and the ability to clearly understand emergency announcements could mean the split seconds between life and death. Trips to Paris and Rome might be possible with a translator for the public transit but I don't know. You might end up in the Louvre when its getting bombed and the second language you might hear might be English. Again, your life would be in peril with no time to waste. Who knows what might happen. Oh and many foreign road signs are not in English either. Can you imagine an emergency on the Metro (subway) in Paris and having to listen to some Frenchie drone on before you could hear English when everything is going to heck around you. Agony. English priority planes can take you far and wide but what happens when you get there? The potential for disaster everywhere, and no way to get the priority scoop in the emergency announcements. Stay home and rent a travel video for those places. The world has plenty of English speaking destinations to explore.

 

P.S. Not sure about all the UK airports and trains! Sorry UKers but I personally think that the Guy Ritchie Brit gansta movies should be subtitled for Americans :)

 

I think they would have to eliminate Canada also, since the signs are bilingual. It may take a second or two extra to get information. You may miss that important exit. :p

[K8T]

The OP question: Would I ever sail Costa again?

 

Perhaps I shouldn't add to this thread, as we have never sailed Costa before, but only for the reason that having been involved in the travel industry in the past, we didn't find them the easiest to work with. We also had a fair number of complaints from those who did cruise with them, compared to the other lines, so ended up not upselling the line. We cruise at least once a year and can honestly say I have never researched a Costa cruise when planning a holiday.

 

Even if I had considered Costa in the past, I certainly wouldn't now, purely because of what happened and I fear there will be a lot of people, probably those who haven't cruised before, that will say the same, not only about Costa, but other cruiselines. What doesn't sit well with me was the pure disorganisation.

 

Those pax - like us and you - will continue with our cruises, because we know what it is really like and usually safety is good. We have never yet been on a cruise that hasn't had a Muster drill on the first day (I understand why the Concordia didn't), but surely this is so important, so those that have never sailed before, have some idea of what to do.

 

Having said that, we know what to do and may have been one of those couples who were so sadly found dead, waiting at their Muster station in the theatre with their life jackets on.

 

This board is not representative of the population and already, as I am sure you have had, people who know our passion for cruising have been giving their opinion which would appear not ever to cruise on any line.

 

Last night was spent trolling through cruise deals and the internet, looking for our July cruise - tempted with Princess, a line we haven't done before....

[sidari]

K8T .... Concordia i believe carried out the muster drill when it left Barcelona but i stand to be corrected, as the ship was traveling on a circular route it would make no sense to have a muster for each stop that passengers got on.

That is the reason that within 24 hours those who Embarked do go through a muster drill somewhere on the ship,what does need to be considered though is how many of the 650 or so passengers who got on at Civitavecchia were First time cruisers / repeat cruisers and how many of them actually took notice of the lifeboat demonstration which is always on the TV channel in their own Language when they entered the cabin! or actually read and looked at the board on the back of their cabin door.

 

Passengers at some point have to take responsibility for themselves and not expect to have to be told everything!

[ducklite]

Funny how we see other people, we had a minor problem regarding our obc on our Deliziosa cruise on 22nd December and went to the cutomer services desk. A youg German girl listened to our problem took photo copies of our paperwork and the issue was resolved that day,no fuss, no arguements.

 

Thr trouble is if you start off with an Attitude towards people then you are likely to get one back! be polite and usually they will be polite back.

 

Great concept in theory, but it doesn't always work like that. I've approached customer service people to point out something (one example: liquid laundry detergent all over the floor in a store--can you say "slip hazard") only to be given a major attitude and be accused of dropping the bottle! I was trying to be nice and do the right thing, and instead I get an attitude and accusation.

 

It happens on land and I'm quite sure it also happens at sea. Unfortunately that's the thing customers will remember about a company. And no, I never again shopped in that store. In fact I left a cart with probably $500 worth of merchandise in front of the clerk who was rude to me and walked out on the spot.

[Jailcookie]

We have sailed on almost every cruise line.. :) Costa Cruise is by far our favorite. Their service, entertainment, food and overall quality are much higher than other vessels. For people to now come forward after this devastation and say their experience was inadequate is just sad. If you had a bad experience on the cruise.. You should express your complaints back to the cruise line so something could have been corrected. Hopefully your next cruise will be a much happier time.

[Mad dogs and Englishmen]

I took my first cruise last year to Alaska aboard the Sapphire Princess.

 

Being a nervous traveller at the best of times, I paid careful attention to the muster drill, which was done before the ship set sail, something which I believe is important. (well done to Princess!)

 

Every time I take a ferry, I note where all the life stations etc are. (why don't ferries have drills? Surely that would have saved lives on the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster?)

I watch the safety drills when travelling by air.

In a hotel room, the first thing I do is study where the fire exits are.

The Concordia tragedy serves as a reminder that the unthinkable CAN happen so there is a need to be prepared.

 

Would I cruise with Costa?

No, but simply because they are an Italian company.

 

No offence intended to Italian members (one of my best friends is Italian) but they have a reputation for being too relaxed, this possibly applies in the case of one Captain Schettino?

 

Also, having travelled all over Europe, I find that large numbers of one particular nationality concentrated into a small area does not bode well for an enjoyable holiday. Costa customers are predominantly Italian, who I have found to be very rude when amassing in large numbers. The same applies to other nationalities of course, including the British I must add, so its not personal.

 

Despite being nervous of sea travel, I would still like to cruise again at some point, but I would choose a cruise which I think would have a more even balance of nationalities, and after reading some of the theories about large ships, probably a smaller ship next time. I loved our time on the Sapphire but she has similar dimensions to the Concordia.

 

More importantly, our thoughts and prayers must go to everyone who has been affected by this terrible tragedy, especially to those who have lost or who are missing loved ones.

Even to the captain, who may be an idiot!! but who will have to live with his conscience for the rest of his life.

[ducklite]

We have sailed on almost every cruise line.. :) Costa Cruise is by far our favorite. Their service, entertainment, food and overall quality are much higher than other vessels. For people to now come forward after this devastation and say their experience was inadequate is just sad. If you had a bad experience on the cruise.. You should express your complaints back to the cruise line so something could have been corrected. Hopefully your next cruise will be a much happier time.

 

I had a terrible experience with a certain cruiseline and did express my concerns both onboard and after the cruise. I was offered a chance to sail with them again at a discount--however they put so many restrictions on it that it would required me to spend thousands of dollars with them again with no guarantees of things being right--and that's if I could even find a cruise with cabins avaialble that met the criteria of their offer.

 

I wasn't about to spend that type of money with someone I had already had a bad experience with to see if they could make it right the second time.

 

Conversely I had a customer service issue with an upscale hotel. I complained to the manager who agreed that my complaint was quite valid. They moved me to the room type I had booked to begin with, left a lovely treat, and removed 50% of the charge for my stay. They didn't expect me to spend more money with them to see if they could get it right the second time. Instead they immediately listened to my complaint and made it right, and credited me for THAT stay, not a future one. This attention to guest service is why I've returned to them.

[KatetheWanderer]

We know some of what went wrong on Concordia but something must have gone incredibly right also for the successful evacuation of over 4000 people from a ship without a captain that had severely listed. When the listing happened, I wonder what areas became immediately submerged with no hope for the trapped to escape. It is heartbreaking to ponder what happened to for example, the 14 Germans. They must have been assembled somewhere. I didn't feel that the Costa crew on the Atlantic was ever lax about safety. They seemed like they really cared about us when we were boarding tenders, jogging on a wet deck or participating in a muster drill. I should add that if the goal is to avoid Italians, then the poster should request information on other lines' captains before booking. Many of them are Italian.

[Blanche Vesuvio]

In answer to the question "Have you sailed Costa?"

 

Yes, I've been on the Concordia, Magica, Fortuna, and Europa. I thought the non-management crew was great.

[See_again]

I took my first cruise last year to Alaska aboard the Sapphire Princess.

 

Being a nervous traveller at the best of times, I paid careful attention to the muster drill, which was done before the ship set sail, something which I believe is important. (well done to Princess!)

 

Every time I take a ferry, I note where all the life stations etc are. (why don't ferries have drills? Surely that would have saved lives on the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster?)

 

In the case of the Herald of Free Enterprise a drill would not have saved lives, because the incident happened in only 90 sec. But it is always really important to know the exits, to know how to get outside on the shortest way, where ever you are.

[halos]

What a balanced, well thought out post. Very refreshing to read on these boards after the past few days.

 

I, for one, have never sailed Costa but agree the language barrier is a bit of an issue for me. Having said that, I may consider one of their Caribbean itens, I imagine there would be more english speaking passengers on those.

 

I agree that the post you quoted was well written.

I'd like to say however that the language barrier (although bad) isn't half as bad as being given bad instruction.

I just watched NBC Nightly News and they showed a video clip that someone took while on deck with hundreds of people all in their life vests waiting for instruction and the crew member tells them that "there is an electrical problem, everything is OK, go back to your stateroom."

Even if that instruction had been given in a language that I understood, what good would it have done????

This entire thing was handled horribly...just horribly and the more that comes out, the worse it seems.

[Rassa]

I have sailed on Costa and MSC and the answer for me is NO and I made up my mind about that last October. The things that have happened on Costa Concordia have just cemented that in my mind as a NO where it was previously a Probably Not. Why - because the lady from Melbourne who survived the accident said she was offered no compensation from Costa other than a night's accommadation with all her luggage (including husband and daughter's stuff) at the bottom of the sea!!! MSC also wiggled their way out of compensating people who were supposed to be on MSC Opera while she was in dry dock after engine failure last June. Sorry folks but if it costs me $2000AUD to get to Europe for a replacement cruise I did not want, I think only compensation is the answer or goodbye MSC.

 

My other reasons - people who only spoke English on the stricken Concordia said there were instructions given over the loudspeakers in a language other than English - no thanks, I don't want to put myself in that situation where I don't understand what is being said in a panic situation.

 

I will keep sailing with Princess etc in the future. When the starting point of a cruise by Princess was changed, I was offered full compensation for my flights and other costs.

[sidari]

Rassa .... Yesterday someone posted a video from youtube where you could clearly hear the Announcement in English! while people were standing with lifejackets on near to the Lifeboats. So either the peolpe you speak of are Liars, did not hear it or just did not listen.

[dizzy1948]

Bit of a bone of contention this language thing. If you have an Italian ship with over 1,000 Italians on it, then 500 Germans, 400 French for example - and less than 300 speaking English (give or take) - Why would you expect the first language to be English? 100 Americans, 100 English, 100 Aussies - don't make the majority of the ship. Unfortunatley I don't speak Italian, German and have school lesson French. So why would I expect all Italians, Germans, French etc to speak English? Not forgetting the other multi nationals that are in the minority. Don't see any of them posting/whinging about their languages not being used. When in Rome and all that......Just a thought.

[Rassa]

Rassa .... Yesterday someone posted a video from youtube where you could clearly hear the Announcement in English! while people were standing with lifejackets on near to the Lifeboats. So either the peolpe you speak of are Liars, did not hear it or just did not listen.

 

The question was - would you cruise Costa again. My reply was No and one of the issues for me is the language issue. Everything is said in 5 languages. It is possible, I focussed more on the language issue when two Australians (who were some of the last to get off the ship, choosing that over getting crushed) said, you could not understand what was coming over the loud speakers, adding other things like there was screaming, panic, pushing and shoving to get into the life boats.

 

I would also not cruise again on a ship the size of Concordia. While I believe the large ships have adequate room for everyone on board, I found disembarkation a total mess and that would be worse in a panic situation. I had already made my mind up about these two issues long before the accident but the shocking mishap, just made me realise these two issues are important to me.

[Esprit]

Bit of a bone of contention this language thing. If you have an Italian ship with over 1,000 Italians on it, then 500 Germans, 400 French for example - and less than 300 speaking English (give or take) - Why would you expect the first language to be English? 100 Americans, 100 English, 100 Aussies - don't make the majority of the ship. Unfortunatley I don't speak Italian, German and have school lesson French. So why would I expect all Italians, Germans, French etc to speak English? Not forgetting the other multi nationals that are in the minority. Don't see any of them posting/whinging about their languages not being used. When in Rome and all that......Just a thought.

 

And a very valid thought

[sylmack]

Bit of a bone of contention this language thing. If you have an Italian ship with over 1,000 Italians on it, then 500 Germans, 400 French for example - and less than 300 speaking English (give or take) - Why would you expect the first language to be English? 100 Americans, 100 English, 100 Aussies - don't make the majority of the ship. Unfortunatley I don't speak Italian, German and have school lesson French. So why would I expect all Italians, Germans, French etc to speak English? Not forgetting the other multi nationals that are in the minority. Don't see any of them posting/whinging about their languages not being used. When in Rome and all that......Just a thought.

 

The difference between travellers and tourists.

 

When I was onboard the Millennium a few years back, docked in Venice, I remember a gentleman complaining loudly at the excursion desk, that Italy should 'forced' to have all signs in english, and he would no longer go ashore until they did so. :confused:

[ducklite]

A doctor might be the best in the world, but if I can't clearly communicate with them in an emergency, what difference does it make? Replace the word "doctor" with "ship."