Royal Diamond Tries Costa

[Iluvcruising2]

My parents, who are also Royal Diamonds, went for a cruise on the Costa Victoria out of Singapore. It was a 4N cruise, with ports of call in Phuket, Thailand and Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia.

 

I was most interested to find out more about their experience because Costa has started to operate some cruises out of Singapore. So it was good that they tried the Costa Victoria first.

 

My Dad passed me some of his photos and videos, so I am using them to do some reviews and videos.

 

I have no first hand experience on this ship, so I would have to rely on my Dad's views.

 

Overall, my parents didn't think much about this cruise line.

 

In particular, the food was very lacklustre, compared to what they were used to on Royal and more recently on NCL.

 

Taken on the ship.

 

One positive aspect, the ship had pretty good parties. There was a Venetian Night and Venetian masks were left in the cabins for all passengers. Everybody put on their masks and started dancing. It was quite happening, as you will see in this video.

 

[YOUTUBE]lS8YIVPPJnw[/YOUTUBE]

Edited January 9, 2015 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

In this video, you see the snippets of the Costa Victoria cruise ship, including her atrium and theatre. The theatre wasn't very big and the shows weren't very good either.

[YOUTUBE]w7GYVeYJzZY[/YOUTUBE]

 

Deck 6 - I think this was where most of the action was.

 

The food wasn't good at all. My Dad complained about it. He also heard any other passengers making similar comments. This photo of a rice dish sums it up.

[Iluvcruising2]

The ports that the ship visited were interesting. Only 2 ports on this 4N cruise.

 

The first was Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is actually an island, with her own international airport. Famous for her beaches, seafood and nightlife. I think it is a favourite place to visit for many Caucasians. You will see in the video that most people on the beaches were not locals. Phuket was also hit by the 2004 Tsunami.

 

Phuket was a tender port. The ship employed local tenders, pretty big boats. The boats brought the passengers right up to Patong Beach, which is the most famous of Phuket beaches. The tender ride was about 20 minutes .

 

Two videos of their experience in the port.

[YOUTUBE]KEIkPLBCCZ8[/YOUTUBE]

 

This second video is on para-sailing from Patong beach. I think it looked rather dangerous. I wouldn't try this.

[YOUTUBE]vYLH5VqJ9mE[/YOUTUBE]

[Iluvcruising2]

The second port was Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia. They call this the Jewel of Kedah. Langkawi is also a touristy, resort-type island. This place was certainly not as busy as Phuket. The port of call was rather short, 7:30am to 12:30pm. The scenery was pretty nice though, because it is actually an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman sea.

 

[YOUTUBE]qsujM448mSs[/YOUTUBE]

[onyx007]

Costa is normal very good, but the cruise with Costa Victoria is

as I know it thought more for the Asian Market. Therefore it's

not the western standard and the local folks enjoy not the same things

that we are looking at...

 

So your parents picked a bad example for their first cruise with Costa Lines. If they had cruised the mediteriean which is the home base for Costa as the Caribbean sea is for RCCL they might had a completly other experience than on this cruise...

[Iluvcruising2]

Costa is normal very good, but the cruise with Costa Victoria is

as I know it thought more for the Asian Market. Therefore it's

not the western standard and the local folks enjoy not the same things

that we are looking at...

 

So your parents picked a bad example for their first cruise with Costa Lines. If they had cruised the mediteriean which is the home base for Costa as the Caribbean sea is for RCCL they might had a completly other experience than on this cruise...

 

Well, the cruise my parents went on was during off-peak season and the price was very good. So, to be fair, given the price, it was not that bad a deal overall.

 

However, with such an experience, I don't think they would want to fly all the way to Europe to cruise with Costa.