Costa Victoria - Mauritius/Seychelles/Madagascar/Reunion Islands

[itscamparitime]

Any members travelling on this cruise 10th Nov 18 , as usual most of the reviews on this ship are pretty unfavourable

We've travelled with Costa many times, and don't usually take too much notice of reviews and mostly we've had a good holiday.

Edited October 23, 2018 by itscamparitime

[Spambo2]

I'm going on this one over Christmas. 

 

I love the itinerary - my expectations are very low of the ship and the weather so hopefully things can only be better 🙂

 

Please let let me know how you get on, I'm especially interested in the shore excursions. 

[itscamparitime]

On 11/2/2018 at 11:35 PM, Spambo2 said:

I'm going on this one over Christmas. 

 

I love the itinerary - my expectations are very low of the ship and the weather so hopefully things can only be better 🙂

 

Please let let me know how you get on, I'm especially interested in the shore excursions. 

 

On 11/2/2018 at 11:35 PM, Spambo2 said:

I'm going on this one over Christmas. 

 

I love the itinerary - my expectations are very low of the ship and the weather so hopefully things can only be better 🙂

 

Please let let me know how you get on, I'm especially interested in the shore excursions. 

Hi there we have travelled many times with Costa and we really haven't had a real problem only once and it was sorted out very quickly for us! I realise that the weather could be a bit of a issue but tbh we've had a few rainy days in European ports in summer/autumn seasons we have just made the best of the situation and always go prepared with our umbrella /raincoat just in case! Food entertainment cleanliness has always been very good as are the staff! In fact our worst cruise ever was last year with Royal Caribbean it was dreadful! Tired ship, the smallest cabin ever with bed up against the bulk head so I had to scramble in and out of bed, lack of storage, rude cabin lady the entertainment was so bad the highlight was when the Captain came armed with guitar and sang Mustang Sally the highlight of our holiday on board! We've never been on Victoria before and from some pictures that where posted on one of the forums on here it looks fine to us it's not quite as glitzy as some of their other ships but we don't mind that. Keep posted to this forum as sure that you'll get some info on the excursions! Hope some other people enroll soon on your roll call! Belle 

[kremerlorraine]

On 11/2/2018 at 11:35 PM, Spambo2 said:

I'm going on this one over Christmas. 

 

I love the itinerary - my expectations are very low of the ship and the weather so hopefully things can only be better 🙂

 

Please let let me know how you get on, I'm especially interested in the shore excursions. 

Hi Spambo. We didn't take any Costa excursions because we thought they didn't represent good value. In the Seychelles you can get a minibus or taxi, or even the public bus (22 or 21) to beautiful Beau Vallon beach for a fraction of the Costa price.

In Reunion we rented a car from Avis which is about 10 minutes walk from the port exit. You can also get a shuttle from the port exit to the bus station in the nearest town, Le Port, from where you can get another bus to St Denis, St Paul or St Gilles (where there is a good beach).

In Diego Suarez we used a local agency called Madabest (they have a website) for a whole day tour to Amber Mountain national park and Three Bays around the city. They provided a good 4x4 with driver and knowledgeable and friendly guide - again for a fraction of the Costa price.

In Nosy Be we used another local agency to do a tour to Nosy Komba where there is a park with lemurs and then on to another island for swimming and lunch. There are lots of operators waiting on the quayside when the tenders arrive.

Don't worry about the ship. Yes, it's old and the classic inside cabins are tiny, but the crew are wonderful and the food is good.

[Spambo2]

Thank you so much - you've made me feel much better about things 🙂

[CASPALL]

Please please let us know how you all get on as I’m considering this cruise for 2020

Wishing I had the March repo booked instead of Deliziosa Transatlantic ! 

[Babsi1]

On 11/14/2018 at 11:55 PM, Spambo2 said:

Thank you so much - you've made me feel much better about things 🙂

Hi Spambo,

we will be on this cruise too for xmas. Hope we meet. have your already booked tours?

 

[Spambo2]

3 hours ago, Babsi1 said:

Hi Spambo,

we will be on this cruise too for xmas. Hope we meet. have your already booked tours?

 

Hi Babsi. So pleased to have found someone else on the same cruise :)

We haven’t booked anything yet- have you?

The ships excursions look quite expensive so we’ll probably do our own thing. 

I’m a little worried about pre-booking and paying though in case the weather isn’t kind to us, especially around boat/water activities. 

We are in Seychelles on Christmas Day and I don’t know what will be open so I think we will rent a car although I’d also like to see another island.  

What are you planning to do?

Very excited :)

 

[Babsi1]

Hi we are already in Mauritius and arr this Morning. 

For seychelles we do on the 1 day the Flight in the Second we would like a boadtrip. For Madagaskar we have Not booked anything but i would like to See the Lemures and the countrysides. 

Have a good Flight wether hear is super! Hope to see you on the ship 😉 regards Babsi

[philbob84]

On 12/20/2018 at 6:31 AM, Babsi1 said:

Hi we are already in Mauritius and arr this Morning. 

For seychelles we do on the 1 day the Flight in the Second we would like a boadtrip. For Madagaskar we have Not booked anything but i would like to See the Lemures and the countrysides. 

Have a good Flight wether hear is super! Hope to see you on the ship 😉 regards Babsi

how was the trip? Any pictures!

[tim716]

Hi everybody!

 

I'm on this cruise Feb 2 2019. Trying to plan the shore excursions for the ports now, I as well think the ship's excursions prices are exorbitant, so I'm planning to minimize the costs by taking as much local agency tours as possible. I'd like to see as many places as possible as this is probably gonna be the only opportunity to see those places in my life.

I'd be very grateful for any reviews or tips from anyone who already completed the itinerary. (Thank you kremerlorraine, your message is priceless to me).

I especially need the info on a few things:

- Which of the ports of call are tendered? (this is quite strangely not shown on the official itinerary). What was the situation with the tender tickets/early tender access? Did it disrupt your local agency excursion plans? Also by my experience tendered ports are 10x times more probable to get missed due to weather.

- How did you plan for Tamatave where the ship visits for only half the day?

- What places did you like the most?

- Please please the contacts of the local tour agencies which you used and were happy with! For any port. I copied Madabest for Diego Suarez, will contact them.

- In Seychelles, how to make a day excursion to Praslin and La Digue on budget? The cheapest price I've found so far is about $200.

- Did anybody take Piu Gusto or another all inc drink package onboard? How well did it work?

I'd be also very grateful for any other tips and advice.

Edited January 10, 2019 by tim716

[itscamparitime]

1 hour ago, tim716 said:

Hi everybody!

 

I'm on this cruise Feb 2 2019. Trying to plan the shore excursions for the ports now, I as well think the ship's excursions prices are exorbitant, so I'm planning to minimize the costs by taking as much local agency tours as possible. I'd like to see as many places as possible as this is probably gonna be the only opportunity to see those places in my life.

I'd be very grateful for any reviews or tips from anyone who already completed the itinerary. (Thank you kremerlorraine, your message is priceless to me).

I especially need the info on a few things:

- Which of the ports of call are tendered? (this is quite strangely not shown on the official itinerary). What was the situation with the tender tickets/early tender access? Did it disrupt your local agency excursion plans? Also by my experience tendered ports are 10x times more probable to get missed due to weather.

- How did you plan for Tamatave where the ship visits for only half the day?

- What places did you like the most?

- Please please the contacts of the local tour agencies which you used and were happy with! For any port. I copied Madabest for Diego Suarez, will contact them.

- In Seychelles, how to make a day excursion to Praslin and La Digue on budget? The cheapest price I've found so far is about $200.

- Did anybody take Piu Gusto or another all inc drink package onboard? How well did it work?

I'd be also very grateful for any other tips and advice.

Hello we did this cruise in November so I can probably give you some information about it later on as haven't got sufficient time at the moment! What I will say is that right outside the port is any number of tour operators and that we used a few in different ports only doing one with the ship! I'll get back to you! The important thing to do though is make sure you have anti malarial tabs! Madagascar is a red flag for mosquitoes and you are advised that because of this all visitors should have them! See my previous posts as I have the details of which tablets you need for the ports in Madagascar 

Belle 

[tim716]

Thank you very much for your answer! I'll be very grateful for any useful advice.

The matter which worries me about the pier operators is that in this case it's only my responsibility to return to the ship on time. And February is a rainy season there (that's what can make my ongoing cruise very different from yours indeed). What if I go on an excursion, and then it starts raining (pouring) in the afternoon making the timely return impossible?

What did the roads look like (to the places you went)? Hard surface, stones or dirt, which I guess can make the road undriveable during hard rain?

Malaria concerns me too, thank you for the reminder. Unfortunately there's no chance to buy Malarone in Russia or Mauritius. And by the way it's really toxic to the liver, so I wouldn't like to take it "just in case". What I'm gonna do is buy Coartem and an express test in Madagascar, and in case of any illness after Madagascar promptly make the test and take Coartem if positive. And repellents for skin and clothes of course (even Costa recommends them for shore excursions).

What I hope for is we won't spend any nights in Madagascar, and I heard the moscito species transmitting malaria are active only in evenings and nights.

Edited January 11, 2019 by tim716

[HoratioN]

Hi Tim 716,

                      Please find an attached photo of the email I received from a company I have found in Mauritius offering tours and giving prices. We are using them to transfer us from the ship to our hotel on 16/02/19. Hope you find it useful and if you  are interested  in car sharing on 15th for an 8 hour tour please let me know.

[tim716]

Thank you for your information! Actually I'm quite interested in sharing. I can't send you a PM here on the forum unfortunately, so if you could write to my mail tim716 <at gmail dot c o m>, I'd reply to you with my thoughts about the matter. I have whatsapp, Telegram and Viber as well.

[pierre34]

Good day

 

Pam and I going on the 16 Feb cruise.   We are from Ontario, Canada

Anyone interested to go on a tour let me know.....It might be a win win to share....

I have couple of tours that can be share.   Nosy Be and Madagascar....

Pierre and Pam

[itscamparitime]

On 1/11/2019 at 2:03 PM, tim716 said:

Thank you very much for your answer! I'll be very grateful for any useful advice.

The matter which worries me about the pier operators is that in this case it's only my responsibility to return to the ship on time. And February is a rainy season there (that's what can make my ongoing cruise very different from yours indeed). What if I go on an excursion, and then it starts raining (pouring) in the afternoon making the timely return impossible?

What did the roads look like (to the places you went)? Hard surface, stones or dirt, which I guess can make the road undriveable during hard rain?

Malaria concerns me too, thank you for the reminder. Unfortunately there's no chance to buy Malarone in Russia or Mauritius. And by the way it's really toxic to the liver, so I wouldn't like to take it "just in case". What I'm gonna do is buy Coartem and an express test in Madagascar, and in case of any illness after Madagascar promptly make the test and take Coartem if positive. And repellents for skin and clothes of course (even Costa recommends them for shore excursions).

What I hope for is we won't spend any nights in Madagascar, and I heard the moscito species transmitting malaria are active only in evenings and nights.

 

Hello sorry for delay in getting back to you. Firstly I will say that being November we had amazing weather, with hardly any rain that bothered us. In Mauritius we arrived very late at our hotel which was located in Tombeau Bay and travelled by taxi the roads were fine, hard surfaces much like the normal road surfaces in most countries. The following day we took our hotel courtesy bus into Port Louis, and here we did everything ourselves on foot deciding not to venture too far as still tired from our long flights the previous day ( also we knew we would be back in Mauritius  at end ) the next day we went to the port around 12 30 and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly embarkation was, we were on board within an hour.  When we arrived in Victoria Seychelles we decided after doing some research to do our own thing and walked to the bus station and took a bus to Beau Vallon which was a lovely beach/seaside resort . It is very reasonable on public transport, We saw lots of people from our cruise here who had taken the cruise tour which was exactly the same as what we did on our own, and hugely expensive in comparison. The next day in Victoria we took a tour from outside the port it left around 7 30 am ( the lady who accompanied us was called Danielle and she had lots of knowledge, she operated the tour but unfortunatly I cannot find her details ) and we did some Island hopping  we visited a nature reserve and back to Victoria by 6pm the roads once again were all fine and there wasnt any rush to get back to ship as we were in port overnight, the next day we did our own thing again and went to the Botanic Gardens just around 25 min walk from the port we had a couple of hours here and had a comfortable walk back to the port ready for our departure to Madagascar. At Nosy B, we were tendered in , here we took a 4 x 4 vehicle again from outside of the port and did a tour around with some fellow passengers we had got friendly with,  again the roads were all fine, we did a street market, the trail of the crosses, we saw the Baobab trees, we saw lemurs,  In Tamatave we did a Costa Tour which took us to an indoor market, a visit to a nature reserve . In Madagascar you have to remember that it is a very poor country, outside the port are hundreds of locals trying to offer trips so be prepared to negotiate a deal , also just something our friends did, they took photos of the vehicle and the driver as they felt a bit uneasy, but we didn't have any problems, also be prepared to be stopped en-route by local police, who it would seem are corrupt and extort money from the drivers, calling them to one side and out of sight of the passengers. Because of this you might consider that the safety of the ship tours might be best, as the one we went on, we all left in separate buses in an cavalcade, we all went out together and returned together. I'm afraid I cannot comment of Reunion Island as we didn't get ashore due to the riots in France which had occurred in Reunion also, The airport and the Port were closed so we instead headed back to Mauritius early. I wish you well on your trip, out of all the ships we have travelled on Victoria was not my favourite, having some problems from day one with bathrooms both around the ship and our stateroom, It has had a recent refit, but still feel it needs something extra doing. The shows in my estimation could have been better as some we had to leave as just not worth sitting through, having said this it was a great itinery and we didn't have any problems with the food it was all edible. Enjoy !!