Costa Fortuna - Med in May/June

[elotfan]

hi,

 

hubby and i are going on our first cruise this spring :D on the Fortuna, departing from Naples, to Palermo, Tunis, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, Marseille and Savona. just wondering if anyone else is planning on doing this cruise, has done this cruise, or has any feedback on any excursions that would be worth doing in any of these ports.

 

i appreciate any input you can give me!:)

 

jocey

[Sammy10]

Hi There:

 

My husband and I will also being doing this cruise on May 21st/06. We already booked our cruise through Bel air Travel since I called Costa Cruises directly and they stated that the cabin selection we wanted for that particular day was almost sold out.

 

Enjoy!

[elotfan]

we are leaving the following week - we haven't actually booked yet, we hope to decide by week's end whether or not we should do some extra time in italy before or after our cruise. we are leaning toward a package deal that gives an extra night in rome before the cruise leaves, where you can meet with the other people that are doing the same package deal (hoping that we can at least meet a few english speakers on the trip!)

 

may i ask which category you booked for the week before that was selling out quickly - it may help us make the decision quickly, if we know that we risk missing out on the cabin that we want!

 

thanks, and i hope that you have a wonderful trip!

[Sammy10]

We booked Inside Cabin Cat. 2. We also booked the package deal that offers 1 nite stay in Rome prior to your cruise.

[goldencup]

I went on this cruise last August and have commented on it elsewhere on the board. We loved it.

[elotfan]

we booked our cruise today - we fly out on the 27th of may (1 day after our anniversary, so this is an anniversary trip) and we are doing the one night in rome before we set sail to cruise the med, departing from naples.

 

feels good to have definite plans now!!!

 

goldencup: thanks for the heads up about your previous posts - i will look for them and i'm sure that we will get great tips from them as well!

[elotfan]

anyone have any "must-do" excursions while in port at palermo? we are in port for pretty much the entire day, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

jocey

[goldencup]

I can't remember what excursions were on offer - just that we wish we'd done one of them! We were there in August and it was very hot and very crowded. We just walked around and despite the map we got very lost. We eventually found the cathedral (which was beautiful) but that was about it. Other people seemed to have had a good time on the excursions. I know some took the horse and cart rides but I think they were quite expensive.

[elotfan]

just wondering if anyone else is going to be on this trip with us!

 

jocey

[elotfan]

it's been about a month since i last posted to this thread - has anyone else booked for the western med on the fortuna for the end of may/beginning of june? if so, i'd love to hear from you!!!

 

jocey

[elotfan]

we're getting closer to the departure date (may 29)...anyone else booked this cruise yet?

 

jocey

[CTMOM]

We are going to be on the savona on the 21st. Can't wait. My husband and daughter are coming along. Getting last minute ideas for day trips. We're going to be in rome for a few days before and staying in genoa the night before. Getting lots of ideas from this siste. Looking forward to meeting some of you on the boat.

[CTMOM]

We are going to be on the savona on the 21st. Can't wait. My husband and daughter are coming along. Getting last minute ideas for day trips. We're going to be in rome for a few days before and staying in genoa the night before. Getting lots of ideas from this siste. Looking forward to meeting some of you on the boat.

[rico100]

:) We are going on the Costa Fortuna cruise out of Naples Italy on May 29/06. The flight departs out of Toronto on Skyservice, May 27/06 with an over-night in Rome.

We have been doing some research regarding excursions in Sicily and we are very interested in seeing the temple and amphitheater in nearby Segesta (Saw them in the TV show "The Amazing Race"). It has been difficult trying to source a tour company out of Palermo who could take us just for half-a-day. We are considering trying to hire a driver to take us there. If there were other parties interested in seeing Segesta, it could possibly reduce the cost per person. Costa does not offer an excursion to to Segesta but I will contact them on this anyway just in case they have some ideas. You can Google "Segesta" and you will find info on it.

 

Regards,

 

Eric Taylor

[elotfan]

hi eric!

 

sounds like we are doing the same trip with the same flights and all. hubby and i have been watching the amazing race as well, and keeping a close eye on where in italy they are going. we haven't decided on our excursions yet, but we may be interested in going to segesta (with a bit more research, of course!). there are just the two of us going - how many are in your party?

 

glad to hear from someone else who will be on this cruise with us!

 

happy planning!

 

jocey

[DavidTravels]

Hi:

I'm going on this cruise from Toronto on May 6th. To Rome, overnight and then to Naples. It seems that more people are going on the May 29th sailing; however, I will be happy to post a review once I return on May 23rd.

Our tickets haven't arrived as yet...I understand that they come from Genoa and the tour operator advised that we should get them by end of week.

We will probably pre book only Tunis and Palermo.

If you have any questions about the ship that you want me to look out for just let me know.

 

DavidTravels

[elotfan]

davidtravels - i would love to hear how your cruise goes, and what excursions you go on. have a wonderful trip, and i look forward to hearing about your trip when you get back!

 

jocey

[elotfan]

eric or davidtravels,

 

have either of you heard anything about the timing that the bus from rome will arrive in naples for embarkation? i haven't been able to find anything other than the ship is supposed to leave naples at 7pm - and we have no idea whether or not we will have the time to do an excursion from naples (other than just the really local stuff) - we have asked our travel agent to try and find out, but haven't heard anything yet. if you have any info about this, please pass it on...i really appreciate it!

 

jocey

[DavidTravels]

Hi there:

 

I received our cruise documents today. The tour of Rome is at 4:00 PM (which in one aspect is good...hopefully we can check into the hotel right away upon arrival and get a rest). Departure from Rome on the Monday is at 9:00 a.m. The bus to Naples takes 3.5-4 hrs and there is a 20 minute rest stop on the way. The cruise documents say embarkation in Naples is 3:00 PM (although I would think we would be at Naples by 1:00 PM). I doubt that there will be time to do anything in Naples.

 

If you booked the "Superior" class seats you may want to ensure that you prebook your seats. If you have prebooked your seats you may want to call your agent to ensure that the seat assignment hasn't changed. Two of my passengers had the seats changed due to a "plane reconfiguration".

 

It always seems so final once the cruise documents arrive (and we leave on May 6th...just got them today...I'm a T.A. so they were delivered to the office).

 

DavidTravels

[elotfan]

thanks for the info, davidtravels!:D

 

i hope that you have a fabulous trip!

 

jocey

[rico100]

Hi Jocey,

 

It will be my wife and I on the cruise. We are staying in a cat. 10 balcony cabin (anniversary indulgence). We have decided on most of the excursions we want, but it is a little frustrating that we can't book them until we embark as we booked the cruise through Sunquest and not through Costa directly. I will follow up with more info regarding Segesta. If you come across anything, please let me know.

 

Eric

[elotfan]

hi eric,

 

happy anniversary. we are also going for our anniversary (5 years), but we only upgraded to a cat 8 (?) outside room from an inside. we are still pondering excursions (very busy at work lately, not to mention stuff piling up at home) - but i do recall that the last time we were in to see our travel agent, she said that by contacting the sunquest rep and letting them know that you wanted to book excursions online via the costa website that sunquest may be able to get a costa booking number to allow us to do this online via the costa website. i haven't contacted her again since we've been busy - but i think that the sunquest rep had told us to check back within one month of the cruise date...which would be about now. i will try to get in touch with our travel agent by the end of the week to see if this is possible or not. (i think that it all depends on how quickly costa gets the numbers to sunquest for multiple bookings) it might be worth a call to your travel agent, or to sunquest directly though...i have no idea how fast the excursions fill up.

 

jocey

[DavidTravels]

Hi:

 

Unfortunately, you won't be able to book your shore excursions. We did get our Costa booking numbers last week...10 days before our departure. You must fill out the embarkation form; however, if you try to do anything else you won't be able to.

 

The Sunquest brochure does state that for Shore Excursions they are "To Be booked and paid for onboard". I'll let you know how we make out with booking them for the May 8th sailing.

 

Elotfan...we have a Cat 8 as well. Our friends went with the balcony..they have one at the aft of the ship and it looks like a bigger balcony so they will have company frequently!!!

 

David Travels

[atlanta99]

David-

 

If your friends have one of the L-shaped aft rooms, they have a double sized balcony that is bigger than the suite balconies--fantastic place to hang out.

[rico100]

Jocey,

 

We did get the Costa booking number from our travel agent and tried to book online with no success. My wife contacted Costa regarding this and they told us that we could only book the excursions when we get on board.

I am very busy with work and other stuff as well. I will try to get more info on the Segesta excursion by the weekend.

 

Eric

25 days and counting!!