Reviews on Costa Magica??

[Libbiroed]

Hi!

We will be cruising on the Costa Magica out of Guadeloupe on Dec 20, 2019. We were on the Costa Fortuna in 2008 and quite enjoyed it. I love Italian food. If anyone has reviews for the Magica, I would be interested in hearing about it. Do they charge for water for ice tea/juice that is usually free on the other lines?

[tenpin]

Yes water is charged for, but as they now offer a drink package with Premium cabins you can get glass from any bar, or a bottled water package, Juice is also available with package in some bars & at buffet stations.

The Magia is a lovely ship one of our favourites, (been on her five times)

[Janetonboard]

I was on the Costa Magica out of Guadeloupe last March and loved it. It was my first cruise, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I found the overall experience a good one. I was with my sister, who has been on many other US based cruises and the biggest difference she noticed was that the passengers are almost all European. We ran into very few English speaking passengers on the ship. I found it to be a great experience but she was frustrated at not being able to make as many connections with other English-speaking passengers. 

 

Our room steward was top notch and I found the food to be quite good. We only ate in the main dining rooms and the buffet. We did not try out any of the extra fee dining options. My only complaint on the food is that the buffet doesn't change much from day to day, so it can get boring. But, there is a lot of different food on the buffet, so it is possible to build variety into your meals. 

 

The beverage package we had was Brindiamo. It did include water at the bars and restaurants, but not a full bottle to take back to your room. The thing we most enjoyed about the beverage package was that it included specialty coffees which were excellent. It was an odd package in that you could get all the different liquors and mixed virgin drinks, but there were only a few fancy drink options. In other words, you could get a virgin margarita and a shot of tequila as part of the package, but you couldn't get a regular margarita with alcohol. 

 

As for the cruise destination, I particularly loved Martinique, Grenada and Guadeloupe. We didn't do much in the way of excursions, but I did love walking around each of those ports. We did visit a couple a couple of beaches - Pigeon Point in Tobago and Pirates Cove in Barbados. Both were stunning. 

 

My only other thought is don't arrive at the embarkation too early. Due to our overall schedule we arrived at the port by 1 pm (even though official embarkation was 5 pm). They wouldn't let us through the initial gate until 3 pm and there was no space to wait. We had to stand in a very time space outside the gate for two hours waiting to be let in to the check in area. This timing challenge was totally on us, but my sister thought there would at least be a space for us to sit and wait until they were ready for embarkation so it was a bit rough to have to wait two hours to be let into the check in area. 

[tenpin]

Further to the post above, Costa are very particular about boarding times, they are on your cruise ticket and very rarely will they let you board before stated time, even with priority boarding & Suites.

Best to stay at airport on in town & go half way between stated boarding time & sailing time. Normally you will be on within 30 minutes.

 

Even when we were given instant boarding for Gold Pearl members they held us back to the 2pm time at Dover even  though the time difference between so called ships time & UK time meant we arrived early.