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Costa vs. MSC


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7 hours ago, Raj.K said:

Any comparison of Suites on Costa versus Yacht Club on MSC?

 

Also, MSC now include gratuities in the fare whilst Costa charges additional EUR 11 per night per passenger. How does Suite cabin and privileges compare with Yacht Club? 

Just got off MSC. The gratuities were not included in the fare, which resulted that one party of 3 was holding up one guest-service person for the entire time we were in line to check out arguing about getting the Euro 70 gratuity taken off their bill. It is listed on your confirmation that you will be charged for gratuities, so please read. It is easy to calculate all your surcharges. The staff was hard working and very friendly but have never been on a cruise so poorly organized.  I have gotten a great deal with drink and internet package, so will not complain, but better communication and organization will really go a long way to improve the product.

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On 7/10/2022 at 3:18 AM, unrealHeather said:

I've cruised Costa and MSC as well as RC and Norwegian.  I prefer Costa in terms of value for money.  Their customer service seems more authentic and friendly.  It's subtle the the crew on the MSC boat we experienced were edging on apathy and going through the bare minimum motions.  

 

MSC was the only cruise line that has screwed up our prebooked drink package and where my youngest got food poisoning.  My sense is MSC has really terrible IT systems to support their staff.  People complain about food on Costa but we enjoyed.  

I was on a shore excursion with an American woman who complained she didn't like the food on Costa because they didn't have "good salads" and yet they were making comments about finding a McDonald's while they were off the ship.  So take that for what you will.  

As I recall MSC and Costa are a bit annoying in having food available during off meal hours.  But once you get used to that it's fine.  

Every now and then I revisit McDonalds.  And then I remember why I hadn't visited MCD in so long.

I don't understand the appeal.  Not trying to be snobbish or anything like that.  I just don't think their food is very good.

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15 hours ago, BVILady said:

Just got off MSC. The gratuities were not included in the fare, which resulted that one party of 3 was holding up one guest-service person for the entire time we were in line to check out arguing about getting the Euro 70 gratuity taken off their bill. It is listed on your confirmation that you will be charged for gratuities, so please read. It is easy to calculate all your surcharges. The staff was hard working and very friendly but have never been on a cruise so poorly organized.  I have gotten a great deal with drink and internet package, so will not complain, but better communication and organization will really go a long way to improve the product.

Gratuities are included in the fare here in the UK. May be this varies from country to country then. 

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9 hours ago, Raj.K said:

Gratuities are included in the fare here in the UK. May be this varies from country to country then. 

Are you sure? I book through the UK and gratuities have never been included.

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23 hours ago, maryann2 said:

Are you sure? I book through the UK and gratuities have never been included.

I booked a cruise earlier this year (cruised in June) and gratuities were included. I think MSC started including gratuities a year or two ago. I can see cruises advertised on the UK website still says gratuities are included. Don't know if this is temporary.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/27/2022 at 7:49 PM, Raj.K said:

Any comparison of Suites on Costa versus Yacht Club on MSC?

 

Also, MSC now include gratuities in the fare whilst Costa charges additional EUR 11 per night per passenger. How does Suite cabin and privileges compare with Yacht Club? 

 

 

We have done both several times.  Like chalk and cheese.  MSC Yacht club they cant do enough for you - the perfect cruise for us.  Costa suites the first time we didn't even see our butler - not once.  The second time we did but he was the laziest butler ever.  Didn't do anything and referred us on every time.  Couldn't serve us drinks from the bar couldn't show us how to use the unfamiliar coffee machine.  Could not provide tea bags instead of coffee pods etc... All he did was bring us the provided pre dinner snack and the next days diary d'bordo.   You do get on the first tender onshore and you may or may not get to eat in the Club restaurant, that depends on which ship you are on.  And that is just about the only perk of being in a suite. The third Costa cruise coming up and we don't expect any different. 

 

Msc I came out of my suite to go to the bar for a pre dinner G&T and heard my butler say "no, no, no madame I will do it for you.  We were escorted to dinner.  We were boarded priority at every port, no queues.  You will always get a special restaurant.  You will always have access to the Top Sail Lounge.  You will have access to the spa area and a seperate pool deck. And the staff will bend over backwards to make your holiday special.

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We have been on 4 MSC ships and 8 Costa and much prefer the latter. The bar service on MSC was lacking on all 4 cruises, the MDR was also poor compared to Costa.

My wife is vegan and Costa provide a full vegan menu where as MSC only offered two options throughout the menu.

 

MSC has some really beautiful ships but if there is poor service then they would not be one of the first cruise lines we would look at. We would rather take 2 cruises than one in MSC's Yacht Club.

 

Someone else said they enjoyed the mood on Costa and I would whole heartedly agree with that.

 

Having shown bias towards Costa, we are taking family on a 3 nighter aboard Grandiosa new year but purely because of the price and the fact its only 3 nights. 😉

 

 

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  • 3 months later...
On 7/26/2021 at 12:00 AM, drsel said:

In simple and short terms, MSC is a four star cruise, while Costa is a 3 star budget Cruise.

 

MSC has 6 grand shows on a typical 7 night Cruise, while Costa has only 4 Grand shows.

 

The MSC buffet is open for 20 hours a day while the Costa buffet is open for 7-8 hours a day.

 

Costa is very very Italian,  while MSC is more multinational.

 

With MSC, you usually get the best prices when The Cruise is first announced in the beginning,  and the prices gradually go up with time.

Costa is the reverse, the prices fall with time and four to six weeks prior to sailing they are usually the lowest.

 

MSC offers a status match, while Costa does not.

In fact no cruise line offers such a status match.

 

MSC offers up to 50% discount on the basic fare for healthcare workers with hard copy proof.

No other cruise line offers this and certainly not Costa

 

Costa has some excellent bargains for Cruises coming up later this year 2021, while MSC prices for 2021 Cruises have already gone up significantly.

 

There are plenty more differences and I could go on and on, but this should suffice

On 7/25/2021 at 11:52 PM, drsel said:

 

Just came back from 2 MSC and one Costa cruise and the differences are really glaring.

Costa refused to serve free ice cream even once during 7 lunches and 7 dinners while MSC had free ice cream every night.

 

Costa desserts are full of fatty cream.

All desserts and pastries were very ordinary with nearly 70% cream, certainly not befitting a cruise; whereas MSC desserts are much better.

 

When I asked the Costa chef why he could not make Tiramisu or Dark chocolate Dutch truffle, he said he had to follow instructions from the head office to make only basic desserts full of cream.

 

In Costa, All games and activities are organised in Italian and you need to request them to speak in English.

Whereas on MSC, they will first speak in English and then Italian, Spanish, French, German.

So English appears to be the first language on MSC.

 

MSC now has 7 different shows, one for each night of the cruise and each show is shown 3 times, making a total of 21 shows in 7 nights.

Costa has only 4 shows and each show is shown only twice making a total of 8 shows in 7 nights

 

In both the crew work very hard, the bartenders are always busy and there is a lot of partying and dancing every night.

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On 11/23/2022 at 10:39 AM, drsel said:

Just came back from 2 MSC and one Costa cruise and the differences are really glaring

 

So many questions!
 
Cream desserts and ice cream are both made from pretty much the same basic things. Why are cream desserts so cheap, while ice cream isn’t?
There is a lot of whipping cream in ice cream, why it isn’t fat in ice cream?
Timarisu is a cream dessert with cookies. Why is timarisu good, pastries with a cream bad?
Didn’t you know that Costa does not allow “Dutch truffels” aboard? Ask aunt Google what this very special kind of mushrooms is used for.
And in case you wanted to write Belgian truffels instead, since when these aren’t full of fat?
Besides, is it really a sign of superior quality of MSC to offer the same dessert 14 times a week?
Why should Costa use English as first language, while only a tiny minority of the guests speaks English?
Makes it sense that Costa asks every time, whether participants from the different languages are in a crowd?
And is it difficult indeed to say YES, if someone asks whether there are English speakers?
Why were on all my cruises I had with Costa shows in the theatre every single evening, on yours this happened only on a few times?
Does it result in a better quality if artists perform a show three times a day instead of two times only?
 
Could it be that you are just angry that Costa sells ice cream at a small fee?
And that you feel entitled to determine that your preferred language has to be used first?
Or to define what a show is and you declare a broader entertainment program being not existent?

 

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4 hours ago, drsel said:

One thing in which Costa beats MSC hands down is last minute prices.

As the sailing day approaches, often you get amazingly low fares on Costa, as they try to sell off the last few cabins. No such luck with MSC!

I have to disagree with you on that. In July, the busiest month of the year in the Med we got 3 single Inside cabins for 1 week (Croatia/Greece/Adriatic Coast) including everything, premium drink-package, WiFi for all our devices and service charge for about $ 1000 each. Still prefer Costa food, was shocked at the MSC buffet with all the burgers and hotdogs offered, not the kind of food I am looking for on vacation. And the cream deserts you are complaining about on Costa were all I remember seeing on MSC buffet. We tipped well so had good service, so no complains about the staff at all but don't think I will sail MSC again.

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5 hours ago, BVILady said:

I have to disagree with you on that. In July, the busiest month of the year in the Med we got 3 single Inside cabins for 1 week (Croatia/Greece/Adriatic Coast) including everything, premium drink-package, WiFi for all our devices and service charge for about $ 1000 each. Still prefer Costa food, was shocked at the MSC buffet with all the burgers and hotdogs offered, not the kind of food I am looking for on vacation. And the cream deserts you are complaining about on Costa were all I remember seeing on MSC buffet. We tipped well so had good service, so no complains about the staff at all but don't think I will sail MSC again.

Well I am getting Costa last minute Dubai and Abu Dhabi Cruises for just 152 pounds, including all port fees and taxes, excluding service charges.

Costa Transatlantic cruises to South America were also very cheap, around 30 pounds per night

Costa Cruises are worth buying up to 40 pounds per night

 

Edited by drsel
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10 hours ago, drsel said:

One thing in which Costa beats MSC hands down is last minute prices.

As the sailing day approaches, often you get amazingly low fares on Costa, as they try to sell off the last few cabins. No such luck with MSC!

 

Okay, I see you decided not to discuss your claims I questioned above, although these claims are pretty unreal. And this while with Costa and MSC two European companies (Italian and Swiss) aiming on an international public and are regarding this similarity pretty easy to compare. I‘ll do in the following exactly this exclusively for these two lines from +++ to - - -, strong of weak points of other cruise lines I leave out, if at all I compare to general experiences. For essential things I don‘t give positive points (having enough lifeboats is not + but o, Titanic would have scored --- in this case).
 

  • When booking both websites prove that they are bad. Regarding information Costa has an advantage, but in total both have the least working systems I‘ve seen on the cruise market. Costa - -, MSC - - -
  • Customer care of both is slow and not really well informed, while Costa recently improved a lot. Difference is that Costa always was service orientated and friendly, while I have too many mails from MSC following a blame-the-customer policy. Costa - (could change to positive if tendencies go on), MSC - - -
  • Embarkation. Costa was in the most cases not overly time consuming and relatively well organised, I can‘t blame a cruise line for emigration officers having not working computers during passport control or for bad weather. Delays caused by waiting times connected to covid testing during embarkation I exclude as well. The honour of performing my longest and most chaotic embarkation ever belongs to MSC. Costa +, MSC - - -
  • Both lines have very thoughtfully designed ships, Costa +++, MSC +++
  • Service aboard is performed in both cases very well by the staff you are serviced from. Hard working, friendly people. Costa +++, MSC +++
  • If you need the back office Costa can be a bit confusing, but staff is interested in sorting out things and to have a happy customer, MSC has also here a culture of blocking everything. Costa +, MSC - - -
  • Food can lead to enormous discussions about personal taste. What a person doesn‘t eat or loves has no impact on quality. That everybody can get a meal that fits to personal tastes is a factor of quality of course. And not to repeat the complete menu during a cruise that doesn‘t exceed a couple of weeks. So I reduce this part to the quality of preparation and selection of meals in the MDR. In this limited meaning food has a huge plus on the side of Costa. Deliciously prepared meals with a huge variety I value much higher than junk food and flat tasting, uninspired meals with the intention to fit every course with average food the average taste of all nationalities aboard. Costa +++, MSC o
  • Cleanliness is definitely a weak point of MSC, while Costa fulfils all expectations completely. Here I don‘t give a + as I regard this as being essential. Costa o, MSC - - -
  • Another negative point of MSC is that they treat a part of the guests as super special, because they booked in a separate part of the ship. If one feels the need having a butler and is willing to pay for it‘s fine, also Costa offers this service. But MSC makes the ordinary guest feel being 2nd class human already at the moment you are not allowed to enter one of the reserved elevators. Costa sells additional services, but a guest is a guest. Normal behaviour towards guests is not positive so no + given. Costa o, MSC - - -
  • Add ons are hard to compare, since both offer different things included in the fare or at additional price. At least the drink packages with not too much differing prices (my last Costa booking at 30 € higher price a day for My Drinks compared to the cruise only price, MSC Easy according to their website 32 €) gives Costa a plus again for offering much more choice. Not to forget that MSC excludes a lot of cruises from this offer, while always available on Costa cruises. Costa ++, MSC o
  • While Costa excursions are sometimes overpriced and sometimes at about the same rates as local companies offer MSC‘s prices can cause heart attacks. Costa o, MSC - -
  • Entertainment is about the same quality level, but much more varied on Costa. Costa ++, MSC +

 
Some cruises both Costa and MSC offer more or less identically, on other routes only one of them sails. Even if Costa offers a cruise with the same itinerary at a higher price, I‘d choose value for my money and go with Costa!
 
While the Swiss with chocolate or watches are unbeatable, MSC however performs way worse than Italian Costa. The problem is that you have expectations that are not connected at all to quality. Aren‘t you aware that quantity, personal preferences, or price aren‘t the same as quality? You claim that ice cream for free twice a day would be quality, your preferred language must be used first for offering quality, what you want to watch in the theatre (which ends in the claim that things you don‘t want to see wouldn‘t exist at all) would be quality. All this is not the same as quality!
 
You are entitled to be happy if a language is spoken by a minority of guests is the one used fist. You are free to be happy with MSC for serving free ice cream. There are people happy with Mc Donalds, but this fact doesn‘t result in Mc Donalds being a gourmet restaurant. Like this calling Costa‘s desserts fat, just because they don‘t serve fat ice cream for free. It doesn‘t make sense.

 

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37 minutes ago, drsel said:

Well I am getting Costa last minute Dubai and Abu Dhabi Cruises for just 152 pounds, including all port fees and taxes, excluding service charges.

Costa Transatlantic cruises to South America were also very cheap, around 30 pounds per night

Costa Cruises are worth buying up to 40 pounds per night.

I got many excellent bargains on Costa in the past, which is why I sailed with them so often.

but nowadays I cannot seem to find many bargains on Costa, unlike MSC.

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53 minutes ago, At7Seas said:

 

  • When booking both websites prove that they are bad. Regarding information Costa has an advantage, but in total both have the least working systems I‘ve seen on the cruise market. Costa - -, MSC - - -
  • Customer care of both is slow and not really well informed, while Costa recently improved a lot. Difference is that Costa always was service orientated and friendly, while I have too many mails from MSC following a blame-the-customer policy. Costa - (could change to positive if tendencies go on), MSC - - -
  • Embarkation. Costa was in the most cases not overly time consuming and relatively well organised, I can‘t blame a cruise line for emigration officers having not working computers during passport control or for bad weather. Delays caused by waiting times connected to covid testing during embarkation I exclude as well. The honour of performing my longest and most chaotic embarkation ever belongs to MSC. Costa +, MSC - - -
  • Both lines have very thoughtfully designed ships, Costa +++, MSC +++
  • Service aboard is performed in both cases very well by the staff you are serviced from. Hard working, friendly people. Costa +++, MSC +++
  • If you need the back office Costa can be a bit confusing, but staff is interested in sorting out things and to have a happy customer, MSC has also here a culture of blocking everything. Costa +, MSC - - -
  • Food can lead to enormous discussions about personal taste. What a person doesn‘t eat or loves has no impact on quality. That everybody can get a meal that fits to personal tastes is a factor of quality of course. And not to repeat the complete menu during a cruise that doesn‘t exceed a couple of weeks. So I reduce this part to the quality of preparation and selection of meals in the MDR. In this limited meaning food has a huge plus on the side of Costa. Deliciously prepared meals with a huge variety I value much higher than junk food and flat tasting, uninspired meals with the intention to fit every course with average food the average taste of all nationalities aboard. Costa +++, MSC o
  • Cleanliness is definitely a weak point of MSC, while Costa fulfils all expectations completely. Here I don‘t give a + as I regard this as being essential. Costa o, MSC - - -
  • Another negative point of MSC is that they treat a part of the guests as super special, because they booked in a separate part of the ship. If one feels the need having a butler and is willing to pay for it‘s fine, also Costa offers this service. But MSC makes the ordinary guest feel being 2nd class human already at the moment you are not allowed to enter one of the reserved elevators. Costa sells additional services, but a guest is a guest. Normal behaviour towards guests is not positive so no + given. Costa o, MSC - - -
  • Add ons are hard to compare, since both offer different things included in the fare or at additional price. At least the drink packages with not too much differing prices (my last Costa booking at 30 € higher price a day for My Drinks compared to the cruise only price, MSC Easy according to their website 32 €) gives Costa a plus again for offering much more choice. Not to forget that MSC excludes a lot of cruises from this offer, while always available on Costa cruises. Costa ++, MSC o
  • While Costa excursions are sometimes overpriced and sometimes at about the same rates as local companies offer MSC‘s prices can cause heart attacks. Costa o, MSC - -
  • Entertainment is about the same quality level, but much more varied on Costa. Costa ++, MSC +

 
Some cruises both Costa and MSC offer more or less identically, on other routes only one of them sails. Even if Costa offers a cruise with the same itinerary at a higher price, I‘d choose value for my money and go with Costa!
 
While the Swiss with chocolate or watches are unbeatable, MSC however performs way worse than Italian Costa. The problem is that you have expectations that are not connected at all to quality. Aren‘t you aware that quantity, personal preferences, or price aren‘t the same as quality? You claim that ice cream for free twice a day would be quality, your preferred language must be used first for offering quality, what you want to watch in the theatre (which ends in the claim that things you don‘t want to see wouldn‘t exist at all) would be quality. All this is not the same as quality!
 
You are entitled to be happy if a language is spoken by a minority of guests is the one used fist. You are free to be happy with MSC for serving free ice cream. There are people happy with Mc Donalds, but this fact doesn‘t result in Mc Donalds being a gourmet restaurant. Like this calling Costa‘s desserts fat, just because they don‘t serve fat ice cream for free. It doesn‘t make sense.

 

I agree with you regarding the respective websites,  customer care, beautiful ships and  onboard service.

 

But I disagree regarding the embarkation time.

On one of the excellent Costa bargains, which was a 29 nights grand voyage from Venice to the Greek Isles, Suez canal, Red Sea, Jordan, Oman, Maldives & Bombay for just $1017 plus €290 service charge; the embarcation took over 2 hours and the ship was also late by two and half hours.

Which meant we were waiting for 4.5 hours in Venice.

On all MSC Cruises we embarked within 20-30 minutes.

 

I also think that both Cruise lines are extremely clean, no problem at all regarding cleanliness or hygiene.

 

I agree with you that the Yacht club passengers on MSC are given VIP treatment, and they well deserve it considering how much more they are paying.

 

The MSC Alcohol and Wifi package is  extremely low priced if you buy it along with your Cruise, at the time of booking your Cruise.

 

I also agree with you that the MSC excursions are very expensive but  it doesn't matter to us, because we always go out on our own.

 

Regarding the grand shows--

although  MSC had 7, the 3 grand shows on Costa Firenze  were truly top class with outstanding performances, fabulous costumes and elaborate sets.

These shows were in the same league or even better than those on the premium cruise line Celebrity 

Edited by drsel
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Oh, it is not that surprising that a ship is waiting for delayed charter flights or transfer busses. Once aboard this is no problem at all, since the holiday has started! Following this logic it would mean a planned departure at midnight would destroy the embarkation day completely. Embarkation I calculate from arrival at the terminal (within the given time of course) until leaving the terminal again for boarding. In Venice these days you even board a bus, because the ship mustn‘t sail to the terminal any more. Reason to blame Costa or MSC? External problems as a ship arriving in port long after embarkation time, because the port authorities didn‘t allow entering the port during a storm can‘t be blamed on a cruise line. Didn‘t make me happy, but quality can be measured even in this case by the extra service offered during this unavoidable waiting time. In this sense my longest ever embarkation with Costa was a little below two hours - including taking the samples for a corona test and waiting for results. MSC never succeeded in being that fast - completely without testing. With ship arriving early morning, all in time, no strike, no restrictions imposed by authorities, in MSC‘s own base Genoa, next port also in Italy, the easiest kind of embarkation one can imagine - and it took me close to five hours from dropping luggage to putting first step aboard. And no, I didn‘t go to visit the city in-between, but proceeded to embarkation. Fastest embarkation ever was 15 minutes - Costa in Warnemünde. Of course this can only be based on personal observations, there are no official statistics as for railway delays. Also this is relevant: my arrival in the port was with MSC solely, with Costa mostly with transport I arranged on my own.
 
Repeatedly finding dirty plates and cutlery is in my eyes a hygienic problem. If everybody - including backoffice - ignores I am upset.
 
Yacht club guests deserve their “special” cabin, their butler, all extras they have paid for. On Costa comparable to suite guests. So far everything is okay. But they don‘t deserve that others are treated worse, especially not outside of their gated community! Here MSC is doing wrong by unfair treatment of the vast majority of their guests. First class train tickets also offer much more space, but don’t give me priority over 2nd class travellers when I want to use the toilet.
 
You‘re not up to date with the regular fares, while Costa replaced the system and introduced besides the My Cruise the All Inclusive tariff this year, MSC has scrapped drinks from their last regular price model very recently. Special sales could result in inclusive rates of course, I myself sailed with Costa All Inclusive at My Cruise rate in spring. Cheaper than for free you can’t get My Drinks, but it is senseless to compare this special fare with regular fares of MSC. As long as we compare regular prices with regular prices it remains that Costa offers so much more for about the same price (the 6% Costa asks less is really not relevant when their offer is three times larger). Being lucky in finding a cheap promotional offer doesn’t constitute quality of a cruise line, generally offering value for money does.
 
Leaving out excursions from when comparing is possible, as we could leave out every detail of a cruise working against MSC. I myself decide from port to port what I want to do - and how. Besides, we had now quite a while where only ship excursions were allowed. But more important: for judging about the quality of a cruise line it is relevant whether the guests are massively overcharged with items for sale aboard. Another time the question of fair treatment, there is a difference between conducting a business and ripping off somebody. We shouldn‘t forget that the cruise lines don‘t do their own excursions, but buy from what is available locally. This results in the same excursions offered by several cruise lines in one port - often accompanied by the same guides. Significant differences in price show, which cruise line overcharges.
 
And as I said earlier, I never experienced a single evening on Costa where the theatre wasn‘t used for performing a show. Not even on the small vessels that are sold since long, ships where the ratio between artists and guests was so much worse Costa cut on entertainment. This year, even the sailing I did under strict covid rules still in force, there was a show every single evening. The same this summer rules became less strict: every evening! And on the Firenze, which belongs to the second largest class of ships Costa ever owned the place of main entertainment remained closed most of the evenings? I can’t believe it, but I will test it next year myself!

 

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I understand! A classic violin concert deserves a bad review, because there was no dance…
 
Personal preferences have absolute nothing to do with quality. The statement “only three shows” is completely misleading. I for my part have seen Costa music-only shows with absolute first class singers. Definitely quality entertainment, not non-existent.

 

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7 hours ago, At7Seas said:

I understand! A classic violin concert deserves a bad review, because there was no dance…
 
Personal preferences have absolute nothing to do with quality. The statement “only three shows” is completely misleading. I for my part have seen Costa music-only shows with absolute first class singers. Definitely quality entertainment, not non-existent.

 

There was no classic violin or piano concert.

If you compare a good acrobatic show 

Vs

a spectacular grand production show featuring outstanding performances, fabulous costumes and elaborate sets,

both on the same Costa Firenze;  you will see a clear difference!

Edited by drsel
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I am so sorry - for you that you didn’t get what I wrote. No entertainment at all most of the days changed into only “singers” and “acrobatic shows” and now acrobatic shows would be generally inferior, since for you everything is bad without dancing and singing in fabulous costumes. You don’t need to convince me, the shows you do like are really well performed and I like them. Just I am open to much more than a single type of entertainment. And I also can say “well performed, just not interesting to me” or “happened, but I didn’t visit, because it didn’t appeal to me”. Costa in my opinion (!) topped everything in summer with engaging Appassionante, absolutely the best voices I (!) was allowed to listen to since many years, definitely the best evening show I personally experienced (!) aboard of what ship ever, for me (!) an unbelievable great event. Just for you non-existent as the trio are “just singers”. Someone’s preference for a single genre is fine, everybody is entitled to love what he likes. Making this single preference the only benchmark for quality, or worse even for the existence of shows, misleads everybody who reads such a statement, because it is just not true.

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Another major difference is in their loyalty system.

 

In Costa club, even if you sail with them every year, your accumulated points have to expire after 3 years, and the status level  you have achieved will change (fall) accordingly.

 

Whereas in MSC Voyagers club, you will always retain your lifetime accumulated points and highest status if you sail them at least once every 3 years.

 

In the American Cruise lines, your points and status never expire, even if you stop sailing with them.

Edited by drsel
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MSC is the only cruise line which offers a status match.

MSC will match the highest status you have achieved in any of the major Cruise lines or major Hotel chains.

Costa does not offer any such status match, nor do most of the other Cruise lines.

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How impressive! If MSC would match my status it wouldn‘t help MSC to gain an advantage above Costa, since I have already a good level on Costa and it doesn’t help at all in the many points MSC lies behind. But you really need a high status with MSC, just to pick one example: the birthday cake everybody gets regardless of status on Costa requires at least gold status on MSC. You forgot to mention that this only works one time. Who is disappointed of the bad quality and doesn’t sail with MSC often enough is soon back to zero points and the beautiful free status is gone - a second match a couple of years later is not allowed. Believe it or not, I often skipped the club cocktail, I don‘t need to take everything, just because it is for free. I hate it being ripped-off, when I find a good deal I am happy, but I am not cheap and go for free goodies only. Anyway, the central question remains what would be my choice if Costa and MSC would offer the same cruise. As I explained above by giving a lot of detailed reasons it definitely would be Costa, since the quality is so much better and I deserve the better holiday. Even if Costa might be more expensive in this example I‘d still go for quality. Of course Costa is not the top of the market cruise line, but compared to others I sailed with the price value ratio of Costa works better for me. The question is whether the points where Costa has space for improvement are important enough to pay often significantly more to get them solved. My answer is no, because these points definitely haven’t such an impact. The much more expensive lines are for itineraries Costa doesn‘t offer but I really want to do. MSC of course is even further away from the quality we are talking about now. No status match would ever make MSC that good that it would get close to the level of Costa or other cruise lines.

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