#CostaGrammar Tours

[BVILady]

What are they? Anything special, are these the tours where you can buy 3 at a reduced rate?

Edited August 27, 2021 by BVILady

[gerryuk]

The 5 tours for a special price are called Passpartour. It seems you have to have booked a cruise on certain dates to get this. If you book a cruise now on the UK site you will be able to book them.

I have a 15 night cruise on Diadema in September, its a round trip from Barcelona via Istanbul, i have so far booked 2 tours and have been charged the full price, as this is a Med cruise, not one of the tours is to a beach. As we are not allowed to leave the ship unless on a Costa tour, to me this is just wrong. I will give them a ring this week to confirm this.

I dont mind the masks but the tours and having to use the MDR for all meals does not sit well with me. I will go on this cruise but if it is too regimented, i will cancel my TA from Barcelona to Guadeloupe in December. 

[Stefan_Varong]

On 8/27/2021 at 2:58 PM, BVILady said:

What are they? Anything special, are these the tours where you can buy 3 at a reduced rate?

 

These are special photo tours to post the results on instagram. Of course open to everybody, whether you want to publish your pictures or not.Of course

[Stefan_Varong]

6 hours ago, gerryuk said:

... we are not allowed to leave the ship unless on a Costa tour, to me this is just wrong.

 

Italian law allows right now only ship tours. This is applicable for all ships calling Italian ports and all ships under Italian flag world-wide. So Costa mustn’t let anybody leave the ship on a private tour or just to walk to the next beach. Costa since a short while has to check the green pass of everybody visiting a restaurant or museum on a ship tour, just because Italy does not allow visits without any more. Part of their permission to operate is to guarantee social distancing and for avoiding crows at the buffets they only offer service and only guests from one booking are seated together in MDR.
 
For you even worse might be the quarantine for travellers who have been in the UK within two weeks before travelling to Italy. UK’s “Freedom Day” is seen in Italy as “High Risk Day”.
 
All these legal limitations are constantly changing of course. Nobody can tell you what will be valid when your cruise is going to start.

 

[gerryuk]

49 minutes ago, Stefan_Varong said:

 

Italian law allows right now only ship tours. This is applicable for all ships calling Italian ports and all ships under Italian flag world-wide. So Costa mustn’t let anybody leave the ship on a private tour or just to walk to the next beach. Costa since a short while has to check the green pass of everybody visiting a restaurant or museum on a ship tour, just because Italy does not allow visits without any more. Part of their permission to operate is to guarantee social distancing and for avoiding crows at the buffets they only offer service and only guests from one booking are seated together in MDR.
 
For you even worse might be the quarantine for travellers who have been in the UK within two weeks before travelling to Italy. UK’s “Freedom Day” is seen in Italy as “High Risk Day”.
 
All these legal limitations are constantly changing of course. Nobody can tell you what will be valid when your cruise is going to start.

 

Thanks for that, although i am British i live on Gran Canaria a Spanish Island and have Spanish residency, so not to worried. 

[Stefan_Varong]

39 minutes ago, gerryuk said:

Thanks for that, although i am British i live on Gran Canaria a Spanish Island and have Spanish residency, so not to worried. 

 

Good for you, just the rest as shore excursions and dining is valid for everybody on board.

[BVILady]

1 hour ago, Stefan_Varong said:

Part of their permission to operate is to guarantee social distancing and for avoiding crows at the buffets they only offer service and only guests from one booking are seated together in MDR.

so that will be very unpleasant, my friend has her own cabin and has booked it separately through a TA, it will be weird if both of us are supposed to sit alone on a table by ourselves. Since Costa is not very active on cruisecritic we will not be able to get groups together for people to share excursions, so Costa Excursions will be fine with me. My Adult Children and me have been on only Costa Excursions in Asia in 2010 and I was only booked on Costa excursions in 2016 when I traveled by myself and have no complaints. For HAL and Princess we had previously found fellow passengers to arrange tours with, really good were the one's in Asia with HAL.

[maryann2]

30 minutes ago, BVILady said:

so that will be very unpleasant, my friend has her own cabin and has booked it separately through a TA, it will be weird if both of us are supposed to sit alone on a table by ourselves. 

I also have a friend who has booked separately for the Diadema TA in Dec. What we usually do is contact the cruise line beforehand and link bookings. Your friends TA should be able to do that. 

Not sure if it works if you have different drink packages though.

 

Still not sure if the Diadema TA will be a go. Unable to add passport info etc and only one tour available to book. Guadeloupe has high covid rates.

[Stefan_Varong]

27 minutes ago, BVILady said:

so that will be very unpleasant, my friend has her own cabin and has booked it separately through a TA, it will be weird if both of us are supposed to sit alone on a table by ourselves. Since Costa is not very active on cruisecritic we will not be able to get groups together for people to share excursions, so Costa Excursions will be fine with me. My Adult Children and me have been on only Costa Excursions in Asia in 2010 and I was only booked on Costa excursions in 2016 when I traveled by myself and have no complaints. For HAL and Princess we had previously found fellow passengers to arrange tours with, really good were the one's in Asia with HAL.

 

Costa is going to prevent groups to be mixed too much, but is not telling who you may spend your time with or not. In most cases travel companions book together and this makes them to be seated together as well. If I were you I’d ask Costa as soon as possible to be seated together, because you are travel companions anyway. This completely independent whether today’s rules will be still applicable in January or not. Your table always will be allocated before boarding, if booked on premium tariff you can ask for early or late seating and large or small table in Mycosta, but not to be seated with another person. Otherwise you might need to see the maître D for be seated together as soon as possible.
 
Costa tours I have been on were everything between great and bad, as it’s always depending on the guides. Sure, there are always tours that fit into one’s interests and others are clicked away immediately. Although I prefer smaller groups or just doing a city on my own when docked not far away this regulation is no problem for me.

 

[BVILady]

Stefan, she had booked later then me, so when she booked her TA asked for my reservation # and they asked for us to be seated together - so we will see what happens, IF it happens. Maryann2 Caribbean people are a strange lot, so many of them do not want to be vaccinated even the vaccine is available, so Covid rates go up and down in the different islands like a yoho. Some facebook friends of mine and me try really hard to make people see sense here in the BVI, but these "YouTube experts" are hard to beat. I hope that your cruise will happen. Guadeloupe is a wonderful place.

[Stefan_Varong]

Sounds as the TA knew what he did. There always were people travelling together but paying separately, just Costa needs to know to be able to link the two numbers to one booking.
 
Yes, the "YouTube experts"… Very popular in Europe as well.

[kremerlorraine]

15 hours ago, Stefan_Varong said:

 

 
 
For you even worse might be the quarantine for travellers who have been in the UK within two weeks before travelling to Italy. UK’s “Freedom Day” is seen in Italy as “High Risk Day”.
 
Last night the Italian Health Minister tweeted that the five-day mini quarantine for people travelling from the UK will no longer be required from 1 September. Good news, but a little late for us as we had already booked a 16 night stay in Tenerife before our Luminosa cruise out of Trieste in September just to get around that rule! Never mind - Tenerife will be good, too.

 

 

[kremerlorraine]

Mucked up my post by including my remarks in my quote of Stefan, but it was to say that people travelling from the UK will no longer have to quarantine on arrival in Italy from 1 September (per their Health Minister).

[Stefan_Varong]

16 minutes ago, kremerlorraine said:

Mucked up my post by including my remarks in my quote of Stefan, but it was to say that people travelling from the UK will no longer have to quarantine on arrival in Italy from 1 September (per their Health Minister).

 

Indeed, things are changing very fast these days.
 
According to Reuters and other sources quarantine is lifted only for those arriving from the UK with completed vaccination AND showing a negative test result.

[gerryuk]

15 hours ago, maryann2 said:

Still not sure if the Diadema TA will be a go. Unable to add passport info etc and only one tour available to book. Guadeloupe has high covid rates.

Hi Mary, i think it will go, i am booked on this from Marseille to Guadeloupe for 21 nights. 

I am also booked on the Diadema round trip from Barcelona on the 24th September. I am unable to put details into My Costa, it says up to 3 days before boarding you will get all the paperwork, i have done Costa before and it was around the 2 week mark before boarding, that you could add details and get all the paperwork. I did get a email yesterday telling me that i had to be at the gate at 14.00 hours to board.

As for Guadeloupe, i have checked on My Costa and i can book tours at all the ports. Once at Guadeloupe i will remain on board for another week and sail around the Caribbean and return to Guadeloupe, again i can book all the tours in this section of the cruise.

I would not recommend booking tours for this cruise, this far out. I will not even book air fairs until nearer the time.

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by gerryuk

[maryann2]

On 8/29/2021 at 3:02 AM, gerryuk said:

Hi Mary, i think it will go, i am booked on this from Marseille to Guadeloupe for 21 nights. 

I am also booked on the Diadema round trip from Barcelona on the 24th September. I am unable to put details into My Costa, it says up to 3 days before boarding you will get all the paperwork, i have done Costa before and it was around the 2 week mark before boarding, that you could add details and get all the paperwork. I did get a email yesterday telling me that i had to be at the gate at 14.00 hours to board.

As for Guadeloupe, i have checked on My Costa and i can book tours at all the ports. Once at Guadeloupe i will remain on board for another week and sail around the Caribbean and return to Guadeloupe, again i can book all the tours in this section of the cruise.

I would not recommend booking tours for this cruise, this far out. I will not even book air fairs until nearer the time.

 

Thanks Gerry,  I was able to access tours at all the ports and have actually booked some. No need to pay until on board.  Agree with not booking flights or hotels yet.

Hope your Barcelona 24th Sept. trip goes as planned.