Your opinion on Costa?

[mondello]

LuAnn,

You have to realize that you are posting this question on a Costa Board! I think you will get the expected, overwelmingly positive responses here.

If you want truly level, across the board ratings, check polls such as Conde Nast, etc.

We took the Magica on a 17 night transatlantic last November, which was not our first cruise, nor first transatlantic. All things considered, including the misrepresentation of our Grand suite size, and inexperienced dining room wait staff (not Italian), we will not be sailing Costa again. We just expected a different experience that Costa is either unable or unwilling to provide.

You haven't said whether you have cruised on other lines before? You will experience different moods on different cruise lines, and differnces even between ships on the same line.

Happy cruising,

Tim

Seems to me that the Costa board is the perfect place for both the ranters and ravers to check-in with their 2 cents worth. Sorry to hear that Costa somehow "misrepresented" the size of your Grand Suite, that reminds me of the nerd that posted that he actually measured his cabin size. But your other point of contention is really lame (non-Italian dining staff). Granted, some members of the staff are bound to be new and inexperienced, but overall they were a very good staff. Costa bills themselves as "Cruising Italian Style." While their beautiful ship was built in Italy and is staffed with Italian officers and chefs, not to mention the heavy Italian influence in the food and wine offerings, I guess that I missed the memo that we would have an Italian waitstaff to serve us. Frankly Tim, your 2 cents worth don't add up. Simple economics dictate all mass market cruise lines ability to retain a multicultural staff to serve us at reasonable costs. Your post just lacked enough specific reasons to offer a blanket indictment of Costa Crociere. All things considered Tim...we won't miss ya!

[JLR050505]

I was on costa Magica 2/26- 3/5 my husband and I loved this cruise. I have done this itinary before on another cruise and thought I would be board doing it again, I was wrong. Our Maid was extremely nice, and our servers were even nicer. We had a great time and want to go back again, in fact now we are looking at different Itinarys but same cruise line. We had no problems with not being able to communicate. Everyone we met spoke English, that is that were workers on the boat. All announcements were repeated several times in several different languages. Everyone keeps saying that the food on board is not American Italian but I seem to have eaten everything on board perfectly fine and only thought the quality of food was great. We never had not enough to eat or couldnt find anything on the menu. I give this cruise 2 thumbs up. And would recomend it again in a heartbeat.

[funcplcruzr]

My wife and I were on the 4/2-4/9 mediterranea cruise and loved it. Our first cruise and based on our experience we would do it again and recommend it to others. The only down side to our whole experience was our table mates. They complained about everything including each other. Moving tables would have made the cruise a 11 out of 10 :)

[packercruising]

I was on costa Magica 2/26- 3/5 my husband and I loved this cruise. I have done this itinary before on another cruise and thought I would be board doing it again, I was wrong. Our Maid was extremely nice, and our servers were even nicer. We had a great time and want to go back again, in fact now we are looking at different Itinarys but same cruise line. We had no problems with not being able to communicate. Everyone we met spoke English, that is that were workers on the boat. All announcements were repeated several times in several different languages. Everyone keeps saying that the food on board is not American Italian but I seem to have eaten everything on board perfectly fine and only thought the quality of food was great. We never had not enough to eat or couldnt find anything on the menu. I give this cruise 2 thumbs up. And would recomend it again in a heartbeat.

 

Hey we were on that cruise! Wasn't it great? It must have fallen apart right after we go off the ship! :D

 

Did you see any Packer fans running around?:confused:

[joetrizeo]

JLR050505 - you were on With Jeff and I, where have you been! busy i assume!

 

check out my pics, i bet you'll recognise us! (so THATS who they were...aahhhhh)

[Genessa]

We weren't thrilled with Costa.

 

We've sailed Italian cruise lines before (the Home Lines) - back when cruising was a truly other worldly elegant experience, so perhaps it isn't fair comparing, but...

 

what we didn't like about Costa had nothing to do with it being an Italian/European line.

 

We didn't like the small selection of food when the main buffet "shuts down" - had the pizza the first day (edible, but not repeatable) and don't care much for cold cuts - and found the grilled hamburgers and franks (and their accompanying rolls - tasted like the stale store brand ones (not even Wonder ...which is horrible enough) ) inedible if not piled with onions and condiments. Being picky here, but I truly didn't like the ketchup and mustard containers lined up on a tray and you had to pick up one empty one after another before you could find one with anything in it...

Now, to be really, really picky...I hated the plastic hot drinks cups in the buffet - plastic coffee cups???? yes, heavy duty, but yeech...

 

We've been sailing on Princess and their buffet is open 24 hours a day... we prefer that. Not that we spend all day eating, but actually don't have to even think about eating, when is buffet open for lunch, when does buffet close, when, when... so we actually only get something if and when we're hungry.

 

The casino was very confining...I felt like I was suffocating...probably spent all of 10 minutes in there because of that.

 

Other passengers were rude, piling into the elevators like it was a contest to see how many people would fit into a Volkswagen...bumping into you on the buffet line and then giving you a dirty look...not holding doors open...but that could happen on any cruise line - random assortment of inconsiderate people.

 

I didn't like the way they handled the luggage - we found piles and piles of it at the stairway landings near our cabin - had difficulty maneuvering around it...for several hours. We prefer a more "pro-active" steward, but maybe it was just his personality. There were no clear instructions in the cabin on how to contact the steward if you needed him, but after the first day he was usually in the vicinity.

 

The rooms on Costa were a great size, though, and they did have nice lounge chairs on deck :) and they offered free exercise classes, too.

 

I think if this had been our first cruise, we would have absolutely loved it!

Instead, while it wasn't a horrible cruise, it is currently (and hopefully forever) at the bottom of our list of cruises...

[packercruising]

Like I said, it must have fallen apart after Jim and I were on it. Pax were friendly, service was great, food was very good! Pizza ws especially good! The rolls were excellent!

[joetrizeo]

Genessa - you have high standards...thats good.

 

do other cruise lines really take the risk and put out GLASS glasses which could break while people are walking around barefoot?

 

breakfast 7am-11am

lunch 11am-6pm

dinner 7:30pm-1:30am

 

outside of 6pm-7:30pm & 1:30am-7am, looks like you could get something to eat any time of day.

 

the casino was small, didnt bother me, i was outside having fun.

 

i totally agree about the passengers and elevators, i guess its a european thing, they have different social norms when it comes to elevators and lines. i was kinda peeved at how people would try to pile IN the elevators before letting the people who needed to get out OUT.

[Genessa]

Like I said, it must have fallen apart after Jim and I were on it. Pax were friendly, service was great, food was very good! Pizza ws especially good! The rolls were excellent!

 

I'm not talking about the dinner rolls, but the hamburger and hot dog rolls which I wouldn't have given to the birds...

[Genessa]

Genessa - you have high standards...thats good.

 

do other cruise lines really take the risk and put out GLASS glasses which could break while people are walking around barefoot?

 

breakfast 7am-11am

lunch 11am-6pm

dinner 7:30pm-1:30am

 

outside of 6pm-7:30pm & 1:30am-7am, looks like you could get something to eat any time of day.

 

It wasn't so much getting "something" to eat, but something that we wanted to eat...

what we found - late afternoon - when we were trying to get a late lunch - was pizza that had been edible the day before, but wasn't worth eating again, and cold cuts (we have the best in the world in Brooklyn, so don't feel like eating them on a cruise) and the grill, which left a lot to be desired.

 

as far as glass coffee cups - I think the other lines do have "plastic", but it's a higher quality plastic - doesn't "feel" or more importantly, "taste" like plastic, feels more like Corelle wear. I am "borderline neurotic" when it comes to tablewear - (think of Jack Nicholson in "As Good as it Gets" - but not quite that bad ;) ).

[funcplcruzr]

This was one cruise were we never went hungry. One trick I learned is if you wanted a free capachino for breakfast all you had to do is order room service and mark how many you wanted....saved me some $$ :)

[packercruising]

I'm not talking about the dinner rolls, but the hamburger and hot dog rolls which I wouldn't have given to the birds...

 

I can't comment on those as I didn't have either a hot dog or hamburger. The cold cuts were very good.

 

Pizza was fresh baked. You made it sound like they were serving left overs. To each his/her own, I guess.

 

One thing they had more of than any other line I've been on is soft serve ice cream machines! :)

[funcplcruzr]

I guess the only thing I can complain about (besides who we were stuck with at dinner) was the lack of ice in the ice machines......

[packercruising]

I guess the only thing I can complain about (besides who we were stuck with at dinner) was the lack of ice in the ice machines......

 

Now that's a valid point! I forgot about that.

[Genessa]

I can't comment on those as I didn't have either a hot dog or hamburger. The cold cuts were very good.

 

Pizza was fresh baked. You made it sound like they were serving left overs. To each his/her own, I guess.

 

One thing they had more of than any other line I've been on is soft serve ice cream machines! :)

 

The cold cuts looked fine - again, we have great ones at home, I like to eat other things on the ship.

 

The pizza was, to us, edible. We have four or five pizzerias that deliver to our neighborhood, another 4 or 5 that we can go and get a slice or a pie, but don't get delivery because it's not warm enough by the time they get to our house, etc...so, yes, it was definitely baked fresh daily, probably even hourly, but it looked like the same pizza from the day before and that wasn't anything to write home about.

 

The basic food was good, some was delicious, we were just disappointed with the availability. If we had never been on another ship where there was food we wanted to eat available whenever we wanted something to eat, it wouldn't have even occured to us to expect anything different.

[packercruising]

I'm not knocking your reviews. Really Jim and I aren't ganging up on you :D

If the pizza had been thick crust, I wouldn't have cared for it. Gotta say it's the first time I've ever had salmon pizza, though :)

 

I didn't run into any rude people (except that Trizeo guy ;)) but whose to say you didn't? Even in the crowded elevators people weren't rude.

 

And luggage can be a concen only 2 times during a cruise.

 

We had a great time on our cruise and from what I could see everyone in our group did too. Usually someone will have something they disliked. I would not hesitate to sign up for the Magica again or recommend it to others. From Jim's posts and his pics I'd venture a guess that his family had a great time too.

 

I've not been on a Princess cruise and maybe it would spoil me for other lines too. even Carnival Glory, which I'll never sail on again, had some good points.

[Mjasp]

Packercruising...I see you also went on the Carnival Glory. I was on the Disney Magic and Costa Mediterranea and enjoyed the Med more than Disney. Comparing the Glory and the Magica, which cruise in your opinion was nicer? Please include ship, food, people, attitude, etc in your comparison

 

Thanks

Mjasp

[packercruising]

Packercruising...I see you also went on the Carnival Glory. I was on the Disney Magic and Costa Mediterranea and enjoyed the Med more than Disney. Comparing the Glory and the Magica, which cruise in your opinion was nicer? Please include ship, food, people, attitude, etc in your comparison

 

Thanks

Mjasp

 

In all the areas you mentioned. Entertainment was better, service was friendlier, staff actually seemed to want to help you where on the Glory they didn't. Food on both was very good. We did the Eastern on Glory and Western on Magica so I can't compare those.

 

How was the Mediterranea:confused:

[Mjasp]

How was the Mediterranea:confused:

 

LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you think I loved it? LOL

 

I don't nit pick, nothings perfect. I didn't like the entertainment too much on the Med, but instead of complaining about it, I found something else to do. I go with the flow, as long as my room is clean and their are no bugs, I'm good to go.

My friend we were with complained that we didn't get towel animals or chocolates (except for formal night) I laughed at her, and told her to pay me the $4,000 she saved over Disney and I will make her towel animals and give her GODIVA chocolates. I said at least you don't have to hear your kids yelling at you if you take the animal apart because there is NO room for it in the already packed cabin where 4 people are sleeping.

 

I want to do the Eastern next year and am not thrilled with Costa's eastern cruise. But if they have kids sail free again, I am on Costa. But at this point I am looking at HAL or Carnival.

[packercruising]

We're doing NCL Eastern next year but that is nothing against Magica. Heck, I hear the Mediterannea is pretty good too :D

[JLR050505]

JLR050505 - you were on With Jeff and I, where have you been! busy i assume!

 

check out my pics, i bet you'll recognise us! (so THATS who they were...aahhhhh)

 

 

Joe- I have been in a daze since the cruise, I have not wanted to come back. I cant belive it but I am now planning another. I checked out your pic's and I do recognize you. The funny thing is that you and I were on the same excursion to Playa Mia. And if you look at the iceburg in the water picture you can see 2 little dots in the water in the background but before the iceburg, That was us! Too funny to see yourself in someones elses pictures.

[packercruising]

Joe- I have been in a daze since the cruise, I have not wanted to come back. I cant belive it but I am now planning another. I checked out your pic's and I do recognize you. The funny thing is that you and I were on the same excursion to Playa Mia. And if you look at the iceburg in the water picture you can see 2 little dots in the water in the background but before the iceburg, That was us! Too funny to see yourself in someones elses pictures.

 

Check out www.fuzzys63.com. Click on Player Cruise, 2006 photos. Maybe you will see some others you recognize from the cruise!:)

[JLR050505]

Check out www.fuzzys63.com. Click on Player Cruise, 2006 photos. Maybe you will see some others you recognize from the cruise!:)

 

 

Thanks for the link- I will check it out, oh and to answer your question from before I did see lots of Packers fans on the ship I even saw a few that were dressed in togas made of packer symbol material, the only thing that I noticed that was missing was those cheese hats!

[packercruising]

They take up too much luggage space :)

 

Jim are we going to have to start calling thos Gnocchi hats now???

[joetrizeo]

lol jeff.........gnocchi is the noodle, gorgonzola is the cheese......so yes, gorgonzola hats :)