Costa Fleet

[Brian Raine]

Just read Costa's corporate page advising? that when their fleet is at full strength of 15 ships in 2010 or there abouts they will have capacity for 31000 passengers. Ye gods,where is everyone going to???. Carnival Corp announced profits of £212million for last year , although the Carribean was "slack".Now you know why they are giving "away" Carribean cruises.

I think I will start doing land tours again, after 32 cruises 13 cruiselines. I'am sailed out

[mtl kid]

Brian after 5 Cruises with the major lines my wife and I decided that our next vacation will be a land one. I enjoy cruising alot but I just feel that lazing around all day on the beach sipping drinks and not worrying about anything appeals to me right now. I quess I do not want an overkill of cruising. This year the one good spot on Catalina Island where we could tender back and forth to the ship for free has been deleted and they replaced it with a one time deal of $55usd tender excursian from Casa De Campo. I needed that relax day on the beach in order to get recharged. Oh well the Mayan Riviera is looking good right now with really low all inclusive packages.

Sorry Costa but after our March 2007 cruise I need a break.:rolleyes:

[almitra]

You guys must be kidding, right? How could ANYONE ever tire of cruising?!?! LOL!!!!

 

Not me, man. :P

[Brian Raine]

mtlkid , Your point about the revised tender costings proves my thinking regarding cruise lines, namely they are scrimping and trimming costs as much as possible with reductions in service and quality.I spoke to a Cruise Director on the Sapphire Princess about wooden stirrers for beverages in the buffet instead of spoons.His response was "rationalisation" I reponse was "balderdash cost cutting", this he agreed with that, afterwards. My recent trip on Costa Europa confrimed my thought on cost cutting, fewer staff, poorer staff, smaller food portions in the restaraunt( they weere large enough for me but some passengers were not enamoured).Having travelled virtually around the world via cruise ship there are very few locations to visit, except the Antacrtic. Still Mr Carnival will be pleased wioth his share price going up again on his £212 million profits.

 

Almitra, The old addage "You can have too much of a good thing " springs to mind. Getting to and from the ships is a nightmare now.Our last cruise out of Savonna took over 10 hours to get there, coming back was slightly better 9 hours, by plane and bus.Our next trip is to Acapulco-Barbados end of Dec again a 14 hour flight each way.Should I live in the US I may never tire of cruising with so many ports to go from. I think next year will be restricted to the 2 lines we have not tried Holland America & Cunard,although we have been to most of the ports of call they have on their intinaries.

There are lots of places in the UK I have not seen yet so I will give them a try.