Costa Concordia Info

[UMASSJAG]

Hello, I recently spent a very short time on the Costa Concordia due to the fact that we suffered a death in the family after only two days aboard. I, however, wanted to provide some info based on all the great help I received from other critic posters. First and foremost, I would go on a Costa cruise again and plan to do so in the future. This was my first cruise and while I understand some of the bad comments from previous posters, I definitely do not want people to be turned off to the ship completely. I went in with an open mind and was pleased with what I experienced.

 

The boarding in Savona was fairly painless. We arrived at about 230pm and was on the ship by 330pm. We received priority boarding due to the fact we had an infant but by the time we got through the passport checkers (only about 15 minutes), the number we would have received was being called for check-in.

 

Our bags (quite a few) came fairly quickly although one arrived just before dinner (630pm seating). The room was fabulous. We had a balcony room on the 9th deck and there was more than enough room for 2 adults and 2 children (ages 7 and <1) plus all of our bags, baby backpack and stroller. We did, however, ignore the rules and keep the stroller on the balcony. Also, we were able to store the largest bag in a storage room on our floor.

 

We had the early dinner seating and were seated with another American family (interestingly enough they were from the same area of Germany where we live). The family turned out to be truly life savers by offering to drive our car back from Italy when we had to return to the States.

 

Yes, the food is predominately frozen and the menus even indicate which food is frozen. Despite this fact, the dining room food was tasty and very presentable. There are quite a few options to choose from on the menus and the serving sizes are small so don't be ashamed in ordering something from every course. If there was anything bad about the food it would be the buffet breakfast. The eggs tasted fake, the bacon was very salty (probably due to the fact Europeans don't really eat American bacon), the coffee was bad (pay the 2 euros and get a real coffee from the bar) and some of the other items just did not look appetizing. The in your room breakfast that is free is not really that great either and comes in very small portions. My son ate pizza from the pizza bar and said it was cold. Overall, I decided that eating in the main dining rooms with menu service was better than the buffet. The X1 package was working out great. The servers would bring us a bottle of wine, 2 sodas and 1 or 2 bottles of water all at once if we asked. Our dinner server had it on our table before we even arrived. Also some of servers would even give my son his drinks for free as well (so we ended up using his boys/girls club card to get water at the bar before we went to sleep).

 

Since it was not warm enough to enjoy swimming outside, the inside pools were very crowded. In fact the whole ship was crowded due to the fact it was sold out. The adult pool had children in it and when I saw a man mention it to a crew member the crew member did nothing about it. While the ship was crowded there were places where you could be that seemed quite desolate (3d and 4th decks, chapel (very beautiful), bars during the day). Smoking was not really a problem except for the 9th deck pool area in the center of the ship. This was a very crowded area and due to the fact the roof was not open, it seemed to fill up with smoke. We tried to avoid this area as often as we could.

 

The gym was very crowded on the first few days with everyone checking it out (including kids but if you went right when it opened at 7am, there would hardly be anyone there.

 

The entertainment was interesting. The first show was advertised as a group from South Africa but definitely had no African influence in the entertainment. It was a typical Vegas style show with flimsy outfits for the women. The bouncy soccer ball dancing was especially odd. It was entertaining but at times cheesy. The second show was a very good magic show (the kind you would see on TV).

 

My son loved the kids club and we did not see any evidence of fighting among the kids like previous posters had mentioned. In fact, the family we met said their kids wanted to go back to the club every day.

 

I only was able to go on one excursion (Olympia). Going to Olympia was great, however, the price for 2 adults and 1 child was a little steep, although our guide was excellent. Some people complained that there was not enough time for shopping (30 minutes). If you want to shop stick with the port town.

 

Best parts: Room, dining room food at lunch/dinner, kids club

Worst parts: Crowds (try to pick a non-European holiday time), breakfast

 

I wish I could be writing more about my cruise...maybe my next one! Happy to answer any questions.

[mountainmare]

Thank you so much for your report. I'm sorry for the death in your family.

I was worried about crowds (and lots of kids) but we are sailing three weeks before Easter, so hope this will be a quieter cruise.

When I booked I was told that early seating was 7 or 7:30 with late being very late so we picked early seating, 6:30 is a bit of a rush--oh well...

For Olympia we plan on shareing a taxi (or two) with friends that we met on our last cruise. Did you notice any cabs when you docked at Katakolon?

[UMASSJAG]

There were definitely taxis available. I heard they can cost as much as an excursion though. I sent an email to a company to ask about renting a car and I could have rented a car for about 40 euro (http://www.rent-a-car-in-greece.com/katakolon-port/index.htm) and they would have it ready right at the docks.

 

The early seating worked out well if you plan on also taking in any of the shows. The late seaters had to either go to a show during the early seating time or their show was after dinner (made for an even later night).

[HawaiiApril]

Thanks for the info! So sorry for your loss. What an awful way to end a cruise. I'm the one that Mountainmare met on her last cruise. We've been begging for posters to give us some info on the Concordia. So few posts. This will be my first Costa cruise and I've heard mixed reviews especially on the food. Is there a charge for room service? Did you sail in March or April? Wondering what kind of weather we're going see early March. We'll be traveling with my son's family of 5, 3 kids in their early teens. How much was the kid's club card for soda? I drink a lot of soda and would like to buy packages for the kids and then sneak in a few sodas for myself on their cards. They don't sell a pop card for adults and I don't drink wine or beer so the X1 wouldn't be a good fit for me. Did you travel over Easter? Is that why there were so many kids? I find it hard to believe that many would take their children out of school for 2 weeks. (even though we're doing it) I traveled this past Feb in the Caribbean and I think there were only 2-3 children on the whole ship!

Since we're "teaming up" with our new friends from the last cruise, we're guaranteed that we'll know people who speak English! I also heard that early seating was 7-7:30, maybe that's something they've changed recently.

[UMASSJAG]

There are certain items you can get via room service for free with a small service charge. There is a limited sandwich menu with some other items (did not have time to try it out) and the continental breakfast is free. I sailed in April over Easter. A lot of Europeans have time off during this period. I would imagine the weather will be fine in March. Maybe a few degrees colder and maybe some rain but probably not a bad month to travel. The boys/girls card was 40 euro for 20 drinks. It did not matter that an adult used it so you could probably buy one for yourself as well. There were numerous people who spoke English on the ship. The one excursion we took had two busloads. I saw the embarkation list in Savona and it listed 83 Americans.

[HawaiiApril]

Thanks so much! That's answers a couple of questions. I don't know how much 40 Euros are in US. I guess $30 something. That soda card sounds just like what I want, actually a better deal than on X where I paid about $60 for unlimited pop during the cruise, only got fountain soda and probably didn't drink 20 all told, we were off the ship so much. I have to have my diet soda as I am diabetic and can't have lemonade, ice tea etc. Water and diet coke for me!

[UMASSJAG]

40 Euros is actually about 50 dollars. You can buy the card on the ship or buy it online (will be billed at the end of the cruise)

[HawaiiApril]

I got that backwards....still a good deal if you can get a can of soda or bottled water instead of nasty fountain pop.

[JLDMED]

40 Euros is actually about 50 dollars. You can buy the card on the ship or buy it online (will be billed at the end of the cruise)

 

According to this currency converrting website:

http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html

 

$40 is about 30 euros as of May 29.

[HawaiiApril]

Looks like rounded off it will be about $54. Thanks for the converter link!