Fortuna

[Mamanance]

If you haven't booked a cruise on her, save your money and don't. Treat yourself to a great vacation and do Royal Caribbean. Costa is so BORING and they only think of themself. The food was lousy, the staff was rude, they pulled into San Juan with about two hours of daylight left to avoid paying their employee taxes. After four they are home free as far as paying, so they slide in at five. Leaving you with ZIP time. La Romana is the arm pit of islands. Pollution from nasty smoke stacks. Thick black smoke darkening the sands and the curls of smoke stretching for miles out to sea. NOTHING there. Why would they take us to that God forsaken and not to safe island?????? Everyone was bitching. Our three cabins booked together, were not. We paid top $ over a year ago and we had two together and the third couple were way at the stern, making it impossible for us to do things together. Boring boring boring. Tiny pools, not even deep. Pricey drinks, with a 20% tip added, not 15%. And no booze in them. I cruise every three months and they will never see our money again. Go Royal Caribbean they know how to do it right. CHOW to Costa.

[DarkJedi]

We were on the same cruise. Didn't experience any rude staff but did see a lot of indifference. The food was passable for cruise quality but nothing special and the dining service was horrible.

 

The 5pm-midnight San Juan visit is a waste of time unless you just want to go to the local bars and La Romana in the Dominican Republic STILL has not built up anything worth going to since it was originally opened.

 

The only point on which I disagree with Mamanance is on the alcohol in drinks. I didn't hear anyone complaining about that, most considered their drinks pretty decent or even strong. That was when they could get them anyway.

[Capricruiser]

Good going mamanance. Stick with Royal Caribbean and leave Costa to those of us who enjoy doing it Italian style. I've never done a Caribbean Sea cruise so I can't comment on what you found, however I hear that the Costa cruises in that area cater to American tastes. It's different with the European cruises where the Italian predominates.

[Mamanance]

Well we are Italian and I have sailed Costa before and had no specific problem, but this time FORGET ABOUT IT.....................Chow

[G.M.T.]

Well we are Italian and I have sailed Costa before and had no specific problem, but this time FORGET ABOUT IT.....................Chow

Are you saying "Forget about it ... Chow (as in food)" or "Forget about it ... ciao (as in goodbye)"

 

Ron

[Capricruiser]

She did complain about the CHOW, but I believe she meant CIAO. Okay by me.

[FrozenOne]

SO GLAD that these folks are not travelling with me on the 15th.

I don't think they had one nice thing to say about their cruise-even before they departed-nothing but complaining.

 

CIAO

[fatcat04]

CHOW.... CIAO??

 

I found the complaint concerning the itinerary most compelling since we all know that they don't tell you where the ship is going until you get on the ship.. oh wait, no that is wrong. I have known exactly where/when we were going on every cruise I have taken. I have also had the opportunity to research those ports and choose my cruise based solely on that itinerary. I have also been able to plan all my excursions prior to embarkation too. I can understand complaints on food and service because everyone's taste is subjective but complaining about an itinerary that is EXACTLY the same "as advertised?" You knew where you were going before you bought the cruise and you went there.

 

We will be on the Atlantica (God willing) next year when she comes to the Carib and we are looking forwards to trying out a new (to us) ship.

[DarkJedi]

Fat, we went as part of a large group so the itinerary was of low importance to us, but would have prefered more daylight in San Juan and a better port in the DR. We did enjoy most of the things the cruise had to offer, our biggest issue, and that of most of our group, was the poor service in dining.

Having heard a LOT of good things about Costa this really wasn't what I expected, and it wasn't a difference in the way Italians vs Americans act. We found the passengers to be no different than on any other cruise, if anything we found the Europeans on the cruise EASIER to deal with than the Americans.

[fatcat04]

Fat, we went as part of a large group so the itinerary was of low importance to us, but would have prefered more daylight in San Juan and a better port in the DR. We did enjoy most of the things the cruise had to offer, our biggest issue, and that of most of our group, was the poor service in dining.

Having heard a LOT of good things about Costa this really wasn't what I expected, and it wasn't a difference in the way Italians vs Americans act. We found the passengers to be no different than on any other cruise, if anything we found the Europeans on the cruise EASIER to deal with than the Americans.

 

Well DarkJedi, you are a much more calm voice of reason so I respect your point of view. Having never been on the Fortuna, I can't comment about the food and service but I know for us bad/indifferent service would upset us greatly. To be honest, the service on our last cruise, which was Carnival, was worse than any service we have recieved on Costa Mediterranea which is the only Costa ship we have been on. And Carnival wasn't bad by any stretch just not quite as as good. I also know what you mean about Euro vs American passengers. We found the Euros to be more "good kid" friendly and more relaxed. The contrast was made all the more clear by our recent cruise. :eek:

 

We did the same itinerary a year ago and we liked it. Yeah, the PR timing stinks but we also didn't even get off the boat in PR and used it as a spa afternoon/evening and leisurely dinner, so few people on the ship seemed like we had it to ourselves. Very romantic!!

 

La Romana, we enjoyed this port. We went to Cueva de Las Maravillas as well as a cigar factory. I don't see that they offer that exact tour anymore though Cueva de Las Maravillas is still listed and well worth a visit for nature lovers. I didn't even know there was a such a large amazing cave in the Carribean and they have put a lot of money into it's preservation and in showcasing it's beauty. It was a first class experience.

 

I guess after having met some very wonderful, hard working people from DR the whole "God forsaken" comment angered me. I get the same way about Mexico which I love dearly and many malign. I think it is easy to forget that every one of those places we go has real people just trying to make a living, sometimes in factories, sometimes off the tourist trade. Not everyone has the advantages we do and just because a port or town looks more like turn of the century Pittsburgh and not modern day raucous bar filled Key West decked out for our cruising pleasure does not mean there is anything wrong with the towns or the people who call it home. It also means you might have to work a little harder as a traveller to get out of it the beauty it holds. Should La Romana continue to be a cruise port? It worked for us. Might not work for others.

[Gr8tful4cruzin]

I was on this same cruise. I found the crew friendly. I really enjoyed Arts & Crafts with Francesca (something not available on other cruises I have been on). My father enjoyed the trivia though there was an Itallian team that was running rings around him. That said--Dora was a doll and treated him well. It would have been nice if the Itallian classes had not conflicted with everything else they offered (I wanted to take them).

 

The food was average but edible and for the first time ever--I found desserts on a cruise that I was willing to eat.

 

As for the ports. I was not overly impressed with any of them. All of them are in walking distance from the ship--do not waste your money on cabs/buses/whatever unless you have mobility issues. We walked at all four ports including Dominican Repubublic (which I found interesting and beautiful). I did not do any of the excursions--it is possible that those may have added some life to the cruise.

 

None of the furniture was what I would call comfortable. But I am one of those people that one might describe as "more to love". If you are one of those--find a different ship.

 

Honestly, I think one of the reasons Americans have issues with this ship is because it is NOT American in anyway. The crew is not American in it's approach to customer service, the style of the cruising is very European, the mix of people is diverse.

 

My family wasn't unhappy with the cruise..but we are outgoing and went out of our way to engage the crew (asking questions about their homes--exchangine towel animals with our steward, etc). I don't know if we will be back on Costa, simply because we enjoyed Royal Carribean so much more.

 

Happy Cruising everyone!

[Capricruiser]

For Maliashipe: It's really quite simple - Royal Caribbean basically caters to an American cliental, while Costa (and MSC) aim towards the Europeans. But it's the same thing if you came over here (to Europe) on tour: hotels and restaurants in Europe are European while those in the States are 99% American in style.

[DarkJedi]

I don't think it was a difference of nationality, we had several Europeans in our group who also felt they had poor service in dining.

 

On two occasions people were called to find out if it was OK to clean their room, even though they had a "Do not disturb" sign up. The reason they were called instead of knocking? The do not disturb sign.

 

Meals routinely started late, 8:15 seating starting at 8:45, and ended even later, 10:30 was an early time to get out.

 

DW has a food allergy and we informed the Maitre de' on the first evening. Fuivio took EXCELLENT care of DW making sure that she got safe food, and while we did have some issues with choices that was mainly because he spoke poor English and we spoke worse Italian and we understood that issue. What we couldn't understand was that on our seating chart it clearly said "no olives or oil", we know this because our assistant waiter told us it did, even after the second night in a row of our head waiter bringing a salad covered in olives. On the second night we watched as he took it around the corner, picked the olives off, and brought the same salad right back.

 

In general we found the Italian staff to be very friendly and accomodating, Customer Service was pleasant to deal with and talking with their excursions people was very informative. Max, the CD, did a fantastic job every time we saw him and the people under him were very proactive in getting people involved in activities.

 

Again, for us the worst part was the dining service. While there were quite a few other complaints in our group I think most of those would have been considered much more minor if so many people weren't complaining about dining.

 

While the ship itself is in need of a refit it's not so bad that there is anything major to complain about. But comparing it to other lines we have been on I can see why 5 years ago it was considered one of the top European cruise lines and was recently polled as one of the worst by the UK version of Cruise Critic.

[p598738]

Sailed 2/15 and loved it. Have some experience cruising.