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Is Costa really asbad as the reviews?


REVDONAUCTIONEER

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I just read the reviews for Costa Mediterrania doing the Western Carribbean. The reviews were 1 to 4 stars. I have sailed Costa several time in the past I thought they were 4 and 5 star ships. Has the quality really dropped that much in 2 years? I understand the food it is Italian not American Italian food. So what hashanged?

 

Don

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Don .... Much the same as any other cruise line, it is more likely the posters/reviewers who do not like Costa than any actual change. When reading the reviews as i am sure you know there are peolpe who will complain about the time of day! ... :eek:

 

I have read two reviews so far on our November TA from Barcelona to Port Everglades and having to wonder if we were on the same ship.

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Costa seems ro "suffer" from the same phenomenon as MSC, folk either love or hate them. I've only cruised Costa twice so farad quite recently, so can't say if standards have declined over time. I really do think some of it comes down to people on here (majority North American) using North American standards as their benchmark for what is considered good and not necessarily liking the Italianess of these 2 lines. That's understandable, of course. As a European, I'm not that keen on the US service style, I find it too intrusive. I also like the mix of nationalities and cultures onboard as it makes me feel

Ike I'm truly overseas. Others feel uncomfortable with this aspect preceding to be surrounded with English speaking passengers and manners etc being the way things are done at home.

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I thought as much but needed the reassurance. Costa is a step above the mass market cruise lines. Bit you must enjoy European flavor!

 

Don

 

We just finished our first Costa cruise last month, and loved it. I think what you've said is spot on. As Barante advised on another thread, the Costa way of doing things is not always the same as anyone else's way. As long as you're prepared for that, everything works very well.

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No, Costa is a good cruise line. We have cruised with RCCL and Celebrity and it really depends what you want. We have cruised with Costa twice, once on the Fortuna around the Med and last week around the Caribbean on the Mediterranea. Both beautiful ships, service and food better on the Mediterranea but both deliver on cleanliness and organisation. Our cruise last week went off without a hitch and we had a great time, we don't participate in many activities, we like to do our own thing but I am picky and was concerned about cleanliness etc but can h9onestly say that Costa keep their ships spotlessly clean. Tables cleared quickly in the buffet areas, bar service was constant and the wine/beer/cocktails were of a very high standard - it's an Italian cruise line so the Prosecco was superb!! Give it a try and I am sure you won't be disappointed

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I thought as much but needed the reassurance. Costa is a step above the mass market cruise lines. Bit you must enjoy European flavor!

 

Don

 

I don't think poor, tasteless, lazy food means "European".

 

Please don't confuse Costa with Europe.

Cunard, Princess and HAL are 3 times more European than Costa.

 

Costa is a step above the mass market cruise lines.

 

What are "mass market" cruise lines?:D

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I don't think poor, tasteless, lazy food means "European".

 

Please don't confuse Costa with Europe.

Cunard, Princess and HAL are 3 times more European than Costa.

 

 

 

What are "mass market" cruise lines?:D

 

I have travelled with Princess (never again) too American for my liking....

We have also travelled with Azamara, and how does Costa food compare.....Its Costa all the way for us.

 

Would never consider Cunard or HAL, but it is personal choice.;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just finished a 10 day cruise on the Mediteranea. I am American 100%. While I had a great time being away on vacation and seeing new destinations, I must admit I do have mixed reviews on Costa and the ship itself. I have read the reviews of others concerning The Mediteranea and I decided to keep an open mind when sailing on this ship. I fully understand the Italian flair being delivered to the guests. The food, if you dig deep into the menu, can be quite entertaining and enjoyable. I personally love Spaghetti Bolognese! However, and this can happen on any cruise ship, I feel there has become a sense of lackadaisical service that somehow somewhere got set into motion from the exceptional standards that once might have been the norm. At times the feel of things is just so blunt and raw and just plain out not right. Not to be to overly critical, on other fronts I was overly impressed with service elsewhere on the ship that sort of balanced the good with the bad. This made my over all experience rating as As Expected or Average. So to anyone who might come across this post to read more about the Mediterranea, my suggestion is to be very open minded and just enjoy yourself. When things seem to be treading to the flat, see if there are avenues to head up to make that particular amenity better.

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I also finished the same cruise. I have several thoughts as I write this.... As an American, I will have to say I felt out of place and know of several other passengers feeling the same way. Our family included two children one 9 and one 14 year old. Oue teenager went the first day to enroll in the "TEEN" club and he heard others say "STUPIO AMERICANO"--needless to say he never went back or felt welcome there... Our daughter, had a fine time in her children's area. I will have to say when they tell you an event is going on at a certain time you had better be there when it begins or your child may not be able to join in if they are a few minutes late... The food was just ok. Our room steward was great. I heard from several people on board say that food during second seating was cold. If you are not a smoker it is hard to get away from smoke. (Smoking sections are right next to non smoking). Entertainment was just ok... We enjoyed the ports of call and we did not book any excurisions through the ship (glad we did them on our own)... There did seem to be communication issues with fellow passengers... I witnessed several acts among passengers that were just plain rude. Again, ports of call were good. We got a good deal on this cruise but whether we would cruise on them again is not certain... Also, we spoke to other Americans that could not wait to get off the ship... I did think that was sad. I would like to add is lack of variety of drinks... If you are ok with water you will be fine. Also, activites were lacking.. One activity was painting and the brushes looked as if they were about 5 years old and several women were complaining they needed new brushes and they could have gotten them at the dollar store...... One could say you get what you pay for.....

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My Husband and I sailed on the Costa Pacifica a year or so ago for our honeymoon and were concerned, like yourself, about the bad reviews we were reading. However, we had a great time on our 11 day Eastern Med Cruise! It was the first time we had ever cruised and just took things as it was! A lot of our other American cruising companies hated it because it is much more European style cruise then American cruise lines. The normal complaints we heard were:

1) The many different languages used for announcements over the intercom. I think on our cruise there was 6 or 7 different languages spoken

2) The tour guides spoke with a heavy accent. Well my thought was YOUR in EUROPE, what do you expect??

3) The food is unique and you can't get steak and potatoes. Yes the food is unique and different but yet again its very European and its worth an adventure :)

 

IF you go in knowing that this not going to be your typical American cruise and go in with an open mind you will have a GREAT TIME!

 

PS. The people watching is great! I have never seen so many older people in bikini's, or speedo's! Europeans are not as self conscious as Americans!

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We sailed on the Costa Fortuna last year and absolutely hated it. I had no problem with being American surrounded by other nationalities, I had no problem with hearing all announcements in 8 languages, I had no problem with the food/etc, what I had a problem with was the service. It was absolutel garbage. Our daughter got sick in the bed and so we needed new linens. Our room steward just tossed the linens to us, did not make the bed. We had charges on our account that shouldn't have been there and I went to guest services atleast 5 times over the course of the entire cruise to fix it. The teen program was non existent. My 15 year old was bored out of her mind, and when she did go to the dances and such, there was no supervision, and there were loads of adult men in there eyeing up the teen girls. The kids program for my 5 year old was TV and coloring pages. That was it. The only good thing I found about that cruise was the 20Euro a day drink package. Keep the guests drunk and maybe they won't notice the crap service.

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The only good thing I found about that cruise was the 20Euro a day drink package. Keep the guests drunk and maybe they won't notice the crap service.

 

Good to hear that you enjoyed the 20€ a day drink package (the one you say keeps the guests drunk).

 

Sorry to hear that your daughter was sick on the bed. Is this is the daughter who, as you state on another thread, "does not like beer so (you) don't have to pay for it"?

 

If, as a parent, you noticed that there was no supervision of the teen dances and that there were "adult men in there eyeing the teen girls" you should have reported it immediately to security on board the ship and not waited till yesterday to air your grievances on Cruise Critic.

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Good to hear that you enjoyed the 20€ a day drink package (the one you say keeps the guests drunk).

 

Sorry to hear that your daughter was sick on the bed. Is this is the daughter who, as you state on another thread, "does not like beer so (you) don't have to pay for it"?

 

If, as a parent, you noticed that there was no supervision of the teen dances and that there were "adult men in there eyeing the teen girls" you should have reported it immediately to security on board the ship and not waited till yesterday to air your grievances on Cruise Critic.

 

I get the feeling that you're trying to be snarky to me and I'm not sure why. No, it wasn't the daughter that doesn't like to drink beer, it was my 6 year old. And considering that I had to go to guest services 5 times to fix a charge on my on board account, I didn't exactly trust that the guest relations people could handle anything that concerned me. I was simply giving my account of a bad cruise on this line, not sure why that's a problem.

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We sailed on the Costa Fortuna last year and absolutely hated it. I had no problem with being American surrounded by other nationalities, I had no problem with hearing all announcements in 8 languages, I had no problem with the food/etc, what I had a problem with was the service. It was absolutel garbage. Our daughter got sick in the bed and so we needed new linens. Our room steward just tossed the linens to us, did not make the bed. We had charges on our account that shouldn't have been there and I went to guest services atleast 5 times over the course of the entire cruise to fix it. The teen program was non existent. My 15 year old was bored out of her mind, and when she did go to the dances and such, there was no supervision, and there were loads of adult men in there eyeing up the teen girls. The kids program for my 5 year old was TV and coloring pages. That was it. The only good thing I found about that cruise was the 20Euro a day drink package. Keep the guests drunk and maybe they won't notice the crap service.

 

I am sorry that you had such a bad experience. We didn't have any of those problems on our cruise.

 

Our room Steward was great and we never had any problems with him! But if I had a child who got sick and someone just threw linen at me I would be pretty pissed off.

 

We have no children so really can't comment on their Children's program but on our cruise we saw the children's group come through the Lido deck a couple of times singing songs and playing. We thought it was so cute seeing these children from all over the world holding hands seeing hello in many different languages as they walked through :)

 

My husband and I didn't take advantage of the drink package and only shared one bottle of wine the whole cruise. The only time I remember seeing people drunk was late at night at the bars and they were normally dancing. I really don't remember seeing people drinking a lot during the day.

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My husband & I cruised on the Costa Concordia twice, both the eastern & western Mediterranean and really enjoyed both cruises. Thankfully the ship didn't sink on either of those two. Yes, the food was different, but there are so many choices both on the menus in the dining room or the buffet no one could go hungry. We're looking forward to our May Baltic cruise on the Costa Luminosa.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Best food ever was on Costa. Don't listen to the whiners.

If you want buffet instead of a 7 course dining room experience, and you NEED a steak, don't go on Costa.

 

IF you turn to the back of the MENU it states

Steak, Chicken, Fish and Baked Potatoes or French Fries

Always available

 

Admittedly the steaks are 8oz Sirloin, but on Costa you can have as many main courses as you want, so just order what you need to satisfy

one would be fine for me, though someone from Texas might need four :-)

 

Jack

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I really enjoyed my Costa cruise on the Atlantica. It was a very nice ship. I would suspect that the teen programs are sort of lacking because European teens start the club scene a bit earlier than whats normally accceptable for Americans. I cruised with my brother and we are both in our 20's. From talking with some other guests we met (we both speak Italian and Spanish) it was clear Costa did not take the 18 and up in the night club seriously or did we see them ID anyone. I would probably consider a different cruise line if I had an American teenager and wasnt comfortable with them "clubbing".

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After living in this great country (China) for about a decade, I felt sorry to say this...

 

Please don't go on those Costa cruises targeting Chinese market.

 

I have met and made friends with many locals, sad to say that many of the cruise passengers here are amongst the worst behaved.

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sthelder -- Please explain. We spent a month on the Costa Victoria in November. The first leg, 17 days, had maybe a hundred passengers of Chinese descent, mostly from Canada. The next leg, 14 days, had more Asians, mostly from Singapore. Yes, they were of Chinese descent. Never saw a passenger from the PRC.

 

Everyone behaved, even the kids. There were quite a lot of preteens because of Costa's pricing practices.

 

So who are these Chinese you urge us to avoid? Is your advice based on a cruise experience or are you commenting on your overall societal perception?

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sthelder -- Please explain. We spent a month on the Costa Victoria in November. The first leg, 17 days, had maybe a hundred passengers of Chinese descent, mostly from Canada. The next leg, 14 days, had more Asians, mostly from Singapore. Yes, they were of Chinese descent. Never saw a passenger from the PRC.

 

Everyone behaved, even the kids. There were quite a lot of preteens because of Costa's pricing practices.

 

So who are these Chinese you urge us to avoid? Is your advice based on a cruise experience or are you commenting on your overall societal perception?

 

Having lived this country for almost a decade, I believe I am quite well equippd with the way the society works/behaves. I am quite happy to say, despite some initial discomforts, it is a great place to live.

 

I truly believe there are wonderful cruisers regardless of their descent or ethinic groups. The two groups that you mentioned are, exposed to cruise markets. For decades, Star Cruises have been operating in Singapore (formerly set base in Hong Kong too, and most of the Canadian Chineses that I know of were migrated there in the 1990's, I am making a presumtion here).

 

Personally, I rate Star Cruises quite highly, for its unique Asian flavour. Had it not for the acquisition of NCL and shifted attention by its parent (Genting Group Malaysia), Star Cruises might have sailed to greater height and we would be discussing whether the bad reviews for Star Cruises are warranted. ;)

 

My comments on the Chinese market mainly means those Costa cruises that set sails from mainland China (Tianjin/Beijing, Dalian, Shanghai, Sanya etc). China is rather new to cruising (may be river cruises, but those are also frequently marketed to foreigners), and at this stage, from the feedbacks, pictures and eyewitness reports, there are still a lot of teething problems. And

 

I will just quote some of these problems and may be you can judge whether they are valid issues to be concerned with:

 

1. Poorly trained/rude/lying staff

To cater for the mainland China market, many of the crew members are recruited locally. I believe their standard of service is actually above the average you would expect from the land tours, and some greeness in cruise-related questions is understandable.

 

But I am surprised to hear that the most vociferous complaints were from my personal friends and some other well-regarded and experienced local cruisers. Quite a number of local staff treated their countrymen in a very rude manner, and in one instance, a casino cashier even lied to his superior.

 

The reporter's mom wanted to exchange for some chips, but for unknown reason, he just ignoring the old lady who doesn't know how to speak in English. You would think he was hired specifically for the purpose of communicating with local guests? So when the old lady was ignored repeatedly, a supervisor noted of it and came over to enquire the staff what's happening. The staff lied (in English) about what had been going on and said the old lady was making unreasonable demands. Luckily the reporter was standing not far from her mom and she clarified the situation with the supervisor, the supervisor was shocked to say the least. He personally entertain the old lady's request and asked his staff to apologise. Guess what, the staff not only refused, and walked off.

 

Thus far, most of the reports of cold-shoulder treatment were from local cruisers. Apparently they are more inclined to serve Western guests than their own countrymen.

 

Some also claimed if you need to resolve on-board problem (minor) or get information, it is often easier to deal with supervisors or non-Chinese crew members, as they seem to be more willing to go the extra miles to help.

 

Of course, there are some great local staff too, but just that it might be useful to note an unusually high number of complaints.

 

2. Rude passengers

Not queuing is common problem in many places, not just on-board of a cruise ship. I have came to accept it as a way of life here.

 

I won't go into details on unruly smokers, door-bangers, kids in casino/adult zones etc., they are in many other cruiselines too.

 

However, when there's no order when disembarking, getting off for port visits and grabbing shuttle bus seats, it might become a safety hazard. Those reports when compared to the Costa/MSC reports, made me wonder whether Italians are actually very orderly.

 

3. Food wastages

When was the last time you heard a cruise director said (of course, in private conversation) the food is running out after the first two days (both were sea days, if I remember correctly)? It happened on Costa's maiden sail away from Shanghai.

 

There are other tales, such as the eventful cruise taken by Costa Classica (a widely reported ramming incident, luckily it's its on the way to disembarkation port and no one was seriously injured, also a less widely known incident, a group of mainland Chinese guests disappeared at a Japanese port...probably illegal immigrants, apparently it's not uncommon, just the year before, a HK mother also ran off ship with her child), but I already feeling too depressed to go on.

 

I would like to stress that the above is more like an interim observation. More and more mainland Chineses are taking to cruising, with exposure, I believe it will not be long those wonderful local cruisers and cruise staff that I met/knew off, will become the norm rather than exception.

 

On reflection, the lying casino cashier is probably an isolated case. Royal Caribbean also has regular summer cruises from China, and apparently they have a higher satisfactory rate.

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One thing that may not concern most of the cruisers here, but may help explains the relatively new China cruising experience is that the local travel agents love to promote those cruises as premium and luxurious. Common descriptions used including five-star or even six-star cruiseships (yes, they apply that to Costa ships too).

 

Undeniably the mainland Chineses mostly paid a premium price if compared to more matured cruise markets such as the Caribbean. As an indicator, I just logged on to a local discount cruise website, a 5-night last minute Costa Victoria cruise sailing on 6 March 2013 (Shanghai-Seoul-Inchon-Sea-Shanghai) that is on sale at 50% of "normal" price will still cost about RMB 3000/US$ 475 pp for an inside cabin.

 

It's no wonder sometimes the guests treated the wait staff badly, as they might think after paying a premium price, they didn't get a comparable level of service in return.

 

Not to be overly worried if you happen to meet some mainland Chinese cruisers in other regions of the world. There is a budding and booming cruise community here, many love to cruise with their elderly and kids (most are well-behaved!). Some of them are frequent cruisers and it's not unusual a growing number has elected to go on cruises with Seabourn, Silversea etc.

 

Many things have changed since I first set foot in China in 2003, and I am happy to say, most changes are for the better! May be we should also give the local cruises a couple more years and am sure it will also get better.

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