Wal-Mart Vacations Charters Mediterranea

A special 2-night sailing of the Costa Mediterranea has been chartered by Wal-Mart Vacations in Florida and they are now handling all sales. The sailing had been previously advertised by Costa but apparently sales were not going too well which presented the opportunity of a charter. Bookings are available to the general public with inside cabins starting at $269 per person plus tax. Costa is no longer taking bookings.

For anyone who ever wanted to try out Costa but did not want to risk an entire week, this is an opportunity to give them a try. The ship is only 2 years old and is highly acclaimed. The sailing from Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) departs on January 6th, spends the next day in Nassau and then returns back to FTL.

The even newer Costa Magica is doing a special 3-night sailing to Grand Bahama Island on December 16th. That sailing has not been chartered and bookings can still be made with Costa or other travel agents. Costa does not normally run short cruises in the Caribbean but with Christmas and New Year's Day on Sundays this year, the addition of short cruises allowed the 7-night holiday sailings to include the holidays rather than begin and end the cruises on the normal weekend dates.

BobK/Orlando

coming soon: Sovereign of the Seas (10/05)

Costa Mediterranea (01/06)

Norwegian Sun (05/06)

The cost is now down to $149.00 for a balcony cabin

The cruise was originally offered by Costa with lead prices of $219pp for a Category 01A down in the dungeon. Later Wal-Mart Vacations chartered the ship with lead prices of $269pp with $25pp shipboard credit and a two or more category upgrade. I guess Wal-Mart sold all that they could sell and now Costa and various travel agencies are dumping what's left and that includes balcony cabins at $149pp!!!

You got a great deal! Come visit us down in the dungeon! :)

BobK/Orlando

Wal Mart delivers. We booked an OBS OCVW for $179. A few days later I see balconies advertised for $149! A call to customer service and guess what! We get a balcony AND $60 credited to our card.

Truth of the matter is--for two nights, an inside would be fine. Maybe we'll sit on the balcony while docked in Nassau and gaze at the ship next door!

Gee, missed the boat on that deal.

I never thought of calling to see if I could get a better deal. Received my docs from Wal-Mart Vacations today and I'm on the bottom deck (Circe Deck 1). And the balcony cabins for $149 are no longer offered.

Oh well, won't complain. A cruise is a cruise and I'm sure the ship is nice. And the disco is just down the hall one way and a cool lounge the other way.

BobK/Orlando

Can anyone tell me port times in Nassau. I have a pier pick up and they no longer advertise this on Walmart vacations or costa. I will see you all next weekend!!

The following web sites have 8:00 am to 6:00 pm port times.

http://www.cruisecal.com/dnn/default.aspx

http://www.costacruise.com/B2C/USA/Shopping/Month/CruiseDetail.htm?&Period=200601&DepPort=FLL&VIti=MD_2_C_U_C_FLL_NAS

Happy Cruising:)

Thanks for the info. I wsa told you don't need a passport, just birth certificate and drivers license. Is this correct?

According to the following sites that is correct, until December 31, 2006 when all that changes.

http://www.bahamas.com/bahamas/about/entryrequirements.aspx?sectionid=60515&level=2&top level=59196

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html

Happy Cruising:)

Port times in Nassau are 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Ship leaves at 6:00 PM.

No, you don't need a passport - original birth certificate for the children and photo ID (State, government, federal, for US Citizen - my driver's license and retired police ID did for me).

Does anybody know if there would be a formal night on this 2-nighter? Doesn't seem like either night would work well. Maybe a toga night?

We heard that 2nd night will be formal night.

According to Costa's reservations office as of 10:00 A.M., the 2nd night will not be a formal night but will be a toga night instead. I was given the wrong info at first, but I asked the agent to double check. This is a good thing--less luggage!

OK, back from the 2-night special sailing of the Costa Mediterranea. Beautiful ship with decent food and about average service. So what irks people about Costa?

1) Although you are urged to complete the on-line embarkation information before arriving for your cruise, you receive the same forms inside your cruise docs and you MUST complete the paper forms before they'll allow you to get in line for check-in. So filling out the information in advance on-line is worthless.

2) Most people want to put their shipboard charges onto a credit card and Costa encourages this. It is one of the forms in your cruise docs. But unlike all the major cruise lines, they don't input this when you check-in. Once on board you have to get into another line to get this done and the line gets very long and it can take an hour or more to accomplish. Very inefficient, but that is the Costa way.

3) Booking through Wal-Mart Vacations we were entitled to a $50 shipboard credit and indeed we were on Costa's list for that credit. However, even though I was the lead name on the reservation and in fact was the one that booked the reservation, Costa had the $50 credit under my wife's name. Now that shouldn't be a big deal and wouldn't be on any other cruise line. But we didn't know this until I happened to check near the end of the second day. Nearly every cruise card charge was under my card, not my wife's. So since my wife only spent $9, she only got a credit of $9 and I suppose Costa pocketed the other $41. And even though all the balances in our cabin were merged at the end to be put onto my credit card, it didn't matter. She only spent $9 so that's the only credit! And though I tried to discuss it with two staffers on the ship, they just smiled and said there was nothing they could do. Wal-Mart Vacations is aware of this and of course we weren't the only ones and they promise to send us a check for the $41.

I would guess the ship was only half-full because it seemed very empty. My purpose here is not to discourage you from taking Costa because their newer ships are beautiful and some of their prices (like 7-nights for $399) are hard to top. Just understand that they do things differently, the "old way" and often inefficiently. Smile your way through the things that could ruffle your feathers and you'll be fine.

BTW, the second night was a toga party but hardly anyone participated, possibly because of the unseasonably cool weather and possibly because of the short-nature of the cruise. The Costa dancers put on a good show the first night and the second night the Italian crooner John Ciotta (from NYC) sang a variety of Italian love songs. (And funny too....at one point donning a Wal-Mart "How I Can I Help You?" vest!) Decent enough. Dinner both nights was very casual with plenty of jeans in the dining room. DJ Luca in the Disco was the best we've run into in our 25 cruises leading to a very packed dance floor both nights.

BobK/Orlando

let me clarify some things....this was a charted ship, not open to the general public. whomever chartered this ship couldn't fill the ship, so it was not completely full. it was also open to other smaller groups, that had nothing to do with wal-mart. we had heard that the 2nd night would be formal night and later found out it was cancelled. so there was some confusion about that.

you don't have to wait in that long line to provide your credit card for your onboard account. we went down to the Customer service desk the very next morning (no wait) gave them our card and it took all of 2 minutes. and yes we were able to make onboard purchases prior to doing this. it does state in the tickets that you have 3 days (for 7 night cruises) to take care of this matter. there was no need to stand on a long line.

the online embarkation form is necessary so that Costa can submit the list of passengers on any particular sailing to the government as required by the new security procedures. it is not for check-in purposes.

i thought Costa's check-in procedure was very innovative. they reduced the check in time by giving you days to set up your onboard account and having the room keys in the room instead of doing it @ check-in prior to boarding.

it was too cold to put on a toga for me,but the ones that did looked like they had a blast! can't wait for my turn in March on the Magica.

Just returned from the 2-nighter and I want to say: "Thanks, Wal-Mart". This was a pleasant, spur of the moment weekend diversion which cost us less than a weekend at a nice hotel with meals at fine restaurants. It also gave us the opportunity to see what a balcony cabin was like--now my wife is hooked. Since we've only been on HAL prior to this, I warned my wife that this ship and cruise line would be quite different. We both had an open mind and had already decided ahead of time that the water activities would be minimal at best because of the weather, so we just did things the Costa way and really had a lot of fun--the "Festa Italiana" was a great idea for the second night. We also resolved to eat Italian food as much as possible and we were not disappointed--in fact everything from a great lasagna for our welcome lunch to specialty breakfast omelettes to superb gnocci, scallopina and Bahamian lobster for dinner was first class. I can only imagine that the bad reviews I've read about Costa food were written by "meat & potato" lovers.

The crew and staff were very friendly and helpful (and entertaining)--which you might not expect on such a short cruise. Our room steward was right on top of things and our table staff were personable and very efficient. As far as the "glitches" that some experienced--our Wal-Mart TA advised us to print out the embarkation form that we filled out on-line and this proved to be a time saver. I have to agree with "taszmom" about registering the credit card--just wait until there is no line. Parking and check-in were just about flawless. And the number of passengers on board was perfect for the size of the ship and crew (but then we're used to HAL).

All things considered, there was only one drawback--the cruise was TOO SHORT! But we will definitely consider cruising again with Costa.

harry I agree with you about the staff...I thought they were fabulous. My hair dryer blew out, sparks and all, and knocked out the power to the TV and outside cabin light. At the time my DH was watching the Bucs & Redskins game...he was not happy camper! LOL! I called Ronnie our room steward to let him know because I was concerned about fire. He called maintenance and within 15 minutes the power was reset and he advised us that someone would be up later to replace the dryer. All the staff I interacted were most helpful and spoke English well enough to communicate.

The food was ok. Since I was on the Magica and had a better experience with the food, (more variety, better quality) I, as well as the people in my group, wondered if the fact that the ship was chartered had some hand in that. When you "buy" a ship, they ask you what your preferences are, etc. Reason why I say that is at the end of each cruise, I like to complete a comment card. I was told that because this was a chartered ship, they didn't do comment cards...hmmm! Makes you wonder.

I'm a meat & potatoes person and on this cruise I ate........meat and potatoes. No complaints about the food at all. Good steak, good prime rib, good carved beef.

Before the ship was chartered by Wal-Mart it was available for sale through normal channels. I know because I was originally booked that way. I cancelled and rebooked through Wal-Mart after they took over the ship due to the need to get a 3rd person in our inside cabin, which was no longer available through Costa. That, and the shipboard credit. Later cabins were released for others to sail as I saw Cruises Only advertising the balcony cabins for $150pp. Prior to that you could only book through Wal-Mart Vacations.

Before the cruise I was kidding on here about getting a cabin on Deck 1. Well we went to that cabin, per our cruise docs, and the room keys had different names. We returned to the purser's desk to learn we had been upgraded to Deck 8. So that was a nice surprise!

So I'm not complaining at all; was just pointing out some of the differences that make Costa different. This was our 2nd Costa cruise (the other a few years ago in Europe) and there will be a 3rd asap.

BobK/Orlando