My opinion of Costa Magica

My husband and I recently returned from a cruise aboard the Costa Magica that sailed from Ft. Lauderdale to the Caribbean. Rather than post a lengthy review, please feel free to reply with any questions you might have. Our experience was very good, and I know it's hard to find answers about this particular cruise line/ship.

were u on the cruise that everyone complains about with the noisey kids and the routey teens on deck 7?

I hope nobody thought that kids were the problem on Deck 7. They were an adult group in their 20's. (the small kids behaved fine!)

I believe I was on the same cruise. It sailed on April 16th. There were rowdy 20-somethings, but it wasn't a big deal. The same thing happens in hotels and when there are 3,000 plus people on board there's bound to be some of that. My husband and I got up around 2:00 a.m. to try to find some food and some of them were on the pool deck pushing each other in wheelchairs. They also woke us up one night running down the hall. We did the same dumb things at their age so we couldn't be too judgemental. It was a nice cruise all in all. No cruise is perfect. The waiting to be tendered back to the ship in Honduras was awful, but that was probably because we came back on the last boat. We had no problems getting right off or back on in Cozumel.

With all due respect, our troubles on Deck 7 were HUGE. It wasn't simply kids running down the halls!! Our poor room steward Jeffrey told us he had to pay $100 out of his pocket because the group broke into his cart and took all the liquor. (I guess he is responsible for his cart) Then they took his styrofoam cleaning buckets and shredded them all over our hallway. They proceeded to slash an expensive mural at the end of the hallway and write in permanent marker on some stateroom mailboxes. The list goes on but I won't drag it out for people. How inconsiderate to speak for those of us involved that it "wasn't a big deal." In any other place they would have been charged with vandalism.

Hi,

I was on the sme cruise and totaly agree with you about how poorly Costa handled this rowdy behaivor all week. This was just one of many bad things that occured but again it shows how they are more concerned with the $ they make by stuffing the ship with so many people it made you feel like you were in a "rock concert"! I have already posted all of the probs. that everyone had on the 4/16 sailing so I'm not going to keep bringing them up. I also agree 100% with you that these probs. are of upmost concern to you and they should be. You work hard like most people to save for a vacation about once a year and we should not have had these many probs. on a cruise. Just remember most of the people who reply to you or us and state "you should not worry about all of these little probs." are really just plain stupid and really do not portray much common sense when it comes to these issues. We had a great time for the most part but it could have been much better had Costa done and planned much better for this huge crowd. CruiseforFun2006.

wow, and from what i hear, compared to other major cruise lines, costa is relatively 'tame' due to the high percentage of older european passengers.

i fathom that on any other normally 'american' cruise line aka carnival, you will have even more major problems with out of control drunk college kids.

still costa is the way to go if you want a relaxing cruise, on my cruise there were approx 20 people between 22 and 30.

perhaps costa is just inexperienced at handeling these sorts of problems...

Seems the best thing to have done would have been to put them off at the first port....but they didnt. As far as stuffing the ship...that is rediculous...ive been on that ship twice and it was full both times with no problems so the amount of people has nothing to do with it. Those young people would have been trouble no matter which ship they were on. I personally loved the ship, the food, and the whole cruise but Im thankful we didnt have to put up with that gang!!

I would consider security being posted on deck seven EVERY night of the cruise a big deal. I have never been on a vacation ANYWHERE that security was needed nightly. Any other business would have taken care of the problem by removing them. These were not "kids". they were young adults, and I use the term loosely. Rumor has it they were children of pretty influential people, and that is why nothing was done. Our room steward also had to pay out of his own pocket for things they stole from him. Hey wait, my room steward was Jeffrey too! As I have posted on another post, there is a huge list of things they did, and they were NOT harmless pranks. They were destructive and dangerous.

Sissy- I would surely hope that the "same dumb things" you did as a "young adult" didn't include leaving someone unconscience in the elevator after beating them up, or ripping murals, or destroyng the deck 7 signs,etc. If so you fit right in with that fine group of kids.

Most of us cruised earlier in the season, so we didn't have any idea of exactly what occurred on the 4/16 cruise. It's really a shame that Costa didn't have the backbone to throw those idiots off the ship, I don't care how influential their parents may have been. Theft, vandalism and disorderly conduct are crimes and should not have been tolerated.

can someone explain in deatail what they did, what was stolen/broken?

if you go to the "magica awful at capacity" thread there are several items listed on my post#9.

What I PERSONALLY saw of the behavior of some of the young adults wasn't a big deal. I was only speaking from my experience which is what this board is for. I wasn't responding to your claims about what happened on Deck 7. I was talking about my experience on Deck 1. I can't attest to what happened on Deck 7 and I wasn't responding to the post about anyone being left in an elevator. Clearly our experiences were different and launching a personal attack on my own behavior was inappropriate. I was only responding to the question about them being "rowdy". All I saw was typical "rowdy" behavior and not anything that crossed the line into destructive or dangerous. Maybe I should be more dishonest in the future and make stuff up in order to agree with everyone who had a different experience than mine.

Putting things back in context at the time Sissy made the "No Big Deal" comment she was apparently unaware of the activities on deck 7. It was too early in the thread for anyone who did not know the circumstances to surmise what happened. I have to wonder why these details weren't brought out in post #3.

IMO the attacks on Sissy were uncalled for.

Most of us cruised earlier in the season, so we didn't have any idea of exactly what occurred on the 4/16 cruise. It's really a shame that Costa didn't have the backbone to throw those idiots off the ship, I don't care how influential their parents may have been. Theft, vandalism and disorderly conduct are crimes and should not have been tolerated.

Question is could they do somthig?Did some one see those people doing crimes?Is it on tape?Its easy to say,but look on TV news and see how many crimenals go free with help of good lawer or not enough avidence:mad:

packercruising- sissy posted responses to what went on on our cruise yesterday on the "Magica awful at capacity thread". That thread explains what went on, and I am assuming if you respond to a thread you have read the posts.

sissy- sorry if you took offense, none intended. I certainly would never ask anyone to be dishonest. I guess when you wrote "there were rowdy twenty-somethings, but it wasn't a big deal" should have had a "to us" at the end. It was more then a big deal to the guests on deck 7. I am glad you enjoyed your honeymoon. Congtrats!!

packercruising- sissy posted responses to what went on on our cruise yesterday on the "Magica awful at capacity thread". That thread explains what went on, and I am assuming if you respond to a thread you have read the posts.

 

sissy- sorry if you took offense, none intended. I certainly would never ask anyone to be dishonest. I guess when you wrote "there were rowdy twenty-somethings, but it wasn't a big deal" should have had a "to us" at the end. It was more then a big deal to the guests on deck 7. I am glad you enjoyed your honeymoon. Congtrats!!

Lauren, you may assume that if I respond I have read the posts on the thread I am responding to. Up to the point where sissy started getting dissed no mention had been made of attacks on an elevator or pictures ripped off walls. In my opinion Chris should have brought that up in Post #3. You know that I have read at least some posts on the other threads as I have posted there but I did not know about the extent of the problem until post #5 of this thread.

I owe you a bit of an apology too. I went back and read your post #9 from the other thread and had missed some of that info the first time around.

Anyway, it looks like the differencs have been settled and we can be on big cruis critics family again:cool:

my group of 5 young adults were talking loudly in my room one night when there was a knock at my door and the lady ACROSS the hall said to me 'this is the second time you've woken me up! do it again and i'm calling security! knock it off!"

i was suprized because this was across the hall and i even yelled at the top of my lungs in order to test the walls when my brother was in the NEXT room adjoining, he didn't hear anything, only heard me when i physically pounded on the walls. i guess the walls are quieter than the doors.

i said i'm sorry lady and went on.....mind you this was at 10:30pm at night. :) :) :)

Why didn't any other passengers confront these vandals about thier activities. I would have gotten a group together and gave them a peice of my mind and have security right there when it was happeneing. there seams to be enough people on deck 7 who share the same thoughts. maybe its because i am 27 and confrontational like that, i dunno.

joe, joe joe... we did actually have the one man in our party( no husbands allowed trip) go into their room and threaten the @#$% out of them with security there to witness it. Nothing was done. The next night, and last, security was told that if nothing was done things were going to get really ugly, physically. we had had enough. when we all took a deep breath we realized this was not the best course of action. the way things were handled he probably would have been the one arrested.

Also, one other night i came up on the elevator to find a lone women lighting into them, and they were just mocking her. I lent my "support" but to no avail. they really had a "the world revolves around us" attitude.

Lets all just be friends ;), and I hope no one else ever has to experience the things that we all did. I am booked on the Mariner in August. This will be the first Royal Carribean cruise for us. I KNOW it will seem wonderful after this experience.

packer- thanks for the apology.

wow these kids were real a-holes.

what kinda kids were they, drunk college kids i guess. were they america, canadian, 17-22 or more like 22-25. where or what school or state do you think they were from. were they jocks or white trash or something else.

When we disembarked, port security had some kids pulled aside and were reading them the riot act for getting in a fight. One of the security guards said "I don't care who your parents are, you CANNOT lay a hand on someone else". These kids were Italian (not Americans) and it made me wonder if they were the kids of government officials or cruise line leadership based on what security was saying. When we booked the cruise and ended up on Deck 1, I was disappointed, but now I'm thinking we really lucked out. What I saw wasn't nearly as bad as what many others seem to have experienced. We had a couple at our dinner table who complained about some kids making a racket and they were on a higher deck (7 or 8 I think) than we were so it may have been the same group in question.

Also, not to drag this on and on, but I didn't read the posts with details of what these kids were doing on deck 7 and if I would have witnessed what others had I would have thought it was a big deal. When I posted on the "awful at capacity" thread I was responding about food and other things. In fact, it would have ruined my cruise had I experienced this because I hate that kind of stuff. I also wasn't dismissing anyone elses's account as "no big deal". My experience with them was "no big deal". I saw them running in the hall and pushing someone in a wheel chair at 2 am out by the pool...silly stuff but not really destructive unless they pushed someone out of the wheelchair and stole it from them. I also had commented to a friend that I didn't notice any security on the ship the entire time which I found a little scarey.

Lauren - I've been on two Royal Caribbean cruises and had great experiences both times. I'm sure it'll be refreshing after your experience with Costa. In my opinion everything ran much smoother and faster with RC and the entertainment was better. I'm a little jealous actually.

joe-they were definetly not american. they were young 20ish, not even sure if they weren't late teens. i too thought they were italian, but the cruise officials kept saying they were mexican. none of us believe that. i am pretty sure they were italian.

sissy-that is interesting that you over heard that tidbit about them trying to use who their parents were. that is the feeling we got. nothing was done because of who they were. thanks for the positive on RC!

well i'm 'glad' they wernt american, goes to show you that us americans being sterotyped as arrogant pricks is wrong and could apply to all nationalities.

they might've been mexican. its a shame tho, kuz normally italians are nice and respectful, atleast thats how i was raised (there i go again with sterotypes)

interesting thoughts about 'who they were' W.R.T. them being spoiled brats of some sort of fat cat.

i would have surly became physically confrontational with them (to put it nicely)

They were mexicans not italians

alinehu- how do you know? were they college age or high school age? i had a really hard time telling how old they were.