brocom78

We plan to drink soft drinks, coffee, wine at dinner and plenty of cocktails, so package sounds like a good idea still at such a low price.

 

Do you buy the package on board? We are from the UK.

 

Re: wine ....I saw they have falanghina white wine on MDR menu, might not be everyone's cup of tea but i had this at my italian wedding recently and it is very nice DOC wine. Not very well known outside Italy, but decent wine none-the-less. I like sauv blanc and this wine is similarly acidic. Can't drink chardonnays etc (allergic to oak processing chemicals or chips) but I know a lot of my family likes these heavier wines.

 

I don't think the costa wine is of echo-falls quality, but is like standard local italian wine, so will be fine if you are the kind that drinks the house wine on holiday in italy!

Not sure what you expect to get on the wine but on all-inclusive at dinner the choice is red or white no more no less. They change it every few days so you don't get completely bored...I thought it was poor even by italian house wine standards...

Their normal wine list is nice, varied (admittedly heavy on the italian side but plenty of range within that) and priced OK so if you like your wine don't do the all-inclusive OR try the wine packages which at least give you some semblance of choice (I don't think they advertise them on the website or if they do they are difficult to find!). Do it on board as long as you make you mind up on the first day as you might get offered a discount on the wine packages anyway (there was a 20% voucher on our bed when we boarded). Made the mistake of doing it before boarding and there was no price advantage whatsoever. If your doing calculations of spend the advantage of the all-inclusive is that it does include the service charge at least so you avoid some bill-shock!

Because of positive posts here got the all-inclusive Costa Fortuna Sept 1st from Copenhagen but can confirm it has changed for the worse.

No bottled water only glasses (though at dinner they gave us the bottle from which we took away the leftovers), only draught beer, cans are opened so you can't take them off ship, only house wine at dinner choice is red/white by the glass (poor quality) slow service/understaffing means topups take time, no fresh orange juice and the alternative is the free stuff they serve with breakfast (which is foul chemical stuff, clearly at 4,50 no one was that tempted to pay). Other juices in glass bottles are also excluded. Can't take hot drinks to the room for H&S (you can get round this by lying) instead you have to get room service...which of course isn't included.

If you overdose on cocktails its good value (but clearly unless you watch them they put the cheap nonbranded spirits in). Kids version (which you are forced to take as part of the group) is clearly poor value now unless you stuff them with cans of Coke.

Scan of current menu and prices attached, apologies for the size but the file size restricts what I can do, clearly anything starred is not available to you.

Rather than feeling relaxed I felt the staff were in competition to be hard on the all-inclusive and that I was the lowest class of passenger rather than someone who had paid upfront. I heard a head waiter telling off one of the junior waiters as he thought he had served them some better red wine than he should at dinner (I found the wine headache inducing and no I didn't drink that much of it which indicates to me its cheap).

Otherwise a good cruise so I think Costa are shooting themselves in the foot a little by not being clear and changing the definitions of what is and isn't included each year as I think if I had have known I wouldn't have taken the all-inclusve as the wine list at dinner is quite nice so felt a bit constrained/cheated which I would guess is not the impression they want to create .

s2d8FCB24270413499485963769990DABE8_1.pdf