Tan1415

We are on the 3rd day.

funchal is amazing. So green and lush.
taxis use meters and cheap. But most taxis screw you over asking for 5x or at least 2,5x the fare. Use the Bolt app. Much cheaper but sometimes quite a long wait. Bolt taxis can’t pickup Athena terminaland you need to walk to outside port entrance. Taxis are reallyresonable

The cable car ride is an abolsute must. Be aware on long lines.

also we planned to take a toboggan down, but that’s what 100 other people were thinking.

looks spectacular…if you want to wait a few hours. They claim the line is just 1 hour…but can’t believe that. (Anyone waited on the 8-1-2024) Considering you need 2 people per slede. So we took a taxi down. Be warned we got hosed and paid 30€ for an 12€ trip. Still cheapertobuyanother1 way ticket down.

b

The great thing about this cruise we get a full day per location. Arrival at 6 and leaving at 2230.

Awesome …we used everybit of it.

we had the rear cabins and the view when we left Funchal was amazing. Love the lights.

the 2nd sea day started.

i learned that the breakfasts for all places are the same. So could be really boring after a few days. Variations are quite minor. 

and for dinner and lunch…the buffets were the same all over. The dishes changes daily, but per buffet is served the same eom a certain day.0I was surprised and disappointed.

So basically you choose simply based on atmosphere. Again the difference is I. Details. Belladonna and en fuego has pizza. While en fuego caters to kids with their meals.

The odd one out is east restaurant. The smallest but also most crowded and popular buffet restaurant. Why…because they serve Asian cuisine. Always has fresh dim sum that’s really tasty. Always rice and noodle dish. Today they had good tandoori. The tandoori ovens was visible.temder meat, fresh Nan.

The specialty restaurants are really popular on ship days. These places food is included and has a menu that differs for lunch or dinner.  But drinks you need to pay. While in buffets soft drinks are free.

water by the glass is always free.

I have not tried the ala carte places because food on land is so much better and we have plenty of times for full lunch and dinner. That’s why it’s so disappointed that breakfast is so monotonous. That’s one meal we have everyday on the ship.

Hi all,

I am onboard the Aida cosma.

this will be an ongoing review.

first time cruising on the Aida line.

it was billed as a step up compared with MsC and costa.

and i]truthfully its quite quirky compared with msc and royal carribean.

quite German in certain circumstances.

first thing first…when booking and pre cruise everything is in German and is quite daunting. You could google translate website but it’s quite an hassle.

and even when translated…a lot of stuff is so confusing.

but on the ship and when boarding…a lot is also available in English to my surprise. Also the crew speaks English.

so no worries there.

For example….they hold a strict 1400 checkin when I called the office of Aida.

but when i arrived at 10 am we were allowed to checkin immmediately. And I was not the only one. People on the early flights from busses checkeing in. Compared with RC in singapore it was a total breeze and was fast and smooth.

we needed towaittill 1400 forourrooms to be ready. But we could drink and eat onboard. Even though mostt restaurants were closed, a few were open.

ship is huge and needed some time to understand howeverything worked.

We had a rear balcony room. It was larger than the RC but smaller than the msc rear balcony hut.

the walk-in closet is nice. You could store your luggage out of sight.plenty of closet space for your clothing.

the balcony has a hammock and besides a 2 chairs and a side table. That’s a very nice touch.

the logging into the onboard portal is bit of a hassle due to the language barrier. But we were lucky to get an English language onboarding paper. Without this it would be impossible to understand.

this portal is extremely important. This portal has lot of important I formation. For example your onboard account. But also if you want to log into the actual internet.

this needs to be done with all your devices you want to use the internet with.

portal you find a lot of information and is also in English. Even though some pages stillonly has German language.

beides here you find the opening schedules of all F&B options. There are so many of them…the opening times differs.

also important you find other information like nautical info etc. What I missed was an actual map of the ship. There are plenty of screens onboard.

more incoming

On 12/11/2023 at 3:22 PM, roman70 said:

Of course, Aida warmly welcomes all international guests. But they only focus on the German-speaking market.

 

For the homepage: Meanwhile, all common Internet browsers have a translation button. And they already work very well. Which browser do you have?

 

Multilingual homepages are no longer necessary.

I have os

1 hour ago, steamboats said:

Onboard language on AIDA is German. You won´t find any daily programs or announcements in any other language than German (except for safety announcements which are in English too). Of course the crew does speak English as this is the official crew language. Therefore there is no need for an English website.

 

As Diddn stated the prices are all including any taxes & fees, so no 15% upcharge on anything. The drink packages are valid at all bars (except Champagne), the buffet restaurants, the included served restaurants but not the upcharge served restaurants.

 

You can find more about the ship here (all photos of menus are from last year, so the prices may have changed).

 

steamboats

Thank you. I have a better understanding now with regard to the drinks. This review is better understandable now.

21 hours ago, Diddn said:

Hi,

 

Aida IS different to Royal Caribbean and MSC.

 

During opening times at the buffet restaurants, white and red wine as well as still water will be served by carafes, brought to the table. Soft drinks, sparkling water and beer you will get at a service station - self service. This is free of charge for everyone, regardless of a drink package.

 

You may enter a buffet restaurant only for a drink, but only during opening times - refer to the daily programme for specific opening times..

I'm not sure which drink package you mean. Looking after the price you stated, it should be the alcohol-free package. You get drinks at all bars, and "some" drinks in "some" serviced restaurants. Drinks which are included, are marked in the bar menues. Others have to be paid by showing your card. Be aware that each of the serviced restaurants has a different drink menue, i. e. fountain water is included in the package, but in some serviced restaurants they offer only bottled water, which is not included in the package.

 

The is no 15 % (or whatelse) surcharge on any bill. All prices are final without anything added thereon.

 

Breakfast ist usually buffet style. It MAY be offered a breakfast with table service at the steakhouse and/or the French Kiss Restaurant - but that is to be paid, and seats are limited. If you want to choose that, I suggest to buy it in advance to get sure to get a place there.

 

Wellness: Entrance to Fitness and some courses are free of charge. Sauna is to be charged and should be reservated (and paid) before by booking given time frames to use. Sauna is nude and mixed, pools are swimwear required.

 

All reservations can be made via MyAida or by your travel agent as well as you struggle with the language. All reservations must be paid at the time of the reservation. If you wish to cancel, you should do that until four days before the cruise starts and the payment will reimbursed.

 

Best regards

 

Diddn

hi,

Thank you. I read the review. And is weird the logic that bottled water is not included in the serviced restaurants. Or that the drink package is not included at a la carte.

I m really curious.

the language barrier is most daunting when pre cruise. So much to fill in. Hope I don’t miss anything because of the language.
 

would be scary if it was a non European cruise where you need to arrange visa etc. That would be nightmarish.

tbh I find it silly that they don’t do an English language on website…as basically it’s just a one time exercise. Not sure the reasoning behind this. Travelled quite often with German travel agents like tui.

Hi all,

Going with my parents on a cruise to canaries islands on the Aida cosma this January. Surprising the lack of information on this forum. Most of my issues is the language barrier. Aida website doesn’t even have English on it. It’s really weird. Germany has become pretty much multilingual too. For sure the crew like all cruises are multilingual too. Anyway posting now asking for information and will post a comprehensive review and guide after.

1 thing is for sure, if you don’t know little bit if German language. It will be quite impossible to work through the website and more importantly the registration forms etc.

I have cruised with msc and Royal Cartibean before. But Aida seems different.

1) What confuses me is semi inclusive. You get drinks at buffet restaurants. Does this mean you can just walk into a buffet restaurant for a drink? And not only during meal times?

‘there is the option light drink package. Really reasonable as I am not an alcohol drinker. 90€ pp for 8 days. Can I use this to buy drinks at the bars and the seated service restaurants?

I am confused as a poster Rotjeknor mentioned it’s basically a scam and you can’t buy drinks  in restaurants with this package. Would be weird.

2) Dining; there seems to be 3 levels of dining. 
buffet where drinks are included.

serviced included dining, that doesn’t include drinks

lastly a la carte restaurant where u need to pay drinks. Prices seems reasonable. But is prices including the 15% charge?

Breakfast is only at buffet?

I am mobility impaired. Having only buffet options would be negative for me. Will take my rollator with me I guess. Always a hassle carrying a tray and a cane.

3) wellness

is unclear if it’s included or not? Or do you have to pay for entrance or just for extras?

also are the saunas and wellness pool with swimwear or nude? And is it mixed male/female?

that’s all the questions for now. But pretty sure more will come up. Thanks for reading and looking forward to responses.

Just had a cruise on spectrum of the seas and we encountered seriously choppy weather. Didn’t expect the ship to sway as much. Matter of fact it scared us to cruise in Asia during tyfoon season when wins and waves are even worse.

my friend said that the ships stabilizers was not deployed because we were not in deep seas.

I was planning to take a cruise between September and November. From amsterdam towards the Mediterranean. Basically North Sea , then the Atlantic. How rough are the seas then? Will the ships sway a lot?

how smart is having an interior room than?

The movie for me is deep rising. When I see people on formal nights I am always expecting a sea monster. To eat everybody up as jello.

I used the calculator for a drinks package on a royal Caribbean. What I didn’t realize was that on port days we hardly use it and we get free drinks when we have dinner at MDR or buffet restaurant.

in other words…it was absolutely not worth it for us.

with port days we only had 3 sea days and that means we needed to continuously chug drinks to get even.

On 2/5/2023 at 9:50 AM, ReneeFLL said:

I can't help but would guess if they are for suit guests then they aren't available to non-suits guests. Food is probably better because they pay a lot more.

Didn’t guess it would be like that. Thought similar menus but more exclusive and quieter settings. Didn’t expect menu to be so different 

Hi,

We are going on a cruise with spectrum of the seas.

USP is that there is always Asian menu items. 
 

with the app we get to see the menu on the gold and silver restaurants. These are accessible if you have a suite. But could you order these dishes if you are eating at the MDR? To be honest the dishes in the gold and silver are much better in regard to ch8nese dishes.

6 minutes ago, soremekun said:

When you call to correct your info, please provide them with my name and date of birth.  I'll take it from there.

What’s your name and dob. 

Hi all,

something went wrong with booking. My name and dat of birth got registered incorrectly. I sent emails requesting correction but no response yet. Should I call?

hope there not be any issues.

We are all grateful you took the effort.

Scooter? On board? Not sure what it will be. I have a rollator…so will trundle around.

Does Voom work when you use hotspot?

to use it on 2 devicesz

Thanks for the information. I am currently having problems walking. I saw on the charts of the ship it has 2 elevator banks. Is their more elevators at the rear front or rear part of the ship? Will want access to kost elevators tonreduce the wait.

Do they have bubble tea and is this included?

Wow this is a great post as I am planning similar cruise.

how much was the pay restaurants? Could we get a package like on Royal Caribbean?

Hi All,

looking to travel with costa Toscane looking for some insider info.

1) My cruise is including My drinks package. We don’t drink alcohol.

does this include juices and mocktails?

2) are wheelchair acces cabins bigger?

turns out the booking are for cabins we can’t choose. How bad can it be? Is it dependent on how full the ship will be? Traveling end of February to Dubai.

3) how easy is it to travel around Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman if you are not so mobile? Better a tour or take a local tour?

thanks for your input and help

How much is that? the coupons?

Hi,

I can't drink any alcohol. So I was really interested in the Allegrissimo premium Chiild. But what ever I tried I try..you cant order it for my room. It automatically changes to teh adult version.

All adult and child package is quite smple. Alcohol or not.

Pricedifference is quite noticeble.

My travelagent said that onboard I can order a Prmium child package.

Anyone can tell me if this is true? I dont drink any alcohol. So i dont need the alcohol. But i really like the extras involve like roomservice and in room bar.