Wansbrough

Our Christmas Day in Qatar is now a sea day. Ah well, I guess it wasn't to be. Overnight in Muscat might be interesting Dear Partner, We are looking forward to welcoming our mutual customers on board Costa Toscana, our wonderful flagship. The embarkation date of their cruise holiday in the Arabian Gulf is approaching! We are thrilled to have them on board our ship, and we are ready to host them with our genuine hospitality and services. While doing this, our priority as always remains to guarantee all our guests a peaceful, safe, and relaxing holiday experience. As part of our ongoing monitoring activity of all the destinations included in our cruise Itinerary, we have received information from the relevant local Qatari authorities that the country's closure to all inbound and outbound cruises as imposed in conjunction to the World Cup 2022 (which will be disputed from November 20 to December 18) is being extended beyond the period of the Event, at least until 15th January. Moreover, to date, there is no certainty that this closure may not then be extended for a further period and until a later date. Within this context and considering the situation which is out of our control, in order to guarantee an equally valuable cruising experience, the Company has decided to slightly modify the itinerary of Costa Toscana cruises in the Arabian Gulf as follows: Even though it necessarily varies from what we had originally designed, we are certain that with the updated itinerary, this cruise will allow our guests to explore the strong contrasts typical of these destinations, between the silent gardens of the mosques and the tallest skyscrapers in the world, discovering ancient art, spicy flavours, and the magic of the desert, all within easy reach. An unforgettable cruise requires an unforgettable ship and Costa Toscana will amaze our guests with its large open spaces to experience the sun and the sea, Italian and international cuisine, designer stores, and above all, lot of entertainment for everyone! And as soon as they are on board they can see it with their own eyes. Thank you very much for your understanding and attention.

There are of course exceptions and I fully understand your reasons for preferring an organised ships tour. While the Costa tours maybe reasonably priced, we much prefer the smaller groups with a local guide who can move you around a lot quicker the 40 plus people having to load and off load from coaches every time you stop. BTW, I admire anyone who cruises solo, so good on you. 👍🏼

You need to post this on a Roll Call, good luck with getting anyone else to join that let alone the tour. 😂

Cruising in suite or MSC's YC holds no interest for us, I'd sooner take two cruises. 😉 On MSC if you are not YC then the product is less than mediocre. For the record we have sailed MSC 4 times and have a 3 nighter booked for next April, purely to take family away for a few days at a cheap price.

I think its sad and quite likely to happen. They do appear to be struggling somewhat so I guess the other brands will swallow up the remaining ships. Although we reached Pearl some years ago under the old system we have continued to use them even after the first Costa Club reshuffle. We weren't happy with the new rules as it showed no loyalty to the loyal customers. On the other side of the coin, MSC let anyone match their status using other cruise lines points/levels. Not a big fan of MSC, they are all fur coat and no knickers if you ask me. (British phrase meaning - have an impressive or sophisticated appearance which belies the fact that there is nothing to substantiate it.) My, how Costa have let it slip over the last few years. We will be experiencing Toscana over Christmas and will be interested to compare these bigger ships and onboard expereince. Our two favourate ships, Atlantica and Mediterranea are just sat gathering dust. ☹☹

I think you written a fair review of what we recognise as a Costa expereince. The musters can be a bit hit and miss even in the days when we had to stand in line on the prom deck. I don't recall reading what you thought of the MDR food? We enjoy it and it really works for us as my wife is vegan and Costa have a seperate dedicated vegan menu in the MDR.

Its one of the reason that we are attracted to Costa, just love the international onboard feel.

As long as we can communicate with the ones that matter (the crew) then it suits us perfectly not being able to speak with other passengers, we seldom take ships tours anyway as we prefer to do our own thing. One thing I will say about Costa is that they have great vibe onboard their ships.

Why do you feel the need to book a ships excursion? Google is a wonderful tool which can put you in touch with many local guides and company's.

Would you be the Aaron formally of From the Deck Chair? It will very interesting to see what you make of Costa Toscana, we have booked her for a Christmas cruise this year and although not lovers of bigger ships we are excited by everything we have seen and heard so far. We had tried to get a Sea Terrace but sadly they were all gone by the time we got seriously interested enough to book.

The Costa Venezia will operate through early December. All cruises from Dec. 1 to mid April 2023 have been cancelled, according to a company statement, adding: "The product is the ideal offering for some nationalities that under the current scenario cannot have access to it." We were booked on Venezia for 12 April 2023 which was cancelled. We have just rebooked for 1 April sailing so will be monitoring with interest..... There was also very limited cabin selections available on both sailings for UK agents to sell. Very strange set of circumstances.

Great start, looking forward to more posts,

Costa Pacifica....

and Costa Fortuna...........

Here a couple of wider angle photos of Deliziosa.

Hope this is of use. 😁🍻🍸🍹🥂🥃🍷 Costa Bar List Standard July 2022.pdf

Would this be the one? Civita di Bagnoregio https://www.costacruises.co.uk/excursions/01/01z6.html

There was a cupboard which looked as if it might be a fridge/minibar but I can assure you it wasn't, either in January or last month.

We have been on 4 MSC ships and 8 Costa and much prefer the latter. The bar service on MSC was lacking on all 4 cruises, the MDR was also poor compared to Costa. My wife is vegan and Costa provide a full vegan menu where as MSC only offered two options throughout the menu. MSC has some really beautiful ships but if there is poor service then they would not be one of the first cruise lines we would look at. We would rather take 2 cruises than one in MSC's Yacht Club. Someone else said they enjoyed the mood on Costa and I would whole heartedly agree with that. Having shown bias towards Costa, we are taking family on a 3 nighter aboard Grandiosa new year but purely because of the price and the fact its only 3 nights. 😉

Well summed up. On our recent cruise and as a red drinker, there were 3 different variety's to choose from, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and a rather nice Nero d'Avola. There may have been one other but my memory is clear on it. All available at bars around the ship.

Although Firenze doesn't have the Grand Ballroom like most of the other ships, it does have Lounge Viareggio which on our last cruise did accommodate ballroom style dancing.

I think you are getting a little carried away with sizes, my perception of half is a little different to yours. I would say it takes up around about 20% of deck 4 which is a long way from 50%. The photos were taken on a port day around lunchtime (1:20PM) when it wasn't open so I'm not sure how it would give a good impression of numbers? Every time we passed through in the evening there were plenty of people there at the tables. What I do agree with you is the Boutique areas, a lot of space but not many browsing let alone purchasing. Each to their own and such is our enjoyment of the ship we have decided to give Venezia a go next April. The ship had 3000 onboard when we disembarked and it never felt crowded at all with the exception of the rear pool area which we avoided.

The huge casino which in my opinion is no bigger than any others on Costa. If anything its probably smaller than most.

Nothing wrong with the water onboard. We have had many glasses of it at the water dispensers in the buffet and our glasses are always readily topped up in the MDR. I think that I'm correct in saying that there are also 10 x 500ml bottles included in the My Drinks package although it might actually be one a day. I can't remember the exact amount. There is no issue with you bringing water onboard either. We would often bring a couple of large bottles on with us after a day ashore. (much cheaper) As for mini bars, there wasn't one at all in our Firenze cabin.