Just returned from Magica!

[cfoursons4]

Hello all,

I have just returned from the New Years sailing and I have one word...MAGNIFICO!

I am a cruise agent and had a group of 40 sailing all with Costa for the first time, including myself. I have booked many clients on Costa all with positive feedback, but was concerned after gettting a review from clients on the Magica 3 nighter. I have also read the CC for many years and found the reviews more negative than positive most of the time.

Let me tell you a few things from my perspective. The ship is beautiful. The crew extremely friendly, and worked their butts off!

The embarkation process...

We arrived aprox 12:00 and did not actually get to our cabin until 2:15. I had two other families who arrived on earlier flights from NJ and had to sit for hours until they allowed them to get online for about 45min to board. Once we got the the ticketing area it went pretty quickly.

Our cabin was a cat 8A on the AFT deck 6 (#6434). It was larger than I had imagined. The Balcony was MUCh bigger than a side balcony (the reason I always book AFT balconies). I had clients in the Grand suite which by the way was really nice, but in my opinion no better than say an owners suite on most lines. For it being the "best" cabin onboard I feel it could have been perhaps larger and more luxurious. I also had clients booked in the Suite, and found it to be about double my cabin size. Nice if you need the room. I did see all the categories and found them to be quite nice. The public areas were beautiful. I had just sailed on the Carnival Conquest in Oct and that made it very easy for me to navigate the Magica.

The Food. In my opinion perhaps the best choices and tasting on any of my previous cruises including Celebrity. I would have liked to have seen it served a bit hotter and quicker. Dining service was a bit slow, but there was over 3000 people onboard. I noticed that the waiters seemed to have more tables than the standard and they did not always have an asistant. Even with that said there never seemed to be many lines, or overcrowding except for the casino, which was ALWAYS full and very smokey! The buffet was very good, with lots of variety and the pool grill was always serving.

The information desk seemed to always have people there wanting answers and not happy about the lack of them. As I said , I do believe they should improve that. I too was given poor info at one point.

The credit card charges are my biggest complaint. On Costa they do not take the credit card and run it through at the pier, they ask that you do it onboard within the first 48 hours. This seemed like a hassle to most, I did hear lots of complaints from other guests. I had no problem, went to the appointed lounge and within 15 minutes had nine people in my immediate group using 5 different cards registered. I did find one thing frustrating, and have notified my Costa rep about it. You cannot check your itimized bill until the last full day onboard the ship. You could get a balance, but that was it. Once you could check, you can imagine the chaos that followed at the info desk. On the last day while waiting for my color to be called, I heard the name of one of my sons friends, I had to leave the waiting area and go to a lounge and wait on a rediculously long line of VERy angry folks to find that his tips were not added to my husbands cc, and we had to pay them cash. The good news was that even after waiting to take care of this, we still made it out of the ship, found luggage went through customs and immagration withing 20 minutes.(we had the first color off)So for us, disembarkation was a breeze, cant say what happened to others after me, everyone in my group had the pink tickets and were at the airport by 9:15AM.

If you have any questions you can ask me here or email me privately at

cdiekhaus(at)cruisesinc(dot)com I will be happy to help.

Dont be afraid to book Costa, I will definately sail again.

Cheri

[Marc&Tara]

The information desk seemed to always have people there wanting answers and not happy about the lack of them. As I said , I do believe they should improve that. I too was given poor info at one point.

The credit card charges are my biggest complaint. On Costa they do not take the credit card and run it through at the pier, they ask that you do it onboard within the first 48 hours. This seemed like a hassle to most, I did hear lots of complaints from other guests. I had no problem, went to the appointed lounge and within 15 minutes had nine people in my immediate group using 5 different cards registered. I did find one thing frustrating, and have notified my Costa rep about it. You cannot check your itimized bill until the last full day onboard the ship. You could get a balance, but that was it. Once you could check, you can imagine the chaos that followed at the info desk. On the last day while waiting for my color to be called, I heard the name of one of my sons friends, I had to leave the waiting area and go to a lounge and wait on a rediculously long line of VERy angry folks to find that his tips were not added to my husbands cc, and we had to pay them cash.

 

How is that MAGIC???? If you need something , bad info? chaos? no bills? same complaints I had. And were we eating the same food on this cruise? IT was tasteless, luke warm, (prime rib night was only good night), I love gourmet food, but this was very un gourmet... and why should I have to pay an add' 20 bucks and tips per night to get into the "good" restaurant????? Isn't that part of the fun in cruising the all inclusiveness.... you must have been given some happy pills by some of the staff because I did not see one happy American on board or in port ......

[New2cruzng]

"Why do you feel to answer everyone???"

 

If no one else understand this post, please see Marc and Tara's post at 01/03/06, 11:13 AM, under Costa Cruises/Private Island.

 

It is a good one, LOL.:p

[skolega]

Thanks for such a nice review. I have a cat 8A booked for Mar. 12th sailing...6463...which looks to be the bigger balcony like you had. I have a question about the room/balcony. Is the balcony big enough to have lounge chairs on it? If so, are they already there or do you think I could ask our steward to bring them? How is the noise factor since these cabins are directly over the Capri Lounge? Thanks for the response in advance.

[nonna5]

cfoursons4 - Glad to hear your review. I too am book in a cat 8A. Did you get to disembark first because of you group, your deck or your flight time. I know we will have a great time on the ship my only concern is that we have a 11:49 a.m. flight. I am hoping we will be able to be in the first group off also as we are traveling with an infant and preschooler. Thanks for any info and for your review.

[Chrisobrn]

I agree..Marc and Tara..move on for everyone's sake.

[New2cruzng]

Nonna5, you may have mentioned this to me previously, so I apologize if I forgot :(

 

How old is the baby you are traveling with? I am bringing my 10 month old. I am thinking of buying an umbrella stroller to bring along. And if I have to bring a car seat, I will have to buy a new one ;) My car seat has to have a base, so I would hate to lug that around off port and then find out the cab/taxi/van has no place to buckle it in. What a mess to carry all of that!

 

What are you going to be doing?

[itsmlf]

Sorry that Marc and Tara had such a miserable time. I had clients on the same cruise and they have said how marvelous it was. All cruise lines have cut back somewhere and a lot of time it is the food. Im on Feb 12th and cant wait.

[cfoursons4]

Skolega: yes, you're balcony will be the same as mine. It was much larger than the side ones, however there are no lounge chairs, you could ask for one, but Im not too sure that would be done. Frederick was our room steward, and he was fantastic! He will probably be yours also. After the first night sleep, I awoke with a bad lower back ache, he brought us another mattress to double it up, after that I slept like a baby! As for the noise issue, yes it could be heard from the Capri below. I do recall hearing the music twice when i got ready for bed, no problem falling asleep for me. You may want to change cabins if this would be an issue for you.

Nonna5: My group had a 12 noon flight. You are 10-15 min from the airport, but finding a cab and getting off the ship in time may be close. Be sure to request the first color. Do so by stating your flight time on the online doc form, if there is a place, if not, be sure to see the info desk and request right away. YOU WILL NEED TO BE FIRST COLOR. This trip for us it was PINK. White was first but for handicapped, and special needs, then pink.

[nonna5]

My grandson is 7 months old. We are bringing an umbrella stroller but we are not bringing a car seat. Hold on everyone do not scold me. It has been our experience that most of the taxis at most all ports we have been to do not have seat belts. When we took our 4 year old when he as 13 months old we had no problem not having a car seat. Only 4 more days. I guess I better start packing.

[taszmom]

Umbrella stroller - definitely. Car seat - leave it home. JMHO. It's such a short ride from airport to pier in FLL. Buckle in with you! It will be fine ;o)

[Marc&Tara]

I had clients on the same cruise and they have said how marvelous it was. All cruise lines have cut back somewhere and a lot of time it is the food. Im on Feb 12th and cant wait.

 

Would be very interested in hearing what was so "MARVELOUS" and were they Americans. I did not speak to a single American and I met many that were happy or even rated this cruise a "Fair" in the survey as I did. Most I talked to at disembark were so dissapointed that ranked "POOR" on most categories. If you people would go back and read my review I said a lot of nice stuff too but it's funny because you haven't gone on the ship yet, i.e. ANDY, and you are going to tell me how wrong I am when I lived the &^%$ for a week!!!!!!!! I have a right to state what I experienced without being attacked, wait until you live it and tell me how GREAT the powdered eggs are and I can't wait to hear your opinion of their version of "Italian" food........ on an "Italian" line, I would have thought they would have known how to make eggplant parm taste at least edible. Orcer some of that Quail too and tell me about the fatty grissle and skin coating the crushed up liver pate in the middle..... I mean if they are going to serve a gourmet dish why not make it gourmet....... Just wait before you defend the SHIP you HAVE not been on ANDY! Same goes for you ITSMLF, you haven't been on the ship yet, you can't state an opinion of it without living it for a week straight. And good luck with any and all expectatations because this ship will bash them for you. A week and a half agao I was on here reading and praying the bad reviews were wrong like all of you are hoping, but I lived it, and the bad reviews were dead on!!! My wife and I laughed as we re-read them last night saying, Oh my Gosh, thats so on!!!!!!

[New2cruzng]

Nonna5,

 

How about the trans. from the airport to Costa? Can you sit them on your lap? I am taking the transportation via Costa.

[cfoursons4]

Just for the record....I am American and Italian, loved the ship and the service, the food in my opinion was very good,(could have been hotter) and one more thing, if you did not like the "powdered" eggs, why not go the the three omlet stations available for "real" eggs, they did have them!

I understand your right to give the negatives of your cruise and you have the right to not sail them again., no one should bash you, but alot of your experience was not the same for everyone. Again my group of 40 did enjoy the cruise. I hope you find the right cruise for both of you and continue to cruise. Not every cruise is right for everyone, thats why these boards are here and so popular.

[skolega]

cfoursons: thanks for the info. How late could you hear music from the Capri. We will be up until about midnight...maybe. Was the music going on till the wee hours? Thanks. I don't want to give up my big balcony.

[Cruise4Andy]

Marc&Tara:

My gosh, are you ever getting tired pointing fingers at some people here in the forum. I may have to write it in a different language (oh wait, sorry, you requested English as the PRIMARY language, so let's stick with that), but apparently you don't get it at all.

 

WE ALL GET YOUR POINT! YOU HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE, AND THAT'S OKAY THAT YOU WON'T CHOOSE COSTA AGAIN. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE ALL HAVE TO AGREE WITH YOU! THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE HERE WHICH HAD SOME QUITE OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCES!!! YES MULTIPLE TIMES!

 

Again, I am NOT (repeat N-O-T) bashing your bad experience! What I am trying to get across to you (and I promise this is my last ATTEMPT!) it that you should be more open minded, less bashing yourself (i.e. nationalities, languages, etc.) and should have kept your emotions and bad attitude (f* this, b* this, MF that) to yourself... No need for that here!!! If you want to yell at somebody at home, call somebody or stand in front of the mirror, but don't let your anger and frustrations out on the members by bashing them.

 

I mentioned it before... I have eaten Costa food before and loved it. If you think Costa ships have no real eggs on board... well, go ahead, I leave you in your disbelieve, but I could proof you wrong... 100%.

 

Don't worry Marc & Tara, the ship will sure not disappoint me, nor ruin my vacation... I've been on Costa several times before and know their standards.

Or in other words... I am open-minded and don't expect anything, that way there is no disappointment. It's a cruise, it's a vacation, it's away from the daily stress and the office in a tropical surrounding... what more can I ask for?

For sure better than a week full of work and tasks!

 

I sure do have ONE question for you Marc & Tara:

Have you ever been to a foreign country?

 

Would just be interesting to know... hopefully you'll answer.

 

Thanks...

 

Andy

[ILov2cruise]

marc & tara

 

I thought I read that you have been on other cruises. Most cruise lines now have a restaurant with a cover charge, did you complain on those cruises also?

You also said this trip cost you $6k, after sending that much you couldn't spend $20pp more to have a nice romantic dinner with your new wife. All you can do is complain about the $20 cover charge.

[itsmlf]

Marc and Tara I believe what I said was I was sorry you had such a miserable time. I have not sailed on Magica but will in Feb. I also said I had clients on the same cruise you were on and they loved it. You obviously had some cabin problems and that is unfortunate...but dont be so defensive that so many do enjoy it. Its time to move on.

[Cruise4Andy]

itsmlf: Well said... Thank you!!! :-)

[jillbert2]

Wow! is all I can say about Marc's responses. You had a HORRIBLE time, we get it, it's just you're "tone", very defensive and soooo negative.

 

One question, according to your website, your new Father-In-Law gave you this cruise as a wedding gift, has he seen and been told about these negative feelings? Hope you did it in a nicer way! BTW, your music on the website is SCARY, might be a reflection on your attitude?

[Marc&Tara]

Jill

 

What are you talking about? "All I ask of You" is a very popular love song from Phantom of the Opera, my favorite musical. As you may have seen, Tara wrote a poem about me that appeared in the local paper and won tickets for Valentine's day to Phantom of the Opera. It was after that show that I proposed to her at dinner --- so excuse me, but "All I ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera is the main love theme throughout the show by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

 

Before saying someone's love theme is "Scary", maybe broaden your horizons a little bit and take in a theatrical show or two (you might then know why I say Costa entertianment is so-so).

 

This is exactly what I am saying, people who say Broadway love music that has won award after award since the earky 80's and then referred to as scary here - same people who think a piece of fatty grissle with salt and fake grill lines is a quality piece of meat on a cruise ship.... explains alot folks..... explains a whole heck of a lot. Tara and I were talking, people who liked the meat on the ship have got to be people that go for QUANTITY over QUALITY which is your avid repeat cruiser, they go for the buffets regardless of the taste and quality, on our cruise, they dove for it and shoved and pushed for it.....

[Marc&Tara]

We told Dr. White that we enjoyed the cruise but reccomended that he and his wife not take this one as he goes on about 5-6 cruises a year. He had advised against Magica but we had to do it based on schedule....

[Mjasp]

Phantom of the Opera...See how opinions can vary, I personally did not like that play. Am I in the minority? Absolutely, as that play is the longest ever on Broadway. But to each his own.

 

Marc & Tara...The same goes for peoples opinions on food. My brother moved to Florida about 20 years ago, when they take us to a "fine" Florida restaurant, my husband and I look at each other after we leave and say "that is a "FINE" restaurant" and chuckle and say look what Florida has done to him. We live in NY, and NY does have, I would say some of the finest restaurants in the country. But you can see how opinions are different. I can argue up and down with them about Florida food, but that is what they are use to, so they think it is good. They actually think Olive Garden is good Italian food, to me Olive Garden is fast food. Our friends who are cruising with us on Costa has gone to Italy and said Italian food in Italy is so different from here in the U.S.

It isn't bad, but it is different. You can't compare it.

 

My husband told me from the get go when I first booked our Disney Cruise that the food on Disney Cruise was going to be bad, because as he calls it, it is "Disney Food". And he was right. It wasn't intolerable, it didn't ruin my cruise, but for the price you pay on Disney the food should be superb.

 

I mean if you look at the other threads you will always see different opinions. It sounds like you are a very young man, and all I can say is to broaden your horizons and remember everyone is entitled to an opinion. So if they like their cruise on Costa, that doesn't mean they are WRONG, or weren't on the same crusie as you. It means they liked their cruise.

 

For all you Florida residents, please don't take offense.

[kruisey]

Reported on news today a 15 year old girl traveling with her parents and siblings on Costa Magica reported missing from this ship at 2.00AM. ,January 06...no trace of her has been found .Case being investigated.

[cuppy]

Thanks for the positive feed back on the Magica. I also appreciate the negative comments that have been shared.

 

Marc - sorry you had such a bad cruise. It is unfortunate that your honeymoon trip was not as you hoped it would be. I scrolled through all the post here and some of your other posts and you seem to be very angry about it and lashing out at people. I don't know if you mean to lash out or if it is just coming across that way; but coming from someone who just read from begining to end on some posts - it looks bad.

 

Unfortunately not eveyone on the ship is going to have the same experience. Our very first cruise was a cruise from hell and we said we would never cruise again; thankfully we gave it another try because we love cruising. We even gave NCL another try even though our first experience was bad. Food is subjective; what you may enjoy I may not and vice versa. Have you ever had quail before? It is usually very fatty and the skin usually gets very crispy and can taste like gristle due to the fat is frying in. I know that you had cruised at least once before if not more, but wonder as well if you have ever stayed in other countries? Even if you were to stay at some all-inclusive resorts in Mexico or the Dominican you would find the cuisine more of a European flare and it would not be what you were expecting. If you were expecting the Italian cuisine to be like what you get here in Italian resteraunts then of course you were going to be disappointed; this American - Italian cooking, nothing like what you would get in Italy.

 

Also your comments to the poster who asked about the music on your website was a little harsh. I love Phantom of the Opera; I have seen it 8 times now and All I Ask of You is one of my favorite pieces from it. Not everyone has seen the play and you shouldn't be so quick to yell at someone to go out and broaden their horizons - you have no idea (nor do I) if they have seen other plays. My in-laws did not care for Phantom, everyone has a right to their opinion. I went on to your website today and you should look at your soundtrack - it starts off playing as it should and then it starts doing some really funky stuff and makes it sound rather creepy or goth like. The version you are using is not from the soundtrack from the play but rather a computerized version; sorry but in my opinion (and yes it is my opinion) it really ruins the song. I think the concept of what you wanted to do was nice, but that track ruins it.

 

I also hope your father-in-law does not check these boards. I think it was very generous of him to give you this gift and if it was me I would be very hurt seeing someone go on and on complaining about the experience of the gift I gave them. Especially with the language or bleeped out language your using.

 

I will get off my soap box now

 

Oh one more thing - spell check your website you have a ton of spelling errors.