50cruiser Posted May 6, 2006 #1 Share Posted May 6, 2006 I had a good time on magicia, 1st some of my bad impresions. 1ST the decor is too much the same on the whole ship especially the reds. 2ND the Entertainment was done on a shoe string. Very low budget. Mostly passenger participation . 3RD food was like eating at lower end restrant. Not much varation ,small portions although I had tremendious waiters at my table who would bring anything I wanted asLONG AS IT WAS ON THE MENU NO VARATIONS .My waiter would bring 2 of everything if I wanted.I didnt find MANY of the great pasta dishes I had heard about, I talked to one gentleman who said he did cororgraphy for the dancers . He said in the last 2 months a lot of reductions in food and entertaingmet has taken place. He acounts it to the high oil prices and the cruise line cutting costs to stay in budget. There is not much else they can cut. The movies were horable . Year old reruns . very poor sound, cut off sections of movie very over exposed lighting. I would not at all recamend the movies at the theater. They run the same movies on your tv all week so you can see them there if you want to see A movie . I had signed up for a scuba dive at Burmuda and the NON_ CANCABLE tour was cancled the morning of tour 1 hr before leaving. They would not make any arangements to get us on any other tour. The tour desk would not open so we could pay for something else. I told them to just put us on another tour and we would take care of it when we returned. They wouldnt even duscuss it. The main problem is 95% of crew dont seem to talk american. Of 12 people at tour desk only 1 person talked american. 4. Most shows were sung in Itilian when I would say 70% of passengers were american.Now the GOOD . This had to be one of nicest , CLEANEST ship I think ive been on. The crew cleaned 24 hours a day. Only thing I noticed though was NO hand sanatisers. The other ships had sanatisers at the start of all food lines and at all elevators. I did go to cAsino and get handy wipes, they have buckets of them there. MY room staff were outstanding. I hardly ever saw them but I would leave and come back an hour later and they had straightened room. At begining OF cruise I left $20.00 on table and requisted a matress pad and to clean out refrigerator. Which was done when I returned from Buffet. There was Plenty of water at all meals. They had water at all buffets also Ice tea and coffie. Also at breakfest they had orange and grapfruit juice. The crew was always Friendly . My team won lots of prizes at quizes. The 1st day I won $500 at a video poker game ROYAL FLUSH. But by end of week they got it all back .WOULD I GO BACK ON COSTA . PROABLY NOT I liked PRINCESS A LOT BETER. I WOULD LEAVE COSTA TO THE CRUISING ITILIANS AND CRUISE AMERICAN STYLE IF you have any other questions ask and I will try To respond to them. CARL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charleyb Posted May 7, 2006 #2 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Nice review. When I read this, I had to make sure it was not my review because it was exactly as I had seen my Costa cruise except I really liked the spaghetti. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joetrizeo Posted May 7, 2006 #3 Share Posted May 7, 2006 The main problem is 95% of crew dont seem to talk american ??? ??? ??? Of 12 people at tour desk only 1 person talked american it's been a long time since statistics class but 1/12 = 8.3% did or 91.7% did not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted May 7, 2006 #4 Share Posted May 7, 2006 The main problem is 95% of crew dont seem to talk american ??? ??? ??? Of 12 people at tour desk only 1 person talked american it's been a long time since statistics class but 1/12 = 8.3% did or 91.7% did not. That's cuz you are two young for the new math Jim, but you get there point:cool: Did they have a crew change in the last 2 months?:confused: This is nothing like what we experienced on our Feb 26 cruise. I did not meet any crew members that could not speak at least some English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondello Posted May 7, 2006 #5 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Maybe it's not so much a language problem, but they're mad because they aren't being told what they want to hear! I guess 91.7% thought they were idiots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted May 7, 2006 #6 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Mondello, you didn't have any language problems on your cruise did you? Something must have happened between March and May, dontcha think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmlf Posted May 7, 2006 #7 Share Posted May 7, 2006 It is a requirement that all employees that serve the public must speak english and they do...not all of them speak perfectly but they do speak english. It is an Italian line however and has much European influence. Just because an American cant understand their "American talk" does not mean they dont speak english. I think that was a bit harsh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipshapegal Posted May 7, 2006 #8 Share Posted May 7, 2006 I'm just back and did not have any staff that I could not understand. I thought they did a good job of speaking English. Having said that, I do not think they were WONDERFUL in other ways, just good. I expect over the top good. The room was always clean but the room stewart was not very friendly. The waiters were nice but (tired??). I don't know. I posted on another thread that this was not my favorite cruise. It was not my favorite food. Did I get my money's worth? You bet! For $499 pp OV I got more than I paid for. The ship was so clean, but I never found my way around. I know I tried, I read and reread joetrizo's explanation of how to get around, but some elevators didn't go where I wanted to go and I kept running into places that dead ended. The seas were ROUGH for three days, very rough. I do not believe they used stabilizers. If anyone can explain this to me I would appreciate it. We were on the MSC Lirica in Feb. in 18' seas and had no problem at all. I think they were saving fuel and not using them because they cause drag.?.??? Anyone know? Anyway three days were pretty much wasted because of the high winds and rough seas. Of course Costa cannot help the weather, but the ship sure did rock and roll. We could not use our laptop on board, just theirs at $.60 a minute. We have always been able to use it before, just not Costa. We had fun, enjoyed ourselves, relaxed, ate, saw shows, even had network TV which some ships do not have. It was just not GREAT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipshapegal Posted May 7, 2006 #9 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Sorry, make that $.50 a minute for internet. (Typo) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joetrizeo Posted May 8, 2006 #10 Share Posted May 8, 2006 " but some elevators didn't go where I wanted to go and I kept running into places that dead ended. " exactly! thats what my main point was in my tip thread. but alas, you're not alone, considering some other ships that have the exact same layout as magica are fortuna, and on carnival jeeze, victory, glory, conquest, valor...anyways there are about 10 of them. and the stabilizers are active all the time, but even the best engineering and control system models can't compensate for the unpredictable high seas...but since the ship has them, they have no reason not to use them. i'd explain more of the engineering behind it but i dont want to put every to sleep ;) as for other ships being stable in high seas, well they are two different ships with two different sizes lengths weights, and stabilization systems. plus the frequency of the waves arnt gaurnteed to be the exact same...so its like apples to oranges comparing any one ship to a different ship in different circumstances. also given that happy cruisers spend more time out side of thier cabins drinking, gambeling, buying stuff, and sea sick cruisers spend time barfing in thier rooms, i think it's in their best interestes to keep the ship as stable as possible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mek Posted May 8, 2006 #11 Share Posted May 8, 2006 We didn't experience language problems that were different from any other cruise we've ever taken when we were on the Magica 2 weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOLDENBONNY Posted May 8, 2006 #12 Share Posted May 8, 2006 The main problem is 95% of crew dont seem to talk american Is there such a language?:confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schack2 Posted May 8, 2006 #13 Share Posted May 8, 2006 We were on the same cruise. Sorry some of you could not meet on Sat. We did get to meet Bonnie and Charlie. Looked for others but there was so much going on around the atrium. Our cabin steward was fantastic as was our waiter, his asst. and the maitre d' in the Smeralda Dining Room, late seating. As a matter of fact I asked about a certain pasta with a plain tomato sauce and he brought it to us the next night. On the last night he even brought a special risotto. Never found a problem with the language at the Info desk, but did encounter one at the excursion desk that had problem understanding our question re a tour we had booked on line. Max, the cruise director, was not the best. The information given out before going ashore was not what we received on our other cruises. As a matter of fact in Bermuda, I don't remember getting a map etc. The food left a lot to be desired but we didn't go hungry since we are not use to all of the courses at home so there was always something to eat. Due to rough seas we couldn't even open our balcony door on Sat. since the wind was pushing it closed, but did manage to enjoy it on other days. I think most cruise lines are cutting back on food, since we also found the food to be so-so on RCCL Jewel of the Seas in Dec. This was our 18th cruise and the food has changed quite a bit. We had been on the Glory a couple of years ago so we were familiar with the layout which helped us get around....just a lot of walking from one end of the ship to the other. We still prefer a smaller ship. We enjoyed ourselves and made the best of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cronestein Posted May 8, 2006 #14 Share Posted May 8, 2006 We learned at school English and were forbidden to speak ---slang--- Sorry,that is what they called --American--in Europe years ago ! Years and years later we are speaking English with a lot of American influences. I know that a lot of American don't understand us --English speaking-- people always.( really I have met some) There is a lot of difference in pronouncing. When you say tomato ,than I say TOMATO and so on----- Flying Dutchlady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeandSheryl Posted May 8, 2006 #15 Share Posted May 8, 2006 Well except for the weather which Costa has no control over. We thought the cruise was great. Our cabin was always spotless and our steward very friendly and helpful. Our waiters Mario and Johnie were some of the best we ever had. We thought the food was very good, and more then we could eat. I had eggs benedict every day we ate in the main restauarant. We did come to the Atrium Bar but it was very crowded and we didn't get to meet anyone from cruise critic. My wife was sick all day Saturday due to the weather we talked to some people from the Zenith and it sounded like there ship handled the weather worse then the Magica. We had a Great time in Bermuda rode the bus everywhere and had a great time at horseshoe bay and others we walked on. We also had a great time on Rose Island in the Bahamas. We have been on 8 Cruises with 4 different lines and thought Costa was as good as any of them and by Far the best value. We will Sail costa again anytime. Joe and Sheryl:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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