Roll Call April 1st 2007 Mediterranea

[drb]

We have both decided to take tomorrow (friday) off work before flying out at 6:00 am Saturday ---- no sense starting a vacation more stressed than you already are. Safe travels to all. Doug

[zandramarie]

OK, drinks in the left hand:) How about 1 in both hands! Just ready to GET AWAY. Anybody else? Are we still doing the beads? It may put me over the 50 pounds:) if I put those in the suit case.

This ship sails Sunday, right:) I actually had to go look at the calendar as after reading the last posts I got a panic attack.

The 3/18 cruise reviews on the Med. seem to have had a great time and that is what it is all about. Loved the slide show from Geoshar but my quest for tomorrow after work is to find some plastic grapes for the TOGA party! Will the GoodWill still be open? We are almost there.....Memories to be made.

See you soon,

Zandra

[Yeldarb]

I think a drink in hand will not be enough as everyone on the aft pool section will probably have a drink. Beads sounds like a plan.

 

cya there

[thefog]

Welcome home Jan and Steve, thinking of you guys in that warm weather. Back home here it's been freezing cold so how was the trip on Costa? Hope to here from you soon. Randy

[Jdleong]

We had a great cruise, I will e-mail you the facts... it was -4C when I got up this morning...I want to go back to the Caribbean... and for all of the CC's I met, thanks for saying hi during the week! The flight to Dallas was a nightmare! but all worked out in the end...

Jan

[Yeldarb]

Sorry I missed the meet and greet everyone, I would have liked to met you and maybe I did. I hope everyone had as good of a time as we did.

 

Cheers!

[ROWSE]

Sorry we missed the meet and greet too. I think we probably crossed trails on the ports. I see you did the Buccaneer with Capt. Bryan too. It was a great time for us. Also, what was your take on the Victor Bodden tour? I had really wanted to play with monkeys too and he took us to a thing Victor Bodden had set up but the man who ran it, usually, was not there and two little girls tried to pull a couple monkeys down from a perch and they got really nasty and growled so I said no thanks. Would have really liked to have been taken to the Park attraction (Giam... )Park but he did not suggest it. I had been hoping for a guided type tour where he gave us history and highlights of the island, but he was only 23, been doing this for 6 months, and maybe it isn't even a feature of this tour. What was your expierence like? We did do the iquana farm and Half Moon Bay beach.

[Jdleong]

I posted this on another thread but just want to say hi to all I met and that we had a GREAT cruise, and I wish I was going tomorrow to Italy!

 

 

 

My observations...................................... ........................................

 

I really liked Costa. I found that the level of service was better than Carnival.

Our table at the late seating was wonderful. We had the best wait staff I have ever had. Noel and Jimbo were great. Ever night we had a fresh bottle of Red and White wine (X1 package) along with 3 bottles of mineral water,one can of Coke for Steve, and three platters of cheese waiting for us as we arrived. The kids got their Virgin drinks right away each night from the bar staff. Everyday my steward greeted me in the hall and always asked if I wanted him to open the door when my hands were full. I never once saw him cleaning the room, but he did a wonderful job, considerating there were 4 of us. Another time I was having lunch at the tables by the adult pool and I wanted some horseradish for my beef, and the staff at the buffet brought it to me outside in a bowl, so I didn't have to wait while they found some. I found out that if you asked for something, they would make every effort to find it. The bar staff was more than generous with our X1 package at the back bar. Everytime we walked up in the evening, they would start to get our drinks ready...maybe that wasn't such a good thing, LOL.

The shows were good, I liked them and since they had to relate to all languages, they were well done. I still don't know how the lady sang the Titanic song while the staff did so many funny antics in the background. I loved toga night, and it was worth all the time I took sewing the togas..

 

My ONLY complaint, and it isn't really a complaint, is the Photo shop. They should post the prices and it was really hard to understand the people who worked there, especially one lady. Some pictures were cheaper than others, and there are packages for multiples..still not sure what is what.

 

We went to Medusa's and didn't like it. The food was good, the service was good, but it just wasn't what we expected....not like Carnival's version. That doesn't mean it isn't good, just we weren't European, and expected a North American version. If you ordered from the left, I think it might have been better, but we probably would have enjoyed being at our regular table , and missed the Itailian night in the dinningroom. The kids went and said it was fun.

That is how good the food was in the dinningroom, I loved the quail on the last formal night. I found that the whole ship is less formal that Carnival, people seem to be more relaxed, and seem to enjoy their vacation. People in the diningrooms dressed more casual than on Carnival, and even on Formal night you aren't required to dress up, and can feel comfortable in the dinningroom.

We only did one excursion with the Ship, and that was to Tayabana beach in Roatan. No trouble with that. Getting on and off in GC was a breeze, I think we had one of the first tenders and met the staff from Nativeway. Too bad it was so windy in Cozumel, we didn't get to snorkel there, but did enjoy the day . Key West was okay, I think it is better for Europeans, cause it is an American port, and we went to the Aquarium, kids liked it, and had Key Lime pie at the Blonde Gariffe. We bought a whole pie and served it up, it was wonderful.

Our only bad experience on the trip, was getting out of Seattle on Friday night before the cruise...American Airlines and a Dallas tornado..don't mix. Our flight was delayed till 3am...missed the connection, and I had to reroute our friends thur to Miami and rent a car and go and get them. Now that it is over..it seems not such a big deal, but all I could think about was that they would miss the ship and miss the cruise...and I told them you don't need insurance.All's well that ends well.

 

We had a great cruise and would sail Costa again in a heatbeat. Just wish they ( and Carnival too) would add some new ports to the Caribbean. That way being on the same ship with different ports doesn't matter.

 

Jan