Costa Fortuna Review 12/16-12/23 2007

[BambiRumsey]

Just returned from our cruise to the Eastern Caribbean on the Costa Fortuna and below you will find my thoughts.

 

First about us: Me, 37, stay at home mom, former HR manager, native New Yorker living near Annapolis, MD for over 5 years. This was I think my 17th cruise. Husband turned 45 while on board, executive, native of Alexandria, VA. This was his 11th cruise. Daughter age 8 in 3rd grade, this was her 6th cruise. My in-laws also traveled with us. He is 80 and she is 76 and this was their first cruise.

 

Embarkation:

Due to some impending bad weather in the Northeast we had some travel drama and ended up leaving a day earlier than planned, flying into Orlando, staying with friends and then driving to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. This actually worked out okay but was stressful for me at the time.

 

When we arrived at Pier 21 around noon with the rental car, we handed off all our luggage to the porters and dropped off Hannah and my in-laws. Matt and I then went to the airport to return the car and took a taxi back to the pier. Traffic was heavy getting back to the pier as there were many ships in port so this process took about 45 minutes to an hour.

 

We entered the terminal, went through security and got in line for embarkation. The line moved very quickly and we waited a total of maybe 15-20 minutes. By the time we got on board around 1:30 the cabins were ready.

 

We took our in-laws to their outside cabin (1362) on deck 1. And then we made our way to our balcony cabin (7339) on deck 7. The cabins were nearly identical in size and layout with the exception being ours having a balcony.

 

Cabins:

Both Ria, my in law’s stewardess and Michael, our steward came by within minutes to introduce themselves and let us know the lay of the land. The cabins were both clean and spacious with lots of storage space. Plenty of room for me to unpack clothing and accessories for three people and store our empty luggage under the bed. The only amenity in the bathroom was a pump of gel cleanser on the shower wall however there was a sign saying that if we required other basic items (I forget what they listed) to just ask the cabin steward.

 

Overall the cabin was great. Balcony had two chairs and a small table. On the minus side, the beds were very, very, very firm. They were thicker than the ones we had on the Magica but still a little too hard even for me and I like a firm bed. Pillows were also very firm. We all brought squishy travel pillows with us so that helped some but don’t say I never told ya!

 

Our cabin steward requested that when we were in our room to place the red do not disturb sign out and then upon leaving we should put out the green make up the room sign. We apparently did not fully grasp this instruction the first night and subsequently our room was not serviced the first night while we were at dinner and it took quite a while for him to get to it the next morning it seemed too. We finally got the system down though and the rest of the week was great. Fresh ice is supplied in the cabin twice a day. If you wanted bottled water however, once the initial bottle is gone, you must fill out a bar slip to request one – he did not just bring a fresh bottle whenever one was opened.

 

Food:

We found the food in the dining room and buffet to be very good to excellent. We tended to take most of our meals in the dining rooms but the times we did go to the buffet it was very good. My husband and I were doing our best to stay semi-within the Weight Watchers program and the portion control of the dining room suited our needs a little better.

 

We enjoyed all of the fish dishes, the osso bucco, many of the no sugar added desserts. Our 8 year old typically got the fish dish, although she did order the spaghetti and meatballs one night and the always available grilled salmon. The last 2 nights she had the beef dishes and loved both of them. Lamb shanks on last night of cruise was not great but I should know better than ordering that particular cut. Crab legs on second formal night were enjoyed by all.

 

We were seated at table 92 on deck 3 of the Michealangelo (aft) dining room. This was a round table for 6 people that was configured for our party of 5 giving us a little more room. The table configuration of this center portion of the dining room is poor at best and due to the waiter stations being around the perimeter of this section the service has no chance of being anything but inefficient.

 

Our waiter and asst had 3 tables to service and because of having so many tables crammed together in this area they could not get around them to do their job well. Even when no one was seated in the chairs it was hard to get around the tables, having to turn sideways just to get between empty chairs – you can imagine how it was once people were sitting in them!

 

They did an okay job but each night we had to ask for iced tea and many, many times our glasses were filled once at the beginning of the evening and then left empty for the duration. This was not just a problem we encountered at our regular dining table. Open seating in the Rafaello restaurant provided erratic service as well. To sum it up – we had WAY better service at the TGIFriday’s in Fort Lauderdale than we did on our entire Fortuna cruise. I believe they all tried their best but I think that in many ways they were set up to fail.

 

The club restaurant is billed as a Tuscan Steakhouse. In the past it was offered as price fixe menu where you pay a certain dollar figure per person. Now everything on the menu is a la carte. Aside from the Caribbean lobster tails we did not see anything on the menu that we could not order in the regular dining room or from a favorite land based restaurant. We figured that dinner would have run about 100-150 for two of us and decided it was not a good value as we were already very happy with the quality and variety of food in the main dining room.

 

Entertainment and Activities:

The Costa Fortuna Singers and Dancers were all quite good but Nicola Meehan from Scotland was a real standout for us. She just had a flat out gorgeous voice. Many times on cruises the singers get what I call showtunitis, where they are belting/shouting the songs to the point where the pitch gets distorted. Her tone was pure and her pitch was spot-on. I would have liked to see a showcase of just her singing.

 

The first night’s entertainment was a woman named Victoria Horne. We did not like her. A lounge act of the worst kind. If you have ever seen the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America, she reminded me of when Eddie plays a singer and sings The Greatest Love of All. Just sort of “you’re such a beautiful audience…it’s so lovely to be here, in this lovely theater with all you lovely people”. Maybe I am too critical but that kind of stuff just makes my skin crawl it seems so phony.

 

First production show of the week was called H20 and I think was maybe the better of the two. There was also a Circus Variety show that was just kind of eh for me. Duo Markov was amazing, Duo Errani and the contortionist in the beginning were a bit too long. There was no real cohesive theme for this show. The final production show was In Concert which was just a variety of singers, Elvis, the Stones, Aretha Franklin, Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra, a little bit of everything really. As much as I loved Nicola’s voice though, I am a strong believer that ONLY Aretha can sing Aretha, sorry.

 

As for entertainment in the other areas of this ship we found this also to be excellent. All of the musical groups playing live music in the lounges in the evening were fantastic. The pianist and violinist were very good, the Costa Fortuna Orchestra was TIGHT and the Trio Tringali and Duo Double Whiskey in the Conte de Savoie lounge were awesome. Giuseppe, the horn player in the orchestra also plays a mean jazz flute and has a great raspy jazzy voice – an all around great musician.

 

My husband stayed up to see Stephen Sorrentino, the late night musical comedian and said that it was the best show he has ever seen anywhere – land or sea. We saw John Ciotta on our Magica cruise last year and he is just not our bag. See my comments about Ms Horne – too loungey for me. Hopefully next Caribbean season he and is hairpiece will stay on land.

 

There were a number of activities throughout the day. A fitness class by the pool around 9 am and 5 pm every day. Some type of pool game or dance lesson everyday by the pool. Arts and crafts every afternoon by the aft pool that looked like it was well attended. We also saw Italian lessons on the schedule a few times during the week. Lots of things to do if you are not one to lay about the pool.

 

We often sat in the card room or at the tables to the side of the Conte De Savoie lounge playing cards. One thing we really really like about Costa is that this area and the card room gets bar service. We had a lovely waitress from Columbia whose name began with an L and I won’t attempt to spell who was just fab in this area. We purchased 2 boys and girls club booklets and used every last coupon on coke zeros for us and pink panther smoothies for Hannah (the smoothies were a real bargain with the coupon costing about $5 each without). She also brought us little trays of nuts and pretzels and rice crackers to have something to crunch while I beat the pants off my husband.

 

We did not play Bingo but it was often held in this lounge so we heard it. I have no idea what his name is, but the guy who does bingo is a hoot. He was on the Magica last year too and he just cracks me up “B like Baaaarbieeeee”, “chicky, chicky, chicky”. We were all quoting him all week.

 

My husband did participate in the final art auction of the week however even though he won an item he could never get the art guy to take care of him so he could pay for it. Very disappointing because the piece was apparently to be a surprise for me. ☹

 

Casino:

Slots were very tight. They had denominations of 1 cent, 2 cents, nickels, dimes, quarters, 50 cents and dollar. I did not play any table games. The 2 cent slots were fun and I played on their money for a little while but I did not win what I would call a considerable amount. But then I only ever play $20 a day on slots anyway. Maybe if I had played more I would have won more. Don’t know.

 

Ports:

SAN JUAN: Our excursion for the Latin Tradition show was cancelled before we even boarded due to technical difficulties, probably from Olga. The day before we arrived in San Juan the Tour desk called us and said they had fixed the problem and the tour was now back on but that we would have to sign up for it again and it was subject to getting a minimum number of participants. We signed up again but I guess not enough people were interested and it ended up being cancelled after all.

 

We got of the boat for about 15 minutes, walked around the terminal and then headed out to make sure Matt’s parents were doing okay on their own. They were coming down the pier as we were leaving so that was all we saw of San Juan.

 

ST THOMAS: We did the ship’s Snorkel Adventure excursion to Coki Beach and this was great. Hannah was still timid about snorkeling so we wanted some place where she could just walk into the water rather than jumping off a boat. She did great, getting braver and braver as the day went on and it turned out to be an excellent excursion.

 

Since this was to only be a 3 hour trip we had planned to grab some lunch on board and then take a cab down town and do a little shopping however due to construction the trip back from Coki Beach took over an hour and a half and we were afraid we would not have enough time. Please keep this in mind if you go to St Thomas and allow yourself AMPLE time to make it back from town or if you book a private excursion.

 

CATALINA ISLAND: This was Costa’s Private Island. Lots of beach chairs and umbrella’s. Snorkel gear sets for rent for $8 on your Costa card. They also had yellow floats for rent but unsure how much they were. You can find your own beach chair but there are locals waiting when you get off the tender to find/move them for you and they expect a gratuity for this service. There was a bar on the beach, an area with some shops, a covered area where they served the food, tents with many picnic tables. Also boats running banana floats, water tubing and water skiing. Not sure how much these were but it seemed to me that the further you got from the tender pier the more expensive things got and not all things could be purchased with Costa Card.

 

Lunch on this island was fruit, a variety of salads, burgers, dogs, bbq chicken and ribs. They ran 4 lines so it seemed to keep the crowds moving or maybe we just went at the right time.

 

This was all around a great beach day.

 

We then took a short ride to Casa de Campo. We were beat from our day at Catalina so we did not get off the boat here.

 

NASSAU: We had booked the Blackbeard’s Beach break excursion but when we pulled into Nassau it was overcast and cool and we saw folks on the pier wrapped in their towels so we decided to stay on the ship. Since this was also our last day on board I had packing and such to do so this worked out well for everyone. Plus we’ve been to Nassau plenty of times before and don’t feel like there is anything we absolutely MUST see there.

 

 

Squok Club:

Hours are 9-12, 3-6 and 9-11 most days. On the 2 formal nights they open at 5:30 or 5:45 and take the kids to the Lido for dinner and keep them until 11:30 or midnight. Hannah generally went to squok in the morning after breakfast and stayed until noon. They played games, danced, etc. The slide was open from 10-4 most sea days and Hannah wanted to spend much of her time doing that and swimming in the pools. She did earn 55 Squok bucks though and was able to pick out 5 prizes at the end of the cruise. Hannah also participated in the kids talent show which was in the Leonardo Da Vinci lounge at 9:30 on Roman night. This worked out okay for us as she was the first act but we ended up sending Daddy to get seats in the Rex at 10:15 and we left at 10:30 and it was still going. They might want to consider making this earlier or moving to a different night so that people can still get to the main event in the Rex theater – that fills up fast!

 

One thing we did not like about Squok is that there is too much time between the end of 1st seating dinner and the evening opening time. On nights when she was not interested in the shows her only option was to sit around and wait an hour or so for Squok to open.

 

The adult pool and hot tubs in the back of the ship were great and they were fantastic about enforcing the no kids rule. The hot tubs were hot but not unbearable. The other pools and hot tubs remained pretty crowded as we were sailing full capacity.

 

Photos:

We purchased 4 photos for around $80. The backgrounds they chose for our sailing were very busy and kind of ugly in my opinion. The ship was decorated for Christmas so shots in front of the tree turned out gorgeous but other than that no simple backgrounds where the people are showcased. I REALLY, REALLY hate having my picture taken during dinner but this is not unique to Costa so what are you going to do….

 

Passengers:

Read a lot on Cruise Critic about Rude Europeans (RE) but I would like to set the record straight and say that I saw WAY, WAY, WAY more UGLY AMERICANS (UA) than REs! The UA’s I saw were of a certain age (not young) more often than not of the NY/NJ/FLA variety. They were pushy, chair hogs, they spoke rudely and loudly about people around them. They seemed to have a sense of entitlement – like why on earth should I look where I am going on my scooter when I can look at the slots as I drive by and ride over your daughters toes – she has more of them what are you complaining about!

 

They mainly appeared to come into the cruise looking for things to NOT like. They often spoke very quickly and with very thick NY/NJ accents to the staff and then got belligerent and down right nasty when they were not tended to immediately or correctly. If English is my first language and all my relatives have the same accent as you do and I ALSO thought you said apple martini then maybe you should not get pissy about getting such “bad service” from someone who’s SECOND language is English!

 

I saw exactly ONE Rude European and that was the last day. I saw packs and packs of Ugly Americans though – it was embarrassing.

 

Dismebarkation:

We had dark blue and were to wait in the Rex theater at 9am. My in laws had brown and were to wait in Conte De Savoie at 9:15. We waited and disembarked with them. The line for immigration is very very long due to so many nationalities getting off. Customs was quick though and I would venture to say we were outside on the curb by 9:30 to 9:45 with all our luggage.

 

The main problem with parking the ship at Pier 21 though is that the cabs must make a loop going past 2 other cruise ships (in our case Millenium and Westerdam) before getting to the Costa passengers. It was 11 am before any empty cabs started making their way to us at which time I had convinced my husband to call our hotel and see if they also ran shuttles to the cruise port, which they did so 20 minutes after his phone call we were in the shuttle on our way to the hotel. If only I could have convinced him to call sooner!

 

So that it is my review. Some things that could use some tweaking but over all a great cruise and wonderful vacation.

[Pupsweet]

What an informative and well-written review!

Thanks for taking the time to write so well.

We're booked on this ship in March; never done Costa before, and were very happy to read your largely positive review.

How was the smokers vs non-smokers issue?

[Dolphin Girl]

I enjoyed your review very much. Thank you for taking the time to be so informative and objective. We are cruising on Fortuna in March to these same ports and hope to have as much fun as you did.

 

Has everyone who has cruised thus far used Terminal 21 in FLL?

 

Thanks again!

[BambiRumsey]

The smoke was not too much of an issue for us in most places. The casino was the worst. The dining rooms and Rex theater are all non smoking. In the interior of the Lido it was also non smoking. The other lounges and the deck area on the port (left) side had smoking areas designated and I did not see anyone smoking in specifically marked non smoking areas.

[BambiRumsey]

We cruised in and out of Pier 21 on the Magica last year but since it was a 6 day cruise and we returned a day earlier that other ships the taxi issue was not a problem. I believe this is the "Costa" pier.

 

If I were to do it again, I would arrange for a private car to pick me up or call ahead to a shuttle company to make arrangements for around 9:30 or 10am. Since were were the last group off the ship, not only were the cabs going past already full but when empty ones finally did come around the line for cabs was streaming down the block.

 

I would definitely not make flight arrangements until after 12 or 1 pm though just to be safe.

[retdon]

Hi Bambi,

Thanks for a great review. :) WE SAIL 12/30, THERE ARE 16 IN OUR GROUP AND WE ARE REALLY EXCITED................... We are ready for New Years on the Fortuna..........

Glad to hear the ship is decorated and the good reports of food, etc.

How was the Toga Party????? WE all have custom made togas and all the trimmings, should be a lot of fun, only bad thing our cruise will be over when that comes, :mad: .

Thanks again for a great review, glad you had a good time. Linda

[Cruise4Andy]

Hey, Jennifer:

 

Thanks for your detailed review and sharing your experience with us... Sounds like you had a great time!

 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas... Maybe we see each other on one of the Costa ships in 2008?

 

Once again, thanks for your review!

[BambiRumsey]

Linda,

 

I was kind of disappointed in the participation of toga night, I would say a little less than half. Last year on Magica it was about 2/3.

 

We had actual costumes I bought on line, Matt was Jupiter (Roman equivalent of Zeus), I was Venus and Hannah was Cleopatra. I helped my in-laws tie their sheets. I say screw everyone else, wear a toga if you want and PAR-TAY!!!!!!

 

We got many MANY comments that if there was a contest for best togas that we would totally win! We really loved toga night and the talent show last year on the Magica (we love sending people to the lions!) and that was a major point in us deciding to cruise Costa again this year.

 

The Magica has darker wood tones which my husband prefers but I like light woods and I thought the Fortuna was really gorgeous.

 

I just looked online to see about sailing them next December but looks like the Fortuna won't even make it to the Caribbean until Christmas week! :(

[abitaturbodog]

Barbi-- Thanks for writing this review! I would say that my family's experiences on the Mediterranea this past week very closely match your experiences on the Fortuna. We were pleasantly surprised to enjoy our Costa cruise so much!

 

My DH graduated from Annapolis and we dated while he was there, so we both consider your great town to be very special for us. We've been trying to visit every year with the boys and see a Navy football game with the hopes that they'll want to follow in dad's footsteps. Only time will tell. Living in SC, we miss the snow and cold winters that we had in Annapolis...mostly.

 

Are you planning any other Costa cruises in the future? We cancelled our Carnival cruise this coming March and booked the Med. again! Y'all should join us!:D

 

--Jennifer

[BambiRumsey]

We probably have some friends in common - lots of folks in our circle of friends from grad years 92-95 or 96...when did your husband attend?

 

Our next cruise is maybe a shortie over super bowl weekend and then another shortie for our wedding anniversary in September and then we'll cruise December for a week.