So I Went On Costa Classica And Lived To Tell The Tale

[treesah]

We've cruised Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean in the past. Very satisfied with all our previous cruises, around 15 in all. I heard that Costa was different and that Americans were not happy cruising on Costa so I had to find out for myself.

 

Our criteria for cruising on Costa: timing, itinerary and cost. We spent two weeks on the French Riviera participating in a choral exchange and since we were already in Europe decided to take a cruise from Italy.

 

Ship: Costa Classica, April 16 through April 27, 2008, the Canaries.

The ship itself is not too attractive, no glitz, no art, no colors. It as clean and our stateroom was comfortable.

 

Crew: Excellent. Loved them all. Our waiter, assistant waiter and stewardess were wonderful. Never met a grumpy one on this cruise and there's always one or two.

 

Food: Perfectly fine. I would have enjoyed more variety in the fruit department since at home I practically live on fruits and vegetables but I really can't complain.

 

Other passengers: We only had 40 English speaking passengers and 6 Americans and a bilingual couple from Puerto Rico on their honeymoon. The eight of us became a family. We shared two tables, we had breakfast, lunch and dinner most of the time, we took a ship's excursion and then hired two taxis to take us anywhere we wanted, we explored by foot, walked miles and miles together. I must say, if it hadn't been for our companions I would have felt very lonely and unable to communicate on a more profound basis. I must say that our fellow passengers, i.e. mostly Italians, French, German and Spanish seemed to enjoy themselves but were not as friendly as I'm used to on an "American" type of cruise. Probably the language barrier.

Apparently Costa's passengers can bring their children for free so there were quite a few kids but they were well behaved for the most part, with a few exceptions, of course, but this can happen anytime, anywhere.

 

I've heard people complain about the announcements in 5 languages, with English being the last language. This did not bother me at all, just gave me a chance to practice my Spanish and meager Italian and French.

 

WOULD I CRUISE COSTA AGAIN? It would not be my first choice, everything else being equal but otherwise why not? If the itinerary, price and timing is right I would definitely cruise Costa. It had an upbeat feeling to it which put me in a good mood.

 

I don't want to be too verbose so I'll end this report now but if anyone has any questions, it would be my pleasure to reply.

[kasi1979]

Hi,

so glad you enjoyed your cruise. We are leaving for our Classica cruise tomorrow morning. As it will be our 4th costa cruise I´m quite positive that I´ll enjoy my time.

 

When was first and second seating for dinner?

[treesah]

First seating was at 6:45 pm, second seating at 9:00 pm. We chose the first as 9:00 pm is way too late for me.

 

Enjoy your cruise. Say hello to the entertainment team for me, i.e. Giorgio and Paulo, etc.