VERY true...you start to think that holidays on land might not be as good as a cruising holiday, then you stick with cruises!!
A discussion started on our cruise about how addictive cruising is and who has "the cruise bug!!" xxx

well and truly "bugged" in lancashire as well.
Glad your parents enjoyed it, Craig.

My wife and I cruised on the Costa Classica last year in the Med.

It was our first experience at Cruising and we had an excellent time.

The Staff were very warm helpful and friendly, right down to the Cabin staff. Was not happy with the organised 'tipping' though as thought that the staff who did the work did not get the best deal, but thats a minor point.

The food in the Restaraunts was excellent, both the Buffet, BBQ and Ala Carte. The evening/midnight Buffets were a joy to behold, and if you were not hungry, just a walk around the displays was worth it.

Hi all,me and hubby are going on the costa medeterenea to the caribbean,with no kids!!!!!!yipEeeeeeeeee.has anyone been on it before,any advice at all would be great thanks,prices of drinks etc,does hubby need to take a suit as we are doing miami and vegas and he will only wear it the two times,heard its pretty relaxed,advice on the excursions...do it yourself or book with the ship....thanks all x xx

Hi Angemb and welcome to HT!

If put Costa into the Search facility at the top of the page and select the Cruise forum you will received all the topics where Costa are mentioned.

luci

I have just booked my first cruise with Costa and would appreciate any information about Costa Victoria.
We have been on many cruises but this will be our first with costa so don't know what to expect.
Our favorite cruise lines are P&O,Royal Caribbean,Disney would love to know how these compare with Costa

Hi cruisechick and welcome to HT!

I have merged your post with a similar one on Costa cruises. You may find some information in earlier posts.

luci

Hi all,
Which would you reccomend thompson or costa? Is the evening entertainment eg singers, shows etc on costa in English?

I am just back last Sunday off Costa Fortuna. I have posted a review in the "Cruise Reviews" section of this site.

To answer some of your questions, personally, of the 3 cruiselines we have cruised with (Airtours Carousel, Thomson Spirit and Costa Fortuna) Costa wins by leaps and bounds.

I do appreciate though that Costa will not be for everybody as you are in the minority, being English spoken and you also have to bite your tongue quite a bit in how Europeans come across. We knew all this beforehand so were prepared.

I cannot really answer re all the entertainment as we only went to one show in the huge theatre and that was a classical concert!! There was some entertainment in the other lounges that we were at and everything is spoken in Italian first and then into English. It amazes me that so many people complain about the language problems. To us, that is all part of the fun, trying to understand and converse!!

Costa adds a 6 euros per person per day to your onboard account to cover tipping. You can modify this amount by going to the customer service desk.

Drinks we though were quite expensive. 7.50 for a gin and tonic, 4.75 for the beer my hubby liked to drink (Franziskanner) In addition to these prices were the 15% service charge. On the second day, we purchased 2 litres of gin for 23.99. We thought they may not let us take it away but they did. So now we could drink in our cabin. But we needed mixers!! We had a minbar which had cans but they were 2.50 (plus service charge) per can. Fortunately the next day we were at Katakolon, found a little shop where we purchased one dozen cans for 60 cents per can!! So now we had all we needed for pre dinner drinks in the cabin.

You can buy a wine package which is 5 bottles red, 1 sparkling white and 7 bottles water. The cost for this is about 105 euros. We did not bother with this There was plenty of iced water at the tables. If you wanted to buy a bottle of wine the cheapest was about 23 euros. Hubby purchased a carafe of house wine (1/2 litre) for 9 euros. Again these prices have service charge added. All the above prices quoted are euros.

We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and would recommend Costa and we would definitely sail Costa again. Other pax are alot younger than previous cruises we have been on, also Costa attracts alot of families as I think they do alot of free child places. There were quite a few children onboard last week, the majority pre school age, although there were a few who I presume should have been at school. Personally I would not cruise Costa during the school Hols. However on saying that, I don't have kids so never take hols during school holidays.

Hope all this helps and any other questions please feel free to ask

Thanks sugarbabes
I know what you mean about differant countrys having their own language on their ships its just that when i have been in spanish hotels for instance and they have entertainment on, they do about 3-4 differant languages and its not my cup of tea!! I love mixing with differant cultures and am a very chatty and easy to get along with anyone person but shows in foreighn languages are not my thing! But thanks for advice your review was very good.

Following our very enjoyable trip on Costa Fortuna in March, we are now thinking of booking Costa Classica for next Feb, to celebrate our 5th Wedding Anniversary

What is appealing to us on this cruise, is the itinerary which is called Jewels of the Emirates. The cruise starts and ends in Dubai and ports of call include Muscat (Oman), Fujayrah (UAE), Abu Dhabi, and Bahrain. This would be mega exciting for me as I have never been further than Europe.

I realise the ship will not be as glitzy and modern as Fortuna and is probably half the size.

Would welcome any comments on ship and itinerary.

Thanks

Hi. Sailing on Costa Magica in September from Dover to the Med. Although not our first cruise, others have been with Thomson, this is our first with Costa. Any tips, suggestions, does or dont's would be appreciated

Alan

You will have a wonderful time on Magica, which is sister ship to Fortuna. Be prepared for the WOW factor when you first arrive!!!

Do's and Don'ts, well just keep remembering it is an Italian cruise line and the majority of pax will be Italian, which means you may have to bite your tongue as they can come across as quite rude, in that they don't queue, wait for you to get out of the lift before they get in etc!!

Apart from that minor little thing, everything else will be fab. I did post a review of the Fortuna which you can read in the cruise reviews up above.

We found it like chalk and cheese compared to Thomsons!!! Any other questions feel free to ask.

PS Just realised that if you are sailing from Dover the majority of pax maybe British!!

Thanks Sugerbabe.

The cruise we are on is the transit from the Baltic cruises to the Med cruises. It starts in Copenhagen and sails to the Costa home port, in SAANNTTAANNAA (or something like that) so a bit of a $64,000 dollar question as to passengers. Have seen the ships in the Med and they look fab, and every indication is they will be fab. As to Latino passengers, well if you can hold your own in Benidorm out of season when the Spanish O.A.P's are there in force, we will probably be ok on the Magica. Read your review and very helpful. Let us know if you think of anything else. Once again, thanks

Is it Savona you mean?? That is the home port for Costa.
Its a very nice new building they have where you will wait to embark. Also from what we saw of Savona when we passed through on the coach it looks a lovely place and we would have loved time there to wander round.

You will probably find that it will pick up a few pax in Savona and maybe other ports as well as Costa seems to do this.

Well off to Switzerland for us tomorrow for the Glacier Express Rail tour. uite a bit different from cruising!!

Yes it is Savona. We dock there having called at Le Havre, Vigo, Lisbon, Cadiz and Malaga and then it is off to Lake Garda for a few days. All sounds very tasty. Just back from Norway and if your Glacier Express is half as good as the Flam Railway you are in for a super time. Regards

Have just booked a bargian deal through Thomson onboard the Costa Concordia ~ Cruise only 2 Adults and 2 Children for £1160 11nights departing civitavecchia on 6th Jan 07 (flights were £225 through jet2 from man to fiumcino rome).

AS this is a new ship could the first people to sail on her write a really detailled report please????

I realise drink prices are really rather dear 4.25e +15% for heineken and 7e +15% for spirits ~ but then egypt for the same timescale AI 5* would have cost us £3500 so I don't mind

~ people mention drink packages - is the wine one (6 wine 7 water) the only one available?

Do they have any deals for kids?

let me know cheers
shelley

MS Odysseus 7/04/90
MS Carousel 21/06/03
Ocean Village 17/05/05
Thomson Emerald 19/05/06

waiting for Costa Concordia 06/01/07 (191 days)

Shelledpea. I am sure you will have a fab time onboard Costa Concordia. She looks to be a fantastic ship.

The drinks packages are as you say, although I do believe there is a soft drinks package as well for children. If you get your Costa booking number you can register on their website, put in your booking number and it will show you your booking details plus all the extras you can buy.

We have just booked Costa Classica for February next year, Jewels of the Emirates cruise and got that for a couple of hundred pounds more than it would have cost us to go to a 4* hotel in Madeira, which we were also pricing. That is with our flights from Aberdeen to London then to Dubai and 7 nights cruising.

Hi All,

Interesting to read the reviews on the Costa and the comparison most make between them and the more Brit aimed lines like Thomson. Does seem a bit strong to compare the dining arrangements on a Thomson ship with the completely different requirements of a line designed to meet the needs of Italians! OK we Brits happen to like similar types of food on offer in both the restaurents and buffet eating areas. Obviously the Italians don't, so they have the buffet area serving different food. Seems sensible to me, or am I going over the top. Would be interested to hear other peoples thoughts. In the meantime, happy cruising, whatever the ship.