First Time Cruise - Costa Fortuna
Jul 27th, 2010, 09:15 AM
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First Time Cruise - Costa Fortuna
I am taking a Costa Fortuna cruise of the Eastern Med in early Nov. This will be my first ever cruise - I'm from the US. I have not read much on the boards about Costa or the Fortuna specifically. Anyone have any info for me? It looks beautiful on the website. We have an outside cabin but I don't yet know which one or deck. It is with a Collette tour that begins in the Italian Lakes. I understand a Collette rep will be on board & it has been suggested to wait till on board to book excursions with the rep.
I also understand that it is the off season in the Greek Islands so not many shops will be open. Guess this is why the cruise was such a good deal! I was also told that when the shop owners see a cruise ship pull into port that they usually open the stores for that time.
Any tips for me would be appreciated.
Thanks!
I also understand that it is the off season in the Greek Islands so not many shops will be open. Guess this is why the cruise was such a good deal! I was also told that when the shop owners see a cruise ship pull into port that they usually open the stores for that time.
Any tips for me would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Jul 27th, 2010, 10:31 AM
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Never been on Copsta. Try www.cruisecritic.com for extensive passenger reviews.
Jul 29th, 2010, 03:55 AM
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Costa is a lovely cruise lines however jsut be warned that there will be lot of Italians onboard, so expect mostly Italian food, announcements in at least 5 different languages. Have a read of all the cruise reviews at http://www.Cruise.co.uk.
Aug 1st, 2010, 12:39 PM
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My husband and I took a 12 day cruise on the Magica April 2010. It also was an Eastern Med. cruise with stops in Greece (3 ports), Egypt, Ephesus, Cyprus and starting and stopping in Italy. Just keep in mind the ships of Costa are Italian and most places are not smoke free. We didn't have a problem in our room that had a balcony but our daughter and husband across the hall had the smell of smoke in their cabin all the time. The food was good aboard the ship but the best food we had was at the hotels we stopped at for lunch on our excursions.
I wouldn't wait until you're onboard to book trips because some of the ones that were popular were sold out for those who waited. We had our travel agent book ours ahead of time and got what we wanted. If you can my suggestion is on the day of the excursions to get at the front of the crowd so you can be on the bus first or close to it. That way you can sit up front and not only have a better view, but better access to the tour guides who we found were all good at answering questions.
Our bed was extremely firm and so I suffered and stayed pretty tired all the time, but no one else seemed to be bothered by it. I suggest if you have back or leg problems you take plenty of Tylenol or ibuprofen with you.
We enjoyed the breakfast buffet instead of a sit down meal and were never not satisfied. We bought the coffee coupons and so were able to enjoy some good expressos and cappuccinos. Otherwise the coffee was terrible. We also bought wine coupons and they're a variety of options but in the long run we think it was a savings.
We took in some of the late evening entertainment on board and it was good, but just so late for us. I suggest booking the earlier dinner and then take in the show if you want to since the late seating people always had to wait until we all left the dinning room, but the advantage I guess for them is they got to watch the shows first if they wanted to.
I hope you have a wonderful time. We still look at our pictures and remember how beautiful it was.
I wouldn't wait until you're onboard to book trips because some of the ones that were popular were sold out for those who waited. We had our travel agent book ours ahead of time and got what we wanted. If you can my suggestion is on the day of the excursions to get at the front of the crowd so you can be on the bus first or close to it. That way you can sit up front and not only have a better view, but better access to the tour guides who we found were all good at answering questions.
Our bed was extremely firm and so I suffered and stayed pretty tired all the time, but no one else seemed to be bothered by it. I suggest if you have back or leg problems you take plenty of Tylenol or ibuprofen with you.
We enjoyed the breakfast buffet instead of a sit down meal and were never not satisfied. We bought the coffee coupons and so were able to enjoy some good expressos and cappuccinos. Otherwise the coffee was terrible. We also bought wine coupons and they're a variety of options but in the long run we think it was a savings.
We took in some of the late evening entertainment on board and it was good, but just so late for us. I suggest booking the earlier dinner and then take in the show if you want to since the late seating people always had to wait until we all left the dinning room, but the advantage I guess for them is they got to watch the shows first if they wanted to.
I hope you have a wonderful time. We still look at our pictures and remember how beautiful it was.
Aug 3rd, 2010, 04:21 PM
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We had 3 separate formal dinners aboard our 12 day cruise. You should get a "plan of the day" paper on your bed upon arriving back to your cabin each afternoon and there will be one upon arrival the first day as well. It will list the preferred dress for the dinners. I really loved that part of the cruise, when we got to dress up. Not everyone chose to dress up and that's ok as well. It takes all kinds to make the world go round…….just have another glass of wine and enjoy!
Aug 15th, 2010, 03:45 AM
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We sailed on the Costa Fortuna 18 months ago, from Venice to the Greek Islands. The ship is large, about 3500 passengers and that is refelected at meal times, especially breakfast and lunch when you can struggle to find a table. The food is OK and European, not particularly Italian. I wouldn't call anything about it "lovely".
The shows are mostly not in English, so that suffers as far as entertainment goes. We had a balcony cabin which was more than acceptable and the cabin staff tried to please in every department.
Costa's excursions are not great and very expensive. If you have a problem they will fob you off until the end of the cruise and you will never get any satisfactory resolution to the matter. We went on an excursion with 50ish people, 10 finsished the tour it was so bad. Most people complained and Costa did a great fobbing off job. No refund, even a partial one, no offer of any kind from their shore based "Customer Service Dept".
Their attitude was just "Go away, we aren't bothered what happened".
The shows are mostly not in English, so that suffers as far as entertainment goes. We had a balcony cabin which was more than acceptable and the cabin staff tried to please in every department.
Costa's excursions are not great and very expensive. If you have a problem they will fob you off until the end of the cruise and you will never get any satisfactory resolution to the matter. We went on an excursion with 50ish people, 10 finsished the tour it was so bad. Most people complained and Costa did a great fobbing off job. No refund, even a partial one, no offer of any kind from their shore based "Customer Service Dept".
Their attitude was just "Go away, we aren't bothered what happened".
