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costa neoriviera


iloveglee
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Looking for some information about costa neoriviera and its dining policy. I understand from some reviews i have read that this is 'open' dining, and on the costa website it is described as flexible dining, between 6.30pm and 10pm. What exactly does this mean in practical terms. Our only experience of Costa before is fixed dining, two sittings. Our experiences of flexible dining on other cruise lines have been very variable. For example, Royal Caribbean in South America's flexible dining is that at the beginning of the cruise you go and say what time you want to dine and that time is yours for the rest of the cruise. In practical terms what happened is that people chose to dine at either 7 pm or 10pm which to me is not flexible it's fixed. Norwegian on the other hand have a system whereby you turn up at whatever time you feel like it, if they can't seat you they give you a little pager which flashes when they are ready for you. I had the impression that on these ships, basically you just turn up whenever you like, but i don't know how they manage this. If everybody turns up at more or less the same time, clearly they can't seat everybody. I believe I have read somewhere that you have to book the time you want, but it didn't say whether this was at the beginning of the cruise, for the whole time, or on a day to day basis. We are planning a 7 night sailing in September on this ship, and can't find any reviews of this itinerary - possibly it's a new one? Any insights welcome, our experience with Costa has been largely pretty good, but have not sailed on any of the Neo collection ships.

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On the neo ships, dinner in the MDR is open, anytime or your time dining. You just turn up at the time you want to eat, you tell the maitre 'D at the entrance how many of you there are and he will assign you someone to show you to your seats. The actual opening times will vary according to the ship, eason and location. There may be some conjestion during the peak times 19:30 - 20:00 which may incur a wait of a few minutes. No booking of times can be made. My experiences of neo ships is that the passengers spread their eating times fairly well wih the peak time mentioned above.

 

If we find a good table and waiters, then we always go back to the same table and time. After a couple of nights the waiters tend to hold the tale for you (good tip deserved).

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Thank for that information. That was kind of what I thought would be the arrangement. I understand from the itinerary and ethos of this group of ships that they stay much longer in the ports so that you can either spend a long day on shore, or come and go. I think this will suit us fine.

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Not been on the NeoRivera but had two different experiences on the NeoRomantica in the Med and NeoClassica in India.

 

NeoRomatica was good, never any congestion and never waited. Got a table for 2 everytime. NeoClassica was very different. Unless you got to the diningroom between 19h00 and 19h30 you ended up waiting a very long time. We don't like to eat too early or too late but ended up going as close to 19hoo as possible. It might be totally different if she sails in the Med. The passengers were different on the Indian cruise. Very few kids and actually more English speakers-lots of Dutch and quite a few British.

 

I think you will have to see on the first evening how things pan out and plan from there.

 

Good luck.

 

Alicat

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Thank you. Yes, we will see on the first night. We have had experience with another cruise line with open dining, and soon learned which was the best time to turn up. We also don't like to dine too late, and 7pm is a good time for us. We found on the fixed dining that the early dining was just a little too early, and late was too late. hopefully we can organise a time that we like, where we won't be waiting too long. either way though, we have enjoyed every costa cruise we have been on, despite some of the awful reviews we have seen. we are quite happy not to be fawned over, we like our service to be there but not in your face. we are fully capable of doing things for ourselves and don't need to be nannied. plus, we really like italians!! they certainly know how to have a good time.

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i would like to update the information on this thread, for the benefit of anyone else planning on this cruise. the people we are planning to travel with have spoken with Costa on a different query, but did mention this to them at the time. apparently they have withdrawn the open dining on all their neo class ships, the only one offering open dining now is diadema. they have the same 2 sittings now, early 7pm and late around 9pm they did not say why this had been withdrawn. so we are kind of back to square one now, having to buy a premium cabin so that we can choose our dining time, and link our booking with our friends.

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neo ships usually have the flexible dining but when the ship is fully booked or in the peak season Costa usually uses the two fixed sitting dining option in the main restaurant also onboard the neo ships.

I've sailed onboard neoRiviera in july 2014 and there was the classic 2 sitting dinner, while in october 2015 there was the flexible dining.

I have booked for the end of July 2017 a 7 night cruise onboard neoRiviera and, despite the fact that when I have booked I was told by Costa that there would have been the flexible dining, from a couple of days in my mycosta page it has appeared the option to choose between the two fixed sitting at 7pm and at 9pm

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I've sailed on the NeoRomantica last year and had the same experience G.M.T.

It was a bit cunfusing on the first night, but then our waiters told us it's better to arrive in the first 30 minutes and for the rest of

the trip we had the same waiters (which makes it also easier to give them a fair tipp)

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  • 1 month later...
ITcruiser

 

Are you back from your cruise?

 

Dying to know about the cruise. We are doing it towards the end of September.

 

Alicat

 

 

I just got off the ship and the cruise was fine, obviously you have to know that the ship is not big, but it is well manteined apart from the elevators that were slow and the bottons to call them were worn out. I only had a problem with my stateroom attendant who was not polite (he entered in our room several times without knocking).

The itinerary is great and the ports are very enjoyable thanks to the long time the ship is docked.

There are two fixed dining options in the main restaurant, the main sitting is at 19 and the late sitting is at 21:30 while the evening buffet is from 19:30 to 22. There are also two "a'la carte" options for dinner: the pizzeria and the burger restaurant

There are no more waiters serving beverages at the table in the buffet but there is a bar station at the back of the buffet where the waiters provide you everything you need and you have to take the beverage to your table by yourself.

The animation team was brilliant and the shows in the theatre were quite nice, in particular the one held the last day of the cruise, but you have to consider that the theatre has not a scenography apart from the lights.

If you have questions about other things or the ports I'll be happy to help you

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Hi ITCruiser

 

No internet at home for 3rd day now. I have my laptop tethered to my phone now.

 

We've been on the NeoClassica and NeoRomatica so know these ships are smaller. Not too bothered by that, though the places to sit , have a drink and listen to music is more limited.

 

We splurged and booked a mini suite which is actually just a balcony cabin. I thought it will still be warm and we are in lots of ports late and it would be nice to sit out on the balcony relaxing.

 

Can you let me know what you did in the ports please. I am starting to look and I tend to use Costa's lists as a guide but we rarely book with them because you usually end up with another language group or worse, cancelled at the last moment.

 

Did you use the pool at all? It looks as if only one pool. I know they are small but hopefully I could have a swim occasionally.

 

I hope we don't have an annoying cabin steward. I cannot remember which deck we are on. I think maybe cabin 1055.

 

Thanks for any info.

 

Regards

Alicat58

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Hi ITCruiser

 

No internet at home for 3rd day now. I have my laptop tethered to my phone now.

 

We've been on the NeoClassica and NeoRomatica so know these ships are smaller. Not too bothered by that, though the places to sit , have a drink and listen to music is more limited.

 

We splurged and booked a mini suite which is actually just a balcony cabin. I thought it will still be warm and we are in lots of ports late and it would be nice to sit out on the balcony relaxing.

 

Can you let me know what you did in the ports please. I am starting to look and I tend to use Costa's lists as a guide but we rarely book with them because you usually end up with another language group or worse, cancelled at the last moment.

 

Did you use the pool at all? It looks as if only one pool. I know they are small but hopefully I could have a swim occasionally.

 

I hope we don't have an annoying cabin steward. I cannot remember which deck we are on. I think maybe cabin 1055.

 

Thanks for any info.

 

Regards

Alicat58

 

 

I had the minisuite 1057 which is next to the one you have so the cabin steward will probably be the same (his name is Roni). If you'll have him, I suggest you always to put the do not disturb tag outside the cabin when you are in. Tha cabin has lot of storage space and a huge TV. It also has a nice walk in closet and a good sized balcony. It is only a little bit noisy when there are some parties at night in the pool deck because it is just under the dancefloor.

I have only done 2 excurions with Costa: one was in Porto Torres where we went to Alghero and Capo Caccia and It was very nice but we had very little time to visit Alghero. The other one was in the evening in Tarragona to see the Cirque du Soleil show Varekai that was performed in PortAventura during the days we were in Tarragona.

In every port apart from Mahon there is a shuttle bus service provided by Costa that for 11,95€ takes you to the city centre (and, in Porto Torres also to the Balai beach and costs 10€).

In Mahon we visited the lovely old town that is just at the exit of the ship, you only have to climb some stairs to get in the centre. If you like Gin there is a manufacturer in 5 minutes walk distance from the ship where you can also taste for free the different liquors they produce.

There are some car and scooter rentals just outside the port.

Don't miss the arrival and the departure from Mahon because it is a 30 minutes navigation in a kind of a fjord which is very narrow in some points.

In Ibiza we rented a car in the cruise terminal and we went to Santa Eulalia and then to the centre of Eivissa. There are also some taxis at the exit of the terminal. The old town is very nice but it is a quite difficult walk to go from the lower part to the upper part where is located the cathedral and from where there are some really good views to the city. Taxis can bring you to the cathedral so you can go down by foot which is a bit easier.

In Palma I suggest you not to take the shuttle bus with Costa because outside the cruise terminal there is the public bus stop where you can take the bus #1 to the city centre (there are also some cruisers only bus rides). The cathedral is in a 15 minutes walking time from the bus stop

Regarding Tarragona, the city centre is far from the port so you can take the Costa shuttle or the taxi that takes you to the center for 15€ each way. The city is quite nice, especially the balcon mediterraneo and the cathedral. Even if in the daily program was written to be aware of pickpocketing and criminality but we found the town quite safe and clean (non less safe than the other ports) so don't worry when you'll see the advice

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Thanks for the info. We'll keep that sign on the door to keep Roni out!

 

Costa knows how to charge for those shuttles.

 

Thanks for the tip about Ibiza. A colleague has recently done a land holiday and told me the old town is lovely. They had cocktails at a place where you see amazing sunsets and I will find out where that is before we go. We're not beach people and too old for partying:D.

 

We have never tried the Nr 1 bus into Palma. We've been there a few times and has seen what is to be seen in the old town area. Our main aim there is to have lunch at our favourite restaurant, Forn St Joan. If we left later we would have tried Koa opposite.

 

We'll definitely be up for the sail in for Mahon. Sounds great. We have sailed into Kotor in 2015 and into Stockholm last year. Both were amazing experiences.

 

We have the diamond pearl perk now and on our last cruise on the Diadema they offered a small group excursion for basically the same price as the normal one. We ended up with three French people and a bilingual(actually multilingual) guide going to Monserrat. We are hoping that they will offer something similar this time. Hopefully not to Barcelona.( I noticed you have cruised loads more than we have.)

 

Thanks again for all the info.

 

Alicat

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