kremerlorraine

We've done many Costa cruises from Germany. There will be a good mix of passengers from around Europe with no nationality dominating. Early dinner will be at 6 or 6.30 and is not as popular as late dinner, so you won't have a problem getting a table. Get a cabin on deck 7 and you shouldn't have a problem with noise.

They have changed Archipelago restaurant into the "Elite" restaurant where you can eat by paying extra - 30 euros for one dinner, 75 euros for five dinners or 100 euros for five days worth of breakfast, lunch and dinner. It seems to be popular. The Club restaurant is only for suite guests. Something that I haven't seen on Costa since a transatlantic to the US in 2017 - free pizza at lunchtime and decent ice cream offered as dessert at dinner. Demographics - obviously mostly retired folk (some long-retired!) with a smattering of younger couples and a few families. I think there are 20-25 children on board, but we haven't seen much of them. A few have been observed doing school work with their parents though. The entertainment has been pretty good. The production show team is Afroarimba, with South African singers and quite a few UK dancers. There is a Dutch lady singer who was also good. The lounge singers are good quality old-timers who know how to entertain their punters. And joy of joys, a classical music trio who do three or four sets per day in the Piano Bar which is a quiet, cool place to enjoy a drink and their music. Not a DJ/sax combo in sight, thank goodness - they have been ubiquitous on every Costa cruise we've taken over the past two years. We took the full Internet package for 488 euros for 62 days. It works well for our purposes- we don't download movies or music. The TV has also worked well even in mid-Pacific with its usual limited channels. We can at least follow the news with BBC World. I don't understand why Costa can't offer a video on demand service such as the good one we had on the Coral Princess last year. To sum up, this feels like an old-fashioned cruise (in a good way). We're not veteran cruisers (we started only in 2015) and certainly don't remember the gilded years, but this feels like the lovely transatlantics that we did between 2015 and 2019. Tahiti tomorrow, which unfortunately will entail a visit to a dentist to fix my husband's broken tooth. Not quite what we had planned!

@Wansbrough I can't produce a detailed daily report like yourself and At7Seas, but here are my impressions on day 11 of our part-world cruise (Valparaiso to Singapore). Fellow passengers - a civilised bunch, obviously many repeat cruisers. There was a little unseemliness on our second day in Easter Island, but that was born of desperation to get off after Costa mismanaged the tendering process the previous day. For once, Italians are not in the majority. That is French (700), followed by German speaking (500), Italian (400), Spanish speaking (200) and the rest a mix of Scandis, Eastern Europeans, Dutch and a few North Americans. I believe there are three UK passengers, including me. Many people dress up for dinner, even on casual nights (there have been eight of those, one colourful, one gala and tonight "pirate"). The food is excellent, with many dishes new to us. We eat in the buffet at lunchtime and have enjoyed the food there every day. Pranzo and Cena is included for everyone, but one can upgrade to MyDrinks for 18 euros pppd. More to follow. Got to go to dinner now!

We're joining the Costa Deliziosa in Valparaiso today and planning to take a taxi there. I'll let you know how it is.

How ridiculous. I've seen nothing offensive and have been very much enjoying his reports. Hope this cam be resolved. In any case I look forward to meeting you both in person on 8 February in Valparaiso. In other news, my friend has received an e-mail saying that the Toscana from Dubai to Savona in March has been cancelled.

A friend of ours is booked on the Toscana, too. He is also waiting and seeing!

MSC announced yesterday that it has cancelled three of its cruises that were due to return to Europe in April via the Red Sea and Suez Canal. The ships will take the South Africa route instead (with no passengers).

Thank you! I don't think we have encountered either of them before.

@At7Seas - loving the photographs and detailed descriptions so far. I was a bit disappointed that there was no video of you dancing "sur le pont" in Avignon though! Could you let us know the names of the Hotel Director and Cruise Director, please?

Our English host on the Pacifica at the moment told us that Costa have just managed to produce an app that will work with American phones. We await confirmation!

Look forward to following your progress and also to joining you in Valparaiso on 8 February (staying on until Singapore). We are currently on the Costa Pacifica in the Caribbean and having a great time.

Costa sells flight/cruise packages from Europe to La Romana in Dominican Republic and to Guadeloupe and Martinique. They even have their own charter flights to La Romana. So they import a lot of Europeans! We've sailed the Caribbean a few times from both DomRep and Guadeloupe: there are quite a few locals in both markets, as well as South and Central Americans in DomRep particularly. There are also always some North Americans on board. I agree with all the comments about Italian food and ambiance. We personally love the food. You won't find free pizza or ice cream and the buffet opening hours are shorter than on most US lines. Things like trivia quizzes tend to take a long time because they are done in so many languages, but it is a good learning opportunity! Language is no problem on board. All the bar and waiting staff, as well as the cabin stewards and hospitality desk people, speak good English.

It comes and goes all day. Not sure what time the first one leaves (we arrive at 5am) but I know the last one back leaves the mall at 11pm. Guest services have advised that it could take 50 or 60 minutes because of the bad traffic in Lima. I'll let you know how we get on!

Yes, the destination expert announced it yesterday as part of his talk on Lima.

I should have added - watching the tuna boats unloading their huge, frozen catch on the pier opposite us was fascinating. There were also a few humpback whales giving us a good show just offshore and some turtles swimming around the ship.