kremerlorraine

Don't stress about it, Skipper! I'm sure your hotel will point you in the right direction. There seems to be a chain of pharmacies in Santos called Droga Raia that do the tests. You only need a rapid antigen so you'll have the results within an hour or so. I'm sorry but I don't remember seeing a testing facility in Santos cruise terminal (although there was certainly a big one in Rio).

No, just the wines that are available by the glass costing up to 7 or 8 euros. There are some good ones in there. You can sign up to the Club on arrival by going to the Customer Relations Manager.

The wine available on the MyDrinks package is very limited and not great quality. Having said that, I'm not too fussy and am happy to drink it! If you are thinking of buying from the wine list, make sure to sign up for Costa Club before the cruise or on the first day on board. It gets you some decent discounts on a selection of bottles.

You don't need a test for a European cruise. Water, tea, coffee and juice are available in the buffet at breakfast (typically 7-10 am, but sometimes extended to 11). Water and tea/coffee are available at lunchtime (12-2.30 or later on some port days); at snack time (4.30 - 5.30 pm); and at dinner (varies according to destination but usually 7.30 - 9 pm). There may also be a late night snack service. Cabin service breakfast isn't free - 5 euros per person and continental breakfast only. There is no free lobster. You'll need to decide whether you can justify the £500 for MyDrinks. Personally I would go for it, because I like to have "real" coffee, a few cocktails, soft drinks and water and wine with dinner!

club_en.pdf This is the current wine list from the Fortuna, which we are on now (transatlantic Buenos Aires to Tarragona). Hope this has uploaded OK. We were on Favolosa for a week in February. There is plenty of live music from 6pm onwards (in the atrium, grand bar, wine bar and the bar at the back of the ship).

I hope not. Deliziosa is the only Panamax ship left so Costa would be unable to offer a "classic" RTW cruise going through the Panama Canal. We are on the Favolosa now. Yesterday evening as we were leaving Montevideo we were surprised to see (and hear!) the Fortuna sailing past as she should have been on her way north. Our restaurant supervisor said that she had a technical problem and was returning to Montevideo to get it fixed. I checked Vesselfinder this morning and, sure enough, she has been docked in Montevideo since last night. Must keep an eye on that...

In my recent experience, it's just a 5% discount on the cabin price (not on any drinks package). Its combinable with any Costa Club discounts you may have.

We had the same experience in GC in early January on a Costa ship, so it's not a(nother) Celebrity cutback...

Us, too, from 18 March to 14 April. There are no cruises on her for sale after 14 April, so it may be her last-ever sailing for Costa. Could be an interesting wind-down experience!

Don't stress too much. We were unable to print out our boarding documentation and tickets for a cruise in October, so we just turned up at the cruise terminal with our confirmation document and they did it for us. They also hand-wrote the luggage tags on the spot.

I resent it marked "Urgent" and got a response the next day asking for an updated share certificate. Sent that back and got the OBC confirmation the same day. Sometimes just a little nudge does the trick...!

I've noticed that the Serena is back - you can book sailings in the Caribbean (from Pointe a Pitre) from December 2023, with a transatlantic back to Europe in March 2024.

It used to take about a week, but we've been waiting two and a half weeks for a response on a cruise departing on 2 December. From a French Costa fans Facebook site that I follow, I get the impression that quite a lot of people have rushed to buy shares as they are so cheap now, so maybe they are having to deal with a lot more requests than usual. Anyway, this has reminded me to chase them up!

What can I say?! We like them and as long as we have Platinum/Gold status they will be our first choice. But the lack of variation in the itineraries is becoming a problem.

It sometimes appears as an option to book in advance on MyCosta, but not for all cruises. On our recent cruise on the Fascinosa unlimited Internet access for 13 days cost 190 euros. Social packages (eg including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram etc) were something like 90 euros. For a week the price for full unlimited access is 100 euros and for social media it's 50 euros. Per minute is 30 cents. There were no discounts on board on any of our last five cruises this year.

A nice surprise on the Fascinosa yesterday - the Library was reopened! I don't know if it will be the same on the other ships (or indeed whether the newer ones even have a library) but we have always made full use of them, for borrowing books and for sitting somewhere quiet.

Your instinct was right - we've been told today that there is no availability on the 2023 WC. But they have offered two sectors on the 2024 WC, which we are interested in doing - probably Santiago de Chile - Sydney - Singapore.

Still waiting for more information from our personal consultant (in the French market). We are on the Pacifica in the Caribbean until 15 January, so wouldn't be able to join from the beginning anyway. I'm not hopeful that they will find us a balcony cabin. They have sold segments of the world cruise in the past, but usually last minute. I'll check out HAL. The only other Amazon cruises I've found are with Regent Seven Seas and Seabourn - not what I'd call affordable!

We've just had the cancellation e-mail for our 50-day Luminosa cruise from Buenos Aires next February. They are offering two "segments" of the world cruise on Deliziosa instead, but the consultant I contacted today doesn't have any information as to what those segments are. Really disappointed to lose the opportunity to cruise the Amazon (at least at a reasonable price!)