BVILady

On 1/26/2020 at 11:53 AM, DerryPete said:

Well, it is too late for me NOT to go, as I have paid for an up & coming cruise on the Luminosa. I have a total of 17 cruises, which include Several Carnival ships, plus several RCCL ships, one Celebrity and one HAL ship, so I assumed the Costa would have decent reviews... Oh well; I will post a fair review when I return..

 

I am from Germany but live in the Caribbean for over 40 years, so very American influenced. I have been on lot's of different cruise ships, some smaller one's in Europe I don't even remember the company names any longer, several Holland American, P & O, Costa and Princess. Price wise Princess is probably more expensive. I did like the coin laundries on Princess and P & O, but my favorite is Costa. I remember the first cruise we were on on Costa in 2010 we had one cabin for 3 persons and it was really spacious. Now we travel in single cabins because of the privacy. I was surprised reading people complaining about only Italian being spoken, never noticed that. English is spoken all throughout and we always had English Speaking dinner companions. Will be on the world cruise in January 2022 and will see whether the entertainment there will be mainly Italian. We always had to buy bottled water for the cabin even on European River cruises. I have been managing a hotel here for 35 years and what I noticed, people who love the place don't usually leave any comments only the one's who had expected more or didn't get anything for free they thought they were entitled to will leave reviews to get even. For example we are on a Surfing Beach but we are not an all-inclusive resort and don't charge Resort-fee's so having to pay to rent surf boards was a reason for a bad review. So look forward to your cruise and enjoy it. I am sure you will have a great time.

we did receive our refund for our cruise July 23rd, it took a while but came. It is a hard wait but just hang in there.

We were booked July 2019 on a Costa Cruise and had booked a flight with Alitalia to our next destination. We booked 2 seats on Sep. 2019 for a flight on July 30th, 2020. On June 18th Alitalia cancelled the flight. They refuse to issue any refund. I will not be anywhere in the near future where Alitalia is flying, so vouchers are useless to us. I had booked Alitalia because i had assumed that they are the most reputable airline flying this route. So if you need to book a flight, think twice about using Alitalia, I can not recommend it. Not having provided the service I paid for and keeping our money is theft.

On 11/10/2020 at 7:16 AM, livingonthebeach said:

 

Credit should also be given to Germany's BioNTech.  The vaccine is a joint, collaborative venture between Pfizer and BioNTech. 

and I think BioNTech joined with Pfizer since they are to small to be able to produce and distribute the vaccine. BioNTech is a couple so a Mom and Pop operation.

On 11/9/2020 at 10:38 AM, boscobeans said:

Pfizer has researched and has developed a complete nationwide infrastructure for the extreme low temperatures required, from manufacture to the actual shot in the arm... 

 

They have all transport, storage and local delivery problems solved. Amazing that this was all being done over the last months.

where did you get the transportation information from, do you have a link. The last update we had gotten was that it will be to hot in my area so we will not be able to get it which has been very disappointing 😞 . Would hate to not be able to receive the most effective vaccine.

Thank you. let's hope so. Have heard some positive news about successful treatments in Ocala, Florida, hoping that will soon be available. Crazy times we live in. Missing traveling so much 🙂

Looks like they have been in the US already saw some trip reports from Fort Lauderdale and Miami. So check back after the US opens for cruising.

Test not longer then 72 hours before arrival at the port will be a serious problem for me. I usually arrive at the city of the port of embarkation 3 days prior to ensure that I and my luggage will reach there on time and it takes me usually 2 days to travel to Europe. Hope there will be testing available in the city of embarkation with results available in 24 hours. Anybody know whether that can be done in Italy?

I am glad they don't. Especially now with this Covid 19 mess in the US. And you will not need any visa or Esta.

18 minutes ago, dritan said:

Great to hear regarding the world cruise.  I'm some years away from doing a world cruise but would definitely consider MSC and Costa - it's a great cost and they often have more interesting itineraries.  One area that would put me off is that I get a little tired of the entertainment shows being heavily dependant on circus type performers - I'd miss some comedy.  But don't think it would be a deal breaker. 

I read a great kindle self published book via Amazon of an American who did a Costa world cruise - gave great insight.

I decided on Costa because of the itinerary and price (single traveler). Usually entertainment is changed during a longer cruise, like flown out and flown in. I am an early riser and usually book late dinner so entertainment is not so important to me, heading for my cabin to read after dinner anyhow. I have also been impressed by the article here on cruise critic concerning the response of Costa during the World cruise this year and the Corona Virus. Just keeping my fingers crossed that the cruise is going to happen. Hopefully 250 English speakers and I also speak German will do it for me. To old to learn Italian - lol, seems my brain doesn't want to retain a new language.Will look for the book on amazon. Thank you all for the response.

I have seen several posts now talking about majority of Italians on the ship. I have been on Costa in Asia (2010) and Northern Europe (2016) and never experienced that.There have always been a lot of English Speaking Passengers. Has that changed. Do I need to be concerned? Most of the staff is Philippine or Malaysian anyhow speaking perfect English.

I live in the Caribbean and as it looks right now it will be only by the end of 2020 that Tourists will be allowed in most of the islands and not sure whether that will include Cruise ships. I have booked a World Cruise for January 2022 and am already worried whether that will happen with what is going on in the US with spread of the virus.  I have booked Costa and they are not stopping in any US-port, so maybe we have a chance. As far as the Caribbean Islands are concerned, right now we will only be able to do excursions in our own islands, other islands might not be open yet or require 2 weeks quarantine.

Anybody else booked already, looking for other passengers to share cruise-excursions with.

Anybody booked on this cruise, looking for other passengers to share shore-excursions with.

Who else is booked on this cruise?