BVILady

Thank you all so much, I will give mbayley a try. I had been told when I called that I will get a refund for the booked excursion, so it looks like it has been possible after cancelling due to Covid. I also had received the refund for the cruise itself. So hoping for the best. It is too late to claim it from the Credit Card now. Just love cruisecritic and all it's helpful members.

We had to cancel our cruise due to Covid and I called Royal Caribbean to inquire about refund of our prepaid shore excursions since we had booked and paid them directly on their website and the gentleman answering promised for us to get the refund for the prepaid shore excursions within 30-45 days, which did not happen. After calling them I had called our TA we booked the cruise with to cancel the cruise itself and she gave us an e-mail-address for a gentleman at Royal Caribbean to send the positive Covid results too and she stayed online waiting for him to receive the results. I have meanwhile received the refund for the cruise but not the excursions. I have been e-mailing the person at Royal Caribbean I had sent the covid results too and the TA inquiring about my refund. The e-mails to the TA bounce back that she is not listed on their employee list (either she is not there any longer or their e-mail account is experiencing problems)  and I get no response from Royal. Have been on the phone with an agent from Royal yesterday for 40 minutes to inquire, she took my phone-# in case we get disconnected. We did get disconnected and that has been it, no call back, no refund. That is about $ 2000 - what to do next, not willing to write it off. Why charge these services to the credit card before delivering them. I am booked on a World Cruise with Costa and only will have to pay on board when I do take the excursions.

On 7/30/2022 at 10:08 PM, CupKayke said:

Yikes.  It's just so strange that a ship charges for WATER.   That is a steep price for one bottle of water.   I've seen TV shows on cruise ships built even 10 years ago and their water quality far exceeds any water you can get on land or in a bottle... so it's so odd that Costa's water isn't drinkable? or is it?  

It must be that I am just always in too cheap a cabin category but every time I went on an excursion on HAL, Princess, P+O we had to pay for our bottled water. Only on MSC we didn't because we were on a drink-package. So to me that seems that if you have no drink-package you pay for water, having a package you have already paid for it. So not sure why everyone is making such a big deal about Costa charging for water, when the others do it also.

Just read Oceania has cancelled India from their itinerary for March 2023. I am scheduled to be in India in January 2023. Is India still closed for Cruisers?

1 hour ago, Dancer Bob said:

Given the situation forecast for energy in Europe this winter, Costa proably is worried they won't even be able to get fuel for the ships, let alone fill them with passengers.

that makes a lot of sense combined with the move of 2 ships to the US where fuel will be cheaper. Also I do understand the concern with Russians not being able to cruise.

It might be 6 month before departure that the excursions are released, maybe due to cruise lines re-organizing. I am booked for the 2023 World Cruise and there are still ports the excursions have not been posted yet. There are certain excursions available on the excursion package but it will be enough of them for you to be able to choose. I am perfectly happy with the one's which were available for me. The selection was pretty extensive and I was able to book excursions I was booking anyhow.

22 hours ago, rigs32 said:

For those surprised, the itineraries have been alternating pretty much since Oceania started doing world cruises.  Assuming they are still around when I retire, my plan is to go on an odd numbered year to hit more of South America and Africa.  I feel like I have plenty of opportunity to explore Europe on other trips rather than take an even numbered year itinerary.

That is the reason I ended up on the World Cruise with Costa 2023 since it visits ports I have not been to before especially around Africa. It also goes around South America and even I had been there before I am happy to go there again and do different excursions for example Iguaza Falls which had been on my bucket-list anyhow. I have always been booking according Itinerary not cruise line, so 2024 I ended up with Costa again due to a stop in South Korea which is on my bucket-list also.

On 8/16/2022 at 4:44 PM, Wansbrough said:

 

 

There was a cupboard which looked as if it might be a fridge/minibar but I can assure you it wasn't, either in January or last month.

 

sorry to hear that, this is definitely a step backwards instead of forwards. SMH

a minibar (even though I have heard there is none on board Costa Firenze). This cannot be correct, every cruise-line has a fridge in their cabins which they stock with drinks - so a minibar. I would re-check that information.

On 12/14/2021 at 6:41 AM, Stefan_Varong said:

Obviously I misunderstood what Cruise Critic is for. Here a single poster attacks with deliberately wrong quotes, invented statements, constantly promoting a single cruise, telling the readers that only who books his favourite line are smart, while those who calculate and even offer handy tools are obviously not. Although it has been deleted before I have to say it again: this person is free to have his own opinion, but instead he wants his own facts. Since Cruise Critics seems to be a place for such a kind of trolling I doubt whether this is a place to exchange experiences, to get and offer help, contributing seems senseless to me. Good Bye.

My son would say to that "If somebody need to continuously push an overpriced item they just want to  convince themselves  as well as others that the item is NOT overpriced but actually does deliver value for money."

28 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

My perspective hasn't changed.  I compare prices between the cruise line and the big box.  I book with whichever one is cheaper, usually, but not always big box.  On my current WC booking, it was cheaper at the time to book with the cruise with the cruise line and then transfer the booking to big box.  That mover garnered me a big box gift card worth just under 10% of the cruise fare!

 

You gotta put the pencil to it.

how did you change your direct booking to an agent?

Cupkayke:

"Next year, in March with Costa, we have an overnight flight from Miami to Argentina and we arrive in Argentina at 4:50am on embarkation day.... with a 7pm sail time."

for times between flight arrival ad boarding and after disembarkation and flights I have used Dayuse for Hotels. www.dayuse.com - there are also similar websites. Best time to book a dayuse Hotel is 7 days prior or less, when hotels do have a better insight on departure and arrival time of their regular bookings.

I am pretty sure it is drinkable, I have seen people fill up their own bottles from the water-dispenser on the buffet and doubt that water is bottled water filled into the large containers. Will be checking it out when onboard 🙂. It might be desalinated filtered water, as long as it is drinkable and tastes good I am sure I will enjoy quite a few bottles during the 4 month cruise.

Thank you, that was exactly what I was looking for, now I know what to expect.

my cruise offers the following option to book:

Bottled Mineral Water Package:

7 hours ago, Raj.K said:

Any comparison of Suites on Costa versus Yacht Club on MSC?

 

Also, MSC now include gratuities in the fare whilst Costa charges additional EUR 11 per night per passenger. How does Suite cabin and privileges compare with Yacht Club? 

Just got off MSC. The gratuities were not included in the fare, which resulted that one party of 3 was holding up one guest-service person for the entire time we were in line to check out arguing about getting the Euro 70 gratuity taken off their bill. It is listed on your confirmation that you will be charged for gratuities, so please read. It is easy to calculate all your surcharges. The staff was hard working and very friendly but have never been on a cruise so poorly organized.  I have gotten a great deal with drink and internet package, so will not complain, but better communication and organization will really go a long way to improve the product.

I hear you CupKayke. I am only cruising Costa again in January on the World Cruise. There are going to be quite a few sea days and I had surgery on my wrist and am supposed to do exercises with small weights but naturally have no intentions bringing weights with me,. enough luggage to schlepp as it is. Also had hip-surgery 2 years ago, so stretching exercises will be great for me. Due to Covid it has been a while I have last cruised and did forget when and what classes were offered. I do love to plan ahead. Otherwise, walking for exercise on the upper deck will be great.

Does anybody have a daily activity sheet for Costa Cruises. I have been just on MSC and am going on Royal Caribbean on Thursday and see that gym-opening or stretch classes are at times not suitable for me, just wondering whether Costa will be any better. Also interested in other activities offered for sea-days. Thanks in Advance.

not sure about cheaper. I had booked 3 cabins on Costa for 2020, two through an agent and one direct. When I needed to cancel because of Covid, Costa refunded our deposit within a few weeks, the Agency kept a portion as Service Charge. I am booked directly on a World Cruise now and my friend booked through an agent. I learned to call first thing in the morning calling a lady whp's extension I  have and get everything answered and solved right away. She is constantly waiting for call-backs. I got really reasonable fares, since 2024 World Cruise is the one I had booked for 2022 and I got the same rate as 2022 and 2023 I had booked right after it was released,  If you want to take a chance you might get a really good price for late bookings,

Thank you.

INCL − 600−MINERAL WATER AND COFFEE IN DINING
ROOM − 07/16/22
0.00
INCL − 446PRS22−EASY PLUS PACKAGE − 07/16/22 0.00

this is included in our package, - For some reason when I go to manage your cruise it does not show the Easy Plus as included and when I check on the Easy Plus it does not show me what is included, rather confusing. Can anybody kindly assist me with what is included in the Easy Plus Drink Package - Thanks in advance.

Similar happened to me with Costa, they changed the embarkation port to a city which had been impossible for me to reach and disembarkation also impossible for me to get back to Trieste in time to catch my non-refundable not changeable flight out of Trieste. I cancelled and got refund and actually that is how I ended up with a booking on MSC since they had a similar itinerary of our original dates. So Poster might take the refund and look for a different cruise fitting his dates out of his original port. Good luck - we actually ended up with a bargain.

Booked before April also but between my TA and  Royal Caribbean I did not get a price adjustment nor an OnBoard Credit. Needless to say losing about $ 2000 that Royal Caribbean is off my list of cruises to book. Also noticed that their price for Internet and Excursions is more then MSC or excursions on Costa (not aware of internet-rate on Costa), so all-around NO for Royal Caribbean - not that they will care 😞😀😞

Are excursions available on the ship at the same price as when booked before departure? I am not sure about a few excursions since the information provided isn't clear enough to me and the call-center only reads off the same description as is online.