mustafabalcony

Looking through doorways, a few of the cabins seem to have worn-out mattresses.

The cabin we had in November was fine. It was cabin 7366.

The one we've just been in was 6463. I don't recommend it, but the balcony was fab.

I forgot to answer your minibar question.Ours contained a can of  Heineken beer and a can of 7Up.

We disembarked from Costa Fortuna yesterday. We also did a trip on Fortuna in November and a few more several years ago when the ship was newer. In November we had a comfortable balcony cabin in the middle of deck 7. This trip we had a terrible balcony cabin on the rear of deck 6.

As soon as we entered the most recent cabin, we immediately noticed the bed sloped, so the mattress was higher at the bottom end than the top. Each of the 2 mattresses also dipped in the middle as they are worn out. At first this didn't cause us any problems but, after a few days, we both had aching bodies, especially our spines, so we started taking pain killers.

Now we're home and, after only one night sleeping in our own bed, our backs are much better and we feel alive again.

The room service breakfast is a bargain at just 5 euros a person.

Our cabin was very clean and our steward was very good.

Here's a pic of the bed. If you look at how it lines up with the base of the window, you'll see what I mean about how the worn mattress slopes so badly.

1. There's plenty of taxis in the cruise port. I didn't see any outside of it. There's also public buses that go to Le Gosier beach for 1,80€
2.  

At Savona you dock next to the old city

At Marseille there's an uphill walk of maybe 700 metres or a bit more to a free local bus

At Barcelona there's a port bus for a couple of euros each way

I haven't been to Ibiza on a cruise

At Palermo you can walk along the coastal road (with a pavement) to the centre. I think the walk is maybe a kilometre.

We only use cruise company's buses when a port offers no other option.

Costa's onboard currency for cruises from Spain is the euro. It's also the euro on their transatlantic cruises from Europe.

We are flying into Milan, then getting a Flix bus to Genoa and a train to Savona.

We've booked 2 nights in Savona before our cruise.

As we've visited Savona a few times, I now wish we'd booked a couple of nights in Milan instead and then caught a Milan to Savona train.... Maybe next time 🙂 

We returned from a MSC Grandiosa Mediterranean cruise today (during covid times)

On the ship there was plenty of attention given to mask wearing, with masks being handed out to anyone not wearing one.

We could only go ashore on MSC excursions.

The Barcelona excursion was excellent.

The Rome excursion was good, but there was no attempt made to ask everyone to wear masks on the bus, which was frightening. We were surrounded, on a long journey, by people not wearing masks.

We went to the excursion desk and handed in a letter addressed to the excursion manager, but received no response whatsoever. It feels like the company aren't bothered about the risk of people becoming infected and / or the risk of, if anyone does get infected on their tours, the virus spreading through their employees and customers.

We booked a guarantee exterior and were upgraded to a cabin with balcony, wine in the cabin and use of the Samsara spa. We were truly shocked. For our next Costa cruise we've booked a guarantee balcony and have been allocated a premium cabin. The downside for us is it shows as an adjoining cabin on the ship plan.

Thanks for your info. I've copied it as it has some useful info for us. We are doing the same cruise, starting 4 Feb.

Can I ask you if the dock at Halong is close to where the Hon Gai trip boats leave from ? We haven't booked anything there, as we're waiting to see what the weather looks like when we arrive.

Once again... thanks so much for your review :-)

We're going on Millennium from Hong Kong in February, so have looked at the cruise terminal website. It shows a ferry from the cruise terminal to North Point on Hong Kong Island. From there you could get a tram or bus to the start of your walking tour.

Oh wow... thanks very much. Our bags are packed. It's nearly 10pm here and we leave home tomorrow morning at 9am. Miami here we come :-)

You're welcome . We hope that a great cruise ! And if we can answer any questions ask away .

You are today's lucky winner , the prize , a copy of the Celebrity Today Bonaire edition, will be awarded later . :) :D

Thanks for your review. I'm really enjoying reading it as we're doing the same cruise, boarding this Sunday. I've especially liked seeing the Celebrity Today leaflets and am hoping we have a similar programme. 😁

Thanks for your quick reply :):)

We should move to elite after our upcoming cruise.

The cocktail hour certainly sounds like a good offer for when we're onboard, rather than out visiting ports.

Does the 'elite level cocktail hour' give each member a free cocktail each day ?

If the travel agent is getting a percentage commission on a booking, it won't be in their interests to help their clients to re_book at a lower price. It could even be that the agent takes their commission as soon as a client pays a deposit.

Thanks for all your time posting this fantastic travelogue.

:We're doing the same cruise in March, so have really appreciated reading about your trip.

:):):):):)

We're in Spain and booked our cruise online with Celebrity, then decided to change to a different Celebrity cruise.

We phoned the international office and had no problem changing cruises and there was no charge for changing.

In the past, we booked a Royal Caribbean cruise online, cancelled it and got our complete deposit back.

The cancellation terms are on our booking info and give a full refund of the deposit up to a certain number of days in advance of the cruise. What they don't refund (which is reasonable) is the travel insurance if we bought it with the cruise.

Hi is there a local bus from somewhere near the port to vigies beach ?

Our cruise starts from Miami and Bonaire is the first port it visits.

Please can anyone tell us if there are shops at or near Miami port and / or Kralendijk cruise terminal where we'll be able to buy a beach umbrella.

Thanks for any replies 🏄 🏂 🏊

Thanks everyone :)

I've done a search and found some of your recommended stores.

If you ever travel to Spain, wine here is great value and Barcelona and Malaga cruise terminals have shops for alcohol.

Thank John. I will look out for a publix.

We fly into Miami the evening before boarding the cruise and haven't yet made a hotel reservation.

My thoughts are to buy wine that evening or maybe to embark then take the trolley into Miami to have a look around before sailing.

Do you know if we can buy wine at Miami airport ?

We reserved a guarantee exterior a week or so ago and have been allocated the lowest level of balcony cabins. So we're very happy :D

Our cruise line permits us to take 2 bottles of wine onboard and we are flying into Miami airport.

Please can anyone advise the best place to buy wine before we board at Miami cruise terminal ?

Hi Thanks for the 2 replies.

We've now logged in to our reservation (we only booked yesterday and had to wait for our reservation to show up in the online area).

We have now tried to book the choice air. But a message came up saying we can't use choice air because we have a 'direct booking'.

It seems a shame for celebrity to miss out on a bit of commission from an airline, but I guess they have their reasons.