asalnars

Hi.

I had a balcony cabin on deck 6. Costa Magica is the exact same class of ship as the Valor Class of Carnival. If you changed the funnel of the ship to the whale of Carnival you would not know that your not on a Carnival cruise.

Cabin was typical of Carnival ships and other lines.

Hello.

After reading so many bad reviews about Costa I was very wary about taking a cruise with them. I purchased a Baltic cruise on Costa Magica that left Stockholm on the 16th of June.

I am an experienced cruiser and this was my 14th cruise.

Happy to report that myself and four companions had a super time and no longer will be wary about booking Costa.

We chose this cruise for 3 reasons, ports of call, price and a decent price for our companion who was traveling alone.

I would rate the whole experience as very good but not excellent.

The only thing missing with Costa is free style dining which all the other lines now have.

So don't be afraid to try Costa.

Regards.

Seems you need to print a copy of the tour ticket for each person in the group and not just one copy for the whole group.

Many thanks for the replies and idea. I will try to arrange something like you suggest.

Much safer than a free trip to a Gulag in Siberia for breaking immigration laws!!!:):):):)

Hi.

We are traveling in a group of five on a cruise with Costa Magica. Three of the group have passports that do not require visa and two who do.

We have booked a two day formal tour so as to have no problems with visas. One of the evenings we would love to go out on the town by ourselves to try out the local cuisine but our problem is what to do with the two of us that require visas???.

Does anybody with past experience know if there is the possibility of leaving the tour before entering the port upon return from the tour to spend a few hours on the town before returning to the port via taxi???.

Our tour tickets do not specify times and so the people at passport control upon return would not know that we had overstayed our time.

Anybody have ideas regarding this plan???.

Thanks.

Do not worry about visas on Carribean cruises. We have been on many Carribean cruises to destinations where supposedly my wife needs a visa. We get off the ship just with our ship cards and leave passports behind.

On our very first cruise many years ago the first port was Nassau where my wife needed a visa. She was going to stop on the ship but we decided to give it a try and no problem whatsoever. We have since been back several times to Nassau. My wife also needs a visa for Mexico but also no problem as they never ask to see your passport.

The only port in our many cruises where we needed to show our passports was in Key West. Forget about visas and enjoy your cruise.

Santo Tomas de Castillo and the nearby town of Puerto Barrios are a real dump and not worth seeing. Also not recommended for safety reasons to go walking around by yourself. I live in Guatemala and so qualified to give an opinion.

There are some really beautiful places close by that are well worth visiting but better if on an organized tour. The best place to visit is Rio Dulce and Lake Izabal. You will not regret a visit to this place. A boat trip down Rio Dulce is highly recommended.

In July 2015 we booked an AI to this place and our visit on the Oasis OTS was the high point of our cruise. Beach great, service great and food super. The place is a little old but still very enjoyable. Excelent value for the cost.

Will be visiting Cozumel again next month in September on the NCL Getaway but will not go to Nochi because we want something different and we hope what we choose will be as good as Nochi.

I have been to Grand Turk three times and its a beautiful little island. I suggest that before going to the great beach which is right beside the pier that you make a quick tour of the island. For $15 to $20 pp you can do a quick tour of the island in a taxi.

The island is a sleepy little place with wild donkeys walking down the street and very different from most of the other islands that cruise ships visit. In about an hour and a half you can make a quick tour of the island.

I was on the Transatlantic cruise in November and thought the ship was great

and the cruise very enjoyable. I did see a couple of buckets for collecting drips but that in no way ruined my experience. I would not hesitate in sailing on the Sunshine once again.

Last November I was on the Sunshine TA and seven of the days were 25 hour days. Real nice to go to bed an put the clock back an hour so many times. I guess that an East bound TA is not so much fun with many 23 hour days.

I also did the Transatlantic cruise on the Sunshine and the ship was extremely stable even passing through rough seas through the Straits of Gibralter and a storm in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Sunshine is a great little ship. In November I was on the Transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to New Orleans and enjoyed every minute. The ship still has a few small problems but nothing worth worrying about. I would have no hesitation in sailing again on the Sunshine. Dont believe all the bad things that have been written about her.

My biggest gripe about the ship was the lack of a refrigerater and no bedside tables in my room which was 6283.