misscolina

Just come off the Royal, the Allegro can be accessed from the aft elevators onto deck 6 and the restaurant is just there, the dining times are 5.45pm (early seating) and not 6pm as advertised. The Concerto has early dining at 5.30pm and anytime at 7.30pm. The Symphony is anytime from 5pm - 9pm. All the dining rooms are pretty similar. The Concerto dining room is the only one open on sea days for lunch. We were allocated the Allegro for early dining.

We booked 20 nights on Royal for October 2015 Balcony guarantee. Out TA said we may have to move cabins after first 10 nights. On Cruise personalizer it stated BZ Guarantee and we got an assigned DW obstructed on deck 8. E521 for both sailings. I don't know how booking balcony guarantee turns into a balcony with obstructed view but maybe our TA wasn't honest about what we were booking. Looking at the catagories it is an upgrade but not what we expected.

Bmorecruiser201, Thanks for your post about the Radiance. We are sailing 33 night circumnavigation of Australia in 2017 and anything about her would be wonderful. I look forward to reading your review on your return. Have a great cruise.

Thanks for sorting out the 18% - usually its 15% so this had me confused. I have read about the plumbing problems (toilets) on member reviews on cruise critic, some are really bad. The cruise ship doesn't bother me if it is a little tatty but the sewerage problem is a little concerning, especially as we will be on for 33 nights. The itinery is just what we want to do and in the time frame. We are looking at a balcony on deck 8 port-side.

Nobody ?????

Has anyone been on the Radiance lately, that would care to comment on the ships condition and possible plumbing problems. We are thinking of booking Circumnavigation of Australia and would be on her for 33 nights. I have also read that 18% is added to on-board purchases, is this correct. Any comments would be welcome.

Hi, Has anyone had any experience of this cabin, good or bad. We are thinking of booking it but would like to know if we should go for this or 7124 which is midships and 7158 is aft but with what looks like a larger balcony.

Thanks Greydog, we have now been assigned 6297 for the 2nd leg of our cruise, but Celebrity wants us to pay £345 each to move from 2D to 2C not $25 - $50. Anyway tomorrow we will see if we can pay to move to 6293 as this cabin is available for both sailings.

Thank you for your replies. I have checked out images.google and it looks like we will have a blocked view but as it is midship may be this may be better for crossing the Atlantic. We are still waiting for an assignment for our 7 day B2B in the Caribbean, so perhaps we will be assigned a better view for this cruise.

Has anyone had this cabin assigned. We have this cabin for a TA. Does anyone know how obstructed the view is, if there is a view at all? I know that the view is obstructed downwards, so cannot see the water below but how far up do the life boats come? If anyone has any pictures it would be greatly appreciated or any further information.

http://www.cam.mc/documents/1298472237.pdf

I hope the link works, the map shows where the free elevators are to save walking up hills.

The forecast for Venice on Wednesday is again for rain but our flight from Manchester lands in Venice at 10am so weather permitting we would be able to do an afternoon before muster drill. Thanks for the other information.

Thanks for your replies. This info is great for Venice, so as to make it a usable day.:)

Please can anyone help with :

How easy is it to get into Venice after your early flight from Manchester on boarding day?

Is Kotor, Montenegro a tender port?

Are there plenty of shuttles available to take you into Corfu town, and what is the charge?

Finally Monte Carlo is this a tender port or does it depend on arrival time?

P&O dont publish this information or how long the ship is in port for, so it makes it hard to plan your own trips.

Thanks in advance.

Davidcraig, yes this is the same gentlemen who was dancing.

Regarding food in the Ceres, DH had the tuna one evening much to his regret as he had to attend the medical centre the day after. We saw on the menu that against some dishes it made reference to having been frozen, have not seen this reference before on any other cruise lines menu.

Regarding the Dhow cruise in Khasab, my husband offered to help you off the bus with your buggy and also helped you on the Dhow when at one point it looked like you and your twins were going to be washed over the side as your husband was attending to your little girl.

Yes, the same Dhow cruise as you, where we all got wet not from the snorkelling but from the waves and spray. We booked ages ago for the cruise, when an inside cabin was £319 per person and £50 extra for premium and more for a balcony, something like £469 each per week, so we were well and truly out of pocket as the price dropped to £149 for inside and not much more for a balcony. At the time of booking it seemed a really good price compared with Hotels in Dubai but you live and learn. The water situation was a nightmare even if you had the drinks package, as they would more often than not give you a very small glass.

Like you say there weren't as many Italians as usual, did you see the older gentleman (doing his own version )dancing on his own every night, priceless.

We were on the same cruise as Tomvet and our experience was very different. We had a premium balcony 8327 which was situated under the pool deck so was noisy. We thought the ship very garish and not to our taste. The food in the buffet was of very poor quality, the roast meat more often than not very chewy, unless you like pizza or pasta everyday very little else. The main dining room food was better but not as good as Club Barca, which offered a really good menu and service, a shame that this food and service is not the norm on Costa. We had the drinks package but alas no pinot griego only chardonnay offered and tasted like a non alcholic wine as did the draft beer.

We should have been on for a second week from 23rd-30th Jan but after my Dh was ill after eating the tuna, we decided that the only way we would stop on was if Costa imprisoned us.

A lot of people are saying it is a bargain for what they paid, but we paid almost £2000 for cruise only and sorted out our own flights with Emirates, so not really a bargain for us, as we had to sort out a weeks Hotel in Dubai.

Regarding the Dhow cruise in Kahsab, we were on the same trip as Tomvet, we saw loads of dolphins but it is a matter of where you on the Dhow, the moment they appear out of the water.

We have been with Costa before and are Club Pearl members but would I book Costa again, not on you life !!!!! not even for lead in price of £149 inside cabin in Dubai, you get what you pay for or in our case we didn't get what we paid for. Oh one thing we did like, the entertainment and people watching, Italians are great participants.

Premium Balcony cabin 8327 on Costa Serena, avoid if noise is an issue. It is under the pool deck, where there is scaping of chairs and tables early in the morning and late at night, also on the Dubai cruise we had 3 deck party nights until 1'oclock so impossible to sleep for the loud music.

Yes, it is worth going as the food is alot better than the MDR and the service is very attentive.

They only do a continental breakfast on Room service, cereals, yogurts and pastries but no bacon or eggs. Its up to you whether you tip or not but a couple of euros is adequate as you pay a service charge added to your onboard account everyday, which cannot be altered or removed.

Just wondering if anyone has any comments to make on their recent cruise on the Serena in Dubai, good bad or indiffernet. We are going in 2 weeks and any information about the ships food, service or indeed anything about the cruise would be helpful to those of us yet to travel on her. We have booked the AI drinks so any info on this would be useful as well.

If you have travelled with Costa before, then you know what to expect. Not many people in the UK know about Cruise Critic and I presume even less in Italy, so don't let the lack of a Roll Call or postings put you off, I am sure you will have a great time, we have done loads of cruises with Costa and have always had a great tme.

Thanks for your replies. We will already be in Dubai the day before boarding so if 8'oclock is the boarding time, we will stay at the Hotel until then and on our last day we are again staying over so it doesn't matter what time we leave the ship that day. We are doing a back to back from 16th til 30th Jan, has anyone got an experience of this in Dubai with Costa?

We received our Cruise tickets today and it states the boarding time is from 20.00 hours until 10.30 the following day. Is 20.00 the earliest time you can board and if so why??? Usually when we cruise boarding time is normally 12'oclock ish. Anyone that has been on the Costa Serena in Dubai may be able to help. Thanks

We have been with Costa loads of times but not to Dubai, we are doing b2b on 16th January. However since we booked the price has dropped considerably so I think there will be lots more Brits than normally on Costa.