Skipper Tim

Revenue not fire protection. Ships built 60 years ago were wired for kettles, irons etc. in every stateroom. Is a modern cruise ship wired to inferior standards? No.

Every cabin has its own consumer unit which will trip the individual circuit if excessive power is drawn on it. 

Forbidding low-power travel kettles is purely about generating revenue from room service. 

11 minutes ago, gerryuk said:

 

The current Costa information I have is there is no need to be tested except for South American departures of over 15 days, e.g. to Europe. Ours is 16 days! It clearly says we will be denied boarding without a negative certificate from a pharmacist, doctor or clinic. This was confirmed by Costa Customer Service, Italy.

I have emailed both our hotel for the night before boarding and the port authority about getting a Covid test, neither have replied. Travelling to the other side of the planet with a prospect of being denied boarding is not sitting well with my constitution. 

Thanks CupKayke for your account. My mother and I are setting off tomorrow from the UK, via Madrid, to join the Costa Favolosa from Santos, Brazil to Spain. I started a roll call on CC months ago - needless to say there has not been one taker. I expect we will be in a very tiny minority of native English speakers. Still, if there are any others, we should be seated together for dinner! As you point out, the staff will mostly have English as the second language so we should be fine. 

Unfortunately we are not in a suite category - quite the opposite, we are booked in to the lowest inside guarantee cabins. They have been allocated and we each have one of the 17 'single' inside cabins. The luxury is having a cabin each. I usually associate booking an inside cabin with an all-inclusive drinks package so that one only spends time in the cabin sleeping, washing and changing. This time we haven't booked a drinks package because the prices didn't look worth it for us. We are primarily wine drinkers and 'C Club' membership appears to give 25 or 50% discount on most of the Italian bottles. Of course, every sailing has slightly different offers and terms so I will reassess this once onboard. 

The only thing bothering me now is the mandatory Covid tests before we board. I have not had any certain information as to where we can get these (must be within 24 hours of departure - so well after we leave the UK). 

Any tips on maximising value on board would be much appreciated. 

On 4/8/2023 at 2:54 PM, CupKayke said:

I am going to try to make this short and if you have questions, ask away.

Great to have agreement 🙂 

I have spent 44 nights on three MSC ships and am looking forward to 15 nights aboard my first Costa ship, boarding Thursday. I know all cruise lines vary their offering according to geographic region and the time of year - which may explain some of the discrepancies laboured-over in the posts above. We will be starting in Brazil and ending in Spain. Since booking, the on-board currency has changed from $US to Euros and I understand that at least half the crew must be Brazilian for the ship to operate in Brazilian waters. The ship may be in a state of flux.

I look forward to updating this thread according my experiences. You can also follow our journey on FaceBook: tmillea1. 

Very interesting, thank you drsel.

I must say my experiences of MSC are quite different to those of Emma. Native English-speakers aboard my three MSC cruises were in a tiny minority, perhaps 3-5% on the first two transatlantic cruises and nearer 15% on the last European-based cruise. Dinners took ages on all of them! The first sitting is timed at 90 minutes with a 30 mins reset period while the preferred 'un-rushed' but very late second sitting was at least two hours. Water, tea and coffees were never included except self-service in the buffet. 

Unlike Emma, to me, dinner, at a fixed table of guests, whom one gets to know gradually, is the heart of a cruise. I wish they did it in hotels. An 8-table is my preference. 6 is too small if a couple dine elsewhere for the night it leaves quite a hole, while 10 or more means the table cannot have one conversation. To 'get-in, eat and get-out' is the antithesis of my idea of a cruise. Dinner is the main event. 

We depart the UK this Tuesday, fly overnight, have a night in Santos then join the Favolosa on Thursday. The only loose end not yet tied up is the mandatory Covid tests Costa still require for South America departures over 15 days and within 24 hours of arrival at the terminal! This is proving problematic. It appears I will have to sort this on the ground in Santos. 

Anyway, I think the things that Emma did not like about Costa are the things I have already experienced on MSC, other than the buffet closing between meals and the lack of included pizzas. This 'nickel and diming' I am sure is a consequence of the Carnival ownership. I have my rum-runners ready. 

On 7/27/2022 at 5:09 PM, CupKayke said:

This is what Costa wrote on another website: 

 

"All our guests receive in their minibar bottles of beer, soda, juice, and water. Our Preferred Club guests receive extra M&Ms, Pringles and small bottles of liqueur. All our guests enjoy 24-hours room service and minibar refill."

I really am none the wiser for this. I am in a similar position to the OP. I am trying to decide between the 'My Drinks' and 'My Drinks Plus' drinks packages, or none at all. Translating to British English I have:

beer = lager

soda = pop (carbonated, sugary drinks)

juice = fruit juice or just fake fruit juice?

liqueur? "a very sweet alcoholic drink" such as Amaretto, Cointreau or Baileys, or a 'spirit' such as gin, brandy or whisky? 

Then "Preferred Club", mmm. Do they mean members of the Costa 'C|Club' or something else? There is no 'Preferred' tier of the C|Club only Blue, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers.

It is about as foggy an answer as could be. The question remains

What does the upgraded, 'My Drinks Plus', drinks package get you in the minibar?

9 minutes ago, Serengeti228 said:

I wonder where you get this email address and when the last time you submitted the request.

 

It is apparent that the Carnival PLC displays another email address for Costa cruises brand. 

I sent my email re. the OBC for the shares 20th March and had the reply the next day. 

Thanks again, I managed to sort out my Club issues via email - they had the wrong d.o.b. for me in the Club account. 

I have been studying the wine list you kindly sent me. I have had to put all the wines available by the glass and all the full bottles of interest into a spreadsheet in order to apply the 25% or 50% Club discounts, add the 15% service charge then convert currencies to £Sterling! It would a appear neither drinks package would be worth it to us and we would be better off buying bottles. Again thanks for your help!

2 hours ago, kremerlorraine said:

The wine available on the MyDrinks package is very limited and not great quality. Having said that, I'm not too fussy and am happy to drink it! If you are thinking of buying from the wine list, make sure to sign up for Costa Club before the cruise or on the first day on board. It gets you some decent discounts on a selection of bottles.

I have managed to sign my mother up for the Club but not myself. I will have to phone them (travelling tomorrow). 

Does the My Drinks Plus package cover all wines?

1 hour ago, kremerlorraine said:

club_en.pdf 1.05 MB · 0 downloads

This is the current wine list from the Fortuna, which we are on now (transatlantic Buenos Aires to Tarragona). Hope this has uploaded OK. We were on Favolosa for a week in February. There is plenty of live music from 6pm onwards (in the atrium, grand bar, wine bar and the bar at the back of the ship).

Many thanks. That wine list is incredible - more wines than many a wine merchant would have! Also good to hear about the live music. Enjoy the rest of your cruise. Tim.

I read that one of the privileges of Costa's spa themed cabins is that they have kettles provided so, by implication, other cabins don't have kettles Yet, no electrical goods except chargers and electric razors are permitted to be brought aboard. A kettle is pretty fundamental to my elderly mother. She will take a travel kettle if a certain hotel does not provide one - over 50 years of overseas travel. For those cabins without a kettle provided, is it possible to rent one or is this just another revenue-generating exercise, i.e. room service charges? She may not go on the cruise if she can't make her own cups of tea. 

We will be boarding at Santos and have very low-powered folding travel kettles. Will they be confiscated?

Any advice? This is a very serious matter I will have to discuss with my mother. 

A fascinating discussion, thanks to all the contributors. I read it because I have sailed on Cunard, Royal Caribbean and MSC, each twice, but I have the Costa Favolosa Brazil-Barcelona repo cruise, mentioned above, coming up in just over two weeks. For reference, I am English but have also lived in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey - I am fairly international!

I did two classic trans-Atlantics, Southhampton - New York, on the QE2 and QM2. My take-home from those is that Cunard is a US-idea of what a British cruise line should be but I found it shockingly American - and not what I expected at all. I had to use US-English to communicate the simplest things to the staff and the menus were the classic things that Americans expect on a cruise. I felt like a fish out of water. 

Which brings me to Royal Caribbean. I knew to expect a US cruise experience and that is what I got in heaps. What I did not expect was the endless hard-sell and up-sell every moment of the day. I spoke to an English lady who said it was her 60th cruise with RCI and asked her how she coped with the endless sales pressure. She replied to say that she was now immune to it - 'desensitised'. How awful! 

MSC, I found both amusing and chaotic because of the mix of cultures of the guests. There was not a day that went by without incident due to cultures not understanding each other. I loved MSC's pizzas freshly made all day outside the buffet, just like those I had when I lived in Italy - so I will miss those on Costa. What I didn't like on MSC was, when going to the MDR for breakfast or lunch, being forced to sit with strangers in the order you arrived. If I asked for a table for 2, we were told to stand aside and wait - often for a long time. We preferred the buffet for this reason in the end. 

I will be taking my elderly mother on the Costa Favolosa. She has very high standards from her younger days when she worked in a very expensive restaurant. She will like the Italian theme but she won't tolerate tepid food on cold plates. They will be sent back. I fear for this. 

Neither of us have enjoyed any of the shows on any of the ships we have been on. We do however enjoy live music of practically any type, so I am hoping there will be some good live music on the Favolosa as an alternative to the show. 

We have separate 'inside guarantee' cabins (not yet allocated) therefore I can book a drinks package for myself but I doubt it would be worth it for her. However, nowhere can I find Costa's current drinks prices for wine in order to compare. Nor can I find the minibar prices. 

Hoping there are contributors to help us before our first Costa cruise. I should be able to add my own lines to this thread after it. 

I bought the requisite 100+ CC.L shares, emailed the contract note, name and booking ref. to shareholder@costa.it and I received an email next day to say that the OBC was applied. In our case it was 200 Euros. It could not have been faster or more straightforward! 

On 2/16/2022 at 11:26 AM, Paul S said:

but  Tilbury is a short drive away from our home.

The fact that Tilbury is such a pain to get to from where we live (Slaithwaite, Yorkshire) is the reason we are looking to transfer our deposits to the new (to Ambassador) 'Ambition', which will have some sailings from Liverpool, a mere two hours away! I am hoping the name signifies that the ship will have ambitious itineraries, befitting an even smaller ship (48kGT vs. 70kGT of the Ambience). They should go on sale in "Q2". 

NEWS! According to MarineTraffic, the Satoshi/Ambience departed Bar at 23:35 yesterday (11th October) for Rijeka, Croatia.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:192731/zoom:10

There is a long article about the Satoshi in the Guardian this morning.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/07/disastrous-voyage-satoshi-cryptocurrency-cruise-ship-seassteading

11 hours ago, Britboys said:

It will be very different to Celebrity but if you go with an open mind, I'm sure you will have a great time.

I am very much looking forward to the first reviews next year and, before those, updates from Ambassador on the state of the new Ambience during the re-fit or 'de-fit' (removing all the child features). Ambassador keep adding a 'theme' to the odd itinerary, presumably the ones not selling so well? Other news is scant. The website doesn't change and their official FB page is dominated by their social-media person asking dumb questions everyday. 

I refer you to the FAQ (https://www.ambassadorcruiseline.com/faqs/)

Do we have to pay for gratuities?

For your greater convenience, we operate an automatic service charge and gratuity system whereby an amount of £6.00 per person per night (this amount reduces to £5.00 per person per night for cruises of 16 nights or more) is automatically added to your onboard account.

All service charges and gratuities are collated, so a portion goes to each crew member, who helps to make your cruise special. This is not only distributed to your cabin steward and your waiter or bar attendant but also between the hidden stars behind the scenes, such as laundry operatives and kitchen staff, who you might never get to meet in person.

If you notice an issue that makes you think twice about our service charge, be sure to speak with one of our Guest Services Team who will try to resolve the matter before a charge adjustment becomes necessary. Even if you had a negative experience with a particular employee, seriously consider whether it warrants removing your gratuities altogether, keeping in mind that because of one crew member the whole team is affected. Of course, if you want to also reward a crew member personally in addition for excellent service, feel free to do so!

If you purchase one of our Ambassador Drinks Packages, gratuities are also included. However, please note that the gratuity contribution cannot be removed from any of the packages.

I read that as all service charges and gratuities are included in a drinks package, i.e. not just for drinks, although I agree, it could be more clearly written. There are quite a few badly-written sections on the Ambassador website. I hope they tidy them up in due course. 

The last time I sailed with Cunard, I was shocked how poor the service was. Twice we sat in QM2's main restaurant at lunchtime and lost patience waiting even for a menu to arrive. The times we did endure, service was ever-so-slow and food not great. Thankfully we had a hotel holiday in Turkey booked straight afterwards and the service and food truly embarrassed Cunard. I wonder if this is a trend with cruise lines? I would say at the rates charged, it is a false economy to cut back on the front line. 

Hi Pete,

Many thanks for your insights. Toilet & theatre seating comments noted! The QE2 was 39 years old when we first sailed on her and, yes, many aspects were very dated and things like plumping and ventilation struggling. However, the service was sublime and it was all part of the experience. I have high hopes for the Ambience. 

The other sister ship I was referring to was the Star Princess which, according to Wikipedia is the same internally but her two younger sisters had a super-structure redesign to add curves as well as making many 'ocean-view' cabins in balcony cabins without increasing their overall size - hence the non-suite balcony cabins have a smaller inside space that any inside cabin! 

One of the reasons I was attracted to Ambassador was the traditional two-sittings dining with allocated tables. With 'anytime dining' couples or friends stick to themselves and an essential part of the cruising experience is lost - that of gradually getting to know the people at the dining table over an extended period. I find a six-table too small because if one couple decide to eat elsewhere it leaves a large hole at the table, while a ten-table too large to have one conversation. Hence I consider an eight-table optimum and that is what I have requested. 

Yes, I followed the change in offers. To us, it represents a 5% increase in price under the new offers.

However, I had an email telling me that our pre-booked drinks package ('Expedition') had been reduced in price by 10% and that I would get a reduced invoice shortly. It is a very rare occurrence, unique in my experience, that an agreed fare is reduced in price after booking.

Ambassador said it was due to "customer feedback". There were discounts on the drinks packages with higher category cabins but not the lower categories which did seem a little unfair.

I have always felt that an all-inclusive package is a good combination with an inside cabin as it gives 'freedom of the ship' and hence use the cabin just for sleeping, washing and changing. Alternatively, to blow out on one of the better cabins makes me feel guilty about not spending a lot of time there rather than elsewhere on the ship. 

Anyway, well done to Ambassador for a discount, after the fact!

For those irritated that CMV went bust owing lots of money to lots of people and appears to have come back as Ambassador, same people, databases and apparently premises, I would just remind you of SunWorld which became JMC which became Thomas Cook, which is now Sunny Heart Travel, all with much the same management team and each time leaving a wake of unpaid debts and, in the case of Thomas Cook, the most people stranded abroad since Dunkirk. Then there was Freddie Laker who started his travel consultancy business in a plush central London office the very next day after Laker Airways went bust. The travel industry is littered with such examples. 

We have to welcome Ambassador and hope their client-account trust arrangements and insurances are adequate. It did strike me however that they are currently little more than a website, a printed brochure with the same content and one person answering the phone and emails!

I am used to bargain repositioning cruises so I don't find Ambassador's fares as low as others have. 

We have taken the plunge on Ambassador and I have started a roll call for that cruise linked to in my signature. No joiners so far but sales appear to be going well with many categories of cabin sold out. The lady on the phone, Sarah, I spoke to said the longer duration cruises were selling very well. Perhaps that CMV database has already paid for itself? 

There 'Early Bird Savings' period finished tomorrow at 8pm. It will be interesting to see what offer replaces it. 

We have booked on the 42 night cruise including Cuba from 5th January 2023. 

Re. the re-incarnation of CMV, yes the management team are exactly the same but they claim there is a different ethos but for the same market (over-50's, British, 'traditional cruises' and no-fly). They now have an eco-policy, which I assume is forced upon them by the new environmental standard coming in (IMO Tier III) and also to save money on paper & post - all documentation and communication is digital.

Almost all cruises will be adult-only and no child facilities or special provision for them will be made even when allowed, hence another saving and enabling more space for adults (there were two children's clubs on Pacific Dawn, a dedicated pool etc.). 

As far as I can see Ambassador intends to be cheaper than Fred Olsen and more British and cheaper than Cunard. The press release also promises the most diverse, inclusive and friendly crew at sea, so that should be interesting. 

In the meantime, the 'Satoshi', as she currently is, remains in port near Bar, Montenegro, in rather a sorry state having escaped scrapping in India, like her two sister ships, by the skin of her bows. I hope we will get progress reports on the Ambience from Ambassador, when the work starts to bring her back to life. 

Many thanks for that. That leaves a gap in the market for a new entrant. Let's see what happens in the coming months. 

Still no word? 

'There are plenty more ships in the sea'.

Crunch time, however is coming to Pullmantur. Their website still says cruises are suspended only as far as 13th November and are still advertising cruises on ships currently sold and scrapped. Their public line, at least, will have to change.