redridinghood

Ship: Eclipse

cabin #: 1022

deck #: 10

class: Concierge accessible

area: Forward

bed near: N/a

quiet?: Yes

balcony view: Unrestricted

balcony size: Large

wind a problem?: No

soot a problem?: No

problems/comments: Large accessible cabin with large wet room with walk/wheel-in shower with folding down seat. Larger balcony. Only feature i didn't like was the automatic door that took a long time to close but i understand this is necessary for passengers with wheelchairs.

Using that logic, aqua class passengers no longer get the complimentary champagne in their rooms, the fresh fruit and some other perks that concierge class passengers get. We know that's not true, but one can't rely on the web pages to tell you much of anything accurate.

 

Rules are made up on the ship....if they don't know where to find a pillow, "it's not available on this cruise" and so on.

 

All you can do is smile and escalate....

This is nothing to do with 'logic', this is my own personal experience, if your experience has been different then I'm glad for you. I am sharing my experience and hope that may be helpful to someone.

If I can get CC at a small extra cost I will take it, it guarantees me things that make my cruise experience more pleasurable.

There is a very limited number of body pillows, so perhaps staff is just saying that when they are gone.

 

Next time in cabin, look for the "Amenities Booklet" it's about 5" square, nice full color cover, and has all the various pages inside it. I had it in both my Inside cabin and Aqua Class cabin on Summit both sailings last summer. It was folded to stand up on the nightstand by the bed. I'm looking at mine now, the cover, one may think it's just a Spa booklet. I didn't ask for body pillow, but did ask for tempurpedic (or whatever it is they call their version) and got one, but they couldn't locate a second. I've also been in suites where the butler and steward know nothing of a pillow menu.....then I show them.

 

Actually on careful look, certain pages in tiny print indicate suites, others are generic. Perhaps standard cabins don't include the suites pages all the time, though it's equally likely they make them all the same - more inconsistencies.

 

As often the case, it's all about a conversation with staff, and when told no, ask someone else later and get a different answer. YMMV, of course.

thanks, I can assure you I went down every avenue to try and get one, no joy on my cruises unless it is a perk that is described in the cabin catergory when booking. I end up asking for more pillows but sometimes they are even reluctant to offer those.

Anyone in any cabin can request the body pillow or any pillow on the menu. In fact the menu itself is typically in all cabins within the "On board Amenities" booklet, that also includes how to order decor and cakes for special events.

 

A perfect example of "marketing fluff" in the Concierge program. You think you get a special pillow selection, yet even a lowly inside cabin can get the same.

not in my experience, could not get a body pillow in any cabin unless we have booked a category that includes a pillow menus as a perk.

the pillow menu is a great perk for me, the body pillow helps my back pain.

wish I'd had this option on my most recent cruise, I would never consider Costa again after that.

seems a bit of an odd thing to say, I am sharing information to hopefully be of help to other cruisers, just as most people are who post here. Whether you choose to take that information and act on it is of course up to you.

update on this:

despite tweeting, emailing and sending facebook messages, this company has still not replied to me about my cancelled bookings.

Says it all really....

Otto for sure. We started in Gattopardo but found the noise and vibration at the back of the ship to be really unpleasant. If you sit upstairs in Otto you get a lovely view of the lifeboats! Every night we wondered why on earth they didn't just close the curtains...

We just had a very bad experience with this company and would urge others to think twice before using them. I understand the attraction as the tours are much cheaper than what the ships offer BUT if you end up with them cancelled at the last minute it could really ruin your holiday.

We booked 2 tours for our Costa cruise a few weeks ago, our ship cancelled the stop at Tunis and so I emailed cruising excursions the night before to notify them, asking for a reply to confirm, I never received a reply.

On our last day we had booked a transfer to Rome for a city tour and then a transfer to the airport for our flight home. Costa would not let us off the ship until 10am (don't ever book a Costa cruise either, I'll be reviewing them separately!) so I urgently called cruising excursions in the morning to let them know and to see what could be done about it, the operator said that both of my tours had been cancelled due to a payment issue and that I had been called numerous times, left voicemails and also sent emails to notify me. None of the communications stated had been made and I checked with my credit card company who said no payment had been put through from them, despite me having a confirmation of booking email.

I have since contacted cruising excursions asking them for clarification on all of this and I have had no reply.

My guess is that because Costa is an Italian ship then there was little demand for the tours and cruising excursions cancelled them as not being cost-effective, with no warning to us at all.

The stress of having to completely rearrange our travel to Rome and then to the airport at such short notice was not something I would ever wish to repeat or wish on other travelers.

I researched the cabin that we had been allocated (E731) and everyone just said that they had no noise issues but enjoyed the larger balcony, so I was very much looking forward to what I considered to be a very nice allocation.

Sadly we found the thumping bass beat from the nightclub below to be a huge issue and it really ruined our trip. We were so tired that we cancelled our trip into Bruges in order to catch up on sleep. The music went on til 5.30am one night and despite numerous calls and complaints to the main desk, the music did not subside. On examining where the speakers are in the nightclub, they are embedded in the ceiling, which obviously is going to impact on the cabins directly above.

We were offered an alternative cabin at the other end of the ship, just to sleep in, on our last night. Thankfully we stayed out quite late and when we returned to the cabin the music did not seem to be a problem at all, very strange why this was on the last night, perhaps the DJ had finally turned the volume down (as we were promised he had on the previous nights).

I did make a formal complaint to the main desk who assured me that it had been passed to Southampton and that someone would be in contact with me about it. We returned from our cruise on the 7th April, I emailed P&O on the 19th April as no one had been in touch, I received this reply on the 21st...

"I can confirm that your e-mail has been logged onto our case management system and has been passed to the Customer Services Executives responsible for P&O Cruises. They will review the content of your e-mail and respond directly to you in due course. In the meantime, please accept this e-mail as an acknowledgement of your correspondence."

3 weeks later and I have still not heard anything.

Has anyone had any positive outcome with regard to communication from Southampton or do they just choose to ignore complaints?

avoid this room, we had thumping bass music in our cabin until 5am in the morning from the nightclub below.

I adore the 's' class ships on Celebrity. Sadly they do not seem to do short trips anymore and the prices have really rocketed. I know I am lucky to be able to go any ANY cruise but have to admit to always wishing it was Celebrity one I was going on next.

DH & I both love the hot glass shows so much we'll only sail X ships that have them. My favorite show is the one they do at night...because the fire and glass absolutely glow.

me too! I would miss it terribly if I went on a S-Class ship without it.

Cabin #: 1560

Deck #:11

Class: Aqua

Area: Mid

Bed near: Balcony

Quiet?: Quiet ish

Balcony view: Ok

Balcony size: Standard with overhang

Wind a problem?: No

Soot a problem?: No

Problems/comments: I was nervous of booking a cabin with overhang and I was right to be, I would not book one again. The only benefit was that we were sheltered from the rain, but I hated not being able to see the sky at night or the sun when it did shine.

Some noise from overhead but nothing too bad.

Ship: Eclipse

Cabin #: 8140

Deck #: Vista

Class: 1C

Area: Forward Starboard

Bed near: Bath

Quiet?: Yes

Balcony view: Clear

Balcony size: Normal

Wind a problem?: No

Soot a problem?: No

Problems/comments: Very little space between beds when made into twins. Much prefer to have bed near balcony to give space to dress near wardrobe, found the bed near bath configuration very annoying!

Extra lifejackets under bed as this cabin has a double pull out sofa and an upper berth.

on all our cruises we took our passports off in port with us, I lost my seapass in St Martin recently and had to show the passport to get back on the ship, the security there told us to NEVER take our actual passports off the ship with us but to take photocopies with us and leave passports in the safe.

Wonder why they don't make this common knowledge when you board?