Booking from a different country's website

Hello,

I am resident of India but have noticed that Costa has much better prices on Costa UK & US websites than the Costa Asia website.

Will I face any issues if I use the Costa UK or US site to book my cruise?

Thanks!

Carspg

Hello,

 

I am resident of India but have noticed that Costa has much better prices on Costa UK & US websites than the Costa Asia website.

 

Will I face any issues if I use the Costa UK or US site to book my cruise?

 

Thanks!

 

Carspg

Hello carspg.

I think you will find that you have to have an address in uk or us to book a cruise using the Costa web site in those countries.

We are British residents who now live in Spain and have tried to book cruises through the costa websites in Asia and USA. It won't let us,keeps saying we have to be resident in those countries. This is a pity as we have especially found some of the Costa cruises in the far east to be very interesting. Hope this helps. happy cruising. :)

Just once have I been able to book a cruise in the UK rather than Germany. Costa Germany contingent were sold out, but Costa UK had cabins available, so I phoned them with a cock and bull story (why no address in UK) and with my Brit passport I booked the required cruise.

What I have heard is people using a relation's address in the required country.

Another way is to use a "post restante" in the required country, i.e. in UK many corner sweet shops can be used to send your mail to and then it will be forwarded onto you. These days it doesn't matter if the post takes days to reach you as nearly everything is done via email these days.

Just an idea.

I have booked our cruises on Pacifica, Favolosa and Serena on Costa's German site without a bother using my Irish address. When it comes to entering the phone number I merely change +49 to +353.

Other EU law they cannot legally prevent an intra EU sale.

Thanks for the replies bazbov, G.M.T & tomvet!

I do have some friends in the UK. I'll try booking with my Indian address first. If that doesn't work I'll try putting my friend's address in the UK. Hopefully I'll be able to use my Indian credit card. Otherwise I'll have to use my friend's card.

If I am able to book it somehow is there any risk of being denied boarding at the port?

Thanks again!

Once they have your money, there should be no problem. Just make sure that your passport is in order and if you have an Indian passport check out the visa requiremets for the countries that you will visit.

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the replies bazbov, G.M.T & tomvet!

 

I do have some friends in the UK. I'll try booking with my Indian address first. If that doesn't work I'll try putting my friend's address in the UK. Hopefully I'll be able to use my Indian credit card. Otherwise I'll have to use my friend's card.

 

If I am able to book it somehow is there any risk of being denied boarding at the port?

 

Thanks again!

Your'e welcome car. I agree with G.M.T. (hi GMT) :) I don't think you'll be denied boarding if you have all the relevant documents. Good Luck with it all.

Happy cruising.

Thanks for the replies bazbov, G.M.T & tomvet!

I do have some friends in the UK. I'll try booking with my Indian address first. If that doesn't work I'll try putting my friend's address in the UK. Hopefully I'll be able to use my Indian credit card. Otherwise I'll have to use my friend's card.

If I am able to book it somehow is there any risk of being denied boarding at the port?

Thanks again!

Hi, carspg,

I hope you managed to book & enjoy your cruise. Just wanted to know

1) Did you manage to book the Costa cruise from the UK site, using a UK friend's address?

2) Did Costa accept payment from an Indian Credit card?

3) Did Costa let you board without fuss, or did they demand EXTRA PAYMENT?

4) Was there any problem at all at the time of boarding?

5) Did they force you to pay the COMPULSORY Euro 10 tips per person per day?

6) Were the shows of Broadway or Las Vegas standard?

7) What per cent of nights had GRAND SHOWS, or were the shows every night?

8) Besides shows, what were the other organized ACTIVITIES, lectures, classes, games & programs?

9) How was the FOOD in the buffet & main dining room?

Thanks!

I live in the USA and we booked a Costa cruise to the Baltics through a Barcelona travel agency (it's a long story:)).I wanted to book an excursion online but wasn't able to.I called Costa's 800 number (usa) and was told that not only could I not book anything extra online but that Costa USA couldn't even bring up my booking on THEIR computers because it was done on Costa's Spanish website!Hard to believe that they would keep things that separate but they must have their reasons.

This is a bit off topic but somewhat related.

We are looking at some Costa cruises for April and May 2017 and find the Costa website terribly slow and limited. Working through the booking process, only one or two cabins would be offered in a category. Given the discounts they claim they are offering for the cruises we are considering, one would think there would be several available cabins.

Is there any way to work around this limitation? Do I need to look at the website for another country to see what is available and then call Costa? Is there anyway to see all available cabins at once?

This is a bit off topic but somewhat related.

 

We are looking at some Costa cruises for April and May 2017 and find the Costa website terribly slow and limited. Working through the booking process, only one or two cabins would be offered in a category. Given the discounts they claim they are offering for the cruises we are considering, one would think there would be several available cabins.

 

Is there any way to work around this limitation? Do I need to look at the website for another country to see what is available and then call Costa? Is there anyway to see all available cabins at once?

This is common with Costa, looked at a cruise for September next, fully booked, phoned Costa told we can board next port but paper work will state getting on port before, & it was cheaper.

They block book cabins to a starting Country.

Here in the UK we have a brilliant TA using the phone call back system, we see a cruise that suits then get them to price it & phone us back.

The service they supply is outstanding.

Hi, how did you managed another country of residence ? I want to book through british msc website (they are much cheaper than german one), but when I want to buy a cruise, I can´t change the country of residence from Great Britain to another. Will I be denied boarding, if I buy the cruise? Thank you

Hi, how did you managed another country of residence ? I want to book through british msc website (they are much cheaper than german one), but when I want to buy a cruise, I can´t change the country of residence from Great Britain to another. Will I be denied boarding, if I buy the cruise? Thank you

Best to ask on the MSC forum for other people's experience.

Living in the USA, I use a VPN for many tasks. Often I change the VPN location country to access only local options. I don't know if this will work for Costa, but it does for airline tickets. There are many free VPN's. Give it a try and let us all know.

Be careful about prices, different countries have different rules, I believe Germany and Australia must include HSC, other countries are allowed all sorts of hidden charges.

In my experience you are never denied boarding at the port.  We are not allowed to use US sites to book cruises and always have to pay the Australian $$ amount which can be quite expensive.  We are dual citizens and often book in the UK using our british passport.  We have never had a problem at the embarkation side of things.  All they want to know is if you have a valid passport and you do not even need your Eticket.  It seems the holiday part and the admin part are completely divorced on most lines.

When we have booked Costa in Spain with a Spanish travel agent we have always got a better deal than via a uk website / travel agent, we don't have an address in Spain and are uk citizens but IF we travelled Costa again we would always book in Spain 

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