The Costa Samsara Experience

[Capricruiser]

The Costa forum has had in the past several queries by CC members asking information about the Samsara spas and cabins on the newer Costa liners, the Concordia, the Serena, and now the Pacifica and Luminosa, and when launched, the Deliziosa. The purpose of my post is to relate my recent experience in Samsara and to try to explain what it's all about. This year my wife and I have been on two Costa cruises in Samsara cabins - in April 2009 we were in a Samsara suite with veranda on a 12 day Eastern Med cruise on the Concordia, and in August the 7 day Greece-Turkey-Croatia cruise on the Serena where we had a standard Samsara outside cabin with veranda.

On the five Costa liners cited above, each has a dedicated Samsara area in the front upper decks consisting of the Samsara cabins and spa. Except for the Spa, this area is exclusive and has signs restricting access to only those passengers residing in one of the Samsara cabins. It's pretty much adults only throughout, although we did see a couple well-behaved children on the Serena. Down on the restaurant decks there is the also exclusive Samsara Restaurant, again restricted to Samsara guests.

On two other Costa ships, the Mediterranea and the Atlantica, there is basically the same arrangement, but it's called "Wellness" on those ships. From what I can tell, "Wellness" is pretty much the same as "Samsara," spa, cabins and restaurant.

The Spa: The welcome brochure describes the Samsara Spa as, "an Asian inspired retreat where your destiny is the paradise that resides within you." A bit wordy, but aside from the Asian-Indian welcome ceremony and exotic tea offerings, the spa is a very nice gym-wellness-fitness center where Samsara residents can relax and forget they're on a huge ship with 3000 other passengers. The users of the Spa are your fellow Samsara residents who have free use of the facilities and a few other passengers who shell out €35 a day to use them. My wife did not use the spa so I cannot comment from a woman's view. I myself did use the "Thalassotheraphy Bath," a smallish bubbling heated pool which was great to relax those tired muscles in. I also had several massages on both cruises which were wonderful and from which I still feel the benefits - Swedish, Balinese, stone, soft, rough, you name it. Then there are the saunas and "sun garden" for indoor tanning, and beauty treatment areas. The personnel of the spa by the way are mostly Italian and Philippino, guys and girls, with a few other nationalities thrown in. Massages (the first two are free) and treatments, barber shop, beauty shop, etc. cost extra. They do try to push their Elemis products - watch out, they're expensive! The ship's gym is next to the spa and open to all.

The Cabins: As I stated above the Samsara cabins are in an exclusive restricted area. There are no kids running through the corridors and few sounds other than the sea floating past your veranda door and those occasional endless announcements on the PA. Depending on the particular ship, there are suites with verandas, mini suites without verandas, cabins with verandas, cabins with only windows, and also a few inside cabins. Basically, the Samsara cabin or suite is the same size as cabins of the same category on the lower decks. They of course cost more and are furnished and decorated a bit nicer. The Samsara area of the Concordia and Serena consists of eight suites, four mini suites, about 40 outside cabins with verandas, 12 with windows, and about 30 inside cabins. Here's the difference between a standard cabin and a suite:

The cabins all have safes, flat screen TV, tea sets, bathrobes, mini bar, etc. and each occupant receives a lovely Costa Samsara gift box with Elemis bath products. Our suite in addition, had the following: Water Jug always filled with ice water, humidifier, bathroom scales, slippers, daily fruit bowl, orthopaedic mattress, choice of five different pillows, umbrella, Elemis bath products, double sinks in tiled bathroom, jacuzzi tub/shower, dressing room, three wardrobes, dresser, desk. The bathrooms of the cabins had sets of two large towels and two small ones; the suite had four sets including wash cloths. In Samsara the bathrobes, slippers, towels, are all a fluffy beige color to distinguish one from the other ship's cabins which have white towels. In the suite first of all, besides your cabin steward (who only takes care of four suites), there is the butler who handles any and all request from the suite occupants, brings your breakfast in the morning, arranges for your shore excursions, dining options, and generally oversees the steward. The breakfast menu by the way is the same as all the other cabins, it's just that it's served on a silver tray with linen napkins, crystal, porcelain cups, etc., and is delivered at exactly the time you requested. Not too shabby!

The Restaurant: This is what for me really made the difference. As many CC members note in this forum, dining in Costa restaurants and self-service is not to everyone's pleasure. In ship-board restaurants (we rarely use the self-service buffets when cruising) I personally dislike noise and confusion, uncontrolled children, incompetent and harassed wait staff, and standing in line waiting for my seating, first or second, and then feeling the waiter's hope that you'll leave early so he can clean up and go off shift. The Samsara restaurants are little oasis's, reserved only for Samsara cabin residents. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you can walk in at any time during opening hours, for example dinner is from 1900 to 2130 and you can eat at 7, 8, 9:15 or 9:30. No reservations and no problems. With only a few tables, a friendly maitre and dedicated wait staff, it has a special Samsara menu offering food prepared with low calories, low salt and fat. It's of course Italian style with a choice of appetizers, first course soup or pasta, main course meat or fish, and dessert. If you don't like something on the Samsara menu you can also order from the regular restaurant menu as well. We usually combined our choices from both menus. The wine menu is quite extensive and the waiter will cork your bottle and save what you didn't drink until the next meal.

This is what I can think of to write at this time. If anyone has specific questions I'd be happy to answer them as best I can. :)

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8/2009 - Costa Serena - East Med (Greece/Turkey/Croatia/Italy)

4/2009 - Costa Concordia - East Med (Greece/Turkey/Cyprus/Egypt/Italy)

1/2009 - Oberoi Philae - Nile River Cruise (Luxor-Aswan)

12/2007 - Costa Europa - Savona-Dubai Repositioning (Egypt/Suez/Jordan/Yemen/Oman)

5/2007 - MSC Opera - Norwegian Fiords (Germany/Norway/Denmark)

6/1994 - MSC Monterey - East Med (Egypt/Israel/Turkey/Greece/Italy)