Costa Marina to Morocco and Canary Islands

[Capricruiser]

The Costa Marina is presently on its 14 day cruise from Savona to Spain, Morocco, the Canary Islands and Madeira (14-28 Feb.). I will be boarding her for the next same cruise, leaving on the 28th and returning to Savona on 14 March. Two days ago I noticed reports of heavy rains, gale winds, and flooding both along the Moroccan Atlantic coast and in the Canaries, so yesterday I started following the Marina on the webcam. In the morning she was shown plodding along the Moroccan coast between Casablanca and Agadir with very rough seas and battling gale headwinds of over 100 kph. Her next stop was scheduled for 14:00 at Agadir but at a certain point she turned and headed out into the Atlantic. What happened is the captain decided to abort the stop at Agadir and head directly to Lanzarote where she is due this morning at 09:30. This is what happens when an older and smaller cruise ship is confronted by extremely adverse meteo conditions. I pity the passengers who probably had a sleepless night! Now I hope that everything calms down before my own cruise - eight more days!:rolleyes:

[CtheW0rld]

older and smaller has nothing to do with it. even a big ship has to abort sometimes. i missed newfoundland on the grand princess (huge) because of a storm out of greenland. ship happens.

[vivienne]

I feel really sorry for them as we were on the same cruise in January and had two very unpleasant nights with the ship rocking and banging. It must have been so disappointing to be expecting being able to get off the ship in Agadir, not just for the disappointment of not being able to visit it, but to have to stay on the ship if they were feeling ill. Hopefully you will be luckier on your cruise which I am sure you will enjoy as it is a great itinerary and a nice ship.

[G.M.T.]

Looks like it's Madiera's turn to get battered.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8526288.stm

 

Ron

[Capricruiser]

So far 32 people are dead on Madeira. The Marina is due to arrive there on Tuesday. Wonder what they'll do. Even if things get cleaned up by then, which is doubtful, the excursions will be severely limited I would think - or Costa will decide to abort the port call. The passengers on this particular cruise are definitely not having a great time, but they're better off than the poor islanders...

[Joren]

Ah you never know.

 

A few weeks back as I was on the Serena headed towards Tenerife, it was all over the news about emergency declarations, flash flooding and mudslides in Santa Cruz. Our next destination.

 

We arrived to a beautiful day and though there was still some mud in places, some of the people on the ship had no idea anything untoward had happened until they got back on the ship and started talking to others.

 

Granted, the flooding in Funchal has killed some people, but most of the water seems to have been carried away by the aquaducts running down the mountains for this purpose. Funchal was the highlight of our trip for many people so I hope it's not cancelled for the folks visiting on Tuesday.

[vivienne]

Doesn't sound as promising as Santa Cruz because I have just heard from someone who lives in Madeira that the city of Funchal is destroyed. You can't walk along the front by the port and Marina as they are totally flooded, and the three main rivers are full to the top with boulders and mud with the water just gushing over into the city. He said it will take months if not years to get it sorted out.

 

I have just seen pictures on the news and one of them appeared to be taken from where I took a photo of the Costa Marina last month across the harbour and it was gushing with water.

 

I felt quite sad to see it like that. It is going to be hard for the tourist industry. It mentioned on the news that a 50 year old British woman is missing

[Capricruiser]

The Marina bypassed Funchal and is now en route to Tangiers for an unscheduled stop. The passengers on this cruise missed Agadir and Funchal due to the heavy rains and mudslides, but in compensation they get Tangiers. The death toll on Madeira is now over 40 dead and 120 injured. Bad scene.

[Goldryder]

The views from the webcams this morning...along with one from a few months ago...just to show what amazing work has been done to try and get the excess water away from the residential areas of Funchal and funnelled into the harbour. The most immediate thing to see is the road & roundabout that has completely gone...

[G.M.T.]

Such a shame. I always loved going to Madeira, such beautiful scenery and and the colours in springtime.

 

Hopefully they can soon get back to some sort of normal life.

 

Ron

[Capricruiser]

My Costa Marina cruise is scheduled to land at Madeira on the 9th of March. Hopefully things will be running almost normally by then! I do want to do that stupid toboggan ride!

[mariado]

hey there,

 

I was on costa serena and we were on the way to Madeira (15 February)

The night we left Santa cruz we such such a bad sea...Serena is a big ship, but it was difficult to sleep that night....

I hope the weather is better by now and you have a great cruise, Enjoy Madeira, it's such a beautiful island.

I loved it!

[Ozza Alf]

older and smaller has nothing to do with it. even a big ship has to abort sometimes. i missed newfoundland on the grand princess (huge) because of a storm out of greenland. ship happens.

 

I will echo that. The size and age of the ship has little to do with it. If the captain decides it's unsafe to procede he will divert the ship to safer waters. Just unlucky for those aboard. End of.

[Pool Lady]

hey there,

 

I was on costa serena and we were on the way to Madeira (15 February)

The night we left Santa cruz we such such a bad sea...Serena is a big ship, but it was difficult to sleep that night....

I hope the weather is better by now and you have a great cruise, Enjoy Madeira, it's such a beautiful island.

I loved it!

 

Mariado -

We were on the same cruise with you. That was a rough night. Our cabin was at the very front of the ship and we were both tossing our cookies despite ginger tea and gravol. Even cruise director Gabriele said he had a bad time that night. It was a bit scary at times as the wind gusts hit 119 km/hr and the waves were directly from the side before someone turned off the computer feed on the tv. Did you see how hard the tugs in Santa Cruz had to pull to get us off the pier? The port in Madeira looked awfully good the next morning - not that Madeira isn't beautiful anyway (Madeira and Barcelona were my favourite ports)

 

I've been thinking about it today after hearing about the tragic news about the Louis Majesty. We were in port with the Louis Majesty in Malega on Feb 17th. I just checked the stats on the Serena and they're not far away - they left Savona this afternoon and are on the way to Barcelona. The wind speeds are about 80km per hour.

[mariado]

Hey Pool Lady,

 

I remember that was a hard night....But it's nature, we can't do anything...

I couldn't sleep that night so i was trying to walk all over the ship to see and talk to other passengers...

I had a cabin in the back of the ship, just under the prometeo buffet on the 8th floor.

Happy to hear that we were in the same cruise!!!

Have a great day!

Maria

[Capricruiser]

I just returned from a really great cruise on the Costa Marina 28 Feb to 14 Mar. We made all the port calls on the itinerary including Madeira which was wonderful. Rough seas only between Gibraltar and Casablanca and while we did get a little rain it was not a problem. I will write a full review in a few days.

[vivienne]

So pleased you enjoyed the cruise on the Costa Marina that we did in January with the same itinerary. Great ports to visit. I was thinking about you and thought there might be something on the message board today. Look forward to reading your review.

[Pool Lady]

Capricuiser -

did you get to take the toboggan ride? how was it?

[G.M.T.]

I just returned from a really great cruise on the Costa Marina 28 Feb to 14 Mar. We made all the port calls on the itinerary including Madeira which was wonderful. Rough seas only between Gibraltar and Casablanca and while we did get a little rain it was not a problem. I will write a full review in a few days.

 

Chick,

 

Welcome back.

 

Ron

[Capricruiser]

Vivienne: I particularly liked the interaction staff-guest. Many of the staff even greeted me by name when we met. Different from the larger ships, there's a 1 to 2 staff to guest ratio on the Marina, and pratically all the staff I spoke with expressed their desire to stay with her rather than transfer to another ship at contract time.

Poollady: Did the toboggan ride - it was included in the excursion I took. I was surprised that the two "drivers" had to stop to apply grease under the runners on two or three occasions. It was fun anyways.

Ron: It's Chuck not Chick! Thanks anyway for the welcome.

[G.M.T.]

Vivienne: I particularly liked the interaction staff-guest. Many of the staff even greeted me by name when we met. Different from the larger ships, there's a 1 to 2 staff to guest ratio on the Marina, and pratically all the staff I spoke with expressed their desire to stay with her rather than transfer to another ship at contract time.

Poollady: Did the toboggan ride - it was included in the excursion I took. I was surprised that the two "drivers" had to stop to apply grease under the runners on two or three occasions. It was fun anyways.

Ron: It's Chuck not Chick! Thanks anyway for the welcome.

 

Chuck,

 

Sorry about that.

 

Ron

[Capricruiser]

Today I finally finished my review of the 28 Feb.-15 Mar. 2010 Canary Island cruise on the Costa Marina. Hopefully CC will have it posted in the cruise review pages in a day or so. I know others had some bad experiences with this itinerary on the Marina in January and February primarily caused by bad weather and rough seas, but as the calendar goes, things tend to improve as we move along toward spring. Such was my case. Now on to the next cruise!