The show must go on - Costa Deliziosa cruises, to a Marseille dry dock!

[Mattsudds]

What is the most important element of a cruise to you? The ship, the ports, the sea, home comforts and familiar surroundings? If any of those were top of your answer then what I've just enjoyed will probably sound utterly incomprehensible. For the ship was Costa Deliziosa - a Joe Farcus designed Costa ship and the penultimate iteration of the ubiquitous Vista/ Spirit class. But add to that what if I told you that the ship was going to nowhere. I don't mean a cruise to nowhere, 3 miles offshore so that the casino's could open, I mean a cruise to literally nowhere, tied up the whole time. And worse still there would be no water, for the ship would be in dry dock. Would you go? That was the dilemma which presented itself 48hrs before my Costa Deliziosa cruise when Costa called to say the ship had a serious technical problem, and instead of our ports of call we would only make a short dash from Savona to Marseille where the ship would spend days in dry dock before returning, assuming the work was complete, to Savona. I had wanted to see the ship, booked the time off work and travel, and Costa's compensation offer was far more generous than expected so I said yes, count me in. And so did my other 2 travelling companions, and thank goodness for we had an absolute whale of a time.

 

First a little about the ship. At 90,000 tons or so, she is big and being Farcus designed, she is to newcomers rather brash. My 2 travelling companions are very experienced cruisers with wonderful, adventurous spirits. As we boarded the ship, we wondered round and they were agog. We started in the buffet which has a yachting theme. No surface is un-decorated, wall tiles make sea scenes, model yachts adorn central points, signal flags on the ceiling and waves on the carpet. Busy is not the word. Forward is a 2 deck high enclosed pool deck with magradrome roof and a big screen. A kind of combination of everything Costa have evolved their pool areas to be, in the inclement weather facing us the space is alive with people enjoying the pools. Further forward is the large Samsara spa, a Gym (with machines on the only forward facing windows blocking the view, and a winter garden with no plants. This is also an area of the ship with Spa cabins, which gives the occupier permanent access to otherwise paid facilities. On the upper deck is the Club Deliziosa extra tariff restaurant, a children's play area with its own pool, a 4d F1 simulator, a Gold simulator and putting green, a roller rink and jogging track and vast sun decks.

 

Down below, the public rooms follow the typical Vista/ Spirit layout with Restaurant aft, Theatre forward and spaces to open your wallet in between. In common with the Carnival/ Costa versions, this ship has a 9 deck atrium and in view of her deployment in US waters, a larger casino than other Costa ships. There also appears to be a new trend sweeping Italy, Hot Chocolate. All around Genoa, bars were offering a menu of different Hot Chocolate's (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). Inevitably this makes it's way aboard ship and there is a Chocolateria. There are also some nice touches, such as a pair of 'conservatory lounges' on the outer edges of the atrium which enable you to sit inside the ship but also on the boat deck. My favourite touch though is in the forward and aft stairways which are adorned with large black and white photo's from Costa's history, part of the Paolo Piccone and Maurisio Eliseo collection. That and the Costa funnel door handles.

 

One of the things I find interesting about Italian ships, is how they subtly differ from their US cousins even using the same basic ship design. A good example of this is the inclusion of a large ballroom space on the Italian ships in which dancing, especially formation dancing takes place. This room, in common with many others, is entirely arranged with seating to focus on the promenade and dance floor, everyone must look at passers by, dancers and each other, rather than seek a shy corner. The ballroom itself is quite remarkably decorated. With a kind of pale green carpet and walls, she has vases in glass cases on one side, giant waved green glass chandeliers on the ceiling, a statue made entirely of embroidered butterflies as a centrepiece, and on the other side of the room, various bits of artwork made from copper shapes as various forms of clothing, which get more intimate and skimpy as each case gets nearer to the bar.

 

When Costa telephoned to say what was to happen with the ship, they did not know what would be required for work, and how many would choose not to sail. We expected to be relatively lonely onboard, but it turns out that 2,000 chose to 'sail' anyway. And so we dined, we were entertained and well fed. At night they closed the curtains in the public rooms and with the gentle throb of generators, you could have been on a normal cruise. We saw Costa shows, mostly pretty poor if full of effort.

 

Every generation got involved. There are some pieces of music which play in these events on every ship. YMCA is an example. Every generation got involved. And in the med, there is one which includes the words bunga bunga followed by a hip thrusting movement to which you sing loudly 'sexy'. I hope I didn't lead my travelling companions astray by taking them to a 'bunga bunga' party, made famous by Italian PM Berlusconi. Given that he was previously an entertainer on Costa, perhaps he learned it here?!

 

True to form with Italians, this ship was a relatively noisy affair but that is to be expected. We were given free excursions and so each morning trooped over the gangway, just like on a normal cruise, to make some explorations. With 3 days in Marseille, we did tours we might not have ordinarily done and they were superb. One tour we weren't allowed to do was go anywhere near the edge of the dry dock. In a remarkable instantaneous operation. Marseille drydock company rigged up a 'cruise terminal' with walkways which kept us away from seeing what they were doing. All we know is that the tools were at the stern of the ship, and those gangways seem an awful long way up when there is no water underneath. And so the show went on. Day 2 of our cruise was supposed to be Naples, where the ship would embark passengers. And sure enough, that evening, through the workshops came the passengers to embark and their luggage. Next day more would disembark and everything continued just as if on a normal cruise, but without the water. It was all utterly surreal.

 

My travel companions got fully into the spirit of a Costa cruise. We even went to the 4D cinema, which was fun. We had silly colourful drinks, sludgy hot chocolate, had our picture taken bought souvenirs in the shops. Costa's staff could not have been more helpful or knowledgeable. They say the test of customer service is when something goes wrong, and based on this alone I will definitely cruise Costa again.

[Capricruiser]

Well, kind of a weird cruise but it sounds like you had loads of fun all the same. You should write a CC cruise review but I guess you'd have to put it in the catefory of a cruise to nowhere! By the way, when did all this happen? The first two weeks of December the Deliziosa was in drydock at Palermo for final checks and repairs before her upcoming round the world cruise.

[Mattsudds]

This just happened. The Deliziosa departure for 18 December, due to call at Naples, Cagliari and Ajaccio called instead only at Marseilles dry dock. They wouldn't tell us what the technical problem was but nothing obvious was amiss. We had full power and services. The ship sailed at almost 20 knots into 70km/h winds en route to Marseille without problems.

 

The crew only indicated that it was something so serious that immediate docking was needed before setting off on the around the world cruise. Whatever it was, they were brilliant about it and we had a great time.

[Capricruiser]

Wow! Talk about an unusual cruise!

[Izzziee]

My daughter and her boyfriend were on this cruise, and they had a great time! It was their first ever cruise but they have both said they want to go on more so it didnt put them off :)

They received very good compensation - I believe it was the entire cruise price returned plus a 20% discount off their next costa cruise, plus as said above, free excursions for all three days in port. They were also upgraded from an ocean view to a balcony cabin. (I think I got that right, don't shoot me if i didnt! )

[AmoMondo]

My daughter and her boyfriend were on this cruise, and they had a great time! It was their first ever cruise but they have both said they want to go on more so it didnt put them off :)

They received very good compensation - I believe it was the entire cruise price returned plus a 20% discount off their next costa cruise, plus as said above, free excursions for all three days in port. They were also upgraded from an ocean view to a balcony cabin. (I think I got that right, don't shoot me if i didnt! )

I'd have gone too under those terms. Getting time off from work is not that easy, so when you compare being on a ship for a week for free with sitting at home bored, it's not much of a dilemma.

 

I recall last year with the volcanic ash milarkey, they allowed people to stay on the Far East for another week for a notional amount.

 

I always think you shouldn't judge companies by things going wrong but how they behave when things go wrong.