Costa Allegra - review

[crookedstick]

We just completed the 12 day (western Caribbean) cruise on the Allegra - Jan. 8-19. Let me say right away that you get what you pay for. Most of the Americans and Canadians booked this cruise because it was very inexpensive (i.e. cheap). So don't compare it with some others like Celebrity or even Carnival (it's parent).

 

This ship goes out-of-service in mid-March. Rumour has it that it will be a casino ship somewhere in the orient (China or Japan) or India after refitting in dry-dock in Genoa.

 

We had fun on board and the activities staff were wonderful. Nightly entertainment was just so-so. It seems that Costa is just trying to break even while they have this ship for the next 2 months and are not paying for 'great' showliners.

The biggest thing you notice on this ship is dining. First sitting is at 6:45pm and 2nd sitting is at 9:15pm. Our ship had about 800 passengers and 65% went to first sitting.

 

I would guesstimate that the makeup of the passengers were about 50% English speaking from U.S., Canada + U.K.; 20% Italian, 15% Spanish; 10% French from France + Quebec; and 5% German. Most of the Spanish speaking group came on board in Costa Rica and were a great lively bunch. This seems unusual as most other cruise companies only have one point of embarkation. Of the 50% non-English passengers I would guess that about 1/2 understood English.

 

Most of the Americans and Canadians (snowbirds) on board lived within a 4 hour drive from Miami and they averaged about 65 years of age. The non-English groups were averaging about 10 years younger. Very few kids were on board.

 

I am NOT a seasoned cruiser so I can't really give you a good comparison with other ships. But I was a bit let down on the variety of food offered. I've had better (i.e. more) choices on Celebrity and NCL. . I love Tiramisu - a great Italian cake. It was only offered 1 night. I asked why and was told they only carried Mascarpone cheese (the main ingredient) for 1 nights desserts. A shame, as this is a classic Italian dish. Most evening dinners were European styled. But if you give the maitre d' 24 hours notice, they will make anything for you. There is no evening buffet like on most other ships. Service in the dining room was excellent. Most people (70%) went to the lunch buffet thus creating a surplus of staff in the fine dining area. This is what we favoured. Seating in the buffet area was very squashed and I really appreciated having great staff to take care of us in the fine dining area.

 

Here's a tip. Bring a thermos or large mug and fill it up at breakfast or lunch. There is a charge for coffee at all the bars.

 

Do not confuse this ship with Costa's other vessels. There is no comparison. Of those people who were Costa regulars, almost all of them preferred Costas other liners. This is a relatively small ship. For those who have booked a cruise on the Allegra and have a few questions, write to the message board and I will try to answer.

[Linda-B]

Thanks for the review. The 4 of us are really looking forward to our cruise on 2/21. I do have a few questions that I hope you can answer.

1)What is the earliest time they let you embark on the ship in Miami?

2)What time did you embark on the ship?

3)Did you stop in Progresso or Cozumel?

4)Do you have any suggestions (good and bad) about excursions or activities in the ports?

5)I think we have late seating-are all the shows after that(probably around 11:15) or do they have some of the shows before late seating?

Again thanks so much

Linda

[crookedstick]

1+2) This particular ship's crew is very new to the port of Miami and they have not yet got there optimum efficiency together. We got into the terminal at about 1pm and were allowed to enter the ship about 3pm. They really were disorganized. There were no refreshments while waiting the 2 hours to board. I suggest you have lunch before entering the terminal.

3) We stopped in Progresso.

4) The people on our sailing were not that adventurous and many tours were cancelled because of poor participation. Usually 1 to 3 tours were sent out of each port. If you are the adventurous type and don't need hand-holding I would suggest booking privately (and cheaper). All cruise tours can be booked online but they only tell you within 24 hours (of the tour departure) if it's a go or no-go. On one tour a busload was left stranded because the bus driver forgot them. Another bus had to go pick them up. We did not go on any tours ourselves and just walked into the port areas.

5) For second seating (9:15pm) the (main) entertainment in the theater was at 7:45pm. The first seating's theater time was at 9:15pm. What really bugged me was that some of the early finishers of 1st seating would walk into our performance. There was no crowd control to stop these rude &^$@$% imbeciles from spoiling our show. If you like to eat at the midnight buffet then you should go to first seating. As 2nd seating diners we finished at approx. 10:30 to 10:45pm. That's only 75 minutes to the next meal. We only went to 2 midnights. One was for the crepe suzettes. Also, don't miss the tour of the galley which was also at midnight.

 

Other things that I remember....(it's less then 24 hours since we left the ship).

I was the FIRST person off the ship....at 10:45am. Total chaos on disembarkation. Stress out now and just go with the flow. There is no way to speed things up. Again, there was no crowd control and people were like cattle going to slaughter - pushing and shoving. I'm guessing that some people were still coming off the ship at noontime.

Other Costa cruises have a toga night.... but not this one.

 

Linda...have a good cruise. The fun on this ship is meeting fellow passengers. In spite of everything we had a good time.

[Linda-B]

Thanks so much for the response.

We already have private tours and activities arranged for Colon, Grand Cayman and Progresso. I guess we will just wing it in Montego Bay and Puerto Limon.

I'm sorry that there won't be Toga night on this ship. It really was fun on our last cruise.

If you remember anything else just post it here. I love to gleen information on my upcoming trips.

Linda

[bobthek]

Hi again, crooked stick.

 

Good review! I generally agree with your points, but also plan to write a short review tomorrow (still catching up with messages, calls, etc.).

 

I did have fun on the cruise, and it was a pleasure to meet you.

 

We will talk some more.

[crookedstick]

Costa Allegra - money matters

 

This particular Costa ship is a bit odd in that it prices everything in Euros. You will not see the dollar sign - $$$ - anywhere on board. Currently the exchange rate (approx.) is as follows: 1 Euro = $1.21 US or, in reverse, 1 US $ = 0.83 Euro.

The purser's office deals in several currencies because of the mix of passengers on board. In the real world currencies change every second. On board they are frozen for the trip. During my 12 days on the vessel the posted buy + sell rates never changed.

All transactions are cashless (is that a word?). You use the Costa card they give you when boarding for all purchases. At the end of the trip you cay pay by either of 2 methods. Cash or credit card. If you have Euro cash or Euro denominated CCs than the transaction is simple. I paid my bills in US cash. They convert your US $ into Euros and then apply that to your account. There is a 3 Euro service charge for every conversion. I wish I knew the keyboard symbol for the Euro. It looks like an E on acid. I can only guess how CCs work. Perhaps someone else can elaborate. I suspect Euros are charged and your individual CC company will do the exchange rate conversion on your personal CC statement. Please keep a good accounting of your purchases. I found a few mistakes (in the ship's favour) on my account. They do not have a video screen channel like some hotels have where you can see a current listing of all charges posted.

Tipping: there are 2 ways. Personal - from your hand to the tippee. Or, the ship pays the tippee from your account. Automatically, if you don't go to the Purser's office and say no, they will bill your cabin account. The amount charged is 66 Euros (approx. $80 US) per person which is a reasonable rate for 11 nights. I use 11 days/nights because I don't count the debarkation day. It works out to approx. $7.25 per person per day. Most people used the automatic way to tip.

Most people travelling (US residents) got 200 US dollars (per cabin) on board ship credit. This is very generous because you don't have to be a Costa club member (for frequent Costa cruisers) to get it. The on board credit varies but almost all US people I spoke to got the $200. Be warned.... the on board credit cannot be used for tips (and I think also for the casino which is cash only). So your credit will go for stuff purchased on board in the ships stores, your bar bill, or for tours. BTW...this ship does NOT have any Fine Art auctions.

I don't drink but I found they usually had booze samples in the store every day as well as the Tortuga rum cake samples. Sort of like a mini-Costco for those people who like to munch free samples. From the minute I got on board some items in the stores were listed as 'on sale'. A bit unusual to say the least. If you are into (cheap) watches they did have a 2 for 1 sale on one day. Ask beforehand on which day the 'sale' will be held on. I don't know the return policies (if any) as I did not return anything.

[nurse2trav]

Thank you for all the info. It is nice to be a little prepared. In Colon did the ship dock all day? I assume if you want to see or experience the canal you need to take an excursion.

[Linda-B]

We will be on Costa Allegra in Colon on 2/27. We have a tour scheduled for that day that goes to the Gatun Locks, Embera Indian Village, the Chagres River and falls. When will you be there.

Linda

[bobthek]

The Costa Allegra docked at 6:00 AM on Jan 14 and left at about 6:00 PM. It was about 1 1/2 hours each way via bus to Panama City on the Pacific side. We booked an excursion through our tour operator (Legendary Journeys). High point of the tour was Gatun Locks (a passenger ship and a container ship were transiting the locks). Low points were the rest of the tour! Colonial PC was mostly a slum. We wasted 1/2 hour in a duty free shop in PC with poor prices. Another 1 hour plus was wasted going to a noisy, crowded Mall for lunch (all fast food joints!). We would have prefered seeing the Miraflores Locks, more of the Canal and the Canal Zone. We were in Colon on Saturday, so the Duty Free Zone (one of the largest in the world) was closed for the weekend. Try to see if you can arrange a personalized excursion without Panama City. If all else fails, do check out the duty free shops at the pier. We found the best prices on emeralds at Gem City.