Anyone sailing Med on Costa March/April?

[dritan]

Hi

 

We are due to sail on the Fortuna on 11th April from Tarragona.  We recently got an email from Costa reassuring us that all was on track for the cruise and all precautions were being taken.

At this stage, the situation in Italy seems to be changing/worsening daily.  I wonder if there has been any precedent for Costa to re route cruises - I guess that as Savona is their home port and their main passenger group in Italian - this is unlikely.

 I'm not going to cancel and would probably only do so if I was given the option by Costa.  But my work has already told me that I will need to Work From Home for 2 weeks after I return and my daughter's school may take the same approach.  

 

Curious if anyone else out there is in a similar position. - I could be in a situation where the cruise gets cancelled but my flights to Barcelona arent' - so will need to have a plan B!!

Edited March 6, 2020 by dritan
typo

[panamapd]

Hi - ask yourself if it is worth the stress.  What is the atmosphere going to be like on the ship?  Will you be happy using the Kids Club, the swimming pool/hot tubs/gym/sauna/going to see a show, etc?

 

If this was your first ever holiday ever/somewhere completely exotic and once-in-life time bucket list cruise - then maybe.  This is "only" the Med!! Think about having to work at home for two weeks at home and your daughter probably having to take two weeks off school as well......?

 

Whilst not in completely the same situation.  We (myself, husband and 10yr son) had Costa Magica booked for 9th April 2020, so over Easter.  We decided to cancel and just bear the loss.  The cost of cancelling the cruise was about 220 euros, but we cancelled before final payment date.  We also stand to lose about £150 with Ryanair flights (this could possibly be refunded if the flights are subsequently cancelled by Ryanair).  I don't know what your cancellation loss would be for the cruise and flights.

 

I see that you have the Carnival Legend booked for July.  I presume to the Med.  If possible just wait until then.  We are going with CMV to the fjords, in July, and are just looking forward to that.  So glad that we were able to cancel and don't regret that decision.

[Plan B]

We are in a similar position in that we are flying into Barca on 4 April to board the Smeralda which is calliing and picking up in Savona, La Spezia and Civitavecchia, as well as Majorca and Marseille.  Really wishing we hadn't paid our balance but the virus hadn't hit Italy when we did.

 

We own a small cafe so working at home isn't an option for us but I'm guessing that by the time we get back that the virus will have spread uncontrollably, if not before we go.

 

They are saying on the BBC this morning that if it follows the pattern of normal flu then it might fizzle out in the warmer months - flu is seasonal which I didn't know, but it sounds like the experts didn't know much about the virus yet  

[ighten]

At this point its hit the UK - your as likely to hit it at the supermarket

[drsel]

At this point its hit the UK - your as likely to hit it at the supermarket

Order free home delivery of groceries to be safe

[drsel]

Hi

 

I wonder if there has been any precedent for Costa to re route cruises - I guess that as Savona is their home port and their main passenger group in Italian - this is unlikely- I could be in a situation where the cruise gets cancelled but my flights to Barcelona arent' - so will need to have a plan B!!

I don't think your Cruise will be cancelled, because Costa needs to run its business and also needs all passengers' service charges to pay the hard working crew salaries.

 

[dritan]

Thanks for the comments.  Unfortunately we'd lose over £1000 in flights and cruise price if it isn't cancelled.  I had to cancel our pre Christmas trip to PAris ( and lost the hotel charges) due to Eurostar strike, so am loathe to take a second hit so soon.  ( plus the fact we were in South wales during the recent Storm Dennis  - crikey maybe we should just stop booking trips lol).

To be brutally honest, I'm not that worried about catching the virus itself.  It's more the uncertainty and the concerns of staff at work and the potential of having to self isolate for 2 weeks when back. 

 

But suspect things will worsen across Europe by then, so hopefully it will be taken out of my hands.

 

[dritan]

Our final payment date for the Legend is end of April, so at least we have time to make a decision and suspect we will know whether this is on the wane by then.

[dritan]

Just noticed on news that the Czech Rep have issued a statement that all nationals returning from Italy must self isolate for 14 days or face a fine.  

[Plan B]

5 hours ago, drsel said:

10 hours ago, ighten said:

At this point its hit the UK - your as likely to hit it at the supermarket

Order free home delivery of groceries to be safe

Who or what is safe to say that your deliveries will arrive Coronavirus free ????

 

[tenpin]

18 hours ago, drsel said:

22 hours ago, ighten said:

At this point its hit the UK - your as likely to hit it at the supermarket

Order free home delivery of groceries to be safe

 

I think at this stage of the outbreak those who are panic buying are just hitting the house bound & elderly this applies to home deliveries more than ever if those people can't get a time slot.

 

Give a thought to anyone who can not just pop to the supermarket's or shops.. 

[drsel]

We hardly ever visit the supermarket.
we have been ordering home deliveries for years

[drsel]

We always get a time slot easily

[tenpin]

That may well change given how people are panic buying.

 

My friend who is totally house bound has already had problems with her usual weekly slot as she relies on her carer being there to let them in.

So if you can get out then you should.

[dethman]

I was scheduled to sail out of barcelona on smeralda Mar 16 with my wife and 2 small kids.   Decided it just wasn't worth it to be stuck on Italian cruise line with generally shitty customer service in a time of crisis, probably missing a bunch of ports, and then possibly being stuck on a quarantined ship because there's no way a ship full of Italians is Corona virus free.  Also wasn't sure if trump was going to let me back in my own country afterwards. 

 

Very disappointed as we were looking forward to the trip and ended up taking a huge bath as Costa wouldn't give me a refund and flights from Los Angeles also weren't refundable.  Costa and trip insurance said go F yourself. 

 

Oh well such is life.  Already lost multitudes more in the stock market past 2 weeks anyway. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 8, 2020 by dethman

[drsel]

Haha, that's hilarious.

Don't worry Trump will take you back with or without coronavirus !

there is no custom duty on Corona virus

Edited March 8, 2020 by drsel

[gerryuk]

2 hours ago, dethman said:

I was scheduled to sail out of barcelona on smeralda Mar 16 with my wife and 2 small kids.   Decided it just wasn't worth it to be stuck on Italian cruise line with generally shitty customer service in a time of crisis, probably missing a bunch of ports, and then possibly being stuck on a quarantined ship because there's no way a ship full of Italians is Corona virus free.  Also wasn't sure if trump was going to let me back in my own country afterwards. 

 

Very disappointed as we were looking forward to the trip and ended up taking a huge bath as Costa wouldn't give me a refund and flights from Los Angeles also weren't refundable.  Costa and trip insurance said go F yourself. 

 

Oh well such is life.  Already lost multitudes more in the stock market past 2 weeks anyway. 

 

 

 

 

Its absolutely appalling. The cruise industry, particularly lines like Costa are going to reap a whirlwind of dissatisfied customers when this virus is over. If they believe that customers being told to either cruise and take your chance, or loose your money in this situation, is good customer relations, they are living in la la land. 

I think eventually, there will be a major backlash against Costa. Their treatment of current customers is just utterly disgraceful, how many of them will cruise with Costa in the future? I am surprised that Carnival has decided that there are rules for their customers when cancelling, yet customers on Costa are being, hung out to dry.

 

 

 

[dritan]

10 minutes ago, gerryuk said:

Its absolutely appalling. The cruise industry, particularly lines like Costa are going to reap a whirlwind of dissatisfied customers when this virus is over. If they believe that customers being told to either cruise and take your chance, or loose your money in this situation, is good customer relations, they are living in la la land. 

I think eventually, there will be a major backlash against Costa. Their treatment of current customers is just utterly disgraceful, how many of them will cruise with Costa in the future? I am surprised that Carnival has decided that there are rules for their customers when cancelling, yet customers on Costa are being, hung out to dry.

 

 

 

I suspect (perhaps naively)that the news regarding the quarantine of much of Northern Italy, may finally force their hand. Although Savona is outside the zone, Venice is inside. And I would imagine a significant percentage of their passengers will be unable to board.

Savona itself is only about 50 miles from the red zone.

 

To the earlier responder, I'm not sure what was hilarious about Dethman's post?

[jakob71]

My wife and I were going to sail on Smeralda from Barcelona, March 23.

 

But due to the worsening situation in «the Corona situation» in Italy, for some time now we no longer wanted to travel on this cruise.

Yesterday, the Norwegian Directorate of Health released a new update on «the Corona situation» in Italy. In the new update, among other places, it is no longer recommended for Norwegians to travel to the Liguria Region.

 

The cities of La Spezia and Savona are both located in this region, and we will therefore now fortunately be able to cancel this cruise under our travel insurance. But the cancellation of the flights to and from Barcelona, will not be covered. But fortunately, we didn't pay that much for the flight tickets.

 

However, should we still have chosen to travel on this cruise, we would after returning to Norway, had to quarintined for two weeks.

 

It is sad to experience that the «Corona situation» in Italy now seems to be changing/worsening nearly daily.  I

 

 

[dritan]

I'm really pleased that you've been able to get to a satisfactory conclusion with this.  It's the issue of what happens when we return home which is the key issue for me too. 

It's unlikely at this stage that we will do the cruise in any scenario ( unless they decided to completely avoid Italy, but given their clientele that is unlikely - interestingly it appears the Carnival RAdiance will be sailing in the Med in May but are due to come out with a change itinerary to avoid Italy).

Spain figures are increasing but at a similar rate to other European countries - so my (expensive) flights are unlikely to be cancelled.  With that in mind I'm going to see if I can book a land based trip with non pre paid hotels that I can cancel at short notice. That way my little girl gets her Easter trip and we avoid Italy. 

[jakob71]

1 hour ago, dritan said:

I'm really pleased that you've been able to get to a satisfactory conclusion with this.  It's the issue of what happens when we return home which is the key issue for me too. 

It's unlikely at this stage that we will do the cruise in any scenario ( unless they decided to completely avoid Italy, but given their clientele that is unlikely - interestingly it appears the Carnival RAdiance will be sailing in the Med in May but are due to come out with a change itinerary to avoid Italy).

Spain figures are increasing but at a similar rate to other European countries - so my (expensive) flights are unlikely to be cancelled.  With that in mind I'm going to see if I can book a land based trip with non pre paid hotels that I can cancel at short notice. That way my little girl gets her Easter trip and we avoid Italy. 

I really hope you will find a nice alternative land-based trip in Spain! Best of luck!

[dritan]

Thanks.  Gotta try and make the best of it all.

[ighten]

Just boarded smerelda  today in Barcelona. So far so good. Mamara hotel was quite last night but ship seems full today. Very impressed so far especially the dining  room auto hand washers. Surprised for Costa quite how many Americans and Canadians are on board. Not many UK though.  Hotel scanned us with forehead zappers last night. Costa are doing full body scan equipment on boarding.  Excellent lunch mushroom lasagna band Brie, venison stew, octupus and clam in the Columbia restaurant for lunch. Very swanky new feel. Fingers crossed for the rest but everyone's having fun in the sun.

Edited March 9, 2020 by ighten

[ighten]

[drsel]

Have fun I am really happy for you