Anyone sailing Med on Costa March/April?

[dritan]

I'm glad it's going positively.  

And I've just spotted your signature and use to have your blogspot in my favourites on my old machine.  Then couldn't remember the blog title - knew it have something to do with a barn 😉

 

So am delighted to "find" you again!!

[Plan B]

All sounds positive so far.  Enjoy 

[ighten]

Just leaving Palma for day at sea then Rome. Could be a mystery tour. I suspect they will disembark all Italian s then continue to Marseille.

[ighten]

Well tonight should be interesting . We're just leaving Palma though who knows where too. Could be a mystery cruise at this rate lol.

 Still every one is in good spirits and the panorama restaurant for breakfast lunch and dinner is wonderful. 

[Tripi23]

On 3/9/2020 at 5:06 PM, ighten said:

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.

Be interested to know where your cruise is going???

[drsel]

Italy officially is under lock down, so I think no Cruise can get into any port in Italy correct?

[Bobbingbob]

What is happening re. Italian ports on your Smeralda cruise? 

[Plan B]

Just for everyone's info

 

Mainly the response from Peaksean

[drsel]

Almost all reviews of all ships of Costa are like that

[Plan B]

9 minutes ago, drsel said:

Almost all reviews of all ships of Costa are like that

I didn't post the link for you to read the first comment but so you could read all the recent comments.  You need to read further down.  Thanks

[ighten]

Arrived Rome this morning only here till 11.30 And only to disembark Italians. Same will happen in Savona and soezia possible we may get to Marseille a day early and have an overnight. Compensated in cash so effectively 600e cash. Food entertainment crew weather wine coffee etc etc all superb though. Should be a relaxing week. Once we reach Barcelona vthe ship effectively is going to stop running for a few weeks.

 

 

[adam633]

I am cruising on the 30 May and have no idea what to do if I cancel my cruise I will have a significant penalty not to mention I have prepaid everything before including this cruise. Looking at it in another perspective I do have two and half months to go So things may get better but our government has banned all travel to Italy and I am suspecting next few days Europe to. I really want to hold out hope this cruise will go ahead but not sure if this will happen considering current situation:

[Bobbingbob]

Hi Adam

Which cruise are you booked on? We have our first going 3rd May and are still very undecided but it definitely doesn’t look too promising at the moment. We have about 7 or so days until the 45 days cancellation policy (lose only £50 per person if UK booking). We have held off paying the balance but we will lose what we have paid for flights. 
I was told yesterday that cruises for May have been confirmed (I wasn’t totally clear what this meant but presumably if you cancel, that is your own decision) and also that we can choose to book another cruise without penalty and thus transfer the total deposit amount - I hope I got that right. 
The more stringent measures brought into place now by all countries affected, the more chance that this may be brought under control in a couple/few months. There will be major economic disruption so the imperative is there. It is a horrible position to be caught in and I wonder if the stress is worth it quite frankly.

[gerryuk]

41 minutes ago, Bobbingbob said:

 It is a horrible position to be caught in and I wonder if the stress is worth it quite frankly.

 

I have just spent 24 hours flying to Abu Dhabi, arrived in the hotel at 03.30 this morning. I awoke at lunchtime to a email telling me the cruise would not be leaving Abu Dhabi tomorrow (13/03/2020) as planned, but from Dubai. Costa are paying those arriving in Abu Dhabi 100euros for the inconvenience. The email informs that you can spend the 100euros in the Casino, to take excursions, spend in their shops and the like, yer right.

I don't even know where I am getting off the ship, it was originally Savona (I have flights booked) but again the silence from Costa is deafening. I decided to continue with this cruise instead of loosing all the outlay financially. If I could have cancelled and got a future cruise or my money back, I would have done this. This whole thing, and the silence from Costa is a nightmare, the stress is defiantly not worth it.

One good thing, without asking I was upgraded to a suit here in the hotel, and its very nice.

[Plan B]

When are you supposed to be back in Savona? 

 

This is taken from the Costa UK website

Costa Smeralda

The ship will arrive on 12/03 in Civitavecchia, on 13/03 in La Spezia, on 14/03 in Savona. In these ports only disembarkation operations are allowed . The ship will subsequently arrive in Marseille on 15/03 and in Barcelona on 16/03. Boarding operations will not be carried out in these ports, but other activities will be permitted. Cruises departing 14/3, 21/3 and 28/3 are cancelled. The ship will start again on 4/4 in Savona

Costa Diadema

The ship will arrive on 2/04 in Catania, on 3/04 in Naples. In these ports only passenger disembarkation operations will be carried out and excursions or any shore activity will not be allowed. The ship will start again the scheduled program on 4/04 from Civitavecchia.

 

https://www.costacruises.co.uk/coronavirus.html

 

Unless anything changes!!

[gerryuk]

I believe 4th April. I will make my way to Dubai tomorrow and board the ship and unpack. If there are hardly any passengers on this ship tomorrow I will pack my bags and walk off the ship the following day, The ship was scheduled to stay overnight in Dubai from tomorrow, so if its a ghost ship I will leave on the Saturday and book into a hotel. I will then try to arrange flights home and take a huge financial hit with this cruise. I don't want to be on a ship if there are only a handful of people in the theatre, casinos and bars, to me that's not cruising. I have said before and will say again, the way Costa have dealt with all this is just shocking.

It took me nearly 24 hours to get to Abu Dhabi from Gran Canaria yesterday. The first flight Gran Canaria to Madrid was probably 40% full. My second flight Madrid to Istanbul was around 80% full and my third flight Istanbul to Abu Dhabi was, and I am being generous about 35% full.

I would say that if Costa change their stance and you can cancel and get a refund or future cruise credit, and you have a cruise with them booked, take it immediately. The stress of all this, is shocking.

[maryann2]

Princess has ceased operations for 2 months.

 

Coronavirus concerns prompt Princess Cruises to suspend operations for 2 months | Globalnews.ca

 

[Bobbingbob]

Hi Maryann

I was just going to post about that! Will it affect Costa, does anyone think?

[Bobbingbob]

Gerry, what a nightmare for you to be caught up in, You definitely deserved the suite upgrade at your hotel. Hope the ship will be full enough for you to at least get a part enjoyable holiday. The 100 euros is a bit insulting. 

[gerryuk]

16 minutes ago, maryann2 said:

Princess has ceased operations for 2 months.

 

Coronavirus concerns prompt Princess Cruises to suspend operations for 2 months | Globalnews.ca

 

I believe that Viking have just done the same?  

[dethman]

14 minutes ago, gerryuk said:

I believe that Viking have just done the same?  

 

yup.

[Tim-C]

I’m concerned - we fly to Barcelona on April 4th and board Costa Smeralda on 6th. There’s no margin if they extend the quarantine in Italy - cruise will be off.  I’d be less worried, but if it DOES go ahead, I’ll be worried about my wife who is asthmatic. I’d rather they just cancelled it now, to be honest. 

[dritan]

I want to provide an update on my 11th April Costa Fortuna scenario.

Two days ago I got a response via email asking me to call on Thurs for an update.

I called today and had a very pleasant and helpful call.  Below are the options which were offered to me

 

Option 1

There is a new policy which allow passengers up to 21 days before the cruise to cancel ( for me this is March 19th). This option will involve a £50 per passenger fee but you receive the rest of your money back ( we had paid fully).

Option 2

Call and request another cruise using the full amount of money spent to go towards the new booking.

Option 3

Take a chance that the cruise itself will be cancelled by Costa after 3rd April and get all you money back ( for the UK they have a policy of refund if requested.

 

She did emphasise that different markets have different rules so this is valid for UK.

I have until 19th to make a decision.  I'll take that time to assess the worsening situation in Spain ( currently I'd stand to lose the cost of the expensive flights and 2 night post hotel stay).  But suspect I'll go for option 1 and just take the £100 hit and hope that I can have some options regarding SPain.  Sadly Spain seem to be following the same trajectory as Italy and are at over 3000 cases today.  I suspect flights will be cancelled.  

Plus the fact that the UK government is not taking the measures other, less affected nations are, could end up with other countries not willing to take UK residents in as we are not shutting things down at the same rate.  We could well become a pariah nation.

 

[Tim-C]

Thanks for this.  It is useful information- I’m seriously considering it.  Our flights were separate - we didn’t book as a package.  Might be better to cut our losses. 

[Plan B]

1 hour ago, Tim-C said:

I’m concerned - we fly to Barcelona on April 4th and board Costa Smeralda on 6th. There’s no margin if they extend the quarantine in Italy - cruise will be off.  I’d be less worried, but if it DOES go ahead, I’ll be worried about my wife who is asthmatic. I’d rather they just cancelled it now, to be honest. 

We are in the exact same position as yourself!   We booked the cruise via Logitravel, but not the flights and 2 night hotel accommodation.  Our 18 year old daughter is refusing point blank to travel.  This is the reply from Logitravel today 

Good morning,

Thank you for your email.

We, along with Costa Cruises, are closely monitoring the situation in order to keep passengers wellbeing and safety.

At today's date we have not received any official information from Costa Cruises regarding change or cancellation of your cruise.

If any information of any kind is received, you will be informed accordingly.

Thank you.

 

I will ring Costa direct tomorrow but they might just bat me back to Logitravel