Costa internet site

[drsel]

On 5/26/2021 at 1:19 AM, Bertie Doe said:

 

Most companies who deal with cruise insurance, whether it's for a single trip or it's for multi-destination annual cover, will include Cov -19 as standard. The level of covid cover will vary from insurer to insurer. Best to study the small print :-

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/travel-insurance/cruise/

 

Is this insurance cover valid for all nationalities and all passports?

[Bertie Doe]

2 hours ago, drsel said:

Is this insurance cover valid for all nationalities and all passports?

Using the moneysupermarket link, get say, 2 quotes and email them the question reference nationalities/ passports, you should get an answer in 3 working days.

 

For example, we're doing 3 back-to-back cruises in the Caribbean this Winter. I did a single trip cruise quote (rather than an annual multi-trip). I emailed the 2 cheapest insurers with the question "Suppose someone on your flight, tests positive at Bridgetown cruise terminal and the cruise ship denies boarding for the other 299 passengers on this flight, who bears the cost? The passengers, the cruise line or the Insurer?" I got a reply in 3 working days.

 

"Not us" said the Insurers. What I should do, is ask the same question, with the 2 most expensive quotes from the moneysupermkt search engine.

 

[dritan]

9 hours ago, BVILady said:

did you check whether that includes the taxes or port-fees. because on top of the base price you always have these additional charges they will add immediately but don't include in the advertised base-rate.

Hi

 

If that's the situation, then it's only recently been introduced.  Usually when you go through the UK site you get a nice discount at the end step for being a costa club member.  So it comes as a shock to see the price go up instead!

I've emailed them for clarity. 

[maryann2]

22 hours ago, drsel said:

Is this insurance cover valid for all nationalities and all passports?

I followed the link and basically this insurance covers only UK residents and certain European residents.

[BVILady]

1 hour ago, maryann2 said:

I followed the link and basically this insurance covers only UK residents and certain European residents.

I went through that process also, first 7000 L wasn't enough coverage for a world cruise anyhow and my residence also did not qualify. My residence is giving me problems right now also with Visa's. I had been accustomed to Costa getting all Visa's for me. I had been with Costa in China and Russia without any problems, both trips directly booked off their website. Now Costa recommends a Visa-service and they do not handle Visa's for me (German and UK-Citizen) and my friend (US-Citizen) because we are both residing in the British Virgin Islands. Had to cancel an Oceania cruise previously because I would have had to go to Trinidad to get an Indian Visa, estimated cost $ 1500 for flight and hotel. So had not been worth it. Now I am booked 2022 and 2023 world cruises which both stop in Indian Ports, which I had thought would work with iVisa now. IVisa can only be applied for 120 days prior arrival which time I will be on my trip already, so how am I going to board without the required Visas. Contacted Costa customer services but have not received any response.

[drsel]

1 hour ago, BVILady said:

Had to cancel an Oceania cruise previously because I would have had to go to Trinidad to get an Indian Visa, estimated cost $ 1500 for flight and hotel. So had not been worth it. Now I am booked 2022 and 2023 world cruises which both stop in Indian Ports, which I had thought would work with iVisa now. IVisa can only be applied for 120 days prior arrival which time I will be on my trip already, so how am I going to board without the required Visas.

A World Cruise is very dicey.

It is too much of a hassle to apply for and arrange so many visas and also have so many pages of your passport free for the visa stickers and stamps. Not to mention the cost.

 

If you are having a hassle with visas, imagine the plight of world Cruise passengers from dozens of countries in Africa and Asia! They will need visas for so many countries!!

 

Without advance visas (which are required for some countries), you may be denied boarding or you may have to disembark midway.

Edited June 15, 2021 by drsel

[drsel]

19 hours ago, dritan said:

Usually when you go through the UK site you get a nice discount at the end step for being a costa club member. 

Yes the Costa UK site usually has the lowest prices and sometimes a low priced alcohol package bundled with your Cruise fare

[dritan]

23 hours ago, drsel said:

Yes the Costa UK site usually has the lowest prices and sometimes a low priced alcohol package bundled with your Cruise fare

Not any more, sadly!

[drsel]

59 minutes ago, dritan said:

Not any more, sadly!

So which country website has the lowest prices?

[BVILady]

49 minutes ago, drsel said:

So which country website has the lowest prices?

I think you need to be a resident there, at least that is what it says on the US and Caribbean site.

[Stefan_Varong]

On 6/16/2021 at 8:32 PM, BVILady said:

I think you need to be a resident there, at least that is what it says on the US and Caribbean site.

 

Not that sure. In 2017 I sat at a table with a Dutch lady, who’s ticked was bought in the USA. I booked Costa cruises through their “rest of Europe” pages (as applicable regionally for my residence), several times in Germany and right now for the first time on their Dutch website. The country of residence was automatically changed to Netherlands, while all the other data remained correct. This was a drop down menu and countries from all over the world were available as choice and easily corrected.

[drsel]

Stefan is correct.

You should compare prices on the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Austria websites.

I think the Germany and Austria websites also include the mandatory service charges ( 10 euros per person per night ) in the Cruise fare.

So include that in your calculation when comparing prices.

 

Another point I noticed is that the prices of most Costa Cruises are the cheapest in the upcoming few months.

That means whenever you check, Costa Cruise prices will usually be the lowest in the near future.

So, it makes more sense to book last minute, because prices will keep falling.

This may not apply to world Cruises.

Edited June 21, 2021 by drsel

[gerryuk]

Anybody know what the situation is with Costa excursions? I know you can only leave the ship if you purchase excursions with Costa. I remember somebody on here stating that Costa were bunching excursions together for around 100sterling? I have cruise in September and having looked at the Costa excursions page of My Costa. all i am seeing is normal excursions with normal prices. Anybody know any different?

[BVILady]

I think the package is called passeporte, might not be available for every cruise. It is 3 excursions packaged together and not all excursions are included in this package only certain ones. I think it was something like $ 150.00 for the 3 of them, so 100 sterling might be correct.

 

[SpeedySal]

In MyCosta for a cruise booked in October in the excursions section  I can buy the Passepartour package of 5 excursions (from a selection on offer) for 159€ per person.

 

However, on a cruise booked in November this option is not available so it’s back to the usual purchasing of individual full price excursions if you want to leave the ship.

 

I think it may depend on where you are cruising and possibly it is only offered on cruises around the Med but I am just guessing here. 

I wonder when we may be able to cruise again without the restriction of only being able to leave the ship on an organised excursion………..?

Edited July 12, 2021 by SpeedySal
typo!

[kremerlorraine]

It is the Passepartour, five excursions for 159 euros. If you look at the excursions on offer on MyCosta, it should say which ones are included in the offer (it tends to be the cheaper ones, obviously!) I think it is only for the shorter Med cruises.

[drsel]

On 7/12/2021 at 5:05 PM, gerryuk said:

Anybody know what the situation is with Costa excursions? I know you can only leave the ship if you purchase excursions with Costa. I remember somebody on here stating that Costa were bunching excursions together for around 100sterling? I have cruise in September and having looked at the Costa excursions page of My Costa. all i am seeing is normal excursions with normal prices. Anybody know any different?

Only the short city tours and panoramic tours are included in the Passeporte package

[BVILady]

VENTING - so I want to get 3 cabins for a Mediterranean Cruise in July 2022. It is up on the German website but I can't book it because I don't have a European Phone-#. Have no problem paying the German price. It is still not available on the US website. It is for July, so in the heights of Summer season. We are booked with deposit on a different cruise line but I like this cruise better and have preliminarily changed all other reservations for our summer 2022 to fit this new schedule including being in Europe 2 weeks before boarding to meet the current Covid-restrictions on Costa. Now just on hold to see what is happening. NOT pleased at all.

[BVILady]

32 minutes ago, BVILady said:

VENTING - so I want to get 3 cabins for a Mediterranean Cruise in July 2022. It is up on the German website but I can't book it because I don't have a European Phone-#. Have no problem paying the German price. It is still not available on the US website. It is for July, so in the heights of Summer season. We are booked with deposit on a different cruise line but I like this cruise better and have preliminarily changed all other reservations for our summer 2022 to fit this new schedule including being in Europe 2 weeks before boarding to meet the current Covid-restrictions on Costa. Now just on hold to see what is happening. NOT pleased at all.

might have gotten through on the EU-site, hoping, waiting for on-hold confirmation.

[Stefan_Varong]

1 hour ago, BVILady said:

VENTING - so I want to get 3 cabins for a Mediterranean Cruise in July 2022. It is up on the German website but I can't book it because I don't have a European Phone-#. Have no problem paying the German price. It is still not available on the US website. It is for July, so in the heights of Summer season. We are booked with deposit on a different cruise line but I like this cruise better and have preliminarily changed all other reservations for our summer 2022 to fit this new schedule including being in Europe 2 weeks before boarding to meet the current Covid-restrictions on Costa. Now just on hold to see what is happening. NOT pleased at all.

 

Again a very strange thing, it seems Costa still has serious troubles in the booking procedures. When I booked a now cancelled cruise they had my correct phone number from earlier bookings still in the system, just they added the international code +501 for Belize instead of +36 for Hungary (I never lived out of Europe, for sure not with the same phone numer). Booking in Europe was no problem, but changing the international code was. When I booked my world cruise on the Dutch site they offered and confirmed another drinking package than I found on mycosta.com (drinks only during lunch and dinner, which is not as confirmed). How often I write to the Dutch customers service (I speak Dutch), I don’t get an answer. In English to the main office made them to answer after some waiting time, but according to them I had to address myself to the German customers service. The Germans answered quickly, but only that they can’t access my booking and forwarded the problem to their Dutch colleagues. From them still no answer. It is definitely some deeper rooting problem, since I can’t even click onto the item for an upgrade (for 2023 I did and was through booking within one minute), the system says that even the too small package is not available at all. BTW if I have problems with booking through the German site I have a TA who does the booking for me, they are very responsive and sometimes access to single cabins when it is on the Costa website not available. Bad enough I mustn’t tell you how I go 7 seas when using a travel agent. Perhaps a search engine works with it if your EU booking doesn’t work.

[BVILady]

Hi Stefan, not getting through. Have reservation-#'s but cannot complete the reservation and payment of deposit. Can you send me contact for your travel-agent by e-mail uschi_m60 at yahoo. As it looks will never be able to get through to pay the deposit since paying guest is always the name the cabin is booked in, cannot be changed, but I am the one paying for all 3 cabins 😞 Very frustrating. US-travel Agent can't access the European Reservation. Almost tempted to keep the reservation with Royal Caribbean and not bother any longer, maybe Costa doesn't want our business - lol. But I am just tooooo stubborn.

[Stefan_Varong]

Uschi, I wrote a mail

[drsel]

3 hours ago, BVILady said:

Hi Stefan, not getting through. Have reservation-#'s but cannot complete the reservation and payment of deposit. Can you send me contact for your travel-agent by e-mail uschi_m60 at yahoo. As it looks will never be able to get through to pay the deposit since paying guest is always the name the cabin is booked in, cannot be changed, but I am the one paying for all 3 cabins 😞 Very frustrating. US-travel Agent can't access the European Reservation. Almost tempted to keep the reservation with Royal Caribbean and not bother any longer, maybe Costa doesn't want our business - lol. But I am just tooooo stubborn.

Try on the Costa UK website

[BVILady]

Thank you drsel. Got through and the cruises are also finally listed on the US website.

 

[drsel]

5 hours ago, BVILady said:

Thank you drsel. Got through and the cruises are also finally listed on the US website.

But it's priced much lower on Costa UK