A bit of ship & itinerary shuffling

[Wansbrough]

We have booked the repositioning cruise from Dubai to Civitavecchia next March on Firenze but have just received notification from our TA & Costa that there has been a ship & itinerary change.

We will likely cancel this now as they have dropped Aqaba ☹, we could just about have tolerated the larger ship but being as there are so many sea days without the stop we we wanted to return to, it now holds little appeal. We were so looking forward to going to Wadi Rum again, I guess its just a case of having to be patient.

 

"Dear partners, 

We are looking forward to welcoming our mutual customers on board and our priority is to ensure them with a completely safe, serene, and memorable experience.

While we are continuing with our operations in strict dialogue with governments and health authorities, we have been recently published on our channels our updated programs with itineraries for amazing cruise experiences for the 2022 and 2023 aimed at discovering destinations in an authentic way, both on board and ashore.

Therefore, we would like to inform you that the cruise they booked with Costa Firenze from Emirates to the Mediterranean, will be instead performed due to operational reasons by our recently introduced flagship Costa Toscana, with same departures dates and a slightly modified itinerary.  "

[Dancer Bob]

I'm currently on Firenze from Dubai: Of the current Costa fleet, worst ship I have ever been on. I will not go on any of the ships designed for the Chinese market.

I was just a few minutes ago informed that the Toscana will do this trip next year, but the Consultant says the system has been down for several days, he couldn't give me the itinerary, he hopes the system will be back in a couple of days. He was also a little bit imprecise about how the ship is configured. He might have meant specifically the Toscana because he was able to give me information for Diadema, which I quite like.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Dancer Bob

[Wansbrough]

Funny how we are all different, we loved Firenze. 

The itinerary changes have basically the same start with Abu Dhabi, Muscat and the delightful Salalah then it's full steam through the Suez with a couple of extra Mediterranean ports. As much as we were going for some sunshine, we still need some sort of stimulation. 

Are you on the repositioning cruise? 

[BVILady]

Dancer Bob - Concerning lay-out of any ship you can check cruisemapper.com they do have deck plans for most cruise ships.

[maryann2]

On 3/21/2022 at 12:43 AM, Dancer Bob said:

I'm currently on Firenze from Dubai: Of the current Costa fleet, worst ship I have ever been on. I will not go on any of the ships designed for the Chinese market.

I was just a few minutes ago informed that the Toscana will do this trip next year, but the Consultant says the system has been down for several days, he couldn't give me the itinerary, he hopes the system will be back in a couple of days. He was also a little bit imprecise about how the ship is configured. He might have meant specifically the Toscana because he was able to give me information for Diadema, which I quite like.

I presume there are no longer any Russian tourists on board. I have heard there were lots on earlier cruises from Dubai.

This will affect all of the cruise lines. 

 

[Wansbrough]

2 weeks later, our booking still hasn't been updated and our agent is waiting to see what will evolve....

Our booking which was previously visible on the app has disappeared completely.

[Dancer Bob]

Plenty of Russions on board, Russian is included in the multi-lingual announcements.

[Janet&Carl]

On 4/4/2022 at 6:53 PM, Dancer Bob said:

Plenty of Russions on board, Russian is included in the multi-lingual announcements.

 

 

Hi Dancer Bob - Im curious about the new drink packages - are you able to post pictures of the bar menu ?

 

[PhD-iva]

On 4/4/2022 at 3:53 AM, Dancer Bob said:

Plenty of Russions on board, Russian is included in the multi-lingual announcements.

Interesting. I know very little about Costa. Can you tell me which languages are regularly included in announcements and signage? My interest is actually in meeting Italian language speakers to provide me with conversational opportunities in Italian.

[Janet&Carl]

On 5/23/2022 at 2:57 AM, PhD-iva said:

Interesting. I know very little about Costa. Can you tell me which languages are regularly included in announcements and signage? My interest is actually in meeting Italian language speakers to provide me with conversational opportunities in Italian.

 

 

It completely depends on the mix of passengers onboard.  If you are sailing from Germany for example you will have lots of Germans some Italians, some French, some English speakers for example and they will do the announcements in all those languages.   My last Costa cruise had 1400 English speakers on and all announcements were in English first, then Italian etc.... We have sailed out of Japan on Costa and the announcements were in Japanese, English, Italian and French. So you will find all sorts of languages used per the passenger mix.  All menus are translated and used in different languages - in the main dining room you will be seated in an area with people that speak the same language and a waiter that has skills/familiarity of the menu  in that language.   The same is for the shows - they are introduced in many languages by the cruise director and then the shows will be mostly visual.  The singing will be mainly English with  perhaps one of them being an Italian opera show.  The labels and signage is usually English or dual English and Italian.

[Dancer Bob]

Based on my experience, these ships would be a far better fit with Carnival in the US market (although I haven't been on Carnival for a while). Reading between the lines and judging by the near-total absence of customers in the casino and shops, a lot of Europeans were pretty negative too.

I thought I posted the bar menu somewhere but I can't find it.

Oops- I was thinking partly of the Luminosa thread when I wrote this.

Edited June 25, 2022 by Dancer Bob

[BVILady]

https://emmacruises.com/costa-cruises-drinks-package-guide/

Wansbrough has posted pdf-drink-menues. I am booked on the 2023 World Cruise and it looks like prices will go up since we have seen a price-increase in prosecco (I have pre-ordered for my birthday).

In comparison to Casino's in Europe Casino's on cruise ships are not impressive, lacking the atmosphere and would not attract me for example. Shops - how much jewelery and art can you purchase - lol.