Is this what to expect from Costa post-covid?

[Pebbels]

My first cruise post-covid was a rather disappointing one. 

 

Long periods of the day with no food available. Not even a hamburger.

Coffee & cake for one hour (1630-1730) doesn't help my "hangry" kids. 

If we went to the MDR for lunch it was 1200-1330. It's a long time to wait for dinner until 1845, especially for my kids. Buffet lunch. Was 12-15, but so stressfull standing in loooong lines when travelling with kids. 

Buffet dinner was only one hour, 20-21. I can't remember any ship I have been to only have an hour buffet?! 

 

Buffet is not self-service, and I have never seen lines like that before.... Had to wait at least 15 minutes every time. 

 Food were pretty bad in the buffet, and no selection. If you don't like pasta it's a problem. Never any rice or french fries in the buffet.

 I thought they was back to self-service, but I asked and they told me no Costa ships have self-service anymore.

Is this true? 

 

MDR had better food but not great, but our poor waiter seemed to have way to many tables, not one day on our 12 day cruise we got all we ordered. 

 

I had to ask at least 3 times for bacon every morning. Same thing with butter and omelettes. 

 

 Once in on of the bars I ordered Bayleis and coffee. Got the Bayleis straight away, after the 4th time asking for my coffee I just left the bar with the Bayleis still on the table...

 

Once in the buffet I asked for ketchup, I was asked to get in line to get it (would guess it was a 15 min wait ). I asked if she was joking, and she said I could ask in the bar (strange...) The woman in the bar told me they had it in another bar....

Had the same hunt for butter a few times.

 

My daughter spilled some of her Halloween makeup on the bed, when it was not changed two days later I asked nicely it it was ok for them to change the beds. He couldn't hide how irritated he was. This was the only time the bed was changed on our 12 day cruise. 

 

The BIG dead moth stayed on the balcony most of the cruise, disappeared after balcony maintenance. I joked with my husband the first day that it would probably be there the entire cruise, and told him not to remove it... 

 

We went to the pizzarestaurant 3 times, pizza was good. But it's not really a restaurant, they just use a corner of the buffet restaurant... 

 

Saw alot of people filling water directly into their water bottles, asked the staff two times if that was ok, no problem was the answer! I am sure I have seen signs pre COVID telling people its not allowed. Disgusting!   And one meter away people was not allowed to press the buttons at the coffee machine themselves, they actually had staff at the coffee machines. 

 

One day my husband forgot sugar in my coffee, I went over to ask for sugar but was told I could only get it if I brought my cup over....

 

We had a drink package, can't remember the name but we paid 690 euros for it. For two adults and my kids aged 3 and 6.

 For the entire cruise we were only allowed to get 10 X 0,5 liters bottles of water each adult. No bottels of water for my kids, and they don't drink any soda... My kids never had anything that wasn't included.

 

Loved the Amarillo bar with amazing ice-cream and hot chocolate. My kids loved the outside playarea and the pool with Peppa pig. But it's outdoors so when it's getting colder it's probably going to be too cold to use the kids pool even if it is heated. We were very lucky getting sunny and warm days this late in the year! 

They went to the kids club twice, but didn't want to go again, said it was boring because all they did was to watch TV... 

First time we have cruised using the kids club. Is it normal they just put the kids in front of the TV in the kids clubs?

 

Have cruised Costa before COVID, and had a good time. If this is what to expect this was my last Costa cruise!

 

 

 

[Pebbels]

This was on Favolosa late October from Barcelona. 

[CarnivalShips480]

Wow, this is very bad. No wonder Costa doesn't have a lot of business. I'm still in disbelief that they would let it be bad.

 

What would you think of all the Costa ships becoming Carnival ships? Lets say they would still sail from Europe. As a huge Carnival fan (one could guess), I would love more Costa ships to Carnival, especially because they are the same classes. I think costa ships becoming Carnival would make a way better experience

[BlueBear4Travel]

On 11/11/2022 at 10:19 PM, Pebbels said:

Long periods of the day with no food available. Not even a hamburger.

Coffee & cake for one hour (1630-1730) doesn't help my "hangry" kids. 

This has always been the case with Costa and is not a new thing. Hence the reason in our personal ranging we rate Costa the lowest.

[sealynx]

On 11/12/2022 at 1:13 AM, CarnivalShips480 said:

What would you think of all the Costa ships becoming Carnival ships? Lets say they would still sail from Europe. As a huge Carnival fan (one could guess), I would love more Costa ships to Carnival, especially because they are the same classes. I think costa ships becoming Carnival would make a way better experience.

You are probably right. But if they can afford to change the ships to a new brand, they should certainly be able to recreate the Costa-brand to be good again. Carnival Corp. knows how to do cruising, and knows how to appeal the European market (proven by P&O, AIDA, HAL). They should be able to make Costa a success again.

[Pebbels]

I am actually a bit surprised that no one is telling me we were just really unlucky, that it's not really normally that bad.....

So I guess this is just how Costa works now then 😐

 

We mainly choose cruise by looking for interesting itinerarys and price.

They must have an amazing itinerary for us to ever consider booking Costa again! 

 

 

 

 

[onetimearoundtheworld]

I just checked the schedule on the Fascinosa which is the same class. Breakfast from 6:30 to 10:30. Lunch from 12:00 to 15:30 coffee and snacks from 16:00 to 17:30 dinner from 19:00 to 20:00 or your assigned MDR time at 19:00 or 21:15. But then you also have pizza from 19:00 to 01:00 and snack bar on the lido deck from 19:00 to 05:00! And the ice cream and crepes bar from 16:00 to 24:00
Sure the last three are to pay but 5€ for a burger, fries and dessert menu or 5,25€ for a classic pizza isn't too bad considering Costas price level and that they often include service charge in the booking. So what you pay on service charge on NCL or RC alone gives you a burger, pizza and ice cream every day.

Other than that it is still costa and their passenger mix in the med is annoying but they pleasantly surprised me. Service has been top and the buffet situation for breakfast and lunch isn't as bad considering there are four stations with the same offerings so you can find a quick moving one. Quality in the buffet actually one of the best compared to other mainstream cruise lines. No fast food but some nice appetizer options and not the usual US based cruise line stuff.

[BVILady]

1 hour ago, onetimearoundtheworld said:

I just checked the schedule on the Fascinosa which is the same class. Breakfast from 6:30 to 10:30. Lunch from 12:00 to 15:30 coffee and snacks from 16:00 to 17:30 dinner from 19:00 to 20:00 or your assigned MDR time at 19:00 or 21:15. But then you also have pizza from 19:00 to 01:00 and snack bar on the lido deck from 19:00 to 05:00! And the ice cream and crepes bar from 16:00 to 24:00
Sure the last three are to pay but 5€ for a burger, fries and dessert menu or 5,25€ for a classic pizza isn't too bad considering Costas price level and that they often include service charge in the booking. So what you pay on service charge on NCL or RC alone gives you a burger, pizza and ice cream every day.

Other than that it is still costa and their passenger mix in the med is annoying but they pleasantly surprised me. Service has been top and the buffet situation for breakfast and lunch isn't as bad considering there are four stations with the same offerings so you can find a quick moving one. Quality in the buffet actually one of the best compared to other mainstream cruise lines. No fast food but some nice appetizer options and not the usual US based cruise line stuff.

Thank you! Having cruised on lot's of cruise-lines we always liked the food on Costa the most. And considering that the Poster has paid ZERO for the little darlings to be on the ship you would think they can swing to pay for some pizza or a burger. For lot's of people all these food-offerings are too big of a temptation already, like I am wondering how I can possibly discipline myself to not gain too much weight. And remembering the daily news-letter Costa has always offered the most entertainment for kids of any of the ships I had been on. Again free of charge! Concerning bottled water on all the ships I have been on, you had to pay for bottled water and apparently people have been filling up bottles on the buffet-station, which was again a reason to complain. Many people do that, I am not one of them, but that is up to every one.

[onetimearoundtheworld]

I do agree that the OP has many valid points. It is ridiculous that they charge 2€ for fries alone. There is just no reason to do it. They are not making any serious amount of sales anyway from what I can see. And it is super obvious that they try hard to avoid to put any of the to pay items like ice cream, pizza or burgers in the for free venues. Even now during the world cup games they seem to offer popcorn for a fee. Whereas at every single other cruise line for any movie night they were always for free.

I was just pointing out that you won't starve. It is certainly easier with NCL where blue lagoon/O Sheehan's / the local is open 24hours minutes the hour or so cleaning. 

 

Costa is pretty much the weakest of the main cruise lines but I feel their biggest weakness is that they don't really know what to do going forward. Being a solely Italian/France and a little bit of Spain local cruise lines seems not be enough to fill all ships on worldwide itineraries and for an international appeal they are just way behind the competition.

[At7Seas]

Now I‘ve to add my experiences as well. I did cruises both with strict and with hardly any covid measures left. I hadn‘t been on that very cruise, but lately I was on a sister of the Favolosa.
 
Costa is an Italian product and everybody should know. This includes Italian kitchen and Italian lifestyle as well. Who is surprised that pasta in all variations is in the offer has no idea about Italian food. Costa has alternatives to pasta, although the full Italian four-course dinner has a pasta course - which includes also risotto, gnocchi or soups. It is also possible to order something else, two antipasti or two items from the second main course (the fish or meat course) are possible. Generally the food is really good, compared to the standards in land based restaurants and other cruise lines Costa does a good job, in my personal experience much better than the above mentioned NCL, where you need to pay a fee for a restaurant having a similar quality as Costa has in the MDR. Having a look at the prices you pay at NCL additionally the extra fees of Costa are not only next to nothing, in fact I less often have on a Costa the desire to buy something extra. Of course an Italian dinner is celebrated in a restaurant. There had been times that Costa had completely closed the buffet in the evening, but it is open again (already before covid they reopened). A few indeed want a buffet in the evening, I won‘t judge about them. On my holiday I would always take a good dinner in a restaurant instead of grabbing something from a buffet. And with the new electronic ordering system every plate (or drink) arrives at the right table. Waiters speak fluently Italian and English, of the other languages they need to know some basics only. Once the correct order is in the system it is fool proof.
 
Indeed, a buffet means queuing during the rush hour. Who wants exactly at 12 lunch has to wait a little, which means perhaps two or three minutes until first things are on the plate. This queue happens at that moment in front of the door of the MDR as well. At other times this ranges more within seconds than minutes. When taking things from five places in the line every single item is served by a different waiter, this results in more time actually being served than waiting. Queuing at the buffet always has been a fact and didn‘t change by serving the guests from behind the counter. Just the same way of serving as it used to be before covid with the freshly prepared breakfast items. Although cost intensive this prevents guests from touching everything, I would like it very much, when this would remain. And the many waiters behind the counter did a really fast service, the only thing I experienced that they gave too much, so I had to stop them in time. My order of one piece of butter too fast became three. But indeed, when you ordered butter at the wrong place, you didn‘t get it - there. The same is valid for bacon at breakfast, one doesn‘t get it where only cold breakfast is available, but where the hot items are prepared. Honestly, I prefer waiting for a fresh omelette rather than taking one that is already drying out and still I never had to wait anything close to 15 minutes when fresh things were prepared for me. That orientation might be a problem the first day I understand, but at the end of the cruise this should be clear where what is offered where and which way. Waiters for example have now sugar in dispensers on their trays. This means without cup it is difficult to get sugar into the coffee! Could the ketchup problem have the same reason?
 
It remains beyond my understanding that the possibilities to eat aren‘t enough for some guests. I can‘t eat so much or so often as food is offered. Just to be fair, the opening times of the main restaurants are long enough for getting regularly and enough (if not too much) food. The buffet is open during the day even longer, the burger non-stop until the next morning short before breakfast time. I also don‘t understand why Costa shouldn‘t call the Pizzeria a restaurant. It is fully a serviced Pizzeria, no self-service. And there is nothing wrong with using space for the guests that otherwise wouldn‘t be used at all.
 
The drink package rules are easy: by the glass everything is free as long as in the menu the coloured dot is next to the item matching the package and only one drink may be ordered at a time. So a Baileys and thereafter a coffee is fine, but not at the same time. Is it surprising that Costa wants to prohibit guests to cheat with drinks? Adults only My Drinks additionally has one small bottle water per person a day, adding this is the only change when from Piu Gusto became My Drinks. In the children‘s package is as much mineral water included as fits into the kids, just not per bottle, but per glass. Nearly everything without alcohol sold by the glass is included in this package, only some coffees and juices, for example the freshly squeezed orange juice, are not. And reading is always a good idea: in the Oggi a Bordo is announced where the kids program should happen, inside or outside. Including the remark of being weather depending when planned outside. Be happy if during your cruise it is outside, because this also means great weather as well!
 
Hygienic problems I never experienced on Costa ships (elsewhere I did). Besides regular service staff was fast cleaning when incidents occurred - these one can‘t provide where humans eat, drink, or just live. If there are kinds of problems I never experienced and adequate reactions aren‘t taken one could phone the responsible department, the phone numbers are published every day on the Oggi a Bordo.
 
There is no cruise line without faults or fitting into the taste of everybody. Costa ships are Italian islands sailing the seas with an international crowd and still Italians are on the most cruises the largest group aboard. There is Italian lifestyle and Italian food. If someone expects a typical American, British, German, or French approach or food or having only one language spoken Costa might be the wrong choice. But if someone wants to enjoy an Italian holiday - even in the Caribbean or in Norway - and who feels well cruising together with people from all over the world Costa has a lot to offer.