Costa Atlantica Med Cruise

[Top Cat]

Just back from Costa Atlantica cruise 14th October cruising the Med. I will write a review soon, but if anyone has any questions, in the meantime, then please let me know.

[niki]

Any recommendations on beaches that are a close walk or taxi away in Limassol or Marmaris?

 

Did you have any problems with sold old English speaking excursions once on board?

[niki]

Any recommendations on beaches that are a close walk or taxi away in Limassol or Marmaris?

 

Did you have any problems with sold old English speaking excursions once on board?

[Top Cat]

Any recommendations on beaches that are a close walk or taxi away in Limassol or Marmaris?

 

Did you have any problems with sold old English speaking excursions once on board?

 

We didn't go to the beach in Limassol or Marmaris (or at any of the other stops either) I am afraid. You are only in Limassol for five hours, so not that long really. There is a return bus service which takes you to the centre for 5 Euro's each in Limassol (not walkable), and a pleasant walk through the marina in Marmaris to the centre. There are plenty of taxi's around that I am sure would help you find a pleasant beach, sorry I cannot help more.

 

I am not sure I understand your question about excursions, but we did English speaking excurions in 3 locations (Pompei, Nile in Style and Olympia). We found the English language guides to be excellent and we had the advantage of smaller groups due to the low number of English speakers on board.

[babsinpbg]

PLEASE post a review soon! Am considering booking this same cruise, and would love to hear your perspective. Thanks...

[Top Cat]

Sorry for the delay in writing the review, which follows below:

 

Embarkation

Due to our plane being delayed, I think we were among the last to arrive, so embarkation was smooth, because we must have been among the last to get on the ship. The only odd thing, was that the boat was not docked by the main buidling, so you wait in a large marquee. Once on the ship, you are not shown to your room, but have to find your own way.

 

Room

We had a category 8 room, which was good and gave more than enough room for storage of clothes. Our cabin steward was excellent throughout the week and looked after us well.

 

Ports

Naples - We did the excurstion to Pompei here which was fantastic. The English speaking guide was excellent and provided us with interesting and useful information. Pompei was busy as there were another ship in port and it was a Sunday afternoon. The place is huge and you see a relatively small area, but a great excursion.

Messina - We wandered round the town, for a couple of hours, but being a Monday morning, was fairly quiet and not much open.

Alexandria - We did the Pyramids and Nile In Style excursion. Our English speaking guide was outstanding again, and the 2.5 hour journey to Cairo went quickly. It seemed like we were in Giza in minutes and our first sight of the pyramids. The first part of the excursion was to a Mosque (approx 1 hour) which overlooked the city and was interesting. We then travelled down to the nile and joined a boat for lunch and they also played music with entertainment. I wondered what the food would be like, but the food was to a very high quality (gives you a flavour of the local delicacies) and we had a great lunch (approx 1.5 hours). We then went to the Pyramids and Sphinx (approx 1.5 hours) and they are as breathtaking as you imagine. Took lots of photo's, dodging the odd trader trying to sell his postcards or a camel ride!!! Then you hop back on the coach for a 2min journey to the Sphinx. It was really busy here and we did not have enough time to get up close, but close enough for more pictures (and more dodging of traders!!). We then had a short journey to a shop (45mins) and then the 2.5hour trip back to Alexandria. This excursion was amazing and worth the trip alone, our guide was fantastic, the security was high and the organisation was great. The interesting driving by the locals in Cairo, makes the excursion worthwhile, without the wonderful sights.

Limassol - Here you take a bus ride (not walkable) for 5 euro to the town centre and we had a stroll along the front which was extremely pleasant. Seemed like a fairly relaxed place.

Marmaris - An unexpected surprise, a really nice town, with a pleasant 20 min walk into town through the marina (there is a bus alternative for 5 euro). Plenty of shops and once you get into the indoor centre, you can buy fake designer bags, shirts (4 Lacoste shirts for £10), perfumes or the latest cinema releases on DVD. They were amusing to look at, but we didn't buy any.

Santorini - This is the only place where you have a tender. We waited until most had left the ship to go onshore, which was a mistake. Once you are on dry land, the way to the town up a steep hill is either cable car (long queue) or donkey ride (and we thought that was a bit cruel). There is a nice small area at the bottom to look around with bars and shops.

Katakolon - Here we did the excursion to Olympia, which was again excellent. We had another outstanding English speaking guide who shared lots of information and the ancient ruins were incredible. Following a tour, we then had some time in the small town of Olympia which was extremely pleasant. The town of Katakolon, which we only drove through, looked a nice town as well.

 

Food

Our previous cruise had been on Celebrity's Century, which I would give 10/10 for food. For me Costa Atlantica was more like 6.5/10. It wasn't bad, with some excellent pasta, soups and bread. However, the main courses and desserts were not to the same standard, not terrible, but not as good as I expected. We purchased the non-alcoholic drinks vouchers and also one of the one wine packages, which we thought worked out well and saves service getting added on everytime you buy a drink.

 

Service

The service we had for the main dining was poor. He got flustered a couple of evenings, because people joined for dinner late and the tight timetable they work to, means any deviation can thrown things. The Maitre D was extremely poor, allowing in latecomers and only talking to the Italians and ignoring others. The waiter would lean across you when taking and placing plates, our drinks did not get topped up, he couldn't explain the courses when you asked about them and one night he completely forgot my dessert!!

The service in the shop was also very poor and one day the staff were arguing with each other.

In the bars the service was always first class, being prompt and friendly, they were outstanding.

As per my earlier comment about the room, our cabin steward was also excellent throughout the week.

 

Facilities

It is a big ship with plenty of facilities, however, there were a lot of children which meant the pools were always busy. Also, although children were not suppose to be in certain places on the ship, nothing was done when they were.

The shops were good and well stocked, certainly better than those on Century.

 

Entertainment

Generally the shows in the main theatre were poor. However, we found that the performers outside of the shows were good, particularly the piano player in the main hall and the two in the Cafe Florian.

 

 

Other

One of the biggest surprises we experienced through the trip was the rudeness of the continental europeans. They would not wait for you to leave the elevator, before trying to get in, they would continually queue jump in the buffet lines, bars and in areas like guest services. I know us Brits love to queue, but we were really taken aback at the rudeness we encountered. We had wondered if it had just been us, but talking to other British travelllers, we found they they had the same experiences as us (sorry, if I sound like a little Englander, but this was genuinely our experience).

The book of information that Costa provide you with which includes your tickets is well produced.

Prior to travelling we were wondering how we would find the ship's decor as you hear it is bright and too gaudy. However, whilst it is bright, I actually thought it was ok and done relatively tastefully (perhaps my taste is not as a good as I would like to believe).

 

Overall

We had a great holiday and the excursions were outstanding. They were really well organised. The food was ok, without being brilliant, with some poor restaurant service made up for in other areas of the ship.

I would travel on this ship again if I knew I was going to be visting interesting ports and would be doing excursions. If I was visiting ports where the excursions were less important, I would travel on Celebrity cruises next time.

 

Apologies for the length of the review, let me know if you have any more questions.

[almitra]

Wow, what a great post! Did you find the cost for the Egypt excursions to be high (per person)? I am concerned because I am taking 2 other people and I would kind of like a ballpark idea as to how expensive this undertaking is likely to be. :) TIA!

[almitra]

Wow, what a great post! Did you find the cost for the Egypt excursions to be high (per person)? I am concerned because I am taking 2 other people and I would kind of like a ballpark idea as to how expensive this undertaking is likely to be. :) TIA!

[Top Cat]

Wow, what a great post! Did you find the cost for the Egypt excursions to be high (per person)? I am concerned because I am taking 2 other people and I would kind of like a ballpark idea as to how expensive this undertaking is likely to be. :) TIA!

 

The Egypt excursion was Euro113 per person. We thought it was great, there is so much to see. I thought it was good value for money, given the length of trip, security, back-up buses, the places you visit and the excellent lunch.

[almitra]

Thanks a lot for the info! It's good to have some idea of cost vs. value. :)

[Deloresgardella]

We will be taking that same trip in October of next year. I have never cruised an Costa ship so was very interested in your view. I was especially interested in your excursion at Alexandria. That is one tour that we really want to go on. We will have an inside room in Catagory 2. Can anyone tell me about them. If they are fairly roomy, enough storage. Thank you