Mediterranea Review 12/15-22/2007

[abitaturbodog]

My family just returned from a wonderful cruise on the Costa Mediterranea. We sailed from December 15 – 22, 2007 and visited the ports of Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios and Grand Turk.

 

Background: My husband and I are both 38 and have two sons, ages 10 and 11. This cruise was the 6th for me, 5th for DH and 4th for the boys. As a family we’ve only cruised on Carnival (Conquest and Spirit Class) ships and have always had a terrific time.

 

We live in Beaufort, a beautiful, historic town on the coast of South Carolina. I’m a native New Yorker and Mike’s a Naval Academy grad, so we’ve had the opportunity to enjoy many of the finer things in life and have chosen to raise our children in his hometown.

 

No matter what type of vacation we go on, we always keep a very positive attitude. For us, a vacation is what you make of it and we choose not to let things bother us. For example, when it was raining on this sailing we said to each other, “It’s better to be stuck in the rain on a cruise than in Beaufort.” It’s because of this attitude that we’ve never been on a vacation that we didn’t totally enjoy.

 

I had been considering Costa for over a year, because of their Kids Sail Free promotion, but had been worried that my family wouldn’t enjoy it as much as we have come to enjoy Carnival. The whole idea of “cruising Italian style” confused me and I wasn’t sure how we would adapt to a ship full of Europeans as my DH and children had never been across the pond. That being said, we decided to take a leap of faith (especially considering all of the negative posts on Cruise Critic) and book the Mediterranea simply because we couldn’t pass up on the price

 

We’re Off: We drove to Fort Lauderdale and parked at the Park and Drive. I had read on CC that they only charge $60 for a week’s parking if you pre-pay online. The parking lot is located right off of I-95 and very easy to see and to get to.

 

Once we parked, the shuttle drove right to our car and the driver loaded our luggage. It was about a 2 minute ride to the port and the driver removed all of our luggage from the shuttle too. I would definitely use Park and Ride again for the service and price

 

Embarkation: We arrived around noon and were on the ship within 10 minutes! What more can I say? The lines were very short and moved quickly. We didn’t have passports so we used our driver’s licenses, birth certificates and marriage license. For the boys, I got state issued photo ID cards from the DMV. I’d read on CC to get these and bring the marriage certificate…thanks!

 

The ship’s security guards looked very closely at our birth certificates and IDs. The guard noticed that my birth certificate had a different last name as my ID and I gave him my marriage license. He studied that closely too! My advice would be to bring the marriage license, just in case!

 

After the obligatory boarding photo op a staff member was waiting at the gangway with handiwipes to clean your hands. I’m a germaphobe, so I was in heaven. In fact, whenever we came back on board from a port, there was always a steward at the gangway handing out the wipes. My husband jokes that as soon as the saw the handiwipes, he knew Costa was for me!

 

Once we stepped on board there were stewards in tuxedos and white gloves waiting to point us to our cabin. All of the elevators were working and it was easy to make our way up to our room. It was then that we realized that we hadn’t received room keys and we were concerned that maybe we had missed a key card registration table in the lobby. But we continued to our cabin and found the door unlocked and our Costa Cards on the bed! One interesting thing…Costa never took photos for the cards like Carnival does.

 

Cabin: Our cabin was 6118 – and inside quad on the 6th floor. We used to book balconies, but now book inside rooms to save money. We decided as a family that we can either cruise once a year in a balcony or twice a year inside. Naturally, twice a year won! I have two tween boys, so the amount of time spent in the cabin is minimal. If I had girls it might be different!

 

The cabin was configured almost the exact same as the one that we had on the Valor earlier this year. This cabin had a shorter dresser which actually gave us more floor space. The amenities in the cabin were very different from what we’ve experienced on Carnival. The beds were very firm (which I like), but definitely not the “comfort” beds we’re used to. The pillows were flat, the linens basic and the blankets were the blue cheap ones that Carnival usually puts on their 3rd/4th beds. That being said, nobody ever complained about being uncomfortable or had a hard time falling asleep! We were out as soon as our heads hit those flat pillows.

 

There was no basket of goodies in the bathroom or bathrobes. There is one dispenser in the shower that has a blue shampoo/body wash. I found it to be harsh on my hair and wished that I had brought my own shampoo with me. But again, it kept us clean for 7 days so we won’t fuss. The towels were large and thick and there were many of them in the bathroom. Even when I hung my towel up to reuse it, the steward replaced it with a new one.

 

The T.V. in the cabin had 26 channels (my boys counted). Four of them were English to include Fox, ABC and CBS. There were no English speaking sports channels and no sports bar on board either. My DH had TIVO-ed the Navy bowl game before we left, but had hoped to see it on board. Oh well, he and the boys watched it as soon as we got home Saturday night.

 

Lunch at Lido Buffet: Overall, my family found the food to be delicious! As soon as we walked into the Lido buffet and saw all of the pastas, cheeses, dried sausages, breads, olives, salads, pizza, calamari, veal, etc. we were hooked!

 

As a family, we love good food. Going out to a fine restaurant is a big treat for all of us as we know we’ll get to eat yummy things I can’t cook at home. As for my kids, the boys wouldn’t be caught dead ordering from a kids menu. In fact, one funny family story is about the time I had to stop and get them sushi on the way to their school’s spaghetti supper because they refused to eat the school’s spaghetti.

 

Throughout the week, lunch on the Lido buffet was very good, but “uninspired” as my husband said. The food was delicious and cooked very well. The flavors and seasonings were on point and I never felt like I had to add salt or pepper. There was always an assortment of cheeses, dried sausages, fruits, breads, fish, hamburgers and hot dogs, salads, baked Italian specialties and carved meats, but there wasn’t much variety. It seemed to be the same items, done just a little differently each day. That being said, I’m hard pressed to remember anything other than the hamburgers that we didn’t like. My DH and youngest son got burgers once or twice and were not impressed. They love Carnival’s burgers and found Costa’s to be under-seasoned and flavorless.

 

Some of the special things for lunch each day were freshly made pasta stations where a chef would make small portions of yummy pasta. Some of our favorites were gnocchi with fresh basil; spaghetti with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes; fusilli with oregano; fettuccini alfredo with cauliflower and spaghetti with tuna sauce.

 

Also, for variety each day the buffet featured a couple of items from a certain region. There was Caribbean, Oriental, German, Indian and Mexican. These foods were also very well done and had great flavors, I just wished that there were more items from these regions.

 

There was also a sandwich station at the pool which served ready-made sandwiches but I can’t comment on them because I don’t believe anyone in my family got one of these.

 

One other thing I enjoyed was the bottles of olive oils and vinegars at the buffet. The varieties of breads were wonderful and we dipped them in olive oil often! I saw a lot of the Europeans dressing their salads with the vinegars and sometimes even just fresh lemon juice.

 

Of course, no lunch is complete without ice cream and the Mediterranea had awesome gelato! Usually it was vanilla, vanilla/chocolate swirl and chocolate, but sometimes there was strawberry also. I’ve got to say that hands down, this gelato was sooooo much better than Carnival’s ice cream or frozen yogurt. The only complaint that we had was that we would have to “hunt” for a machine that was working. Usually at lunch time most of the machines were full and working, but by dinner time and after, they became scarce. We were always able to find gelato, but sometimes we had to check every station…but the walking did us good! Also, the gelato was not available 24 hours a day like on Carnival. They usually closed the machines around midnight for cleaning.

 

The service in the buffet was excellent. Cloth napkins were filled with a full set of silverware at each seat and replaced as soon as the tables were cleared. The servers were dressed in tuxedos with bow ties and always smiling. Bar service was available in the Lido and was quick to return with your order.

 

We were disappointed that the only beverages available for free at lunch were water, milk, coffee and hot tea. At dinner they added orange and grapefruit juice and at dinner they added iced tea. But we’re a family of water drinkers so it was okay, but every once in a while I could’ve gone for some fruit punch or lemonade.

 

Well I’m out of time for now….I’ll write more later.

[redhotpepper]

Keep it coming! I've been anxiously awaiting the reviews to start.

 

Annie

[ak1004]

A peace of advise: don't go on Carnival Victory. You won't enjoy it after you tried Costa.

[abitaturbodog]

A peace of advise: don't go on Carnival Victory. You won't enjoy it after you tried Costa.

 

Thanks for the advice, but I think I already covered my family's positive attitude--we choose to enjoy every vacation we go on.

[ak1004]

Let me rephrase it.

We enjoyed both cruises because it's a vacation and like you said, you have to enjoy yourself on vacation. That's a positive attitute. However, when comparing Victory with Mediterrania, Mediterrania wins on every possible category by a big margin, and the price is very similar.

Just my two cents.

[olga77]

My family just returned from a wonderful cruise on the Costa Mediterranea. We sailed from December 15 – 22, 2007 and visited the ports of Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios and Grand Turk.

 

Background: My husband and I are both 38 and have two sons, ages 10 and 11. This cruise was the 6th for me, 5th for DH and 4th for the boys. As a family we’ve only cruised on Carnival (Conquest and Spirit Class) ships and have always had a terrific time.

 

We live in Beaufort, a beautiful, historic town on the coast of South Carolina. I’m a native New Yorker and Mike’s a Naval Academy grad, so we’ve had the opportunity to enjoy many of the finer things in life and have chosen to raise our children in his hometown.

 

No matter what type of vacation we go on, we always keep a very positive attitude. For us, a vacation is what you make of it and we choose not to let things bother us. For example, when it was raining on this sailing we said to each other, “It’s better to be stuck in the rain on a cruise than in Beaufort.” It’s because of this attitude that we’ve never been on a vacation that we didn’t totally enjoy.

 

I had been considering Costa for over a year, because of their Kids Sail Free promotion, but had been worried that my family wouldn’t enjoy it as much as we have come to enjoy Carnival. The whole idea of “cruising Italian style” confused me and I wasn’t sure how we would adapt to a ship full of Europeans as my DH and children had never been across the pond. That being said, we decided to take a leap of faith (especially considering all of the negative posts on Cruise Critic) and book the Mediterranea simply because we couldn’t pass up on the price

 

We’re Off: We drove to Fort Lauderdale and parked at the Park and Drive. I had read on CC that they only charge $60 for a week’s parking if you pre-pay online. The parking lot is located right off of I-95 and very easy to see and to get to.

 

Once we parked, the shuttle drove right to our car and the driver loaded our luggage. It was about a 2 minute ride to the port and the driver removed all of our luggage from the shuttle too. I would definitely use Park and Ride again for the service and price

 

Embarkation: We arrived around noon and were on the ship within 10 minutes! What more can I say? The lines were very short and moved quickly. We didn’t have passports so we used our driver’s licenses, birth certificates and marriage license. For the boys, I got state issued photo ID cards from the DMV. I’d read on CC to get these and bring the marriage certificate…thanks!

 

The ship’s security guards looked very closely at our birth certificates and IDs. The guard noticed that my birth certificate had a different last name as my ID and I gave him my marriage license. He studied that closely too! My advice would be to bring the marriage license, just in case!

 

After the obligatory boarding photo op a staff member was waiting at the gangway with handiwipes to clean your hands. I’m a germaphobe, so I was in heaven. In fact, whenever we came back on board from a port, there was always a steward at the gangway handing out the wipes. My husband jokes that as soon as the saw the handiwipes, he knew Costa was for me!

 

Once we stepped on board there were stewards in tuxedos and white gloves waiting to point us to our cabin. All of the elevators were working and it was easy to make our way up to our room. It was then that we realized that we hadn’t received room keys and we were concerned that maybe we had missed a key card registration table in the lobby. But we continued to our cabin and found the door unlocked and our Costa Cards on the bed! One interesting thing…Costa never took photos for the cards like Carnival does.

 

Cabin: Our cabin was 6118 – and inside quad on the 6th floor. We used to book balconies, but now book inside rooms to save money. We decided as a family that we can either cruise once a year in a balcony or twice a year inside. Naturally, twice a year won! I have two tween boys, so the amount of time spent in the cabin is minimal. If I had girls it might be different!

 

The cabin was configured almost the exact same as the one that we had on the Valor earlier this year. This cabin had a shorter dresser which actually gave us more floor space. The amenities in the cabin were very different from what we’ve experienced on Carnival. The beds were very firm (which I like), but definitely not the “comfort” beds we’re used to. The pillows were flat, the linens basic and the blankets were the blue cheap ones that Carnival usually puts on their 3rd/4th beds. That being said, nobody ever complained about being uncomfortable or had a hard time falling asleep! We were out as soon as our heads hit those flat pillows.

 

There was no basket of goodies in the bathroom or bathrobes. There is one dispenser in the shower that has a blue shampoo/body wash. I found it to be harsh on my hair and wished that I had brought my own shampoo with me. But again, it kept us clean for 7 days so we won’t fuss. The towels were large and thick and there were many of them in the bathroom. Even when I hung my towel up to reuse it, the steward replaced it with a new one.

 

The T.V. in the cabin had 26 channels (my boys counted). Four of them were English to include Fox, ABC and CBS. There were no English speaking sports channels and no sports bar on board either. My DH had TIVO-ed the Navy bowl game before we left, but had hoped to see it on board. Oh well, he and the boys watched it as soon as we got home Saturday night.

 

Lunch at Lido Buffet: Overall, my family found the food to be delicious! As soon as we walked into the Lido buffet and saw all of the pastas, cheeses, dried sausages, breads, olives, salads, pizza, calamari, veal, etc. we were hooked!

 

As a family, we love good food. Going out to a fine restaurant is a big treat for all of us as we know we’ll get to eat yummy things I can’t cook at home. As for my kids, the boys wouldn’t be caught dead ordering from a kids menu. In fact, one funny family story is about the time I had to stop and get them sushi on the way to their school’s spaghetti supper because they refused to eat the school’s spaghetti.

 

Throughout the week, lunch on the Lido buffet was very good, but “uninspired” as my husband said. The food was delicious and cooked very well. The flavors and seasonings were on point and I never felt like I had to add salt or pepper. There was always an assortment of cheeses, dried sausages, fruits, breads, fish, hamburgers and hot dogs, salads, baked Italian specialties and carved meats, but there wasn’t much variety. It seemed to be the same items, done just a little differently each day. That being said, I’m hard pressed to remember anything other than the hamburgers that we didn’t like. My DH and youngest son got burgers once or twice and were not impressed. They love Carnival’s burgers and found Costa’s to be under-seasoned and flavorless.

 

Some of the special things for lunch each day were freshly made pasta stations where a chef would make small portions of yummy pasta. Some of our favorites were gnocchi with fresh basil; spaghetti with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes; fusilli with oregano; fettuccini alfredo with cauliflower and spaghetti with tuna sauce.

 

Also, for variety each day the buffet featured a couple of items from a certain region. There was Caribbean, Oriental, German, Indian and Mexican. These foods were also very well done and had great flavors, I just wished that there were more items from these regions.

 

There was also a sandwich station at the pool which served ready-made sandwiches but I can’t comment on them because I don’t believe anyone in my family got one of these.

 

One other thing I enjoyed was the bottles of olive oils and vinegars at the buffet. The varieties of breads were wonderful and we dipped them in olive oil often! I saw a lot of the Europeans dressing their salads with the vinegars and sometimes even just fresh lemon juice.

 

Of course, no lunch is complete without ice cream and the Mediterranea had awesome gelato! Usually it was vanilla, vanilla/chocolate swirl and chocolate, but sometimes there was strawberry also. I’ve got to say that hands down, this gelato was sooooo much better than Carnival’s ice cream or frozen yogurt. The only complaint that we had was that we would have to “hunt” for a machine that was working. Usually at lunch time most of the machines were full and working, but by dinner time and after, they became scarce. We were always able to find gelato, but sometimes we had to check every station…but the walking did us good! Also, the gelato was not available 24 hours a day like on Carnival. They usually closed the machines around midnight for cleaning.

 

The service in the buffet was excellent. Cloth napkins were filled with a full set of silverware at each seat and replaced as soon as the tables were cleared. The servers were dressed in tuxedos with bow ties and always smiling. Bar service was available in the Lido and was quick to return with your order.

 

We were disappointed that the only beverages available for free at lunch were water, milk, coffee and hot tea. At dinner they added orange and grapefruit juice and at dinner they added iced tea. But we’re a family of water drinkers so it was okay, but every once in a while I could’ve gone for some fruit punch or lemonade.

 

Well I’m out of time for now….I’ll write more later.

 

I am glad you liked Costa Mediterranea. We took her this November and enjoyed it also. :p

[Cruise4Andy]

Well, welcome back once again...

 

Thanks for sharing your views and your experience... I'm sure I'll see you sooner or later on Costa! ;)

 

Interesting that they changed the ice tea... On our cruise we had ice tea available pretty much the entire day, even during breakfast.

 

During the storm we encountered (TS Olga) some of the ice tea dispensers bit the dust and came crashing off the counter. After that incident they had the ice tea filled in brown plastic bins (same as used on Catalina Island's Beach BBQ).

 

I'm glad you enjoyed YOUR cruise! :)

[abitaturbodog]

Ship: The Mediterranea is almost an exact replica of the Carnival Miracle, so if you’ve ever sailed on the Spirit class ships you’ll feel familiar on the Mediterranea. The promenade is on the 2nd and 3rd decks and have a more open feel to them than the Miracle. There are less small bars and instead the spaces are large and open for music and dancing. Most notable was the Casanova Lounge where many activities took place and there was almost always a ‘duo’ playing music and passengers dancing. Also, there is no piano bar and in its place is another large, open area for music and dancing. This area was on deck 2 just outside the dining room entrance and was always full with non-Americans before the second seating.

 

Overall, there was a lot of dancing on the Mediterranea. Between dancing lessons at the Lido stage and the many lounges on the promenade, it seemed that everywhere we looked, passengers were cutting a rug. I was very surprised to see so many people dancing---and doing it very well! It appeared that the Europeans and South Americans REALLY know how to dance. I enjoyed watching the couple’s ballroom dance and do the Tarantella, etc. many evenings.

 

My family really enjoyed the large card room that was just off the Casanova Lounge. There were many tables and a waitress often came through offering bar service. The card room was pretty busy most of the time and you could check out card games and board games at the Purser’s desk. Also, used decks of cards could be purchased for $1.00 at the Casino cage. However beware that the casino cuts a semi-circle out of each side of the deck…I guess to distinguish it as used.

 

Passengers: I felt that about ¼ of the passengers were American and Canadian. There were many Italians and French, and also a good amount of Germans and South Americans (Brazil and Columbia mostly), and just a couple Asians. I loved hearing all of the different languages being spoken all around me and seeing so many different fashion styles. My DH and I both felt like we were on a more exotic cruise than just one out of Ft. Lauderdale!

 

As for the attitudes of our fellow passengers…I hate to say it but it was the Canadians and Americans that were rude, pushy and often heard loudly complaining. Our experiences with the more international passengers was nothing but pleasant and gracious. And I’ll leave it at that.

 

Restaurant: We enjoyed dinner nightly in the dining room. I was impressed to see however, that the same menu in the dining room was also served at the Lido buffet for dinner. Once my son went up to the Lido to get some more lamb chops after dinner!

 

We had the early seating at 6pm and enjoyed the fact that there were quite a few empty tables. The second seating began at 9pm and was packed. We got our request for a table for four and were located on the first floor of the dining room. Our waiters were Manuel from Peru, and Percival from the Philippines. They both provided excellent service and quickly learned our names and preferences. Our water glasses were quick to be refilled and the flow of each course was very even. The first night dinner took 2 hours, but each night after we were finished in about 1 ½ .

 

The tables were set with a full compliment of silverware, something we were not used to on Carnival, but very much appreciated! I ordered the fish each night and was given a special seafood fork and knife each time. On the two formal evenings, our linens were Damask and there were red candles in beautiful silver candlestick holders on every table. We were all a little surprised at having lit candles on a ship and it made the meal seem even more special.

 

We can’t say enough good things about the food. There was an assortment of breads and breadsticks on the table as well as a bottle of imported olive oil and balsamic vinegar. One of my favorite bread was made with chopped walnuts.

 

There are six available courses—appetizer, soup, salad, pasta, entrée and dessert. Compared to Carnival, the portions were much larger. In fact, the pastas were usually enough for a meal. But somehow my family managed to adapt! Again, the food was very well prepared and seasoned. I don’t recall using the salt or pepper shaker at all. Some of our favorites were the osso buco, chicken cacciatore, prime rib, risotto w/ lobster and champagne, snails alla Bourguignon, rack of lamb, and all of the seafood entrees.

 

The desserts were also very good. I fell in love with the Chocolate Delight Costa! It’s a chocolate ganache that’s placed on a chocolate covered cookie and all covered in chocolate! I ordered this every night except for when we were served the baked Alaska. My husband really loved the zuppa Ingles, 5 deck carrot cake w/vanilla sauce, and nougat mille-feuille w/zabaglione sauce. They also offered 3 different flavors of gelato and 2 of sorbet each night such as hazelnut, banana, butter pecan, rum raisin, coffee, kiwi and pineapple to name a few.

 

Cappuccino and espresso were available in the dining room for an additional charge. I believe they were $2.15 each.

 

There were two formal nights – the Captain’s Gala on the second night, and the Farewell Dinner on the second-to-last night. There was a Captain’s cocktail party preceding dinner where champagne, whiskey sours, manhattans and fruit punch were served. They also had passed appetizers and you could get your photo taken with the captain. Some people were in formal attire and I noticed some tuxedos and full length gowns. Most were in dresses and suits w/tie. Some were more casual. My boys wore khakis and a polo shirt to each meal fit in just fine.

 

The only clothing restrictions noted for the dining room were shorts and tank tops. Overall, the dining room was a little more casual than I've experienced. And of course, togas were a MUST on Toga Night!

[abitaturbodog]

Evening Entertainment: Although we enjoyed the shows, this was the area which we felt needed some improvement. Usually there were 2 shows each night and it was never hard to find a seat except for the Toga Night when there was only 1 show. We’re used to showing up at the theater 30 minutes early on Carnival to get a seat but never had to do this on Costa. I think some of this had to do with the fewer passengers having the early seating and the popularity of dancing in the lounges.

The first night’s show was The Malambo Show which featured an Argentinean dancer and another unique performer. This was a strange show and a little scary too! The dancer began dancing with a large torch that was lit! At some point, he extinguished the flame and accidentally flung the torch into the 1st row of the audience. Additionally, the other performer’s show consisted of swinging a VERY large box around. He too, dropped the box…more than once. To say the least, we were a little concerned about sitting in the front row again and were worried about the quality of shows we were to experience. But everything after was good.

The two shows featuring the Mediterranea dancers were very good. Although it was not the Vegas-type production we expected, we were entertained. The dancers were excellent technically. Their footwork was quick and precise and they all had strong ballet techniques. The shows were not theatrical with fancy backdrops and costumes, but instead had a more modern feel to them. The singer, Nick Wyschna, was very good and reminded us of Josh Groban in voice and appearance.

Other shows included Van Pressley from the Platters, Will and Anthony Nunziata who sang Italian favorites and the silent comedian, Rob Torres. We all LOVED the comedian! We’re still reenacting his gags at home! The final night is Roman Night with the guest talent show. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that it’s a whole lot of fun and that you should definitely go! At the conclusion of this show, Costa gives away a diamond necklace worth $1,000! (You have to be there to win) The gal who won was so happy she was crying…awwww.

Cruise Director’s Staff: Although we didn’t participate in any of the games on board, we really enjoyed watching them. The Cruise Director is a Welch gentleman named David Lawton. We didn’t see him around except to introduce the evening shows. His staff, however, were everywhere…and very funny! Bepe is the Activities Director and Pepe is his assistant. Both are Italian and very adept at giving instructions in 5 different languages at once. The games were silly, mostly involving costumes, balloons, and/or music. They also offered dance lessons at the pool stage a couple times a day that were very well attended and staffed the Italian Night activities. Often times, my DH and I would say, “We wish we had their jobs,” because they were always having a good time with the passengers.

My sons and I enjoyed the activities of Italian Night (this is different than Toga Night.) They had pizza dough tossing competitions, Venetian mask making, paper flowers, balloon animals, Bocce in the lobby and other fun things to do.

Kids Activities: There were not a lot of kids on board this sailing even thought Costa was running a Kids Sail Free promotion. It was the week before Christmas and most of the schools were not out yet. I’d venture to guess that there were 300 kids total and the majority of them were between 1-7 years old.

This cruise my boys were 10 and 11 years old. The Squok club that they were supposed to be in was for kids 7 – 11, but the 2 times that they went, they turned around and left because all of the kids were closer to 7 rather than 11. We happened to run into the older group of 12-15 year olds getting gelato the second evening and the counselor invited my boys to join them. I explained that they were just 10 and 11 and she said, “No problem.” She told me that they were welcome to join the older group because some of the kids in it were younger than 12 also.

My oldest took her up on it and had a good time. They had some organized activities such as a scavenger hunt, arts and crafts, dancing in the disco and sports games. Other times they just, “hung out,” talking, playing in the pool and snacking. He didn’t spend his entire day with the kids club, probably just 2-3 hours. The club was not on a very tight schedule and I think this worked well with kids of this age group. Sometimes they didn’t really want to do a formal activity and would choose to go swimming instead.

My youngest joined his brother for a couple of activities with the kids club and enjoyed them also. He’s more of a mamma’s boy, and we had fun playing cards and doing things together.

I ordered the Boys and Girls drink coupon online a couple of weeks before we sailed. They come as a booklet of 20 coupons that’s attached to a necklace and you just rip the coupons out as you use them. It was a great value as my boys like to drink smoothies while we’re on vacation. They shared one booklet…I felt that 10 drinks a piece was more than enough. Sometime I used a ticket myself and got a fruity drink! The bartenders had no problem with this.

I would definitely buy it again, but not online. We didn’t receive our booklet until at dinner the first night. But if we’d bought it from the bar when we boarded, the boys could’ve had a drink before dinner.

My kids played in the arcade whenever they had some down time. The arcade is a little hard to find, above the Squok club. It had about 20 games including 2 air hockey tables and 1 foosball table. Most of the games were current and they were all working. Each game used between 2 and 4 tokens for one play. The tokens are each worth 25 cents. The change machine was not working in the arcade so kids had to go to the casino cage to get tokens. They also had to be accompanied by an adult to purchase tokens. Even if working, the token machine in the arcade is not able to accept Costa Cards, so kids can’t charge tokens onto their cards.

Also, kids are not allowed to charge items, other than candy, on their Costa Cards in the gift shop. Although I gave my boys charging privileges on their cards linked to my credit card, it appears that they are not allowed to use them. It was a bit of an inconvenience to have to accompany them to the gift shop and casino cage.

There are also arts and craft activities available everyday on board. You could paint a t-shirt, paint a glass, make a beaded necklace, etc. Unfortunately, the activity staff doesn’t let children participate in these activities, even if accompanied by their parents. I’m not sure why, because it was never crowded. But we got around this by bringing the materials back to our cabin and doing the craft there.

The kids enjoyed the 2 pools on board and slide. The aft pool and hot tubs are adult only and we never ventured back there, so I can’t say if kids in the aft pool was a problem. The hot tubs were a little warmer than a bath and very enjoyable. Sometimes kids would come into them but they never misbehaved so it wasn’t ever a problem. However, I did see security telling kids to stop jumping into the pool, pushing each other into the pool or splashing. Security was firm but not mean. I was impressed by their professionalism.

Info from my hubby on the Casino: There is no ATM on board the Mediterranea. No poker. Craps was opened by request and as far as he noticed only one other craps player was on board (other than him.) The staff was professional, helpful and sometimes made mistakes counting the cards or issuing money at Blackjack. This could’ve been a result of this being the first sailing of the season in the Caribbean for most of the staff. They were used to Euros for the past months and had to convert to American dollars in one day. He actually met a dealer that told him that this was the first time he’d touched American money.

 

Observations: My husband and I both noticed the lack of sales pitches for ship merchandise and spa services. Twice we received a brochure for jewelry in the “Today” schedule, but otherwise selling was kept very low key. The intercom itself was used sparingly and never to promote a sales event.

Bingo occurred at least twice a day in the one of the lounges on board. The activity staff had a table set up on the promenade where they would pre-sell bingo cards and the games took place at a certain time. It was a nice difference from Carnival where they play bingo prior to the evening’s shows in the theater.

Most of the staff, stewards and waiters were male. We found this interesting. In fact, we could only see 1 female waiter in the downstairs part of the dining room during our seating.

The room stewards were very friendly. When walking down the hallways we found that they made eye contact and said hello. Again, we like this because Carnival’s stewards usually have their eyes down go about their business when we walk by.

There was no Chinese, Sushi or Deli on board the Mediterranea. My boys were a little worried about this before we boarded as they always eat sushi before dinner on Carnival. But once we got on board they never said a word about missing these treats.

Towels are readily available at poolside. Stewards keep rolled-up towels on lounge chairs and there are towel stations where you can take a clean one or dispose of a wet towel. I found chair-hogging to be a problem by the pools. More than once it was Canadians that were the major culprits.

Again, there is no ATM machine on board.

There were not a lot of professional photo opportunities. We were fine with this, because I think $20 for one photo is nutty. The backgrounds were not very professional looking and a little corny. I didn’t see a lot of people getting their photo taken and for the most part I never saw any lines to get your photo taken. The exception to this was before the second seating on the first formal night for photos on the lobby stairs.

In the evening, the Lido buffet restaurant was “dressed up!” The lights were dimmed and large candles were placed on the tables. They also had red and white checkered tablecloths and placemats. You could order pizza later on in the evening with waiters taking your order. We did this the last night and received our pizza about 5 minutes later. It was quick and yummy!

Debarkation: Super easy! We had to have our luggage out in the hallway by 1am. We were given colored tags to attach to the luggage and a schedule of debarkation that corresponded to the color tag we were given. Depending on the color of the tag we were supposed to wait in a certain lounge until we were called.

We woke that morning, and had to be out of the cabin by 8am. We had breakfast in the Lido, (the dining room was also open for breakfast). We were about 20 minutes early for our color to be called, but nobody seemed to care. As we approached the customs area we saw 3 HUGE lines of people—had to be 100 feet each. But then we were directed to the US Citizens section and were surprised to see nobody on line! We breezed through, found our luggage immediately and were on the street within 5 minutes of getting off the ship. Now that’s what I call debarkation!

It took about 30 minutes to get picked up from the Park and Ride shuttle. A couple drove past us, but as 5 ships were debarking at the same time in Ft. Lauderdale, each one was full.

If you have any specific questions, let me know.

I'm in the process of scanning the menus and Today schedules. So I'll post them when I've finished...sometime later this week.

[Cruise4Andy]

Thanks for sharing all the details with us!!! Awesome review!

 

Bow, bow, bow! :D

[abitaturbodog]

Thanks for sharing all the details with us!!! Awesome review!

 

Bow, bow, bow! :D

 

Thank you, thank you! It couldn't have been possible without my wonderful bosses. I'm just so thankful that they all decided to take today off so I could work tirelessly on my cruise review. THANK YOU BOSSES!

[BambiRumsey]

please tell me you are NOT a Federal Employee....my tax dollars HARD at work ;)

[mtl kid]

Thank you for your wonderful review. I am a little worried. Two good Costa reviews read in one day.......WOW. It must be a conspiracy. I am sure Costa gave you a Love Drug to. Do not worry it will eventually wear off. In all seriousness I to did enjoy the MED. I also enjoyed PEPE on the entertainment team, one thing for sure Pepe is not the shy type. I remember that the one food I enjoyed alot on the Med was the always available spaghetti with tomato sauce. I find it so funny that we are all talking about food right after the holidays, after all I did indeed do a food overkill this time. Anyways I hope all us Costa Lovers will meet on one Costa cruise in the near future.

P.S. If I read another positive Costa review today I will know that it must be from the Costa Management team trying to drum up some business.

Anyways happy sailing to everyone!!!!!!!!!;)

A 2nd P.S. Andy do you think Costa could handle you, I and Joe all on the same Cruise.:cool:

[Cruise4Andy]

Hey mtl...

I have a good way of finding out - WE JUST SIMPLY GO! :D

 

Oh... and let's take Jennifer (Bambi) and abita also along...

Wow! That would be one heck of a Costa cruise!!! With all the happy people on board... I'm sure the Costa staff would not mind some friendly Americans, with a happy attitude and a smile on their faces! ;)

 

And if we're all going on the Magica - well, that would just be the most MAGICA(L) cruise in history! :cool:

[sakapfet]

is the mediterranea menu the same as Fortuna's?

[G.M.T.]

Hey mtl...

I have a good way of finding out - WE JUST SIMPLY GO!

 

Oh... and let's take Jennifer (Bambi) and abita also along...

Wow! That would be one heck of a Costa cruise!!! With all the happy people on board... I'm sure the Costa staff would not mind some friendly Americans, with a happy attitude and a smile on their faces!

 

And if we're all going on the Magica - well, that would just be the most MAGICA(L) cruise in history!

How about inviting some VERY RUDE Europeans - just so that you have some negative points to complain about. I'll will gladly volunteer for the job, now where is my "Yanks Go Home" badge? but as most of you Costa loving Americans seem to come from south of the Mason-Dixie or from Arnieland how about "Oh your are American - sorry I don't speak Spanish" :mad:

 

Is that rude enough? Oh I forgot the north of the border there are a lot of Costa lovers (sneer!) "Oh yes I know Montreal, the northern most suburb of NY".:cool: "Oh your're from Canada - we have just bought a beach house just south of the 49th. parallel. But there is no beach on the 49th? There will be when the ice caps melt".:(

 

Is this enough to make me a first class RUDE European?:eek:

 

Ron

PS: All of the above was written with tonque in cheek.:D :D

[abitaturbodog]

Hey mtl...

I have a good way of finding out - WE JUST SIMPLY GO! :D

 

Oh... and let's take Jennifer (Bambi) and abita also along...

Wow! That would be one heck of a Costa cruise!!! With all the happy people on board... I'm sure the Costa staff would not mind some friendly Americans, with a happy attitude and a smile on their faces! ;)

 

And if we're all going on the Magica - well, that would just be the most MAGICA(L) cruise in history! :cool:

 

Bambi & Andy--We just changed our booking to the Fortuna leaving on 3/16/07. I know from the roll call that mtl is also going! What do you think? Want to come along?

[BambiRumsey]

Abita:

 

Is that Easter week? Is it kids sail free? My b-day is 4/5 so maybe I can get it as an early b-day gift.....

 

hmmm...wheels spinning....

[BambiRumsey]

Abita:

 

when did your DH grad the Academy? We may have friends in common - lots of grads from about 92-95 in our circle of friends....most did subs, a couple were/are seals..is DH still active?

[belcherwm]

Abita,

 

Thanks for the wonderful review! My wife, daughters (9 & 11) and parents will be on the MED 3/15. We looked at the Fortuna on 3/16, but like the deal we got on the MED. Sorry we will miss you. You all sound like good people.

 

How was the cabin set up for four? We have two quads next to each other with a balcony and hope that will help with our sanity. Any other tips you can give that are kid related? This will be our girls first cruise. One is a spaghettiholic and the other is a carnivore so I don't think we'll have any trouble with the food.

 

p.s. I have a 6 pack of TurboDog in the fridge as I type this!

[abitaturbodog]

please tell me you are NOT a Federal Employee....my tax dollars HARD at work ;)

 

 

Don't worry, your tax dollars are safe! I'm a Real Estate agent...almost as bad as a federal employee!:p

[abitaturbodog]

Abita:

 

when did your DH grad the Academy? We may have friends in common - lots of grads from about 92-95 in our circle of friends....most did subs, a couple were/are seals..is DH still active?

 

My DH graduated in '91. He went USMC and got out in '97.

 

I'd love for my boys to go there too....that way I can spend their college fund on a ridiculously expensive sports car!

[abitaturbodog]

Abita,

 

Thanks for the wonderful review! My wife, daughters (9 & 11) and parents will be on the MED 3/15. We looked at the Fortuna on 3/16, but like the deal we got on the MED. Sorry we will miss you. You all sound like good people.

 

How was the cabin set up for four? We have two quads next to each other with a balcony and hope that will help with our sanity. Any other tips you can give that are kid related? This will be our girls first cruise. One is a spaghettiholic and the other is a carnivore so I don't think we'll have any trouble with the food.

 

p.s. I have a 6 pack of TurboDog in the fridge as I type this!

 

Hey, I have a 6 pack of TurboDog in MY fridge TOO!!!:D

 

We originally booked the Mediterranea on the 15th, but decided it was worth a little extra money to go on a different ship this time. Boy, those rates on the Med were really good tho!

 

I'll attach some photos of our room. It's small and cramped when we're all in there at the same time, but that's only a couple times a day, so we make it work.

 

How old are your girls? I have the schedule of activities for the 7-11 year olds, but the 12-15 year olds just kinda winged it. They had a meeting time and an ending time, and just did "stuff" together. It was very relaxed.

[abitaturbodog]

Sorry, forgot to add the pics!

[Cruise4Andy]

Hey abita...

 

I'm in Real Estate as well... welcome fellow REALTOR, Costa Lover, Cruiser and Neighbor! ;)