Costa Med Review March 15-22

[mringenoldus]

Just returned home from a great cruise! I am Platinum on both Princess and RCCL - and I must admit that I found Costa to be an excellent value for the the cost. The staff was very pleasant and hard-working with only minor exception.

 

Due to jet lag, I will probably do the review in sections. So please bear with me!

 

Embarkation Day

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale after an overnight flight from Phoenix. We had to hang out at the airport to wait for our fourth friend to arrive. At 10:30, we headed off for the ship. I asked the Costa rep about the best way for us to go from airport to ship. Not only did she answer my question, she even went outside to verify the shuttle prices for me! The cab ride is about $15. We were some of the last people allowed in the "early embarkation" line and were on the ship by 11:45. No fuss...no muss.

 

We headed up to th buffet for lunch and then down to our Deck 4 Grand Suites. They were very nice and included a small living room, dressing room, bath, and bedroom. And then there was the amazing wraparound balcony!! We found a chilled botle of champagne and appetizers waiting for us.

 

One funny note - One of our cabins had a sign that said "Show Cabin" outside the door. So my friends gamely played along and gave tours of the cabin to everyone who dropped by :)

 

The butler (Dennis) and the steward (Stanley) were top notch. Dennis delivered our breakfast each morning right on time. The cappuccino was terrific! Although the morning menu only lists cold items, I simply wrote hot items on the top and hey were delivered as well.

 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.....

 

After unpacking and a fairly painless boat drill, we toured around the ship, dropping off raffle tickets and browsing in the shops. (The staff is Russian and not the friendliest onboard) I actually won a free facial later that evening which I scheduled for our first sea day.

 

We very much liked the dining room for dinner and our waiters (Mahesh and Kumar) were among the best I have ever had. I had chosen the late seating, which was the most popular. Dinner lasted from 8:30 until about 10:30PM. The meals take a bit longer than typical due to the extra courses. The timing of the courses was perfect. I had the X1 package and after the first night, there was always 2 cans of diet soda waiting for me when I arrived.

 

We played a little while in the casino. The machines could be updated. There were only a few penny machines. The rest were mostly dime and quarter. We were pretty exhausted so we headed off to get some rest.

 

 

At Sea

We slept in but had the Cruise Critic party planned for 11:30AM in our cabin. Unfortunately, that was also the time of the Sunday Mass and the captain's invitation party (who knew??) We had a great time meeting everyone I had been chatting with online!! What a terrific group of people. My friend ordered a cake to serve and the butler had champagne, orange juice, plates etc. all set up for me. It was fun bumping into each other around the ship during the week.

 

We spent a quiet afternoon reading on the balcony and I headed off for my free facial. I am not a very big Steiner's fan but the young lady only wrote down the products she used and left out the typical high pressure sales pitch.

 

We finally met our table mates on the second night - they had placed two other Grand Suite couples with us. One must have changed seatings or tables... but we really enjoyed the company of the remaining couple. Another CC member said Costa placed her at a table with other singles like herself.

 

The shows definitely had a more European flair - but that didn't keep use from enjoying them! Elements was intended to represent earth, wind, fire and ice. The cruise director's name is Stefano - he reminded me of an Italian Ty Pennington, but other than the shows and one or two other times, we never saw or heard from him. Most of the fun onboard was led by a couple of fun Brits named Steve and Gee.

 

 

San Juan

This was almost like having another sea day since we didn't get into port intil 5PM. I visited the spa for reflexology. My friend and I both had the same weird experience. We had been given $20 discount certificates in the suite. However, when we presented them, we were told that they didn't apply to our treatment. Instead, they discounted the price of the service by 50% and threw in a product to make the final cost equal the original service amount. (Given the choice - I would have just preferred the discount) This just verified my strong reservations about the Steiner's salons. I'm not sure why all the cruise lines contract with them.

 

Since my friends decided to nap, I watched one the ongoing trivia type games led by Steve and Gee. The teams competed all week for a final prize. They seemed to have fun each time I dropped by.

 

I had been looking forward to bidding on a horse for the horse racing. I ended up joining forces with another lady and creating our own little horseracing "syndicate". We bought 3 of the six horses and made a plan to split the winnigs (I'll tell you who won on the last sea day - later)

 

We disembarked and headed for our Segway Tour. At $39, this is a great value for an excursion. We got much further than if on foot. Jose narrated for us along the way. We highly recommend this tour. You will need to email in advance as they only have 7 Segways at a time. Following the tour, we walked past some shops on Old San Juan. The streets were very crowded with three cruise ships in port. At 8:30 we headed back for dinner. A little more casino donation and then a stop at the tropical midnight buffet.

 

Up next...St. Thomas/St. John

[nickie218]

Embarkation Day

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale after an overnight flight from Phoenix. We had to hang out at the airport to wait for our fourth friend to arrive. At 10:30, we headed off for the ship. I asked the Costa rep about the best way for us to go from airport to ship. Not only did she answer my question, she even went outside to verify the shuttle prices for me! The cab ride is about $15. We were some of the last people allowed in the "early embarkation" line and were on the ship by 11:45. No fuss...no muss.

 

 

What is the "early embarkation"? We are sailing on this ship next weekend and I look forward to the rest of your review.

[diathoney]

We're doing the Segway tour with Jose! I'm glad to here you enjoyed it.

[mringenoldus]

nicki218

I am assuming Early Embarkation ended at about 11:30.

 

They pointed us towards a small area with a short line for checkin. There were about three or four agents processing the documents. There was no need for the priority suite checkin as only about 100 passengers boarded with us.

 

We could see the others waiting in the chairs to be moved towards the lines at the regular checkin counter.

 

I didn't hear anyone complaining about the checkin process during the week.

 

diathoney

You will have a great time with Jose! You will also attract a lot of smiles and greetings from other people as you roll by. Many of them asked how they could join the tour too. His assistant carried our cameras and took pictures of us during the tour.

 

I had brought a chocolate cowboy hat (since we're from Arizona) to thank the guides but had forgotten it in my cabin. I ran it back over and hung it on the door of the business later that night....I wonder if they ever found it the next morning??

 

 

St. Thomas/St. John

Our friends that love to shop were not feeling great the morning we docked - so that allowed two of us to head off to one of my favorite places, St. John.

 

When you exit at Crown Bay, there are some stalls and shops but not the amount you would have found at Havensight/Kings Wharf. We walked to the cab area to head to Red Hook in an open air cab. The cabbies seemes to be doing a lot of arguing among themselves as to who gets which passengers. We stopped to drop a few people at Coki beach and then arrived at Red Hook (a few people were staying on to go to Secret Harbor) The ride was $15pp.

 

The ferry is $5 and only takes about 15 minutes to arrive in Cruz Bay. It sprinkled on us very briefly but we heard St. Thomas received a pretty good rain. We walked left out of the ferry stop towards the National Park Visitor Center and took the trail out of there towards Caneel Bay. The initial walk is a little uphill but then flattens out to be an easy stroll through the trees.

 

We took the path down to Salomon beach which is a small quiet beach with a stunning view. We actually ended up here twice as I took another turn off later which I thought led to Honeymoon Beach:) Then we continued on ti Caneel Bay resort, had something to drink and cabbed back to Mongoose Junction for a little shopping. We found the cutest hand painted tinted reading glasses - perfect for reading when the sun is on our balcony!

 

We took the 2:15 ferry to Charlotte Amalie for $10. We took one look at the crowds going through the stores there and headed back to the ship. I know that many will choose to shop or go to Magen's Bay on St. Thomas....but I much prefer the peaceful beauty of St. John.

 

That evening was Italian Night and the staff went all out to make the evening fun. I feel that they do much more than they have to in order to make sure that everyone is having a great time. Don't miss this evening in the dining room or the activities taking place in the atrium! (I don't want to say too much and spoil the fun for anyone)

 

I was pretty tired from hiking and the sun so I skipped the singing twins. I did see them later joining in a game with Steve and Gee.

 

 

La Romana

The port area that leads to the shuttles is very pretty. We took the $5 shuttle into La Romana. The town square had dnacers, costumed people and stalls of typical trinkets. I was offered coffee for $15 which I later found at Jumbo for $2.25. I actually had no intention of going to Jumbo but was trying to find calling cards to give to ship staff. I was thrilled to get 3 large bags of coffee for about $7US.

 

We went back and had lunch. Following that we headed off on the other shuttle to Altos de Chavon ($7). Do not miss the opportunity to go up to this lovely stone Mediterranean village recreation. The shops had some of the nicest items I saw anywhere on this itinerary. The views were awesome and if we had more time, we would have wanted to sit and have a snack while enjoying the location. I purchased a piece of pottery made by an Altos student for a terrific price. You won't find the typical souvenier junk up at Altos - but the items they have for sale are very, very nice.

 

We had dinner at Club Medusa on this evening. The setting is pretty and quiet compared the the somewhat noisy dining room. Our server was Maria and she was adorable. The head waiter, Rocque, also came over to chat with us for a while - a very nice gentleman. The dinner was complimentary for us as suite passengers. If you were to select from each of the ala carte sections, it would cost around $70. I enjoyed the lobster tails! We didn't attend the show that night as the dinner went quite late.

 

 

Next up...Grand Turk!

[tweety33]

I am really enjoying your detailed review. We are cruising the same itinerary on saturday. I lookforward to reading more. Thanks

[misc]

I'm really enjoying reading your review! We were also on this sailing, traveling with 3 children and really enjoyed our week.

[mringenoldus]

Misc - it was great meeting you and thanks so much for the nice card!

 

 

Grand Turk

I received a call early in the morning that our helmet diving excursion was canceled due to rough seas. (The snuba was also canceled as these two activities were on the other side of the island and it was rougher)

 

We arrived at noon and there were no other ships in port as yet. All the beach chairs and shops were open and waiting. The water on this island is the same beautiful turquiose that you find in Cozumel.

 

There are about 20 shops - some small booth type shops and others like Margaritaville and Ron Jons were fairly large. Don't miss the delicate sea glass necklaces made on the island at a shop called the Dizzy Donkey. Both of my daughters loved them. Margaritaville has everything you need to become an instant Parrothead.

 

I hiked down the beach to the dive shop to buy my son a scuba souvenier. After meeting back with my friends, we found some beach chairs. The Sea Princess was arriving and availability was going to get tight. The beach was fine sand and the water was clear but felt a little cool when we first went in.

 

We headed back to the ship about an hour before sailing. It was a nice relaxing day. The families with children really seemed to enjoy this port.

 

This was another formal night. We had fun watching the waiters parade with the baked alaska and sparklers. The midnight buffet was an extravaganza! The unveiling was very dramatic with music and spotlights. Again, Costa really tries to add something special to events for passengers to enjoy.

 

 

Final post - Sea day and Disembarkation................

[Darriny]

Thanks for the review...we leave on Saturday for the Eastern Caribbean. Can you let me know what nights are the formal nights? Also, I hear every night is a themed night...do you recall what they were?

 

Thanks again.

[njs]

So glad you had a great cruise and thanks for the detailed review. We had David Lawton (Welsh man) for our CD and really enjoyed him. He must be on time off or on another ship right now

 

Didnt you just love cappaccino and bkfst on your balcony in the am.

 

Glad you enjoyed the Segway tour- Im sure you noticed the envious stares of all the people hoofing it up the hill:D A lot of people say they think this port is a waste b/c of late arrival etc, but the Segways made it one of our kids favourite ports!

 

I know you mentioned previously about someone in your group possibly not being able to go ~ did some else take their place and was it any hassle with a late cancellation (You maybe posted this but I didnt see it) We were away ourselves (to Aruba -beautiful, beautiful island) so missed these boards for awhile

 

After sailing on Costa in a suite, dont you think they have alot more suite perks than the other lines you have sailed on (To me I think suite passengers on Costa get the best bang for their buck)

[mringenoldus]

The butler brought our breakfast every morning - along with two cappuccinos (I drank both of them!) I also really liked the chocolate croissants.

 

We received many envious comments on the Segway tour. I think it was one of our favorite activities!

 

The fourth person we added at the last minute may not have been our best choice. She mostly liked to go to the dining room or to the cabin for a nap. It mostly impacted our friend that was actually sharing the cabin with her. Looking back we probably should have just let the spot go vacant. We really missed the originally planned friend!

 

I agree that Costa treats the suite passengers as VIP. I also really enjoy Princess suites as they give you free internet and laundry services. I now owe my husband a nice suite sailing since we left him behind.

 

PS Internet on Costa is 25 cents/minute. This is a better deal than on Princess or RCCL.

[belcherwm]

M,

 

Thanks for the write up. We were right there with you, but didn't connect up. I plan on doing a review by this weekend and also post some pictures. We had a great time as well.

 

By the way, the internet is .50 a minute, just moves up in .25 increments on the little screen timer.