My review of Costa Fortuna 3/16/08

[vol3820]

My overall impression....wonderful!!!

 

Our trip consisted of my husband and myself, and our 17 yr old son and 12 yr old son.

 

Embarkation:

We arrived at FLL airport around 9:30 and had maniac cab driver take us to the port. The ladies at the initial desk seemed like they weren't ready to take on boarding all the passengers. They weren't rude, but they weren't friendly either. We were able to board at 11:30. Everyone greeting us from that point on was very friendly and welcoming.

 

Ship:

I didn't find anything wrong with the way things were laid out. It was easy to get from here to there, and since we were on deck 6 (cabin 6291) it was a short walk down the stairs to get to deck 5 where most of the lounges and common areas are. I expected noise in our cabin since we were over a lounge, but we never heard a sound.

 

The slide was a huge hit with my 12 yr old. The staff providing entertainment around the pool was great. They always got people involved to dance or play the games, but they never seemed too pushy doing it.

 

Deck chairs filled up very quickly (as expected). I never saw people "stealing chairs", so I have no comment on that. We used deck 12 quite a bit, and if you go all the way forward by the "glass walls" the wind isn't that bad.

 

If you have a kids that wants a gold bracelet made from the $1 per inch stuff, get it. The next day you'll pay $5 an inch. :( (Mama shoulda took the time that day to get it!! LOL Lesson learned!)

 

Food:

The food was very much what I expected. Loved the pizza. Loved the fried calamari. Loved the lasagna. Didn't care for the "salads", but there was always plenty to eat! I was not hungry. The only nights dinner took longer than normal were when people ordered several courses. I thought the spacing of our food being brough out was spot on. Not everyone ordered something from every course selection, so I thought they did a really good job.

 

Staff:

Our waiter was Joseph....and I love him. LOL He was amazing with our kids, and he did a great job with the six adults at the table as well. Very entertaining! We were in the Michelangelo dining room, table 218. One of my very favorite evenings was Italian night. Do NOT miss this!!! Fun Fun FUN!!!! Our 12 yr old was with a friend and skipped this night, and our 17 yr old got all over him for missing it! LOL

 

We never had a language problem. Never encountered a crew member who couldn't understand what we wanted.

 

Not every staff member is gonna know the answer to whatever your asking. I wouldn't expect them to. If you don't think you got the right answer, ask someone else.

 

Ports (our experience probably isn't typical-there was a storm that made the beaches really rough):

 

San Juan was our first stop. We went to El Morro. Loved it! I didn't think we were going to have time, but it was open til 6pm, and we got to port a little early.

 

St. Maarten was our second stop. We went to Dawn Beach. Gorgeous. Water and waves were really rough that day, which the 12 yr old loved! He rented a boogie board for $5 for the whole day.

 

Tortola was third, and all the beaches were closed. So we took a short tour over the island and went back to the ship to enjoy the day.

 

Nassau was our final stop. We went to Cable Beach by bus. Walked to an open area of beach, and spent the day. Took a bus back to the Straw Market and browsed around, then back to the ship.

 

X1:

We bought X1's for husband and myself. Had wine with dinner every night. No problem. It was a little harder to get served during lunch at the buffets, just because there wasn't always someone from bar service going by. But you could find them and order a beer or wine (they are in yellow shirts). They would also serve soft drinks to our kids because we had the X1. I know we saved money using it.

 

Disembarking:

This was so much faster than I expected, I can't believe it! We had purple luggage tags. We were supposed to meet in the Rex Theater at 8:30, to disembark at 8:45. We were AT THE AIRPORT at 9am!!! I would've booked the 10:30 flight if I had known how fast it would be!

 

Final thoughts:

Our table mates at dinner were two of the nicest couples I've ever met. Our kids had a ball with them too!!! Could not have been more enjoyable! The whole experience was a good one. Even when our 17yr old said one day "There's nothing to do but eat and sleep." ROFL!!!! He doesn't meet friends as easily as the 12yr old, he isn't that outgoing until he knows someone. So he was kind of at an in between age where he didn't wanna be with us, but didn't really have anyone to hang out with either. He still had a great time though.

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/562885855AYJEZd?vhost=community&action=refreshPhotos&albumID=562885855&security=AYJEZd

[louigi]

Hey Vol,

 

From a fellow transplanted Vol girl, thanks so much for your review!

 

I am glad you had a good time overal!! Can't wait for our trip--we leave next Sunday!

 

Later!

[abitaturbodog]

Vol--It was great to meet your family. I think our son's spent a small fortune in the arcade together, but they had a lot of fun.

 

The weather was something, wasn't it? This was our first cruise where the barf bags came out...on 2 days!!! It was pretty exciting!

[vol3820]

Hey Louigi! You'll have a blast!!! I am still dancing every time I hear something remotely similar to the music!!

 

Jennifer, what did you guys end up doing on Tortola? Did you go to Nanny Cay? We went back to the ship and it was great! LOL I could lay out without getting swept away by the wind. Made it pretty dern hot though. :p I bought one of the pics and I think you'll recognize a person in it. It's on my webshots album. And I didn't know what those bags were....lol....til I picked one up to read it! Nate didn't come to dinner that night, he was a little queasy, but never actually got sick.

[abitaturbodog]

Vol---We ended up at Nanny Cay also...thank you sooooooo much for the advice! The water was a little rough, but we could still snorkel and we saw some cute fish.

 

I'd love to see your pics. What is the link?

 

The barf bags were something I'd heard about from my parents, but never got to experience in person. They were something! I'm sure glad we didn't have to use them.