Just back from Costa Allegra- great time

[jancy]

Hi All,

 

Like Celtic Fire have got back a week ago from a 14 day trip starting halfway through the cruise getting on at Singapore. Celtic I looked for your kilt but must have missed you... Have previously cruised last year with Star Gemini - very similiar ship. It is an ugly ship from the exteriopr but dont let that deter you.

 

Happy to answer any questions. We did the ships tours at all ports so if anyone want to query these fire away.

 

The passengers were about 700 Italians, French, German and dutch with 100 english speaking including aussies, english and americans. First halk of the trip to Hong Kong found it very very noisy but different with change over.

 

The crew were mostly very helpful except the head girl at the customer desk - very rude.

 

The head bar manager Jay and head barman Alfred were fantastic. Say Paul and Colleen and Jancye say hello.

 

We had an inside cabin with my husband and adult daughter which was fine. getting on at Singapore instead of Hong Knog has both advantages and disadvantages. No great fan fare when you get on but 7 days later you get 700 new passengers come on. Found the late sitting at 9.15 just too late as the show was then on at 11.30 pm so we swapped to the earlier 6.45 without too much trouble. I am vegetarian and it was fine for me with a choice for most courses. I found the buffet really busy and noisy but excellent for breakfast as breafast in the restauarant was a bit messy and we often waited and waited to get a coffee.

 

Wine was really expensive and they ran out of several whites as we dont drink red. About 30 euros a bottle. Agree with Celtic that the Cocktail of the day is good value.

 

Loved the pizza in the pizetta bar wich is on from 5.00pm to 7.30 pm anf then 10.00 till midnight. Thre are 4 different pizzas each day with a vego option and its free. Great selection of icecream there too try the lime sorbet drenched in vodka (my husbands favoutite)

 

Gala nights are dressy Men defintely need a suit.

 

The dicco does not start until 12.30 am so not for the weary but stayed up one night for it.

 

We tipped at the end in all currencies which is acceptable. We used local currencies everywhere but found you can use U.S $$$$ everywhere.

 

Pool is very small and salty and not much shade ( topless sunbathing seems acceptable).

 

It is a small ship

[CelticFire]

Nah.........never bothered with the kilt. So glad I didn't, would have dehydrated in that heat. I agree though that contrary to some earlier posters, I'm glad I had a suit.

 

Glad you enjoyed it also. We had some good laughs with some of your Aussie colleagues. I'm surprised you say you had a choice of food as we are both vegetarians and there was only one choice of main meal each night. Some courses had no veggie option. Still had a great time though.

 

Interestingly we also sailed on the Gemini Last year.

 

I probably enjoyed the atmosphere on the gemini more and thought there was more variety of entertainment, However I did think Costa tried hard with their themed dinner evenings. Overall very enjoyable.

 

Slanthe Mhath

CF