Following Doug's heart bypass surgery at the beginning of the year, we both needed a good holiday. We had never cruised before so decided on a cruise to Canada and Alaska in June 09. However, due to a lack of interest, that cruise was cancelled. Then one day a brochure arrived through door advertising a Costa Cruise to the Far East which outlined a fabulous itinery for October 09. By this time, we really needed a good holiday to recharge our batteries.
The problems started with the Costa web site when we tried to book excursions and check in on line. What an user unfriendly site. However we managed but needeed to make numerous phone calls to sort booking problems out. On line check in was a waste of time anyway. We still had to stand in endless queues to check in at the port. It took an age. We had spent 2 fabulous nights and 3 days in Hong Kong with a smashing guide named Jain who really kept us entertained with jokes, anecdotes and much information about Hong Kong
Once on board the Classica, the nightmare started and continued throughout the cruise. We were allocated a cabin on Deck 4 after paying £900.00 for an upgrade to get an outside cabin with a port hole. The cabin was dirty, the toilet seat was loose, the bathroom door didn't close and lock and the wardrobe doors banged constantly and the cabin was so noisy, it almost drove us out of our minds. Each time we arrived at a port, we heard very loud banging but was unable to identify the source. We explained the problem to our English speaking staff member who said it could be the air conditioning and the ceiling in the cabin would have to be taken down to remedy the problem. But, nothing was done. Then later that first week, we were rudely awakened by a continous banging at 4 am. By 7.30, we were going crazy. The problem was brought to the attention of the English speaking staff member once again and eventually we were allocated another cabin on Deck 6. We asked for help in moving our luggage to our new cabin and had a good laugh when a man arrived with an empty tray saying he was ready to deliver something to our new cabin. this was another example of poor communication and total incompetence.