Costa Cruises

Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)

Guadeloupe

La Romana (Casa de Campo)

Miami

Genoa

Martinique

Caribbean - All

Caribbean - Eastern

Caribbean - Southern

Terrible

Poor

Costa Favolosa

Costa Pacifica

Costa Magica

Colon (Cristobal)

Embarkation was slow and a little chaotic but bags were waiting at our cabin. Don't stay in 8312, we were disturbed by the constant scraping of chairs in the cafe above. Cabin kept immaculate by our steward, towels changed daily and beach/pool towels on request. Plenty of storage, surprisingly spacious and a large comfortable bed. Very few TV channels. Tatty balcony and scratched windows. 

Main restaurants were good, waiters fantastic, food just nice not amazing. A couple of fun entertainment nights in the restaurant made the holiday. Most of the staff were pretty helpful but very slow service and not so friendly at the pool bar. Buffet restaurants were noisy and chaotic. Very average food. Holiday camp style entertainment at the pool venue, theatre was a little better but still very amateur. We decided to do one organised trip just to see what it was like. We hung around in a queue for over an hour before disembarking, were not advised that the shops would be closed on a Sunday but were dumped in the town in the Dutch side of StMaarten anyway. The trip was supposed to be English speaking but the Italian tourists on the coach were extremely rude speaking over the tour guide who did not do much to help.Photos/videos of our trip for sale were extortionate. The cruise line is money grabbing to say the least. There were very few English speakers on this cruise so if that bothers you be careful what trip you book. After a few days of being shoved out the way and trying to do the normal Brit queuing thing, we just had to give up and become one of the crowd... Not nice !!! Everywhere was very clean and pretty well organised. Disembarkation at La Romana was shocking, waiting for hours, for immigration, who stamped the paperwork and chucked it on the floor. We will not be cruising with Costa again.

Disappointing First Timers' Cruise

We had been on Costa ships several times in the past and enjoyed the style & quality. We had actually cruised on this ship (COSTA MAGICA) 2 times in the past.
Unfortunately, our experience with the latest cruise was absolutely terrible.
It was especially disappointing as the COSTA MAGICA was the first cruise ship my wife and I experienced about 6 years ago.
The comments below are only the most noticeable of the issues, there are other smaller things that we
have not mentioned (such as cruise itinerary, port quality etc).
ARRIVAL At the departure terminal, things were quite chaotic, with no clear place for check in or anyone to help with the luggage.
ROOM We were given a handicapped room, that was actually a single cabin that was converted into a double for this trip. We requested a cabin change, but understood that we would have to wait and see after the ship sailed. This is the last we heard from the customer service department. There was also a lot of mold in the shower.
FOOD This was our biggest problem on the ship, for the reasons listed below, The food quality on many items was extremely low. We had dried-out fish, chicken that you could not cut, cold soup, dry bread, overcooked, dry spaghetti.  In addition, there were items that were actually dangerous (seafood soup that smelled like sewer water), Fish that was moldy Under and over cooked food (pasta, chicken, fish so dry that it could not be swallowed, steak fries that could not be cut, mashed potatoes that had lumps the size of quarters.   The buffet restaurant was only open for 2 nights of the cruise, but perhaps this was a blessing as the food selection was terrible....it looked like food from a charity hospital for the poor.  The lunch selection at the buffet was the same poor quality and exactly the same choice every day.  On one lunch service we asked for some salt, and the staff member we asked pointed to an adjacent occupied table and told us we could ask our fellow passengers for the salt.
ENTERTAINMENT For the entire cruise, the only entertainment offering were the standard cruise dance company shows and a crew only show, There was no off ship, higher quality entertainment offered as on past Costa cruises.
SHIPS AMENITIES The entire ship had a threadbare and rundown feel. The bed linens were torn & stained.
CABIN ATTENDANTS The cabin service was much poorer that on previous sailings, with a much lower staff previous cruises.
Anyway, the entire experience was a total shock for us. On all our other cruises we have been on (Costa, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Celebrity, Carnival, P & O, and the World of Resinensea), we always wanted to stay and extra couple of days. On this cruise, we were desperate to leave after 4 to 5 days on board.
The food and entertainment on Costa have always been their main attraction. The ships amenities are fairly basic in modern cruising (NO movie theaters, ice-rinks, climbing walls, water parks, golf nets, tennis courts etc.).
However, when people asked us about this cruise (mostly asking us if that is the company whose ship sank), we replied that although the ships amenities were fairly poor, the food & entertainment were First Class....boy were we wrong about that......
NOT a 4 star ship....in-fact I think that 2 and a half stars would be generous.
 

DON'T GO ON THE COSTA MAGICA !!!

This was our 6th cruise. We cruised with two other companies before : Carnival and Princess which were great. This was our first Costa cruise and will definitely be the last.
We were very disappointed with our cruise ship: the food was very poor with no buffet option in the evening (closed early in the afternoon with only a very limited salad bar and dry pizza in the evening). Food in the dining room was bland, service slow and waiters unfriendly! No drinking water provided at the tables. You have to purchase bottled water (or other types of beverages) if you want to drink with your meal.
At breakfast and lunch the buffet was like a zoo : overcrowded, difficult to find a table, staff systematically not yielding to passengers carrying food plates to their tables or picking up unfinished plates without first asking if we were done, barmen at every corner trying to sell you drinks not included with your cruise, empty orange juice or ice machines which, along with ice cream machines, were only accessible during specific and very short periods of time.
Decks and pools were also overcrowded. Children running around and shouting in cabin corridors as late as 11h pm and later.
The only positive aspect : The ports of call (La Romana, Catalina, Tortola, Martinique, Guadeloupe and St-Marteen) were great and most of them are not available through other cruise lines which is the reason why we picked this particular cruise in the first place...
 

Worst cruise ever

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