Chose this cruise because the dates and the embarkation port were convenient for me. That is the good stuff out of the way, and the rest was downhill. The fact that drinking water is not provided free on a cruise in such a hot region tells you all you need to know. in 21 days only one of the two ice machines worked and then only for one day. No water provided with evening meal and no tea or coffee afterwards. Menus poor and reconstituted potato used. Drinks packages were a complete rip off. Passports were taken on day one, and only a photocopy given out (too late to be useful in some cases). When we went to Langkawi we found that the duty free shops would not allow sales unless the photcopy was shown but we had not received ours. So after a hot and sweaty trip back to the ship - queueing at the info desk to receive a copy, then a further hot and sweaty trip back to the shop - I finally managed to buy some perfume, but the whole process took half of the day we were there. Then the final insult, a photocopy (second one) was delivered to my cabin half an hour before the ship sailed out. I was given the WRONG advice about the mandatory visa for India and so paid out £140 for a two year visa instead of a £40 short term stay visa. The disembarkation port was Savona, Italy, where the ship was going into dock for a 12 day maintenance period, but we still had to vacate the cabin by 8 am and then sit in the theatre until 11.30 waiting for our transfer coach. No laundries on board and the cabin laundry service was EXPENSIVE. Would never book with COsta again. Read Less

They say you get what you pay for, but even at the great price they were offering, you got a lot LESS that what you paid for on this cruise. As an adult I have been on more than 100 cruises and as a teenager my father was a cruise ship captain. This cruise was by far the bottom of the barrel. The crew is so over worked, that there is no way they can provide good service. The biggest thing the ship needs to do is get less senior officers and more workers. There are more than enough officers standing around doing nothing while there was a shortage of people to do the work They even charge for water. On every other ship we have been on, you could always go some where to get water, tea or coffee at no charge. If you want water at dinner, no problem either pay per glass or purchase a water package. The food in the dinning rooms and buffet was so bad that it forced you go to the for pay dinning rooms. The terms planning, organization, and logic have totally evaded this ship. Our tours (that we did not book with the ship) were great and we plan to visit many of the ports again on another cruise line. In the disembarkation talk the crew speaker spent over 10 minutes telling us why we should give them 10s on the survey because the problems were not the fault of the crew. In short, stay away from the Victoria and Costa in general. Read Less

We had chosen this cruise because of the nice weather and the price was ok for us. We did a cruise with Costa Neoclassica from Savona to India in November 2017 and that one was beautiful. All our cruises with Costa were nice. We exprerienced more than 10 cruises, but this cruise was a disaster. It was the last cruise of this ship Victoria, it sailed from Asia to Europe and to be refurbished in Marseille to sail in Europe in the next future. The Italian animation team was very much to loud, the whole day they screemed on the deck. The refurbisment was already started. The carpet was already pulled loose, the stairs were already disassembled and sanded, the tenderboats were already sanded, the ceilings already came down, the chairs were already re-upholstered. All day you heard knocking, sawing, sanding, carpentry and so on. The workmen in black and white suits were busy all day. The quality of the food was in the first week ok, but the last two weeks terrible, old frozen food, no variety, cheap food unmade. I think the freezers had to be empty before the cruises ended. The dinner lasted 2.5 hours, there was far too little staff, between the various dishes we had to wait half an hour. Food appeared that you had not ordered, or it did not come at all. At 8 o'clock in the morning most of the chairs were already occupied with towels and personal belongings. Passengers occupied the seats all day long, although sometimes they were not there for hours. Costa did nothing. For me NEVER COSTA AGAIN. Read Less

We selected this cruise because of the itinery and price. We wanted to try an asian cruise this time, and not that many options are available departing from Singapore. Royal Caribbean was much more expensive and had a less attractive itinery. Costa Victoria is old. Built in 1996, and is by current standards a small ship. This would however not have to be only a disadvantage. A small ship can have its advantages. Unfortunatelly that was not the case with Costa Victoria. The decor of the ship is just uggly and would really need an upgrade. There's plenty of space on deck, but not enough deck chairs forcing people to simply place the towels on the fake "grass" floor, and the "solarium" in the forward of the ship needs at least a jacuzzi or something to relieve the main pool area. We we're upgraded from an inside to an outside cabin which was a very nice surprise! The outside cabins which comes with only a porthole window. The cabin is very small and the orange colors are not pleasant.No seating are is available so oyu have to sit in the bed to view TV. The bathroom is fine though. The dining options available are the absolute basics. It's either the buffet, or the main dining rooms. The buffet has 4 parallel lines, but only one is serving the grilled meat/fish why all people needs to queue in this line. For lunch the poolside of the buffet is serving burgers. unfortunatelly not tasty at all :(. No pizza or ice cream was available at all which suprised me on an italian ship. The MDR has two seatings, no flexible time dining. The gala dinner was rather good, but most other days the food was below standards. We shared dinner table with people from Scottland, Italy, Russia, Ukrain and Slovakia (we're from Sweden). Exiting, but not practial since not all could speak the same language. There was about 25 other Swedes onboard the ship and some british/americans which would have been much better for us to dine with for language reasons. The "theater" is more like a normal show room in 2 levels. 2 of the shows, one italian tenor and one acrobatic show was good, the other dance shows was boring. When we embarked costa took our passports and said they we're going to keep it for the entire cruise. I tried to understand why, but no one could answer me. They just said "this is how Costa always do", however, I have been with Costa 2 times before and they have not taken my passport. The day before disembarkation we had to queue to get them back. I then noticde the passports had been stamped by Thai and Cambodian customs. So maybe this was the reason for collecting them, but it would have felt better if this information was provided to us prior to embarkation. Btw, we was informormed just days before the cruise that a mandatory fee of $40 per person was going to be applied for Cambodian Visa (also applicable if not disembarking the ship). This shold have been made clear when booking the cruise, or better, including in the cruise price. Cruising is always a pleasurable way to travel, and even with the bare minimum of the cruise experience the Costa Victoria provides I find it worth the money paid. But for sure there shold be a significant difference in price, or much better itinery if I would choce costa again for my future cruises. Read Less

If you want a good cruise, I suggest leave Costa well alone. We hated everything, from embarkation procedure to disembarkation. Couldn't wait to get off. I suggest the management go on cruises with their competitors and learn how to run a cruise line and treat guests. I probably don't have enough space to write all our complaints, but here's some. Our cabin had an interconnecting door with the next cabin and it may as well have been open, as we could hear next door talking and the guy snoring all night, so we hardly got any sleep. We asked to be moved, but were told the ship was full. It had 1500 people out of space for 1900! The food was absolutely dreadful, both in the dining room and in the buffet. Full of butter, cream, cheese or all of them. The meat was so overcooked, you could hardly cut it. After breakfast, you could not get a free cup of coffee. My wife is dairy intolerant and the staff from the chef down, couldn't care less. The Italian staff were generally rude, the other staff, excellent. Eve, the English rep on board was 10/10. She helped any way she could, but was up against "company policy." Which meant, do nothing. Hygiene on board was terrible. Hardly anyone sanitised their hands and there was no policing of it. People filled water bottles beside signs saying don't do this and staff standing beside them, saying nothing. Read Less

Greatly recommend to those who are keen to go for a cruise managed by a poor management who always put on an "unhappy" face on all their cruise with no proper instructions given and when questions were raised by their guest to their crew, the standard reply was "I don't know, please check with another crew.". Also if you do not wish that the crew to enter your cabins, do remember to put the "Do Not Disturb" sign at your door as our room was entered multiple times for no particular reasons even though we didn't call for housekeeping and we realised that our laptop had been touched ( as we left room for a short time to attend their concert, we left our laptop open and when we were back, it was closed and the whole room was pitch dark - even side table lights were offed. ) When asked to the information counter, they said we didn't put "DTD" thus the crews can enter and leave anytime they like. Toilets were filled with moulds at bathing area, beds were stained with black stains even after a housekeeping session done.. Smoke can be smelt along the corridor of the cabins, insufficient kettles available as well. The adapter given by the crew had sparks coming out from it when it was plucked it and when asked for an exchange, the crew said that they ran out of it. Long queues during meal times and there was no one controlling the crowd nor guiding the passengers. Ice cream stall only open for 1 meal throughout the 5 days of cruise. Speciality restaurant does not offer all indicated food items and we were not told before we sat down for our meal. Waste of money. There is 3 eating area for the passengers, however, only 2 is available as 1 is converted to "FOR SUITE" passengers only. We purchased the non-alcoholic beverage package but the crew would keep on telling us that the non-alcoholic drinks are not included and we had to pay extra (don't buy package as they don't honour it). No proper lightings near the swimming pool where some kids are found running in dark as well which is very dangerous. Entertainment were the same for the 5 days. Poor management on disembarkation and embarkation as well as no proper direction nor instructions given, announcement system is also not clear. Overall, its a waste of money and time, both my partner and I are very displeased with the service provided, management control, experience, condition of the cabin and the embarkation and disembarkation process. This is not our first time cruising on a cruise liner but it will be the first time and LAST TIME cruising with COSTA VICTORIA. Read Less

I am eager to write this review in order to increase this cruise rating. After my mom paid for this cruise, she did a bit of research about Costa Victoria. Mostly was awful, so we almost cancelled our cruise and let the money go instead of wasting our time. But it is our last trip with my brother before he went overseas, so we decided to go. And seriously, this is my first cruise and it is AWESOME! well, for me the ship was huge (although they said it's a small ship). Food was FREE (even for semi fine dining version), unlimited and great (especially for indian food), but you have to pay for other premium drinks. the timing was PERFECT (23 Dec at 22.00 until 27 Dec 14.00). I respect all of the crew members that give their best effort to serves us day and night with their best smile to ensure our best experience on cruise (THANK YOU!). The cabin design is old fashioned, but CLEAN, they clean our cabin twice a day. Endless parties and event for sure. Definitely WORTH IT for their value for money. To get this personal, I'm 22 yrs old and I came from Indonesia. Not really the best cruise for my age, but I totally recommend this cruise for FAMILY who had kids around 12 yrs old. Read Less

**Please do not ever take Costa Victoria Ship, Italian Cruises.** My purpose for this post is not to complain, but more of making sure that the public do not get the same poor experience as I did. I went with my family (as a group of 20) and here is a brief summary of what happened in the 4d3n cruise experience (Starting from the most pertinent problem to trivial ones) 1. Bedbugs Upon entering the cabin, my cousin and I checked for bedbugs but all seemed clear and the cabin looked decent. When I returned to my cabin at 3am and after showering and lying down on the bed for a while, I started feeling itchy around my back and neck. I got up to check in the mirror and saw clusters of bites and I guessed my worst fears came true. I immediately went to check my bed and noticed a couple of tiny bloodstains which were not there previously. Then I saw some live bedbugs under my blanket which I killed. I did not want to wake my cousin to change the room immediately as it was already very late and we were going to wake up early the next day hence I waited it out. The following morning, I saw an even larger bedbug below my pillow. (to be continued) 2. Response to situation a. My cousin and I went to the information counter to inform them of the situation. The first response from the staff? "You sure it's bed bugs? Did you see the actual insect?" Instead of showing concern for the customer, their first response was to attempt to weasel out of the situation and divert the blame. With some reluctance, they offered to conduct an investigation (to ascertain if I was lying) and asked me to check back the counter in an hours' time. After 2 hours, they finally finished their "investigation" and the first option they offered was: To do a thorough cleaning of room and change of bedsheets, not a change of room. In cases of bedbugs, deep cleaning is required and is normally done by professionals that have the necessary tools and chemical to exterminate bedbugs but they said 2 hours of cleaning would get rid of the bugs. Of course, we would not accept that and eventually got a change of room and before we moved into our new room, we had to go back up to the old cabin to retrieve our luggage. When we got up, the room looks new and clean, with bed sheets changed as well (They probably noticed the bloodstains and some bedbugs) and there I saw 1 bedbug crawling by the side (As shown in the video attached). ** After our cruise, there is another batch of passengers and there is no time to conduct deep cleaning of the rooms. (I'd leave it to you to imagine what is going to happen) b. I asked for some cream to apply on the bites to stop the itch and inflammation - they said they do not have any cream - If I go to the medical center I have to pay for it (despite me sustaining the bites onboard) [to be continued] 3. Medical Center There was a SECOND incident of bedbugs in a separate room (of my uncle's), so I tried again on the following day and finally understanding the severity of the situation, they offered to bring me to the medical center on the ship's account. - Went there, sat for 30 minutes while the Italian doctors/medic were conversing in Italian even though it is a straightforward case: Saw the picture of the bug, inspect the bite, and prescribe me the cream - Amidst their conversation, my cousin and I figured from the English words they used "Complaint", "Ship's account", "Bedbugs", "report", and they finally gave me the cream and 2 of them talked amongst themselves, suggesting "Allergy" - From our inference, the waiting time was for them to determine how to write their report so as to absolve the blame from the ship, probably by claiming that I had allergies rather than getting bedbug bites. 4. Facilities / Activities Limited entertainment facilities: - Spa (That was an indoor pool with cold seawater) - Gym (Was decent) - Sauna (Too small) - Theatre (Which has almost no activities) - Outdoor pool (1 baby pool, 4 jacuzzis, 1 normal pool of only 10m) - Card Room (Looks decent but we did not use it) - Casino (Outdated and combined withthe kid's arcade, which is extremely inappropriate) - Kids' club (Acts as a childcare centre, which is actually not bad) - Disco (That I have no idea what it's for) - Basketball court (The only thing that is at the top deck) - DFS Repeated/boring activities: - Seminars (Often conducted under different names but it's the same activity) - Some dance classes - Italian lesson (1 hour on the 3rd day?) **The activities may not be bad, but there is limited engagement because the staff are simply not passionate enough and passengers can feel it. **No free drinking water, not even water dispensers, everything has to be paid for (Even those in the suites only get 1 bottle a day) 5. Service ***** After playing in the casino, I went to ask for some water. - The staff said I can only get bottled water - I asked if there was plain water - She said "Do you want bottled water or tap water?" - I asked, "Is the tap water drinkable?" (Knowing that ship's tap water is not potable) - "No" - If the tap water is not drinkable, why would she even offer that?! If it's others who did not know, she would have given it to them. - Hard to get smiles on the staff - Staff works extremely slow (It takes us around 40 mins to be served in the restaurants) [Most likely due to lack of enthusiasm and culture created from top-down] 5. Feedback form - Towards the end of the cruise, some of us had to attend the disembarking briefing, and they wanted us to fill up this feedback form - Instead of asking for our sincere feedback and ways in which they could improve upon, they EXPLICITLY stated that for Q1: How has your cruise experience been? [ We should fill in Excellent only] & Q16: Would you recommend Costa Victoria to your friends and family? [ We should fill in 'Yes, definitely!'] - That night, they made 2 announcements to submit our feedback form and EMPHASIZED to fill in the 2 questions as suggested - The following morning, at 0900 hrs and 0930 hrs, they made the same announcement re-emphasizing the need to fill in the 2 questions as such. **A good cruise would never have to worry about customers' feedback. The fact that they constantly reminded us to answer the questions in a certain way made a lot of us sick to the stomach. 6. Food / Miscellaneous I wish Gordon Ramsay was there -- it would have been 'Cruise Nightmares'. The food was so trashy that it was a slimming cruise for me. - In one of the photos, is the crabs where the gills are not even removed (One of the dirtiest parts of the crab) - Lobsters: For the first 3 days, we had the option to pay USD15 to purchase a lobster meal, but on the 3rd night, we were offered that option. It was not fresh to the extent that it tasted like mashed potato stuffed in lobster shells. - Steak: Felt stale and had a gross aftertaste, something I never had before - So-called fine dining experience: Is actually 'recycled' food from the buffet area. - Virtually nothing was beyond edible, even those that we had to pay for (E.g. USD8.50 pizzas that used frozen dried shrimps that had a stale taste) - However, the desserts are generally not bad. This whole experience has been so bad (and you can see the aftermath of the bites I suffered, not just limited to the back). We paid about 400+USD for 4D3N but there were so many other costs, such as COMPULSORY tips, paid water, paid food, paid activities. Until now, Royal Carribean still remains the best experience one can have (Having a dedicated crew that serves you during meal time, polite staff, fun activities and a myriad of onboard activities to do) So, please, I implore anyone out there who is considering a cruise trip to not scrimp on 200USD and just go for Royal Carribean, not Costa Cruise. Read Less

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Before I go on to Costa Victoria, I read that most of the review are bad. But I will like to comment, overall, we enjoyed the whole cruising. Checking in the luggage was a breeze, boarding, to last day collection of passport n arrival back to Singapore. Greet by every staff. The male service crew in all the restaurants or buffet corners are all very friendly, they can remember you and joke with you, but not the female crew, no smile, for food, u can't expect high grade but last night we got lobster n lamb grill was really good. Try to go for the A la carte but queue half n hr earlier. Even embarkment to Phuket, Penang n Malacca is a breeze too. But try to aim for the 1st ferry for Phuket. For activities, most of the staff are nice. The pool is seawater but the jacuzzi is normal pool water. House keeping fold us an elephant using towels, mine is a balcony premium cabin, big room. Everyday my room is clean n nice. Read Less