Costa neoRiviera Review
Prepare to be thrown off ship as soon as it is berthed.
Rating by category
Additional details
We recently went on our first and last Costa Cruise, everything was good, until the evening before disembarking, they had added 15% to a prepaid drinks package, we bought the 20 beers and 20 soft drinks packages on board as we were told we couldn't buy it before boarding the ship but there wouldn't be any added costs because it was a package. Then we were told we would have to get off the ship at 8a.m on Friday morning for our transfer to Nice from Savona, our transfer was arranged for 10.30 a.m through Costa and the Cruise Company we booked with. There were at least 100 passengers this happened to, most of them booking through the same company as ourselves, amongst the passengers were disabled people, myself and my husband included. it seemed to be the British passengers this was happening to, or at the very least, people flying into the UK. This earlier transfer meant that many of us would have a 12 hour wait at Nice Airport. The Captain put it a short appearance and then disappeared, the Reception staff didn't really want to know what was going on, and weren't very helpful anyway, then when some passengers started to get really angry, they offered them an extra hour before they caught their transfer but would have to wait on the quayside. We found it all totally unacceptable as this had been known to the staff onboard at least two days earlier but passengers had not been informed.
I can't understand why people with an evening flight were put off the ship first and others with an earlier afternoon flight were allowed to stay onboard longer, this, to me seems ridiculous, also, one of the ports we should have stopped at, Tunis had understandably been cancelled so they took us to Sicily which was closed because of a Bank Holiday, when questioned about this we were told "You can go on one of our trips which is will cost you €50-€69." This was not ideal, I don't know why we were taken somewhere where there was very little to do, it all seemed to be about making extra money.
I have told all my friends about this, many of whom cruise a couple of times a year and none of them will sail with Costa. The staff and food were lovely though, this was the only good thing. We cruise a couple of times a year, but will definitely not cruise with Costa again
Cabin Review
The cabin was average, the cabin steward was very good.
Port Reviews
Monaco (Monte Carlo)
Lovely place to visit, and quite a lot to see, pretty expensive though which we expected, loved seeing the yachts and the Grand Prix stands were being erected, think it's a place where you could only spend one or two days, though I could be wrong
Barcelona
Loved Barcelona as I'd always wanted to visit, went to the Cathedral on 23rd April which was St Jorge Day and there was so much going on during the festival, the Cathedral was beautiful and well worth a visit, the Ramblas street market is amazing and so cheap
Florence (Livorno)
We used public transport to visit Pisa, very clean place with some nice pavement cafes, we didn't get to Florence, we went back to Livorno and looked round the local markets which were good, for those who don't know, public bus to Rail Station €1.20 single then a few euros on train, 20 minute journey, when exiting the station walk straight ahead for about 15 mins then you will see signs for tower, about another five mins
Malta (Valletta)
Been to Malta many times but still had to go back to Mdina, such a lovely place, a lot more restaurants than I remember but we always visit Fontanellas up on the huge wall which surrounds the city, food is always value for money and delicious.