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Thursday 9th Feb 2012

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Cruise Reviews

Costa Cruises

Costa Serena

Our 4th Costa Cruise

Our 4th Costa Cruise

Reviewed By: sharples, Fleetwood Lancs on 2nd Mar 2010
Cruise Line: Costa Cruises	Times cruised before: 10+
Cruise Ship: Costa Serena	Sailed: February, 2010
Destination: Canaries	Age: 46-55
Cabin: Inside

My wife and i have recently returned from our latest cruise on the Costa Serena.This was our fourth Costa cruise having previously sailed on the Serena,the Concordia and the Costa Europa.To be honest we cant believe how Costa can offer such a cruise for the amount we paid.£599 for an 11 night Canary Island cruise,which we booked through Thomas Cook .The price included a flight from Manchester to Schipol and then Schipol to Milan Malpensa.From there we had a 2 hour 20 min coach transfer down to Savona. And once on the ship my wife and i got £50 on board credit.Now if that isnt a bargain i dont know what is.We found the Serena to be a lovely freindly ship very clean and in beautiful condition . Having sailed on the Serena last year we knew our way around this huge ship.Lots of passengers kept on getting lost.The cabin was a little smaller than i remembered but everything was clean.Our cabin was 1440 Andromeda deck. The cabin was about four from the back of the ship.We would normally ask for midship as you are less likely to feel any motion in bad weather.It was a little noisy when the ship was docking but other than that we heard nothing. We asked for 1st sitting but got 2nd.We waited in a long queue to try and change to 1st but to no avail.Our restaurant was Vesta and the food was o.k. nothing special.Our two waitresses although pleasant and friendly kept on getting the orders wrong,which after a few days became irritating.Never the less they did try and the special Italian themed nights at the end of the cruise was fantastic and made everyone feel special.Also as it was our 4th Costa cruise we were left a bottle of champagne in our cabin along with a large bowl of fresh fruit that we thought was a nice touch.Staff were all very freindly. The shows were average although the dancers were as always excellent as was the two main vocalists Shows were mainly in English except for a couple of Italian entertainers,who spoke mainly in Italian but did speak some English.Now the negatives. The shows only lasted for no more than 1/2 hour,you always left the theatre wanting more.The food in the buffet area on deck 9 wasnt very good hot food was barely warm and the choice for night diners was limited to Pizza .The jacuzzis always had kids messing about in them when signs clearly stated no children or unacompanied children not allowed. The flight from Manchester should be direct rather than connect via Amsterdam,as this makes it a long journey if you add on the time it takes to travel to the airport and the transfer time once in Milan. I cant finish without saying a quick word about tips on board Our onboard a/c was debitted with 12 euros a day for two people.I thought this was a fair price especially as we had the £100/112 euros credit,but i like many other British passengers would rather have the option of tipping who you want at the end of the cruise.I believe that part of the 12 euros daily would go to the head waiter,who we never saw or who never came to the table to ask how everything was.We would rather the bulk of our tips go to our cabin steward and our table waiting staff.Would we do another Costa cruise? Yes if we could get the bargain we just had,otherwise i think we would probably stick to our favourite cruise company RCI or Princess.We have yet to try a P and O cruise as they seem to expensive compared to all the other cruise companies.
Quality of Food
Mostly in the Vesta restaurant
Entertainment
Shows were entertaining but never lasted longer than 1/2/ an hour
Shore Excursions	n/a
None far too expensive
Staff
All staff but cabin steward was exeptional
Children's Facilities	n/a

Onboard Activities
Usual offerings
Cabins
best beds EVER so comfortable and large
Overall Rating

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Comment by McCulloch, Perth (03 Mar 10 12:04) about this REVIEW

Have been looking at Costa for this year. Sadly the only time I can get off work is end of July, during school holidays so don't think I will bother. We usually cruise the Caribbean November/December when there are not so many kids. I love kids (in fact work with them) so don't really want to holiday with them. However will still keep Costa in mind for the future after reading your comments. Our last cruise in November with P&O transitting Panama Canal was not as dear as you might think . We have been on Princess and RCI and much prefer P&O. At least with them everything is in sterling, tips are at your own discretion on club dining and the dreaded 15% is not added onto drinks bill. Could not fault them. Keep on cruising.

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Comment by crewdson, anchorsholme (03 Mar 10 09:26) about this REVIEW

glad you enjoyed your cruise. we sail in a couple of weeks,doing caribbean and transatlantic. we have to fly from manchester to paris then to the USA,adds a few hours onto the journey,which is a pain,but hey we are on holiday! as for the tipping issue,we have just absorbed the tips into the cost of the holiday,as we have done with the x1 drinks package.

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Comment by sharples, Fleetwood Lancs (03 Mar 10 21:56) about a COMMENT by crewdson (03 Mar 10 09:26)

Wish we were going . On the subject of connecting flights ,the last three cruises we went on (all Costa)our luggage went missing .Twice via Amsterdam and once via Paris. Just wish we had more options to have direct flights to our destination. from ManchesterThat way the chances of luggage going missing/delayed is minimised.Nothing worse than being on a cruise without your luggage. We are looking to trying a p o cruise to the Carribean next Jan 11 but at the moment packages are aroud £1500.

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Comment by Craig, Kirkcaldy (04 Mar 10 19:52) about a COMMENT by sharples (03 Mar 10 21:56)

We had the same problem with missing luggage when flying from Edinburgh via Amsterdam. Costa rep. did comment that KLM were always a bit of a problem.

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