Costa Cruises, Costa Allegra

We sailed out of Fort Lauderdale on the Costa Fortuna to cruise the caribbean and returned 7 days later to enable mostly US citizens to leave the ship and to pick up mainly Europeans for the remainder of the 24 day cruise. The first 7 days was fantastic, but after the US passengers disembarked the food quality was inferior to that of the 1st week. Costa also increased the on board prices by circa 40% by changing the currency from US dollars to Euros. In fact what they did was to change the $ sign for the Euro sign, with no attempt to take the exchange rate into account.We had a meeting with Mr Puckl the "Director of the Hotel services" and he confirmed that we were now entering summer pricing (although it was still only March), and he refused to do anything about it. About 500 British passengers realized what had happened and they were all furious.We will be taking them to court in the UK if they refuse to compensate us for approximately £400 of additional expenditure. They are the most dishonest Cruise line that we have ever sailed with, and this is our 11th cruise.

had a good trip . ship was clean and the housekeeping staff were excellent as were the young men & women serving us in the various dining rooms. Bravo to each & everyone of them. Cabin Was well Equipped and comfortable.

However buyer beware in regards to shore excursions purchased on the ship.

They are expensive for what they are and we feel that we were totally "ripped off" on a tour that was recommended by staff on the tour desk in Manila. We complained to the tour director on return to ship was was told in an arrogant manner , basically"' tough luck". i would travel with costa again but would not take any of the tours organised by the ship.

OK- I am going to be very straight forward- don't mistake anything for attitude- just the facts, the way I experienced them.

Accomodations- fair-

The steward was lovely. Clearly she only had so much control- she tended to us as if she were our live in maid. The bed was made daily, clothes put away (thanks), however; the linens were old, tough, and the sheets were never changed. Fresh towels were delivered daily, (face cloths were hit and miss). I am American and understand that Europeans don't normally use them so maybe just a miss)?

Room Service-fair at best

We ordered room service multiple times (approx 4) We received it once. We called to inquire and was told always it was on its way, - whatever.

Boarding on and off - They could use a breif on current security ( I was uncomfortable) Not much attention to detail but didn;t seem to stand in long lines on and off ( not a trade-off in my mind)

Food- Buffet food was not good - The buffet tables were rarely cleaned off - seating was tough. Approx 4 times i bit into a tomatoe (salad area, capprese or whatever) and it was frozen in the middle) The crew was extremely rude with cutting off lines. A human actually stood and forced people away. I just rolled my eyes but I wittnessed (EVERYTIME) a hostile person - someone needs to take a clue. The scheduled dining which I attemded every night except one was hit or miss. The staff was clearly stressed. There was little room for substitution (without a crosseyed waiter) and the food was bad- the surf and turf was a real joke and basically it was worse than hotel food- really.

Bar staff/ drinks- the drinks were basically the same but I did read a review where someone had a mixed drink that was great on day and totally different the next. That did happen to me. They were so nice, though, I forgave it. They were probably the nicest, most accomodation 'group' on the ship.

We ate in the formal steakhouse on New YEars Eve and may as well have eaten at the formal dinner- complete waste of money- would never recommend it, service or food.

Pool Area

Lounge chairs were consistantly broken, it was messy, dirty at times, and childrens throw-up was centrally loccated for hours on end with no clean-up, come on people.

Entertainment-

Our group loved BINGO it was actually the ONE thing we liked consistantly. The host was wonderful and upbeat. The bar at bingo was also one of the best service bars whether it was alcohol, directions, or cappachino, can't say enough about it.

Captain and crew-

I will say when we docked at the Bahamas, it was windy- scarey windy. I will follow with out of four cruise ships, we sailed out on schedule while the three others decided it was too dangerous. That tells me something. I did not sleep that night- I also called the operator to ask what the extreme banging was- (the bow of the boat slamming against the water)

Gift shop-

Mostly great. Did buy some alcohol on sale which turned intoo the biggest headache and an extremely rude employee- otherwise not bad.

Information Desk-

Well, we drove to Ft Lauderdale and boarded the cruise. No one but ourselves and the crew handled our bag. My mother-in-law had multiple broken items and the people (as best as they could communicate in English)

pretty much told her - sorry bout your luck!

The Casino-

Being a part of a pretty serious gambling group- - the employees were rude at best. Not at all catering to people who were gambling a few thousand dollars- I was shocked.

Overall -I would say Cosat Fortuna has a great idea going - needs some management tweaks and some customer service issues attended to- i will not cruise with Costa again.

No offense to those who like Costa- I have cruised with other lines and feel Costa is a joke. Maybe they are capable of catering to other needs that are not familliar to me.

Don't get me wrong this is a good ship, but it could be better, if you got rid of the smoking below decks in the bars and the cabins,even if you have one side of the bar no smoking it still comes over your side, my God what a health risk, especially children and those that have poor health. Come on Costa lets get to the 21st century and ban the smoking below decks, it is only a short walk to the upper deck and then you can smoke to your hearts content.

One other item that got to me is that your intertainment staff should speak more english as the ship was nearly all english speaking people and when they tell you something in Italian it is very hard to know what is going on!!!

Being ex navy it was very bad to see how you looked after your life boats, get the paint off the shackles as if you did have an accident then you would be able to unshackle the boats, who does your inspection, I am open for offers if you need someone to do your OH&S.

Take care Costa Allegra and smoove sailing.

I think that it is very apt that I start by saying that someone I spoke to commented and said that if you have not been on a cruise before then the Costa Allegra was ok, but if you have then it is sadly falling short of the mark.

The first thing I noticed is the draconian attitude towards smokers or non smokers, as it appears that they are of the belief that signs indicating that it is ok to smoke on one particular side of a bar is ok whilst it is not on the other, maybe someone should have told the smoke that so that it stayed on that side of the room and did not waft across to the non smoking side or for that matter get sucked into the air conditioning and be circulate throughout the entire ship, have these people not heard of passive smoking.

The on board entertainment was very average with the a couple of different performers performing what appeared to be a very limited repertoire and I am sure that I heard the same performer sing the same songs in a varied order most days I am not saying that they could not sing or that the songs were not popular but there are just so many times you can listen to them.

Even on the pool deck the only time there was any music was when the cruise activities staff tried to entertain the passengers with some fun and games but these events were sporadic and again once they had finished there was nothing .some piped music on deck may have been nice and refreshing.

Even though some of the activities were fun and I am sure a lot of people enjoyed the dance lessons, either participating or watching there did not appear to be a great deal else or if there was there was a large time gap between them. Don't get me wrong they provided some jigsaw puzzles for people to do which would have been even better withal the pieces or they had some crafting activities like making bead jewellery or t shirt painting however these seemed somewhat limited to the 20 or so people.

The food was average, with some dishes being very good and others sort of so, so. The consistency of quality was also dubious as some of the steaks where cooked well and delicious, others were tough and unpalatable but just which you got was a bit of a gamble.

And unfortunately this seemed to flow through to the drinks, and whilst I don't mind staff free pouring it does get a bit hit and miss with consistency, this was highlighted with a Mai Tai that I had one afternoon and it was very well made whereas a couple of days later I ordered another and it was that tart that I could taste nothing but lemon juice.

The staff in general where however a credit to themselves and worked tirelessly to ensure that everything went as smoothly as possible, even if it did take 2 days before we got hot water in our cabin.

In closing I will use a comment that I heard " If you can imagine a ladder for cruises, at the moment you are on the bottom rung".

Too many wingers on the review sites sent us off on our cruise with a bit of a heavy heart. BUT happy to say the wingers are in the minority as we had a fantastic time!. Itinery was perfect , the Costa Allegra ship was clean, cabins perfectly adequate, plenty of good food

( and a new English chef who made sure that the food was good) Lots of activities if you wanted to join in and quiet places if you didnt. Happy hour from 11-12 and 5.30 to 7.00 meant there was plenty of time for cheap drinking and as much free tea/coffee/water as you wanted. We bought the drinks package of wine which worked out better value for us, but there are other drinks packages to be bought.( on the net before you go. ) Staff were attentive, friendly and responsive and we spoke to many many people who like us had a really great cruise. All in all Nothing we can think of to complain about. Yes there were things not to our taste but plenty of people seemed be enjoy things we didnt and vice versa. Dont be put off by the wingers ( note;- they really only moan about the cost of everything) We overheard one woman moaning that the iced water was too cold!!!!

Costa Cruises, Costa Allegra - well where do i start?

Firstly when we got to our room (box)I have been married for 23 years and still like to cuddle up to my wife not sleep in single bed so i made my 1st visit to customer services and requsted a double room to be told the ship was full,so i asked for the beds to be put together only to be told this could not be done but after speaking to the english rep 3 days later the beds were put together and the table which was in betweeen the bed left in front making the room even smaller, back to the desk, Please can you put the cabinet by the side of the beds(sorry sir we can not move it) so me and the wife did it ourself and re-connected the electrics, back to the first day time to have a drink £5 for a bottle of becks oh well if that the price so be it(1st drink bill 15% sevice carged added) thats now 5.75 for a bottle. back to room for a clean up, turn tap on (omg)the water was BROWN wife in shower getting dirtier with brown water coming out of the shower, water stops, oh well back to service desk, GOOD NEWS wife looks at the today paper theres a happy hour in the bar buy one ger one free, the bar packed order drinks 15 mins later we get drinks.ok by now you get the picture but let me list below why you sould not do this cruise

1. the ship is smelly

2. the rooms are to small

3. the entaintment is so bad at night the day entaintment well if you have the brains of a donkey then you`d enjoy it

4.well i like a good drink and when i got home i had one the prices are as stated £5 plus a bottle £2.50 a soft drink £7.50 a spirit and dont forget the service charge

5 food very poor Brekfast the same ever day White bangers runny scrambled eggs. runny cornbeef hash and allways cold, food not alivable all the time like other cruses,(if you like cakes fruit and bread then this is the cruise for you)

The trips well over priced and you will be told by the rep you need to do the trips with them because you will not be able to do them yourself for an ex-sample we spoke to a couple we saw on a day out they paid 75 euros each for a trip to a beach a river trip me and the wife did the same trip only we had longer and it cost us around £25 for the both of us.

And in ending here comes the best bit , My final bill arrives and not only do i see the 15% sevice charge added to all my drinks there the final straw 5 euros per day per person for what they call Hotel service charge that a total cost of £140 euros added to your bill and this was not advised by virgin.(letter on the way to them)

I hope you read this b4 you book but if not and your on you way

1. Use happy hour and get you bootle un-opened and keep them for the day time

2. eat when you get of the ship

3 dont book trips with them it easy to get around and you save money to have a drink or 2 day time.or pay for the HOTEL SERVICE CHARGE

Costa Allegra - Costa Abysmal

Itineray brilliant - cruise experience diabolical

If you would like to have fun but relaxing cruise you shoul d experience having it at costa allegra.The itineraries are great!Seeing the beautiful sceneries in Asia especially in the Philippines,It's really great!

Food on the Costa Cruise was varied and good, staff excellent,always cheerful. Good itinery round South China sea. A clean well organised ship.

Drinks were expensive, £5 for a small beer. Entertainment seemed mostly poor or very poor. Trips ashore seemed grossly expensive, little less than £50 for a local bus trip. 5 euro per day service charge.