run away from Costa

Costa Magica Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 13

Overall rating:

1 out of 5
Costa Magica

11 Night Beyond The Pillars Of Hercules (Savona Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 21, 2016

Ship: Costa Magica

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

I am writing to you because I feel that you should know of recent events that have taken place, as well as the complete lack of service or empathy from their staff. 
Unfortunately, I’m on the receiving end of a horrendous situation, and after 10 recent cruises, I would hope that I would have received more than a standard form letter with generalized responses. It was quite obvious that your staff did not care to understand or rectify the situation, and therefore, I am taking the time to write to you today. I have tried to speak with someone at your organization to no avail.
 
With that said, I have NEVER experienced such poor quality of service and  rudeness from staff members on both the service end as well as the excursion staff. Rather than relax, it was nothing short of stressful and unrelaxing.
 
Some of the issues were as follows:
Excursions:
a. Almost all were overbooked. Due to this, the tours were delayed while they asked for volunteers to go on another tour "if they spoke the language".
b. Other than Morocco, all tours were performed in 2 languages. A huge issue was that the tour guides would speak  in length in Italian, and when it came to the English translation, it was limited to a few sentences. It was very obvious that they catered only to Italian customers. I paid the same as the Italians and should have received the same courtesy and service of which I did not.
c. The Port of Tangier was cancelled without offering an explanation. When I inquired in Casablanca, I was informed that this was a "common practice" of the cruise line and that it had NOTHING to do with the weather as they later claimed. The weather was also perfect.
d. In Rome, I had no alternative but to take a tour in French as there were no other tours available in English, other than the Vatican (which I had visited several times already and was in no interest to me).
e. False Advertisements- One example was interior visits to churches in both Lisbon and Alicante. This was not true.  It turned into outside visits only.
f. Tours were cancelled because they didn’t have enough "English speaking” customers
Accommodations:
Although I now travel alone, I explicitly requested a large bed. (Due to health reasons, it is preferred). I was advised that is was not possible to accommodate my request since I am alone, yet, I met several other single passengers that were accommodated with a large bed. Had the staff told me that they didn’t have any available, I would have understood, but instead, I was outright lied to when told they don’t offer it to single passengers!
 
I have never been on a cruise where even water was an upcharge. (as well as tea, coffee etc.) Generally, alcohol and soda is extra, but not water and coffee. The food itself was not the quality that I have experienced in the past and was sub- par to say the least.
 
As you can see from the above, this was totally unacceptable. I am sure you can understand my frustration. When services are paid for, one expects to receive them, and in this case, I did not. I am both angry and disappointed in the treatment I incurred, the lack of caring by your staff and how the entire situation on all levels have been handled. I even attempted to post a comment on your website; however it did not allow it.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5
always cold

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Children's Programs

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Ports of call

Savona (Genoa), Italy

1 out of 5

Marseille (Provence), France

5 out of 5

Tangier, Morocco

1 out of 5

Casablanca, Morocco

5 out of 5

Cadiz (Seville), Spain

5 out of 5

Lisbon, Portugal

5 out of 5

Alicante, Spain

5 out of 5

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

5 out of 5
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2 Comments

cruisellama    5 years ago

bettysafta    7 years ago

you are so wright no Costa for me again unless....