Costa Magica Cruise Reviews - Reviews

As we booked thru Imagine cruising there were a few issues....had to change cabins half way.. chane costa cards cos there were 2 ref bookings.. trfs on disembarkayion a schmozle.

Likes:

1) Reception

2) Service

3) Cleanliness

4) Good laundry service

5) Waiters pay attention to our needs

6) Hospitality and politeness of the crew members

7) Variety of dishes

Things I liked about the cruise: 1) Itinerary was reason selected the cruise and it was good, along with very good excursion team members, 2) room size and layout and room attendant very good, Christopher was very helpful, 3) shows were very good and dancers did a really good job. I also understand that for Europeans, they received good value on packaging their flights with the cruise and also had direct flights.

Things that we did not like and were a real disappointment: 1) Dinner Buffet was exceptionally poor- aside from choices of bread, salad and 1 pasta choice, the main entrée selection was only about 7 items and seemed about the same every day. I have never seen such a limited choice and such poor quality. While most cruises I have been on had jumbo shrimp at least once a week and even 2 cruises had lobster 1/week, and always at no fees, however on Costa one night in the pasta there were the tiniest popcorn shrimp I have ever seen. And I couldn’t believe that even pizza was only available with red sauce for an extra fee. 2) Breakfast buffet was even worst- cold eggs and not even an option for a tailor made omelet. No pancake option, or egg toast option, or even crapes unless we paid extra and even cereals had only 3 choices. 3) Lunch buffet was terrible so we ended up eating a cheeseburger almost every day. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t even a free sandwich deli option like every other cruise line we have been on has. Even butter for breads was only available on request, except for breakfast, and I had to search for ketchup and staff was minimally helpful. I am used to getting coffee, ice tea, lemonade, and ice cream at any time for free… but on Costa, ice tea, lemonade and ice cream always cost another fee. And coffee and teas are only available at certain times and there are no signs to say when they are available and staff. Frequently staff would direct us to the bar and buy coffee and tea and only when pushed tell us when it is available for free 4) The buffet staff and buffet guests all seem very unhappy compared to all the other cruises I have taken. I believe it is due to the fact they are trained on how to drive fees up and keep expenses down instead of training to provide customer service. Never was I asked by staff if I needed anything or if they could bring me water or coffee, like is common elsewhere. Instead I overhead staff arguing about “you’re not my boss so don’t tell me what to do” this is the poorest service I have ever seen on my 14 cruises with 5 cruise lines. 5) Even the notice we had in our room for a free non-alcoholic beverage seemed like just another effort to get a fee from us. We found out that only 1 free drink is provided per room, even though there were 2 of us in our room. 6)  The buffet only had 2 sanitizers that I could find, inviting illness on the boat, and on 1st day on the boat 1 sanitizer was even empty. Never did I see anyone at the entrance to the buffet with a sanitizer bottle welcoming us and offering a spray. 7) No on board ATM or cash available from Hospitality desk which meant I had to use vacation time for this. This is avail on every other ship I have been on, 8) Even finding ice was not always easy, sometimes 2 of the 3 ice machines would be closed and I had to run around to find ice, or of course we could order room service and wait and pay a tip. Which also reminds me that room service usually is free, but not on Costa, and choices were really limited as well. 9) The Casino made it easy to access funds from our credit card but no one told us that winnings needed to be picked up directly in the casino. So at the end of our cruise, we had to run around from place to place to try and collect or funds and had to wait an hour to get our cash. This made us feel like the process was designed so that many guests never get their winnings and the Casino gets to keep the winnings. 10) The shops have lots of merchandise on sale, but no t-shirts like every other cruise we have taken, but maybe no one want to have a shirt the Costa logo on it. 11) Decks 3 and 4 would make good walking tracks like most boats do, but on this boat the deck does not allow walkers to walk fully around the boat. Instead, the decks end up being unused space except for many ash trays for smokers. They could have also have had some reclining deck chairs there to escape the crowds, like most other boats. 12) When I got home, my bill was much higher than the final bills I received on the boat. 11) On-line excursion information does not allow you to get a description of tours except for 1 tour at a time, thereby requiring you either to wait till you arrive on the boat to make informed tour selection or to individually each of the 100 plus tour options 12) When we were woken up at 12:30PM by the fire in the engine room public address warning, I was glad all was fine but thought it was poor the captain did not apologize for the incident And it seemed a fire on board was maybe routine. 13) It was terrible that the boat allowed smoking in its cabins which resulted in us getting 2nd hand smoke in our room throughout each and every night. 14) When walking back to the Costa which was docked next to another cruise boat, it struck me as a perfect example that the other cruise line had welcome drinks waiting for its guests with hand towels and our Costa boat had nothing, which was typical. 14) no animal towels in the rooms with mints on the pillow waiting for us, and no bath robes in the room on Costa. As a fellow passenger describe Costa as a traveling bus that got you to where you needed to go but no fun along the way.

In summary, I felt like I always had to keep one hand on my wallet and found this cruise so disappointing compared to all others I have taken. I feel very bad for the young energetic staff that seems beaten down by management policies. As a result, my wife and I will never take another Costa Cruise and each day we could not wait to get off Costa.

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.

Amazing cruise as always. We had a mini suite it was spacious and clean. The staff were friendly and helpful throughout the ship. The ship is clean and there are plenty of activities for all.

Our itinerary was a 10 Venice to Bari to Izmir to Istanbul for 2 days then Olympia, Athens and Corfu. It wasn't offered in the drop-down menu.

We've travelled on most of the cruise lines now and the Costa Magica was our only "bad" experience.  We did enjoy ourselves and are glad we went but just wish we would have gone on a different ship or with a different company.  My biggest complaints are: No buffet service in the evening - you either have to go to the dining room or don't eat. The service in the dinning room was very slow and we didn't like the food much. The hot tubs close  early - most by 8:00 pm.  They interrupt you every evening by knocking on your door to give you the daily newsletter even when you ask them not to. The crews English isn't good and we couldn't communicate with our dining room staff or others.  Our toilet wouldn't flush without manually pouring water into it and they said they wouldn't be able to fix it during the cruise since they didn't have the correct parts.  Another issue that is my own fault for not reading the itinerary closer was that we were not in the ports long enough in all 3 Greece stops and Bari.  We love to cruise and will continue to do it but probably not with Costa. We have cruised with MSC twice - another European based cruise company and we didn't have any complaints.

The ship and staff were excellent. They made the trip that much more enjoyable. Sitting outside on the balcony reading and having coffee in the morning was great. Very relaxing. The piano bar in the evening was a great way to end the day.

The cruise was enjoyable, however, the service and mix of evening options left something to be desired. We were able to enjoy ourselves, but would opt for a different option in the future.

This was a good cruise. The tours were informative and entertaining. The tour guides offered useful shopping tips. The drink packages are not good for someone who wants 1 or 2 drinks of wine and coffee drinks (Lattes)per day. Packages were too expensive and individual drinks were too expensive. The food was very salty. My blood pressure was sky high every night until I figured out that it was from the food. I told my Waiter and he arranged for me to get a salt free dinner every night. That option was not available for breakfast and lunch. I was able to control the pressure after I started n the salt free dinner. There was lots of entertainment but it was mostly dance lessons and dancing. There was Bingo a couple of nights, but that was pricey to play - 20 euro for one card.

The ship is very well taken care and is very good in overall. Has many options for entertainment, the staff is friendly, cabins are comfortable for a cruise ship and the kids club is very good. Dining options can be better to provide more flexibility but the food presntation, freshness and availability are good. In overall is good value for the money.

The ship seemed disorganized. Where we couldn't get simple answers from the ship's entertainment people or Service desk. Also many ports of call were to short to enjoy them, they need to evaluate dropping a port and extending the others. Lack of information on port of calls, American cruise lines had a show prior to a port and gave information on where to go, not informal meeting and find a English speaking host. This cruise had Italians and French and both were extremely rude to only English speaking staff and passengers.

I have cruised many times, but this was by far the worst. The only reason we ended up going on this cruise despite the bad reviews was, my uncle booked this from Germany for our group consisting of 12 people, ranging in age from 14-78. The 14 year old loved the teen entertainment, he made lots of Italian friends (which seemed to be the nationality of most of the teens on the cruise). Here is the good: 1. Nice rooms but tighter than other cruise lines ( we had a ocean view cabin ) 2. Nice ship/clean 3. Excellent wait staff, in particular the bartenders, we are not big drinkers, but the drink package turned out to be a must on this cruise - you get unlimited water and sparkling water as well. The bad: 1. Food was terrible, very few choices, not tasty at all, along the lines of a TV dinner - this was in the dining room. The lunch buffet had 3 main stations all served the same food (every day), there was a hamburger and hot dog station as well- kids said hamburgers were not good - I never had one, so can't say... Other cruise ships have a variety of foods at each station-not Costa 2. Staff at buffet seemed not happy - I think Costa works their people to death - on other cruises the staff always seemed happy ( one night we were coming back to our room and one of their male staff members was sobbing in the hallway ) 3. While the state room attendant was friendly - the cleaning lacked attention - only once did we get a towel animal?!?! I am sure he had no time they appeared understaff - a money saving tactic by Costa 4. There was a heat wave in Europe while we were there and AC was marginal at best 5. Most days we got into ports after noon, and had 4-6 hours in port, other cruises I have taken we would arrive in port before or just after breakfast, not with Costa. We were told that may be to Costa's attempt to conserve fuel by going slower and saving on port fees by arriving after noon - makes sense 6. One of the worst were all the kids - love kids - but I don't think it's cool to try to enjoy a dinner and have kids scream non stop and parents doing NOTHING to discipline - as I stated before there were a lot of Italians on the cruise and they are loud. Also, nightly we observed 2, 3 and 4 year old on the dance floor at the bars dancing at 11PM or even later, their parents thought this was cute, but REALLY - there are kids clubs on board - USE them. 7. Internet terrible - we bought a 3 hour package, used about an hour and tried to log on the next day and time was gone - apparently when you think you have logged out - there is another step to logging out that is not apparent in the process, so be careful. 8. no laundry room as on American ships, thought we could deal but due to heat wave changed clothes more than we thought we would and ran out - their Costa run laundry service is very expensive. Overall - this was the worst cruise ever, we went in not expected a lot so we wouldn't be disappointed, and also the 14 year old being free seemed like a good deal, but with kids being free, this ship was overrun with kids - I will pay more next time...

we've been to several cruises and this is our first time with Costa. this cruiseline is at the bottom compared to other cruiselines.

Ship was generally good and the staff helpful.

Ship was in great condition.

This cruiseline was top notch 15 years ago. Imagine our disappointment this time around. The morale of the ship staff was horrible and rightfully so. Make sure to read the fine print. They charge an additional $7 per day per person for gratuity to the staff. From what the staff said, they rarely see any of it. What happened to the day when you had the option to tip the people who provided you with good service?

We boarded the ship and they couldn't find us so we had to wait until someone could figure it out. We got to our room and it was made up for 2 adults and 2 children with the bunks pulled down and 2 tiny life jackets. Cute but didn't need them, we were two adults only. The safety drill was a joke. It didn't happen until the day before the cruise ended. We stood at the safety stations watching the staff demonstrate how to put on a life jacket, not once, not twice but like 10 ten times. I thought this was laughable because everyone there had their life jackets ON ALREADY, DUH!! The TV programs did not have subtitles so we couldn't understand the programs. The ports that we visited Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Marseilles and Savonna were interesting but other than pushing their tours, they didn't provide any information on the ports. I got the impression that they didn't want to help you unless you bought a tour. My Magica card expired the day before the cruise ended so I had trouble getting on and off the ship the last day. They eventually overrode the system, but that was an inconvenience I shouldn't have had to experience. Bingo was always during dinner time and the rest of the entertainment well let's just say the dancing waiters imitating Michael Jackson were the highlights of keeping us entertained. The fare was inexpensive but everything else on the ship was overpriced including the tours. But then again, you get what you pay for.

This cruise line needs some serious improvement in the customer relations department. My grandmother was left around in a wheelchair because the porter felt like leaving. The medical doctor started prescribing medications without ever taking any sort of medical history (apparently he has never heard of allergies or conflicting medications.) Getting your luggage upon disembarkation is a nightmare and completely unorganized. The excursion office is rude and inconsistent with trip scheduling notifications, so always check with them extra times to make sure they didn't cancel you. Many problems we incurred throughout the trip were happening to other Americans as well. I felt embarrassed to have brought my husband on this trip.

The ship was clean but a bit confusing to get around from the front to back of the ship. There needs to be more places to eat on the boat & more options. The food was NOT good at all. I'm used to cruises that have excellent food but the food was horrible. The choices were very limited, seemed like the same type food all the time. Breakfast was the same EVERYDAY! The food at night was not good & very slow & usually luke warm when finally served. I feel I paid way too much for this cruise. Also, vacationing w/Europeans is difficult...not Costa's fault but beware...they are pushing, rude & NOT fun to vacation with.

We went for our honeymoon-picked an italian ship thinking GREAT food! OH boy were we wrong, the food was bland, had no taste. All the restuarants were bad!! We couldnt wait to dock so we could get off and go eat on land somewhere. We actually lost weight because of only eating icecream on the ship. Then when we went to comment about it, we were treated so rude. The staff didnt help us at all. They didnt even care. We will not book this line ever again!!