judy morris
rated the Costa Serena as follows:
| Ship Cleanliness |  | | Crew | | | Ship Food | | |
| Onboard Entertainment |  |
| judy morris said: A review of our trip on Costa Serena to the Canaries, which was our second with Costa.
We flew BA from Heathrow (no sign of a Costa rep) to Milan (where we met a Costa Rep) and then had a two and a half hour coach trip to the port to join the ship…longer than the actual flight from Heathrow! There were a total of 30 English speaking people on the coach, off several flights from UK some via Amsterdam and Paris. We felt the embarkation process was fairly disorganised ….but did eventually find our way on board…there was no one to greet us or tell us whether we could go to our cabins or indeed where the cabins were. I had to find someone to ask and then she just pointed to the lift!! So we found our own way to our cabin where we met our steward Arwin who was very pleasant and informative. It took a while to find our way around this ship…there are some decks midships which don’t allow you to pass from front to back and vice versa…you have to go up a deck or two and then walk forwards or backwards….confusing at first.
The cabin was on Deck 6 aft and was spacious with a nice en suite shower room. We had a balcony big enough for sun loungers and a table with room to spare but we only had small non reclining chairs (quite badly stained) and a table, which was a slight disappointment. The front ‘wall’ of the balcony was glass which gave a good view when it wasn’t covered in salt from the spray! We could lie in the bed (huge and comfortable) and look at the sea! Plenty of storage space and a settee (which made into third bed) and table. The décor in the cabin was quite pleasant as opposed to the rest of this ship which (in my opinion) was hideous, gawdy and brash…way over the top with ten or more differing patterns/colours in each area. There was alot of vibration in our cabin when the thrusters were in action.
The cabin was kept clean by our steward who changed the towels daily and the sheets 3 or 4 times over the 11 days. The public areas were generally clean but the higher levels of the window frames (eye level) in the lido/buffet area were very dusty and the windows in that area were often smeared on the inside. Outside windows were cleaned regularly…our cabin windows were cleaned twice by hoses during the 11 days.
The only lifeboat drill was on that first day so the passengers embarking on our day 2 at Barcelona did not have a drill until the day before they left the ship…it was carried out efficiently.
The drinks prices are expensive on this ship so we didn’t have any!!! The bottled water is 2.76 euros (inc 15 percent service charge) for a 1 litre bottle. At the Duty Free shop in Barcelona we bought 6 x 1.5 litre bottles for 8 euros and then in Madeira we bought another 4 x 1.5 litre bottles for 3 euros from the shop on the pier!!! The shop prices on the ship are also very expensive…for example a Murano glass heart pendant the same as I bought in Venice for 3 euros was on sale here for 32 euros!!!.the cheapest cigarettes we saw were in Lanzarote 18.95 euros for 200 Marlboro. On board 31 euros!!!
There is no cinema on board although apparently one could buy films on the TV. There is a large screen in the lido where perhaps films could be shown as on Sea Princess. The evening shows were only OK apart from the crew show which of course highlighted the wonderful voices of some of the Phillipino crew members.
Language is quite a problem I think..apart from the tediousness of hearing all the announcements in a variety of languages…the English announcements were not always very clear….at reception although the young lady there spoke the English language she did not comprehend very well and when we had a query about whether our bill would be converted to sterling by Costa or by our credit card company she just couldn’t understand what we were saying so we gave up and will just wait and see !! We went to the meeting place to see our ‘English speaking hostess’ on two occasions when she was supposed to be there but she didn’t show up at all…in fact the first time we saw her was the day before we left the ship at the disembarkation talk.
We had continental breakfast in our cabin each morning which is not charged for…we were left a menu each evening to leave on our door before we retired…we lunched in the lido buffet each day….this was very noisy and not really satisfactory for us but there was more choice than in the restaurant. Usually long queues especially on sea days, and people pushing and shoving in front rather than wait their turn! We mostly had pizzas or pasta and a vegetable (there was only ever one choice apart from salad) and I had melon for pudding. We invariably had to clear a table of its dirty dishes before we could sit down and then go on a hunt for cutlery. There is not 24 hour tea and coffee available in the buffet (we took our own kettle and tea bags!) Dinner we had in the Ceres restaurant which was OK but only OK…Service was slow... we struggled to find three courses we liked…again there was only ever one cooked vegetable …. one night it was artichoke and I asked for an alternative and was told there wasn’t one!!! So I just had my quarter tomato garnish and small spoon of mash!!! Another night we chose steak which was nice but it came with half a small jacket potato 2 x 3inch strips of courgette and the quarter tomato garnish !!! However I did gain four pounds but it was probably all the pasta I ate to fill myself up!!! There is no free coffee after dinner inb the restaurant although you could buy from the bars or go up to the buffet to get from the machine.
Our waitress Rosa from the Dominican Republic gave excellent service and really worked hard serving 21 guests each evening with her assistant. The dining room did seem overcrowded with the tables fairly close together and we were seated around the perimeter which had a low ceiling…the centre tables had a much higher ceiling. We all had a red rose on St Valentines Night and there was an Italian evening where the dress code was red, white and green but not many people participated. On formal nights the dress was very informal and I didn’t see any men at all in evening dress….a few women in long dresses …one or two women even in jeans and t shirts and trainers eating in the main restaurant…there were three Gala/formal nights and it was the same very casual dress at all of them. There was the traditional Baked Alaska Parade on the next to last night.
There were no antiseptic hand cleansers as you enter the dining room, buffet or as you board the ship which we found most surprising. We passed Thomson Destiny on the quayside at one of our stops and they had one at the gangway with a member of the crew ensuring that it was used.
The ships photographers are forever pushing their cameras in front of you…and if you say ‘no thank you’ you get sarcastic comments…
On reading the literature left in our cabin there are rules about photos/videos not being allowed in the theatre, no children under 18 allowed in the casino, children in the swimming pools to be supervised by parents, No children in the lifts unless accompanied by an adult , etc. None of these rules are enforced…many people took flash photos during the shows..one man even filmed the whole show on his cam corder…we saw children on the machines in the casino on more than one occasion and also young children doing hand stands in the Jacuzzi….there are no pool attendants in evidence.
There appeared to be plenty of sunloungers but we missed the traditional promenade deck wrapping around the ship.
The ship always felt very crowded especially on sea days when the weather was not good…..it was also very noisy…we usually returned to our cabin for some peace and quiet.
There is a compulsory ‘service charge’ of 4.50 euros per person per day on this cruise as well as the 15 percent on bar services. We also gave our waitress Rosa and our cabin steward Arwin an extra amount as we felt they gave excellent service …
Disembarkation was done by your colour coded labels we got off at 1015 and as we left the next passengers were coming on board!! We then faced our two and a half hour trip to the airport only to be told on our arrival that our flight had been cancelled!!! Luckily for us we got on an earlier flight that had been delayed and arrived home at the same time as we would have done. But if things had gone to plan you would arrive at the airport at around 1315 and not be able to check in until 1535 for the 1735 flight so be warned!!!!
To sum up I felt that the negatives outweighed the positives and we will not be cruising Costa again… it felt as if perhaps they could not manage the amount of passengers they had to deal with. |
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judy morris from fareham sailed on Costa Serena with
costa
on a couples holiday.