Costa Victoria

The Costa Venezia. This being a new ship, teething problems were expected. However the ship is beautiful . The activities are mainly geared at a younger market. The food was excellent and the choice of wines also. The tours were a little poor , mainly due to time constraint as passengers were not allowed off the ship at allotted times .The whole embarkation and disembarkation was a shambles and quite frankly dangerous. This needs addressing urgently. The hygiene soap dispensers were also hard to find, and with this amount of passengers on board, hygiene must be at the fore front. Lots of cleaning of carpets etc, but I never saw anyone cleaning the handrails. One of the biggest infection carriers as is door handles etc. I would like to know why when we stopped at Shenzen we were not allowed off the ship to visit China. The seasoned Costa staff were helpful and courteous , whilst the newer members seemed a little disillusioned. Overall the holiday is one we will not forget, but I would be reluctant to join a Costa cruise in future.

good afternoon to the iglu team the cruise was very good but your package of flights transfers and hotels was very very good the hotel s where fantastic and the transfers where on time and very professional many thanks and looking forward to my next cruise in jan 2020 21 days new York to san Francisco and lookforward to booking with you again kind regards chris ps the ship is not on your drop down box it is costa venitiza

I could write a book about the shortcomings of this miserable Costa company. A short summary includes: Everything a complete rip off from the compulsory tips (over £500) to the compulsory water with meals (£100) to the extortionate trip prices, to the costly transport costs when in ports (mostly better to walk). Days at sea completely boring due to lack of planned activities. Meals microwaved processed crap mostly barely warm Entertainment at best mediocre at worst complete rubbish Embarkation and disembarkation was stressful chaos. I could go on and on Avoid Costa whatever you do. If you don’t, the chances are you won’t book another!

Visiting unique ports of call like Madagascar and the Seychelles the Costa Victoria was fine. The staff on the ship worked very hard and managed well dealing with the incredibly variety of languages spoken by passengers from so many different countries. Entertainment was first class and probably better or at least equal to the best on any of our previous cruises. The food supplied was very good but not outstanding with extra charges for things normally included on a cruise like ice cream (not even supplied with the desserts in the dining room) and pizzas ( on an Italian ship!!) As a European registered ship paying minimum EU wages it was consequently understaffed compared to some other cruise lines paying lower wages. This was evident in the dining room, bars and cabin care. No waiters or bar evident in the theatre either. Excursions (in such an impoverished part of the world) were very expensive but were generally very interesting and worthwhile. We suspect that staff would make extra efforts if the gratuities were not a compulsory automatic addition to the ship account. Another oddity was the daily debit of our credit card rather than the usual procedure of settling the bill at the end of the cruise. This made it difficult to dispute the bill or cancel a reserved excursion (if, for example! It became apparent that it required more physical ability than expected). However - we are confident that the totals at the end of the cruise were correct. The ship was in excellent condition and was constantly being varnished and painted.