Lots of Art Deco Aboard
I didn’t write this review as I was stepping off the ship, because that would have resulted in a terrible review, in more than one sense. Mainly because, as a review, it would have been less than good. Anyhow, here is my real review. I am posting it here because we took ship in Marseilles, and returned to the same place. We drove to Marseille from the south end of 86 (Vienne) in one day, but that won’t happen again. We stopped in the famous town of Carcasonne overnight on the way home, which worked out a lot better.
Costa cruises is not top rated. There is a new company, MSC, that maybe gets worse reviews, but they’re brand new, so maybe they’re still learning. But, honestly, all of the negative reviews are not appropriate. Some are, but not all. The Fortuna is the oldest ship in Costa’s fleet. It was launched in 2003, and last drydocked in 2018. It’s been around the local oceans a few times.
Dawn Breaks Over the Stern
That age factor probably influences some reviewers who perhaps haven’t ever lived in a second-hand house or bought a used car. It does look like maybe it could stand some freshening up, but really, what couldn’t? The Coliseum in Rome was cleaned since we’d been there last, and it looks better, so maybe there’s some justification, but that isn’t the part I considered to be more negative than positive. Another big positive is the food. Even people who hated the ship praised the food, and they were right. It’s all good. Being older than dirt, I am at least, we opted for the early (18:30) seating in the main dining room. There is also a buffet, and specialty restaurants, but the table service was as good as the food. Some people were disappointed that there wasn’t more “Italian” food, but Osso Bucco seems pretty Italian. If you want pizza, you have to go to the pizzaria and buy some. Where we live there’s a good pizza place half a block away, so I was happy to enjoy, among other things, beef Wellington among other excellent fare.
Our room was in the bow, which I don’t recommend. The seas were rough a couple of days, and the noise of he hull slapping the waves can be off-putting. We didn’t choose a stateroom (go amidshps) because we hoped we might get upgraded. They say it happens. This was not Costa’s fault, though. The main dining room was in the stern, a quarter of a mile (about 500 metres) away. We got lots of exercise without even leaving the ship. The room was decent, and everybody was friendly. But (here it comes) it took them about a day to deliver an extra blanket, and a day to rearrange the beds for us. Nothing horrible, but that seems a rather long time for a simple request. But, (here it comes again)
the real negative aspect is that we had very limited time at each port of call.
The Roman Forum suffers from a lack of proper maintenance over the centuries.
Rome was the worst example. The actual port is Civitaveccia, which simply means “The Old City” in Italian (or close, anyway, in Latin.) There’s a more than 90-minute bus ride to Rome. Rome I could also complain about as all those ancient cobblestones make it harder to walk, but that’s for another day. We had 8 to 4:30 in port, take away 3 hours for the bus, and now you have only a few hours to see what’s what in Rome. We had been there before, so it could have been worse. We did get excellent cheeseburgers in an Irish bar. (Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from gourmet dining.) But there wasn’t enough time to really enjoy the city, which, cobbles aside, does have a lot to offer a tourist. Savonna offers bus tours to Monte Carlo and Genoa, but there again, you spend a lot of your day on a bus. There are busses that go through our village, so that’s not the most attractive option. Barcelona was the best (we got to Marseilles early and did some things there before heading to the ship.) There were taxis waiting to take you to the old city (the Gotic) or wherever else you wanted to go.
La Rambla de Catalunya in Barcelona. Lovely street to walk along.
Luckily for us, our favorite restaurant is in Barcelona, and is still in business after 12.5 years, and it still serving excellent food. Phew! It is in the old city. We took a hop-on/hop-off bus, which worked okay, but there is a problem with Barcelona, which is only partly Costa’s fault (and also partly the fault of every other conveyance bringing tourists to the city.
Barcelona is a lovely city, and well worth a visit, but, as an example, we hopped off the buss and walked up about a gazillion steps to a big city park, only to discover that one needs tickets to visit the park, and that they were sold out at ten in the morning. Barcelona is one of several cities considering ways to cut back on tourism, which I understand. At a certain point the income isn’t worth the trouble. I hope they succeed. Think how you’d feel if your city park, the one your taxes pay for, required a paid admission for you to go enjoy the gardens inside. Yoiks!
So, overall, The ship is okay. It’s a discount cruise line, kind of like a discount airline. Some other things that bother some people include that one must buy all of one’s drinks, even morning coffee, except in one breakfast buffet (where I went every day after paying three euros for a caffeelatte the first morning. If you’re into drinking, you might like the “My Drinks” package, but I doubt it, to be honest. We bought drinks as we went along. The only alcohol we drank on the trip was in that restaurant in Barcelona (excellent sangria.) Some other things will cost you, as well, but nothing that we indulged in. The entertainment was a bit below par, too, but oh, well, they do cost a lot less.
Would I cruise with Costa again? Maybe, but not on this ship, as it was the last of the traditional cruise ships. I know from experience that bigger ships are less affected by rough seas, and that’s something worth avoiding. Or, perhaps we’ll just pay more and take a different line. We plan to take a train to Barcelona, or maybe even drive on down. It’s not really further than Marseilles, after all. Seen Rome. Done that.