Costa Magica Review

4.0 / 5.0
177 reviews

Costa Magica Young and Fun

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Costa Magica
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Christine Spain
First Time Cruiser • Age 80s

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Sail Date: Sep 2014

We sailed from Venice down the Adriatic from Venice and had a two night stay in Venice. We had read very bad reviews about the Costa Magica and as this was our first cruise we were quite nervous. Although we can make some suggestions as we did find some faults ,we did have a lovely cruise with a very happy staff and an international mixed group of fellow passengers. Our first surprise was how many of the passengers were in there thirties upwards and the Italians particularly had children with them who all seemed well behaved. We are in our seventies and had expected to be with people of that age- group and older. We enjoyed the lively atmosphere and seeing the young ones enjoying themselves Our cabin with balcony was very nice and kept well by our steward Eduardo who worked from morning till night. We also had a sofa as well as double bed which was appreciated. We were seated in the Esmeralda Restaurant which was difficult to find but was really beautiful with excellent waiter service. Our two Indian waiters were exceptional and one A. Shetty in particular had the most genuine happy smile. If someone ordered a meal and then changed their mind no questions were asked and the meals were hot in spite of the large number of diners. The menu did rather favour Italian dishes, but then it is an Italian ship, but the food was varied -portions only small, but then you could order as many courses as you wanted so would never go hungry. The Italian night was wonderful and we danced with the waiters and nearly every night some music or something else would happen in the dining room. (One night all the lights went out and the waiters had some sort of flares in their hands and then they appeared with large cakes at our tables.) We were also delighted at the speed and efficiency of the lifts and the decor of the ship is lovely with the Italian theme throughout -even the decks are the names of the Italian masters.

Our main criticisms would be. a) the self-service restaurant closed very early so anyone who wanted to opt out of formal dining would have to eat very early. I felt there should be always something open for eating as this gives the passenger freedom of movement, particularly on days off the ship (which in our case was everyday except one) The length of time off ship is also only a few hours and therefore this usually means everyone scrambling for meals at the same time.(ie. before they leave the ship) There is an option however to get your meal inc. breakfast served to you in a dining room. We also did not like people smoking with their meals in the outside area near the pool on deck 9 as often the dining rooms were full and we had no choice but to eat there with people smoking -not nice at all.

The entertainment in the theatre was good and there are ample bars with all kinds of different entertainment. There is something to do each hour of the day on the ship (quizzes etc) but we personally were quite happy to watch the waves and read from our balcony as it is quite hard to find a quiet corner.

Cabin Review

Cabin B1

Very please with our cabin -definitely worth extra for a balcony!

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