Costa Magica Review

You get what you pay for

Review for the Baltic Sea Cruise on Costa Magica
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SeymourRanger
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

Rating by category

Cabin
Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Service

Additional details

Sail Date: Jun 2018
Cabin: Outside Classic

We have been on 10 cruises and Costa Magica does not rate very well compared to the others. We booked this just to see what other cruise lines had to offer and were pleased with the price but overall disappointed. Embarkations was the easiest so far....flawless and no lines. The ships overall appearance seems to be nice and updated. The rooms are roomy for a cruise ship and we were pleased. We were assigned seating for dining and loved the family that we were paired with but we do not like the assigned seating and prefer the "Freestyle Dining". This allows much more flexibility and not such a rigid schedule while on vacation, The food was edible but not good. Several times we tried what they brought out but chose not to eat it or ate it because we were starving.. We were also disappointed that they do not serve coffee with dessert. Coffee is only served during breakfast and at the bar. Breakfast is good and we chose to go to our assigned dining room for breakfast because it was not as hectic as Deck 9 (which is a free for all). They do offer a menu and serve you coffee as well as a continental breakfast. We were usually off the ship during lunch so we do not know how that went. The service during the Dinner was below average. We constantly had to ask for water and very seldom would pour it for you. The server would just set it on the table. Entertainment was average. We never book shore excursions with the cruise lines because they are too expensive and the groups are too large. We did hear that the ship offered a really good program for the kids which is a plus for families. One of the big things we noticed was they were not require you to clean your hands prior to meals and did not offer warm wash cloths/sanitizer to clean your hands when you are coming aboard the ship after touring another country. Hand sanitizer was unavailable when boarding the ship in some ports and the one going into the dining area did not work properly. Also, we never saw them sanitizing the handrails, etc on the ship. The workers told us they work 8 months a year, 11 hour days, 7 days a week which I am sure this contributed to the poor service. Hopefully, they were given the gratuity that is automatically added to your bill. Our cabin as mid ship on Deck 2 and we could hear the crew working throughout the night most every night. Between the food/service/sanitizing I would not recommend this cruise line.

Cabin Review

Outside Classic

Cabin EC

The cabin had more than adequate room and it was clean.

Port Reviews

Stockholm

We love Hop on Hop off and chose this in most every port. The WiFi and headsets did not work on most of these buses which was disappointing. I would not choose Hop on Hop off at Stockholm.

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