Thread: Costa Deliziosa Travel Agent Visit

I thought I would post my review here too, for people wanting to know more about the Costa Deliziosa!

COSTA DELIZIOSA
Travel Agent Visit
Harwich International Port
Friday 4 June 2010

　
What a great day yesterday was!

The night before (Thursday) I had an early night for a change, as I knew I had to be up at 6am the next morning. And dead on 6am I woke up. I must have an body
clock build in. I let my parents get ready first, then got up and got ready myself. We packed quite a bit of food with us as we were going to have a very long day out.

We left home around 6:45am, a little later than we would have like. The journey to Harwich was very smooth, no hold ups and beautiful weather. I sent a text message to the guy at Costa to let him know we were going early to see her arrive. He’s the guy who had arranged to get us aboard with a LOT of work and strings pulled! We were extremely lucky to get aboard when he explain what had happened later in the day! Then, in the distance I saw a large shadow towering over the houses. "There it is! She’s almost in already!" She was in a little early, so we decided to go straight to the port and not watch her from the pier. Good job we did, as she was pretty much almost alongside when we pulled up. We sat outside the cruise terminal and watched her back up. As she was coming in a smartly dress gentleman walked past, we wondered if it was our guy. So mum, being mum, shouts across the dock! "Arh, you must be Mr and Mrs Cotterill and Harry!" It wasn’t our guy but it was the port agent I also e-mailed. He knew all about me and said his Chairman and Managing Director had been looking at my website! He asked if he could get a photo of all 3 of us to show his team. I gave him my drawing and asked him to take it aboard for me, as he would be with the Captain throughout the day.

We sat and watched the ship slowly dock and then watched all the passengers disembark for their day ashore. The dock soon become full of coaches and passengers. A little later 9am we saw a friend of ours down there. Lucy is her name, she works in the local Fred Oslen Travel banch in town. She helped me out with my work experiance, finding the prices for Oasis that weren’t on the website. We always speak when we pass by the shop. We sat and spoke to her for a bit, before our guy arrived. He was very pleased to see us there! He explain to us what happened and how he got us aboard. We were travel agents for the day. He told us we could do what we like on board as we were more experienced that most and I knew my way around. We could go explore the ship on our own and have lunch with them in the main dining room or in the buffet. He also had some goodies for me. 3 special brochure on Costa Luminosa, Costa Deliziosa and Costa Pacifica. I also got given 2 of those brass models, both the Costa Deliziosa and her sister Luminosa. They are amazing and were a great surprise!

The group of travel agents were split up into 3 groups. We went on first just after 10am. The guy from Costa kept apologising to us personally for keeping us waiting, If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have got aboard!! The ship looked bigger than ever when we were up close on the gangway. Now the atrium, is amazing! I managed to get mum a one of the glass lifts, she didn’t enjoy that! We went straight up to the top, where we came out in Club Deliziosa. It was a fantastic space, the sunlight shining through the glass roof, the atrium in the centre and the dance floor.. it’s an ideal place to spend an evening aboard. We toured the rest of the ship, making our way outside on deck. The funnel is massive once your up next to it! There were still a few passengers on the aft pool deck enjoying the wonderful weather. Mum even had a quick jog on the jogging track. She does make me laugh at times. From the top of the ship she shouted to a passing yacht, my boat’s bigger than yours! We got a few people laughing. The main pool space with the television was also a fantastic space, one of my favourites.

In fact the whole ship was amazing. A lot better than I was expecting. Unlike a lot of the Costa ships it is not as dark inside. The colours are a lot lighter, which makes the ship a lot better, or so I think. The crew were so very friendly too. Costa has really proven to me that they are a brilliant company and I see why some people chose to cruise with them time and time again. One thing that I didn’t like though, the cabins. They weren’t great. However we did only see 1 type a inside spa cabin. We had lunch in the main buffet a little after 12:00. The food that we had was very good indeed. We all really enjoy our lunch. Some of the best food I think we’ve had aboard a ship! We even went back for seconds a little later in the afternoon.

After lunch we explored the ship a little more, including the kids areas and the fitness centre which we had been to. Afterwards we needed a rest so went up on deck to enjoy the sun. At around 3pm we disembarked the ship, it’s always sad to leave the ship. But I’m sure I’ll step aboard again one day.

We sat on the dockside and watched the activity going on, well actually there wasn’t much going on at all. The guy from Costa came out of the cruise terminal and said goodbye to us, along with the lady who helped him. They were both so very friendly and I’m very thankful to them for getting not just myself, but also managing to get my parents aboard too. We all had our photo taken together with the Costa Deliziosa in the background behind us. I’ll always remember the great day we had and hope to meet them again in the future.

We stayed on the dockside watching the passenger come back on the coaches. As always there was a hold up. Just 1 coach was late. As soon as the passenger arrived on the dockside the mooring lines were being pulled in. Expect one on the bow. She was attached with just 1 line, with passengers still boarding. As soon as they were on the ship was off. They were not hanging about. We watched her go off into the distance from the dockside, then drove round to watch her for a bit from the seafront.

Overall I had a really fantastic day and the wonderful weather made it even more enjoyable. Costa Deliziosa is a great ship, not as large as some I’ve visited which makes her more friendly and cozy.

The ship!

The atrium on this ship is fantastic. It really makes you go WOW as you walk in. It's a great enterance.

Club Deliziosa restaurant.

Out on deck you can find some fantastic things to do... including roller skating, golf and not forgetting the F1 Simulator in the sports zone!

The pools on this ship are great! Especially the one with the sliding glass roof and TV screen!

You can view more photos on another thread. Check out pages 695 - 698.

http://www.cruiselinefans.com/introd...erest-695.html (Cruise Ship Interest)

Excellent review Harry. Glad you had a fantastic time!

Thank you, Harry! Your ship visit is worth reading about and the pictures are wonderful!