Costa Cruises
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Costa over bill your card!!!
I’m a frequent cruiser, but this was my first and last Costa cruise. My father uses a CPAP that requires water. This was notified in advance, and we received an email confirmation stating that a complimentary gallon of distilled water would be brought to our room. It was never brought. We had to request it from the staff several times, but the water was never delivered. The customer service line is always endless. Be prepared to waste 2 hours waiting for them to not resolve your issue. We ended up buying two large bottles of water and were billed $20.00 plus tip. Ridiculous! The food was ok, but if you have a 5- or 7-day cruise you will get tired because they have the same menu every day at the buffet. The coffee is terrible. The lines are endless. It seemed like the cruise was overcrowded. We had to wait for an available table because they were always full. We decided to get to the buffet right when it opens, and they never opened it on time. We had to wait 5-10 minutes because they were never ready on time. Meanwhile, many other passengers who thought the same as us were waiting. The best option is to go to the Early Bird Breakfast. The variety of food is very limited, but at least you can find empty tables and the lines are short. The buffet is not open all the time. If you want to eat something in the afternoon you have to wait for snack time until 4 pm. Same story. They were never ready on time, but they removed the food just as snack time ended. They never made up for the time. The line? Same story! At dinner, we had the same problem. They never opened at the scheduled time. Although 5 minutes late does not seem like a big deal, the reality is that there were a lot of people in the hallway waiting for the dining room doors to open, which ended up blocking the passageway. I think the cruise ship was overcrowded and could not deal with the problem. Cruise ships are always full, but this one was overcrowded. They do not have a lot of variety in tours, so we only bought one, and the rest of the time we were on our own. Even though I have the receipt for $118, they charged my card for $186. The same thing happened with the purchase of the photos. My receipt says $90 and they charged $134. I tried to contact Costa, but as usual, they were not helpful. It took me days to finally get hold of a customer service representative who ultimately told me there was nothing they could do, and I had to email them. I emailed several times and today, a month later, no one has responded my emails. I disputed the card charge, but Costa claims the charges are correct and they can only give a $5 discount. I am not asking for a discount. What I am asking is for them to charge the correct amount. I have receipts proving the amount they billed me and yet they will not give a breakdown of the charges or explanations. They just say they billed the correct amount without showing evidence. This shows that they are a mediocre company that not only oversells their cruises, they are not responsible with their schedules and they steal from customers. No wonder their customer service line is always long! I do not recommend Costa. Do yourself a favor and travel with a decent company!