| Yes -- if you're talking about the Daphne of the Italian Costa line.
The experience was not the greatest.
Two years ago we took the Carla C (the Daphne's sister ship) and
we had a wonderful time. The ship was old but decent, the food
good (not superb), and the service friendly. We were told that
the Daphne was the more luxurious of the two ships so last year
we booked a trip on her. What a disappointment!
The ship was shabby, with cigarette holes in the drapes and just
a general dismal appearance. The service was terrible. The crew
was very sulky and moody. It was like pulling teeth to get our
steward to leave fruit in our cabin -- supposedly something they're
supposed to do every day. In one case, a pasenger who spoke Italian
overheard some of the crew making fun of a passenger.
On top of that, we did not sail at midnight with all the other ships
(standard procedure), nor did we have our festive lights on the
rigging, as did the other ships. It seems that a plane was late
out of NY and they held the ship for them. Consequently, we did
not stop at St. Maarten, as planned.
I have since been told by my travel agent that the Costa lines are
not financially solvent and that all the good crew has moved on
to better paying jobs and that is why our crew was so poor.
I hate to be a bearer of bad tidings, but we were disappointed.
Things tend to constantly change of these cruise ships -- depending
on where the money and customers are.
We had a good time off the ship on the islands, however. The itinerary
was good -- if you make it to all the islands!
|