June 24, 2015- Marseille Disembarkment and TGV to Paris

Another Terrible Breakfast- Rounding Up is Normal on All Costa Bills- Disembarkation in Marseille and Back on Solid Land for Good - Taxi to Gare Saint Charles- TGV Marseille to Paris- Checking into our first Airbnb Accommodation in the 9th Arrondissement- Montmartre

This morning we had a skip in our step knowing that we were getting off of this nightmarish cruise. We were not allowed to order in room service, so we went to the "International Breakfast" restaurant again instead of eating doughnuts and cake with the main occupants of the ship in the buffet. The service was as usual a nightmare, but nothing could bring us down knowing that we were never again to be on the Costa Magica!

April was done her course of antibiotics for the severe food poisoning that she contracted on the Costa Magica, but her intestines were still very unhappy and would clearly take some time to settle out after the trauma they had endured.

As usual we had to fight for a table for two in the largely empty restaurant. We were seated, April ordered tea, and then we were ignored while other people seated after us had their orders taken and were brought food while we looked hungrily on. We finally ordered our breakfast. Our breakfast arrived before April’s tea water arrived. April had to ask for tea more than 3 times and they seemed surprised each time. The tea water was warm this time, but the tea selection was poorer. They didn’t bother to ask if we needed more bags. No milk was provided for tea, we had to ask many times, and then a waiter started pouring hot milk into April's empty tea cup until it was full. Apparently they could not provide a little pot of cold milk as normal restaurants are able. It's as if the waiters have never heard of the concept of tea. We were asked if we wanted “more coffee” several times when it was clear we didn’t have any (having previously indicated that we did not want any). Syrup was dumped on our pancakes AND eggs this time (last time there was no syrup). Again, there was no butter for our pancakes. Half of the eggs were overcooked for April this time. As a result of the extreme difficulty obtaining water the day before, we brought our own tap water with us to the table in a bottle. Where was Amit when you needed him? Dinner runs so much more smoothly than breakfast under his watchful eye.

A note on tap water. You would not believe the lengths we went to to get tap water on this ship (despite coming on board with the North American offer of unlimited free tap water, juice, tea, and coffee). We were not allowed to order tap water through room service and therefore were only allowed to drink it at restaurants or the buffet at meal times. The only other places where one could get tap water were fountains in the gym and change room or if you took water from the bathroom tap in your room and left it in an open bottle for a day or two to dechlorinate so it would not make you sick (according to staff on the cruise ship, drinking it right out of the tap would make you feel sick because there was so much chlorine in it). So, over the cruise we amassed a collection of empty water bottles that we rotated through the dechlorination process or took up to the gym to fill with the filtered tap water. It was a real pain in the ass and really makes you appreciate living in Canada, especially Victoria, where the tap water is safe, good tasting, and available for free at any time.

We were given the earliest disembarkation time of 9:15 A.M. after the ship arrived in Marseille at about 9:00 A.M.. Bill was not allowed to pick up his passport the night before and was only allowed to during a fifteen minute window of time in the casino that morning. We assumed it was there because they had higher security procedures to protect the valuable passports. It was not. We had to rush through our breakfast to be there in time to pick up the passport (because we could not go for breakfast afterwards because the "International Restaurant" closed early and only the Italian one was open later, not that this uneven treatment surprised us anymore). In the casino, the lone employee took a person's name, opened their passport and asked the person if that was their passport. What kind of Mickey Mouse security is this? You have to surrender any non-EU passport and then they treat it as if it's a loyalty card for a store? Anyone could have waltzed up there and taken anyone else's passport. We are disgusted that Costa takes the security of international passports so lightly when it forces people to surrender them for the length of the cruise without any prior notice.

The fun was not over, we had not been given our itemized bill until early that morning (it was printed past 3 AM and delivered while we were sleeping). We did have a problem with that bill. The total was rounded up by 3 cents even though we were paying on a credit card. Why did they do this? Bill stood in line at customer service to ask about this. We thought it was a typo, but no, they explained they did it to everyone. What? That's theft and since they're doing it to thousands of people, grand theft. Is this how Costa is paying for its court costs and settlements?

Prior to disembarkation, we met in the theatre and then all went down together to the exit and into the port station where we chose our bags from the huge group of unattended suitcases. Fortunately no one had stolen all of our dirty clothes.

We procured a cab and were whipped into the chaotic rush hour traffic of Marseille on our way to the Gare Saint Charles where we were to catch the TGV back to Paris. As we listened to the blaring horns and sirens around us, we reflected on the cruise gone awry. We realized that no one ever got back to us about what brand of ravioli the executive chef uses on the Costa Magica. Perhaps it was Chef Boyardee after all.

We sat in the train station and had a snack and bought sandwiches for our trip. We took out our tickets and the printing on them was mired. We took them to an attendant when we were boarding and they didn't really look at them and sent us on our way, so we guessed what the coach number was and sat down on the seats in the coach that lined up with the seat numbers on our tickets. We had been there for a little bit until two people boarded in Avignon and showed us tickets with the same seat number as ours and it was determined that our seats could not possibly be there because we had bought economy tickets for the way back (unlike the premier tickets we had on the way down). We had to collect all of our suitcases and our carry-on luggage and traverse through five different cars until we reached the correct one and found our true seats. Oops!

We arrived at Gare de Lyon in Paris and used free Wi-Fi to tell our Airbnb host, Eric, that we were on our way to his apartment on the edge of Montmartre (18th arrondissement) in the Opera district (9th arrondissement). We took at taxi to Eric's apartment and then used the code provided to get into his building. We then tried ringing his apartment as previously instructed. We even tried going up to his floor, but could not find him. April reviewed her previous emails and finally found one from him earlier in the day where he said he'd be working from a friend's apartment on the floor below and to ring that name instead. We did that and Eric came to meet us. His apartment is an airy one bedroom with a kitchen, living room, toilet, and bathroom with a big tub. For Europe it had lots of space and has beautiful wood and tile floors and gorgeous moldings on the ceiling. The day was very hot, yet his place which had lots of windows opening to a courtyard, was very cool and comfortable. It was quiet too. He gave us his Wi-Fi password, his keys, and went on his way.

First, we connected to the Wi-Fi and then we went to the nearby grocery store (one block away) to pick up some supplies for breakfast the next day. We returned home by way of the bakery that was just half a block away and then had a snack. The baguette and croissants were amazing, particularly after our culinary deprivation on the Costa Magica. We walked into neighbouring Montmartre (the Moulin Rouge was about 1 minute walk from his place). We were unable to look in the Montmartre Cemetery as it was already closed, but we saw the Moulin Rouge, Le Chat Noir, bought some macaroons, and climbed all the way up the cobblestone streets to Sacre-Coeur Cathedral. We sat on the steps on Sacre-Coeur and ate macaroons looking down over Paris. We walked through the cathedral marvelling at the light shining through the impressive stained glass windows. We walked down the steps of Sacre-Coeur taking in the view of Paris and avoiding many, many African hustlers and merchants trying to sell their wares.

We walked along Place de Clichy, deciding not to take in any strip shows or cabaret performances. Instead, homesick, we had Indian food for dinner at an Indian Restaurant along the street. The Chicken Tikka Masala and vegetarian curry we ordered along with Pilau rice and naan had us smiling as we walked back to our apartment just over the border of the 18th arrondissement into the 9th. We slept well that night off the ship and safe on land.

6.64 km walked today.

Our broken towel rack was never fixed though we left the broken part out more than once and told customer service

Our broken shower pole was never fixed though it was hanging off the wall on more than one occasion and we told customer service. Guess this kind of disrepair is normal on the Costa Magica.

A whole cup full of hot milk. Thanks. Where am I supposed to put my tea exactly?

We have never been more happy to be out of an accommodation in our travelling lives. Bill at the Marseille port.

Gare Saint Charles in Marseille where we caught the TGV to Paris.

No wonder the seats looked the same as the ones on the way down, these were first class seats and not our actual seats. Oops!

Eric's 9th Arr. Apartment was Beautiful

Place de Clichy on the border of the 18th Arr. just beside the 9th Arr where we stayed.

The View from Sacre-Coeur is Breathtaking

Sacre-Coeur is a Gorgeous Memorial to the Fraco-Prussian War

June 23, 2015- Savona, Italy, Not Monaco

Another Distinctly Strange "International" Breakfast on the Ship, We Explore Savona, Italy Instead of Monaco Due to the Cancellation of Our Tour by Costa, A Tour Not of Savona, Sandwiches Not Served on Stale Bread for a Change, Swimming in the Mediterranean, Our Last Dinner Aboard the Costa Magica, Pre-Disembarkation Problems

Today we were supposed to be on a tour with Costa Excursions to Monaco. This was one of the reasons we had selected this cruise, because we both really wanted to visit Monaco. However, this tour was cancelled a couple of days ago. We were given a list of a couple of other tours of Italian towns we could take for 20% off the full price, but declined since our Monaco dreams were shattered and going to some other Italian town seemed pointless. No one from guest services ever told us how much a private tour of Monaco would cost as they had said they would. No matter, we wouldn't want to risk not being back to port in time for departure, them not holding the ship as they would with an excursion, and then missing our ride back to the safety of solid land in Marseille where we will try to salvage what's left of our vacation. If Costa wanted to deliberately ruin our vacation, they couldn’t have done a better job if they had tried.

We started the day by having breakfast at the "International Breakfast" restaurant at 9:00 A.M., which was the latest we could go, because breakfast had been set back in time due to the Savona disembarkment of the majority of the guests on the ship. We would have preferred to sleep longer given that we are on vacation, are run down, April is still recovering from severe food poisoning, our dinners are obnoxiously late on this ship, and the sound proofing in the cabins is poor resulting in being awoken every night at various hours by revelers returning to their cabins from imbibing somewhere else on the ship. Annoying how everything seems to be centred around the main occupants of the ship and no one cares about the others (even though Costa is making some sort of a push to attract North Americans with their free tap water, juice, tea, and coffee offer). We, as usual, had to fight for a table for two, instead of being seated with a table full of strangers. Why does Costa insist each time in trying to force people to hobnob with strangers at breakfast and lunch? It would be fine if it was an option for people who wanted to, but to try to make it mandatory is ridiculous.

Eating is still uncomfortable for April though the antibiotics have sent the vast majority of the symptoms of the severe food poisoning away. She gets severe stomach cramps after each meal. Not exactly how we had planned to spend our long awaited European vacation.

Breakfast was abysmal again with mix ups in the orders, strange service, and a general lack of knowledge of what international breakfasts actually consist of, look like, or taste like. They tried to refuse April her free tap water because she did not have her Costa card on her, even though Bill had his. April asked why they couldn't just bring two glasses of tap water for Bill. They said they couldn't. So she said she'd just drink from his glass. They eventually caved and brought her a glass of tap water. Thanks a lot, we love feeling like stowaway thieves first thing in the morning (absurdly they were willing to serve April food without a Costa card, but not tap water. She was speaking English with the same accent as Bill- wasn't it obvious they were both from the same place and under the same tap water plan?)!

The water for tea arrived in such a lukewarm state that sticking one's finger in it resulted in no feeling at all.  Eventually they brought by another pot of water which was actually warm, but did not offer any tea bags and when they did, they had not replenished the ones wasted on the tepid pot, so there was not enough of the original tea selected to make a proper pot of tea. They did not seem to care.

They brought the wrong breakfast to both of us and then left it there for us to eat the eggs off of that plate and then put the other plate with the correct breakfast alongside on the already packed tiny table, never taking away the wrong plate. April's eggs were half raw, the bacon was undercooked, and the pancakes were cold, flat, and dense, with no butter or syrup. They would not bring a vessel with milk for April's tea and insisted on putting milk into her cup directly, but never came back to give her milk for her second cup. We were seated in the middle of the restaurant, largely alone and on the way out had to again run the gauntlet of idle waiters standing along the sides, saying thank you or goodbye to us. This practice was so strange. Who wants to walk by 20 to 30 waiters first thing in the morning when you can barely function for lack of a good cup of tea?

We went ashore to Savona, Italy to explore and try to salvage what remained of our cruise. This was where most of the ships occupants had embarked and were disembarking. We picked up a map and found a "petit train" vehicle with a purported tour of Savona almost right away. We were told to sit across from each other in the little seats of the train. We were easily the tallest people on the tour and could not actually fit our legs across from each other and had to interlock our legs between each other to wedge ourselves into the child sized seats while the other shorter occupants of the train sat comfortably with no one across from them. Strange.

We were taken to a neighbouring town called Albisola. We were not expecting to be getting a tour of another town on this "Tour of Savona" but it turned out to be interesting nonetheless. The president of the local chamber of commerce took us around and pointed out the town's very old buildings (mostly unchanged since medieval times) and its amazing ceramics studios. We were given an amaretto biscuit to try. We looked in the town's church (which had the name plates from the two previous churches of the town that had caused rivalry and dissonance until the Archbishop of the area ordered a new church be built that everyone had to go to, thus ending the us vs. them) and then were taken back to the petit train and shipped off back to Savona where the tour ended.

The older Swedish man on the tour had a complete meltdown at not being given a tour of Savona as the tour had advertized. To see a calm Swede reduced to a shouting match with the tour operator was quite the sight. It was also interesting that the woman selling the tickets for the tour had a Costa fanny pack on that she wore facing everyone she sold the tickets to, knowing that most of us were fresh off the Costa cruise ship. Is this tour associated with Costa? We were left feeling confused. The Swedish man asked us if we thought that we were going to have a tour of the town of Savona and we agreed that we thought we were going to. We all agreed that between the Costa fanny pack on the ticket seller and the crooked, misleading tour that maybe it was related to the cruise that seemed to be mired in problems. The Swede came to a conclusion that the tour was "just another Costa thing." Indeed.

We headed off into the old town and had trouble finding a restaurant to eat lunch in. We finally did find a cafe and April busted out her very slender Italian language skills to order (in her fourth and final language of the cruise, besides English). The toasted sandwiches were mind blowing after our captivity on the Costa cruise where all the bread is stale and tastes awful in any event. We bought two Magnum ice cream bars to eat. Bill went to the bathroom and after a while a loud ringing alarm noise could be heard in the cafe. It happened a few more times. Eventually the cafe women were laughing so hard that they could barely communicate to April that Bill was pulling the safety alarm for elderly people by the toilet instead of pressing the button to flush the toilet. So, April went and found Bill and they flushed the toilet. Bill limped out of the bathroom into the cafe like an elderly person and hilarity ensued.

We did not find a good souvenir of Savona and returned to the ship having been told that there was a beach in Savona that we could swim at. We changed into our suits and headed out. We walked by the old fort and went to the very end of the beach, after all of the swish European beach clubs, to where it was free to swim. It was cloudy and windy and the waves were truly big. It was a fitting welcome for Bill who had never swam in the Mediterranean before. We swam a couple of times and then warmed up in the inconsistent sun, being harassed too often by Africans trying to sell cheap sunglasses, hats, and knick knacks.

We returned to the ship where we showered the salty Mediterranean off of us. We were disappointed, but not surprised to find that our magic fruit bowl from a couple of days ago had stopped refilling itself as it had been every day since its appearance. The only thing that Costa did to make amends to us for all of the deficiencies with this cruise and the disastrous excursions . . . clearly our comfort was only worth 1 mango, two mandarin oranges, two pears, 1 kiwi, and 4 apples.

We dressed for dinner. Since it was our last godforsaken "dinner" aboard the ship, we dressed up fancy even though it was not a formal night. We had dinner at 9:15 P.M. after packing. The food was indifferent and previously frozen as usual.  We skipped the majority of the courses, not even ordering a main course much to the puzzlement of our waiter. We posed for a photo with one of our two wonderful servers, Amit. Midhun was off sick, so we did not get to say goodbye to him. Our two dinner servers were truly the only pleasant thing about this cruise other than the ports that it called at.

We returned to our room around 11:30 PM to find the newsletter for the next day as usual. It was only from this that we gleaned that we were not allowed to order room service the next morning (we had already filled out the card and put it outside our door as usual). Instead we would have to go up to the dreadful restaurant again or have doughnuts at the buffet with the masses. Mmmm! The newsletter said that we should review our bills the night before and contest them if there was a problem with guest services the night before to avoid lineups the next morning. Well, even after visiting the guest services "totem" computer that night, we were not able to obtain a printout of our receipt and when we called guest services for one, they said that they would bring one to us that night. It never arrived. The mini bar was again locked without explanation. Guess we missed our narrow window of opportunity to dull the pain of this cruise.

We also found out we had to put our suitcases our by 1:00 A.M., so we would have to carry off any toiletries, pajamas, etc.. No one had told us this before (not even in the disembarkation instruction session that Bill attended). We noticed we did not have luggage tags unlike everyone else on our floor (we saw them in the mail cubby outside of each and every door on our floor. We called for them and then had to call a second time before we received them. This kept us up even later than we would have been up. We also noticed that our cabin steward had again failed to leave us back up toilet paper. He had also managed to reattach the towel rack pole back to the wall temporarily, but this fell to pieces within minutes of use, as did the shower the pole the next morning which crashed into the wall after detaching itself again. We always complain about the state of our rental apartment, but it's like a palace compared to this ship.

With the arrival of the missing luggage tags, we finally were able to put the bags out and go to sleep. This cruise has not turned out to be the relaxing time that we thought it would be and has firmly convinced us to never go on a cruise again.

10.68 km walked today.

mmm,...uncooked eggs again.

interlocking legs on the petit train tour

Albisola makes ceramics including these tiles on the side of the building.

Enjoying a Coke on our tour of Albisola.

 

The main church in Albisola.

The beach in Savona.

The apres-beach look at the fort in Savona

The apres-beach look

 

Thank you to Amit for being such a wonderful server every night to us on the Costa Magica. He was one of the only bright spots of the cruise.

June 15 – Tangier, Morocco

Arrive in Tangier, Morocco at 9 am, A cancelled/moved tour, Exploring Tangier alone, Return to ship, Tour of Tangier with guide, return to ship at 6:20, Dinner at 9:15 pm

Time went back one hour early this morning.

We ran out of toilet paper last night because we were never given a back up roll. Thank God for Kleenex. The service on this ship doesn't seem to be very attentive or consistent.

This morning we awoke at 6 am and went up for breakfast but the international breakfast was closed, so we ended up at the gross buffet again. We went to ask about the tour and they would not honour our 9 am departure time or move us to the other English tour similar to ours that departed at 9 am. Bill asked to speak with the tour manager, Francesco, and the agent went behind the door. The agent came out again and said that Francesco was busy right now, but he would be able to speak with Arnesh (sp?). The agent went behind the door and again came out and said that Arnesh was too busy to speak with us. Bill asked if they were behind the door and we would be happy to wait, but the agent said they were loading buses. We decided that we would just have to go out into the town on our own but indicated that we would like to speak with Francesco later.

On our way down the stairs to disembark the ship, we spotted a bearded tour office staff member in aviator sunglasses and a baseball cap and wondered if this was the elusive Francesco. As we were walking towards the town we approached a group of tour office people, including the bearded man, and indeed saw that this was Francesco. We told him that we were disappointed that our tour was changed to which he replied he never sets times for his excursions (even though a time was given online when we booked), that it didn’t matter, that we were wrong, and that he could do whatever he wanted. We said that we wanted to talk to him later. He was rude and abrupt which was quite shocking to us.

We left the ship and explored Tangier alone, getting money out of an ATM, after the first one took Bill's card for a while, did not give us money, and eventually returned the card. April suggested that they stop for a drink in a cafe and regroup and they had traditional mint tea (which contains green tea) at a café and April used squat toilets like a pro (thanks Japan!). We explored the Medina more, drank a fresh squeezed orange juice, got lost, and were harassed endlessly by vendors and would-be guides.

At one point before we had learned better than to engage with any would be vendor or local, we were directed down a street to see a local craft fair because Bedouins had just come into town. The winding alley soon lost their commercial feel. The person who directed us there, a fellow with a bandaged jawbone, which appeared to be a massive tooth abscess, suddenly appeared, having taken a shortcut down another street, and he wanted to direct us to his father’s shop just around the next corner… at this point we felt unsafe and went down another street when he was moving ahead. Then to try and lose him, we ran down another, and ended up losing ourselves as well.

Eventually we figured out our bearings, but it took a long while and we would have been better off having had a tour in the morning as we had originally booked. For the rest of the morning we were much more on guard as we goggled at the leather goods, metal works, fabrics, and trinkets. But mostly, we observed the stunningly gorgeous architecture, doors, and tiles.

We went to the Kasbah (fort), and then became lost again. We went to the souks (markets) in the Medina again, and had lunch in a restaurant. It was chicken tagine, fries, salad, and Coca Cola. As we ate lunch, we watched the traffic, people and merchants go about their business. A grey cat with green eyes approached April and shared her chicken at lunch. When the flow of chicken slowed, the cat stood on his hind legs and stared plaintively at April until she found more chicken. Then he let her pet him. There are lots of cats in Tangier and they are very friendly.

Hearing the call to prayer echoing in the hot Moroccan sun in the square in which we had lunch was moving.

We did a little shopping, managing to negotiate prices down quite a lot. We rushed back to the ship in time for our 2:00 tour. A little note in Russian was left in our room, apparently to notify us when and where to meet for the tour . . . evidently our designation had changed from French to Russian.

The tour took us by bus to see areas outside of the medina, or old city. We had mint tea and cookies at a hotel. The mint tea was nowhere near as wonderful as the two that we had in the medina that morning. We toured the Kasbah and medina, including the Kasbah museum. The guide took us to a rip-off carpet place where the proprietor separated us off from the group onto another floor by saying he wanted to show us something and tried to sell us carpets. The tour guide did not come and retrieve us and seemed to not notice our absence. We managed to leave and rejoin the group. Then we were taken to an outrageously expensive "traditional pharmacy" where they sell argan oil. We saw argan oil for much cheaper around the medina and when we tried to bargain down the price they took real offence and said that every other bottle of argan oil we had see must have been counterfeit. Right. We walked back to the bus and April lamented the lack of afternoon tea with the British couple we met. They had had afternoon tea on previous Costa cruises and were disgusted that it had been withdrawn for no good reason and with no notice to them.

We had a short drive back to the ship on the bus and arrived back around 6:20 pm. Exhausted, we ordered room service for a snack, and worked on our blog. We noticed that there was still a plug in our drain and a flickering light in our cabin, which we called up to have fixed yesterday…they were still not fixed.

We had dinner at 9:15 in the restaurant. These late dinners came as a surprise because when we booked the cruise we were given an option for dinner at 6:00 or 8:30. We chose 8:30, however, the dinner we go to is never before 9:15.

Though we had a Tangier experience and felt far away from home, it would have been vastly improved with a morning tour to orient us to a city that is so unlike where we live.


13.27 km walked today.

Looking up from deck 3 at the glass elevators on the cruise ship

Some of our first glimpses of Tangier

A tired Bill drinking genuine Moroccan mint tea in a tea house

"Darn it! I can't seem to get this thing started. I guess I'll just take a nap."

We stopped for some fresh orange juice...this was much better than the Tang-like substance we were served on the ship.

Our second cup of Moroccan tea for the day after ducking into a tea house during a downpour.

The tiles are amazing...don't know if this hairstylist was named Victoria or if she hailed from our town. We didn't ask. 

Just a fountain...they clearly didn't put any work into it.

Cats chillin'. The cats in Tangier looked like people took care of them

April got a little closer

View from our lunch table

Selfie

Moroccan Coke was slightly more diluted than French Coke, but refreshing, nonetheless.

Chicken Tagine for lunch...they just kept on bringing food. We thought the restaurant was trying to up-sale us on food, but this was all included in the price. Price for both of us with 2 Coca Cola: approximately $10 (half of which was the pop).

A view of the old Medina from the "rich" part of Tangier on our bus tour. Rich is rich, as homes in this area ranged from $1M-$10M Euros.

Tangier Kasbah  museum

They know how to do tiles. 

Fancy lamp...fancier ceiling.

Looking up...wayyyy up.

Alabaster carving

Doors!

April getting artistic with photography

The doors were a little short

More tiles

Gibraltar is far in the distance on the left hand side.

A very nice door