We have only sailed with Costa before so I can only compare these two lines. Embarking was pretty painless but you are not given the warm and cozy feelings from customer service. The ship is beautiful and big. It took me almost the entire cruise to figure out where everything was (I still don't think I saw everything). We had 2 rooms (a balcony for us and an inside stateroom for the kids). Here are some pros and cons:
The good and bad:
-Nice rooms (especially the inside stateroom-it was larger than on the Costa Pacifica).