My girlfriend and I booked our cruise about a week before departure (as a graduate student, her schedule wasn't certain until the last minute.) We primarily selected Costa because it fit into our date range, and was exceptionally inexpensive for a balcony stateroom. The fact it was Italian themed and owned was a bonus, since I love Italian food and wine, and she loves to be around international people (being a non-US citizen herself.)

EMBARKATION: We arrived 6 hours before departure and embarkation was in full swing. We probably cleared all of it in about 30 minutes. Everything went smooth, even with her student visa status. We checked our luggage with a porter and got on board.

We first stopped at our room, then quickly buzzed upstairs to the 'welcome aboard buffet', or whatever they called it. The food was great, although we noticed a lack of good beverages. Our luggage came to our room piece-meal, and we still hadn't received one of our bags 15 minutes before departure. I located it down the hall and dragged it to our room myself. We then took a long deserved nap. Read more