An enjoyable cruise on a beautiful ship with very hardworking and efficient staff.

Ship Very impressive ship, which is in immaculate condition. The ship appeared to be made of very high quality materials and is being constantly maintained. Apart from a few scratches on the insides of some elevator doors it looked brand new. The ship is designed by Joe Farcus, and as such is very bright and extravagant. However it was more tasteful than we perhaps expected and we especially liked the Budapest and Vienna lounges, which were lovely. It is very much an 'all weather' ship and we felt as if we were 'indoors' more than other ships. As a result of the cool April weather, the retractable roof above the pools was usually in place. Few negatives but I would comment that sadly the promenade deck does not 'wrap around' in either direction and can only be accessed from the atrium. As such, unless you want to try to navigate through the staff area at the front, you are forced to go back in the doors that you came out of- and this really limits how far you walk. It does feel quite a large ship although you would not believe that there were 3000 other passengers and 1060 crew on board. Design has been incorporated into every aspect of the ship and Costa should be applauded for this. Cabins are of a good size and are well designed with a large amount of storage space.

Food We really enjoyed the food and could not relate to any of the previous reviews referring to cold or unappetizing meals. Food was plentiful, tasty and we never had a 'bad meal' eating in the Roma restaurant at the early sitting each night. The food is probably 'simpler' than Princess or NCL but I think it's probably unfair to say that one is better than the other. The truth is that they are different and travelling on an Italian ship you can not really expect lobster or hot desserts etc. Most dinners in the evening lasted about 90 minutes and consisted of an appetizer, soup, pasta, main course and desert. Never had a problem finding something on the menu and our waiter was very good at making recommendations if asked. It was noticeable that there was often no dinner buffet available so if you are someone who wants to avoid traditional dining then you may be limited. Read more