My wife and I went on a 11 day cruise on the Costa Serena February 9-20, 2008. Our Itinerary was departing from Savona, Italy, to Barcelona, Casa Blanca, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Madeira, Malaga, and returning to Savona. We had planned on taking a safari in Kenya in February but that got cancelled due to the civil unrest there. We decided to take this cruise last minute because we were needing a vacation in February and the price was good. We are Americans living in The Netherlands, so planning the cruise last minute was pretty easy due to our close proximity to Italy. We flew Ryan Air to Pisa, Italy for a very cheap rate. From Pisa we took a 3 hour train ride to Savona. From the Savona train station it was a 15 Euro, 15 minute cab ride to the port. Savona was a good port and had a nice cruise ship terminal but a little complicated to get to, regardless if you are coming from Europe or the US. Genoa is the closest airport but still an hour train ride away. My wife and I are very comfortable using European trains but this may be an issue for North Americans not familiar with Europe train travel. Costa does offer a shuttle from Genoa airport but I am sure space is limited and the price is probably inflated. Once we arrived at the terminal we checked our baggage in and received a number to board. We had to wait about an hour to board, this was no problem, the terminal was nice and seats were available. We had a little lunch in the terminal and boarded the ship. I have heard many people complain about turning in passports but this did not really bother me, and is pretty standard in Europe from what I have seen on other cruises. It was pretty hectic getting it back the last day but not too much of a problem. Once onboard we found our room, the door was cracked open for us, our key cards on the bed. Our luggage was delivered shortly after. The room was very nice as was the service we received from our steward. While my wife took a rest I went up to register my credit card and change my dinning time to the early diner at 1815. There was a huge wait to meet with the Maitre d' to change your dining time. We ended up sitting at a 4 top with two other Americans and next to a 2 top that also had 2 Americans in the Ceres dining room at the aft of the ship. The food in the restaurant was typical Italian 5 course. The food and choices were good some nights and not so good other nights. Same goes for the service in the restaurant, some nights it was good, some nights it stunk. One disappointment for me is there was not a buffet dinner option every night. We are casual people and don't always feel like dealing with eating in the nicer restaurant every night, especially for 11 days. The only option was the pizza and snacks they had available in the buffet area. After a few nights that got kind of got old, I would have definitely liked to see more options for those who did not want to dine in the restaurant. Lunch was available at the buffet and restaurant but we always ate lunch at the buffet. Each day had a lunch theme along with the usual Italian food. We never made it to the restaurant for lunch but I do know it was a menu style lunch. Breakfast was the same as lunch, offered in the restaurant and buffet. The options for lunch and breakfast were hit or miss, kind of like the dinner. Because of the size of the ship it was very chaotic at lunch and breakfast. Long lines with people shoving and cutting, not always a lot of tables available. There is also a upscale dinner restaurant that you could pay extra to eat ala carte, but we never ate there. The bars on the ship were nice, although I felt drinks were extremely expensive. 14 Euros for 2 cocktails or 5.75 Euros for 2 cokes.

Entertainment on board did not suit us very well, the events during the day were not really for us, the shows at night were OK some nights and pretty bad other nights. The pool areas were nice but the hot tubs were not hot at all, I thought that was weird and defeated the purpose of a hot tub. Other activities included the casino which I thought was nice. The gym was real nice as well, but a bit crowded and did not have the greatest hours. They offered spinning, yoga, etc. at a charge of 9 Euros, which I think is ridiculous that you have to pay. There is also the celebrated Samsara spa located next to the gym. We took a tour of the spa our first day, it was great. We both had facial treatments on one of our days at sea. This is where my opinion of the spa changed. I got the men's facial and shave for a rip off price of 71 euro. It appeared the mach 3 type razor the guy used was not changed or sanitized from the gentleman before me. After the shave I got a mask and a bit of massage, then he tried very hard to get me to buy the overpriced face products. When I got back to the room I noticed patches of facial hair that he missed! Seemed like a major rip off to me, I was extremely disappointed with my facial. My wife got a facial for 91 Euro, although she has never had one to be able to compare, she did not seem to impressed for paying 91 euro. I cancelled my other spa treatments after the disappointing experience. The shore excursions were OK, we went on two the entire trip, most ports we did our own thing, that is how we like to do it. Our tour in Barcelona was cancelled and we did not find out until we were about to depart, we took the same tour in French. Not a huge deal, especially given the small number of English speaking passengers, I just would have like more notice. Barcelona was nice, we had already been there. Casa Blanca was fun, I have heard many people complain that it is not nice and feels unsafe. I think that is ridiculous. It is comparable to any other large Arab city like Cairo, Istanbul, etc. Some people expect Disney World and are unhappy to see the reality. I agree it is not the nicest city, but I did not expect it to be. We saw the Mosque, went to a Hammam (spa), and my wife got Henna. It was adventurous and exciting to take in the city and its culture regardless of how nice the city was. Both Canary islands, and Madeira were great. We really enjoyed the beautiful and unique scenery of all the islands, especially their national parks. Malaga was probably my least favorite port call. Although the weather was bad, the city itself was kind of boring, not many great things to see or do.

One other topic to touch on was the English speaking hostess, Deborah. I personally thought she was horrible at her job. Any time I saw her doing presentations her public speaking was horrible and presentations poorly put together. She seemed too busy trying to be a comedian. I caught some of the other presentations by the other language hosts, they seemed much better and much more informative. The thing that bothered me most about Deborah was this little speech she gave at the end of her last presentation. She was going on about not expecting too much out of life and there are children dying and wars going on, not rally what I want to hear on my holiday. I feel like she was doing Costa a disservice about her little blurb on not expecting much. When I'm cruising I expect a lot from the ship and its staff, that is what I paid for. I don't want to hear some lecture from a cruise host about life lessons, it really bugged me for some reason. The Costa Serena is a new ship that still needs to work out a few problems. Overall I think the Serena is a very nice brand new ship with some questionable décor. The overall service was not horrible but had much room for improvement. The food was so-so, drinks and bars too expensive. The worst part about this cruise was the other guests. They were extremely rude and annoying, mostly being European. Living in Europe for the last 3 years, I tend to think I have a higher tolerance to the cultural differences in Europe. In general people tend to be more rude than in the US, but after 3 years it is something I have learned to manage and live with. Being on this ship for 11 days even got to me, which is a lot to say. I see most North Americans getting frustrated very quickly with this ships rude guests. We paid $800 pp for and 11 day cruise(minus onboard expenses), which is less than $100 a day. Even with the things I did not like about this cruise, I fell it was worth it for that price. Some good information from our cruise: Read more