BEWARE POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND EXTRA (HIDDEN) COSTS

NB: Skip to the five bottom categories if you simply want to read about our major complaints.

My partner and I booked a last minute deal for a Mediterranean cruise on the Costa Fortuna departing from Savona, Italy on April 10, 2015. Our cruise ship visited Marseille, Barcelona, La Valletta, Cagliari, and Civitavecchia. We were immediately blown away by a free room upgrade to a balcony stateroom and the experience of being on our first cruise ever (for a very reasonable last-minute price). We also liked the money-less Costa Card system on the cruise ship and appreciated that we did not have language barrier issues, as most of the cruise staff were bilingual or multilingual. We chose to evaluate each category separately, as only certain aspects of our cruise experience were negative enough to affect our overall experience. Read more