We chose this cruise because of the ports some of which we had not been to. We sailed from Venice to Trieste, Split, Dubrovnik, Katakalon, Corfu and Kator. We had previously been on 30 cruises, 4 of which were Costa which were prior to Carnival buying them. The food was OK, not great as it used to be. The entertainment was only great when they did the production shows which was only twice, but the late show Abba was terrific. That should have been done as a main show! The ship itself was nice with pools and public areas, and we did enjoy the itinerary, except that the weather prevented us from the stop in Katakalon.
The main problem was the services. They set us up on Internet by the minute and started charging for the time they were setting up logging in and out on mine and leaving my husband's on till we found out it was logged in for an hour. We changed right away to the 25 euros for 250 mg, but it took them till the night before we were back in Venice to remove the original incorrect charges. The reception desk and room service didn't pick up the phone, having me run around looking for someone to bring an extra pillow. After 1 1/2 hours I went down to reception and yelled finally getting them to send one. The cabin stewart later told us he removes the pillow from the 3rd berth. He also neglected to bring ice after repeated reminders.
At the buffet breakfast and lunches the only ones coming to the tables were to sell drinks, not to clean off the tables. They had to be asked to. A Costa Cruise is not for Americans. There are only a few English speaking people who go on a Costa cruise, mostly Italians, but there were a number of French speaking passengers. Although there were only a few English speaking passengers on our last Costa cruise on the Costa Romantica, they treated us nicely. Mostly due to the service issues, we will never go on another Costa cruise again! By the way, it doesn't matter how many Costa Cruises you have been on, if you haven't cruised with them in the last 2 years it's considered your first cruise with them.
The cabin itself was average, a decent size. It was 2 days later after discussing several problems that the phone was answered by reception and room service. The cabin Stewart needed several reminders to bring ice. They smile thinking that is good enough.
After 5 trips to Venice, we took a tour of the Jewish Quarter after the cruise. It was worthwhile.
The tour went to Paleokatsiza then the beach and after to the town. It was just OK. We heard those who did the tour of the caves said it was great.