Embarkation was smooth and generally quiet. The area for waiting was a bit hard to find but it was a pleasant enough wait which wasn't very long as we arrived early and had plenty of assistance from friendly Costa staff on the ground.

On board the ship, we were not able to get in our cabin right away so we looked around. Not as impressive as Luminosa yet as the days passed, the friendly service of the crew made up for th somewhat annoying attitude of many Italians on board. We thought we were the only ones who noticed they didn't like to line up, a bit pushy and smoked all the time, anywhere they liked, etc..But then we got into talking with a number of people, two Canadians who also complained about the excessive smoke in the lounges (even if there are non-smoking signs on many tables). These Italians (we could hear them talking in their language too!) just take any ash tray and put in any table they liked! So there was a problem with crew not being able to properly enforce this rule that only tables with ash trays are for the smokers.

In all the ships we've cruised on the smoking areas are all outside the decks. I cannot understand why in Costa ships (Victoria & Luminosa) we found smokers are the kings and queens! Read more