Having used this website to review our upcoming cruise and finding very little positive information, I decided that it was only fair to share our wonderful experience during our Christmas cruise. We are experienced cruisers (Norwegian, Holland, Royal Caribbean, Carnival and now Costa). We brought our whole family - 8 people-on this cruise. 6 members of our party had a wonderful embarkation experience. Our daughter and son-in-law arrived much later and found their embarkation delayed because of too few security handlers, etc. at the port. Debarkation, however, was very smooth for all members of our party.
We had an early flight and Costa made sure we were off the ship in plenty of time with much assistance (my mother needed a wheelchair). Once on board, my son-in-law's first comments to us were "next time we will cruise Royal Caribbean" (he didn't have a choice since they were our guests; he's been on 2 cruises -- both RC--a lot to compare to!!) I do feel that by the end of the cruise, he was quite impressed by the Costa experience.
We were concerned about the food on board because the reviews had been so terrible. We were all pleasantly surprised by the many wonderful choices we had. While every night offered another Italian region's fare, the food was diverse, expertly prepared and presented and not at all the typical USA Italian food. Prime Rib, lobster, escargot, duckling and veal were all wonderful choices. The option was always to add pasta between courses (as the Italians do) but there also a was a "lighter fare" option that was excellent. Service was wonderful -- Nilo and Anthony would had carved us toothpicks if we wanted!