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I enjoy the opportunity to meet people from other countries and find out about their food and culture. Costa Deliziosa has a very diverse clientel from Europe and North America. All the staff we met spoke enough english to converse with. It's very humbling to realize how many people speak several languages and I only speak english. The ship was sparkling clean when we arrived and stayed that way all 10 days. We really enjoyed the entertainment. Lots of opportunity to learn new dance steps by the pool or in the grand bar.. The main shows consisted of very good acrobatics, Vegas style dancers and costumes and a couple of operah nights. We loved the diningroom for evening meals.We were given the 9:00 seating which we didn't think would work well for us. It actually worked very well. There were 4-6 courses each night and we found everything delicious. Many new tastes for us. It is designed to be slow dining and it is. The soups are exceptional in variety and taste.The waiters were know to break into dance routines occasionally giving the diningroom a carnival atmosphere. The buffet food was average with little change. We found it better for breakfast than the diningroom. We embarked early with no problems . It went quickly. We debarked early bringing our suitcases with us. It was superfast and easy. You need to let them know you are going early. Service was a little on the slow side but very good. Cabins were cleaned either once or twice daily, depending on what box you check on the form left in your cabin. We found a morning cleaning sufficient. We had asmall balcony cabin. Perfect for us with lots of storage spaces. It was too windy to use the balcony much except for early morning in port. I usually ended upstairs anyway so I could see both sides. Ports were as we expected with lots of time to explore.We did not do any of the ship excursions. We did rent a car in Roatan as the price was the same as a taxi. It was an adventure. Roads were like swiss cheese. We managed well and remember Roatan as our favourite wih great snorkling right off the beach in West Bay. We went to Geoff Cay in Belize with a private outfit . It was very good. In Cozumal, we went by Taxi to a private beach club. It was good but expensive for a few hours at the beach and we felt we didn"t really see the island. The announcements that you need to hear are in Englsh but may start with other languages first. Ahe range on this ship was 30-70. I would not hesitate to recommend this cruise to a friend who is looking for a slightly different expoerience than the typical American cruise. Read Less

Don't waste your money; choose a different cruise line. Poor service (except for our dining room waiter Benson who was great). Long lines for EVERYTHING...very disorganized. Very poor communication including Daily Newsletter. Time changes were confusing if not wrong. Speaker system was a joke... good thing there was not an emergency. Bar service terrible. Extremely disappointed in quality and selection of food. Who runs out of butter on third day of cruise and charges for water with dinner? Same breakfast selection every day. No daily menu posted in any venue. Long gaps when no food was available. Shows were short and so-so. Nickel and dime for everything on board. Heard many comments to that effect from everyone. Last minute change in itinerary but learned weather in Roatan was exactly the same as in Costa Maya. Other than size, no advantage or extra benefit for cost of suite versus other class rooms. Excursions were twice or more than the cost available on shore and did not allow enough time to enjoy or experience the locale. Internet package, cost and availability sucked with poor connections many times. Casino was second class. Read Less

Have sailed Costa before. Romantica and Fortuna. Cruises were good ports were great. Ships were clean and comfortable. However, 2/2/18 we sailed from Fort Lauderdale at 11 PM. The food was not very good, the entertainment was so-so, the ship was beautiful. our server (they don't call them waiters anymore) was excellent. Our cabin attendant was excellent. There were no amenities whatsoever. 1. No bar service at pool. 2. No towel service at pool. 3. No free ice tea. 4. No decaf coffee (except out of a package). 5. No cream for coffee at buffet restaurant. 6. Main course food under or overcooked at most of the dinners. 7. Drink packages were outrageous. 8. Soft drink packages were limited. 9. White wine only 2 choices. My daughter met with head of Food and Beverage. She was told, because their clientele is 85% European (mostly Italian) they were catered to. That would be ok if the whole ship was European. There were about 350 Americans, 150 Canadians and about 100 from the United Kingdom. That is 600 out of about 2000 passengers. They seemed not to care. Will not cruise with Costa again. That seemed to be the overall feeling of all English speaking people that I met and talked with. Read Less

We picked this cruise as a package leaving La Romana in the Dominican Republic a one week cruise and then a one week stay at the Be Live Canoa in La Romana. At almost every port new travellers boarding the ship, and every time a safety drill onboard even as late as10:30pm at night blasting in our rooms even us who already did our drill on the first day. Food menu is basically always the same day to day. If you look for tea in the evening the hide it away, and you must ask for it. Who knows why? The state rooms are well kept, and ship is clean. We had a cabine on the second level and heard loud noises from the floor above us which were the fridge units for the dining area. At all times of the night heard shovelling noises and piling of boxes or so. Last day of cruise they offered us to sleep on the eight floor balcony room, and we did, sleped like a baby no noise. We should have complained sooner. I had my lounge chair taken away from me by an Italian tourist, him saying its an italian boat and they have sonority over us. Called security and argued for a while but he won, and me off looking for another place to sit. We watched him and his group to get off the chair but they never left. He had people relaying him to sit in my place. They can keep there ships. Never again will our group of 10 travel on any Italian ship including the Costa line. Does not compare in any way to Celebrity or Royal Caribbean which we both did years before. Read Less

for the ilands , the menbers off the excursions were not very patient whit people from quebec, everytime we ask for information they said read your paper you get at your room ,only 1 restaurent la carte and buffet all the reste must pay ,theatre show are done by 9pm then left whit there bars ship,there was entertainement was ok. was clean and cabin also the dinning the service was very good exelente waiters excursions were goog but expensive and everything in euro , one off our freinds was at the pool a italien lady took the long chair he ask for it back. went to explain to the people in charge they said nothing cold be done fellt very ognored,when we were leaving the cruize they ask how many people were loking foward to go home everybody put there hand up exept 1 ,then he ask wouls anyone like to spend another week on board only 1 person put her hand up, so i think you need to work on the social for quebec everyone was desappointed did not feel support was good Read Less

We have cruised over 40 times. Costa was the one we never did before. The ship is beautiful and clean. Unfortunately that is the only good thing about this cruise. We couldn't believe how limited everything was unless you paid more. Pizza on an Italian ship NOT INCLUDED cost $8.50. No iced tea or lemon aid. Couldn't have a glass of wine with dinner unless you purchased a bottle. Activities in Italian although they did announce in English but you had to really listen or you missed it. They advertised a movie theater but it was for kids and you had to pay. Big screen theater by the pool never showed a movie. One American movie in the show room the entire cruise. Although food is always a matter of preference this was terrible...we all ended up at the buffet which served basically the same food every night. We ate mostly salad and bread. The burger place was another charge. First port to get off we were sent to 4 places before we were able to get off. Be wary of this line if you have cruised before. You will not be having a real cruise experience. It was very inexpensive but like they say "you get what you pay for" in this case very little. We will stick with all the other lines even if we pay more. Read Less

Sadly, for us, not one of the best - maybe even our worst, for stupid niggling reasons. Poor service, and they don't seem to care... Embarkation was very easy, through Port Everglades. Upon boarding they did said they would advise when our cabins would be available, and bags there, but that was never announced. In the end we just went up to the room and found our cases in the room with the keys sat on the bed. Don't expect dinner in a hurry; Examples, first nights dinner we had to wait almost one hour for our food to arrive, and over one hour to be served drinks. We only just finished meal in time for Muster station drill at 8:30, having been seated at 6:15 - the service it was very slow and inattentive. Sadly the food was nothing to write home about, either, in fact the fish cakes were returned by two of our ladies, the pasta was not cooked properly, and the sauce was tasteless. It was a very poor meal, certainly no way to impress new guests. It was like the crew had never served customers onboard before, and the only comment from the Maitre'd when I complained was "it should get better". Which to be fair it did, marginally, but the food quality is still poor and/or confused. One evening the menu offered trout, which I ordered, but what turned up was salmon - which I do not like! Other guests on our table, who were Italian/American, also complained and returned food; they ordered turkey one evening (American Dinner night!), supposedly stuffed, but there was no stuffing - they didn't complain to the waiter. My wife ordered a chicken dish thinking that could not be wrong, sadly it was returned as it was too tough to cut! Several evenings we were virtually the last table to leave the restaurant; along with this and other items I raised complaints with the senior staff, and they simply told us the slow dinner is the Italian way - though not so true according to the very nice Italians we were sharing a table with. One evening there was a new assistant waiter, we assume to help speed things along. However when he was asked to serve our wine it was clear he did not know how to open a bottle of wine; he did not remove the foil before trying to pull out the cork. I had to show him! He then broke a cork in half on another bottle of wine he tried to open at our table. There are enough staff in the restaurant but they never appear to know what they are supposed to be doing! Similar with the sit down breakfast 35 mins to be served, dishes missing items (the avocado on the Mexican breakfast)! I had ordered two brown toast, two eggs, bacon and sausage. The eggs arrived, alone, then after asking the sausage and bacon was brought. The toast arrived, but was white, so we had to wait again.. If you order the individual items, as a breakfast, it all arrives on separate plates - you need a larger table- The German couple on the table next to us had similar issues, in fact worse for her, in that she was vegetarian and was served her eggs with bacon, that she didn't order! We were approached by various maitre'd asking how things are now, or for us to recount the incidents, but nothing appeared to be improving. Sadly, it all seems to be the 'acceptable' normal on Costa. Other issues. Costa App - the Virtual concierge does not work on the three occasions we tried to order items nothing arrived, every time we had to call housekeeping. The invoice/billing details on the app display are not the same as front desk have? Strangely, perhaps conveniently, the app also had no ability to provide feedback. If you take the wine deal watch that they correctly count, ours was wrong on two occasions, and if you take a bottle from say a bar, don't expect that they are smart enough to be able to deposit it to the restaurant for you later - not they give it back to you and ask you to carry it to dinner yourself later....lol! We signed into the spa, and I have to say the service from the staff there has been excellent, wonderful ladies who could not do more and could do well to show the rest of Costa what customer service means. However, the pool in the spa is falling apart; there are loose mosaic tiles in the bottom of the pool, the gully covers are all loose and broken, and the pool needs cleaning. Lastly, understand that they apply a mandatory service charge $12.50/day/pp. Which in itself is fine, and I have no problem paying service or leaving generous tips, but seems Costa want your money (I'd like to know that 100% actually goes to their staff?) but have little desire to deliver quality service to the customer, and when they do not you still have to pay the full service charge - it's a one way contract! If someone had turned around and said sorry, yes we screwed-up, got it wrong, here have a drink on us, or made some sort of gesture to try and put things back into perspective I'd likely not be writing this, but as I already said Costa staff top to bottom just shrugged their shoulders - take it or leave it! When you get the ten days, or so, holiday you want every day to be a positive experience, not a running battle to achieve reasonable customer service - we were very disappointed which made this perhap the worst cruise we have been on, and we have sailed many other times; Carnival, Holland and America, Celebrity, Olsen, Tui/Thompson. Read Less

The itinerary was good but book your own tours. Housekeeping and serving staff work very hard on these ships. Staff numbers, food, etc. seemed skimpy and we wondered if liabilities from Costa Concordia are having an impact or if this is how cruise lines are going. If so hope people speak up. No cream for coffee. No ice cream, sorry, Gelato, but told it will be coming soon but you will have to pay..No milk dispenser, juice cut off around 10:00 but often empty before hand.Lots of breads and cheese at breakfast. Oh yes, cold herring, yum!! Buffet food was always luke warm at best and selection poor. Serving plates were often empty or picked over. Food stations closed at specified times and no late snacks available.We found nothing to snack on after 11:00 but to be fair we never did find reliable info on what was available and when. Buffet area area is a cattle crossing. lay out is poor and it is awkward to get to the feeding stations. This from a cruise line that supposedly is all about the dinning experience. Main restaurant poor. Seated with 8 strangers (When tables near window were empty) and had to wait, often over a 1/2 hour to place a meal order. Had the lights turned off several times signifying that the meal was over when we still had not received desert or coffee (Black) I ordered a salad 3 times and never received it I guess asking for no dressing means no salad. I gave up ordering.The waiter had no help and my sense was that he was concerned about asking for it. Some waiters had empty tables but didn't help out others. Cabin was often cleaned before we asked for it to be made up and was not tidied when we later did ask. We sometimes went for breakfast early in the hope of getting a hot breakfast. On return the cabin was made up before we had a shower, so wet towels all day. Speaking with Cabin Steward had no effect. (He sang opera in final show and was quite good) Garbage pails were often not emptied, why would you when you can sing. Too much smoking allowed, on port and starboard boat decks as well as eating area at rear. Come on!! Too many inappropriate speedos!! (Maybe this criticism is a bit unfair but some appeared to be just underwear. But I didn't notice any wallets in the socks that were shoed in sandals. Entertainment: the 1st night was an Abba and the last night was housekeeping, food services and other staff performing Acts. The singers were quite good and the dancers were on stage. It seemed like an attempt to get extra tips for the staff so wages can be kept low. Read Less

To meet up with Italian friends this was the perfect venue. Every evening the shows were especially entertaining: the tenor Emanuele Servidio is world class, worth taking the cruise just to hear his voice. The shows had amazing singing, dancing, production & lighting. Max, the cruise director, is hilarious-he speaks all the languages as fast as an auctioneer! The animation team has so much fun that it is infectious. There’s plenty of dancing & music after dinner, piano bar. You need never be bored unless you choose to. The staff is very attentive, helpful, & genuinely seem to like what they do. I really enjoyed the contests & skits that the different departments presented on the final day at sea. The staff is multi-talented(bartender juggler, choreography by waiters in dining room, etc.) There were many well behaved children on board with organized activities. The excursions were good without being great. This cruise was the most fun of the 20 cruises I’ve taken. Read Less

We chose this cruise for price & timing was good to get away on short notice. It offered 10 nights on an itinerary we love and have been to before. Belize & Roatan, Mexico and more! We have taken several cruises over the years and even worked on Carnival and Princess ships as entertainers for almost 9 years. We knew when booking this cruise it was not going to be high end, but, it was very nice. The staff were fantastic including all restaurant and cabin steward. The musicians were fantastic, especially the Sherade Band, playing popular music incl. rock, country rock. I read the bad reviews before we booked it, but I don't listen to negative people that want to pay cheap prices and expect royalty when they get there. Our cruise was around $1700 for both of us, tax in (Canadian)! You couldn't take a trip 5 hours away in a hotel for 10 nights for this price. Lots of food choices in the buffet and we did eat in the dining room 8 out of 10 nights. The vibe of the crew and staff was friendly, helpful and really seemed to care about us and our needs. The ship was primarily Italian speaking people as it is an Italian based ship. Read Less

Don't believe any bad reviews most of the complaints are from people who haven't cruised in a while and things have changed, not so much for free but this is the same on al cruises. We had such an exceptional cruise the only reason I couldn't give it a perfect score was there were a couple of tiny issues. 20 years ago we sailed on the Costa Victoria and loved it. This ship had an exceptional price and great itinerary. So we thought we would try Costa again. First of all the upgraded both ourselves and my parents to ocean view cabins. The cabins were huge with even sofas in them, my parents had an obscured view on the deck with the lifeboats but the size of all there windows made up for that. Italian is the main language on board so any announcements you had to wait for the english version. The mandatory lifeboat drill was fast and efficient so much better then many other cruises. The ship was elegant and so easy to get around. The meals in the dining room were excellent although a little strange as we are Canadian so not used to european flair. We could get water from machine all day. I brought "Monin" flavouring in my purse so just gave it a little squirt and had lovely cranberry or lemonade drink anytime. Make sure you sign up for the Cost club card before you go so you can get 25% off almost everything including the wine you order before you board. Also 50% off the specialty restaurants and some foods. Make sure you download the costa app so everyone can keep in touch with cell phones on board for free. Do not buy the internet plan, you can get the social media plan for $4 a day to keep in touch with people and keep it on all the time with unlimited picture sending, data and even facebook calling. Sign up on ship for that. We loved the 4 d theater it was fun and cheap with the card. The shows were 100% some of the best entertainment we have ever seen, you will not be disappointed! One night we were treated to a 1 hour mesmerizing performance from a world famous Opera singer. The next night he was sitting in front of us and I had to tell him how his performance was a lifetime experience for me. I have never heard and opera singer and his voice was incredible and it wasn't even in english. We loved all the private places to hang out, and we never felt crowded with all the people onboard. Lots of places to play cards. The spa was wonderful and quiet my mother and I spent the whole last day there while we were at sea. The pool area has a big dome that they can close at night or rainy days so that was great as our days were not the nicest. One thing we liked that anything you had to pay for was clearly marked on menus and on the schedule for the day, we didn't feel like we were hounded to spend our money. There are a few things we didn't care for: The main pool deck music was very noisy in the day time, we would pick an area away from the main pool area. No comedians, we knew there wouldn't be as not many english people but we did miss it, not the ships fault, just so you are aware. No free ice cream, but they did have by the pool that you could pay for. They messed up our wine order but after fixing it we ended up with 2 free bottles, so this ended well. Hamburgers at buffet were terrible but excellent in dining room. The breakfast service was nice to have buffet there as well but it was hit and miss with the food orders. Not the same waiter everyday they sat you as you came in. We would of like to see a larger selection of cruise wear in the shops. Port of calls: Do not go on the Evocative river cruise in Belize, it is a 2 hour speed boat tour with very little time to see animals, it was a cold day and would never have gone on it had we known. The only place to shop is Key West, every place else on the itinerary only had Mexican trinket stores. So get your shopping done there. We rented a taxi for $125 in Roatan for the whole day, he took us to the Sloth farm, Butterfly farm, waited to shop in a nice little beach area and took us for ice cream downtown. His name is Hector and he was wonderful. No need to book a private tour this was the best way to go. Admission to the 2 places were only about $10 each. Casa Maya is a waste of time to go into town unless you want to suntan on a beach. The only stores are trinket stores and there is a bunch of them right at the port with entertainment. Just stay there it is free. We did have fun going for a tram ride into town though but need to get a taxi back. Cayman island had a bit of shopping but mostly just surf shops. Cozumel looks like it might have some shopping but we were there on Sunday so half of the places were closed. Getting on and off the ship is easy, a bit slow getting off because of an arrest at immigration but once off Canadian passport holders were pushed through a fast lane with only a few people. I would definitely sail with Costa again but I will do an east coast cruise next time. Read Less

Grabbed this cruise first the balcony price was great and second for the opportunity to scuba dive in some warm waters, forget it about it! The strong cold front chased us all the way down to Belize, the only spot Millie and I got to get wet at, Grand Cayman and Roatan were weathered in. By the time we got to Cozumel both of us had congested heads. Must complain about the dive operation Cozumel they kept our deposit NEVER again will we make a deposit ahead of time without refund ability. Roatan without scuba diving gave us time to visit a nature refuge with sloths, monkeys ande parrots that climb all over you, really cool place to visit while at Port. Costa Maya we took our own tour for a 2 hour drive each way to some Mayan ruins that most do not get to with large faces chiseled in stone. I like dancing for some reason the disco did not open until 12:45 no way! The first day at sea we all were informed that there was no ice cream on this cruise, the screaming was unbearable and a mandatory headcount was ordered to make sure nobody had jumped overboard. Group of formal dancers took up some to rooms perhaps this is why disco was late? Read Less

We chose this cruise cause we were told it was reasonably priced, It wasn't. " You get what you pay for. " Costa really nickel and dimes you. Costa really comes at a Cost a... We've been on many other cruise lines and that may be the reason why Costa fell very short of even comparing to all of our previous cruises. As a mature couple we expected more from a Cruise line. Staff throughout the whole ship was very limited. Misrepresenting their drink packages. Packages were not explained at all causing passengers to pay for more than they needed. eg. water was included in the wine packages and not told to people buying water packages... Juice drinks were timed and not dispensed after breakfast. Hard to find ice. Not all buffets were open at any time of the day. Short list of extras: Pizza after a certain hour. Ice cream. A la carte meals were extra and fell short of delivering what was promised. Unfortunately , We will not ever cruise with Costa again. Read Less

My husband & I choose this cruise for it's value. We had never been on a Costa ship. This was our 9th or 10th cruise and we had never had a bad experience. The ship itself is beautiful and the entertainment was awesome but that's about it. The food was not hot even in the dining room. Our waiter seemed overworked. He barely had time to talk to us. Staff didn't really speak to us except for our room attendant. It was difficult finding anyone who spoke English. A lot of people both crew & passengers were sick. (This was told to me by an attendant I spoke with when I went looking to purchase something for a cough.)There was nothing available not even cough drops. I developed a very bad cough. Because our flight was not out until 10pm, we decided to take the excursion that was offered in ENGLISH that would drop us off at the Ft Lauderdale Airport when complete. We were going to visit the Everglades. We paid $65 each. We could have taken a cab for $11 each.(that's what we paid to get to the ship.) The disembarkation did not go smoothly. We showed up in our designated area and showed our tickets to the lady who was in charge. She looked at our ticket and said "Ok take a seat and wait for your number to be called." We did and waited and waited. Another lady joined us going on our bus too. All 3 of us would stop talking and listen whenever there was an announcement was made. Our number was not called. Finally the lady came over and asked what we were waiting for. We said "for our number to be called". She said you should have been gone??? We were in a very long line that took us 1 hour and 10 minutes to get through. Our friend was US so she got through right away. When we got outside we were shocked to learn that our bus had already left. Now they didn't know what to do with us. The "Miami" bus had not left yet so guess what, that's where they put us. The problem with that was it was "SPANISH" We had no other choice. The whole excursion was in Spanish and we did not understand one word. They all knew that. We could have gotten to the airport for total $22 but instead we paid $130 to listen to a foreign excursion to Miami. We need to get that money back but how? Ruth & Shad Read Less

We went on this cruise on an invitation to join another couple. It was cheap. We have cruised before and had good experiences. This was not one of them. Ship was small and inefficient. small overcrowded in every way. 2 small pools. 2 tiny hot tubs, that were luke warm at best. But due the ridiculous overcrowding on the boat, even getting access to them was a challenge. The website said there was a roller rink, there was not. Cabin was fine, good service each day. Dining was just ok. Not 'Italian' in nature in the least. Buffets were just ok, if you like being fed like a herd of cattle. They actually were so stingy that they turn off the juice at like 10 in the morning. Of course no beverages were free and one person in a cabin can't buy the package, both have to. Even the late night pizza bar, as it was, was pathetic and not free. 8 dollars for a tiny pizza. I thought this was a cruise, and an Italian one at that. Since when do you pay for food? The late night pizza treat is a given on a cruise, no? Water machines not working regularly either. I swear they would make you pay to use the fountain if they could. Shows were good. What else can you do anyway? Ports were the same old cruise line ran, chaotic, people herding, noisy,affairs they always are. The poor countries we visit don't get a cent. So sad. We did excursions , Bahamas was lovely as we managed to get away from the crowd. Grand Turk nice too. Miami was a disaster for weather. We did a hop on hop off bus tour and there was more water inside the bus than out. They can't do anything about the rain, I understand, but the guide said she calls the boat to inform them to let passengers know that it's not good weather for this and they should tell us. They didn't. And of course the boat charges the excursion to your room card, cuz they own everything. It's infuriating. So we spend a day docked at Miami, then at night, we race out to see again, 30 miles (so they can run the casino and serve alcohol, international waters) and we just sit there, drop anchor and get tossed back and forth all night. I threw up from the motion sickness that I don't usually suffer from. Then we head back into Fort Lauderdale and get off. My teenagers were so unimpressed and miserable. You actually had to pay to play ping pong. Can you believe that? We have done a Holland America older crowd cruise which they loved. I will never ever go on a Costa boat again and am avidly warning others not to go. Check your boat people, find out about the little details. The whole landscape of cruising has changed and not for the good.. It's not a vacation. You are not pampered. The 'amenities' are terrible. You are crowded and miserable on a floating tank of greed. Read Less

I brought my elderly parents on a Cruise for New Years. We have been on other Costa ships before as well as the Norwegian Gem. I was very concerned when I saw the terrible reviews for this ship. Our previous experiences with Cost were quite good, so when I saw the very cheap price, I booked right away. Well, I was glad to see that the poor reviews were not reflective of our experience. Although there is room for improvement, the overall experience was quite good. Let me start with the positives: The food in the dining room was very good. A bit hit or miss, though. Some days/evenings it was delicious, others it was just ok. But it was never bad. We went there for most breakfasts, lunches when it was open, and all dinners. Our waiter was fabulous. Although he was very busy he never made us wait or feel like we were asking for too much, even when we asked for a different entree or dessert because the one the next table ordered seemed delicious! All the staff was very friendly, approachable and willing to help with any requests. The negatives were few and far between: The buffet was NOT GOOD. The food was mediocre at best and the lines were ridiculous. There were far too few sections open at all times. There were always some sections closed and with a full ship, that shouldn't happen. When we first arrived, it was about 4:30 by the time we went to our room and got settled. When we went to the buffet it was closed! I thought that was ridiculous. This was our 5th cruise and on embarkation day, we could always find something to eat. The servers we spoke to told us we had to wait until the buffet reopened at 6:30. Well, with two elderly parents, I wasn't going to give up. Finally, we found the buffet manager who made us 3 plates of food to eat. It was very nice of him, but I didn't appreciate having to hunt someone down to beg for a meal after we paid for an all inclusive cruise. Another thing I think needs to be looked in to is the accessibility for the disabled. I was very happy to see that on the second day at the pool, many lounge chairs had disability reserved signs on them. It was great. However, I didn't realize this was only because the ship was in its first port. When most people left the ship for excursions, the disabled signs were place on the loungers, when the ship was at sea, the signs disappeared. This makes absolutely no sense. When the ship was docked there were tons of empty loungers. There was no need for the signs. When the ship was at sea there was nowhere to sit. That's when the signs should have been out. The worst part was that the people on the ship (tourists) were so rude! They took towels off loungers and claimed them for their own. And I don't mean those loungers where people placed towels and didn't return for hours (that happened too). I mean I left my towel on a chair, brought my dad to the handicapped bathroom (I was gone for about 5-6 minutes) and when I returned someone had removed my towel and put their things on my chair! And try getting into an elevator with a person using a walker! People don't even let those on the elevator exit, before they shove in! We often times were the first people waiting for an elevator (we actually pushed the button) and when the elevator arrived, were not able to get on because those who came after su beat us to it! I don't expect special treatment because my dad has a walker, but I do expect that if i get to the elevator first and a bunch of other people arrive, they let the first people go first. Or is that just a Canadian thing? I never have this issue in Canada! Finally, the only other thing I didn't like was that just about everything cost extra! I mean even pizza and hamburgers! They had regular hamburgers at the pool grill during the day and they were very good, but if you wanted one for dinner it was considered a specialty restaurant. This was true for pizza as well. I get that the fine dining restaurants would cost more, but pizza and burgers? Other than that it was a very nice trip. The cruise line can't control the behaviour of the guests, which was the main problem. If you can put up with rude travelers, you will be fine. Read Less

We have travelled on Costa Majica in the Mediterranean before and we had a fantastic trip. The food was excellent and the shows were magnificent. So with this in mind we thought why not book our Caribbean cruise with them as well on the Costa Delioza. Because it was it was the start to our month long trip to America for our Honeymoon and wedding in Vegas we decided to go all out and book a suite. (We are South African so the exchange rate for us is R14 for $1). So you can imaging this is a lifetime of saving for a trip of a lifetime. Our Cruise departed from Fort Lauderdale on 20 December 2017. First sign was when our departure was delayed till something like 2am in the morning because some passengers flight had been delayed. There went the excitement of the traditional harbour departure. We couldn't stay awake till that time. Boarding was simple and easy. On boarding we were greeted by a English hostess (we never saw her again on the boat for the full 7 days). That 1st night we went to dinning room reserved for the suites. The Maitre'D took the room card from my husband and looked at me and said and where do you come from as if to say I am not good enough for his restaurant. It was a great start to our dinning experience for the next 7 days. He then told us we would have to come back at 9pm because they were going to be doing the emergency drill. (We have cruised a bit and normally they announce a time for the drill so that you can plan your time around it.) Well we then went and waited in our room for the signal. We did the obligatorily drill and went back to the dinning room. By this stage I had sort of lost my appetite. Well I was expecting much better quality food but again it was the first night and we were still in Port. We woke up to an arrival in Nassau. We didn't book any tours as we prefer to do our own thing when getting off the boat and also we could not afford the prices of the tours. We spent the day with some other passengers we met disembarking. Having been there 17 years before we were shocked at the state of Nassau and how run down it was. It was like going to any market/shopping mall anywhere in the world. We left Nassau and some stupid passenger with high blood pressure decided to go diving (which is not recommended). We heard he died and that is why we had to go back to Nassau and not move on to the Grand Turks. These ships are supposed to have hospitals and morgues on board (my son works on a ship). Anyway this delay meant that we only had a half a day in the Grand Turks which we were so looking forward to. Before leaving (in fact months before) I booked online for the Samsara Restaurant. So off we went with our confirmation. We arrive there and got a very rude well we don't have a booking for you. So I showed her the paper and her reply was well that service online doesn't work you need to book on the ship. After much discussison they seated us at a table right next to the waiters entrance to kitchen. There went our romantic dinner. The food was also very mediocre and we could well have just eaten in our own dinning room. We had another medical emergency not far out of the Grand Turks and the boat once again had to do a u-turn. This luckily didn't effect our other stops. Well back to the over all service. The waiters had a shocking attitude and banged plates down in front of you. The food at the buffet was disgusting (slop). If you wanted a burger you had to pay extra, there was NO ice cream on the boat and you had to pay for pizza. These things have always been included previously. We could not find a bar man, waiter or Matire'D who could give advise on wines. The selection was also very poor. Well now onto the entertainment. It was SHOCKING except maybe if you where Italian. I understand it is an Italian liner but you are cruising in an English speaking part of the world. Adapt. Even on our Mediterean cruise the entertainment was our joy every night. The shows were what we looked forward to every night. There was one morning when our safe would not open and I phoned the customer services desk to ask them to come and open it. We needed our passports and wallets to get off the boat at Ambers Cove. I even phoned our butler. We sat in our room for 4 hours waiting. Only when I went down to the desk and made a scene about the overall service and the fact that some dead guy had ruined our trip to the Grand Turks was I quickly ushered to our room where they opened the safe. Now after such a complaint I would have expected them to send the English Speaking Hostess to us to understand our concerns but no she was no where to be found. That evening at dinner we did get an apology from the Maitre'D and from then on we were treated like any other diner in the restaurant. I am not sure if we looked too poor to be in the suite dinning room or maybe too young? Well we obviously where not good enough until I complained. So overall the staff looked miserable and as if they were just dragging themselves through the day. A couple of the staff told us that they had just had their salaries dropped (can you imagine just before Christmas) and their bonus was a $10 calling card so they could call home for Christmas. Apparently some of the them where at threat of loosing their positions. They are taking the butler service away from the Suites. So I assume they will then lower their fees. Costa will not be seeing us again! Thanks for ruining a trip of a lifetime you sure as hell made it an overall disaster. Read Less

Chose this cruise with 9 family members over the Christmas Holiday. It wasn't overpriced like many over the holiday, so we thought this would be a good choice but we all wished we had paid more for another cruise line, like Celebrity, Princess and Royal Caribbean who we have traveled with many times. Two of our family members traveled with Costa many years ago and said it was wonderful. I guess after the Costa ship sunk in Italy a few years ago, they haven't been the same ever since and I really wanted this one to sink as well!!!! We were unable to sit together because they messed up our seating arrangement and we were all separated. They continually said there was nothing they could do!!! Really???? We ended up having to eat at the buffet in order to be together. We had to "pay" for a private dinner for Christmas Eve just to be together and it was absolutely horrible!!! Overall the service, food, and willingness to fix problems was absolutely horrible! Soooo disorganized!! Couldn't get butter, they ran out of water, coffee, juice and ice continually!!! Italian ship with no ice cream or Gelato, really????? Had to leave a sign everyday for my steward to remind him that we needed ice. When I didn't put out a note, we got no ice!! I have been on 12 cruises and yes there are some better than others, however, this was absolutely the lowest of low cruises I have ever been on. So disappointing especially since it was over Christmas!!! I could write a list of things that went wrong every single day, but then this would turn out to be a book! DO NOT EVER TAKE THIS CRUISE AND THIS PARTICULAR SHIP!!!! Unless you want a terrible experience!!!! Read Less

My husband and I (50s) and our daughter (20s) chose this cruise because it was a favorable price for a Christmas cruise, on our bucket list. We had cruised with Costa once before in 2010 and enjoyed it overall. Booking the cruise, I was surprised that we would not receive and previous guest credit for our other cruise, since they only give credit for 3 years, but more on that below. Embarkation: Unlike other cruise lines we typically use, embarkation was between 1 and 9 p.m. Since we didn't have any early boarding privileges, we meandered on our drive, arriving around 3:30. There weren't any lines for any aspects of embarkation, and we were on the ship quickly. Room was ready and luggage arrived shortly after. Because of the later embarkation time, muster was scheduled between the two dining times. This was a fiasco! Our poor waiter was trying to get all of our meal served (on the first night, which is always slower anyway) before we had to rush back to our cabins, get life jackets, go to our station. Muster was very disorganized (aside from the fact that they scan cards, which is good), and we were subjected to heavy fumes. People were coughing, putting scarves over faces, etc., and someone almost passed out. When we tried to let someone know about this, the muster helpers were very nonchalant, and non-helpful. Didn't inspire much confidence for a true emergency. Ship and Cabin: Deliziosa is similar to the Carnival Spirit class ships, which are my favorite. They seem to be just the right size and have a good crew: passenger ratio. I rarely felt crowded into long lines. We had a balcony cabin. On Carnival, it would have been considered an obstructed view, but we were not told this at booking. However, we have stayed in these cabins before and the price was acceptable. The balcony is a standard size, fitting 2 chairs and a table. A downside of Costa was that they allow smoking on balconies, and we had a smoking neighbor. The room had plenty of storage space for the three of us, including in the bathroom. Our cabin steward, Adamson, was stellar (a nice change from our recent Carnival cruises, where service was subpar). Dining: There were highs and lows here. The dining room dinners were great. Delicious 6-course meals. If you don't like pasta and Italian food, you will not like it; if you do, you'll enjoy trying things from various regions ... and lots of pasta! The special Christmas Eve dinner was very nice. Our waiter was professional and did a good job, given the demands of his section. The waiters seem overworked, with management that don't seem to want to pitch in. The hostess was very rude. At breakfast, they have a buffet in the dining room (?) with the option of ordering off a menu (which they seemed very hesitant to offer). Dining room lunch on sea days was good, like the dinner, but they were very overwhelmed on Christmas day, when everyone decided to eat in the dining room. The buffet at breakfast got to be boring - the exact same foods every day. Lunch was a little better, with some variety, but always very crowded and chaotic. The 'open' times of the buffet never seemed to match our schedule, so we often found ourselves scrounging for the leftovers or there before it was open. There seemed to be scheduling issues. We did try the pay-for-pizza restaurant. The pizzas cost 8.50 and were very tasty. However, on an Italian ship, it seems that pizza should be a 'given' on the buffet. Overall, if you are expecting 'American' food, you will probably not like the dining experience. Illy coffee in the buffet, yum!, with hot milk. A treat! Ports / Itinerary: Our itinerary got shifted because of the hurricane, but was eventually changed back to the original. We ended up being off schedule several times. First, we ended up leaving more like 2 in the morning, instead of 9 p.m., because they were waiting on people whose flights were delayed. I'd not really ever experienced that before. That put us late into our first port, Nassau. Then we had not one, but two!, medical emergencies where we had to turn around. Realize this is not Costa's fault, but it cut our time in Grand Turk in half. Our other ports were Amber Cove and Key West. Since we have been to all of these ports before, we hadn't made any special arrangements (aside from planning one of the Fathom volunteer excursions in Amber Cove, which was canceled due to lack of interest). We walked to Junkanoo Beach for a swim in Nassau, swam at the port in Grand Turk and Amber Cove, and went swimming / walking in Key West. All were enjoyable ports. Entertainment and Activities: Very happy with the variety of entertainment. There were several types of musicians on board, and it was fun to watch many people ballroom dancing. It was nice that there were two dancers on board who danced with passengers. Also, entertainment staff were very present and also did dancing. The evening shows provided a wide variety, and we enjoyed most of those we went to. There was a Bee Gees tribute band (very good), a magician (meh), a tenor (excellent) and acrobats (excellent). We missed the passenger talent show, but heard it was good. The tenor was on board for Christmas, and it was a special treat to hear him sing on Christmas Eve, especially Ave Maria. They also offered a Christmas Eve Midnight Mass and a Christmas Day Mass; we went to the former. They even had Communion! (This went much faster than I expected it would, surprisingly.) There was also a Santa visit for the kiddies, and 'snow' in the atrium. We also enjoyed the various trivia games in multiple languages! Rewards Program: I was pleasantly surprised by the rewards program. Since we were categorized as 'first time,' I didn't expect anything. However, we were given a few nice things: participation in past guest party, a free specialty coffee drink, and 50% off the pizza restaurant (which made it definitely worth a try). There were discounts for other things on board, and I think a free photo from the party, but we never retrieved that. Read Less

I chose this cruise because of the date, ports of call, and number of days. 99% of the people on board, were from Europe, and did not speak English, or very broken English. The food, which I enjoy very much on cruises, was Terrible. The selections were extremely small. I found European people to be very rude and inconsiderate. Early in the morning people were slamming doors, and moving balcony table and chairs. Most every announcements, were spoken in Italian, French, German, and Spanish. English was very limited. One night I pulled the bed sheets down, and found bodily fluid stains, an blood stains on my sheets. I had called the cabin clerk and showed him the sheets, and he told me, it was from the laundry detergent. Other then my stained sheets, the ship was pretty clean. Obviously, the casino crew was very friendly and courteous. The only good thing is, I'll never go on a Costa cruise again! Read Less

chose the cruise because of its itinerary and the stops were great. The ship was very nice and it was easy to get on and off the ship. The service was good and our room was great. The quality of the food and the drink pkg left a lot to be desired. An example would be the beer was served in a Carlsberg glass but was in fact Milwaukee's Best! someone is cutting corners. They ran out of the good whiskey as well. The wine was bitter. Pizza was awful and i have had pizza in Italy and it was amazing. No steak or seafood on the dinning menu although most options were tasty but were simple. The entertainment was singing most nights and we did not enjoy the shows. We would not go on Costa again and would not recomend it when there are so many far better choices. Read Less

I chose this cruise because of the many places we would stop, and it was the best decision I ever made! The service was exceptional, especially from Santanu, my waiter, and Ronal, my butler! My favorite hangout was on the 9th deck, at the bar, and the staff there is by far the greatest, funnest group of people ever!! They are simply amazing! I didn't ever want to leave! Everything on the boat was awesome, and the food was very good as well! There were also many other activities including a basketball court on the top deck under the stars, a really exciting race car simulating a real race, a nice casino, with a lot of neat games to play, and a cigar bar next to it, if you smoke, that's easily accessible. The theater was beautiful, and spacious, and the audience even got to vote on the winner of a "Voice" show. The next cruise I go on will be with Costa Deliziosa for sure!! Read Less

Overall a very good cruise with tending to excellence for me as a single passenger. Boarding was a bit delayed, because of some officials for boarder control hadn’t been in time, but however I was onboard within 35 minutes from official start of boarding. Costa succeeded to get me onboard within 20 min on an earlier cruise elsewhere, but for me the second fast boarding ever anyway. As I didn’t stay in my cabin I don’t know exactly when my luggage arrived, but for sure not more than two hours after my boarding. The ship is a huge one with a capacity of about 3800 passengers. But although the MDR was pretty full most evenings I hadn’t the impression of an overcrowded ship. There are way enough facilities to find a spot for everybody, only that passengers are reserving “their” deckchairs before breakfast with their towels is ongoing, although Costa forbids it expressively. General the service is great, especially in restaurants and bars. How can it be that some people in bars, serving hundreds or thousands guests a day, remember already the second day your name and the drink you had the day before? By the way: be sure that you have a drinking package that suits your needs, otherwise you’ll pay a fortune instead of a moderate price for a package. I got the first seating for dinner, but my request to change to the late seating was honoured the next day. The meals were in most cases delicious Italian kitchen, completed by some local courses. Nearly everything was done between very well prepared and just perfect - just two courses disappointed me personally - on a cruise of three weeks. Generally Costa could do something with the cheese offered with dinner. The cheese itself varied daily and I enjoyed it, but it was every evening “cheese with dried fruit” and dried fruit were three weeks just raisins. Overall I really enjoyed the meals offered and at home I know more restaurants I dislike than those I’d recommend to you. The excursions I did with Costa were as mostly in the industry: well-prepared, all as promised, but without the special touch. I only use ship excursions if there is no alternative locally - with local providers or on my own. As usual ship excursions were much more expensive than locals were. The opportunity to arrange things on my own wasn’t available in the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Tenerife and for single passengers in Barbados. Absolute the best excursion during this cruise I did with an independent operator on Martinique, who is for me personally on a very good second place of all tour guides ever (Christelle from Karambole tours). Indeed Costa cancels tours if there aren’t enough participants, it happened to me twice. Once without any acceptable alternative for me, the second time I was able just to change the language and I got my excursion. The only very cheap offer I booked with Costa was an excursion from Marseille to Avignon on my disembarkation day. Costa generally offers excursions on disembarkation days (sometimes with flight time limits e.g.). My online booking has been accepted and I was happy to fill the gap between arrival in Marseille and my hotel check-in. I went to hospitality service to ask about my luggage tags and they wanted to know the exact excursion times for giving me new tags and as I didn’t know they sent me to the excursion desk. There I met the only arrogant staff member aboard who first did a phone call in Italian language (which I don’t understand), cancelled my ticket and thereafter (!) told me that it is forbidden (!) for me (!!!) to book that excursion. I returned to the excursion desk, wrote down her name and reported her to Costa as such a behaviour can ruin the name of an entire cruise line. I can handle a mistake if a booking is accepted and it turns out to be impossible by some reasons, but arrogance of service staff I just don’t tolerate. Because of her behaviour excursions got the lowest rating of all I gave for this cruise. But for the rest I recognise that she is just one member of a crew of 1500 and not representing all of the Costa Favolosa staff. Entertainment is various, I think everybody can find something suitable. The problem of the many languages spoken onboard is solved by concentrating on music and artistic entertainment. Readings on one topic are done in one lounge a couple times a day, but in always in different languages. Great if you are fit in languages, when I missed something I had the opportunity to listen later in another language. The staff is able to communicate in English and at least one other language - although an Italian vessel the many nationalities of the staff is usually talking to each other generally in English. For every language there is one hostess you can visit daily at scheduled times or during information events. The Favolosa is a six-year-old ship without any notable tear and wear, undergoing works permanently I noticed, but didn’t mean any hinder to me. Thousands of people course a lot of dirt, but when there was anything visible at all it was cleaned up in no time, the house keeping was really very alert, some cleaning was going on all the time. I found one small technical problem in my cabin (from my own job I know these things just happen), called the reception and left my cabin. It was solved within half an hour. I noticed it myself when returning to my cabin, but also had a notice in my letterbox and was contacted by phone with another time excuses for the inconvenience. My cruise was at the very end of the winter season and a large part of the staff was going home one day after I left the Favolosa. But except the one exception mentioned before everybody was extremely friendly, helpful and service orientated, greeting with a smile and nobody seemed to be overworked after months of just working. Overall: I really enjoyed and I’d do it again! Read Less

Yes, horrible food, lost 3 pounds. The meat is hard, pasta undercook, tasteless, coffe is water. Fish is also overcooked and dry, no vegetables. The buffet is like a ground hog day, same food over and over and over. Food in the dining room was also bad. Never sailing Costa again, well depends if you wish to lose weight. Go for Princess or Royal Carribeans, good service, good food Husband has a CPap, had send all the forms to get distilled water. They never recieved them, said my husband had to find an empty bottle if he wanted water ! Was shocked, got mad, told them they have to find a bottle, not me . Horrible service Docked in Jamaica in a crapy location instead of the nice wood dock available so the captain could save money, my husband tripped and fell, bloodied knees. Forget Costa, not worth the money Read Less