You don’t have to read all of this and you don’t have to trust my review. Just do yourself a favor and “JUST DON’T DO IT” Unfortunately due to high tides this cruise docked in Trieste instead of Venice. This was supposed to be my dream vacation to Venice, turned nightmare. Not because of uncontrollable natural elements. Costa had no control over. It was the service on this ship. This was the first cruise ship I’ve been on that food was only served at the buffet or one (1) main dining room at your appointed time chosen. You must stick by these scheduled time windows for meal service or you will not have anything to eat. 7-8:30a-breakfast, 12-1:30-lunch, 6:30pm or 8:30pm dinner seating. Buffet 6:30-8pm for dinner and if you miss it, pizza with a dessert starts 10:30pm-1am for a service charge of almost 9 euros. Basically your window for eating every day was one and a half hours (1+1/2 hr) So forget about being on vacation and getting up a little late with your love one or at your leisure. If you decide not to go on an excursion, you better charge a spa package to your room and pray everything is in working order. Not likely! Let talk about the accommodations. Mini Suite the way to go, so I thought only if you want to swim in toilet water. Costa Ship has serious plumbing issues. Every other night after midnight 0030, the water is shut off until 0500 in the morning, Unacceptable. In the main dining area, the food was amazing. However, their food temperature would not have pass the FDA minimum requirements. These few staff members in the dining room and a hand full of other crew members made our experience salvageable. Thank you Leonardo, Damir, Ida Bagus, Phuong, and Danae. Read Less

Summary - if your only language is English, it is best to avoid, it is heavily weighted towards Italian, including language, entertainment, food, majority of guests. You Que for almost everything, a lot of items were extra cost and it is not a budget cruise. Quick tips – Avoid Costa if you can only speak English. Carefully select your drinks package to suit, select your evening meal timings to suit (early is 6.45 seated, late is 9.30). Service charge is automatically 10 Euros per person, per night. If you port at Dubrovnik it is KN not Euro in most shops. Do not let your internet package run out, as you can not top it up then, it has to be re-purchased (up to 100 Euros per device) Non of the staff were helpful when it came to being charged or overcharged with anything. Full Review - We booked this cruise as a bit of a last minute choice, we had the itinerary in mind and only had 2 options, Costa or Norwegian Star, I should have read reviews but instead went off photographs, which made the cabins look dated on the Norwegian, so went with Costa. The ship itself is nice, our cabin was ok, although I am not used to cruises, so it felt a bit caravan like, I am unsure if this is across all cruise ships. We upgraded to an unrestricted balcony view room, as we liked the idea of seeing where we were going on a first cruise, this was worth it, as it was great to see it leave and arrive at Ports, or gave us something to look at. Food - Evening set meal times in main restaurant are not ideal, 1st seating is a 6.45 which for some days is too early and 9.30 which by the time you eat, is late. You do not get to switch between meal times, so decide and request before you go. If your going as a couple, have to sit with strangers at this meal, if like me then that is not for you, the choices are buffet or pay for one of the other restaurants. Buffet was very repetitive, you had to que much of the time, but there was a large selection and nice food, it is all self served, including drinks, so there is no service as such. There are set meal times, anything outside of this is charged like mini bar, room service, any other restaurants, including the burger and pizza, which are served from the buffet area and in the same seating area which is a bit of a cop out. Drinks - You can choose a drinks package, be careful which one, as its very labelled on what you can or can’t have, anything above your drinks package is charged. Ours for example was the brandino, which included branded drinks but not bottled water or cocktails/champagne, which apart from the water did not bother us, but as they ask you to not fill water bottles from the vending machines, you have to keep refilling small glasses or pay for the bottles (3 euro). Vending machines only had juice at breakfast time, all other set meals were water, or tea/coffee, alternative drinks are all a visit to the bar for a drink, in which case you have to que up, most of the time. Service - Majority of the staff were friendly, there were a few that because of the language barrier, just didnt want to know. There is no drinks service by the pool, so it’s all ques at the bars. There is no pool side service, although at the main bars inside there is table service. You are automatically charged 10 euros per person per night for a service charge too. Entertainment - Being a cruise ship, there is a fair few bits to do and a good schedule, however it is largely Italian based, including evening, with a large language barrier. Pools - Larger indoor pool, with a screen and more entertainment, does have a sliding roof but doens't seem to get a lot of sun, outside pool is small and full of children, not many sun loungers although this is one of the main areas for bathing, also saw staff taking away towels when people had only just gone in for dinner or drinks, I can understand if they are trying to reserve for hours but this caused arguments. Destinations - This was the best part, I felt you got a good amount of time at most locations, although some are early and some are leave just after mid day, I got to see some lovely locations in a short space of time, whilst resting between locations, this is what it was all about for us. Getting on and off the boat was very organised too. Although they had to change our Mykinos stop to Athens due to bad weather. Read Less

Cruising for me is a wonderful experience no matter what. I have traveled by cruise ship 30+ Times. This shop was by far the worst in terms of food quality and options. I would gladly pay more for better quality food. The drink package is deceptive. We upgraded 2 times and still had to pay for a bottle of water to take in shore. Their menu in the dining room was not what I expected. Very limited and mostly lie cost meals prepared poorly. When I complained about this I was given a complimentary dinner at one of the specialty restaurants. It was the worst lobster I have ever had! How in the world do you mess up a lobster?? Never got ice with my drunks even though I asked multiple times. I will never cruise with costa again. The excuse that they cater to a European crowd as unacceptable. I have had some amazing food at restaurants in the untied states. Read Less

We originally choose this cruise because it was a 10 night cruise, was affordable $949 PP premium balcony and it went the route we did 15 cruises ago (2005) and we wanted to see the changes, if any in the various ports. The reviews we had read described the ship as 41/2 stars with many premium features. We agree with this assessment it is a very nice ship! That being said, there is very few nice things that can be said. Our waiter was very nice as was our cabin attendant the remainder of the crew suffered from "language block". This is a condition wherein they either do not understand English or simply use the ruse of lack of understanding to either ignore you or direct you to another subject or choice. Many questions we asked remain unanswered to this point in time, which is after the cruise has ended. While the ship sails out of an American port (Port Everglades) the ship is Italian and that is the dominant language spoken thus the overwhelming majority of passengers are European and that being Italian also. We (Americans) found the food to be bland, tasteless, and offering few variations. Personally, I thought the breakfast sausage was the worst I had ever encountered, the bacon was usually under cooked as were the scrambled eggs! And the general offering was unlike anything we had ever encountered. However, the Europeans seem to love it and that is just fine with us, we can simply book cruises with cruise lines such as Celebrity, Holland America, Carnival, Princess or Norwegian or any number of lines that reflect American tastes! There are NO specialty restaurants on the ship. Instead they sell you specialty meals in the dining room. eg: Lobster which is generally offered one night on any of the other cruise lines we have cruised on and in this case it was horrible! It was dry, tough and tasteless . On another night I had King Prawns and they were juicy but tasted unlike anything I had ever eaten! Oh yes, and the stage shows, well most High Schools present shows that are equal to,or better than those presented on the Deliziosa. The final night of the cruise the entertainment was provided by the crew members themselves and it proved to be the best show of the trip! We did not do any of the shore excursions offered as they seemed quite simple and uninteresting. Going back to the ship and basically its design, it is constructed so that instead of 4 large buffet areas there are many scattered around, such as Pizza here and a grill there and something else over there. This causes a major problem for Americans in that someone is always cutting in front of you, which we assumed to be poor manner or rude people. However, in hindsight I believe it to be a case of the diners get something here and then go to a different area to get something else. They seem to have adapted to this method of obtaining food and we have not and never will! We will simply not sail on a Costa Ship again! Read Less

I am from the States, and I recently got married in Ireland. My husband and I were searching for a nice relaxing cruise to take us around the Mediterranean for our honeymoon. We picked Costa because it was stopping at Santorini and Dubrovnik, the top two places on our list. After boarding the ship, we weren't sure where to go. There was no direction and they immediately took our passports away from us for "safe keeping." That made me nervous because if the ship left without us at port, we would have a much harder time getting back to the states. We got a balcony room and it was spacious and clean, and the ship had two pools and a nice spa. The places where we stopped were wonderful: Corfu, Mykonos, Santorini, Dubrovnik. Other than that, I don't have anything positive to say. The food was mediocre at best. I was expecting hot breakfast, and different food stations throughout the day, but the only options were the buffet or sit down dinner, so if you missed the buffet there was no where to eat. Our waiter at the sit down dinner couldn't be bothered with us. There were days we sat there for 20 minutes before he walked over to say hello and take our order. The cruise may seem like a great deal until you board and realize that EVERYTHING costs extra. Pizza, ice cream at the pool, extra pool towels, even ping pong was extra. I've taken a cruise on Royal Caribbean and they go out of their way to make your vacation wonderful. I was expecting a similar experience, but instead felt like I was always annoying people when I would ask for a drink or had a question. Disappointed we used Costa for our honeymoon. Will never book with them again. Read Less

We've been on more than 25 cruises from Carnival to Cunard. It's always been a great experience. I booked with Costa, because I had heard they have large dance floors. It was beautiful: the floor, the music, the length of time the music played every night from 6:00 'till 1:30 A.M. However, not everyone dances, or plays the casino, or loves to hang out at the bars. But everyone loves to be served and eat on the ship. Here is where the experience goes bad. The food was absolutely horrible, from the prime rib the first night to the exotic foods throughout the rest of the cruise. I found myself eating everyday pasta everyday of the cruise. Even on the gala night, nothing was special, not even serving the typical lobster on the last formal night. Instead they served shrimp cocktail ( that would be the 60 to 70 count per pound size). They even threw in 1 piece of salad shrimp for good luck, I guess. Oh, I had to request ice for my water and butter for my bread every night. As if the food wasn't bad enough, the only free beverage all day and night was coffee, or hot water for one's teabag. The breakfast buffet had juice available, if you didn't mind it so watered down that it tasted like flavored water. Forget about the eggs, or the pancakes and waffles that were served in the dining room for the morning. It took forever to get the order from the server. All in all, we will not go back to any Costa Ship again. They skimp on the food and drink wherever possible, even though the fare was no different than it would be on a Royal or Celebrity. And one more thing, in the restrooms there were no paper towels, only air dry machines like McDonald's. Being American, I didn't mind the language barrier with all the different nationalities on board. Read Less