We decided to try the Costa Smerelda due to two reasons. Firstly it was only a few months old when we sailed (turned out three weeks due to the delay in sailing) and also the price. It was under £350.00 for a balcony cabin and easy jet had cheap flights. The cruise started in Marseille and on arrival we had to wait about three hours for the Costa transfer. I would recommend getting an taxi from the airport stand as it is fixed price (45 euro) to the post. The Costa transfer was around £34 pound so about the same price with no wait, Loads of taxi as well. On arrival it was only about an hour to the departure time so straight on board with no queues. The ship is like a large shopping centre with all restaurants like eating in a local takeaway. No grand rooms, no table clothes and plastic chairs to sit on. The atrium is not designed well with very few seats and in the two floors overlooking the stage most seats you watch a TV screen rather than the entertainment below,. The theatre is the same with limited views and most places watching a TV screen is the only way to see what is on. The front area was filled about 1 hour before the show started. The food is not available 24/7 unless you count the odd sandwich or pudding in one bar in a chiller cabinet. There are gaps between meal times and dinner is very late at 1845 first sitting and 2115 second sitting. Each service was about 2 hours long with the starter arriving on average 45 minutes after the meal started. Waiters have a very large amount of tables. The food was often cold and had to be returned. There is no free water in the restaurants for lunch and dinner so either buy the drinks package or buy one bottle on your first day and fill it up in the buffet or morning breakfast and take it with you. You can ask for ice. There is a lunch time self service buffet on one deck but this opens at 1430 so be prepared for a late lunch The main buffet on deck 8 is like a rugby scrum. The two items you help your self are the basic salad items and soup, everything else is behind a counter and gets served on request. Pasta, hot food, rice, cheese and puddings you have to queue and take the plate that is given to you. They control the portion size and have to make up each plate or bowl for each person on the queue. Sometimes each queue was about 15 mins long so you had to get one item at a time, go back to table and then queue again. It was a disaster and despite many complaints it continued. As people got impatient, other pushed and arguments started. It was a awful place to eat and the worst experience at meal times we have ever encountered On the cruise was around 6500 guests with only 40 being from the UK. The entertainment was specific to language so Italian ventriloquist, an Italian singer etc and sometimes they had it in the theatre and on the screens in the atrium so unless you went to a bar and listened to music which was mostly in Italian there was nothing to do. There was very little entertainment during the day with the odd dance lesson or free viewing of the spa the best you would get. Every announcement was in Italian, German, French, Russian, Japanese and then English. It was very clear that Costa are happy to sell cruises in the UK market but are not in any way set up on board for UK guests Costa have taken all the luxuries away from the cruise experience. There is no turn down in the evening. If you want a change of towels after your room is made up in the morning you have to call room service. There is no pool towel service so every night you had to get them changed by calling otherwise you have no dry, clean towels to use the next day. We never saw our room steward, no introductions were made. The cabin was nice but nothing special, There is a strange curtain between the shower and the glass wall of the bathroom. If you open it everyone in the cabin can see who is in the shower and if you are in the cabin with the lights off you can still see the shadow of the person in the shower. Not great if you had a family cabin or with friends. Very few people dressed up for evening meal with most in jeans, shorts or what they were wearing during the day. BEWARE - This ship has very very small balconies on Deck 5 under the life boats. They have a single door and small window and are big enough for two chairs. They do not get the sun very much and in port are very noisy due to the trucks and cranes etc. These are classified as normal balconies so if you do not want one of these make sure you pay the extra for a premium balcony The actual locations of the cruise were nice with most being within a short distance to the town. The weather was kind and we managed to sit out on the deck between 1000 and 1400 most days. There is an indoor pool but it was noisy and some people thought they had personal hot tubs. Due to a missing person search we missed our flight home which was not Costa fault but the person who was found on board 5 hours after the first announcement. Would never go on a costa cruise again and I would suggest anyone from UK be aware that the price you pay gives an indication of what you expect and get on board Read Less

I chose the cruise not because of the ship but mainly due to the dates 22/12 from Barcelona suited my work break and family commitments. Living on the island of Lanzarote my plan was to take an internal flight to BCN and catch the cruise ship for our 7 day festive trip. Boarding the ship at Barcelona was fast and efficient although be aware in the departure lounge there is no cafe/bar in fact no place selling cold drinks or food however as the boarding was extremely fast it wasn’t an issue. Once onboard we weren’t greeted by anyone nor we we offered any kind of instructions as what or where we should go. I sought advice from a a member fo the crew who gave me some directions of where to find my mothers cabin. We had booked 2 cabins an internal on the 9th floor ( room 9145 ) this room was super small and at this point i decided to ask for an upgrade. My own room was 12267 an external with a balcony. The room itself was more than adequate with nice new furnishings and fixtures. The reception staff were not able to offer me any kind of upgrade as the ship was full. At first they thought i wanted the upgrade for free, i explained that i was more than happy to pay for it but the response was no upgrade available. Not to worry “or so i thought”. Each restaurant we very well furnished and clean I can not express how clean and new everything was so much so that the crew were mostly clueless as to where things are or what entitlement was for drinks. I had upgraded to the Intendore Package This is a big mistake as you don’t really get anything extra for this. Absolute waste of money. The wine list is set out so any bottle of wine you have to buy but i could have a glass of certain wines but if i wanted a bottle it was to pay for. All very very confusing. All the bars onboard display the same drinks menu but be warned as not all the bars serve the drinks on the menu. Example .... in the sports bar i asked for a cocktail from the menu but was told no, then in the pizza bar i asked for a red wine i was told no and so on. The guys in the Campari Bar really are a great bunch and were the saving grace for the night time crew. The Spa Solomeio Spa what can I say. I paid 110e x 2 for the week pass but be warned as it has a small spa pool and 24 sun beds and they fill up extremely quick and you find yourself pacing the rounds looking for a bed. The sauna and steam room are new and well kept and there in a novelty snow room. None of the key fobs for lockers were working and consequently the staff were getting very frustrated with passengers who were complaining either too full or locker fobs etc. I did complain to the Spa staff about the size of the Spa and pool for 6000plus passengers. There needs to be some form of passenger traffic flow applied especially when people like us paid upfront to use this facility. The WiFi packages are all a joke. Again i paid up front 110e for the 3gb package it didn’t work and after 4 days of complaints i received a refund. The Buffet restaurant is like Piccadilly Circus in rush hour, that was quite unpleasant and the food items are scattered across such a vast area it becomes impossible to sit and have a timely meal without entering back into the scrum for you next course. Again no wines available other than the basic white. I did ask if there was any other selection as i do like my wines and enjoy trying different varieties but once again I was told no. Reception area on this ship was like a war zone from mornin until night throngs of people hanging about waiting in line to lodge their complaint. All nationalities all angry people. I myself became one of many to take my ticket and join the line waiting to lodge one of many complaints. It’s an open area with 4 or 5 counters that afford no privacy so we can all hear each other. The crew are human and would snap under the pressure and often became quite rude to passengers, myself included. This design is quite stupid and should be scrapped. I appreciate that staffing a ship like this is a mammoth task however it was evident that many of the crew had no desire to be there on that ship and perhaps felt that they had little or no option. Recruited from the Philippines or India with little to no interest of passenger hospitality. This i found had a massive impact on the feel of the ship, the ignorant leading the ignorant springs to mind. The upper deck swimming pools are 3 the main pool in under cover on deck 17 and is way too small for the passenger flow. The two extras pools are equally smaller and do not equip a ship of this size it turns the area into a municipality swimming pool from the 1980’s England not the Italian Lido that it aims to convey. The water park was a massive disappointment it remained closed for the first 3 days excuse as it hadn’t been tested when it did open it was only for two hours. My 8 year old was disappointed but perhaps the weather didn’t allow for it to be opened for longer periods. It was obvious that this ship wasn’t ready not only were the crew ill prepared but they had painting crews everywhere on upper deck painting during the day two of the bars on upper deck permanently closed. It was all very disorganized. My overall opinion is that this ship is not s cruise ship but a ferry boat that is only suitable for 2-3 night trips (any longer is simply too long). It’s not really a holiday feeling its more of a means to get to a holiday. Very disappointed and after paying 7300e it hasn’t been an economic lesson to learn. Read Less

Having read some of the previous reviews, we were a bit worried about taking this cruise. However, overall it warrants the four stars I have given it. The service throughout the ship was mostly very good, which was good as you cannot remove the service charge of 10 Euros per person a day on any Costa ship. The ship was in a pretty good condition, but it is starting to show a few signs of needing a dry dock. The entertainment was varied but we enjoyed most of it, obviously it is down to your taste. It is definitely a party ship, with lots of music and dancing. There was a good choice of food in the main dining room, and it usually was hot enough. In the buffet the choice was also good, but it was often only luke warm. A tip would-be to have breakfast in the main dining room, it means you can always get a seat and much of it is buffet service, but you can order things such as omelettes from a menu. You can only get tea and coffee in the buffet when breakfast and afternoon tea is on, otherwise you have to get it from a bar and pay. This was not a problem for us as we had the drinks package. Read Less

This trip made me quite disappointed. I want to tell you that this cruise customer service is really bad. Here's how they provide services. On the second night, there may be a lot of waves outside. We felt very uncomfortable all night. My wife spit a few times because of this. Then we went to the customer service to request a change of cabin. The customer service didn't even look at it, and told me that there was no cabin. Just give us a few halo pills, and I didn't talk to me about some concerns. I don’t feel a little warm and helpful. Then there is the food on the cruise, and the buffet over there is the same every day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all kinds of dishes. Another restaurant has a waiter to greet you, but the quality of the food is really bad. Those seafood are not fresh. The last is to take a short trip on a cruise with short trips in different languages, such as French, Spanish, English, and Italian. Each language has a different price, but in the end there may be two people in the same bus. Why do you have different prices? Not all the same person is explaining? I think this thing is very problematic. When it comes to the point, in fact, they have a itinerary every day. My Barcelona schedule didn’t write when to gather and set off. A few days ago, it was only 9 o'clock, but it was just 8 o'clock. Because the itinerary was not written, we missed it and we wasted money. The worst thing is the staff in their travel agency. The tourists missed the bus and told us with a disdainful attitude. This is our problem, we have to find out. This attitude makes me feel very uncomfortable. An attitude of despising people. Those staff will not help you how to solve it. So I said that this cruise ship is really bad. PLEASE DONT WASTE MONEY!!!! Read Less

As most of you know I can no longer go ashore but stay on the ship, Costa's team in Genoa & on board, made this cruise special for me, and a great big thanks to all involved in helping me cruise again. Firstly I had a loan of a wheelchair for the whole cruise, which proved wonderful as I could push myself round ship & to Club Dining room. The cabin (Suite) on deck seven was just the same as most other ships of the fleet, spacious, clean & really nice although we do prefer those aft we did like all the service provided by our Butler, who turned up three nights during the cruise & took me in the chair up to the dining room, certainly a call above their duty. The ship itself was kept beautifully clean as were the cabins, even though we are late risers & often only left the cabin just before lunch. Of our time on board we of course could tour the facilities without crowds, & I must say all seemed excellent and well supported on sea days. There really is plenty to keep you entertained by reading the Diario di Bordo daily you can plan ahead, although to be fair it does take some understanding at first. One down side on this particular cruise the English host was not as friendly as most, we always make a point of contacting them whenever we get the chance, but it seemed she was not willing to chat. The only time we really got to know her was at the Wine Tasting where she talked about herself while the host described the wine. On to the restaurant we ate in the Club Dining Room on deck Eleven lovely surroundings but very limited choices, although I do agree that food waste must be reduced on all cruise lines to stop un-necessary wastage, this went beyond that Taste & Flavour had given way to presentation Lots of plates were returned particularly the beef which seemed to be on the menus nightly, either under or over cooked. But don't be put off with these comments although I am a fussy eater I manage to find some nice every meal, if a plate was returned they always offered you either a better replacement or different dish, Costa now serve the same choices in every restaurant which does reduce waste. Would we cruise on the Favolosa again one of the nicest friendliest ship we have been on. Read Less

My family had wanted to take a Mediterranean cruise for years, and after completing six domestic cruises in the U.S., we decided to finally take a giant leap over the pond for a European cruise. Simply put, when booking with Costa, shame on me for not doing research; I was unaware I was booking with the European version of Celebrity Cruises! Upon onboard it, our first impression was that the Costa Mediterranea ship was beautifully ornate and visually impressive. Making our way to our state room began the awful experience. As written in previous reviews, there’s an extra charge for everything. The deck hallways leading to staterooms smell like stale arm pit, the carpet look water damaged as though previously flooded, and you choose whether you want to see your service person in the morning or evening. There is no in between service should a need arise. The buffet has limited up offerings, and even more limited hours of availability. The food was terrible and low quality. The formal dining menu basically offers up the same foods rotated or moved to different portions of the menu. By day two, I had an extreme case of food poisoning. The infirmary was closed more than half the day, and then it was over €100 just to walk in the door. Passengers are on boarding and off boarding at every stop, so there is a constant passenger rotation and confusion. The staff do not warm up to you, are unfriendly, and not customer service minded, but who could blame them when they are constantly dealing new faces every day. We had the opportunity of befriending a member of the staff, I will not mention where they worked, who shared the very low morale and dissatisfaction of many employees. Most cannot wait for their contracts to end. Two of our three excursions were canceled, the paid wine tasting activity we signed up for was canceled, the Internet service is extremely poor, and while we were away physically off board on our one excursion all of our remaining megabytes had somehow been used up! It took elevating to management to get resolution. I could go on, but in the essence of time, please seriously consider other cruise options. Read Less

I had been on this cruise before and had a nice time. This time it was a different experience because our fellow travellers were rude and unfriendly. I have no idea whether this has anything to do with Brexit, but despite my trying with my Italian and French, they didn't want to know. We had a personal problem on board that meant we had to go home early, so a smile or a greeting would have been nice, but no chance The staff were really nice. Kim, our room steward, and Barbara, in reception, who restored my faith in human nature. Top marks to the crew, big thumbs down to ambiance (if you're a Brit). The first night entertainment was good, didn't get to see any more after that as too upset at unfriendly manner of other passengers, plus we had problems at home. Selection of food very good and staff helpful. Emergency drill was confusing. Read Less

This was our third cruise but first (and last) time with Costa. They first stuck us in a cabin over the propellers and docking machinery. We did get our room changed. All the food tasted ike it was fast food micowaved for the masses. This was probably to motivate you to try the higher end paying restaurants. Crew looked tired due to working 9 months straight without breaks. Cancelled 3 of our tours and dont even think of taking this ship if you are american or english speaking. Very Italian which implies Patience is not in their DNA nor being soft spoken. Get a good set of earplugs if you take thus cruise. Between the screaming children, rude gestures and poor entertainment we were anxious to leave the ship. Highlights were the wonderful tenor they had only perform one night and after the 50th rendition of 'Volare' heard throughout the ship it finally grew on me :) Read Less

I am Italian and been many times on cruises of different flagship. This one had a good itinerary, so we went for it. There are a lot of positive things and also a lot of negative one.. I try to mention as much as possible and forgive me is something is missing. What I did not like too much. Booking. I was told by a friend to use a certain tour operator specialized. Then I discovered more and everyone was cheaper.. not much but cheaper. And a lot cheaper then costa.(why) Booked 2 rooms one with a small bed for 3 years old boy. Asked tour operator and was told , don’t worry when you arrive there they will change in case , one of the room to be close to the other one. We have been assignated two rooms at the opposite side of the ship.and also booked in two different restaurant and at two different shift... When we arrived the only worries of the staff was, did you registered for the drink , or coffee or any packages?... the room we have to wait just before the departure.. Registering means you will get services and you will pay after a day or so. Result, no room changes possibility, ship was full. ( why I was told in another way?) To get there I had to ask at least ten people with very important uniform as the office was only serviced by 3 persons for 3500 guests... All the other staff we asked informations couldn’t speak any language unless portoghese... ( brasilians coming from cheapest part of the country) and the rest Philippinos which have a good English. I fluently speak more then 5 languages apart mine.. so I believe I can talk with someone. Not to be too long No informations service good enough Waiting for restaurant second shift. Nightmare... hundreds of guests pushing for getting their seat, and all the staff looking to their biz and not been able to give infos... The smell of food of the carpet closer to the restaurant and almost overall was terrible. Dust in the rooms Curtains in the rooms not cleaned. Service in the room basic. As now the tip is included in the salary, so the effort to get rewarded with ( from a minimum tip up) is not more an advantage, so they don’t care much Anymore. Bed sheets, old and badly pressed, changed maybe every tree dayS or more. All in the ship is for making money. Wherever you stay you can only spend money. Fantastic drink service. You order get your card before the order you have to pay, and finally , at staff leisure you get your drink. Waited for a bottle of wine ordered and payed at the start of dinner and got when we finished the dinner with the sweets.. asked few times and answer was is coming... Same as for drinks aperitives , we ordered 4 spritz and a beer, at 5 pm. Supposed to get peanuts with it. ( for chips you have to pay, but we don’t eat fried things) asked many times, payed appx 50/60 us , even spoken with food and beverage manager, but never got the peanuts, the waiter didn’t care... and we really didn’t want to get drunk at 5 pm.... Thanks Buffet If you don’t like to wait , you can always eat at the buffet restaurant. Fantastic. Only problem is too many people and not so clean. So you have to queue everywhere and think there are so many people of different countries, and different kind of behavior... Disaster Plus they close ever so quick, basically your have very short time to eat . Rooms service or breakfast service you pay, before bkf was free in the room. Table, they sit people as they come, before at least was a lot of questions in order to combine same languages or areas or interests... Ship was cleaned perfectly only the last day or before last, because where a meeting of the oldest traveling agent of costa or so. You would have noticed the difference, everything was like new. Last negative, ship is not old but, bed sheets, chairs , carpet etchas got to be changed more. Even the granit or marble in the floor, greasy , not cleaned with proper products, No more the midnight sweets buffet, just a small and quick self service.... Overall poor and cheaply done, compared with few years before and other companies. Positive, Good music entertainment Good kids entertainment Sometimes evening surprise by dinner with a bit of music.. Good food menu , but the best is written , you have to pay ...( this is not positive) better to have special payment restaurant with exposed menu and with prices) Good itinerary, unfortunately sometimes too short Overall not satisfied . You pay quite a lot for what you get, and considering the service cleaness , etc, no worth for the money. Ps I can afford to pay, just extras I payed 2k . So I don t mind . I wish I had a better service. Definitely I will try other companies for the next cruise.. Hope you will find it better. Read Less

The reason I decided to write this review is to warn those people who privilege the rest and sleep at night to dancing and partying (I am not judging here, cruises are the right place for such things, just claiming my share of pleasure-the night's sleep): this is an old ship and there is practically no sound isolation. My cabin ( 11101 if i remember well) was exposed to very loud music to the point things were trembling each night from 23 till 1.00. Earplugs were not helpful. In this ship it is either one is lucky to have one's cabin far enough from the epicenter or not. Hospitality did not offer any sustainable solution either. Having paid about 4000 euros for three persons in a suite for a week's time, I really think it was a pitiful investment. This was a real shame, because on the whole the total experience was not awful at all. The club restaurant provided very friendly personalized service accompanied by quite acceptable and sometimes deliscious food. I could say Edd and Err saved our expeprience on the whole. Excursions, inspite of all the efforts of the guides, were not at their best, because the poor guides had to speak up to 4 languages which resulted in repeating one thing like where to find the toilettes and where to meet up to 4 times...Very little space left for cultural information. Spa on this ship is a joke and not worth a try, a shame again because it used to be a good part of a cruise activity for me and family. Finally, a valuable info for coffee lovers: traditionnally, on all Costa ships I travelled coffee is a very delicate issue: my point is, the americano they are offering in general service, is below human dignity, while the one in the bars is too strong for a morning. Well, I could order a cappucino, but I do not drink milk... My personal solution was to pack a little french press coffee maker and the brand I am used to. It could serve for a good verbal tea as well. Hot water is something one can always count on Costa company! The last but not least-many thanks to our cabin butler Yan for his perfect service and friendly smile. Read Less

Hi, we are a couple in early 60s, physically fit and enjoy the port activities. It is about a year since I last cruised with Costa. We did it then because it was cheap and again chose this 4 day cruise , Savona/Barcelona/ Marseilles in November to complete a cheap winter break. The cruise was a surprise, some things radically improved, some things excellent and many important things so bad it defies all logic why Costa should behave the way they do. First of all the prices on board, all up 10% in the last year. All prices in Euros. Compulsory tipping now 10 per day. Cocktails mostly 8.20 plus 15%. Cheaper prosecco 25 plus 15%. We do not buy any of the daily booze deals as we cannot work out any way they could be good value for us. There are other important reasons to avoid them unless you intend to drink in the more unsocial hours (please read on). Food - buffet still limited but the vast majority of food on offer was good. Coffee (poor) available only at breakfast. Free fruit juices are flavoured sugar. Dining - wow what an improvement. Food warm and sometimes hot and really, really good especially if you like Italian food. Service from our waiter Edgar was excellent despite the huge pressure placed upon him (and all other Costa staff). Cocktails are still the poorest on any cruise line we have experienced. Getting on and off the ship - Costa still the best. Quick and prompt. They manage to behave as if it is as simple as it really is. Why cant other cruise lines copy them? The one trip we went on was good and good value although the port transfers were very expensive for those not taking a trip. Now to some serious downsides. The bars and saloons on this ship are mostly confined to deck 5. They are large but the bar areas are small. The coffee lounge is small. By keeping all but one bar area shut before and after dining time they herd all the passengers into a confined area. Around the bars themselves, the queue can be 3 or 4 deep. Sitting down it can be almost impossible to attract waiting staff, although they are working flat out. You need to allow about an hour to place an order and then receive your drink. Watching staff being pursued by passengers trying to place an order is a sorry sight. On one night we eventually managed to order pre-dinner drinks but they only arrived 5 minutes before dinner was starting. It was hopeless. I chatted to staff in quieter moments and they said it was always like this. To enable you to get the picture, imagine 60% of the bar areas shut and the people all corralled into one space. If you have bought a drinks package, or worst of all, the coffee package you are not going to be happy. The staff were cheerful but not surprisingly tempers got a bit short amongst passengers. So, is it a deliberate ploy by Costa to sell as many drinks packages as possible and then limit consumption by making ordering any beverage very difficult? Thats what it looked and felt like. Could not discuss this with management because management only appear to parade themselves to applause, again and again and again, then disappear. The ratio of passengers to staff on Costa is very high (one of the ways they keep costs down). I have never seen staff work harder or be more polite. They really were great. Staff are so sparse however that you had to decide whether you wanted you room cleaned in the morning or night. Compared with other cruise lines this appeared to be a 40-50% reduction in cabin cleaning. We chose to be cleaned in the morning. It worked well and I thought it a sensible cost saving. For my wife, important aspects of a cruise are to be able to drink a pre-dinner cocktail in pleasant surroundings and occasionally to dress formally for dinner. Costa had already removed the latter pleasure by the last time we cruised with them. Now they have removed the former as well. The shows on each night were better than our last Costa cruise. For me they rank equal bottom of the many cruise lines I have experienced , along with MSC. If you have cruised with Princess /Celebrity or Cunard I think you would consider it very clearly inferior but frankly not bad for the price point. We are travelling with Costa again from Dubai in February 18 because I wish to invest in the many excursions available rather than a luxury ship. I just hope the bar situation is sorted by then. Read Less

The Costa Magica is not the most modern ship in Costa's fleet (2004) but it's still in good condition and probably more importantly it's a happy ship. It has a ship's compliment of just over a thousand and carries just over two thousand passengers. All of the senior officers including the captain are Italian, while stewards, security, catering etc are provided by mainly Asian staff - all of whom are very friendly and helpful and probably underpaid by EU standards. Costa includes a surcharge in the price to cover tips which means that you don't have to tip the staff but a ten euro 'thank-you' to your steward or waiter at the end of the cruise will be very much appreciated unless you actually believe that the company accountant who dreamed up the surcharge also insisted that it was paid to the people who are looking after you. We took a Mediterranean 10 day cruise that took in Italy, France, Spain and the Canary Islands during late September which meant that there were very few school-age children on board. The passengers were predominantly Italian and French along with a few hundred German, Dutch & Spanish and from what I could make out possibly a dozen British and American. However all of the crew speak English so you can order a drink without having to consult a phrase book. We were lucky enough to have a cabin with a balcony. The cabin was clean, the bed was comfortable, there is a thermostat to control the temperature and there was a couch, desk and plenty of room to stow cases and hang clothing - although if you have a lot it might be worth bringing a few extra coat hangers with you.The shower/toilet was clean with plenty of hot water and towels were provided for the bathroom, and also for use with the on-deck sun loungers. The TV in the cabin broadcast 4 ship's channels giving information on where you are/where you are going together with timings, excursions, what's going on, stuff you can buy etc. The info being in all of the main languages including English.. The rest of the channels are mainly Italian, German and French but there is the ubiquitous BBC World should you need it but no other English language channels - But then you haven't come on a cruise to watch TV have you! Dining - I have to say that the food was much better than I had expected. We took breakfast in the self-service buffet-type restaurant where a good selection of both continental and cooked food was available. The restaurant tended to be very busy for breakfast and (I don't know why this is but it seems to be a world-wide occurrence) there will inevitably be an elderly passenger carrying a tray loaded with more food than they can possibly eat who either stops dead in their tracks in front of you and then looks around as if unsure as to why he/she is there or marches resolutely to the front of the queue to grab a coffee as if their very life depends on it whilst ignoring everyone else. Strangely this only seems to happen at breakfast time and seems to be universal rather than confined to any particular cruise line - if you are going to have some minor irritations it will be with your fellow travelers rather than the staff who seem to have been blessed with an additional 'niceness' gene. The main meal is in the evening at one of the restaurants on board where you will be allocated your seat for the length of the cruise and will keep the same waiter during your time on board. We had originally specified a table for two but on the first night were seated at a table with 4 other people. Having pointed out this out to the staff we were then given a table for two for the rest of the cruise. The evening meal consisted of six courses with a choice of starters, main course and desserts and I have to say that each meal was very good indeed and is the sort of thing that you would find in a good Italian restaurant rather than in a spaghetti house. In between breakfast and the evening meal, brunch, lunch, tea, supper, snacks etc can all be had from cakes to a burger to a roast dinner. When you buy your cruise there is the option to have wines, coffees, beers and spirits included in the price. This is called Brindiamo and it is well worth having unless you intend to drink only water, which of course you won't as you're on holiday. If you intend to drink cocktails every night rather than G&Ts or Barcardis or beers then there is another deal called Piu Gusto which costs a bit more. Also if you really, really must have lobster stuffed with cavier and sprinkled with saffron washed down with Champagne there is a select restaurant where you can pay extra to eat away from the rest of us un-washed masses. Smoking - Is allowed in designated areas and also on individual balconies. Stuff to do on board - Plenty of things for all tastes really, swimming in the (small) pools, open-air hot tubs, dance classes, zumba, shopping, sauna and gym, hairdressers and beauticians. In the evenings there are shows in the theater which range from good to mediocre (not surprising as they are catering to an audience that communicates in perhaps a dozen different languages). a number of bars ranging from dance-hall size to piano bar most of them with music, also a night club/disco, and a casino. Stuff to do ashore - Do your homework before taking an excursion as sometimes you will be better off making your own arrangements rather than paying Costa to do so. For example when we docked in Malaga we took an excursion to a beach which meant a 45 minute coach ride followed by 3 hours sunbathing then 45 minutes back. There was actually an equally good beach within 500 yards of the dock which was as good if not better and we could have simply walked there. Reckon on any transfer times you are given to be twice as long as stated due to the faffing about getting people on transport and if you only end up with three or four hours in port you may be better off either making your own plans or even staying aboard as it means that the jacuzzi isn't crowded and you have a better chance of grabbing a good sun-lounger. A note on leaving and re-boarding the ship: When you first arrive you will be issued with a 'Costa card' this is a card similar to a credit card with a bar-code on it and is used to open your cabin door, pay for any purchases or extras you might want and it allow you to leave and re-enter the ship so there is no need to take your passport ashore, it works very well and is one of those things that you think "I wish I'd thought of that". Dress code - Costa aren't aimed at the high end of the market, but neither are they bargain bucket. They are also European rather than Brit so you won't be allowed in the restaurant for your evening meal wearing an Arsenal shirt, shorts and flip-flops, also you won't have to drape yourself with gold and diamonds while having to listen to Nigel and Joan from Crawley bore you to death telling you how much their house is worth. Thank God. Each day there will be a news sheet delivered to your cabin giving the activities for the following day and suggesting the dress for the evening. It isn't mandatory but can be an enjoyable thing to do. During our cruise the dress code was Town - smart-ish but not over the top. Red and black. White night (Get yourself a white suit from Amazon, it's only about 40 euros and you might never get another chance). Red, white and green (Italian) and Gala (posh evening frock, fancy knickers and uncomfortable heels girls). Disabled access - There were around 20 wheelchair users on board and access did not appear to be a problem. also there was allocated seating for the disabled in the restaurants and by the pools and the staff appeared to be very attentive and helpful. Stuff that went wrong - The battery packed up on the cabin safe and it took 3 days before it was fixed and that was about it. Would we do it again? Yes I think that we probably will. Read Less

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we wanted to try a European cruise having sailed previously with p&o , fred olsen , cruise maritime ,Holland America please do not be put off by the many negative reviews food - contrary to the many negative reviews we thought the food was as good as ,better than most other cruise lines we have been with. Don't expect it to be English , the breakfast is very European , lunch has fast food options pizza ,burgers ,hot dogs ,as well as 7 or 8 cooked options , pasta ,extensive salad buffet , cooked meats ,cold meats , rolls nd cakes tea and coffee ,water and juice was available at all times in the resteraunts last buffet sitting is 6pm -8pm after which there is no more food unless you are on the late dinner sitting 9.15pm we had the piu gusto drinks package , non stop drinks including illy coffee , cocktails ,bear ,spirits and wine , waiters are very attentive and unlike some cruises never leave you with an empty glass, the waiters performance on gala night is something else and not to be missed - entertainment - grand rhapsody bar -ballroom and social dancing until 1am (with occasional hilarious adult games or dance hows between bands sessions) ricks piano bar - fantastic pianist/singer doing easy listinening rock a round the clock bar - live bands and shows lik abba and beatles wien wien bar - classic duo pool deck -regular late night party events (white night party is something special) disco on deck 4 from midnight (for the clubbers) cabin - clean and well presented overall a fantastic cruise ,great value we where also very lucky to meet some wonderfull people on our dinner table (margerat and lynn from scotland and norman and margerat from kent) Read Less

It was my birthday present from my husband so we chose a week long Meditteranean cruise! Brilliant from start to finish. The food was amazing, our cabin steward (John) was extremely efficient, and our waiter (Vincent Madavana) was excellent! We found all the staff very friendly, nothing too much trouble. Could have stayed aboard when the cruise finished and done it all over again!!! We could not have found fault with anything, although we would have liked to have at least one bar where there was no dancing just music playing, as each bar there was there seemed to be dancing all the time (either ballroom or latin (not good if you don't know the dances, or don't want to dance, just to relax. All in all, really enjoyed the surroundings, the Jacuzzi and pool were also great to use, really did not want to come home. We boarded ship in Marseille where we stayed overnight at the Hotel Hermes which is a very good hotel in the old port, this is a lovely place in itself to visit, the rest of our visits included Barcelona, Valencia; Cagliari, Civitavecchia, and Savone; all of which were marvellous, the highlight of our trip being Rome! Will definitely go on another cruise! Read Less

Barcelona 2 days before departure - fantastic called H10 - apx 10 mins walk from beach, easy metro/underground to use Cruise 2 Adults from UK boarded ship (all age ranges on board and nationalities). Decor really over the top ! mirrors, colours, cleaning must be a nightmare ! Thought we were in a film set, ha ha Inside cabin good, service good all round on ship Dining geared to Italian taste, pasta pasta pasta, puddings not brilliant. Waited on meals -really didnt know what we were going to end up with, always a suprise, some good, some not so good (we are not fussy eaters) Drinks packages expensive and you cannot take any alcohol on board at any point, boarding and from trips, scanned bags on boarding every time and if found taken off you until end of cruise Entertainment ok but they have to translate into all languages and it becomes a bit tiresome for all. Hence no comedians. No cinema. Trips good, expensive. Even had to pay for shuttle bus to take into town from port 10 euro each Be careful if you have not been warned - you have to swipe you credit card with them on boarding for your drinks, purchases etc. The service charge (tips) were compulsory and it was 140 euro inclusive for both of us. Read Less

This was my first ever Costa cruise so I had no idea what to expect. The check-in went smoothly on my arrival in Barcelona with my bags taken, given a boarding card and told to await for boarding on the first floor at my allotted time. I was two hours early and sat in the cafe (nice) and had some lunch. I started to join the queue for boarding and found that I was meant to have checked in (again) at the desk on the first floor and have my health declaration checked. Why do a check in twice? There were lots of people behind me and the same thing happened to them and we had to leave one queue and join another and return to the original queue. Chaos! The Diadema is a beautiful ship and looks amazing as you walk around. I was aboard for a week and think there were areas I still haven't seen. She is massive! The food really lets the ship down. The buffet at lunchtime and evening on the 10th deck is horrible with inedible food, dirty tables and not enough staff. If you have a restaurant on your card (I was Coruna Blu) then have your evening meal there. It was open dining so I could go there at any time. Best time is immediately after 7pm as many of the other passengers seem to opt for eating later in the evening. I never found more than 5 people waiting in front of me to get entrance in to the restaurant. The food was usually cold when delivered to the table but there was no point complaining as the staff were so rushed off their feet. I spent an extra 10 Euros on a beef steak on my final night and it was superb. Breakfast in the Fiorentina restaurant was nice if you just want an alternative to the buffet, but don't expect the hot food to be hot. They have an English breakfast but it was cold every morning. I had breakfast delivered to my cabin on 3 mornings and it was fine. You pay 5 Euros for the privilege but better than sitting in the dining rooms in the midst of breakfast chaos. The highlight of my trip was a meal in the Teppanyaki restaurant where the staff, food and overall atmosphere was exceptional. It was wonderful and I should have booked it every night! If you make the reservation on the Costa website, it doesn't automatically make it with the ship as I found out to my cost. I turned up to find that there was no reservation in my name. Fortunately, I got a table. The internet is expensive but very reliable. It worked out at about 120 Euros for heavy usage for 7 days. I did several excursions and they were all very good. The trip to Rome was horrible as the seats on the coach were that close together, I couldn't even sit properly in the seat. I am only 6'1" and it shouldn't be that bad. We had a 90 minute journey and it was horrible. I wasn't the only passenger to feel the issue with the seats but there was nothing that could be done to sort out the problem. It is definitely worthwhile getting the drink package from the outset as it will save you a fortune if you have a couple of glasses of wine, unlimited soft drinks/coffee/tea and the odd cocktail at night. Always a good buy is the laundry service which was on offer at 20 Euros for 24 items. It was done overnight and appeared the following day beautifully cleaned and pressed. Check you final invoice as mine had several mistakes. They were fixed by the hospitality team without any problems. I thought the entertainment was very good. The bands playing in the bar was exceptional and the couple doing acrobatics were fantastic. A great atmosphere in all the bars and very attentively looked after by bar staff. Read Less

(This will be a long review since I promise myself that I will leave a good detailed review just so people know what they are missing.) We are a couple in our 30's and 40's, no kids. We travel a lot but never been in a cruise vacation.We decided to take this cruise because of the rate, schedule, cities that are covered and port of embarkation which is at Marseilles. We purchased the package because of the rate which is really a good deal during that time without reading reviews from other customers. After reading all these reviews, it really made me feel that it's going to be a bad vacation. Complains from food, water, service, over pricing in everything and even the program which some said it's just average. My expectations are really low to the point that I was not excited for this trip. I'll start my review with embarkation, it was easy and fast. We made a mistake not coming early because we thought its like a flight that after check-in, you will be going to the gate and waiting for boarding. But big mistake. After leaving your luggage and check-in, you will go directly to your room and your card is just waiting for you on the bed. You can enjoy all the services that are available as soon as you have this card (only if you already made a prepayment package, which we did. We bought our drink package so that we can just drink and never think of how much are we spending already.) If not, register your credit card before purchasing, which is super easy. The ship is gorgeous. It looks new and every inch of it is very clean. As soon as I got inside, I was regretting already that we only took 7days. It was alive with colors and music. It's huge and everyone inside are having fun with drinks and activities. Breakfast has two areas, international and Italian. On our first breakfast we went to international, there was a long queue outside the restaurant. We waited for at least 15minutes before getting seated. They serve hot meals here which I advise to go to if you like eggs and sausages. On our following breakfast, we decided to go to the Italian. I find it more relaxing and there are a lot of options but yup of course, no eggs. We tried the breakfast room service one time because we had to leave early for Rome and I find it very simple, not so much options. We tried lunch only once because we always eat out when we are on dock. Lunch is buffet, food is okay lot's of options but it's like a market. So get ready to fall in line and rubbing elbows with other guests. Dinner is seated. I really like the idea. Food is great when its like a special night but average when its just a normal day in the boat. Food and drink are served right on time. We always anticipate watching the spectacle before our dinner at 9pm. I find the singers and dancers amazing. Top notch talents. They even had an opera singer which was really good. Different program each night so you always have something to look forward to. I didn't like the comedy guy but my husband like him, so maybe it varies. There were activities from 8am until late night. They never ran out of things to do. I like the most was the white party, gala night and Italian night. I was amazed that people were dress to impress. My advise for future costa female clients: bring long gowns, heels, make up. And for guys, bring your suits! You will feel left out if you don't. Plus it's really nice to dress up. Service is excellent. Drinks are served fast. Servers are pleasant. We paid 25euro/day for our drink package and it was an amazing deal. Coffee is served during breakfast but this is just regular one. If you like espresso and cappucino better get the drink package. There are juices at the buffet area but if you like smoothies or virgin cocktails better get the drink package. If you like wine with your every meal then get the drink package. If you missed buying one before embarkation, they sell it there for the same price. But there was a loop hole with the drink package, you can order water by the glass but you cannot order a bottle of water. It's extra charge or you can buy the premium drink package which is around 40euro/day or buy the water package. It was funny that I was expecting this type of things might happen, but it didn't matter. You can actually buy water from outside and bring it to your cabin. We tried and I can say that you really can. Regarding excursions. I saw complains that its very expensive. Well this is true, but i think it's just the same with other cruises and even 5 stars hotels. So, if you are in a budget just go do it on your own. It's a bit of walk to take buses or trains but it's cheaper. We didn't had a problem getting out of the port or even getting back but we researched well before our trip. It was an amazing experience. We would go back for sure and we already told our friends about it. Actually one of our friend already went with his wife for the 12 days mediterranean cruise, and we just have the same experience. Read Less

We sailed on Costa Diadema for the New Year's cruise on Europe. The boat is beautiful and huge as well as our cabin very good price,quality value. Nevertheless compared with other cruises we have done with Costa which were in our opinion very good and convenient this one on Costa Diadema was really not good! The service ion the restaurants ADULARIA and Corona Blu were extremely long, about 2 hours and 2,30 hours to have dinner)! The quality of the shows and entertainment team were very poor, not enough activities on board, no hot water or coffee available (everything had to be paid), all passengers were really pushed to consume and to spend as much as possible! No glamour, no magic and a very bad attitude from Costa Cruises. We could tell that the most part of the passengers were very disappointed! And of course on the last morning when you are about to leave the boat and you are charged with fees of 10 € for person and for day for a service that you did not appreciate at all you feel that Costa is really putting his hand on your pocket! The problem is not the crew they just follow orders and they must obey. If this line of exploitation continues to be followed by Costa Cruises I am sure they will lose a lot of clients me included and it is really a pity because they can do much better as they already done before and win money anyway! Read Less

the ship is stunning but they would charge you for the air you breath if they could the over powering Italian atmos can drive you mad plenty of queuing for food grumpy waiters,argumentative bar staff ,forced to tip at end of voyage you really have to look hard and consider if this is for you,...oh and dont book via Iglu.. bad advice due to lack of knowledge and poor customer service ,cabins are nice but kettles not allowed [more cost ] unpleasant time waiting to book in to board ship only two people booking you in took ages,waiting one and a half hours for dinner then served by a grumpy waiter ,expensive drinks both alcoholic and soft should be cheaper than uk but they are not,the 5th language is English Italian being number one then German ,Spanish,french didn't find cruise relaxing with the constant Italian babble in your ear and the childish entertainment went on a carnival cruise few years ago was brilliant please look long and hard before you book [not with [Iglu] Read Less

Well what can I say on the outside things look good but far from it on the inside We booked a week around the med first thing I get sold full drinks package for 200€ each spa package160€ do not buy either its a con. Drinks I was waiting constantly at the bar to be served one time 45mins they go slow when the know your on package The spa you can never get in and drinks finish at 6 so again they don't tell you that. The food at night was terrible staff don't care waiting 3 hrs one night for four course meal 3 dishes was cold I complained but nothing came of it trying to get a drink with meal well good luck if you want two drinks Tv in room not working cabin 8062 told reception 3 days never fixed The only good food I had was when I left the ship or in pizza bar on deck 5 but you have to pay for that. There is lots more I could say but wasting my time ruined my holiday to be honest was a mess and little to know organisation my first and last cruise with Costa Read Less

I was part of the group Croisière Chantante (7 cruises with other cruise-lines) who chose Costa because they proposed a cruise from Marseille to Tanger, Casablanca (2 days), Cadiz, Lisbonne, Valencia, Savona, Marseille. Dissatisfaction:- 1:- Ports of call changed:- Casablanca (only1 day); add Civitavecchia instead ! :- Valencia to Alicante :- Alicante to Valencia (last minute change on the way to Alicante due to bad weather at Alicante !!! (no wind, clear blue sky, sea as calm as a mill-pond). Quite a number of passengers did embark at Valencia however!! 2:- Ship; Decoration- kitsch more towards hideous! 3:- Dining; 'Hot' food never more than tepid whether in the dining room or the self service. Why should a notice announcing that meats should be well cooked in order to avoid bacteria and infection mean that they finish up tough enough to sole shoes? Breakfast mediocre to say the least. When there was some bacon (soggy and cold), the accompanying fried egg had to be ordered from a waiter (arriving 8 to 10 minutes later!!) The short afternoon tea break became non-existant in the port of Savona. When asked why, the reply was because this is Savona!!! That they had run out of tea, water, or whatever is a reason (though a badly managed one) but because this is Savona is not a reason! Only on insisting, and to the pleasure of many - tea suddenly became available on deck 9. It seems that embarking new unsuspecting passengers is more important than satisfying those who have already paid the excessive prices for water and drinks and are nearing the end of their cruise. 4:- Entertainment; Music inside or out, even in the theatre played at a deafening, resonating volume. The ship boasts of having 4 swimming pools. More honesty would be to call them water baths! On the only 'quiet' deck of the ship, the lounger-chairs were stacked and tied together ready for the night by early afternoon, too bad if a passenger fancied a quiet time in the sun! 5:- Shore excursions; Civitavecchia- Rome et ses trésors. With the guide's badly placed microphone not very effectif every time she turned her head, and especially in the crowds when it was difficult to keep within a short distance of her, the audio set was more of a nuisance than informative. The guide would also have been more appreciated had she collected our entrance tickets to the Vatican during our lunch break, rather than us having to waste visiting time standing around in the entrance room. I WOULD MOST DEFINITELY NEVER RECOMMEND A COSTA CRUISE TO ANYONE. Read Less

Costa Diadema, November 2015, 7 day Western Mediterranean. Costa's newest, largest and glitziest ship. a version of Carnival's newest Fantasy class. Ports included Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma, Naples and La Spezia. Each port had some passengers joining and leaving, which provides a better atmosphere than the highly regimented, everybody on-everybody off one gets in the Caribbean. Seyne sur Mer, near Toulon, was substituted for Marseille on my departure with a coach transfer provided. I had an inside Classic cabin, I don't care about any of the benefits of a Premium cabin. I did not book with Costa USA and therefore did not have a waterusa package, but I knew this when I booked, I simply added the cost of a water package to the quoted price. The Hotel Service Charge is also part of the Terms and Conditions in Europe. Demographics. Costa is known as a family-friendly cruise line but this trip had few children. There was broad age range, but definitely skewed towards “retired”. Still, a bunch of fun-loving people, not a good choice for anyone who wants Holland America style “relaxing” and “in bed by 8 PM”. Muster. Certified for indoor muster stations. Yes! No more standing on deck. Entertainment. Five rooms with live music, three had double groups, continuous music. Each room has a different theme, but overall, for quality, variety and duration, the music was among the best I have heard on a cruise ship for a decade. None of the dance floors are exactly rectangular, dimensions approximate. Grand Bar Orlov. Double height, into Deck 5. More open feel and much better air circulation. Fake stalactites as decoration, limiting sight lines, as far as I could did not conceal anything like air ducts, just a waste of money. Unlike Cunard's Queen Victoria and Elizabeth where I believe this idea was pioneered, there is a staircase between floors and the upper deck would be prime revenue space if better laid out. The seating is curved in towards the floor, instead of outwards as on Deliziosa, and the open area follows this curve. An excellent idea, needs better implementation. The floor is 52' x only 16'. A nice length but far too narrow for this size of ship, for no really good reason, grossly inadequate for a ship this size. Floorcraft consists mostly of waiting for off-peak times, there is no room to maneuvre around others. The dance team was two very well qualified couples from Hungary (their English was better than their Italian), who focused on Latin, and who put on performances good enough to have won first place at a dance competition. Their classes were technically very good, but I found they were not too familiar with social dancing in Western Europe and Costa had not really told them exactly what experience they wanted for the passengers. While there were no dance hosts per se, the team danced with passengers in the lounge most nights. Teodora 46' x 15' (10') . Used for a variety of themes on different nights, somewhat underutilised. Atrium Elio Doro 24' x 12' A new group came on board in Savona, playing little besides salsa, the area was empty within a few minutes. Costa musicians have a tradition of playing to please the passengers, hopefully they will be modifying their mix. Country Rock Club- Country & Western theme 24' x 12' Good choice for the C&W fans. Piano Bar 16' x 16' Surprisingly good music for a piano bar. Pietra di Luna Disco 36' x 20' Tile but not raised, far safer than on other ships. I did not bother going to the disco. Perla Nerla deck area 60' x 30' Used for various themes and an Argentine Tango private dance party. Not a good dance floor for pivoting or turning. Theatre- I did not go to any of the shows, but I noticed extra staging, I expect the shows would be a bit more Broadway-ish than usual. Food. Overall, good but not spectacular. I rate it as “4” largely because of very limited choice after 9 PM. I do not not want a large MDR meal early in the evening, I prefer a light meal later. Breakfast Italian continental breakfast buffet, 0700-1100. Even at 10 AM, still busy, no one seemed to think the choice inadequate. Cooked meal available in MDR. Lunch As well as the buffet, one dining room offered table service, another self-serve. The buffet was again good but not spectacular. Dinner The lack of choice after 9 PM is by far Costa's weak spot. There was no evening buffet on this trip and the English host did not know of any plans for a change. The Corona Blu area, 500 seats, was used as an open seating alternative, same menu, 5 euro surcharge. It was always busy while the MDR was only half-full for both sittings, a clear passenger preference which hopefully will be noticed in Genoa. Bar prices were comparable to shore prices. On the last night freshly printed menus made an appearance but I did not see any price changes. Cabin 1351. One of the oddly-shaped cabins on this class of ship, with only upper and lower berths (the upper stows into the ceiling). Technically a double, excellent value for a single. Sold as a classic, but I consider this to be one of the best-located cabins on the ship. Customer service, There were agents in front of the counter to handle minor questions. As well as credit card terminals, there were cash machines to accept cash payments. Interactive TV. There is a messaging system which greatly reduces paper (ignored by the spa with its endless hard-copy advertising) but the message-waiting icon is very small and easy to miss. Casino wasn't very busy. Since I invested 20 euros in the slot machines and got back less than 5, I can understand why. Laundry prices seemed reasonable. There was a Magic Bag special but it was timed for Savona passengers and the trip was too short to be worthwhile for me. At the price I paid, excellent value. Overall I was impressed and have recommended my travel agent sell this ship aggressively. Read Less

Oh goodness - where to begin. The ship was called the Costa Magica - but it SHOULD have been named the Costa MagiCANT. They just can't do anything - full stop. Let's go through this 'magical' experience one issue at a time. SHIP: The ship is old, dated, dirty, and in need of a serious overhaul. And when I say serious, I mean SERIOUS. The decor is like something out of my grandmother's sitting room in the early 80's. Common area carpets were dirty and worn as was most of the seating in the common areas. Don't even get me started on the poolside areas. Deck chairs have seen better days. Most of the deck chairs were covered in soot. Yes - that's right - soot. No matter where you were on the ship, soot would get on to the deck chairs - especially those on the upper decks. They were covered in the stuff. So of course you needed more than one towel to make sure you didn't get soot on yourself when you sat on the deck chair. Now, most cruise lines don't have enough deck chairs for the amount of guests on the ship. That's always an issue even for the best lines in the world - so you can imagine what it was like for a cruise line of Costa standard - (read - no standard at all). Something Costa needs to work on is not allowing people to just put towels on deck chairs at 08:00 and then not return to the deck chair until 15:00. That really needs to be policed better. The decks were always full of rubbish (if I could post photos here I would). One of the toilet areas had a faecal smear on it which we reported on day 2 of the cruise. On day 11 - it was still there. We took photos to prove it. Just disgusting. CABIN: Equally dated, drab and in need of refurb. Old towels with holes in them, torn bedding, gaping tears in the balcony curtains. When we complained to our room attendant, all he did was cut the curtain at the point of the tear so the curtain was now 3-4 inches shorter from the side of the wall then it should have been. DINING: Oh heavens me - where to begin with dining. The buffet was a free-for-all. I've been on many many cruises before across a few different lines and I've never seen anything like this before. It reminded me of a trough at feeding time. Imagine queuing up at the pizza counter to get a slice or two of pizza for lunch, only to have one guy rock up, walk in front of the 40 odd people waiting in the queue, grab an ENTIRE tray of pizza (approx. 12-15 slices) and then leave. All under the watchful eye of the food and beverage manager and the assistant F&B mgr. All these two were good for was berating their staff in front of passengers. I saw the F&B manager berate a junior crew member one day because the costa emblem on his little hat wasn't quite at the right angle that he wanted it to be. What an absolute tosser he was. You don't treat people that way. I know - I used to work on cruise ships and if a manager had done that in front of passengers, HE would have to answer to the captain. It's just not done. Very poor behaviour. Dinner was even worse. When we booked we were given the option of an early or late seating. We were told that we could eat at either 18:00 or at 20:30 – so we chose the late seating as always. However when we arrived for our 20:30 seating it was actually an 20:45 seating and by the time we got our first course it was closer to 21:30. Let’s just say that when we finished with our meal it was pretty much midnight. The wait staff couldn’t be less excited to be there. I know – I get it – it’s a tough gig. Like I said, I worked on cruise ships. Always having to put a smile on your face and be jovial can take a lot out of you. But you’re in the hospitality industry – you need to be hospitable. I suspect most of the crew were nearing the end of some very long contracts – 9 or 12 months I believe – and I would imagine that’s why most of them were exhausted. Still – this wasn’t about that. The majority of the crew just had zero personality. We met one bar waitress who was hilarious and a true gem, one young man who worked in one of the shops (really funny guy & always jokey & smiley), one waiter in the wine bar, and one of the European hostesses. That was it. Those people were the only good crew out of the whole bunch. We had such bad experiences with the breakfast buffet that we decided to get breakfast in our cabin every day. This was a free service for us because we had the upgraded premium cabin package so we could do that. Boy oh boy did we ever take advantage of that!! However, even that they couldn’t get right. By about day 6 we started to affectionately refer to it as Breakfast Roulette. Not one single time did we get what we asked for – not once. We got most things that we checked off – but never did we get everything. I could understand if I was phoning down to order it and they just didn’t understand because of a language barrier, but I was ticking boxes on a form. That’s it. Box ticking. How can you get that wrong EVERY morning for about 8-10 mornings!! SERIOUSLY!!! Our dining experiences left much to be desired. Costa siphons the so-called ‘free’ water on board. They have water machines everywhere but most of them are either turned off or pour water out at a trickle. I’m serious when I say trickle. We took video of it because we knew no one would believe us. Costa want you to buy their bottles of water. Rubbish!! I paid for the ultimate drinks package and you wouldn’t believe it but it doesn’t include water!!!! Even though it says it does!! ENTERTAINMENT What entertainment??? If you speak fluent Italian – great – you’ll be fine. If you don’t, forget it because none of the shows (bar one – which was a musical) were in Italian. All of the activities on board – again in Italian. Even the port excursion seminars/talks – you guessed it – Italian. Oh and most of the announcements were in Italian only as well. It came down to me complaining one day about what the on-board announcement was and the front desk told me “nothing for you to worry about – it’s for the Italian guests only. It’s about the next port”. Oh – ok, so because I don’t speak Italian, you didn’t think I would need to know about the next port? Thanks Costa – that’s some fine logic that is. Every day they put out a diary of what’s happening the next day. This was so un-imaginative that we nicknamed it the “Diary el Board-o”. Yup – BOARING!!! Who the heck wants to do 2 hours of aerobics on the pool deck in the Med??? Seriously! I will go to the gym if I want to do that!! Don’t annoy everyone else around you by doing 2 hours of irritating techno aerobics poolside EVERY SINGLE DAY!! SERVICE See my comments on Dining. But just to add – our cabin attendant couldn’t be more of a robot. No personality, no communication, nothing. Not a thing. Most nights he even forgot to leave the diary in our room for the next day. And when he did remember, he left the wrong language one. So of course I had to go and collect one from the front desk. He never acknowledged us or said hello, good morning, thank you – nothing. Just couldn’t care less. PORTS/EXCURSIONS We didn’t do any of the paid excursions – we never do. We like to experience places on our own without being manoeuvred around like a herd of cattle. Having said that though – all of the ports were fab except one. Casablanca. That was horrible. We had this idea in our heads of what it would be like based on the film – a very romanticised view. We probably should have done an excursion here because the port that the ship docks in, is an active, 24hr shipping port. It’s not a cruise port. It’s a shipping port. Complete with cranes going 24 hrs a day – lots of dust, grime and dirt being kicked up around the ship, etc., etc. Why dock here as a cruise ship when there are so many other ports you can dock at in Morocco??? Oh wait, I know – because Costa a cheap that’s why!! Cheap cheap cheap!!! This was the worst place to do an overnight docking. Absolutely the worst. We should have figured it out when no other cruise ship was docked anywhere near us or overnight. Atrocious!! Never in my life would I ever use Costa again. Never. I wouldn’t recommend them even if they paid me to. Read Less

A most disappointing cruise. We have cruised 10 times but this was the worst ever.It can only be described as a rip off.Every thing bought on the ship has a 15% service charge added everything ! In addition to the daily service charge which is compulsory. Another thing which irritated was that the only way you can have tea in the cabin is by room service along with the added service charge.Even all but the worst hotels have tea making facilities in the room these days. There was a coffee machine in the cabin but there was a charge of 1.50euros per cup (plus the service charge15%) To top it all there is a 15euros a day charge to sunbathe on the so called solarium which is just an enclosed deck. On the plus side the food is good although the service in the restaurant left a lot to be desired .It depended which waiter you got.Talking to other passengers it seemed most of them agreed with me. Most complaints were about the service charges put on the already very high prices. No more Costa cruises for us.they ought to all themselves Costa Fortune Read Less