Just returned home after our incredibly delightful journey across the Atlantic on the Costa Mediterranea with a few day's post-cruise stay in Trieste, Italy. We began our trip with very low expectations due to most of the recent Mediterranea reviews blasting the "tasteless" food and other problems. Our personal experience was so much the opposite that I almost feel I was on an entirely different ship! I did come armed with my own shaker of garlic powder for the pizza and pastas and Crystal Light drops to make the USA water more palatable for me, I enjoyed the vast majority of the dishes served in the dining room. One night we even were able to have surf and turf by combining a steak option with a grilled shrimp entree! Our waiter made it happen for the four of us at our table. I was particularly delighted with the sundried tomatoes and olives on the lunch buffet, and I ate those almost exclusively for lunch most days, except one time I had a juicy burger from the pool deck, and a couple salad lunches in the main restaurant. On one of our first port days, when most everyone was ashore, we found shrimp tempura on the buffet! The only time we saw it, but it was YUM!!!! Keep in mind with my review that we traveled across the Atlantic with less than 1200 passengers on board a ship designed for 2600. SO luxurious! Our premium balcony cabin near the aft on deck seven starboard was a wonderful retreat with plenty of storage for our 22 nights onboard and one of the best room stewards, Renee, that we have ever experienced. We had fresh ice twice a day, and even extra pillows and bathrobes when we asked. We only used the free room service one morning. We were so close to the buffet that it just seemed unnecessary. we also had only one dinner sitting for the first 16 nights of the cruise until we took on about 500 more passengers in Savonna for the last week when they finally added a late seating and a second show time. Not impressed with the CD, Antonio Serra. but most of the nightly entertainment was very good. Major exceptions - the "video" nights and the passenger "talent" show. YUCK! Walked out of the balcony (as we suspected they might be poor) on those.Really liked the in-cabin free movies! Too bad they started repeating over again instead of getting new ones after the first two weeks. The flamenco dancers who performed after our Teneriffe port stop were absolutely amazing! The ship was beautifully maintained and always kept sparkling clean. Thought we were going to escape any illnesses until we went on a long bus excursion from Savonna to Genoa where we had "hackers" in front AND behind us, Even the tour guide made a comment about them! Sure enough, the day before we were to fly back home, we BOTH developed the same upper respiratory symptoms and coughs! We both have a ways to go before we will be over this and are keeping ourselves isolated away from family and friends until we are free of symptoms. An interesting happening on this sailing was that on the day after we left our port stop in St. Maarten, early in the cruise, my husband noticed we seemed to have turned around and were headed back toward St. Maarten. sure enough, when we checked at the front desk, we found out that that an announcement (we obviously missed), stated that we were turning around due to the health needs of a passenger. Finally a helicopter with a basket met the ship in the early evening and the patient was transferred to the helicopter via the basket and thn on to St. Maarten. There was not room for the spouse on the chopper and she had to wait until our next port stop, Teneriffe, 6 days later, to fly to meet her husband at the hospital! Sure hope they had insurance! Will we cruise with Costa again? This was our third Costa sailing and due to the 22 nights and double points for our premium balcony cabin we will now be at the Pearl level for future sailings and get those extra benefits, so if the itinerary and price are right we will! Read Less

I have been on several cruise ships (Royal, Carnival, Norwegian) and this last one on Costa. I will not even try to compare them because they have very little in common. I will start off with embarkment in Miami. We were scheduled to embark at 1300hours in Miami. It was a hot and humid day and they had no lines clearly marked, no water or shade provided for the elderly or kids. The line at one point looked like a herd of buffallos stampedeing towards the ship and my 2 year old was over run by some guy trying to get to the ship first. Once on the ship we got our cabin pretty soon and were happy to learn that we actually got a obstructed ocean view instead of inside cabin. Our room steaward introduced herself and that is the friendliest we saw her the whole trip. Every time she would come in the room she had a frown on her face and was very short with her answers. She knew we were traveling with two young children and never once asked if we needed anything. At one point she took the milk that we brought from the buffet into the fridge and threw it out. I asked several time for diaper bags and was never provided with one so i had to go to the elevators and dispose dirty diapers in there. The dinners were the only free option and you had to be there on time or else you missed it and had to either pay for the pizza or specialty restaurants. (big minus). the whole duration of the trip they had the ice cream machines in the buffet area but never served ice cream out of them.... (teasing the passengers???). It being a european ship it attracted a lot of Europeans and it seemed like everone on the ship smoked. (something i have no control over but something to consider when choosing your hard earned vacation cruise). The ship had no real children program for any kids under 3 years old and we did not expect it. However, I would have loved to seee the option of dining with children in buffet area because dining with little children in a formal setting is not the best. The ports were all nice although at some points it seemed a little unorganized. To summarize our experience I would have to say if they had better crew and more caring crew members it would be a more pleasent way to travel. I will definitely not travel with Costa ever again. Read Less

I'm starting right with an issue that, in my belief, overwhelms any other comment possible on this cruise. Every cruise day, after 6:30 p.m., simply there is no food or drink whatsoever available in the whole ship, except for the main Restaurant. This means that, if you're on first seating (6:30 p.m.) after the show (9:15 pm or later), for instance, not only you don't have any station at all available, for a snack or anything else for that matter, but even if you want to drink a glass of water or a cup of coffee you must go to one of the bars and pay for it (yes, water included). Also attending the main restaurant for dinner is mandatory, as you don't have any choice, inluding formal dinner nights. (Imagine when you have small children with you). Mind you that some days we leave port at 7 p.m. and also there are plenty of daily activities on board at 10 or 11 pm. This said, and regarding other aspects of the cruise, the cabin was fine as well as the general embarking process. Public rooms with heavy decoration (too heavy for my taste) and poor use of the space on the self-service (huge lines for food and hard to find seats for eating). Good shows and entertainment in general, as well as the food, in the main restaurant as well as in the self-service, but the level of service, in both, is clearly sub-standard.   Read Less

Everyone who complained about the cruise ( mostly the food ) said I couldn't really be objective about this ship as I was a newbie to cruising, therefore I had nothing to compare it to. While that might be valid I truly felt that it would be hard to find a more beautiful ship to cruise on. Nay sayers be darned! As mentioned it was our first cruise. Found a great lot to leave our car ( Safe Parking Miami) and boarding was easy. Stayed in Coconut Grove for two nights before cruise at a B+B which was close enough to the port. Liked the fact that even though we didn't sail until 10 pm we boarded by 3 and had lunch and a tour of the ship, so excited to be on board! First night on board took some getting used to.. vibration and slight swaying of ship, my husband wore acupuncture bands on wrist and he was fine. We have been on many large ferries etc. but nothing compares to being on a large cruise ship with its opulence and services. THE PEOPLE: Mostly European passenger i.e: Italians with a smattering of other nationalities, very few North Americans. We were basically in the minority as Canadians. All officers appeared to be Italian with rest of crew from basically all over the world. If you want to feel like you have arrived in Europe the Costa line is the way to go. A friend on board said Americans did not want to cruise on a ship that had any connection to the Costa Concordia. One aside was the presence of many Guadaloupean passengers. They were dropped off and picked up in Gaudaloupe, they got a seven day passage with a cheaper rate. Liked the fact that there were at least some Caribbean folk on the ship, but got the sense that crew wasn't too impressed with them, although they appeared to be bread and butter passengers for the ship as they formed a sizeable group on board. There was an incident of a fight between two family groups but it was quickly quashed. It happened just up the hall from our room. Security came quickly and I never felt it was a huge thing, just a lot of loud noise for about half an hour. Glad we made friends with some American people as it was hard to converse with most people as they did not speak English at least around us. Several other people we met were travel agents who got a special rate, said they probably wouldn't have taken this line if the price wasn't right for them. ACTIVITIES: We didn't participate in very many activities. Mostly spent days on shore and days at sea we spent swimming, eating and visiting with our friends. Attended the theatre twice, entertainment okay but after just being in Cuba at a resort the entertainment seemed pretty generic. One of our friends did enjoy the disco but we never went. We did walk through the bar areas, casino and disco but didn't partake as by the time our second dining sitting ended we were ready to just chill in our cabin or on our balcony. One thing we did do was use the gym every night before dinner. This was a good time to use it because most people were at first sitting for dinner and staff weren't there. The steam room/ sauna was great ( women's was quite musty unfortunately). Lots of equipment in gym, on your own for sanitizing as never any wipes and didn't like smell of chlorine or steamy effect as there was a giant hot tub in middle of area, not sure why they would put it there. Had a foot and head massage from Renata, which was heavenly. Her, Alex and Diana were all great to deal with in the spa. Also found the running track pretty small but still if you wanted to walk around at night on top decks hardly ever any people and the view of the moon on the water was pretty spectacular. THE NOISE LEVEL: Wanted to mention this before I went any further. The level of sound for most events was unbelievably loud. The noise at the bow end by the gym and outdoor pool was absolutely ridiculous. Often it might be for a dance contest or other activity but it was always cranked up so loud that I can't even imagine why no one complained. I just couldn't swim in that area when events were going on. Even at night for several of our gala dinners they had recorded music at a really high decibel level. For passengers it was only a few days of it but for the crew I can't imagine how a health and safety review wouldn't have put limitations on the noise for the staff. Why do people think loud noise equates with great entertainment? End of my rant about noise levels. SERVICE: Our hotel steward was great, didn't feel need for turn down service every night so often just put Don't Disturb sign on door if we didn't want to be bothered. Always had buffet for breakfast and lunch so not much to write about service there. Our evening waiter Rigaberto and his assistant were great. When we had questions about other things went to service desk where they were okay. Did find when we disembarked in Miami and there was a big delay with no announcement to explain why, the service desk was not very helpful or nice. I know many ships were letting off passengers at the same time but a polite announcement about delays would have been a good thing. Tip: Take the early disembarkation, we would next time. PORT/SHORE EXCURSIONS: We did not do any ship excursions except a snorkelling one in Grand Turk. (Which was good). Found most of the beaches we went to by taxi or bus had many people from the cruise there. Some complained that they were whisked there and back much quicker than we were as we had the option of staying longer without someone herding us back on a bus. Unfortunately we felt that because we did not use the ship excursions we were left to our own devices for information about the ports and activities on shore. The English guide John Patrick told us that he only gave out information about excursions, not what happened or was available on shore. I certainly was glad I had done research ahead with a Fodor and Lonely Planet Guide. Ship excursions seemed to concentrate on touring, boating and shopping at ship authorized stores etc. No mention of being dropped off at museums or other historic locales. When we landed at the port there really wasn't much in information at most locations. Some tourist booths had maps etc. but you had to be prepared so you knew ahead what you wanted to do and then you had to deal with taxi drivers, rates and distance to where you wanted to go. Taking more ship excursions might have been a good idea but still suspect about rates and time spent loading and getting there, would have to do more research before doing more ship excursions. MONEY MAKERS: As I had not been on a cruise before it was a bit of an adjustment to the level of selling that went on. We knew it wasn't like an all inclusive so we were prepared to pay for drinks etc. ( drinks didn't cost a lot more than at a Canadian bar) but not used to announcements being made over PA about buying items on the ship e.g. jewellery, etc. Poor spa staff even had to shill special rates for massages etc. when you came back on board from shore. They even charged 55 dollars for an insider tour of the ship. Seemed a bit excessive! Generally though felt for what we paid through Vacations To Go we got a good deal. DINING: My husband and I found the food okay. As I don't eat any meat but fish I did find the choices for evening dining a little limited. The breakfast, lunch choices were okay, most of the problem was the number of people getting food at the same time. Too bad there wasn't a better way to configure the way food was presented so there would be less lining up. I know people who have travelled on other lines talk about the great choice, the 24 hour dining, the free room service and that the newer ships have more restaurants but for me it was adequate. I've heard new ships will soon have bakery restaurants etc. but I don't want to gain ten pounds on a cruise and it would be more tempting with more food choice. One thing that the Costa line has is special gala nights with Italian music and presentations by the waiters etc. I found that was fun. Presented with beautifully printed menus on those nights. We usually had the snack at five to tide us over to the late evening sitting. Can see how some lines that offer any time sitting would be a good idea as second sitting was so late. THE STAR: This ship was the star to me. The ship designer who does all the newer Costa and Carnival ships Joe Farcas has certainly created a surreal, beautiful palace of a ship. I never got tired of looking at the details from Italian glass to fanciful pottery lighthouses. Every surface was embellished. It was interesting to see into the crew areas, kitchens etc. and see how plain it looked there. SUMMARY: Not sure if I would go on another cruise but now that I'm not a first time cruiser I will be able to compare a possible future cruise to this quite enjoyable trip. Read Less

I dont know where to start about this cruise, this is my 15th cruise so I know what to expect. For our first dinner I had the spaghetti bolognese, this was the worse ever and not even warm, went to the Lido deck to have something to eat. Next morning the orange juice is watered down Tang, coffee so strong had to have hot water added and they brought it 10 minutes later so when added the coffee it was undrinkeable, switched to tea after a few day or went to Lido deck and brought some with me to the dining room. My husband asked for eggs benedict and when he received his plate it was a poached egg on a dried piece of toast, no sauce no nothing, I should of taken a picture, what kind of cooks do they have to serve something like this. Toasts were always brought 10 minutes before the eggs so cold by the time we ate. Lunch were ok but so disorganised, had some salad and when I asked for some salad dressing I was told to go to an other counter and had to wait in line to get some dressing, same with everything else, one day I was lost after getting my lunch from all the running around. Coming from a family of french pastry chefs, I love my desserts and these tasted all the same and again what a dissapointment when I got my tiramisu or sabayon it was a pudding. One evening we were so dissapointed with our meal that we went to the Lido deck to get something to eat to find out that it was closed after 4 and we could get only pizza for 8,00 per person, I could not even get hot water for a herbal tea. Asked at the bar and was told to call room service, but there is a cost for this on Costa, we are used to sometime have breakfast in our stateroom and again there is a cost with them. Let just say that we did not gain any weight on this cruise. As for entertainment on a few occasions they had movies, one evening they had cruise employees for their talent show....went a few times and left before the end. Another dissapointment was the fact that they did not want to open the partition on our balcony to have access to my sister's balcony which was always done on other cruise line. The only good thing about this cruise was the ports of call but then again in Guadeloupe we had 800 persons getting off the ship and we could not get any ground transportation to make a tour of the island, walked 30 minutes to a bus terminal to get a bus and went to the beach, the good thing is I am french speaking and could communicate with them. They were very helpful. All in all we were happy to get off, the disembarkation went very well we got off with our luggages and we were one of the first off. Costa NEVER AGAIN Read Less

Our 32nd cruise, Costa Mediterranea; First cruise with Costa and last. Sad because the ship is beautiful, clean, easy embarkation, but food quality is poor! Same soup everyday, ministrome, did get watery chicken soup one day. Well done meat is not red! Breakfast and lunch is buffet style even in the dining room. Watery looking scrambled eggs. If they ran out of something they were in no hurry to replace it including plates and silverware. Always a mad house in the buffet. God forbid they could put out some butter with the bread. Don't look for tea or coffee after 5pm or between servings! No food after 5 unless you pay $8 for lousy pizza. I don't understand other reviews I read that said the food was great, must have been different. The Costa website is very clunky It wouldn't even let me put in the name Kristen in, so changed it to Chris just so it woul take the name, unreal! I have a charge for a FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE of $6.90 charged the first day. I called was told to email, called again as no reply and told it would take 2 weeks to research-BULL. Anyone else been charged?   Read Less

The Costa Mediterranea is arguably a beautiful ship. It is our third cruise on this very ship, the years have reduced her status. Had we known about the service or lack thereof we would never have chosen this cruise line. Please know that on Costa... All daily food services as well as beverage services close at 2:30 (or sooner). The pizza and burger station remain open until 4:00 some days. On a given day, I tried to get a burger, there was none to be had and it was 3:15. You need to know that there are no snacks or beverages... no coffee no tea no water... nothing... until the next day. Shore excursions??? you must plan on buying your lunch ashore or hurry back to the ship.. to meet this curfew... UNBELIEVABLE!!! The food offerings are very low quality. The dining room is your only evening option... second seating is 9:00... doors typically open 20 minutes later... The pasta offerings... are a disgrace... probably plated hours before... one evening I summoned the wait staff, took my plate of pasta and turned the plate to a 90 degree angle the paste stayed glued to the plate... the waitress apologized and added that that is what she had been sent... Embarrassing for any proud liner let alone an Italian ship. The risotto another Italian artistic offering... was 'sciffo' think muck..probably defrosted microwaved hours earlier. The duck... sounded good...leg of duck was tasteless, room temperature with the consistency of a rubber band. Horrible. I asked for an espresso and was told 'no' the dining room does not serve espresso... I was told that some bars on the ship do... if I wanted one later. THATS' UN-ITALIAN!!! Room service has very very limited choices and is further complicated by schedules... and is fee based. Suite guests might order from a restricted limited sandwich menu... the L'Italiano offering sounded good... "focaccia with prosciutto, cheese,lettuce and tomato." I asked for fries on the side. What was delivered... white bread with the crust cut-off, a pale slice of some lunch meat, a slice of processed cheddar, lettuce slathered with mayo. The fries... were a cellophane pack containing four crackers... diner style. There is a blatant disconnect between what is offered and what the guests are presented. The pay venue "Medusa" $35 pp is good. Thats' Cost a. The young entertainers are dedicated but I did miss the live music band... must also be a thing of the past with Costa. The hotel staff keeps the rooms within expectations and work hard. This line does not value its guests. The restrictive nature and low quality affirms a careless attitude. Although the guests were from many different countries... virtually all guests we met agreed that this experience was the worst.   Read Less

This was our second time to cruise with Costa and we are experienced cruisers. We chose this cruise line because we were happy with our previous one with Costa as well as the itinerary. The itinerary did not disappoint, Embarkation was smooth and easy, getting on and off at the ports including where we were docked and tendered also was smooth and easy. No problem with disembarkation either. Our cabin was comfortable, good cabin steward, pleasant waiter staff in the dining who tried hard to please but that is about where the positives ended. Overall the food was disappointing. Breakfast and lunch buffet were satisfactory although time for the lunch buffet was quite limited and there was no dinner buffet, leaving little options for families with young children. Pizza was offered every evening for a price( no charge up to 4:00 for the pizza). Each evening we( six of us in our party) were hopeful that we would see items on the menu we looked forward to eating. Generally choices were limited and the food was tasteless. Nothing really special was offered on formal/gala night night. Some entertainment by the staff was offered at dinner, this was quite enjoyable. Our waiter made an effort to accommodate special requests at our table. I think even for him he found limited what he could do. Entertainment was limited. Two evenings movies were offered. I think movies should be an extra form of entertainment, not the sole entertainment . Entertainment was generally mediocre at best, one or two shows were good. The final evening due to the incident in Tunisia the entertainment was cancelled out of respect for those injured and those who died was cancelled. Yet the bars with the bands could stay open. Found that hard to understand. Day time programming on sea days was non existing. WE have been on several cruise where different activities were offered on sea days, lectures, computer courses etc. Unless you playing the games around the pool, involved with the dance club not much else was offered. Unfortunately we ended up with a cabin just below one of the bars which didn't close until 1:30 am. We complained about this noise three times. Offered a room two doors down, which was also just below the same bar with the same noise problem. Staff person we spoke to was going to email her boss and get back to us. No follow up. We do know there had to be more rooms available as 600 got off in Gaudaloupe and 400 got on. Cannot comment on the excursions as we simply got off the ship found a taxi and went off to the beach. We were quite satisfied with these arrangements. We will certainly cruise the Caribbean again but never again on Costa. There are too many other good choices out there Read Less

To pre-register on Costa website you need lots of patience. Their website is not very advanced. Boarding in Miami was easy. Ships was clean and neat. Lots of passengers get on at French Guadeloupe - so you have about 85% of the ship passengers as being Italian, French, German and Spanish. Biggest complaint was the food service. If you did not eat at specific breakfast or lunch times, you missed out. Evening food was only dining room or $8 for a pizza dinner. No other food venue was available for the entire cruise. Water, juice, coffee, warm/cold milk and tea was available for breakfast. For lunch the available beverage was water, coffee or tea. Evening dinner was a nice selection on the menu. We were in late seating which started at 9pm. It was a long time from lunch until 9pm. Costa only served cold bread roll sandwiches each day from 4pm to 6pm. Spoken english among the passengers was few in number. Staff did a good job keeping all nationalities of passengers happy. Shore excursions booked thru the ship were well planned. Evening entertainment was nice - very international in flavor. Biggest disappointment was the lack of selection and food availability on the cruise. Food service menu to the cabin was few selection options. Trip agenda of ports was great, but will select a different cruise line next time. Read Less

This was my 5th cruise and BY FAR the worst cruise I've ever taken, which is a shame because it was my wife and I's honeymoon. This was her first cruise ever. Needless to say, she doesn't ever want to take one again. Told her not to judge cruise after being on the Mediterranea. Issues started upon arrival. As any cruiser knows, upon entering your room you usually find your room key cards for the stateroom Our two room key card belonged to the room next to us. We could get in and out of our room after brining in our luggage and getting situated for a few hours. Had to go to guest services and explain to them what happened. They made us two new key cards and we could finally get back into the room and use them for drinks/food etc. I'm sure it was just an honest mistake, but a mistake none the less. To try and keep this review short and to the point...food was just terrible everyday/every night. Very disappointed. Food was catered to the Italian pallet, since about 80% of the ship were Italians from Italy, or French, Dutch, or German. There were some Canadians and Americans, but they were hard to find. Did meet some English speaking Italians and we asked if the food is like this in Italy, and they said, Oh noooo, not ever close. Even the waiter and bartenders said the food had taken a turn for the worst since the Concordia accident. I was urged by our own waiter during the dinner sessions to complain about the food or nothing would ever get fixed. How awful is that?...No food on the entire ship after 6:30pm for the rest of the night (except for your assigned dinner). The only thing was a pizza bar (that was the worst pizza in the history of mankind with only ever two choices to pick from, cheese or pesto) and they charged $8.00 per person to get it. What a joke. It was hard to ever get or order water/ice. Sometimes the bartenders would give you a glare or a snark remark about ordering water and glass of ice. Ice cream machines were never working properly, almost all food was bread, bread, and more bread. Food choices were slim and almost always the same. Drink prices were pretty high. Stopped getting them after the 3rd day and drank on the islands we visited. Entertainment was highly lacking and pretty disappointing. The acrobats were actually good. Most shows were bad. High school talent show competition bad. Basically it was just music and dancing on the deck every evening with the same music over and over again. Not many fun games/no comedian/cost $20 to buy 1 bingo card/etc etc. We found ourselves checking out playing cards and playing rummy for the last 5-6 days to keep us entertained. Some of the quizzes were fun. Hot tubs were always cold or luke warm. However, the Turkish spa on the men's side in the massage/gym area were about the only highlight of the ship. The hot steam sauna and dry rock sauna were excellent. The massage staff was nice and we did get a massage which was excellent. Kudos to the massage staff folks for doing a good job. The internet never worked on the ship. The library where the computers were were always down or booted you off while trying to login. It was just as bad with the wifi access (that they charged you for to use at a crappy price per minute) on your phones to use. The T.V. signal had 4 channels and they were always crackling and fading in an out. Could never watch a show or any program because every few seconds there was a signal issue the entire cruise if you ever just wanted to stay in the room to relax). We also weren't aware that this was a non-English speaking guest ship. There were 6 languages on the ship, so announcements took forever to be repeated over and over again in all languages. Hard to meet and talk to anyone. I have to say, the French, Germans, Canadians were all nice and ok, but the Italians (with the exception of a few good apples) were terrible. Very pompous, rude, arrogant, etc. They'd walk passed you in the hall and bump into you constantly without ever saying excuse me or sorry. They would bum rush the elevator door every time it would open instead of letting the people on the elevator already on it, off. How rude. Most of them would get up around 6-7 am on days at sea, and go lay their pool towels out on pool chairs to reserved them for their family/friends and disappear. Half the time you couldn't find a pool chair on the pool decks because they were all taken by people that weren't there, or would leave an come back all day. We did have a good waiter and assistant waiter at our dinner seating. Very nice and polite. When the food was bad, he'd offer to bring us something else or make something off menu for us which we appreciated. We had to special request butter for the bread every night!, it was always just oil and vinegar. Special requested natural water as well, as it was always either wine, coffee, or sparkling water. So much for short and sweet, but find yourself another cruise line and ship to go on. I'm sure I left a few things out, lol....This will be our first and last Costa Cruise ever!!! Read Less