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Costa Cruises

Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)

Stockholm

Venice

Rome (Civitavecchia)

Savona

Marseille

Genoa

Guadeloupe

Barcelona

Dover

La Romana (Casa de Campo)

Amsterdam

Miami

Copenhagen

Athens (Piraeus)

Paris

Buenos Aires

Martinique

New York (Manhattan)

Europe - All

Mediterranean

Caribbean - All

Europe - Western Mediterranean

Baltic Sea

Caribbean - Eastern

Caribbean - Western

Mexico - All

France

Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

Sweden

Italy

Spain

Europe - British Isles & Western

Portugal

Europe River

Bermuda

Africa

Morocco

Douro River

Caribbean - Southern

Netherlands

Rhine River

Canary Islands

Seine River

Transatlantic

Europe - River Cruise

Germany

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

South America

Dominican Republic

Bahamas

Greece

Iceland

Denmark

Scotland

Excellent

Average

Very Good

Poor

Terrible

Costa Mediterranea

Costa Magica

Costa Deliziosa

Costa Fortuna

Costa Diadema

Costa Pacifica

Costa Serena

Costa Fascinosa

Costa Favolosa

Costa neoRiviera

Costa Smeralda

Costa Toscana

Costa Firenze

Nevis

We chose this cruise to get away from the Winter and have Christmas at sea

Our Costa organised bus trip from our home town in Austria to Savona was smooth and punctual. Savona is a pleasant port, but as it was a bit chilly and windy, we elected to stay in the departure area

Boarding was a little slow and Costa could improve communication to keep people informed

Our cabin was ready and the luggage arrived quickly except for i case that was detained .This was due to  a small hand steamer - this deice has been on about 10 cruises ,but this time was classified as an Iron. HERE I MUST CRITICIZE COSTA - they know who the detained cases belong to but allow a queue of about 40 or more people to wait like idiots to reclaim their baggage, instead of telling them where where to go. The enquiries desk is a bunfight and the reception staff and passengers are put under unnecessary pressure when a simple collection system would alleviate the problem

The ship was clean and everything worked although some of the external steel is showing its age. Navigating the ship with the restaurants in the middle can be a little confusing

The dining was really good in the MDR and the buffet was more than adequate. On sea days after the crossing it was a bit hectic

The theatre entertainment was generally good and the theatre was always full. The daily activities were always well attended and the passengers enjoyed themselves.The design of the ship does not lend itself to undercover relaxing areas on hot sea days as the solarium is inadequate.

It is a pity that use of the sauna is not free or a package separate from the SPA packages

The service was good and the ship was kept clean and tidy

The ports are all typically Caribbean with enough Tours available from Costa or ashore

For us the best ports were Santa Cruz Tenneriffe, Roadtown and Martinique 

A message to all the unhappy passengers - Costa is an Italian cruiseline so why were you surprised the were so many Italians on board. And likewise most food menus on an Italian ship will be Italian

Costa could cut down on the multilingual promotional announcements and fix the water issue that annoy so many people

All in all a good time was had by most people

Good Transatlantic Cruise

Ketchikan

I chose this Costa Magica cruise as a way to start off a visit in Sicily and Italy, which are our family heritage. I was a little leery of this cruise line (rightfully so, it turned out), as I prefer smaller and higher-rated ships.  But the itinerary suited our needs, and a few of the shore excursions listed were appealing, and it seemed to be a good price listed on Vacations to Go.  So we made plans, reserved mileage air tickets, and booked the cruise.  Surprise!  The cost had increased substantially from what was listed that very day on the internet.  Oh, well, too late now to change everything... so we paid hundreds more than we originally expected.

I had already chosen and booked shore excursions for each day on the ship, months ahead.  This was a key reason for using this cruise line.  You can imagine how disappointed we were when EVERY excursion we had booked was cancelled at the last minute, due to minimal signups.  I believe that they could have run the excursions with smaller vans for transportation, but the level of profit desired was not reached, so our plans were dashed, too late to make other arrangements.  ( I firmly believe that these tours would have at least broken even, but NO... apparently not enough profit for Costa!)

I was surprised to receive emails before the cruise offering lobster, steaks, and even hamburgers and pizza, which could be ordered and paid for ahead of time.  WHAT?  If you want steak, lobster, pizza and other rather ordinary cruise food, there would be an extra charge!  This was shocking to me, after experience on at least seven other cruise lines,  where these items are included and readily available. 

The decor on the ship gave no hint of the beauty and subtlety of high-end Italian modern design, nor historical styles, but combined patterns and colors in the carpeting, and in marble, granite, gilding, and ornateness in a dizzying array of styles and colors, not to mention the paintings of nearly-nude women plastered all over the hallway walls.  This was personally embarrassing to me, as I am proud of my Italian heritage and the genuine artistry which has made Italy world-famous.  No sign of that here!

The staff members were accommodating and pleasant, but the tour desk was closed just when it was needed most.  Waitstaff in the Dining Rooms were competent, but regulations prevented their bringing us a glass of wine with dinner until we registered our credit card at a certain kiosk on another deck.  They did match us up with other English-speaking passengers at table, which proved to be the only high point of the entire cruise.

Embarrassed to be Italian...

Malta (Valletta)

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!!!!

Its was a night mare on the cruise!!! PLEASE DONT WASTE MONEY!!!

I love cruising and have been on many before. My partner however had never been. We thought a Costa short break would be a great way to introduce him. I’ve travelled on Costa before so I knew it wouldn’t be the same standard as Royal Caribbean or Princess but we are so disappointed with Costa after this trip that I will never cruise with them again. The apathy of the staff and customer service representatives are the most disappointing elements. We decided to get a suite which came with some nice perks like a free pass to the spa, a drinks package, personal butler, and free access to the club restaurant. Most of these things were not worth the ticket price. The room was great and always clean - we really cannot complain about the quality of the rooms, they are dated but comfortable. This is true for the entire ship really- everything looks like it was designed in the 90s but is still clean and functional. However this is not enough to make me consider cruising with them again. Our main complaints surround their customer service. 

1) before we left for the cruise we called up to find out the itinerary- with most cruise lines they give these to you in advance so you know dress codes and arrival times for the ports. We never received this so I called Costa (I massively regret not emailing now). They told me we arrived in Barcelona at 8am and could disembark at 9am. We booked a tour of Sagrada Familia (not with Costa) for 12:30. Well it turns out that was incorrect and we didn’t arrive until 1300. We wasted 50€ on tickets that were unusable (we tried but failed to get in). We returned to the ship and spoke to the hospitality desk. They told me I was too vague and they couldn’t do anything. Despite phone records proving I made a call to them they decided I was wrong and simply misunderstood what I was told. No compensation given. 

2) when playing in the casino one evening we won 180€ playing poker. We cashed out on our Costa card and left for our cabin, we were pleased and thought hey this compensates a bit for the missing 50€ from earlier. Unsure of how the casino works we just assumed this credit would be applied to our final bill but we didn’t receive the final bill until the morning of disembarking. Highly unusual for a ship as it give the customer no time to register any issues with their final bill. This is when we realised that we needed to get the cash from the casino directly. Again we went to hospitality who said no problem it will open at 9and we can get the money then. We waited for 45 minutes and no one came. They kept saying just wait someone is on their way but if we stayed any longer we would have missed our flight so we had to leave. We instantly contacted Costa and asked to be compensated and we were told too bad. This left us 230€ in the hole with the two issues combined. It’s interesting that they have no problem charging the room for the casino but have big issues crediting the room. 

Other issues we encountered:

Using the spa - they fail to tell you that you can only use your free access to the spa when in port. We came back early from Marseille to use the spa and the entire time we were there they had tours going through the spa. I was changing in the change room and had a constant stream of new passengers taking a tour of the facilities. I found this very humiliating and uncomfortable- not the relaxing experience I was hoping to have. 

The club restaurant - you get the same food as the main dining hall. We saw no difference except we didn’t have a set dining time and it was quieter. However with this also meant we missed out on some of the fun of the main dining hall and didn’t get the farewell celebration that the main restaurants got. 

The drinks package was great - no complaints on this end. Definitely worth it to not have to worry about your drink bill. 

Our butler was polite but I’m not sure what he did. Definitely wasn’t worth the extra service charge we were charged for his apparent services. 

Anytime we spoke to someone we simply asked for on board credit - we would have happily spent this money on board or something towards future travel but every time Costa replied too bad and they hope it doesn’t affect our trust in Costa. Well it certainly has and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to convince my partner to cruise again. 

If you decide to cruise with Costa get everything in writing and remember that this is a budget cruise. They couldn’t care less about your experience and are simply packing people on board to take as much as they can. We’ve been burnt by them and will avoid them forever.

Costa - the Ryanair of Cruising

I was party leader for a group of 10 friends and family. I joined this cruise with low expectations, based on the previous reviews. What I actually experienced was way beyond my expectations. We did the Baltic Cruise and visited Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg and Tallinn. This is an expensive route normally and this was a budget price in the scheme of things. Based on what we paid and what we received there are no complaints. The food was of a good standard at the buffet and the formal dinner and in fact some of the formal dinner food was amazing. I had one of the best beef steaks I have ever had on one evening! The waiters could have been a bit more jovial but they were not rude and their service was fine and we always had a good experience every night.

The room was bigger than expected with a good size comfy bed and plenty of hanging space for clothes. We did not see our cabin steward at any time on the cruise but the service was fine and the room was always well looked after. We did have a problem with a shower tray that would not empty properly so one ended up stood in water and also with water overflowing onto the main bathroom floor. I reported this and they came and fixed it while we were out. They then called the room later that day to make sure that we were happy with the fix and by that time we had not used the shower. When we used the shower we found that it was not working correctly still and so we called them and once again they came out to fix it. Once again they called us later that day to check it was ok and this time the fix had worked. I have been on many cruises and I have never had a follow up call to make sure that we were happy with the fix. This is a first for me, so well done to them for actually taking the time twice to make sure we were happy with the repair/fix. Credit where credits due. 

We did three excursions through Costa and two of these were very good. However we did do the Best of Stockholm and Vasa Museum tour on the final day which is a 3.5 hour tour at €70 per person their ref 2501. This is rushed tour and is not enough time. It ended up that we only had 40 minutes in the Vasa Museum, which is the highlight. They introduced this as one of the World's best Museums and a wonderful experience and then gave us only 40 minutes inside. This is ridiculous as in my opinion you need at least 1.5 hours inside, minimum. I would suggest that you go privately and take your time as this is an amazing museum that deserves more  of your time.

This was a blemish on what was otherwise a great trip.

Much better than I expected

In my opinion this cruise has one port missing. It arrives in Stockholm on a Friday, boarding is on a Saturday, then it leaves for Helsinki, following is 2 days St. Petersburg, then a short time in Tallin. The day after is again in Stockholm, and the following day you have to disembark. I can't understand why they don't add Latvia for example instead of docking for 2 days in Stockholm. Otherwise it would have been nice to have 3 days in Russia, but Stockholm is the least city that one has to see. Something about the ship, decor is very old, brown and orange everywhere, breakfast very poor, bacon and sausages are not even good for dogs...thanks God they offered meat in the grill section which I enjoyed very much for breakfast. In the evening we ate at the sit-in restaurant, food taste average, food decoration very nice. Entertainment during sit-in dinner ZERO neither some background recorded music except for the Italian night and the gala dinner where there was live entertainment which we enjoyed very much. At  the pool area NO MUSIC except when there are organised activities which happen only when the ship is at sea...I find this so stupid as it is costless to put a nice music on through a CD...The pool slide on Costa Magica was delusive..it is opened only for 1 hr if you're lucky. So, we booked this ship for the slide and when we boarded we could'nt even use it, we had to wait until the last day to go on it 3 times as they did'nt advise its opening times and we encountered it open by chance....why? we presume so that they won't have to repaint it since the blue colour comes off on your swimsuit or because they don't want to waste human resources to guard the slide. As for the bar service, we bought Piu Gusto for all the cabin which was a family of 4. One of us went to get 2 drinks from the pool bar and the barman humiliated him by asking him for another card....why when our package included unlimited drinks? why ruin guests holiday experience with this approach?? as for children activities the Peppa Pig activities were great and the children had so much fun in the Squok Club...so well done to them. I was going to forget about this...this is unbelievable but true...guys forget that you will be getting an ice cream or a nice milkshake on the ship...if you want one you have to pay for it...this is our 5th cruise and we never encountered anything similar!! As for the Photos...when they will learn that if they reduce the price they will sell more?  it's unbelievable how many photos they throw away after every cruise when if they sell them at least half the price many people will be encouraged to buy them...very greedy and stupid behavior in my opinion.

Baltic Cruise

Costa is a Very Surprising Compony, We Enter the Ship in St. Petersburg, the ship is quite of big and good. We Booked Cabin with Window and the Cabin is quite big and good but there a addtion staff on money. The food on costa is good , there what to eat everywhere. there 2 restaurants on the ship. We was on smeralda and it was an goodrestaurant but it was take the food a long to get. Costa having a show every day Evening. there a lot what to see on board and what to do. But Pizza on board is on additonal Payment. the service on board is good. on Information there staff that talking in multi languages. the loading and unloading was good and quick. and the shops on costa is quite good and recommanded to wait to last day for sales . very nice cruise maybe We'll go again

Good Cruise

Visiting the places we were interested in. Good value for money and suits all budgets.

Booking in was very efficient.

The ship it’s self was very ornate bars, lovely theatre & lounges. 

The food was ok if not fab, but bearing in mine the cost it was good value for money.

The cabin staff, lounge staff and restaurant were lovely.

What spoilt our experience somewhat was the aggressive attitude of the bar staff and some reception staff. We always treat all the staff with respect and a smile but some staff thought it was ok to be rude and aggressive. 

We did the Stockhol, Helsinki, St Petersburg, TAllinn stops and i would highly recommend these, take an extra day in Stockholm as there is plenty to see.

At this point I am not sure I would book Costa again, purely due to the number of times I encountered rude staff and saw how they behaved towards other passengers, even on 1 occasion to an elderly and frail lady.

Lovely ship let down by a few bad tempered staff

We visited Stockholm, St Petersburg, Tallinn and Helsinki.

This was a beautiful cruise that is very well organized in every aspect. I think it also gives you a great sense of Italy and their way of life and partying.

The only bad thing that I have to point out is that they have VERY small swimming pools on the ship, and this is a real problem when 3000 people want to swim at the same time.

I loved the food, Italian cuisine is famous worldwide and I think there is something to eat for everyone. :)))

And they have a WONDERFUL entertainment team which made me dance and stay awake every single night till God knows which hours.

Important to know: 

- You can link your credit card to your ship card and then don't have to worry about payment. 

- They have totems now, so you can book your excursions there.

- Embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly and without any crowds and problems.

I will definitely travel with Costa again!

"Suffering" Italian style

I decided to cruise with Costa because they offer affordable trips to Scandinavia. Unfortunately, this was by far the worst cruise I have ever been on. The ship itself was in pretty good condition. The inside felt cheap but comfortable. The ship's layout was fairly confusing and they were constantly ripping up carpet all over due to a bad smell. The inside cabin's are small but comfortable, and the balcony cabins are quite a bit larger with a nice view. 

As far as dining is concerned, don't expect much out of any meal except for seated dinners, which were mediocre at best. The buffet dining experience was miserable because of overcrowding and disgusting food. The "snack bar" consisted of sad looking frozen hot dogs and hamburgers. The pizza was pretty good (when it was free). The worst part about the dining situation on the Costa Magica was how much extra money you had to spend to have a good experience. Water is the only beverage included in a regular ticket besides the four juice options at breakfast. Charging extra money for alcohol is understandable, but only offering water for a 1500 E ticket is ridiculous. Oh, and don't expect a "late night snack" unless you want to fork over another 15 E after the buffet is closed.

The first few nights of on-board shows were some of the saddest I have ever seen. The shows at the end of the week were enjoyable, but not enough to make up for the nightmarish first three nights.

The service was consistently poor. Do not expect to be greeted as a guest, but rather as an annoyance. The waiters were not attentive, the service staff was rude, and the security staff have stares that make you want to be on a different planet. The only good service was the maid service.

Terrible Ship, Terrible Service, Terrible Costa

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