We had a balcony cabin on deck 8 and joined the Costa Victoria in Dubai. Overall we were very happy with the ship, the food and the customer service. The ship went into lockdown after a passenger was diagnosed with CoV19. Costa looked after passengers and crew very well in unprecdented circumstances for this century. The ship is appropriate for the fare charged. It is not the latest, biggest, most luxurious boat in the Costa fleet. It is however a good 'starter' cruise. This is our second cruise. Pre-lockdown The initial boarding went smoothly and was over very quickly. We had a short wait in the sun. The crew were very effecient, professional and welcoming. The ship has a patina to show that it has been around. I liked the ambiance of wood and white painted steel. Imagine you are on an 'old school' liner. The food was great. The ship was returning from an Indian cruise and there were lots of Indian dishes available. The 'international' buffet seemed to be very western European focused. We alternated between the Indian and the international buffetts and ate on the stern deck. We enjoyed every meal. The serving staff were great. The pizzas were delicous as well. Post lockdown As the Cov19 epedemic spread around the world ports were closing as we approached them. The captain did a great job keeping us informed. He ran two 'town hall' neetings with passengers, provided a daily PA update, written updates and took coffee each day in the passenger area where he spoke with every passenger that he could. The captain did all that was humanly possible for his passengers and crew. Costa provided every passenger with a 750 euro credit to be spent on the ship or to be transferred to our credit cards. Costa also paid for our charter flight from Rome to Perth, Australia. Costa reimbursed the cost of changing the embarkation port from Mali to Dubai. All considered, Costa looked after passengers very well. The crew remained professional and friendly throughout the event. Imagine that you are a long way from home. Your family in Bali and India rely on your income. You know that in a short time you will be going home with no job to a country enduring a pandemic with a poorly resourced health system. You could get ill at any time. Imagine if you would be able to maintain your friendly and effective proffesional persona while facing daily a bunch of seemingly wealthy passengers who are kicking up a fuss about missing ports and then being qurantiened in cabins. Gemma the English speaking liasion officer was great. Gemma kept smilling in some tricky and challenging conversations with passengers. Rivki (?) in the Fantasia restaurant looked after our specific needs very well. I reccomend Costa Victoria and wish Costa and the crew of Costa Victoria all the best. Thank you Captain, we hope to sail under you again. Read Less

Didnt end up sailing as cruise cancelled because of Coronavirus. Extremely rude, grumpy drink staff. Spent one night on board. Buffet was so small with well below average variety of food compared to other cruises I've been on. Food in dining room not good as well. Didnt get bread or coffee and having a drink card was a complete waste considering they dont serve cocktails or spirits in the dining room. Costa staff led us on to believe we were still sailing and very disappointing that the Captain didn't bother to make an announcement or an appearance at such a stressful time for passengers. Compared to other cruises it came out extremely well below average. Would not recommend Costa Cruise to anyone. Even in tough times staff should be friendly. They turned off air conditioning and at one stage NO soap in bathroom. If you asked a staff member where something was they didn't seem to know anything. Extremely disappointing, maybe a blessing the cruise was cancelled. Read Less

My experience with costa cruise would be the worst travel experience I have ever endured.only on the ship for 24 hours, never left the embarkation port before we were told to disembark. The process of passengers getting their documentation back was a debacle waiting in lines for several hours elderly persons fainting, no care for passengers welfare was apparent. After this Costa only wants to give passengers a voucher for future travel no refund. The one meal we had in the restaurant was nothing special and asking for water I incurred an outrageous cost. Before getting our passport back Costa demanded payment of 2 days gratuity The problems of cancellation could have been handled much better. We had a welcome to the cruise presentation, unlike other ships the captain or senior officer did not bother to present themselves to welcome guests. Not once did did did the captain get on the ships communications to speak with embarked passengers regarding problems with the cruise Read Less

We liked the itinerary and it was a good value. The ship is beautiful with lots of really wood. It was well maintained and spotless. The itinerary changes due to the Covid-19 virus were NOT THE FAULT OF COSTA, and we believe that the cruise line, the ship's officers and the amazing crew did all that could be done to keep us safe and informed. The in room food service while we were quarantined was delicious and the wine was appreciated. I still can't believe that the kitchen was able to provide so many meals to everyone and our food arrive hot and beautifully presented. My heartfelt thanks to the Chef and his staff. My only regret was that we did not have to opportunity to buy some of the outstanding photographs that were taken of us. I felt quite safe on the Costa Luminosa where disinfecting was done repeatedly every day. I did find that the US government-provided charter flight home was very risky and exhausting and that the CDC evaluation were not adequate. I understand that people are scared and angry, but taking it out on Costa is irrational. This was our 34th cruise. We thougt that the on board credit and future cruise discount were generous and we will cruise with Costa again - God willing. Read Less

We chose this cruise because it visited the Countries and Ports we really like. I contacted Costa on 29th February the day before flying into Singapore and they told me the cruise was going ahead as originally planned. We had heard via (Facebook) that Cambodia and Vietnam ports had already been canceled, and I suspected that Thailand and Malaysian Ports were also going to be canceled as well. We arrived in Singapore the next evening, only to be advised this was true, and that all guests were notified via email whilst we were all flying towards Singapore. This was very poor customer service on behalf of this Cruise line, as they put profit well ahead of their Customer Satisfaction and Care protocols. We arrived onto the ship on 3rd March, to a throng of staff wanting to sign us up to drinks packages Starting at 110 Euro per 40 x 200ml soft drink cans. This equated to AUS$5 per drink, and as we were told that NO table water would be available in the dining rooms for meals except breakfast, we were then encouraged to purchase two packages for the entire 16 days cruise. Two days later we arrived into our first Malaysian stop and the day was just stunning, we then moved onto Phuket Thailand when the drama then unfolded. Thailand denied access into Phuket, this then caused a domino effect with all ports thereafter denying us access. Costa advised all passengers that we were heading straight back to Singapore, where we would be bussed straight to the airport, and flown home 9 days early. Even Singapore didn't really want us! To Costas credit, they did organize our flights home early and gave us a cruise credit for the missed ports, however, Costa should have canceled this cruise before any guests had jumped onto a plane two days prior to our departure! They lied to me that ports had not been canceled, and didn't fess up until we all started boarding the ship. Being a regular Princess customer and knowing their very high customer Care standards, we were very disgusted with Costa in providing very minimal communications with their passengers and saw us all as captive guests to touch with every passing day. Would I cruise with Costa again, NO they have burnt me badly with their total lack of Customer Care, seeing all passengers as a fountain for their wealth, and very poor communication skills, they have seen our backs for life! Read Less

Having long wanted to visit the area of the Indian Ocean (Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, La Reunion) covered by this cruise, we were pleased to find the one operator, Costa, who seemed able to include all these in a two-week, very reasonably priced package in a circular cruise starting from Mauritius. We took the gamble of booking a reserved but unknown balcony cabin and were pleased to find it was no more expensive to book our own flights than pay for them via the cruise company, so we were able to spend a few days before and after the cruise in Mauritius. It was only after booking that we started to read the sometimes horrendous accounts of experiences on this ship on English-language websites including this one. So it was with some trepidation that we lined up to board on February 1st. To be fair, first impressions weren't great as we had to queue for nearly an hour in the heat under a canopy to check in, though there were accessible cold drinks during that time. Once inside , however, we were very pleased to find our spacious balcony cabin on Deck 6, with no restricted view. Suitcases went easily under the bed and generally there was easily enough storage room, also in the bathroom which is not always the case. The bed was quite hard but very comfortable and we slept extremely well throughout the cruise. The one disappointment in the room was the TV, most of whose numbered channels did not work or varied from day to day. It was only after a week that we discovered that channels like BBC World did exist on unannounced obscure numbers like 768 (!) which we came across purely by chance. Our cabin steward Juan from Honduras was always pleasant and helpful and kept the cabin clean. Part of our deal had been to leave open the dining time. To our dismay we found we had been allocated the 9pm sitting, but an immediate visit to the maitre d' on the first afternoon sorted that out and we had the earlier 6.30 sitting we wanted. We were allocated to a table for 8 which we shared with 3 Americans and later a Dutchman travelling alone. Fortunately we all got on very well and even shared a number of our own excursions. Opinions on our table about the food were mixed, but we thought that generally it was of a perfectly acceptable quality, the best dishes being the various pasta dishes ("primo piatto") and some very good desserts. Main courses were OK if less exciting. The theme over the two weeks was supposedly to showcase the cuisine of a different Italian region every night. Service was good and professional by the same dedicated waiters each night. Gustavo and Joseph were great in that respect and provided us with lots of "insider" information too! One annoying thing which Costa could certainly improve on is that there is no advance info on the dinner menu during the day, so you arrive blind and can't make an educated choice about your dining options on any one day. Our experience from previous cruises had taught us to avoid the buffet as much as possible and eat breakfast and lunch also in the main dining room. This was exactly the same here. Breakfast there was the same buffet choice each morning which was perfectly adequate but could have got repetitive for any more than two weeks, but was improved by a choice of British, American, Norwegian, Spanish etc. breakfasts which could be ordered separately. Lunch was by order and the only meal which on two occasions was very slow to be served. We only ventured up twice to the buffet for "special" lunches - a supposedly typical German lunch - so,so - and a Spanish paella lunch - quite good. On both occasions it was a nightmare to try to find somewhere to sit and eat. A small slightly quieter section of the buffet is set aside for the extra cost pizza meals which we used one evening and it was OK but no better than being downstairs in the main diner. There is also a special restaurant, the Medusa, on Deck 10 which tried to give off a very exclusive air. Mere plebs like us were not allowed in. I think it might have been possible to eat there for something like 40€ a head extra, though whether the menu was any different or better was hard to say. One issue which seemed to cause a lot of upset to some passengers was the way Costa charges for absolutely every "extra" - including items other cruise lines would consider basics, such as water with lunch and dinner or coffee after either (in the dining room). We were bombarded on board with offers for all sorts of drinks packages as well as the chance to pay extra for lobster, steak etc. Most fellow passengers seemed to be on one or more of these packages, but we didn't get one as you have to both buy the package for it to work. As my wife doesn't drink much, it worked out much cheaper for us to pay as we went e.g. for the odd cocktail, beer, lots of bottles of water and bottles of wine I got at dinner and made last for two or three days. While it is certainly galling to have to pay for a decent coffee after a meal and especially water with it, our view was that you have to work out the overall cost with the cabin and even paying for all these extras it still worked out much cheaper than other cruises would have been.(One piece of advice. Join the Costa Club on Day One. It doesn't cost you anything and you get 25% discounts on some drinks e.g. bottles of wine and 50% off some of the extra cost meals.) Our fellow passengers were the most internationally-mixed group we have travelled with before. Out of over 2000 passengers I was told only 18 were Brits with probably a similar number from the USA. So if you are an English native-speaker you have to adapt and quite rightly so. The largest group were French speakers, most of whom boarded in La Réunion. There were also many Italians and other Europeans. Announcements were therefore always in Italian, French, English, Spanish and German. As linguists, my wife and I had no problem with this. In fact it made it interesting to sit down at breakfast and lunch and talk to all sorts of people from several different countries. The multiplicity of languages does have some logical repercussions however on activities the ship can provide. It restricts the number and depth of "interest groups" which can take place. Despite this, we were pleasantly surprised that there was a very good craft group which met twice a day on ship days for about 30 minutes and my wife said it was very interesting and well run (by Corrado, an Italian with enough languages to keep everyone in line). Jean-Christophe, the resident destinations lecturer, gave good background talks on each of the destinations which he repeated to different audiences in English, French and Spanish. We only attended a few of the shows. mostly pleasant if not scintillating singers with mainly Italian, French and Spanish song repertoires. Also some quite good acrobats. The Osiris theatre itself is quite impressive over three floors and had very good sound and light effects. I went to quite a few of the quizzes, mostly picture-based questions to avoid the language issue. There was a good rep, Laura from Scotland, for the designated "English speakers" - which in effect meant everyone who was not French, Italian, German or Spanish. (They got their own reps as well). Otherwise information for each coming day is provided quite late each evening in the "Diario di Bordo". This comes in the various languages. However, what we did miss was a daily news print-out relevant to your home country in the various languages. All other cruises we have been on have provided this. Internet was available at the usual high cost, but we found we couldn't get the Costa system to work anyway, so gave up and just waited till we got to ports to log in. The gym was very adequate and mostly not too busy. I always like to walk round the deck and although you can't do that completely on Costa Mediterranea, you can manage an almost full circuit of about 500 metres on Deck 10 - easier in the early morning before all the loungers are out! The ship's decor takes some getting used to! It is very gaudy and completely over the top at times. So it's best just to laugh along with it. It is certainly geared up for lots of bars and dance floors. I found it strange, though not a problem, that all the main rooms, casino, theatre, restaurant were concentrated low down on Decks 2 and 3 with the majority of cabins higher up. Movement around was usually very good with an adequate number of lifts and disembarking at the ports was faster than I had expected. I can't say much about the ship's excursions as we just took the one which was really just a 20€ coach ride to drop you off for a few hours in St. Denis on La Réunion. Other people I spoke to complained about the cost of excursions and often their content too. We always try to be independent. The destinations were very good, also the fact that we had three overnights each allowing two consecutive days of sightseeing. On the Seychelles we drove our own hired car for the two days which worked out well. On Madagascar we had trips pre-booked with a local agency which took 5 of us in their minivan with English-speaking guide and were really enjoyable and instructive. On La Réunion on the first day we bartered with a minivan driver and 7 of us had a full day round the whole island and up to the Cirque de Salazie, fantastic views. So how to judge the overall experience? With the little niggles I have mentioned apart, I have to say we thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a balcony cabin for the first time, managed to find enough activities to keep us amused, met some great people, were satisfied with the food and, dare we say it, rather enjoyed not being in a totally anglophone environment for once. Yes, it's true that Costa is not as refined as many of the other cruiselines and if you are a stickler for "refinement" you will be disappointed. But it does what it sets out to do pretty well and at an amazingly reasonable price, much lower than we could have found for any other cruiseline plying these waters. So would we go on Costa again? If the itinerary were right, certainly. Read Less

I have been on 17 cruises and this was by far the worst I have ever been on. I purchased this cruise thru cruise builders (never again) and therefore I don’t know how much the cruise by itself cost us. We are a couple in our 50’s and we brought our two adult daughters. But Costa tries to charge for every little thing. You should not go hungry on a cruise and we did. The buffet is open only short periods of time through the day and it is the same every day. The sit down dinner was so bad. Food was terrible, the food in the buffet is better. We were at dinner for two hours and still hadn’t received our dessert. We decided to give it another try and the food was worse the second time. We didn’t return. On all other cruises we have been on pizza and ice cream are free and available a lot of the time. Burgers and fries are also available for free. And there are lots of free food options. The saying in the USA is that you will gain a pound of weight a day on a cruise and none of us gained weight. We actually brought snacks back on the ship. The food off of the ship at the ports was amazingly good. I understand that Costa pays their staff the worst of any cruise line and it shows. You have the least staff of any line we have been on. Costa is the least friendly and helpful. No one asks if you need a drink or anything else for that matter. I saw a photo lady trying to take a picture of some ladies and she was very rude to them when they expressed how they wanted to arrange themselves for their picture. She said, “This is Costa, I have to do it their way” (she said it in a super rude way). I felt bad for the ladies. I would have told her I was not interested in pictures anymore. Also, I saw a man approach some ladies and tell them they could not play cards in the buffet area. He was super rude. We are on vacation and paid a lot of money. We should not be treated like children and spoken to rudely. We are also told we can’t take food to our rooms or out of the dining area. Are you serious? We needed to stock up for the sea day because we knew that the dining room food was terrible. I was told by two other people, after I purchased the cruise, that Costa was terrible and they would never go again. We now feel the same. The ship was amazing and beautiful. The bands in the main hot tub and pool area were fantastic. I wish we could have the ship on a different cruise line. All the overhead loud announcements, in our room, each day new guests arrived was over the top. There should be a better way. The rooms were beautiful. We did not make a connection with our room steward like we normally do. We did not ever formally meet them. Getting on and off for excursions was easy and good. Why couldn’t we give a credit card on file before the cruise. We had to take time out to sign up our credit card, after we got on the ship. That has always been put in during registering for the cruise when we put in our passport info and emergency contact info. Why do we have to wait to collect our luggage until after all the luggage is set out for each color (stupid rule). If they are so concerned check the luggage tags against the tags that are torn off. I guess in Italy people don’t use washcloths, that’s okay I just used the hand towel to wash my face. We usually get shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion in the rooms and there was just hand soap and one wash in the shower for hair and body, no conditioner. And there is usually a fridge with soda, water and alcohol for purchase and there was not even a fridge. This was not a big deal to us. With our package it stated USAwater meaning that we could get tap water for free, but we were also charged for this. We had a wonderful time at all of the ports. We made great memories with our daughters. But Costa won’t see us again. Read Less

We were really excited to be going on the Costa Fortuna cruise ship. We arranged for the appropriate visas for Cambodia, travel insurance and up to date passports as these were required documentations BY COSTA, otherwise you would be denied boarding the cruise. Well to start off, we were NOT EVEN ASKED for these documentations upon arrival and second, WE DID NOT NEED TO DO THE VISAS AS COSTA WOULD HAVE ARRANGED THE VISA WHILE ON BOARD. The food was horrible, at the buffet and for 2 weeks it was same for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the so called bacon they served was burnt that it looked like it was cremated. Coffee was only served at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Other cruise we did had coffee and snacks available 24/7. Bad luck if you went on an excursion and returned late as after 2pm doors were closed and reopened at 7pm. Hand sanitizers in the eating areas were often empty or broken. With the Corona virus around you would think that COSTA would have someone at each point where the sanitizers were to insure people used them before entering the buffet area but not one attended was ever present Now, for the dinner reservation at the fancy restaurants, well the meals were not that spectacular either, you had to pay for the water where it was free in the buffet. The constant Italian music, daily games which were more like you play at a kid’s parties were in Italian. The nightly shows in the theatre again were in Italian and again were not spectacular, people walked out numerous times. Restrooms are so hard to find they were hidden outside in a corner because they blended in with the wallpaper. The staffs at the reception desk were arrogant and not very helpful and would get irritated if you asked them a question. Every day an argument would occur between guests and staff. Take the case of the daily mandatory fee of 10 Euros per person per day for services in cleaning the cabins {doing the beds and showers}. I guarantee that the sheets had not been changed not once in the 14 days we were there With so many of us complaining, a meeting was arranged with an English speaking lady from hospitality. When asked about the visas we were asked to do for Cambodia, she replied that Costa does not ask guests to do visas as they are arranged by COSTA FORTUNA for a fee of 40 Euros for everyone whether they were going ashore or NOT. When I presented a copy of the email I had received from Costa her response after reading was, THAT’S UNFORTUNITE FOR YOU Yes it was unfortunate as it all cost us $150 each person. Another question was raised by a fellow passenger regarding the so called 10 Euros per person for room cleaning. We were told it is a gratuity fee that goes to the cleaners. We already paid $ gratuity. Passengers were not happy and when they complained, we were told, “IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE SHIP YOU CAN GET OFF. For a couple of seconds everyone sat there looking stunned at what they heard then all hell broke loose. We were in the middle of the ocean, where did she expect us to go. At the end of the cruise all English speaking guests were to attend a meeting for brief instructions on the day of disembarkation We were ALSO instructed and I quote again, TO RATE COSTA FORTUNA a 10 because if we DON’T, the crew members will NOT RECEIEVE THERE BONAS. Costa Fortuna THAT IS BRIBERY. NOT going to do what you asked. Worse cruise ever. COSTA FORTUNA WAS A BIG MISTAKE. So if you’re thinking of doing a cruise with them you better think twice. Read Less

I went on the Costa Smeralda cruise to the Mediterranean with three friends. We had two premium balcony cabins with the upgraded drink package. We found the ship to be beautiful, the service to be excellent, and the on board activities to be lots of fun! We had read the awful reviews and were prepared for the worst. To out delight, the cruise couldn't have gone more smoothly. Embarkment and disembarkment were the easiest I've ever encountered and I've been on several other cruises. The ship was clean and the cabins were larger than others I'd stayed in. We always had our breakfast delivered to our rooms as we left the ship early each day to go on excursions. We were able to get coffee, butter, or anything else that we wanted. We often ate lunch on shore, but when we did eat in the dining room we found there to be many wonderful choices. For dinner, we ate in the regular dining room three times and tried the specialty restaurants the other nights. We didn't mind paying a little extra for finer dining, as the cruise was very cheap to begin with. We enjoyed the casino, the special theme nights, the dance parties, and the overall ambiance of the ship. I would definitely recommend this cruise to others looking for a good time at a great price. Read Less

We were really excited to be going on the costa fortuna cruise ship. We arranged for the appropriate visas for cambodia, travel insurance and up to date passports as these were required documentations by costa, otherwise you would be denied boarding the cruise. Well to start off, we were not even asked for these documentations upon arrival and second, we did not need to do the visas as costa would have arranged the visa while on board. The food was horrible, at the buffet and for 2 weeks it was same for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the so called bacon they served was burnt that it looked like it was cremated. Coffee was only served at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Other cruise we did had coffee and snacks available 24/7. Bad luck if you went on an excursion and returned late as after 2pm doors were closed and reopened at 7pm. Hand sanitizers in the eating areas were often empty or broken. With the Corona virus around you would think that COSTA would have someone at each point where the sanitizers were to insure people used them before entering the buffet area but not one attended was ever present Now, for the dinner reservation at the fancy restaurants, well the meals were not that spectacular either, you had to pay for the water where it was free in the buffet. The constant italian music, daily games which were more like you play at a kid’s parties were in italian. The nightly shows in the theatre again were in italian and again were not spectacular, people walked out numerous times. Restrooms are so hard to find they were hidden outside in a corner because they blended in with the wallpaper. The staffs at the reception desk were arrogant and not very helpful and would get irritated if you asked them a question. Every day an argument would occur between guests and staff. Take the case of the daily mandatory fee of 10 euros per person per day for services in cleaning the cabins {doing the beds and showers}. I guarantee that the sheets had not been changed not once in the 14 days we were there With so many of us complaining, a meeting was arranged with an english speaking lady from hospitality. When asked about the visas we were asked to do for cambodia, she replied that costa does not ask guests to do visas as they are arranged by costa fortuna for a fee of 40 euros for everyone whether they were going ashore or not. When i presented a copy of the email i had received from costa her response after reading was, that’s unfortunite for you yes it was unfortunate as it all cost us $150 each person. Another question was raised by a fellow passenger regarding the so called 10 euros per person for room cleaning. We were told it is a gratuity fee that goes to the cleaners. We already paid $ gratuity. Passengers were not happy and when they complained, we were told, “if you don't like the ship you can get off. For a couple of seconds everyone sat there looking stunned at what they heard then all hell broke loose. We were in the middle of the ocean, where did she expect us to go. At the end of the cruise all english speaking guests were to attend a meeting for brief instructions on the day of disembarkation we were also instructed and i quote again, to rate costa fortuna a 10 because if we don’t, the crew members will not receive there bonas. Costa fortuna that is bribery. Not going to do what you asked. Worse cruise ever. Costa fortuna was a big mistake. So if you’re thinking of doing a cruise with them you better think twice. Read Less

Part of a package of 4 Cruises. We are a couple in our mid 70s who have been on several cruises and this is our first Costa Cruise. Cabin - spacious. Crew - overworked but wonderfully friendly, courteous and helpful. However, *No ice- bucket in cabin in spite of it being a Premium Balcony - whatever Premium means in the Mediterranean. The fridge was not called. *We only had dinner at the Michelangelo on the first night. Menu had an item Char Kuay Teow - the first time it was presented at the table it was stodgy fried rice. On the second attempt it turned out to be gluggy yellow noodles. No one in the dining room or galley knew what Char Kuay Teow ought to be. We requested for water and were told we had to pay for it - yes, plain water. Never had another meal there during the 2 week cruise. *Insipid coffee and God knows from where tea is provided during breakfast and evening tea sessions. No coffee, hot water or tea at other times - machines are off and tea packets and mugs removed. * So called maintenance work. In fact, there were preparing the ship for the European summer. Sanding of wooden bannisters near the public pool areas in spite of people being around. Chisseling away rust - clanging away does not make for a wonderful holiday experience. Followed by paint fumes - anti- rust, primer and overcoat. For 4 nights we got notices that the cabin balconies would be subject to maintenance work - imagine what a glorious time we had with the crew walking past the cabin balconies on a regular basis. We advised to close the curtains from 8.30 am to 3.30pm - just nice to be gloominess. *(Not the fault of the Cruise Line) Most of the passengers have not understood the word courtesy - please, sorry, excuse me (in any of the European languages will be understood and welcomed. Queue - many have not heard that word either. Behaviour of many reflects what some travel writers refer to as, " The village visiting the city". Though mzny villagers are more refined than city folks. *Food - plentiful but the few same items seem to be presented in the different themed areas. Example - roasted chicken in the Burger section, and in the grill section and in the main buffet area and in the Indian/oriental corner. * Embarkation - all the cruises we have been on have crew directing new passenges to their cabins. We had to find our own way. Will we go on a Costa Cruise? No. Read Less

We booked this Far East Asia cruise six months ago after seeing it advertised in our local newspaper. It was included in a package with return flights to Singapore and was priced very reasonably. We always check reviews before making holiday bookings (cruises, hotels etc) but in this instance we didn't until after we had booked. After reading the many negative reviews about the Costa Fortuna we became a little concerned but decided to go with an open mind, simply "take things as they come" and be prepared for the worst. Big surprise!! The cruise proved to be one of the best out of the several that we have done. We thought we must have been on a different ship to the one all the negative reviewers had been on. Even though we didn't check any reviews before making the booking we did check out everything else possible about the cruise and ship online before the cruise commenced. We cannot believe that people weren't aware of the 10Euros per day mandatory service charge, or that you had to pay for water in the restaurants etc (we didn't because we had pre-booked a Piu Gusto drinks package) or that they didn't realise it was an Italian cruise line, hence lots of Italian dishes (which were varied and tasty) .... all this information is readily available online!!! Our balcony cabin was roomy, comfortable, very clean and the fridge worked fine. Only complaint was that the cabin's air-conditioning didn't work as well as we would have liked, especially in the mornings. The public areas of the ship were nice and cool but our cabin sadly wasn't. The crew on the whole were friendly and helpful but like can happen on any cruise ship one or two appeared to have a bit of attitude, however that certainly didn't stop us enjoying the cruise overall as most of them always greeted you with a smile. The bar staff were amazing and we also loved the way the wait staff took our drinks order, keyed it in on their little gadgets and bingo a few minutes later the drinks arrived from the bar. The cocktails could not be faulted and were definitely not short on alcohol content!! We were more disappointed in some of the passengers than in the crew when it came to manners. The way in which some passengers treated the crew was plain rude . No "pleases" or "thank yous" when they were served food and drinks and this was not just by the European passengers either but across many the nationalities on board. The theatre shows were great; sure, not all of them but the entertainment was varied and there was pretty much "something for everyone". We would definitely do another Costa cruise on either the Fortuna or one of their other ships in the future. Read Less

Positives. Staff. Top class. Waiters - Excellent especially - Dining Melvic Z and Jansen Nicolas along with others we made good contact with and there was several of them. Thank you boys and girls - bar. Sheila, Jennifer, Araminda and lots of others whose names I didnt remember! Shows - Excellent and fresh- no repeats! and wide variety all done by staff who also had other duties. The energy!!!! Music - lots of it and various styles and in many venues Communication - excellent altho in up to 7 different languages. ( remember its an Italian ship) so obviously everything was in Italian then other languages followed. Service desks- excellent. Dining rooms - excellent choices, flavours and presentation and energectic entertainment was a hit with all -Buffet. Many choices and styles of food and never a shortage in quantity or quality! Variety of drinks with in each package was very good. The range of coffees, teas and juices was great. Only one type of beer avail by the glass The effort that went into keeping the Ship free of the CV-19 was commendable. Some of the ports of call were extremely good. Others interesting. Some activities had the gloss taken off only due to the language barriers. Negatives wine- Maybe better quality? Why not water available free as duty of care? the water available from the Buffet was not nice as it was heavily chlorinated not filtered, and not always available. I was of the understanding the buffet area was open for longer hours than it seemed to be, Some one apparently did complain and it was open longer for the 2nd part of our trip. No quiet zone any were except in your room to chill out in.Only place was on deck 5 with the smokers - no thank you. A quiet lounge/seating area with soft music and view outside would have been magic Difficult at the service desks from time to time to hear while the music was blaring! Internet. super expensive. Rating? still 10/10 from us Read Less

We boarded the ship in Barcelona and our immediate thought was that the ship was stunning. The staff were excellent and our restaurant waiter Chi was great. Food was of a very high standard in our assigned restaurant. The buffet restaurant, while it had lots of choice, was a revelation.... Lots of queues, people pushing and shoving, over crowded and really not a pleasant experience most of the time. Tea, coffee and water was only available at breakfast, so unless you bought a drinks package, you would have to pay for these throughout the day. Having said that, there are 3 different drinks packages, we had the basic, unknown to us when we booked an all inclusive cruise. While I could order prosecco, by the glass, at the bar, in the restaurant I would have to pay for it... Crazy!!! Also couldn't get a cocktail on this package... You have to bear in mind that this is an Italian ship, so most entertainment was in Italian and therefore we could not avail of some of the shows. The ship has a new concept, that at every port, passengers disembark and new passengers embark... This resulted in safety drills each day, which became quite a nuisance.. Lots of confusion between these passengers, crowds trying to get into lifts at the same time, which one day I felt was dangerous and frightening. The ship is huge and while you get a map, we still managed to get lost each day... Lol.. The pools are not suitable for swimming as they are too small but fine for the children. Would I book this ship again - no.. but that's a personal choice. However we still enjoyed our cruise.. Read Less

poor as already expected "If you go on a cruise for the first time you might find the Costa Mediterranea great. But in my case , i had been at a Royal Caribean Cruise before , and i had already this impression that Costa wouldn't be at the same level... and in fact i was not mistaken.... i was travelling at Costa Mediterranea from 14 to 29/2 and the reason was because i was very much interested in the itinerary, so i thought it was worth trying, It started right from the beggining , when i felt massified among lots of people that behaved like animals in the eating time . Costa Mediterranea has a poor buffet , in terms of quality , and organization . Sometimes was kind of chaotic the lunch time, no place to seat , food was not located in the same room , so we had to look for fruit or other in other corners /rooms. i also remark the rudness of the Cruise Director , an austrian member of the crew that was scolding an young man of the crew that was explaining to us how to access internet , and he was using a table , and this rude director said to him that the table was not there for this purpose ... even seeing that he was talking to us ...he didn't care we were watching his ruduness.. but the worse thing was still about to come: i bought 3 packs of 1 GB internet each , that costed 65€/each , and in my account board there were invoiced 5 packs.... one of it , it had been consumpted in 1 hour!!! when i was only reading my emails and sending some whatsapp messages/phone calls , it was not possible to use 1 GB in such a short period of time. I have claimed and explained this , but they didn't accept the claim by saying that they confirmed the 2 extra puchases had been made by my mobil phone, so i had to pay. One person of my group that only bought a pack of 25€ for social networks , was debited 110€ correspondant to a 3 GB pack , and he also claimed because he didn't buy that pack ... and they said that was a mistake , so the debit was cancelled. i understand that internet in Costa Cruisers doesn't work properly , so my advise to every passenger traveling with Costa is to not to buy internet packs on board or to check on a dayly basis and carefully the board account to avoid these problems and not to have unpleasant surprises. the only positive moment and service , was the entertainement shows in the evenings, they were good and well performed. However , this was not enough to have a global positive opinion , so i wouldn't reccomend Costa Cruise at all in particular Costa Mediterranea" Read Less

We choose this cruise as we wanted to sample their new flag ship, having cruised twice before on the Diadema, We were at the time able to book a cabin for 5, having done so on the Diadema where we had 1,5 bathrooms and 5 proper beds, we expected the same if not better! Embarkation went really well, and we loved the parking at Savonna. However a few more signs would really help. The cabin 5070 was only a cabin for a max 4 people, only 1 bathroom - with the glass showing through to the cabin - I know there is a curtain but with kids who think it is fun to play with, it doesn't feel relaxing! Well to accommodate our 5th person, we had a camp bed along side the bunk beds, so no space between the dressing table which meant we couldn't get to the window. So after several visits to the reception desk we were offered a second room for free. Great you may say, however Cabin 5076 was just below the Theatre, which had a disco until 2am on one night the noise and vibration was so bad I called reception where I was offered earplugs! Dining was great. This time we tried the Pizza place which we found excellent, better designed than on Diadema. However lunch in the buffet restaurant was too popular for the size of the restaurant, with queues to enter, then it closing for afternoon tea. Needs to be re thought. Bars - could do with more staff. Swimming pools. On the day of arrival the slides were open, however they were closed for the rest of the cruise due to poor weather. This I would dispute as we had blue skies and temperatures like on the first day on many of the days of the cruise. The Ship only has 4 indoor Jacuzzis which were 4 place, no under 16's - meant the swimming pool was full of little children and 1 x 8 man outside Jacuzzi which was always full. They need more outside Jacuzzis. The designers also placed the indoor showers on a level which flooded the seating area floor ( needs to have a tray to keep the water in). Entertainment - shows were short. There is no 4D Cinema, laser quest, F1 only a small games room, however they did have a kids/teens club which our kids did not try. Shopping on board also seemed poor, lack of choice, shops were not enticing enough. Would we go again - no on the Smeralda, yes with Costa. They have just built too many cabins at the expense of public areas. Read Less

After reading all of the negative reviews for this cruise we were very apprehensive about our trip. Our experience was quite different than the reviews I read and I feel compelled to write my own. This was our 12th cruise. We have previously sailed on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney, and MSC. This was our 3rd cruise out of a European port. The other two were on MSC and Royal Caribbean. We are from the US but have been living in Eastern Europe for the last two years. During our time living abroad we have visited 24 different countries. The first thing everyone needs to understand is that Costa is a European cruise line. It is not an American cruise line and really shouldn’t be compared to an American line. The level of service and the food were right on par with what we’ve come to expect when traveling throughout Europe. They cater to the European demographic as that is their main clientele. It is not uncommon for European cruise lines to embark/disembark in each port. The announcements are first made in Italian but were all repeated in English (with the exception of a few where they announced “for crew only” at the beginning). Every crew member that we encountered spoke English. They were all friendly, polite, and respectful. The food was good and always served hot. Keep in mind that the food is prepared toward European tastes. We have found that they tend to use less spice and less salt. Also, butter is only served upon request because it’s not common for them to butter their bread and the butter will not be salted because salted butter does not exist in Europe (at least from what I have been able to find in the grocery stores). I cannot speak for breakfast dining because we opted to have breakfast delivered to our room every day - the crab eggs Benedict is delicious! As for lunch, there are multiple options available for sit down table service (two dining rooms offered table service every day) or buffet style. The schedule is listed in the Oggi each day. We chose to eat in our assigned dining room each night and did not feel the need to try the speciality dining. It is true that there is no free pizza, not even on the children’s menu. It is true that there are no free burgers on the dinner menu, but they are included on the children’s menu. Also, hamburger patties (no buns) are available in the family buffet on deck 16. There is also no free ice cream, again not even on the children’s menu. In fact they did not offer any special desserts for kids like cookies, brownies, or Jello. The gelato on board can be purchased for €1.5 per scoop which was cheaper than we found in any of the ports. It seems that the lack of table cloths is a complaint for many but personally, I’ll trade the elegance that they add for the positive environmental impact of not having them. Our 7yr old went to the kids’ club several times and had a great time; she even found other children who spoke English. Our 13yr old was not interested in participating in the teen events and activities so I can’t provide any feedback there. The swimming facilities are definitely lacking for a ship this size. There is one small indoor pool and only four hot tubs; they were always packed. There are two small outdoor pools and the water is heated but again they were often crowded. The biggest disappointment for our kids was that we only saw the water slides open one time the entire week and unfortunately it was on our embarkation day so the kids never got a chance to try them out. The gym appears to be somewhat small, but we went 5 times (always in the morning around 9 or 10) and it was not crowded. There were always open machines and the best selection of kettlebells I have ever seen on a cruise ship. We also used the jogging track 3 times and found that most people were respectful of it’s purpose and would move out of the way. Of course, like every other ship there were also the oblivious few who had no clue or no desire to move and the rudest of rude that think the jogging track is a good place to hang out and smoke. We booked a balcony guarantee but were some how extremely fortunate and were assigned to a grand suite. The room was incredible! On Costa, when you receive a room upgrade, it does not include the upgraded amenities. However, for just a one time fee of €100 we were given the option to add the butler service. It was beyond worth it! Our butler and our room steward were fabulous. Our room was always spotless. We had the Brindiamo drink package and found that it was sufficient for us. You don’t get to choose your wine - you get whatever red, white, or sparkling that they give you. We found that it did vary at times and while perhaps not the best it was definitely drinkable. We only did one shore excursion which was Pisa on Your Own. It was a good experience and I’m glad we went. Two of the ports are “non-pedestrian” and a free shuttle is offered in those ports. Some of the other ports have an optional shuttle that is way overpriced. We chose to stay on the ship in Marseille as we had been before and didn’t feel it was worth the transportation cost to head into town. Barcelona is a fairly long walk but definitely doable and we chose this option. Palma de Mallorca is also a long walk. We took a taxi into town as it was WAY cheaper (at least for a family of 4) than the shuttle but we chose to walk back. Overall, this was a great cruise! Read Less

It is different from American cruising but, I got use to the environment being a bit on the cold side, I don't mean temperature wise but the coldness of the staff. Only the room attendants would automatically speak to you. Officer's would walk right past and not look at or acknowledge you. It seemed that they were scared you might ask them something and they really didn't want to be bothered. Service was functionary with no showing of spontaneous friendliness shown. My partner did not like the Costa style at all. The ship definitely could use a good updating. Poor, small TV one has not seen in years that mostly played in black and white. Pink and maroon bathroom that has seen much better days. I had booked a guaranteed balcony and was given a cabin with a slightly larger balcony next to area where the back of the ship jets out. The ship did not appear to be full so, I am sure that's why we got that cabin. I had no complaint with their choice.. The buffet was confusing at first but, we got use to the routine and time scheduling. After a couple of days, though,the food did become monotonous. Main dining room was again functionary. The staff worked quick and fast delivering the food and grabbing away the finished plates. We, Americans, were given water with our dinner. There were six courses but the portions are so tiny you barely had a taste of what you had ordered. We were seated in the 3rd floor dining room so, we could not see any of the entertainment the dining staff put on. I joked with the other couple we were seated with, that we were the leftovers and that was why we were at the catch-all table set for 10 in the back of the room. Oh, my God. The theater was awful for viewing the stage entertainment if you sat up in the balcony. People were constantly jumping up and moving from one row to another in attempt to get better viewing seats. Whoever designed that theater did an awful job. The children on board looked like they were enjoying themselves every time I saw them. There was line dancing and other activities but I didn't participate in those. We didn't go on any of the ship excursions. I would go on Costa again for the right itinerary with the right price with the knowledge that I couldn't expect any pampering, just functionary "doing a job" treatment. Read Less

I had high hopes about my first cruise with Costa. Needless to say they were wasted. This 2 week cruise was part of a six week package which incuded 4 weeks with P&O. Information about the Costa cruise line was sparse as my booking agent had not had dealings with them before. So here's your feedback. Pay for water! No free tea or coffee after breakfast! Surly staff who don't like to deal with English speaking passengers. Very few announcements in English. Very class oriented ship. Everything is in Euros, in Asia? Mandatory service charge of 10 euros EACH per day that no-one knew about before boarding, supposedly to encourage staff to work harder. Any redeeming qualities are far outnumbered by the bad. I have personally not had a worse cruise. And this mob want to break into the Australian cruise market? Not a chance Costa. We won't want you. Read Less

Chose Costa because we’ve tried Royal Caribbean and P& O so wanted to try a different cruise line and because of the value for money it offered. Almost cancelled because of coronavirus ( more a fear of being isolated in our ( inside) cabin for 14 days, rather than catching the virus) and because of all the negative reviews that we didn’t read before we booked it, but SO glad we didn't! This cruise was so much fun! Staff were excellent and couldn’t do enough for us from the cabin steward to the ships doctor and everyone in between! Particular mention to the bar staff in the Grand Bar, Mark Anthony, Dani, Armando and Glady who went above and beyond to ensure we enjoyed ourselves and our cabin steward, Mark, who was constantly there to direct us to our cabin. The entertainment and restaurant staff were fantastic and full of fun, particularly the lunchtime staff who made us feel SO special! Guest services staff were also wonderful despite doing a difficult job; lost my iPhone on second day which would have been disastrous for me but they pulled out all stops and eventually it was found on a tender and returned to me. Also had occasion to use the hospital and the elderly doctor in particular was charming, helpful, reassuring and solved the problem without making us feel like a nuisance ( which happened on a previous P & O cruise). A word of warning though- take out travel insurance; hospital visit was expensive! Most tours can be organised from the ports which is a much cheaper way of doing things; Costa tours are expensive. In summary, this was a fantastic ship and cruise and was great value for money. Costa Fortunas main strength lies in its wonderful staff who are hard working, full of fun and energy and obliging and I would not hesitate to cruise with them again. Read Less

We chose this cruise due to the locations it offered compared with other cruise lines. We embarked Costa Victoria in Male (Maldives). Due to it being an Italian cruise company, often English translations were forgotten about. The ship is tired and would benefit from a re-fit. The cabins were tired looking with what I would class as unsafe electrical sockets (loose). Compared with other cruise lines we have travelled with the food was very basic and what I would describe as a school canteen at times (however I think a school canteen would provide a better standard of food and selection) I would give it a 1/10 . Entertainment was of a poor standard. I have rated it this as poor due to previous experience with other cruise lines and they could do with booking on with their competitors to see how it should be done. Service staff were very friendly and eager to please, however you couldn’t sit for a meal without a hard sell to purchase Lobster or other exclusive dining. Ports and tour excursions were fantastic, however o could be biased as the Ports were places that we wanted to visit Would I travel with Costa again?, certainly not. Read Less

This ship deserves MUCH better reviews than it’s getting. The food and entertainment knock it down from a 5 to 4. Us: 30-60 years of age Cruise date: February 2020 Decor: This is the most beautiful and trendy ship I’ve been on. Tons of attention to detail. I loved the design. Amazing seating areas - there are hammocks, and little tucked away areas, sunbeds, loungers, plush seating, clamshells, the list goes on and on. The lounge area at the pool has amazing furniture. Restaurants: You have to figure out the eating times for the restaurants. Basically, there is no free food available from 1030-12, 3-4, and 5-630. Yes - you have to plan your day around those. They do this on purpose - to make money! But come on, do we really absolutely NEED 24 hours a day food? We don’t. The food: The food in general could be SO MUCH better with some basic seasoning, sauces, and cooking it without overcooking it. Breakfast: We usually had breakfast in the buffet. It was totally fine. Nothing special was there but you can get your meats, cheeses, omelets made to order, fried eggs to order, and a nice roasted ham. And oh my there were a lot of pastries and people seemed to love that. Breakfast in the dining room is no better (in fact, I think it’s worse) than the buffet. Essentially you get taken to your seat, but then you have to go to a smaller buffet set up at the side of the restaurant. Not worth it - stick to the buffet. Lunch: Decent. Some things were good. The meat was ok but tended to be overcooked. No sauces. Sauces seemed to be lacking in general here, but maybe that’s just our personal taste. Pasta station was ok - but you have to ask them to add the chili, oils, and garlic which are sitting on the side, if you actually want it to have flavour. Between 4 and 5 most days, they open for afternoon snack, which is pretty terrible, but if you’ve come back from an excursion and just need a bite to eat, you’re desperate, so they take advantage of it by offering poor food. The focaccia is good though. Dinner: Dining room is lovely to look at. But the experience is extremely lacking. When we are on other cruises - the dinner is an experience. You have time with the menu, they take your drink order, you finish the meal with another drink or coffee/tea. If you love something, you order another, or if you don’t love it, you try a different entree. Not so here. It was quick - here’s the menu - quick - choose. No chance to order drinks - you had to beg to get anything other than water. Food was occasionally decent, but 80% of the time, it was overcooked or lacking in flavour. I can cook better food than that, and I’m no chef. No check in to see if you enjoyed it or wanted something different. After the meal I had the audacity to ask for tea. The assistant waiter literally just looked at me then disappeared. 15 minutes he came back with tea - no cream/sugar. I had to ask for that. He seemed to be surprised that I would even ask for such a thing. This should sort of be standard. I get that they have timing to deal with - but having a small coffee/tea station does not really cost money or much time. We thought - well maybe we’ll go to the buffet - maybe it will be better. But the buffet is only open 8-930pm and there’s really only one section of hot food then mediocre cold salads. So you can’t replace dinner with it unless you’re prepared to eat late (which we Canadians were not). It can supplement though. Specialty: only tried the Teppanyaki for something different. Totally good. It was entertainment as well. Food was tasty and different. Since we had Brindiamo they kept filling up our wine without us asking, which was nice! Finally really good service at dinner. Entertainment: Yes, the Colosseo is a JOKE for seeing the shows due to the lack of visibility. Nice idea in concept but not good in practice. They need to move shows elsewhere. There is not a true “show” every night. We pretty much just ignored the entertainment schedule. The acrobats were good when they actually had a show. Pools: Many pool options. Many had a “shelf” where people could lounge or small children could play. The main pool area had the solarium roof which was perfect - we got the sun streaming in, but without the weather. The pool areas in the winter of course are not packed at all. Room: Balcony cabin. We had a cabin on the 5th floor. Yes - you should know that on this floor - the balconies are “classic” - meaning - they have a roof and walls - essentially completely enclosed - and smaller than the premium balconies. Fairly small but you can fit 3 people out there. We actually liked this BETTER in the winter as we weren’t looking to suntan anyways and this way, we were protected from the wind and the other elements. They fixed the problem with the shower being open to the room - they’ve put a curtain on. It’s still not perfect as light streams in from the bathroom (so say, if someone needs the light in the middle of the night, the other person in the room gets the light streaming in). That still could be improved. Layout was good. The TV should be put on a swivel so that you can actually see it from the sofa. Bathroom was adorable with good shelves and counter space. No fridge in the rooms (not sure if this is normal for Costa, but on Carnival we are used to a fridge). Drinks: We’re not big drinkers but there was a promotion on when we booked, where you get the Brindiamo included if you book balcony cabins. That ended up really being nice. I don't really get what people are talking about in terms of the drink package being confusing. There are menus that clearly have different colour dots. We had the lowest package Brindiamo and could only drink the stuff with a teal dot. Essentially lower end spirits and very few cocktails. But once you figure that out, it's fine. Things like wine, beer, rum &coke, gin&tonic, vodka&orange were all included. The amount of alcohol in it was perfectly appropriate - didn’t taste watered down. The cappuccinos were very good and included. The breakfast area only has the automated machines - so if you want a real cappuccino in the morning - head to the Nutella bar at the pool area or the Illy bar on the 6th floor. Excursions: most are dual language - so you’ll be on a tour with both English and say French speakers. Yes - this means you will have to be patient in listening to the other language. Mostly not a problem. One tour that we went on, though, the woman would speak in Italian for say 10 minutes and in English for like 1, but this was her issue, and not the excursions in general. Excursions were totally adequate. We didn’t expect much. We tried three - Arles/Provence from Marseille, the Palma walking tour, and Civita di Bagnoregio from Civitavecchia (we already had 3 days planned in Rome at the end of our trip, so we didn’t want to go to Rome this day). Initial embarkation: We embarked in Savona. Came from the train station - took a taxi for the set rate of 15 euros to the cruise terminal. Very confusing about where to go, which forms to fill out, once we got there. We made the mistake of not printing our check in forms and that was the end of the world as we had to re-do everything. Which makes no sense - it should all be in the computer (I had checked in online, just didn’t print it). But all in all, it didn’t take that long. For some reason, they put your card in your room and then leave your door unlocked. One in our party had the wrong card so had to go to reception to get it sorted it out - they should just deal with that when you check in - give you your card then, so if there’s a problem, you deal with it then. Going to reception in general is a bit of a headache. Daily embarkation/debarkation: AMAZING. I was very impressed. We were on and off within 5 minutes every time. Where a shuttle was necessary to get to town, it was usually right there and very easy to find. They were efficient with lineups even with the metal detector. Especially considering they’re getting about 1000 people every port checked out and checked in, it’s amazing that they can do it that efficiently. Service: Totally in line with most of the other cruises we’ve been on. (Exception is the dining room, like I said.) There’s always a few surly people on every cruise line, but in general most people were smiling and very helpful, in multiple languages. They had to put up with people asking the same questions EVERY DAY (because, unlike most cruises, this cruise lets people embark any day during the week), so they’re doing a great job. There are some kinks that need to be ironed out, but we already saw an improvement than the way that other people described the processes in the first 10 reviews on this site. So that’s good. They’re listening. Other: They keep your passport all week if you are non-European. You’ll get it back at about 8am on your debarkation day. If you’ve never been on a non-American cruise line: Yes - there are people of all nationalities on here! A lot of Italians, French, German, etc. Many of the announcements are done in all languages. The game show style shows are all in Italian with a bit of other languages here and there. You just have to get used to it. The general style of everything caters to Europeans. If you want an American-style cruise ship, go on an American cruise ship! Easy solution. Overall: I wish the food was better - if it was, I would go on this ship over and over again. I can’t believe the 1 star reviews we saw before we embarked. We loved our experience. It was GREAT cruising in winter - I would definitely do that again (although we did have extra good weather). All in all - a very good experience. Read Less

The ship is beautiful. New, lots of bars, modern and clean. Plus the port stop offs are lovely. Plenty of time to walk around. We do recommend purchasing shuttle buses at the port information desks rather than on ship as way cheaper. No need to pay for excursions, just the shuttle buses into the cities needed and you can find your own way around. The staff work hard and are helpful. Our room cleaner was brilliant. For the last three days, he shaped animals out of the towels! So whenever we walked in to a clean room, we found one on our bed. Really made us smile. However Costa are focused on taking your money at every turn, including extra €10 daily fee per person. With careful spending, we ended up with extra €340 bill upon disembarking. And that’s without a single alcoholic drink. As soon as you get on board, they push drink packages which cost hundreds of Euros. Choose carefully and come with plenty of extra cash! They charge for everything. Even when you choose a package for the internet (which of course is pricey), then also charge an extra 3 Euros for the pleasure of starting the internet package which you're already paying for??! The entertainment is really lacking, just one 30 minute show each evening. That was the most disappointing thing on board (aside from the money they take from you). Hardly any dance classes until the day at sea. No dance music or live music for the under 65s. Thankfully we found a really good band on the top deck called Night Out which played in front of the swimming pool. There is no room for dancing, and of course, the acoustics were challenging, and yet this band were the best on board by far! Why they put them in a part of the ship that hardly anyone ventured to and is quite ill equipped for entertainment is quite bizarre. There were about a dozen people watching them because of where they were put. Costa - put them on the main floors with a dance floor! They're great. The food during the day is OK, though long queues in the buffet during tea time as they only had one area open for desserts! The even meal was disastrous (but we did have a fabulous waiter). Disguised as upper class food, it was bland, boring and small portions. I really struggled to find anything I liked to eat each evening. If they made the food simpler, it probably would have been ok. They changed the menu every evening except for five standard dishes (e.g spaghetti bolognese, chicken and mashed potato). But then they changed the entire menu half way through the week removing the five standard dishes, which resulted in fewer options. I could have cried! The dance floor only accommodates the over 65s with ballroom and the like. No real disco in the evenings. We were so disappointed. I brought some beautiful dresses with no occasion to wear them. The entertainment is really poor. And of course, if you're from the UK, you'll have to deal with the cruise and language being Italian (and French, Spanish, German). We tried to play one of the games but all the questions were based on Italy and surrounding nations. We just gave up. As for activities, if you're happy spending a fortune in the overcrowded spa, or on Bingo which you have to pay for, or in the Casino, then you're fine. The pool looked nice but was full of children. It had three small jacuzzi pools around the main swimming pool which looked great, but they too were packed and each of them had a large foam floating on top of the water (no doubt from everyone's lotions and creams). Clearly they weren't cleaning the jacuzzis. It really made it uninviting. We won’t be sailing with Costa again. Read Less

So I just got home from my first Costa Cruise (Feb. 2020/SE Asia). There was SO much question about Costa going into it. We choose Costa because, quite frankly it was the ONLY ship that went to our desired destination at the exact time we could go. Otherwise, honestly, after reading reviews on Costa, I would have chosen any other line if offered by another line as my husband and I are Princess, Celebrity, loyals. I read and read and read and read some more reviews on Costa trying to mentally prepare for what to expect. What I learned was either you love it or hate it. So I set my bar very low hoping I wouldn't spend 14 days being ticked off at a cruise line. So now that we're home and I can mentally chew on what we just experienced, let me tell you my long-winded take on Costa, because frankly, it's complicated. I'll first explain the oddities that we found quirky, then I'll explain what Costa does REALLY well toward the end! So please read to the end. I will have good things to say about Costa, really I will, because there are lots of good with Costa too. I'll just start with what I found to be the negatives. Things that if you've cruised other mainstream lines before, you might find frustrating on Costa. I found that if I could mentally prepare for these oddities before I boarded (by reading reviews), I got less frustrated vs. being totally blindsided at the differences. First, Costa is NOT a Princess, Royal, or Celebrity cruise. Just get that out of your head going into it. There ARE differences. Some good, some frustrating, but nothing so frustrating that I wouldn't sail with them again. We WOULD sail again with them after this experience (I'm shocked at my own statement too!) I really went into this thinking (after reading all the negative Costa reviews beforehand) that we'll get through this cruise, see the ports, and never step foot on Costa again. Again, we only booked this because it literally was the only ship in this area at the exact time we could go. So what we found is Costa is not as "catering" to the passengers as the main stream lines. But that doesn't mean their customer service is bad, it's just different and you have to learn how to get "around" the way they do things, if it frustrates you. And actually their customer service is excellent, but DIFFERENT! I'll try to explain, and quite frankly it's hard to explain, but I'll do my best. For instance, when we first got to our cabin, the bathroom wasn't totally set up, meaning, we had 1/2 roll of TP and no back up, and no tissues. I waited for our cabin steward to introduce him/herself, so I could let him/her know. It took quite some time, but she did show up to introduce herself & restocked it upon our request. What I found is, she is our cabin "attendant" but not like on the other lines. If I need something on lets say Princess, I have a button on my phone that directly calls my steward and either talk to them or leave them a message and within minutes it typically is dealt with. Not on Costa, you have to call the pursers desk and wait in line with all the other people asking general questions, to finally get someone to pick up the phone so you can request your TP or soap or whatever. Sometimes it was a fast call, sometimes, if calling at a busy time, it could be a 10+min wait on hold. But once you get someone to answer, they will happily send someone to help you, maybe not immediately, but whatever you requested will arrive! A tad frustrating when you're dealing with a 1/2 roll of TP, (as you can tell, this did happen to us a few times, lol) but eventually they got the idea that we like a back up roll of TP in our cabin bathroom, and it was always provided from then on out. Sometimes I left notes for our cabin attendant to leave extra this or that, and it was nicely done when we returned. So, about our cabin on Fortuna. The room was spacious & comfortable, the balcony was not. The door was old school and swung open vs. a sliding door. Didn't obstruct the view like I thought it would. However, it did limit the deck space we could use as we had to move our chairs away from the "swing" area each time. We typically like to leave our sliding door open when we sleep, that never happened this trip. Why? Because smoking is allowed on balconies on Fortuna, and I'm assuming all Costa. I'm HIGHLY sensitive to smoke. And if our neighbor wasn't smoking, SOMEONE around us was and yes you could ALWAYS smell it, maybe I should say almost always, it was rare if we didn't smell smoke while on our balcony. Oddly, I did get used to the smell, and it didn't bother me as much even a few days into it, as when we first boarded. But, still wish it was banned on balconies and limited to certain areas on the ship like other lines. But I don't think that will be a policy any time soon, if ever. Another small oddity was the bathroom, our ship didn't provide washcloths, upon request of one or two, that was just a total unknown item to them. They provide 2 bath towels, and 2 hand towels, 1 floor mat/towel and 2 pool towels. A small bar soap was provided for the sink and a body wash/shampoo dispensary was provided in the shower. Our shower curtain hung about 6-8" from the floor, so there was no way to not flood your bathroom floor when showering, we tried every way possible to avoid this, and it just flooded our bathroom floor every single time. Luckily there was a very slow drain that would eventually drain it, but we did have to use our floor towel/mat to soak it up or a used bath towel. Speaking of which, your room cleaning and towel supply is done mid-morning. That is it. One time a day and no refreshers the rest of they day. That was fine, except for when you had a wet bath towel from your evening shower and had to use one to soak up your bathroom floor and would like to take a morning shower. Or you used your pool towel mid day and wanted a totally dry pool towel for your next day trip (which you went on before your cabin refresh the next day) You would have to request a new towel via the pursers desk. Which, like stated above, they would happily provide. Our fix, was to simply request extra pool and/or bath towels the night before so we had fresh/dry towels for the next day. Easy enough, if you remember ahead of time to request it. It just took us a few days to figure that trick out. So just simply ask before you need it. Another oddity was balcony maintenance. Our cabin was on the Lido deck, so we got a notice the evening before saying that there will be balcony maintenance the next day so we might want to close our curtains. Sure enough, at 7:30am, someone was on our balcony (I found the time of day odd, not the maintenance), Really, 7:30am you are doing maintenance on my balcony on my vacation? Could it not wait until after 9am??? We took a 14 day cruise, so sure enough, on the second half of the trip, we got no notice, but once and again we were woken in the early morning to our balcony chairs being moved for more balcony maintenance. Ummmm, how much maintenance does a balcony need????? Not sure if everyone had this maintenance or just because we were on the Lido deck. I'm not sure I've ever had balcony maintenance on other lines outside of cleaning our window. It was just, it's odd. Poolside/Bar: Poolside "service" is nill. We are typically used to lounging by the pool and having servers asking if they can bring us drinks. None of that on Fortuna. We had Costa staff clearing used drink glasses, but not drink servers, you had to go to the bar and get it yourself. About bars on Fortuna, they are not as plentiful as on most ships. Typically on other ships we've been on, around the pool you have a few bars on different levels, close to the pool. Not on Fortuna, you had 1 bar next to the pool, and 1 the level above, but toward the front of the ship. That said, most of the customers were European and didn't seem to swarm the bar like on other ships we've been on. It never was a long wait to get a bar drink. So even though there aren't as many bars on this ship as other ships we've been on, most bars were not overly busy. Most passengers were ordering coffee instead of alcoholic drinks. Another note for the pool area, was lounge chairs were plentiful. We never had a problem finding a chair. Maybe not directly next to the pool, but there are so many levels around the pool on this particular ship, that there were tons of chairs. However we were out by the pool by 8 or 9am. If you came later, you probably had to find a chair further away from the pool. Activities around the pool were plentiful as well. Lots of games, and dance instruction, and exercise classes. There was always something going on around the pool. Never a dull moment. About the Bar options. Ive seen lots of questions about drinks, that I couldn't find answers to before we cruised. I'll do my best to inform you now that I have a better idea. We had the Brindiamo drink package. They have a very straight forward drink menu at all bars that are color coded and you can see what you can and can't order with this package. Basically mixed cocktails were not included in our package, however most hard liquor was included, by itself. There were some very basic mixed drinks such as gin and tonic, rum and coke, basic things like that were included in our package. But things like a margarita or pina colada, daqueri's, were not included in our package. There were some Bacardi Breezers (wine coolers in various flavors) were included. I got creative one day and ordered a strawberry Breezer, a glass of ice and a shot of tequila and mixed my own margarita on the rocks, all separately included in my package. Not perfect, but it did taste like a strawberry margarita. If I had requested them mix it, there would have been a charge. These Breezers were my version of a cocktail this cruise, quite frankly, because it was my only free option. So there you have it. However, there was 1 optionfor beer, Heineken. That was the only beer on the entire ship. You couldn't even pay for a better beer, because there was no other option on the ship. Since my hubby is an IPA guy, he was very disappointed, but survived drinking Heineken all cruise. We sailed SE Asia, and there were no better options on shore either, but he survived nonetheless. Water: Bottled water was provided with this package IF it was poured by the waitstaff into a glass, you could not take a bottle of water with you. If you wanted to get a bottle of water to go, that was an extra charge. If you wanted bottled water, there was no fee for them to pour it into a drinking glass for you, but you could not take the bottle. Go figure that reasoning. They would ask you if you wanted "natural" or "gas" meaning bottled water or sparkling water such as Perrier. Same for dinner. If it was poured into a glass for you, it was included in your package. I never ordered "gas" water, so actually don't know if that's included or not in our package. I don't think so, I think that was an up-charge. Now, there was a water/ice/tea dispensary area by the main pool. However, the ice was almost always gone. I could never figure out if it was an ice maker, or if the staff had to fill it. If they had to replenish it, it wasn't done as needed, vs a schedule, because sometimes there was ice, most of the time, it was empty. There was almost always a line for this water & ice machine, and if there was any to get, it was a slow process. The staff that would wander by, would happily try and assist you to push the correct button getting ice, but wander off before they could notice that it was empty, ALWAYS empty. So eventually we just figured out to go directly to the bar, order a few glasses of ice and a few glasses of "natural" water to fill our own hydro-flasks each morning and avoid the no-ice ice maker chaos each day. Coffee: It was EXCELLENT. I've never been able to label cruise ship coffee as excellent, but Costa knows coffee!!! Of course, it's an Italian line, so that shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did, and I'm a bit of a coffee snob. There was a espresso maker and every bar. But since it was mostly geared to Europeans, ordering American-type coffee was perplexing to the staff. I like strong espresso with a dash of cream or sometimes, I like a non-sweetened latte. So at first I started ordering a latte, which I thought would be easier for the staff to understand. I ended up figuring out my "latte" was about 90% steamed milk with a tiny shot of espresso. Since I really wanted it the other way around, more coffee with a dash of milk. I figured out (by watching others order) to order a cappuccino instead, which ismostly espresso with a dash of steamed milk. But nothing was sweetened. They had white & brown sugar dispensers on the counter for you to sweeten to your own liking as needed. This unflavored coffee was included in my package. However they did have flavored syrups if you wanted, however if I wanted a syrup flavoring in my coffee, that was an up-charge for that kind of coffee. Food: In the dining room, it was AMAZING. It was European prepared dishes. Very different than what we are used to on Princess/Royal/Celebrity. But it was amazing when you opened your mind to it not being geared to Americans. Of course there were some dishes I didn't like, but very few. You could order at dinner as many as you like. No limits as far as I could tell. Waitstaff was excellent & energetic. What do I mean by this? Every other day it seemed, there was a "production" or some sort of entertainment in the main dining room. Music and dancing by the staff that encouraged guests to join in. All of it was sung in Italian, and the majority of the passengers seemed to know the songs well, but it was fun for us to join in dancing and clapping along even though we didn't understand the songs. I've never seen this on another line before, not to this level of entertainment during dinner. The energy and entertainment factor in the dining room was fantastic and plentiful. It was FUN!!! Hard to describe, but simply awesome. This is a strong suit for Costa!!! Fun & energy is their strong suit!! Be forewarned that dinner times are later than typical, at 7pm and 9:15pm. We typically opt for the later dinner due to the fact we don't want to rush back to the ship just to eat. However, 9:15pm IS a long wait for dinner. But 7pm came too early for us, so I didn't love the dinner time options on this cruise. However the food was great. BUFFET: As an American, I found the buffet food just OK. Not bad, not great, just ok. I always could find something to eat. And we mostly only ate in the buffet for breakfast. Here's the oddity. The buffet is only open certain hours, maybe an hour and a half to two hours, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Part of our choosing the late seating dining option was under the idea that if we got too hungry, we could always get a snack at the buffet before dinner, but on Costa, not always an option because it wasn't open very long. Sometimes everything was closed. So keep that in mind if you cruise Costa. The buffet hours were printed on the daily bulletin. However we mainly ate breakfast at the buffet. Most mornings, pancakes were an option, but no butter or syrup most days. When asked about butter, they looked perplexed then eventually took me to the other side of the buffet to an empty platter, pointed at it and then just wandered off. However butter was provided following days on both sides, and one day there was syrup provided, one day. Syrup is obviously not a norm as it was placed at the beginning of the buffet by the forks and spoons, so after you got your pancakes, you had to go back to the start of the line to wiggle in to get some syrup. But most days, it was not out, we just used the jams provided to top our pancakes most days. No biggie, just different. GRILL: Like the buffet, the grill was open limited hours by the pool at lunch and dinner. Hot dogs and hamburgers and fries. This was included in your fare. Pizza, was not located around the pool, but located back by the buffet, and was an up charge, we never ordered one, so not sure of the price. Gelato was the "ice cream" option by the poolside bar and was an up charge. We never ordered one, so don't know the price unfortunately. But overall, I'd rate the food as EXCELLENT on this ship. Entertainment: Energy!!! Tons of dancing and music options in lounges around the ship. If you've never been around Italians (this was our first experience) generally speaking based on this experience, they have tons of energy and are a louder bunch. At first we were taken aback by this, but eventually learned to embrace the guests energy and grew to love it. The energy around the ship by both staff and passengers was high! Lots of talking and laughter and dancing! Music by the staff and dancing into the night by the passengers. More so than we've seen on any Princess/Celebrity we've cruised with. Yes the other lines offer this, but this was ramped up and everywhere! This is another strong suit for Costa in my opinion, energy around the lounges & all over the ship. Probably because most of the passengers were European and their energy was high, so Costa meets it. COSTA. IS. FUN. You really have to be a fuddy-dudy to not enjoy this level of energy this ship provided. My advice, get a drink and plant yourself in the middle of a lounge and join in the dancing and music, or if nothing else just enjoy your drink and enjoy everyone else dancing, visiting, & having fun. People having fun is plentiful and everywhere. There were no quiet lounges anywhere to be found, energy was everywhere, and it was fun, once you get used to it!!! My husband and I are more keep to ourselves type people and find a quiet lounge, listen to jazz music and have a drink. Even though that wasn't an option on this ship, we found we did embrace the change of pace and really grew to love the energy this cruise & passengers provided. Theater productions: Great as well. Different though! We didn't get the same ol' same ol' that you can expect from the main stream cruise lines. For instance on a main stream line you can expect roughly a comedian, magic show, on board production, some sort of Cirque du Soleil-type acrobatic show, etc. But this Costa offered totally different options, a bubble show, a man taping & swinging balls on ropes, a tenor singer, indeed an onboard production by their own dancers. These options not overly impressive when reading about them on the daily announcements or on this review, but once at the show, it was highly entertaining, mostly because it was new and fresh! Entertainment that I'd not seen over and over again on other cruise lines. Again, kudos to Costa for offering something different! That said, most songs & shows were in Italian. Every once in a while they would repeat something in English, but most of the time, most everything was in Italian. Language: Onboard announcements, were done in multiple languages, you just have to wait for your language. English typically was the second language announced. Most crew members can speak basic English, so you can get your point across. There was an English-speaking welcome session shortly after we boarded the ship in the theater, which explained a bit on how Costa works. Recommend attending this! So, my long winded take on Costa, from an American's point of view..... it was FUN, but only after I got used to the quirks.... and there are quirks! But if you gear yourself mentally for these quirks, before you go, I found that I could remind myself during the times when things were going oddly, that I was expecting some oddities, and move on without getting too frustrated. If you focus on the quirks, you will be ticked off with Costa and not enjoy your cruise. But if you embrace the quirks and focus on their strong points (& they have a lot of great things to embrace) you will have a great time, because there's a lot to enjoy on a Costa cruise. Will I choose Costa first next time if another line is offering the same itinerary??? I'm not sure yet. But I do know that if I choose Costa again, I will miss some of the luxuries that some of the main-stream lines like Princess and Celebrity offer. But if I choose Princess and Celebrity, I will miss the energy that Costa offers. So choose a Costa cruise with an open mind. We travel to experience new things and cultures, and with Costa, you get a little of both....embrace it and have fun right along with them! You're in for a real treat. Read Less

Costa Victoria is more confined than the ships of similar price we know (this was our smallest cabin ever) and would need major refurbishment. Our bathroom was a little smelly at times, and the shower tray was running out of water. The feeling of narrowness was exacerbated by the fact that the ship was full (of course, we can't complain that Costa is trying to rent all the cabins). That amount of people could barely fit in the buffet restaurants, and the personnel didn't win cleaning these restaurants. The multi-course menu of the evening seated dinners was excellent, but the other meals in the buffet restaurants provided a boring and simple choice. We have not experienced it elsewhere, and it was very disturbing that the water, tea and coffee dispensers were not available for 24 hours (they were closed for some time regularly even in the afternoons). In the case of coastal excursions, it was not the high price what surprised, but the fact that the quality of service provided was, let's say, varying (included in our case a bus without air conditiioning). This is not excused by the advance notice that there are no qualified tour guides on site. There were guides who were trying their best, others could only give mediocre and boring explanations. This situation was made a bit worse by the fact (hope it is is pc to say that, it may be a language problem for foreigners) that the majority of the tour guides spoke Indian English. It was unexpected that groups of different languages ​​were united several times without notice and only English explanation was given. A minor downside is that the theater is too loudly amplified. For example an opera singer could be enjoyed only outside, in the hallway. The overwhelming majority of the personnel are friendly and helpful, which greatly compensates for the ship's significant shortcomings. The internet service is not only prohibitively expensive, but its quality is poor. Read Less