WE chose this trip because of the itinerary despite reading a lot of negative reviews. BIG MISTAKE. The food in the main restaurant was DISGUSTING. The staff was arrogant and unhelpful. The port calls were either too brief to do any real sightseeing or were at ports that really had nothing to do with tourism (Bari. It, Corfu, Gr). All of our excursions were booked through the ship. They were, to be generous, lame. There was widespread coughing onboard and both my wife and I returned with serious infections. Nobody used the hand sanitizers. The entertainment was all in italian (one night was supposed to be pop songs and featured three renditions of Volare while another night's entertainment was opera) and cheap beyond belief. Smoking is permitted in all of the outdoor areas of the ship and on the balconies. They charged for soda at lunch and for water at dinner. Almost everything came at an additional cost. I wish I had listened to all of the reviewers and hope that this will help you to avoid what we suffered. AVOID COSTA LIKE THE PLAGUE. Read Less

We chose Costa as at the time RCL and NCL were already booked. Unfortunately we could not booked this cruise earlier in the year due to work schedule, etc. According to Costa website is “ Italy’s Finest “ with a slogan of providing every guest with a pleasant experience from our Italian heritage. We have to give kudos to the check in process, ship was clean and elegant, cabin was clean and comfortable with a balcony Now comes the best part : Buffet menu is the same items every single day. Getting a espresso coffee must be done at the bar, and wait in line for it. Getting eggs and bacon (who knows what kind of bacon it was ) it’s another story. By the time you search for the items you want, your food is cold. Of course you might think, why not visit the dining room and enjoy some delicious eggs Benedict! Well, we tried, Egg Benedicts with mayonnaise instead of hollandaise sauce. Waffles?? Imagine a piece of toast with the waffles mark on it and the same selection of items in the buffet just arrange differently, do you want a cup of Italian espresso? Please leave the dining room, find a bar and order it. Walk back to you seat and find your food cold. Or just have a cup of regular coffee and shut up Too much for Italian Costa Hospitality !!! Dining room for dinner - please do not ask for a cocktail before dinner , no no no. Go to the bar and order it. Walk back and seat down. This is not a joke, we had the drink package and the waitress the first dining night saw our cards and said “you are from the USA , you only get water “ wow welcome aboard !!!! Samsara Restaurant - €30 per person to book a more “exquisite dining “ experience. The restaurant is totally outdated. The ship is not However the menu was all seafood. My spouse is allergic to seafood. We asked for a different menu , they brought us the choices from the main dining room. We were ask for an extra €17 upcharge to get a steak. As I ordered the entrees, one of the was lamb chops. To my surprised they have been boiled then braised to give some chard to the meat. The taste ? Terrible. The pool area is very small for a 2500 passenger ship. Entertainment onboard is a bunch of crew members who has no talent and don’t want to do what they have been asked to do To recap, please take RCL or NCL even if the prices are higher. Better food and service, the crew will be more pleasant as they are not onboard a ship for 11 months at a time. Don’t waste your money ! Vacations are important and you work hard to enjoy them. Read Less

We chose this cruise for the destinations and tour excursions First impressions not too bad. First tour excursion we booked in Bari was cancelled at the last minute due to lack of support we were told!! 2nd day we had no excursion booked as port was changed from Corfu to Kefalonia. Did our own thing on this island and was very successful day off the ship. 3rd day yet again our jeep tour around Santorini was cancelled the evening before because not enough English speaking guests wanted to participate!!! Not sure yet if our tour in Dubrovnik is going ahead!! Most of the public toilets are left overflowing during the day!!! Food in Albatros restaurant leaves a lot to be desired. We have taken to eating all our meals in Delioza restaurant we’re we have to pay a surcharge. I could say lots more but out of words!!!very poor cruise Read Less

We feel we are a good judge of cruises this being our 26th, the Embarkation seem slow but we were on board by 2pm & I will say that this ship is well presented & our Cabin was good & the Public area's very good. My first surprise was the Cabin Steward asked us when he should come to our Cabin morning or evening, we have never been asked that before but we opted for the morning & that was it. No change of towels in the evening or a 'Turn Down' Service. Unfortunately we suspect it was our waiters first week & he was unable to put the knives & forks on our table correctly & took an age. I did complain & the next night he was given extra help. The food was average I would say & not being a pasta lover this restricted my choice of dinner. One of my complaints was that on every other cruise that we have taken water is given to all seated guests at Dinner as a matter of course, NO, not on Costa ships YOU PAY for water. My other main complaints are that at 10.30am after the breakfast period ALL Coffee machines are closed down & you are then unable to get any hot drink at all, except water. Unless you PAY for a coffee/Tea etc. At 9.30pm all food outlets are closed down & you are not even able to get a biscuit or hot Coffee, unless ofcourse you go to one of the PAY outlets & get a pizza or burger!!!! One thing to watch out for & I missed in all the small print, is that the GRATUITIES/SERVICES ARE MANDATORY & so you are unable to amend even if the service is rubbish. The other thing to be warned about with Costa is that the Information Sheet that you get each day is very limited & does not give you sufficient information about the Port of Call. i.e. in Mykonos, Costa charge you 10 Euro per person for a 3 minute Bus ride into 'Town', which including my 5 yr old Granddaughter. I paid for the 6 tickets & the Bus drops you off about 200 yards from the town, not too far I hear you say. But as you got off the Ship in Port the Water Bus (which you walk past to get to the Costa Bus) costs 2 Euro's each & takes you to the middle of the town. No mention of that in the info sheet. Another observation shall I say is that this Ship has a large outdoor screen which on other ships I have been on, show Music Type video's etc.during the day or cartoons which transcend the language barrier, NO, not Costa all it showed during the day was adverts for their Services i.e. Photo Shop etc. Costa with limited warning changed the Disembarkation Port from Venice to Trieste & because, they say, there was 'civil unrest' in the town & therefore not their choice to amend the Port (to avoid compensation claims). We were intending to get off the ship in Venice & get a taxi to the Airport, but as we were getting off in Trieste this necessitated us taking a 2 hour Bus journey back to the Venice Port & then trying to get a taxi through the 'Civil unrest', (as Costa put it) to the Airport for our flight home. My fear was, we may miss the flight so we were forced to purchase Transfers. Costa then charged us 30 Euros each (including 5 yr old) for a Transfer from Trieste to the Venice Airport. No sorry I will NOT being going with Costa ever again. Read Less

DONT CRUISE WITH THEM!!! Customer service very poor, they didn't help you at all and give wrong advices, they treat us very bad when asked for some help. I puthink money in the account to pay for excursions for 2 cabin as they asked and then they took money from each account..and when I asked to take 500€ from 1500€ to give back the other family they said I can't take out any money until I disembark. ..but they treat us badly. Restaurant: food was horrible...but the worst was that after 9pm was no food...only pizza which we had to pay extra for it. Housekeeping: terrible...linen bed was never changed in a week and was very dirty...and I was with a baby so I had to stay in that misery. Beach towels was left wet on bed for 2 days ..I put them outside the door to be changed but was taken and never brought back new ones. We had to pay for everything on board ... The drinks was only but glass never by can or bottle.!!! I asked for iced coffe and I received a glass with ice and a expresso. I have more to say but most important DON'T CRUISE WITH THEM!!! Read Less

I read a lot of bad critics before going but we really enjoyed the cruise. Sure there were things we would like to change but overall it was a good one. -the embarkation was at venice. We went with the people mover from piazza roma ( tip- remember to buy tickets for the coming back to venice and skip the lines at the ticket machine). The embarkation is very very slow! We waited more then 2 hours, so no need to harry , come very early or very late. We came around 12 and and entered the ship around 3 o'clock. The rest of disembarkation at ports and at venice was pretty good )we had a flight to catch so asked to get first at venice). The ship was very clean, i thought the decor will be italian -something special, but i didn't like it- looked old fashion not at all impressive to my taste. The cabin was a little smaller the the celebrity but clean and the stewart was all the time there- very good. There was cigarette smoke in the corridor (i think from the inner rooms) , complained several times but nothing was done. The food- was very good in the restaurants, good attention and good quality of food. We were worried about the water but because our agency was from the usa we received free bottles at dinner. At the embarkation we did the water package - 13 bottles for 39 euro( don't remember exactly) - so we had water at night and at gym. About the drinking package - we were 2 adults and a 14 years kid - all of us are not great drinking - not soda or alcohol so didn't take the drinking package and bought a wine and water package- 6 wines and some 7 bottles of water for 130 euro. We were glad with this package. Had some beer (4-5 euro plus tax) and some cocktiles ( 7-8 euro). Cappuccino 3-4 euro at evening. During the last days they also selled some wine =very cheap =some 10 euro (not so good but we had for the evening at dinner). The entertainment was mediocre - had a great tenor one evening , the rest were the entertainment stuff - not at all the same level as the celebrity. The theater is very big and very well equipped. The buffer is chaos!! Very bad organised - the tables are for 6 and couples or singles occupy them leaving you no place to seat. Usually we strolled with plates and looked for a place to seat. A lot of noise and a lot of queues ...very bad experience and we preferd to go to the restaurant. Maybe less selection but quieter. The service was very good ! Last problem- there was supposed to be a teens club - a spacial room with play station and etc. No place like this just an announcement to gather near the disco...and the activity was at night with parties- this is a shame because our teen couldn't meet other children his age. OVERALL WE KNEW THIS IS NOT A CELEBRITY OR CARNIVAL CRUISE SO HAD LOWER EXPECTATIONS BUT ENJOYED IT AND HAD GREAT PORTS (AGAIN VERY SHORT TIME AT PORTS...) Read Less

Friends found cruise at a reasonable price. A group of 8 decided it would be a fun trip. The written instructions we received after purchase informed us that our luggage must be smaller than allowed by the airline. This was a 29 day trip. Our carry on was to meet very small criteria and was not allowed to have wheels. The reason was that there would not be room on the land tour buses. There was plenty of room on the buses. The written material explained that we would be charged a daily per person amount for gratuity that would be divided among certain staff. We learned this was not accurate and that this money would go to Costa to help defer salaries. We were asked on regular basis to tip all who served. The amount charged for “gratuity” was about $600 per couple and was in addition to regular tips. We learned that this could be removed but we were not informed of this by staff or YMT. Tours provided by the ship were more expensive than private tours. There were many, many complaints about the food. Many items free on other cruises were purchase items on this cruise. You purchase water for your room, soft drinks, ice cream and various other items. You were provided one bar of soap and no wash cloths. You could ask for extra soap. Wash cloths were harder to obtain. TV was limited. You could usually get BBC. WiFi was a charge item. Entertainment was very average and often put on by the Costa staff. We saw some really interesting places but I would not take this tour again. Many people on the ship got a upper respiratory illness near the conclusion of tour and of course you can get no help without paying to see a doctor. Read Less

We knew what we were getting into, but never ever thought it would be as bad as it wo as. Food was never served hot or warm or body temperature, it was cold as a dead fish. Eggs, if you call the that, slimy kind of yellow. bacon burned and really greasy. Hamburgers, well below body temperature. If you like bones with your salmon, you have chosen the right ship. If you like Prime Rib Sant cut you have picked the right ship. Entertainment, well stay hoe home and watch TV, it was terrible. Shore Excursions, OMG, no whispers, No Knowledge, horrible times in ports. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, TRY IT. Your money is wasted. Good Luck if you like smokers on balcony. cough cough. I was so sick of Dance Band Music I could puke. How about some good music to listen to. No music except some Jazz and who knows what on the ship. No music at all in many places during the evening. These cruises are sure as could be totally European. Go with Celebrity or Royal if you want a good cruse. We were just trying to escape the cold of March in the US. Typical Carnival, the owner of Costa, Read Less

We realised it was not a 5 star cruise but value for money. Heading shows 10 day Caribbean but this was a back to back cruise ending up in Venice. They had a gratuities charge of US$12.50 per day and with 3 passengers in our group for 34 days worked out to be US$1,275 or AUS$1,653. I do not know of many people who will part with Aus$1,653 as a tip. We always tip the waiter, waiters assistant and cabin person and STRONGLY object to this money grab by Costa. In my opinion they use these funds to subsidise their wage bill. All cruise lines should get rid of this tax and just quote an all up fare. Most of the other cruisers we met were very unhappy about this surcharge. We did find out that any of the Americans that complained had it refunded. No refund for Australians despite taking to four levels of staff. They missed two ports blaming it on rough seas (debatable) with no refund to cruisers. Costa would have saved on Port charges etc. We travelled Norwegian last November and when they missed a port due to bad weather they reimbursed each passenger. Service was very good overall except for bar staff. They seemed to have a different idea than us of service. They served you when and if they wanted and it was not only us that noticed it as other passengers in conversation complained as well. We ate in the restaurant every night and our waiter and waiters assistant were first class. In fact the meal was the highlight of every day and we would look forward to interacting with the staff over a meal. (Francesca and Willy) Our cabin man was very friendly and kept our room clean and comfortable every day. We were more than impressed with the entertainment staff who encouraged us to join their games which made for a lot of fun. You really need to join in to get the most of this free add on. Read Less

I enjoy the opportunity to meet people from other countries and find out about their food and culture. Costa Deliziosa has a very diverse clientel from Europe and North America. All the staff we met spoke enough english to converse with. It's very humbling to realize how many people speak several languages and I only speak english. The ship was sparkling clean when we arrived and stayed that way all 10 days. We really enjoyed the entertainment. Lots of opportunity to learn new dance steps by the pool or in the grand bar.. The main shows consisted of very good acrobatics, Vegas style dancers and costumes and a couple of operah nights. We loved the diningroom for evening meals.We were given the 9:00 seating which we didn't think would work well for us. It actually worked very well. There were 4-6 courses each night and we found everything delicious. Many new tastes for us. It is designed to be slow dining and it is. The soups are exceptional in variety and taste.The waiters were know to break into dance routines occasionally giving the diningroom a carnival atmosphere. The buffet food was average with little change. We found it better for breakfast than the diningroom. We embarked early with no problems . It went quickly. We debarked early bringing our suitcases with us. It was superfast and easy. You need to let them know you are going early. Service was a little on the slow side but very good. Cabins were cleaned either once or twice daily, depending on what box you check on the form left in your cabin. We found a morning cleaning sufficient. We had asmall balcony cabin. Perfect for us with lots of storage spaces. It was too windy to use the balcony much except for early morning in port. I usually ended upstairs anyway so I could see both sides. Ports were as we expected with lots of time to explore.We did not do any of the ship excursions. We did rent a car in Roatan as the price was the same as a taxi. It was an adventure. Roads were like swiss cheese. We managed well and remember Roatan as our favourite wih great snorkling right off the beach in West Bay. We went to Geoff Cay in Belize with a private outfit . It was very good. In Cozumal, we went by Taxi to a private beach club. It was good but expensive for a few hours at the beach and we felt we didn"t really see the island. The announcements that you need to hear are in Englsh but may start with other languages first. Ahe range on this ship was 30-70. I would not hesitate to recommend this cruise to a friend who is looking for a slightly different expoerience than the typical American cruise. Read Less