Our recent cruise on Costa Cruise line’s 11 day Caribbean Cruise was not a positive experience. While we found the efforts of the wait staff and cabin stewards to be very positive, our interactions with those above that level was found to be more than dissatisfying. We had 2 of our 4 excursions cancelled due to “lack of enough sign ups”, yet discovered the other guests had taken the same excursions with no problems. We also experienced the opposite where we took an excursion and others had been told theirs was cancelled due to “lack of enough sign ups”. We found after the fact, that important information relating to how guests needed to register their credit cards for expenditures while on the cruise, had actually been included in fine print in a list of events for that day. We were put ashore using the ships life rafts at one dock, only to find out at the time of departure for re-boarding that we were to go to a different dock to get back on board. Why hadn’t we been told ahead of time? We found a great difficulty in carrying on a discussion with middle management due to what we perceived to be their lack of communication skills regarding their policies. The lack of variation in menu for breakfasts and lunches was noticeable. As well, even though they had frozen yogurt machines at every buffet counter, none had the dispenser heads on them during the entire cruise. When asked about this, we were told we could “buy” ice cream bars from a machine dispenser at one of the pool areas. Compared to other cruises taken in the past, there was a noticeable dearth of quality entertainment on board for those days at sea. All in all, it was quite apparent that the Costa Cruise line is experiencing some major financial crises and is cutting corners at every opportunity to them. Our experiences varied considerably from experiences on other cruise lines. We will definitely not be on any future passenger manifest of Costa Cruise line.