Costa Mediterranea Review

Great Week on the Mediterranea Jan. 5th-12th

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Costa Mediterranea
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spunke
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Value for Money
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Sail Date: Jan 2008

My wife and I just returned from a great week aboard the Costa Mediterranea!! This was our second cruise with Costa and out 11th overall. As I stated we had a great time and wonderful weather the entire week. After our most recent cruise I can begin to understand where some of the bad reviews come from, but Costa is still a great vacation value! If you are used to the RCL and NCL and like the rather homogenous cliental and market tilted toward Americans and Canadians, then Costa might not be for you. Costa does a great job catering to a wide group of people and they do it well. The food is good to very good at times. All the pasta and pizza were fantastic. We recently visited Rome and it was as good if not better. Dinner in the dinning room can be hit or miss, but it is always fresh and presented well.

The spa and the workout room is top notch, although free weight's and space is limited, and often crowded. The free weights only go up to 50lbs, but I cant remember any other ship with any heavier dumbbells! There are 12 treadmills and 4 steppers and 6 bikes. There are three pools, one with a retractable roof. We loved the cliental and traveling with the mix adds the international flavor!! The Italians are very easy to be around and the cruise is very relaxing. The dress is a bit casual, but again we liked that also. One night I went to dinner in jeans and reef sandals... that would never happen on a Celebrity cruise!!!

The short comings for some might be; the entertainment, very poor singers and music on board in the lounges.... very poor!!! My wife and I both remarked that the service is not as good/attentive as Celebrity or RCL, especially in the dinning room. My wife feels that the servers don't look as tired as they do on other ships(which we liked). This was never a problem for us, we are easy to please.. some sun and decent food and we are happy. However, this was (it seemed to us anyway) the source of many of the complaints that we heard. If top notch service and going the extra mile all the time is what you cruise for then Costa may not be for you. It is also important to remember that we did not pay "Celebrity" Prices!!!! Costa is not and dose not proclaim to be a four or five star line! it is a value/ three star line and dose a great job with it. Our other complaints center around room service. We ordered breakfast to the room and it was really bad with very little selection. Also, you could not order anything from room service, there was a room service menu and it left a lot to be desired. The privet dinning has changed to "ala carte" and it can be very expensive. Our last Costa cruise the privet dinning was a flat $20/pp but now you have to pay for everything individually, including an extra service charge!!! We did eat there and it was good, but not great. It was great to be out of the dinning room and have a piano player though. Lastly, there is not one "wine steward" on the ship? Good luck if you need some advice, the people we asked had very little knowledge. There is however a great selection of very reasonably priced Italian wine, our favorite was the "Mezzacorona" Teroldego for $24. People cruise for different reasons and experiences, we loved out Costa vacation and I loved the price even better.

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Cabin 7
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