I have been on several cruise ships (Royal, Carnival, Norwegian) and this last one on Costa. I will not even try to compare them because they have very little in common. I will start off with embarkment in Miami.
We were scheduled to embark at 1300hours in Miami. It was a hot and humid day and they had no lines clearly marked, no water or shade provided for the elderly or kids. The line at one point looked like a herd of buffallos stampedeing towards the ship and my 2 year old was over run by some guy trying to get to the ship first.
Once on the ship we got our cabin pretty soon and were happy to learn that we actually got a obstructed ocean view instead of inside cabin.
nice beaches but pushy locals
very nice beaches