Here is info about our recent trip departing 1 May on the Costa Concordia, western Mediterranean leaving out of Barcelona, with my hubby, son (21) and daughter (20). All in all, the ship was wonderful, the service was excellent, and it was a really fun itinerary. Being an English-only speaker was not really a big deal in most situations. On the negative side, the regular restaurant/buffet food was not very good, and you need to be pretty self-sufficient (or take the cruiseline tours) in order to get the most out of the portsHOTELS IN BARCELONA BEFORE AND AFTER CRUISE The night before the cruise, we stayed at the Eurostars Gran Marina. It was a 20 Euro cab ride from the airport (two to three people in a cab if you have any kind of luggage, more than that and you need two cabs). On Priceline we paid $159 per night. What a great hotel!! All of the staff was incredibly helpful and nice. The rooms were very large and comfortable, there was (wired) internet access (although for 27 Euros per day!!). Amazing toiletries, nice robes. The rooms had the best showers ever including several horizontal jets on the walls—my kids wanted to take 10 showers the one night we were there. We had a great dinner in the hotel restaurant that night. The hotel is right on the water in a pretty plaza. The next morning, we walked ten minutes up to the foot of La Rambla and strolled down that amazing street. We found a sidewalk cafe there and had lunch. It was a Saturday, so people were everywhere, which was fun. After lunch we went back to the hotel, collected our luggage, and the hotel shuttle bus took us to the cruiseship for 25 euro for all four of us, it was a quick and easy ride. For a post-cruise hotel, we'd had a hard time finding any reasonable rate because of a Formula 1 race in town that weekend, so we had our travel agent book through Costa their standard post-cruise hotel for us, Hotel Tryp Apolo for $139 per night. Note that the hotel rooms slept only two people each. There is so much to do in Barcleona. We also went to Tablao de Cordobes, a flamenco dinner show that was really enjoyable.EMBARKATION This goes very smoothly, because passengers get on and off at each port, so there are not the crowds you see on ships where everyone gets on and off at the same place. I think about 1000 of the 3000 passengers got on/off in Barcelona. When we arrived for embarkation at 2:30 there were no lines, we quickly checked in at the desk, went right onto on the boat, and went to our rooms, where our key cards were waiting for us on our beds. There was a fruit basket for those in the suites (replenished every day) and on embarkation day there was also a plate of canapes (toast with salami, prosciutto, caviar) and a bottle of sparkling wine. On the gala nights there were two small chocolates as well. Before the cruise I had gone online and pre-ordered some things to be delivered to the cabin on the first day, but they never came. I didn't have a copy of my receipt with me, so I never went down to ask about itENGLISH SPEAKERS On our cruise of over 3000 people there were 10% English speakers. The biggest group of course were the Italians (35%), then the next largest group were French, then German. Of the English speakers many were British and Australian. It was not difficult to get around and get along on the ship as an English-speaker. In the restaurant we think they put the English speakers together in one section perhaps using their best English-speaking waiters. As suite occupants supposedly we were supposed to get a 'premier' table (which on other lines has meant 'waterview') but here we had no view and had a pretty bad table smack in the middle of the dining room—the tables were all close together, we had waiters crashing into our chairs constantly, and we were so close to the next table that my daughter couldn't pull her chair out or she hit the lady behind her. All announcements are done in multiple languages including English when relevant. This had a downside—for example the 'get ready for the fire drill' announcement that loudly blasted into our cabins lasted about half an hour. My kids in particular were annoyed by the quantity and length of the announcements, particularly the ones made in the morning (when they were trying to sleep). In fact my son said he would likely not want to go on Costa again because of this (he is 21 and likes to stay out late then sleep late on vacation). We picked this cruise over others primarily because it is a European ship, and my kids wanted a non-American experience. I personally am glad we did, even if it did make some things more difficult. We enjoyed getting to know different people, and also seeing cultural differences. For example many times we started to get annoyed when people didn't seem to have the same respect for 'personal space' that we do. Also people apparently don't have the same kind of 'line rules' that we do—e.g. people at the front of the bus or plane get off first, row by row. Here, we had people from the back mowing us down on buses, planes, elevators. People also cut ahead in lines all the time—at the buffet, at the line for the bus or taxi, to get into an elevator.... We told ourselves that this likely wasn't considered rude in many cultures as it is in ours. We also wondered what things we were doing that the Italians/others were likely considering rudeCABIN (SUITES) The suites were really nice, comfortable, and big enough. We had two—one for the kids and one for us. Each had two large closets with hangers, one 4-drawer dresser, and lots of storage space. The bed was two twins pulled together, very comfortable, and there was a pillow menu so that you could order your favorite. There is a small couch with storage drawers underneath, and a desk with a small minibar (with obscenely expensive drinks). There are bathrobes for use on the ship. The bathrooms are of a good size, with a separate 'changing room" (with a mirror and vanity) and then the bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub and two sinks. The cabin is replenished with ice and cold water a couple of times a day. The balconies were ok, two comfortable chairs. I'd recommend trying to get a port side cabin though—we were on the other side and overall didn't have as nice views throughout the cruiseBesides the cabin steward, the suites have a 'butler' which is basically a concierge to help with whatever you need. For example our butler arranged our tour tickets and dinner-club reservation. It is not the same however as the RCL concierge, who really has knowledge of the ports and can help you with figuring out what to do with your day. Our butler said she didn't know anything about any of the ports. She was otherwise incredibly helpful and attentive, as was our cabin steward

The interactive part of our TV was broken so we couldn't order tours or watch pay movies. It took three days to get fixed, our butler kept asking for someone to come up but apparently they were busy or forgot or something. It worked two days then broke again and we didn't bother asking again

Note that there is not the same 'tipping' scenario as on US ships. Instead of the self-tipping system where you fill your own 'envelopes' for your servers, on Costa (likely throughout Europe?) they automatically add a per-person service charge onto your bill of about 7 euro per day per person. INTERNET/WIRELESS DEVICES There is no wireless internet anywhere. Very odd for a newly built ship. A lot of the time our phones and blackberries didn't have service either, especially when we were at sea. There is an internet cafe where you can get fee-based internet through the Costa computers. First of all, it is one euro for every two minutes. Second, it is VERY slow. It usually took six to eight minutes (3-4 Euro) just to load my AOL mail, then a long time to read anything. I wonder if this is because most Europeans unlike Americans truly don't work during their vacations so there is not the demand for internet service on Costa...THE SHOWS, THE POOLS, ETC The shows were ok—my kids said they were 'lame'. The casino was not as small as I thought it would be, and my kids ended up winning a couple hundred each so they were happy. The pools were nice and the retractable roofs were a good feature. I didn't use the spa. There were a lot of bars but sometimes they got too smoky for us to tolerate. The disco didn't open until midnight. There were a couple of shops—typical cruise stuff. On TV there was BBC, that's about it. Also a few pay-for-view movies in English. The ship provides an 'international news" handout each day in English, which was nice Read more