Just off the Costa Deliziosa 24 day transatlantic from Venice (Trieste) to Port Everglades.

Problems with embarkation: Arrived at the port from our Venice hotel via private water taxi. Ship was nowhere in sight! Was greeted by port personnel and told that due to heavy fog, we would need to be bussed to Trieste to begin our cruise. Was told that passengers were emailed/texted by Costa advising of this change. From what we could surmise, some Europeans were notified, but not all passengers. (Un)Fair enough-but where are the porters to assist with luggage? Was advised by the port staff there were none, (also told all the staff at the port were port employees and not Costa employees). So we had to carry/drag all our luggage about 1/3 mile through gravel, mud and broken concrete parking lots to another port building where Costa had quickly set up and were loading people on buses for the trip to Trieste. Not a good start to this cruise, and unfortunately a harbinger of things to come.

Arrived at the Trieste ship port about 2 hours later. Went through the check in process. Advised that we needed to complete a separate, compulsory health questionnaire even though the Costa boarding pass had health questions included. Fine, we’ll need 2 in English. They didn’t have any in English. Was told we needed to complete them nonetheless to board ship. Fine, asked if there was someone who could translate a non-English form for us to complete and sign. Staff was finally found to do this and we proceeded to board the ship. Didn’t feel very welcoming. Read more