I wanted to take my mom on a cruise for her upcoming 65th birthday as she loves cruises and they're usually the best way to relax and visit so many different countries/places. We have cruised before with Norwegian Cruise Line and I have cruised myself several times with Carnival, but as she lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina now, so the closest and the best cruise that worked for the dates I was visiting her was Costa Diadema 7 day cruise out of Civitavecchia.

I noticed right away that on our Costa cards there was a designation of WaterUSA, so to our surprise this meant that you could only get water for free, without being charged, while you were at the restaurant/buffet during breakfast, lunch or dinner hours. Otherwise, they charged for a glass/bottle of water. Same goes for juices, which were only available during the breakfast hours. This was our very first shocker.

Dinner experience was horrendous. You are assigned to a restaurant at a specific time, so you have to go there during the assigned time, otherwise you would need to go to the buffet. Food quality was good, but the dining experience every time, except for the last night was horrendous. I'll explain. Read more