Our first Costa cruise ,chosen for the ports that we had not been too. The ship is quite large in good condition, clean, with elaborate decor. Most of previous cruises have been with Royal Caribbean. It has some very different policies. Passengers were mixed mainly Italian French Spanish, only about 250 passengers spoke English, although most staff had reasonable english skills. The most notable was they sold Tea/coffee onboard packages\which suited the europeans. Now to get a cup of tea as long it was before 10am at breakfast or afternoon tea 4-4.45PM. you had to pay about Aus $4+. No tea served with lunch or dinner. Costa wins presentation prize for dinner. Extremely well presented entrees/mains but note they are only small portions, so if you are a big eater etc, you will have to double up. Once your 2 hours were up for your dinner setting they politely shunted you. Interestingly there was no real push to sell wine etc at dinners. Very different to R.C. and other cruise lines. No ice cream available anytime unless you paid.

Like all cruise lines, no information is given in advance re port procedures etc. The daily news bulletin was not delivered till at least 7-8 pm the night before with no real info.

Embarkation at Barcelona was a breeze as was departure. They did allow you to take wine etc on board at departure only. Our 10 day cruise actually was a combination of 3 itineries. with a lot of passengers joining at Savona, Marsaille (exit at Genoa , Marsaille next cruise). Read more