We had a cruise on Costa Romantica from Singapore for 14 nights around SE Asia visiting 6 ports. Had never cruised with Costa before and reading some reviews was a little apprehensive, but this was totally unfounded. Embarkation was simple yet the Customer Services Desk on board was chaos (luckily we didn't need it on boarding), due to passengers who were afforded a free 14 night cruise because Costa, through no fault of Costa, could not fly them back to Europe and UK due to the volcanic ash problems. Once things had settled down in that area we found no problems, language was possibly an issue but could be overcome. We had breakfast and lunch when on board in the dining room, the buffet was crowded usually and much of the same each day. The comfort of waiter service in the dining room, even if we were at a table with non-English speaking people, was well worth while. At dinner we were seated with fellow Aussies and around us were other Aussies, Kiwis and English. The food at Dinner was, great, as was breakfast and lunch in the dining room, and a testimony was the excess weight I now have to work at getting rid of. Entertainment was good, probably since there were some UK entertainers who had joined the ship. Excursions, while seeming to be expensive were no more than on other cruises we have been on, and provided an opportunity to experience the various ports we visited. While a couple of lounges provided smoking areas we always found smoke free zones and were not inconvenienced. The only drawback was the poor yet expensive Internet facilities on board, I found it easier to wait until in port and use an internet cafe. All in all it was a very pleasant holiday, and the good weather made it more so, the only seas which wee not like a mill pond was in the trip between Hong Kong and Manila. I would definitely consider Costa again for future cruises.