After having read several bad reviews on the internet about this ship, I tried to not have any high expectations of the Costa Classica. However, even my low expectations were not met.

We arrived on 2nd January for a 14 day cruise around South East Asia. The first disappointment was the embarkation process. Instead of us completing the relevant forms and documentation inside the Cruise Terminal in Singapore, we were forced to head to a set of poorly arranged marquees. This was because another ship was using the Cruise Terminal for their passengers, so Costa passengers had to use a makeshift area. This was very poorly organised - being in Singapore, it was extremely hot and humid. Only a handful of chairs had been provided, and there were no tables to lean on to complete the relevant documents. The majority of people seemed to have no idea where they were going or what they were doing and the Costa staff on the ground were not doing a good job of organising them. We were out in the heat for almost an hour (first figuring out where to go, then waiting for ages in the line), and in all this time we were not offered so much as a cup of water - my grandmother was beginning to feel faint, and there was not even anywhere for her to sit during this time (as was the case for several other elderly people who I saw standing around in this area).

Once registration was complete, we were told to board a bus. We assumed the bus would be filled before leaving, however, this wasn't the case (not all seats were occupied), and several customers who had not yet boarded the bus seemed to be highly annoyed about being left behind in the heat. The bus took about 30 minutes to reach the industrial port where Costa Classica was docked. Read more