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Costa Mediterranea Transatlantic Review


lambs2
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Just returned home after our incredibly delightful journey across the Atlantic on the Costa Mediterranea with a few day's post-cruise stay in Trieste, Italy.

We began our trip with very low expectations due to most of the recent Mediterranea reviews blasting the "tasteless" food and other problems. Our personal experience was so much the opposite that I almost feel I was on an entirely different ship! I did come armed with my own shaker of garlic powder for the pizza and pastas and Crystal Light drops to make the USA water more palatable for me, I enjoyed the vast majority of the dishes served in the dining room. One night we even were able to have surf and turf by combining a steak option with a grilled shrimp entree! Our waiter made it happen for the four of us at our table.

I was particularly delighted with the sundried tomatoes and olives on the lunch buffet, and I ate those almost exclusively for lunch most days, except one time I had a juicy burger from the pool deck, and a couple salad lunches in the main restaurant. On one of our first port days, when most everyone was ashore, we found shrimp tempura on the buffet! The only time we saw it, but it was YUM!!!!

Keep in mind with my review that we traveled across the Atlantic with less than 1200 passengers on board a ship designed for 2600. SO luxurious! Our premium balcony cabin near the aft on deck seven starboard was a wonderful retreat with plenty of storage for our 22 nights onboard and one of the best room stewards, Renee, that we have ever experienced. We had fresh ice twice a day, and even extra pillows and bathrobes when we asked. We only used the free room service one morning. We were so close to the buffet that it just seemed unnecessary. we also had only one dinner sitting for the first 16 nights of the cruise until we took on about 500 more passengers in Savonna for the last week when they finally added a late seating and a second show time.

Not impressed with the CD, Antonio Serra. but most of the nightly entertainment was very good. Major exceptions - the "video" nights and the passenger "talent" show. YUCK! Walked out of the balcony (as we suspected they might be poor) on those.Really liked the in-cabin free movies! Too bad they started repeating over again instead of getting new ones after the first two weeks. The flamenco dancers who performed after our Teneriffe port stop were absolutely amazing! The ship was beautifully maintained and always kept sparkling clean. Thought we were going to escape any illnesses until we went on a long bus excursion from Savonna to Genoa where we had "hackers" in front AND behind us, Even the tour guide made a comment about them! Sure enough, the day before we were to fly back home, we BOTH developed the same upper respiratory symptoms and coughs! We both have aways to go efore we will be over this and are keeping ourselves isolated away from family and friends until we are free of symptoms.

Will we cruise with Costa again? This was or third Costa sailing and due to the 22 nights and double points for our premium balcony cabin we will now be at the Pearl level for future sailings and get those extra benefits, so if the itinerary and price are right we will!

Edited by lambs2
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Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

We loved our Pacifica cruise from Buenos Aires to Savona in March.

The food was the best we have experienced on any cruise.

If only the weather had been nicer..........

Now booked Costa Fascinosa for a week round the Med

We have been Pearl for 2 cruises. Costa are very good with their little loyalty perks.

Caryl

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I was on the same cruise, although our paths never crossed. I'll add my own perspective, including comparisons with Holland America and Princess last fall, and Luminosa in February.

No smoking in any enclosed area. Costa is normally very family-oriented, but the longer, more expensive cruises have a much older crowd, there were probably only a half-dozen bambini, although quite a few younger couples. The crossing was smoother than the Caribbean in February. Bar prices comparable to what I'm paying in France right now.

I agree, don't believe the food reviews. I suspect the reviewers must define “good” as “just like the local truck stop”, if indeed they're honest reviews. But it is European- for example cranberry is only served with turkey in the Caribbean. The open seating was great, except it was only early sitting, too early for me. Costa used to have pizza and salad available til midnite, which is often all I want, but now it's 4 Euros ($8 in Caribbean). The pizza is better than any I've had in France or Italy but for really good pizza stay home, US pizza is way better. The waterusa package is included with Costa USA bookings, not with other Costa- a topic for a separate thread in itself. I think staffing levels and professionalism were equivalent to Princess and better than HAL. I had an especially good waitress. I think part of the problem is incompetent travel agents, ignorant of the product they're selling- another separate thread.

With so few people it was hard to get a critical mass for nightlife. The music was not very good by Costa standards. Coco Band was hardly better than on an American ship- prerecorded background tracks which they didn't know how/weren't allowed/just didn't care to change. Anything on tempo was by accident. Alexa and Riz had a much better selection and/or knew what they were doing. (On Luminosa, Trio Tringali/Duo Contatto were the best I've heard on a cruise ship for a decade.) There were several other music choices- the Isolabella band was assigned to theme nights, some were very popular. The Paraguayos were terrible, but I don't like Latino music anyway.

Interesting about the respiratory problem- Costa strikes me as always far healthier ships, even though this age group was almost as old as HAL and there's far less emphasis on hand sanitiser (yet another thread).

I'd be happy to do this cruise again next year, if I can stretch my budget that far. (I've booked Diadema from Marseille in November, 7 days 400 Euros with Costa France, but it doesn't include waterusa package).

Edited by Dancer Bob
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