Amelie1214

On of my table mates on my last cruise had a lot of allergies and every night he had a menu that was marked up with pen telling him all the things he could have and what could be made with substitutions if possible. Our waiter also walked him through everything and it was taken very seriously. Just contact them as others have said, I'm sure they will help you.

Yes I always bring mine.

I am just off the deliziosa and wish we would have done this cruise instead. This was my fourth cruise with Costa and the "worst" so far (still enjoyable but noticed a vast difference compared to my other ones). There was very little to do on board this time (very short music hours, almost no on board activities, lines for everything). There seemed to be a severe lack of bar staff. On all my other cruises we never waited for drinks and on this cruise I never had my order taken while sitting in a lounge, I always had to stand in line at a bar and servers were rare. Very strange! Did you notice a lack of staff on this ship? I was thinking it was because it was the last cruise before they headed to the Caribbean so perhaps there wasn't a full crew or that the ship was sold out. The port stops were all very short too but that's on me for not noticing that when booking lol. I am curious about the Luminosa but now a little hesitant to try other ships because we have had wonderful cruises on the Diadema and the Mediterranea. I know understand what people are talking about when they say ships have passenger flow issues haha. The food was still awesome thankfully!

I'm only Coral right now but the additions at this level are a "Cioccolatino" in the room on gala night, A free bottle of spumante in the room (instead of a free bottle of water), and a coffee and dessert? (Dolci momenti: caffè speciale e fetta di torta). So a little better for me compared to previously. Although I have a cruise at the end of November so won't get to see any of this :rolleyes:

I also saw pepper on the Mediterranea! So fun she (he?) does a lot if you can get her alone lol. She seemed overwhelmed if there was a crowd but if you're alone using voice commands worked better. Ask her to take a selfie and she will pose. She also will play games. I hope she will be on my next cruises.

Hey Marjar,

I didn't mention that I am American too :) I've lived in Europe the last decade, my husband is Italian so that's why we tried Costa initially. Since I'll be embarking next week I can pick up some papers/or ask for info if you want (shore excursions, wine package info) just tell me what you want to see and I'll look for it. My itinerary is slightly different than yours as we won't be in Cagliari. I also lived in Rome for years prior to France so if you have questions for there let me know!

My husband is a smoker so I can tell you that on the Mediterranea he could smoke on our balcony and on open decks that had an ashtray (we went to the promenade off the lobby and the deck above lido mostly). Also the aft bar had half smoking tables and half non. No smoking in the casino. Hope that helps!

I think the lack of English language reviews is the main problem. In general people leave reviews when they are negative and want to rant, combine that with the fact that English speakers on Costa are a minority then there you go. I'm in love with Costa. I went on my first cruise on the Mediterranea and it blew all those negative reviews out of the water. I'm going on the Diadema next week. I also took a carnival cruise to the Caribbean last month to see what was so amazing about American cruises and putting it bluntly, I was disgusted. I'm glad my first cruise was on Costa because if it was on carnival it would have been a one and done. Go with an open mind and have fun. I love Italian culture (that's why I married one) so I enjoy the food and social life on Costa. If you want to read all the good reviews of Costa use google translate and read the Italian ones. I'm an American btw but have lived my adult life in Europe for reference.

I was kind of bummed when I was first looking for reviews in English about Costa. The reason is there are simply less English people that cruise with them. The reviews I did find were usually horrible which made me nervous. If you can read Italian there is a plethora of facebook groups and forums about Costa, luckily I speak Italian so I usually get all my information there. There is a uk cruise site that has some Costa reviews but they weren't very helpful to me because they seem to compare Costa to P&O and other English lines which I have never cruised on and don't ever plan to honestly. I just decided to go and had a wonderful time. I recently cruised with Carnival in Caribbean and I find Costa to be much better (but that's just my opinion). I will be on the Diadema in 12 days so I can answer any questions you have about it when I get back. I don't really do shore excursions because I find it's pretty easy and cheaper to do European ports on my own. It's a lot easier here than in the Caribbean. The English shore excursions do get cancelled because of lack of English speakers on the ship.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

There are a few different packages available once you get on board. Last time I cruised soft drinks were 2.95 (euro) same for 1l of water. If you look at your Costa reservation on their website under personalize there is a list of options. There is a Beer package: 20 40cl beers for 93 euro and two different non-alcohol packs. One is for 40 beverages for 110 euro and the other is 20 beverages for 65. Personally I think the all inclusive packages offer the best deal because I drink wine, coffee, beer and cocktails :p

I don't have kids but there is squok club for young children. They always look like they are having tons of fun around the ship.

I'll just miss you, I'm going the 7-14th :)

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that was disappointed on the Glory. I normally cruise with Costa so it's not like I have sky high expectations. But my Costa cruise blew this one out of the water. The food was horrific on the Glory! I got talapia one night in the MDR that literally tasted like sewage. Everything was cold and mushy. Every time we got a baked potato we never received the sour cream even after asking. It was like eating a converse shoe. The other three nights we ate there I couldn't get through anything. The people around us were complaining too. One lady found hair in her meal. It was a train-wreck. My sister and I survived off room service BLTs, pizza and eating in ports. Guy's is good but I can't eat that much grease every day.

The internet was SO slow. Was of money there. Cheers turned out not to be worth it for me in the end but that was a gamble anyway. I felt there was a severe lack of staff. We were in the casino a lot and would order a drink from a waiter and no joke it would take 20-30 mins to get it. Sometimes we would stand there waiting after playing a machine just to get our drink. A few times I just left because it took so long. I should have just gone to the bar I guess (which I did many times). Never got served apart from 2 times on the decks (I'm not certain if this is something that is not common on Carnival or American ships in general? On Costa you have a waiter always rushing up to you to ask if you need something else as you are finishing but never happened on the glory). The ship felt very dirty to me, there was food left all over the place, on tables (somewhat to be expected I guess), in the hallways, dripping ice cream cones thrown around melting, half eaten guy's all over the sun decks and chairs. It also felt really crowded. We never found a seat on Serenity deck.

I will say it was a nice vacation apart from all that but it did put me off Carnival. Not to mention I paid almost double what I would pay to cruise Costa in the Med...

I rarely tip for anything and if I do it's maybe a euro or 2.

I did one 90 day round of BB. Loved it. I really need to restart it again though!

Yeah there wasn't much meat at breakfast! Love that picture btw!

Another vote for Kotor! Loved it, it was so beautiful. Also enjoyed argostoli rented a scooter right off the ship and went exploring :)

Yeah I was so bummed about club medusa. Our table mates had been there previously and said it was great! They were extremely disappointed this time and felt so bad we had to pay (they were pearl so it was no big loss for them). It was very quiet and pretty but the service was very slow (and I'm used to hours long meals) and the food was just awful looking. My husband's pesto had 2 cups of oil in it! I was sad we missed out on the flavors of Marche night downstairs lol. I think it was probably a fluke because everything else was fantastic on this cruise!

Was on the CM this last week and had an awesome time! We booked an interior but were upgraded to a balcony..nice. I'm so glad the reviews on here didn't put me off from going with Costa because it was a really great trip and awesome value. We have spend 3x as much at mediocre resorts so this was really a surprise. So you know where I'm coming from...I'm American and my husband is Italian, I have lived in Italy and France the last 10 years just to give you an idea of my background. I thought the food was great (I wasn't expecting Michelan star fare though) and even my husband who is the worlds biggest food critic loved it too. The breakfast buffet isn't your American brunch but I didn't have trouble finding something to eat at all (donuts, croissants, fruits...) if you do want American stuff get room service. I did it one morning just to try and got a huge amount of French toast, pancakes and eggs Benedict for just 5 euro. The drink package is defintely worth it even if you don't drink tons of alcohol. I had no problems paying for a few bottles of water here and there for the room, but could easily get glasses of water free with my drink package from any bar or in the mdr. I didn't notice the "lack of personal space" or rude cultural differences everyone always mentions..but maybe after living here so long I don't notice it. Everyone stayed in the lines and were patient. The staff were awesome! Everyone always smiling and greeting you by name. That was impressive. I do wonder if I had a better time because I speak Italian and French though. I got to know a lot of people and staff because of that. But there were other English only speakers around and seemed to be having a great time too. We also had no problem asking the maitre d to change us to late dinner when we saw we were assigned to the early seating. He also happily changed us to an Italian speaking table (you can request anything language wise or just a table for 2). The gala night was fun and people dressed up in everything from gowns to just nice pants/ dress shirts or even just normal clothes. It was a great time. The only bummer was the club medusa. We paid to eat there one night with our table mates from the mdr and the food was just ok...I actually liked the menu in the mdr a lot more, so I don't recommended it. Everything else was fabulous and we booked our next cruise on the diadema the 3rd day in on this cruise lol. I say you need to try it for yourself..some of the reviews on here sound so crazy after I have actually been on the ship now. Someone said on here people must have hugh and unrealistic expectations to leave such extremely negative reviews. It was my first cruise but not my last with Costa!

I noticed the same crazy prices on various sites. I'm American and my husband is Italian but we live in France so we were comparing all 3 sites (have addresses for all 3). The Prices on the U.S. Site were 500 euros or higher and the Italian site was a little cheaper but not by much. We went with the French site only because they let you pay over 3-5 months with your carte bancaire, seemed easier mentally to break up the price lol post back with what ship you picked!

I'll be on the mediterranea November 13 from Venice! Which dates were you looking at?