We booked this cruise because the price during the easter holidays was very favourable. We had read the reviews online before going and were rather concerned about a few things. Overall we had a great time and would book with Costa again. Some of the things that people complained about were true. It is very much a a ship full of Italians, but then it is an Italian ship!! On the whole we didn't find this a problem...no they didn't seem to keen to say please, thank you or excuse me but otherwise they were fine. The announcements are made in a huge variety of languages and you do have to listen hard to catch the English one. The dinner sittings are allocated to you and you find out which one you have when you arrive on the ship. We were really concerned about this as we have a 7 year old child and we couldn't eat at 9.15pm. The only way you can choose your dinning time is to pay about £100 extra to upgrade your cabin, this is not a different cabin but rather just one with additional benefits such as room service and dinner allocation. We thought this was a bit of a swizz and just another way to get more money from you. Fortunately, we were given the earlier allocation of 6.45 ;-0 although we have heard that you can approach the Maitre'D and ask to be moved to a different time.

The staff were not as friendly an approachable as on the NCL cruise we did in January but were helpful enough.

The food was very good, plenty of selection. The dinner is a sumptuous 7 course meal which lasts about 2 hours....those with little ones remember to take a couple of things to keep them going....children were given a colouring sheet that listed their choices of food (although they could of course have the same as you) but they did not have any crayons or pencils?! Read more