My family and I have been on over 20 cruises and consider ourselves experienced cruise veterans. This was the first and last time we will cruise with Costa. First of all, the first and primary language spoken by the staff and cruise director is Italian. This made us feel left out of many activities, even though there weren't many to begin with. The casino was empty most of the time with only two blackjack tables. The shows were very amateurish and the only event they had every night was a DJ in the back of the ship that played until people stopped dancing. The food was a disappointment. For an Italian owned cruise line, there was no caesars salad, tiramisu for dessert or any steak, shrimp or lobster served. The pasta was mostly spaghetti and the salad was the same mixed salad every night. There were no peppermills and the parmesan cheese sprinkled over the pasta was powdered. The dinner portions were very small, which made you hungry later in the evening. Unfortunately, after 10:00pm you could only get pizza. The ice cream and water/ice machines by the pool closed at 3:30pm every day, which had people going into the buffet restaurant to find water to drink. There was no iced tea available throughout the cruise and after dinner you could not get coffee in the dining room, you had to go to one of the bars throughout the ship, which was an additional charge. Speaking of additional charge, room service cost 5 Euros and at dinner if you wanted water, you would have to buy a bottle and serve yourself. I complained about this to Guest Services and they told me they had recently implemented a new policy where American bookings were exempt from having to pay for water. Unfortunately, our waiter never mentioned this. The staff was not friendly at all, always looking away when you walked by them and never offering a good morning, good evening or any welcoming gestures. Some of the crew members also made my 15 and 18 year old daughters feel uncomfortable with the way they looked at them and even invited them to their cabin for a so-called "crew party". It all starts from the top because even the captain walked right by me and did not say hello. As for the ports, the average time we spent was about 4-5 hours which left little time to enjoy. It seems to me they preferred to have the passengers spending their money on the ship instead of in the ports. The lines to get back on the ship at most ports had a wait time of about one hour. Going forward I will stick to American cruise lines where I know they will provide the type of service that I have been accustomed to.