firstly let me say that i wrote a very bad review once before about costa and their attitudes so i can only blame myself.

we arrived in dubai at 8am and went straight to the ship , we were told that we could not get on the ship until 3pm...not a problem as my wife told me that the shops were open .we reurned at 1.30 pm as by this time we were physicly exhausted with the hope that we might get on early , no was the answer, they would not issue boarding cards until exactly 3pm .as most people will realise by 3pm there were over 250 people involved in a bun fight to get to the front of the line.my wife protested three times that we could get our cards and then wait until time to board but was told with some glee that this was the system that was used and that it worked great for them .about 8 of them were standing about for over an hour drinking the free tea and coffee.

when we finaly got on the ship we were not allowed into our cabin , we were sent to the buffet on deck 9 which was virtually empty of food , then on asking were told we would not get in the cabin until 8pm . Read more