This was a group trip that I decided to go on. There weren’t many staff members who spoke English well enough and getting answers to many questions was challenging. Many of the European guests were very rude, often pushy and cutting lines during meal times at the buffet, ignoring dress codes and walking in with wet swimsuits and towels or robes to the buffet. There was not much of a variety of meals. Most of the meals consisted of an enormous amount of bread and pastries. Perhaps that is the European way but, we Americans definitely were not accustomed to the food preparations. Several of my companions and I (27 in total) had been on numerous cruises before so this was highly unusual that there wasn’t a larger variety of international food. Also the buffet closed at 830pm nightly so if you were hungry after hours be prepared to pay. It was my birthday week so I was hoping for a great time. Our waiter George in the dining room was often rude, once complaining to us that he wasn’t feeling well and was working longer than he should have been (8 months) and should have been allowed to go home. Really??!! Several times our food was being served so slowly and at lukewarm temperatures might I add, that it was interfering with the next seating and we were asked to leave before the meal was completed. This put a damper on our trip as we had great expectations based on previous cruises. I’m not saying that other cruise lines are without fault but I felt a little put off by the lack of hospitality. I felt a little racial bias when it came to bar service. We were passed over while we arrived at the bar waiting our turn while someone not like me was helped immediately upon arriving at the bar. We had to tell them that we were waiting first.. I will say that we did meet several very nice and interesting people on the cruise. But there is so much more to complain about but why bother. Needless to say I won’t be traveling on Costa cruise line again.