My family had wanted to take a Mediterranean cruise for years, and after completing six domestic cruises in the U.S., we decided to finally take a giant leap over the pond for a European cruise. Simply put, when booking with Costa, shame on me for not doing research; I was unaware I was booking with the European version of Celebrity Cruises! Upon onboard it, our first impression was that the Costa Mediterranea ship was beautifully ornate and visually impressive. Making our way to our state room began the awful experience. As written in previous reviews, there’s an extra charge for everything. The deck hallways leading to staterooms smell like stale arm pit, the carpet look water damaged as though previously flooded, and you choose whether you want to see your service person in the morning or evening. There is no in between service should a need arise. The buffet has limited up offerings, and even more limited hours of availability. The food was terrible and low quality. The formal dining menu basically offers up the same foods rotated or moved to different portions of the menu. By day two, I had an extreme case of food poisoning. The infirmary was closed more than half the day, and then it was over €100 just to walk in the door. Passengers are on boarding and off boarding at every stop, so there is a constant passenger rotation and confusion. The staff do not warm up to you, are unfriendly, and not customer service minded, but who could blame them when they are constantly dealing new faces every day. We had the opportunity of befriending a member of the staff, I will not mention where they worked, who shared the very low morale and dissatisfaction of many employees. Most cannot wait for their contracts to end. Two of our three excursions were canceled, the paid wine tasting activity we signed up for was canceled, the Internet service is extremely poor, and while we were away physically off board on our one excursion all of our remaining megabytes had somehow been used up! It took elevating to management to get resolution. I could go on, but in the essence of time, please seriously consider other cruise options.