Costa Deliziosa Review
Will not meet expectations if you have cruised anywhere else
Rating by category
Additional details
I am not a seasoned cruiser, rather this was my second cruise to almost the same ports. We chose this cruise because the dates lined up with our vacation timeline. My first cruise experience was with Carnival. This is where my husband and I set expectations for this cruise were based on that experience from a year ago. We were continuously disappointed to learn everything we thought would be standard were up charges. We expected to have free room services, as is standard on Carnival. We did not. It was not explained to us when booking this cruise either.
Food
We expected there to be some sort of free food options available at all times. There was not. In fact, we boarded the cruise ship late (9:00 p.m.) and was stunned to learn that there were no free food options for us ... and that we would either have to pay additional fees or go hungry until breakfast. It was myself, my husband and two teenage sons.
Cabin Review
Balcony Classic
The drawers were broken, but those were fixed pretty quickly.
Port Reviews
Freeport
We were signed up to do a dive excursion, but the waters were rough. We were not told it was canceled until after we had gotten off the ship. There were no other options given to us. So, we ended up taking a taxi ... with a whole bunch of other people, cause they would not take just our family of four. We had asked to go to one place and the driver dropped us off somewhere else. We had to pay for the round trip upfront even though we did not go where we wanted. We decided to just go to the beach where the driver dropped us off and ended up having to pay to get on the beach. Then we were sand blasted and continuously hit up by people on the beach selling something. We then had to pay twice as much money to be taken to the gardens that we had originally asked for. We paid the fee to get into the garden ... which was WAY over priced for the experience.
Amber Cove (Puerto Plata)
During this port, we did not take excursion with the ship. Instead we walked outside the Amber Cove gate and took a taxi to the 27 water falls. The cab ride last year cost of 50$ for the day. This year it was 90$ but we had two additional people. The waterfalls tour through the cruise cost 130$ per person. It cost us 27$ per person with a meal included. I would highly recommend the waterfalls, but on your own.