Booked this western Mediterranean cruise to visit most ports that I had not been to. I also had never been on Costa or any other Italian flag ship. I had cruised Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, and Princess on a total of 8 cruises. The advertised cost seemed reasonable, but then came added things, like water package, drink package, and specialty restaurants like the ice cream bar and the Pizza restaurant. Other high end restaurants are also available. The pizza at the pizza restaurant was the best food that I had on the ship. The Pia Gusto drink package was a reasonable buy which covers most drinks and coffees. The Illy coffee is probably the only thing that would get me on Costa again. Dining room food was the poorest I have ever had on a cruise line. Our waiter seemed burned out, but maybe he was near the end of his contract time.The fact that they board and disembark passengers at each port means less waiting at disembarkation, but annoying safety drill announcements in six languages at every port. The pay for pizza was nice because the pizza was excellent, reasonably priced and because it cost a little extra there was no waiting, which I’ve seen on other ships with passengers that can eat them as fast as they are produced. A small cost for exceptional coffee is much better than other cruise lines “swill coffee”. The passengers are probably 80% European, which means limited chatting with your fellow cruisers which to me is a disadvantage, interacting with fellow cruisers is usually part of the fun of cruising. Would I do Costa again? Probably not.