8-Day Mediterranean Cruise aboard COSTA SMERALDA

Unfortunately, my experience on Costa Smeralda did not meet my expectations. This was supposed to be a holiday, but instead I spent far too much time dealing with unnecessary problems and confusion.

The most disappointing aspect was the quality of the food. The meals in the assigned restaurant were extremely bland and lacked flavour.

I was also very disappointed with the My Drinks package. The drinks were of poor quality and, in my opinion, tasted unpleasant. Considering that the package was an additional expense, I expected a much better standard.

Another issue was the lack of consistent information from Costa staff. I received contradictory answers to questions before and during the cruise, which made things unnecessarily confusing and stressful. Unfortunately, resolving these issues often required additional effort on my part.

There were also some issues regarding my cabin and the information provided by Guest Services, as well as confusion surrounding my disembarkation arrangements. I had to repeatedly explain and clarify things that should have been properly handled by the cruise company.

Embarkation

I started my cruise in Barcelona (Costa lets you embark in most ports of call) and the embarkation went really smoothly in terminal D. I only had to line up few minutes for security and few more to check-in despite me being two hours early to my boarding time. Barcelona did not seem to be especially popular port to embark the ship so that most likely helped to make the process smooth. You did have to print out your boarding pass. With Costa you get your cruise card in the terminal and not at the cabin door. By the time I embarked at 2 pm the cabins were also already ready.

Cabin

I had booked a balcony cabin. I was assigned cabin at the front of the ship on deck 12. I liked the location as it was surrounded by other cabins so it was quiet and it was in the middle in relation to restaurant and bars on deck 6-8 and the sun deck 18 so not too far from anything. The cabin itself was a fairly standard cruise ship balcony cabin with a modern and colorful desing. The bed was nice and firm. Bathroom was nice too. The shower was okay as it was a spacious and had a glass door but the handheld shower was a water saving one which I didn't like. The shower also includes a partially frosted window to the cabin which I liked as it let in some light in to the bathroom. I was cruising solo so privacy wasn't a problem but something to keep in mind depending on your cruise companions. There is a curtain on the cabin side however if you do not wish to see in or out. The cabin was nice and clean apart from couple of small stains on the carpet. Storage space was enough for me travelling solo but with 2 or 3 could be little limited.

Ship

The ship is still relatively new which means it's modern in desing and in a good shape. The overall style is unmistakeably Italian and very fun and colourful. It's a very large ship but I felt it was easy to navigate and never felt too busy or overwhelming. You do have to walk though some venues to get to places which means that sometimes sitting at a bar you would feel little bit like you are just sitting in a corridor as people are walking past which was a bit unfortunate. There is tons of windows and basically every venue has a seaview which is very nice to see. Being LNG-powered, enjoying the Sun on outdoor decks was very nice as there were no nasty fumes.

Food

The food was pretty good as you would expect on an Italian cruise line. The selection is very heavy on southern European cuisine, again, as expected. Complimentary options on Costa Smeralda are the main buffet and the four main dining rooms as well as a dedicated family restaurant. There are also restaurants for suite guests and to those with high loyalty status. The main buffet is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some of the main dining rooms are open for breakfast (buffet), lunch (buffet and á la carte), and afternoon snack (buffet) as well as for dinner (á la carte). Travelling solo, I was assigned a shared table and the later dining slot at 9 pm (the earlier was at 6:30 pm). However, I didn't want to spend the time to sit down to eat so I opted for the buffets only. For breakfast and lunch I opted to go to the buffet at the main dining room as it tended to be less busy than the main buffet. It did have a smaller selection which I still found out to be sufficient. The main buffet is crew served while the other buffets are self-service. The portions the crew would give you were very large. If you are used to cruising with American lines, it's worth noting that on Costa you won't find your typical complimentary pizzas, burgers, hot dogs, or chicken tenders in the buffet or elsewhere. There is an extra pay burger place by the pool and a specialty dining pizzeria though. I did try the pizzeria where I paid little under 10 €. The pizza was pretty good yet little on the dry side. There was a good selection of different pizzas with interesting topping options.

Drinks

I opted for the basic drinks packege which I paid 180 € for. I think that is a great price for a drinks package but I also feel like it's almost necessity to have on board. The complimentary drinks were limited to buffets where you could get water at all meals, juices on breakfast, and coffee on breakfast and afternoon snack. Even water would be an extra pay without the drinks package in the main dining rooms at dinner. I found the glasses in the main dining room buffets to be tiny maybe only 1 dl in size which was inconvinient as on a warm summer cruise you would want to drink a lot. One half a litre bottle of water was included daily in the drinks packege. The basic drink packege included coffees, sodas, beer, wine, and basic cocktails. I felt like the drinks and the selection were good. I didn't ever feel the need to upgrade to the premium drinks package. One weird thing about the drinks on board was that sodas or sparkling water for cocktails would be poured from a 2 litre bottle instead of a fountain.

Entertainment

I felt like there was a pretty good amount of things going on. There were the usual trivias, dance classes etc as well as some production shows and tons of live music. If you like your Broadway-style musicals you won't find them here. Instead, there are smaller shows such as singing, dancing, magic tricks, comedy etc. Highlight for me was this very talented Spanish singer who did couple of shows during the cruise. In his first show he did some popular songs from Spain, France, and Italy while in the second show he did Spanish songs only. You don't need to book any of the show beforehand like on some cruise lines but you do need to show up really early if you want a good seat. Both the Sanremo theathre (which is more like a night club) and the Colosseo (which is like the atrium) are quite bad in the sense that they have only a very few good seats with unobstructed view. I came fairly late to shows and managed to get a seat with maybe 70 % of the stage visible. There also isn't any crazy things like rollercoasters, ziplines, or go karts like on some other mega ships which kinda makes sense considering this ship does port intensive itinaries. What I did appreciate the most as a guy in my 20s was that the night life on board was wonderful. There were good parties in the Sanremo theather as well as on the top deck that went on long in to the night. There were also a ton of other young people on board so the ship didn't feel like a floating retirement home were everyone is in bed at 9 pm.

Cruising solo

Costa seems to offer zero solo supplement deals on many last minute bookings which I think is great and something I took advantage off. Costa, however, does not offer any solo cabins or organized meetups etc for solo passangers. I was assigned a shared table at dinner but I think you could request a table for one too.

App

I liked the app quite a lot and found it to be quite useful. On the app you could look at the schedule and opening hours as well as menus. It also showed how busy the restaurants were so you could plan accordingly. There was a chat feature which allowed you to chat with other passangers without needing to buy a wifi packege. I do believe, however, that the app is not available in app stores for non-Europeans.

Language

I had absolutely no problems on board without speaking Italian, Spanish, or French. You can easily manage with just English. Most of the crew are Asian and speak English the best and only little bits of other languages. Only very occasionally there would, for example, be a some interactive activity which would be held in Italian but even then I think that if a English speaker would join English would be spoken too. There is a dedicated host for many languages such as English, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The host would hold a welcome info as well as info on disembarkation practises which I found to be very nice as I was cruising for the first time. You could also go and ask them for help in any situation which often would be quicker than going to the reception. On this cruise the English-speaking host Hannah was amazing as she was super friendly and helpful.

Service

I do feel like the service was maybe the weakest part of the cruise. Mainly in the bars I felt like the crew weren't always the nicest but they got the job done. However, I also had a very good experience in the piano bar where the service was very good. The waiter there was very friendly and even remembered my order already on my seconds visit. The piano bar became my favorite bar on board as the service was good, it was by far the least busy, and there were good performers suchs as a violinist and a saxophonist. Curiously, never a pianist despite the name of the bar.

Value for your money

I think the value for money on Costa is incredible. I booked my cruise quite last minute maybe three weeks in advantage and paid only 856 € (Base 499 €, 100 € for a balcony, 180 € for a drinks package, and 77 € in service charge.) On other cruise lines on similar itinaries at similar time as a solo passanger in a balcony cabin with drinks package the prices would have been easily many times that. You do get slighty less food options included and less entertainment options but I think that it is not a bad trade off for significantly smaller price.

Conclusion

I would happily sail on Costa again and I have recommended them to my friends and family.

I am giving One Star because that’s is how many I saw during the ‘Sea of Stars’ experience in the Balearic Sea. The website states that “ All exterior and non-essential interior lights on the ship are temporarily switched off to eliminate reflections and glare” in order to see the stars. In reality very few exterior lights were dimmed and then several bright neon lights were turned on? I’ve seen more stars while living in cities.

The food in the restaurants was passable (when you’re not waiting 30-40 minutes between courses), and I’m convinced all bread on board was baked at least two weeks prior. The staff were all very rude (except for the gentleman that cleans our room, he was lovely and the only staff member we saw smile the whole time!). The two (backyard sized) pools were very clearly not enough for the thousands of guests on board. And on the last day I found bedbugs in our bedroom! Definitely the worst part of our European holiday and I will never go on a Costa cruise again!