Having had been on 10+ cruises before (Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, MSC) I have to say that this cruise line is the worst when it comes to customer service. Travelers used to good customer service should not sail with Costa.
We sailed as a family for New Years 2018, and while we had a good vacation overall, it certainly was not due to the staff aboard the Costa Deliziosa. It felt like not only were they understaffed at all times, every day; but the staff was also grumpy - felt like they were just there to get the job done and get their paycheck.
While you can see the details of our experience below, overall, I would not want to sail Costa again, or would recommend it to any American friends, or anyone that expects decent customer service.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Embarkation was very quick. It was strange that they didn't give you your key card when you got on, it was waiting for you in your room later.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
The first day was bad. We had three rooms under the same reservation, and they sat some of us together, and some of us in a different table.... After talking to the maître d' they fixed the issue on the second day. And things got worse... The second day was terrible. Our waiter was extremely rude*. He was just rushing to get our orders, rolling his eyes at my grandparents for taking long time to choose, and brought the wrong food (and tried to force us to eat it before fixing the issue). It was so ridiculous that I had to call the maître d' over to talk to him about his attitude. After this incident, on the third day things started to get better after being assigned a new waiter. Our waiter was ok when it came to his attitude, but the issues with the food continued. Between courses it would take a good 20-30 minutes before the next course arrived. Dinner usually lasted two and a half to three hours every night. Not only that, but in between courses the servers would not refill your water or wine unless you managed to flag them down. One night I didn't like my meal, so I sent it back and asked for another meal. The waiter continued to bring the rest of the meals, and brought my food after bringing my dessert....
*note that we later realized that the reason why service was so slow and the waiters were so bad is because they're understaffed. On most cruises you get a waiter and an assistant waiter. This cruise line only has one waiter per table which makes the entire process extremely slow.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
We had 3 balcony rooms. The members staying on 8341 and 7347, which are one above the other, really enjoyed the room as it was a big bigger than 7358 (normal size room).
7358 room was of average size, but don't be surprise if you get a call from 1980s asking for its style back, and also for its TV. The style of the rooms was a bit dated, and the TV was probably 10 inches. Very small. There is also only one outlet per room, so bring a power strip.
Stayed by the beach close to the ship and had a great time there. When you arrive at the beach by the ship, don't stop at the first place as it's a tourist trap, just keep walking as the water is clearer farther away from the first place(can't remember the name). Make sure to negotiate with the beach people on the prices for the chair.
Leaving out of Fort Lauderdale, and they gave us a stop in Miami. Really? What a waste of a stop. Not only that, we arrived on January 1st (New Years Day) at 9AM and the immigration laws required that EVERYONE, no matter whether you wanted to go to Miami or not, had to get off the ship. Until the last person did not get off the ship, we were not able to embark again. We got had to wake up early on our vacation, got off the ship by 10AM, and was not able to get back in until almost noon. Just sitting there at the terminal. I understand it's not the cruise lines fault that the authorities require everyone to get off the ship, but they should have at least plan to arrive in Miami later on New Years Day to let people at least sleep in more.
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