Great Italian Food, err... Cruise !

Fantastic. Embarked in Marseilles at 4pm. Only saw employees and 3 other passengers. Got off the taxi and 12 minutes later set foot on board. What a breeze !

Food in the MDR was mostly outstanding and delicious, well seasoned and also often visually appealing. Not all of it but most of it. I posted a lot of pictures since there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on Costa on here. (I didn't upload them again here in the review as I uploaded them from the ship during the cruise already and wanted to avoid having them in there twice, please see the picture section of the ship for these pictures). The buffet was hit and miss. Mostly hit, but there were a few bad dishes on there. The "scrambled eggs" of course, as you'd expect, but also a pretty bad vitello tonnato. Which is a surprise as the one served in the MDR is fantastic. Not a fan of the breakfast sausages either. Afternoon tea, served at the buffet between 4:30 and 5:30 pm is an absolute must: the focacce there are astonishingly delicious as you wouldn't expect them to be so good after looking at them. Ham and cheese and mayo or salami and cheese and a piece of lettuce and a slice of tomato doesn't sound overly exciting, does it? Try one! The flavors go so well together, the focaccia just melts in your mouth and the seasoning is perfect. I took 2 ziplock bags full of these home with me and they're already gone. We tried the steakhouse and the Teppanyaki restaurant as far as specialty dining is concerned. Teppanyaki was enjoyable as the chef was funny and good at cooking but the supporting personnel was also good at serving wine and drinks and being all smiles. The steakhouse was also good with great waiters knowing about wine. The waiter described the flavors of my favorite Costa wine precisely in a way that you only can if you know what it feels and tastes like. The steak was great, but was the only American steak on offer. Lots of those Italian steaks, some Australian cuts... It made the choice easier, but it's very restrictive to only have ONE choice of American beef. Delicious side dishes including very earthy spinach. Breakfast in the MDR was a letdown. Slow service by unmotivated personnel in a very small area at the aft of the ship. Most people go to the buffet for breakfast, I suppose, since you can see them make your eggs to order, for example, tell them to add salt or pick up a fruit or something else that isn't offered as such in the MDR. The only negative about the buffet is that they stopped the table service for drinks. You now have to go get it yourself while your food gets cold or get it beforehand and carry it around and see it cool while your egg dish cooks... Let's hope they see the light and bring back table service for drinks at the buffet. There's also a burger joint on the ship, a pizzeria and a gelateria. Also a dim sum station, a seafood place, a sushi restaurant, a Hot Pot place... I haven't tried them all, but it's a foodie's paradise!

Lots of shops and Cafés and pizza, burger, gelato... I can't eat between meals as I'm too full from the meals, especially with the beverage package, but dropping in for a coffee, or, more accurately, a "caffè" (an espresso) is one of these things one does in Italy that are an activity without really being one. They have a state of the art fitness room with brand new Technogym machines with a forward view, right next to the spa. A waterslide or two, a 50 slot machine, 5 table casino with a bar in the middle. The personnel in the casino was great, be it the girls at the cashier counter or Joselito and his colleagues behind the bar. Friendly, helpful, funny and fast.

Great staff, knowledgeable waiters, efficient cabin attendants. Mostly friendly although some seem unhappy. Great staff at the casino even though I played next to nothing.

This ship has smart elevators where you select the destination floor before entering the elevator. There was pretty much no waiting for an elevator, ever, not even on embarkation or disembarkation or popular ports. The longest I had to wait for an elevator was approximately 15 seconds. The restaurants and bars are mostly regrouped on decks 5 and 10. The casino is on deck 4 and nobody is forcing you to go through it like they often do on "American" cruise ships. The atrium (Piazza della Signoria) is a main attraction with live music that spreads from deck 3 to deck 5. IMHO a beautiful area. Also has a few shops. Everything is sparkling clean everywhere. The only thing is the soap dispenser in the men's room on deck 3 forward is broken, pressing the soap back onto the button instead of down. Probably a design fault as they had the same problem on the Nieuw Statendam.

Beautiful cabin, great shower with good water pressure (for a ship, better than the usual drip), tight-sealing shower door prevents water getting everywhere. Good size balcony, slightly larger than on CCL. No Minibar but the cabin attendant will have his colleagues bring you as much ice as you want. But I still like a small fridge better. 40 inch TV in front of the bed.

The daily didn't mention self disembarkation, which I usually do, but hey, carry my suitcase, it's not something I enjoy doing. Filled out the tag and put the suitcase in front of the cabin before 1 am like they asked and found it at the terminal after disembarking, which was quite a walk, so that's a good thing, I suppose, except for the fact that I had my toothbrush and pyjamas in my backpack, which I find unusual. They asked that everyone who disembarks come to the theater on deck 4 at 9:45am. When we showed up, sat down, waited for a minute, they told us, at 9:47am: ok, thanks for coming, you may now disembark, which triggered laughter around the theater, followed by a busier disembarkation than they could have had, had they not done anything.