Great Itiniary but Service very Poor

Things I liked about the cruise: 1) Itinerary was reason selected the cruise and it was good, along with very good excursion team members, 2) room size and layout and room attendant very good, Christopher was very helpful, 3) shows were very good and dancers did a really good job. I also understand that for Europeans, they received good value on packaging their flights with the cruise and also had direct flights.

Things that we did not like and were a real disappointment: 1) Dinner Buffet was exceptionally poor- aside from choices of bread, salad and 1 pasta choice, the main entrée selection was only about 7 items and seemed about the same every day. I have never seen such a limited choice and such poor quality. While most cruises I have been on had jumbo shrimp at least once a week and even 2 cruises had lobster 1/week, and always at no fees, however on Costa one night in the pasta there were the tiniest popcorn shrimp I have ever seen. And I couldn’t believe that even pizza was only available with red sauce for an extra fee. 2) Breakfast buffet was even worst- cold eggs and not even an option for a tailor made omelet. No pancake option, or egg toast option, or even crapes unless we paid extra and even cereals had only 3 choices. 3) Lunch buffet was terrible so we ended up eating a cheeseburger almost every day. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t even a free sandwich deli option like every other cruise line we have been on has. Even butter for breads was only available on request, except for breakfast, and I had to search for ketchup and staff was minimally helpful. I am used to getting coffee, ice tea, lemonade, and ice cream at any time for free… but on Costa, ice tea, lemonade and ice cream always cost another fee. And coffee and teas are only available at certain times and there are no signs to say when they are available and staff. Frequently staff would direct us to the bar and buy coffee and tea and only when pushed tell us when it is available for free 4) The buffet staff and buffet guests all seem very unhappy compared to all the other cruises I have taken. I believe it is due to the fact they are trained on how to drive fees up and keep expenses down instead of training to provide customer service. Never was I asked by staff if I needed anything or if they could bring me water or coffee, like is common elsewhere. Instead I overhead staff arguing about “you’re not my boss so don’t tell me what to do” this is the poorest service I have ever seen on my 14 cruises with 5 cruise lines. 5) Even the notice we had in our room for a free non-alcoholic beverage seemed like just another effort to get a fee from us. We found out that only 1 free drink is provided per room, even though there were 2 of us in our room. 6)  The buffet only had 2 sanitizers that I could find, inviting illness on the boat, and on 1st day on the boat 1 sanitizer was even empty. Never did I see anyone at the entrance to the buffet with a sanitizer bottle welcoming us and offering a spray. 7) No on board ATM or cash available from Hospitality desk which meant I had to use vacation time for this. This is avail on every other ship I have been on, 8) Even finding ice was not always easy, sometimes 2 of the 3 ice machines would be closed and I had to run around to find ice, or of course we could order room service and wait and pay a tip. Which also reminds me that room service usually is free, but not on Costa, and choices were really limited as well. 9) The Casino made it easy to access funds from our credit card but no one told us that winnings needed to be picked up directly in the casino. So at the end of our cruise, we had to run around from place to place to try and collect or funds and had to wait an hour to get our cash. This made us feel like the process was designed so that many guests never get their winnings and the Casino gets to keep the winnings. 10) The shops have lots of merchandise on sale, but no t-shirts like every other cruise we have taken, but maybe no one want to have a shirt the Costa logo on it. 11) Decks 3 and 4 would make good walking tracks like most boats do, but on this boat the deck does not allow walkers to walk fully around the boat. Instead, the decks end up being unused space except for many ash trays for smokers. They could have also have had some reclining deck chairs there to escape the crowds, like most other boats. 12) When I got home, my bill was much higher than the final bills I received on the boat. 11) On-line excursion information does not allow you to get a description of tours except for 1 tour at a time, thereby requiring you either to wait till you arrive on the boat to make informed tour selection or to individually each of the 100 plus tour options 12) When we were woken up at 12:30PM by the fire in the engine room public address warning, I was glad all was fine but thought it was poor the captain did not apologize for the incident And it seemed a fire on board was maybe routine. 13) It was terrible that the boat allowed smoking in its cabins which resulted in us getting 2nd hand smoke in our room throughout each and every night. 14) When walking back to the Costa which was docked next to another cruise boat, it struck me as a perfect example that the other cruise line had welcome drinks waiting for its guests with hand towels and our Costa boat had nothing, which was typical. 14) no animal towels in the rooms with mints on the pillow waiting for us, and no bath robes in the room on Costa. As a fellow passenger describe Costa as a traveling bus that got you to where you needed to go but no fun along the way.

In summary, I felt like I always had to keep one hand on my wallet and found this cruise so disappointing compared to all others I have taken. I feel very bad for the young energetic staff that seems beaten down by management policies. As a result, my wife and I will never take another Costa Cruise and each day we could not wait to get off Costa.