Costa Mediterranea

Menu diversity was mediocre. Each dinner in the principle dining room was repetitious. Always with an Italian slant. Not good for a ship with multiple nationalities on board and boring for a 10 night cruise.  Garden salads with main course were always the same vegs.,  with very limited salad dressing selections. Optional cheese plate was unappetizing and looked like left-overs from breakfast buffet or prior day offerings.

2. In the buffet afternoon restaurant the very same cheese selections and cold cut appeared relentlessly.

CLUE: GET A NEW COOK BOOK.

3. Upscale premium- charge restaurant had same menu as main dining room but at an extra price.

4. Premium charge - room service breakfast for premium cabins arrived cold, food was badly prepared and orders for husband and wife arrive 25 minutes apart.

5. WiFi reception throughout the ship was unreliable and often failed to work in a timely fashion.

6. Bar tenders poured soft drinks from cans or bottles (10 oz) and served them in smaller glasses (7 oz.)  so they didn't provide the full portion. I asked to have them pour my entire beverage into a larger glass and they refused. Very stingy portion control on soft drinks and worse on alcohol, despite "all-you-could-drink" high cost drink packages.

7. On board television had only 1 channel consistently in English ( sometimes MS-NBC), but 5 channels were dedicated to Costa-only channels. Many more channels were provided in French or Italian. None in German or Spanish.

8. Ship lacked any source where you could purchase  small toiletries like: mouth wash, antiperspirant, hair spray, cough drops, aspirin, antiacids, camera batteries, OTC medicine,

9. On Costa provided shuttle buses into town, drivers did not speak any English and could not tell people where they were being dropped off, so it was difficult to find the bus stop at the end of the day to return to the ship.

Everything was as we imagined it would be on the Costa Mediterranean! The food was excellent and the staff very warm, knowledgable and attentive to every detail.

Our trip was "smooth sailing" and we returned home refreshed.   I would definitely recommend this cruise to friends!

Operationally, the cruise was excellent. Always punctual, and the ship is kept very clean. Our cabin was a very nice rear facing balcony with good closet space. Food wise, pasta and appetizers were always good, but proteins were not. The only proteins we enjoyed were the extra cost burgers and the duck on gala night. Fish seemed to taste "fishy". We ate in the club restaurant one night, service was outstanding, but the filet had an off taste. It was however cooked a perfect medium rare. Salads on the buffet were very good. Piu gusto drink package was a great value. Wines were good, as were cocktails. Espresso every bit as good as on land in Italy. Entertainment staff keeps things fun. The white party was the best I've seen at sea. Shows were below average for a cruise as were lounge entertainers.  One nice touch, they had an English speaking (from England) customer service rep who always asked how things were going and genuinely seemed to care. Would I take Costa again? For the right itinerary at the right price, sure. All Cruise lines have their pros and cons--Costa's strong points are fun, pasta, and espresso in my opinion.