A Lousey Cruise
Costa Mediterranea Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
7 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: February 09, 2008
Ship: Costa Mediterranea
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 16 years ago
Review summary
I have been cruising for 36 years and this was the worst cruise I have ever been on. We requested a balcony room from the agent and discussed our wishes in detail. We used this same agent last year and so she well should have known what we wanted. She said at the time I booked the trip that our room was a "Partially Obstructed View" which she told me meant that when standing in our room, we would see the ocean view and when "SITTING ON OUR BALCONY" we would see the ocean view. I also spoke with another agent from here a couple weeks later about something else and got her to double check the view from this room. I was told the same thing that the original agent had told me. NOT TRUE!!! I think knowing our wishes the agent should have said lets go ahead and book on another floor to make sure of your view. From standing in our room, standing on our balcony and "SITTING ON OUR BALCONY" all we could see was the LIFE BOAT! I didn't pay this kind of money to look at a life boat for 7 days. I called your office and spoke with yet another person before the ship left port that first day and he told me that there was nothing he could do about it and that if we were to be upgraded to another cabin, we certainly wouldn't get it for free! I then went down to the information desk on the ship to let them know that we had the wrong room. They too told me there was nothing they could do about it and that was the end of the discussion. The food on the ship was not very good and no variety. You'd better like Italian cause that about all your gonna get the entire time. The soup and other items that were supposed to be hot were barley room temperature. Even the coffee and hot chocolate never got above luke temperature. The staff we had in the dining room were not good at all. It took forever to get waited on and to get our food. We spent most of every meal without the first refill of tea or even water. While all other people in the dining room were enjoying their meal, we were waiting 5 - 10 minutes between every course just to have our plates removed and finally get to the next course. Thank God for the basket of breadsticks and rolls. We clean them out every night while waiting on the real food to come. The pasta was always UNDER COOKED, the shrimp was OVER COOKED and the dressing for the salads never tasted the same way twice. Even on the buffets the food was never hot and the staff out there could have cared less if we ate or not. One morning we decided to try breakfast in the dining room and we finally had to go get a waiter and beg him to take our order after sitting there for about 10 minutes. Of course he told us he was busy and that somebody would be with us shortly. We finally got a waiter about 10 minutes later. The staff in the onboard shops were very rude. One day when me and my two friends had gone down to the shops, the staff looked at us and said "these women are like vlchers, can they not wait 2 minutes." We were the only ones in the shop at the time! Let me get this right; they have merchandise they want to sell and we have money and want to buy; isn't that what retail is all about? Overall horrible experience! I Will never go on Costa and will never use this agency again!Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
Pros: Our Room Steward
Cons: The room