A very busy itinerary

Item: Costa Mediterranea
Rating: 4
Author: PatriciaM11

Costa Mediterranea Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

PatriciaM11

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 50

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Verified Review

11 Night Egypt/Israel/Greece (Savona Roundtrip)

Sail date: October 31, 2010

Ship: Costa Mediterranea

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 14 years ago

Review summary

This was a nice ship, but the decor was overdone.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Too much repetitive dishes. The food was not that good at the buffet. Pizza was not very good...had nothing on it..barely a little meat. They conserved too much on meat.. The sweet rolls in the morning did not taste fresh....European sweet rolls are not as soft and sweet as American ..they look much better than they taste. The coffee was a mix of instant nescafe and water that came out of a machine. It appeared they never used real coffee grounds to make the coffee...it was never good at the buffet.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

super nice staff.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

They use sea water in the pools...not sure if all cruises do that. The decor was tacky in my view. It must have cost a lot to have furnished the ship with some things that were just not attractive and there were too many patterns and colors that didn't go together. It was well-maintained, however.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

It was acceptable, but we had to call to have our air conditioning looked at as did several other people. We were glad we had a balcony room so we could prop open the door at night; otherwise we would have been too hot. It finally started working better. The service was good in the staterooms, however.

Ports of call

Alexandria (Cairo), Egypt

1 out of 5

The trip to Cairo and back were about three hours each. Be prepared to be aggressively approached by people selling items...it was stressful at the Pyramids because we were bombarded with locals wanting to take our picture and everything you can imagine...they are quite bothersome and made the trip hardly worth it. The day was way too long and there was only a short time at the sites, mainly pyramids. We had a fairly nice lunch on a boat, which took us down the Nile not very far.... Also, they took us to a Mosque....I wasn't interested in that at all and then to shopping at a store of their choice...all the buses went to one store...that guy made a fortune off the tourists and the excursions must get a cut. The store did have a good selection, however. Be prepared to see trash everywhere in Egypt...all along the streets and highways. Just think they could take that and recycle it...clean up the city and make some money too.

Thumbs Up 2

Don't Miss: Don't miss the pyramids if you are willing to ride a bus 6 hours.

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

5 out of 5

Athens is great; however, we hadn't booked an excursion, so we were bombarded by taxi drivers who wanted to take us on a tour. Our taxi driver took us to a couple of places that were not far apart...he waited, but he was only going to spend about 3 or four hours...we paid him 140 E (two couples) and he also wasted our time by taking us by his friend's shop. He seemed too controlling and had only his idea of what he was going to do for us. Would have been better to have taken a taxi into the Plaka ourselves and then one back to the ship, even though it would have cost us almost the same...ie. 30 E each way, but we could have stayed longer. The Plaka is the area surrounding the Acropolis site and has cute shops and restaurants...I know this because I had visited there previously.

Thumbs Up 0

Don't Miss: Acropolis and Parthenon

Ashdod, Israel

5 out of 5

This was nice, but also a long trip. The tour guide was very informative about the Christian sights, even though he reminded us two or three times that he was Jewish and didn't regard Jesus to be a Messiah...nevertheless, I think most people were Christian and that is why they took the tour. He was a little cocky. He also took us to "his" store for shopping.

Thumbs Up 0

Don't Miss: Church of the Holy Seplicre and Garden of Gethsemane

Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

5 out of 5

This was a quaint port town. Wish we would have taken the excursion to the Temple of Zeus...I heard it was good. We did take a little train that took us only a few blocks out to the other side of the island for a look at the sea from there...nothing too great.

Thumbs Up 0

Port Said, Egypt

3 out of 5

We just departed from this port after our excursion. People selling stuff and approaching you all the way to the ship....

Thumbs Up 0

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

5 out of 5

We took Rome at your Liesure...it was raining terribly and windy that day so we were not able to actually get around well. It was also a holy day and we wish we would have been told that we wouldn't be able to see some of the sites at the vatican because they were closed. The day went too fast.

Thumbs Up 0

Don't Miss: St Peter's Square, Vatican

Rhodes, Greece

5 out of 5

A very cute and quaint place.

Thumbs Up 0

Pros: The staff

Cons: The decor

Recommends Costa Mediterranea? No.

1 Comment

cruisellama 5 years ago

Thanks

Thumbs Up 0

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