DO NOT BOOK! This is an ordeal not a holiday. Worst Experience of My Life!

Dinning is horrific!!! The worst food you could imagine! Expect a lower standard that school dinners with 'chefs' that have no idea what is going on. I was served pink chicken and not one single person in that whole restaurant cared. Even with me telling them that they could have killed someone who didn't see it i.e. the older or children. Absolutely disgusting, the reply I got was 'I'll get you a new one'. Do you really think I want a new one when you can't even acknowledge that this a problem? The rest of the buffet food I can't even describe. Just awful. They serve things like chicken curry and don't label it that it contains bones! What an awful surprise and again just as well I am of an age to cope with it! I dread to think what could happen with children. For the last 3 nights of the cruise I ate potatoes and cabbage for my dinner every night. Costa seem to want to spend as little as they possibly can on food, you won't find any fruit that is ripe or even has a taste. The queues in the buffet are spectacular, especially at lunch time! Expect to wait up to 20 mins to get the burgers and chips. Oh and the most shocking thing I thought for an Italian cruise ship, you won't get pizza or ice cream unless you pay a lot of extra money! Also expect the other passengers to behave like complete pigs, 90 of them are absolutely disgusting because staff let them do what they like. Like I said no one cares. You can go and sit with you shoes on and put your feet all over the tables. What an appetising site. Don't expect to get a seat in the buffet dining ever! Also don't expect staff to help you find a seat. They will shrug their shoulders and walk away from you. I think the experience in the proper dining room is even worse. Expect to get shoved on a table with total strangers. Thanks Costa for again ruining my holiday with this! I don't know these people!!! I don't want to sit with them and make small talk!! The waiters will not explain the menu to you, you will have to decipher it yourself and try and get some sense out of them! Now for the best thing! All of the food on this menu comes from frozen! Nothing on it is fresh! And the staff on board will rave about this restaurant, it's amazing! NO IT'S NOT! It is terrible! The weirdest food you have ever seen cooked extremely poorly! A poached egg is a pumpkin cream, and that was the best thing on the menu. It's a nightmare. And there is no tea or coffee after your meal, and no will come and tell you that. We sat at our table for 30 minutes and no waiter even came to ask us what we were waiting for. It is even worse at breakfast, they literally have no idea what is going on. My Mum sat for 30 mins waiting for them to actually bring her what she ordered while the wrong thing just sitting in front of her. 4 times I asked for a table for 4 and was given a table for 8! Stop putting strangers on a table it is disgusting when you don't want that! When you order a coke the staff do not inform you that it is Pepsi not coke. I don't drink Pepsi so I am not paying for that! Also if you order something like lemonade or Fanta then they will bring you a diet version without telling you, again I don't want to poison my body with sweeteners but they don't care!

What activities? Every day we wen to the quiz no staff member turned up to run it.

My biggest issue with Costa is their staff. Staff do not say hello or speak to passengers as they walk round the ship. They purposely avoid you, it's disgusting. Lower level employees I actually feel a bit sorry for as they are just not trained. The people that work in the restaurants and bars have no clue. The bar staff kept walking past us not taking our order even though we were literally the only people there. There is never any cutlery available at the buffet and if you ask someone to refill it they will huff at you. Oh I am sorry I am asking you to do your job. The restaurant staff will pointblank refuse to meet your needs and any Costa staff eating in the restaurant will barge in front of you and I saw a woman shoved out of the way whilst getting cutlery. God help you if you have some sort of food allergy! I think Costa will try and kill you. I saw a young boy try to find out if there was mushrooms in a pasta and the staff couldn't answer him. Staff all stand and smoke openly of the lower deck. It is absolutely disgusting! People in chefs whites standing smoking in front of passengers, I dread to think of the kitchen hygiene if they think this is acceptable. Don't try and get any information about practicing your muster station, no one knew and we spent 2 hours waiting in our cabin. The next day we got the rudest letter telling us it is illegal for us not to do it! What on earth?! We tried to find this information out for hours. You are disgusting Costa, you need to learn how to treat your customers. The spa staff are so annoying, all they do is try and sell you treatments that are 6 times the price you would pay in a fancy hotel. They will accost you everyday. The worst staff are the ones that work on reception. Don't even bother standing in the queue for 20 mins to speak to them. They look at you like it is a hassle for them to even talk to you. Most of the answers they give will be a shrug and a blasé attitude. It is absolutely disgusting. In fact, it got the point that I was close to tears as I was so frustrated with them. All I wanted was an explanation but I got an answer of phoning when I get home! How can I do that when no one answers! Costa claim that all staff are fluent in English. They are not. If you ask them anything other than what is usual they will not have a clue what you are talking about. Frustrating does not even explain this. This is my biggest complaint of all, Costa do not know how to say sorry. Not a single staff member said sorry once. Never. They are not capable of this. They are robots that only care about themselves. How miserable we were every day was actually laughable. We spent so long complaining everyday that my family were bored of it and we had to make a pact to not complain to each other! I think that lasted 10 minutes! It was just one thing after another. It literally did not stop 24/7. Costa could not meet a single need on the whole holiday. It was like going from one ordeal to an other all day long. I am still so angry just thinking about it now. What a waste of £4500.

They ship's decor is ugly and old. Do not expect anything special.

Cabins are even worse. Ours was again old and ugly and not maintained properly. Mold in the shower and in the light fittings that were falling down. Scratches and chipping all over the units and fittings.What looked like a blood stain was on the out door mat, which was next to the bed. Couldn't open cupboard under the TV without hitting it, the design is terrible. The balcony was totally pointless. The view was totally obstructed by the life boat, if this was the case then why weren't we informed of this whilst booking. I would have paid the extra money. The balcony is also in terrible condition. I understand a boat's exterior must be repainted to maintain it but the paintwork was the worst I have ever seen. Paint splashes everywhere. It was just disgusting to look at. Oh and the disgusting passengers smoking on their balconies ruined it too, what a waste of money. Don't expect to ever see your steward, never saw him once on the whole holiday.

No one cares