Costa Serena

It was mainly the food the problem, they were limiting a lot the schedule for eating and many things like the icecream machines didn't work and then we have to make a súper long line  to Get some icecream and besides they closed the bufet restaurant very often and then they only had food for sale, even the water was súper restricted and I think like this mostrar of the charm Of cruising was lost, besides the time for visiting places was so badly distributed as for example more than 15 hours in Palma de Mallorca, we left the port until 1AM and next day in Barcelona we only had 5 hours with debarkation and everything and it has much moré to see than Palma it causes a lot Of stress to try to Reach the ship and we did everything in half. In comparison to other cruises I've done I didn't feel the sensation to be pampered.

Food was just O.K. very small portions for dinner so it forced you to order more courses and made the staff work much harder. No buffet for dinner as other lines. Inconsistant wake up times. One day we didnt recieve one. One day we got one on time. Next day we got one a half hour early. Staff was unclear on common questions. Had a shuttle from the airport but not one returning. Airport an hour away had to get a taxi (100 Euros). Only one English speaking TV station (BBC) in room. All excursions were cancelled for lack of English speaking people.

I booked this cruise for Nov 2012 since I was traveling by myself and wanted a single cabin without paying double. The markup for the single cabin was only 20%. For that I got an inside cabin on front of the lower deck -- which was fine except for the noise/vibration from the side thrusters when the ship docked (not an issue if you're an early riser). Having traveled on most of the cruiselines I've realized that they all follow the same formula. No different here except that the majority of passengers were italian/spanish/french with a few germans/russians/asians/english. Almost no americans on the ship (which is ok by me). All communications were in italian/spanish/french/german/english and targeted towards your chosen language. NO language issues at all. I picked this cruise based in the itinerary and pricing and would do it again if the pricing were attractive. Would probably choose a different cruiseline if pricing/itinerary were the same. But no regrets. Italians has no sense of order or personal space and are always getting in your way, but you learn to deal with that soon enough. Just be a little pushy and get in their way and you'll be fine. They talk a lot but are mostly soft-spoken, not loud like we americans. The drinks package for 19.50 euro/day is great! Possibly a deciding factor on future Costa cruises.

This was a very nice and relaxing cruise. The port selected to visit were great and certainly interesting and the tour excursions totally covered each port.

There is smoking allowed in pretty much every public area of the ship (bleh!). I am still recovering from the after effects of a respiratory infections as a result. We tried to go on deck as much as possible but there was always someone smoking near us. The ports themselves are pretty decent - I don't recommend any excursions as you will be rushed through everything, you won't be able to get out and take pictures of everything. You can easily wait till you port and there will be people trying to give you flyers of the same thing the boat is doing for a fraction of the cost.