Very disappointed!!!!
Costa Smeralda Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean
7 Night Western Mediterranean (Rome Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 21, 2022
Ship: Costa Smeralda
Cabin number: 12184
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
If you only speak English you will not understand alot of things that's going on in the ship because most was only in Italian. We cruise every year for the last ten years and there was nothing on that ship that was free. They will nickel and dime you for everything, even water!!! I'm so use to having some free ice cream, pizza or hamburgers but there was nothing free. Maybe I'm a little spoiled. When you get off the ship it was really hard to communicate with people. Don't get me wrong the ship was nice and the ports were great, but I felt kind of alone on the ship because there was not alot of English speaking people. I'm sure alot of people speak English, but we were for sure the MINORITY even though I am a minority. You couldn't enjoy comedy shows, activities by the pool was in Italian, everything we couldn't understand. Our servers could speak in English and were great and most are either from the Philippines or India, but it was different to not talk to anyone that whole week pretty much and believe me we tried to talk to people like in the elevator and they did not understand us Americans. We shared this with other English speaking cruisers on the ship and they all felt the same frustration. I will next time make sure if I cruise in that area that it's primary language for the cruise and activities are in English. I won't cruise again on Costa. I will find a cruise like that speaks English so we can understand what's going on. We plan on going on a family cruise in two years to Greece and in that area. If you know of a cruise line that is more English friendly and won't make us pay for water or normal juice or nickel and dime us for everything please let me know. One more thing the food was not great either. It was okay but it didn't WOW me. I had some pizza and I thought "Little Caesars" pizza is better than this. Anyways that's my review. Please advise me if there are any cruises to Greece in 2024 that hopefully won't give this experience. I'm taking my whole family of 10 and I don't want them to experience what my wife and I just experienced. Please let me know.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
If you only speak English you will not understand alot of things that's going on in the ship because all was only in Italian. Also, we cruise every year for the last 10 years and there was nothing that was free. They will nickel and dime you for everything. I'm so use to having some free ice cream, pizza or hamburgers but there was nothing free. When you get off the ship it was really hard to communicate with people. Don't get me wrong the ship was nice, but I felt kind of alone on the ship because there was not alot of English speaking people. You couldn't watch comedy shows, activities because it was all in Italian. I will next time make sure if I cruise in that area that it's primary language for the cruise and activites is in English. I won't cruise again on Costa. I will find a cruise like that speaks English so we can understand what's going on.
Ports of call
Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands