Costa Diadema Reviews

I had a fabulous holiday onboard this beautiful ship. I suggest all guests who book to go all inclusive as some drinks can be quite expensive with no tea or coffee in cabin. Guests onboard are from a mix of European nations. The Spa was wonderful and i highly recommend the thermal sweet. Entertainment some shows where excellent and others not quite to standards one expects.  There was a lot to do on board in the evenings and i highly recommend the Rock Bar. The excursions and ports where nice. The breakfast menu was a little disapointing, as the cruise ship catered for all guests from different cultures.The Full English Breakfast was only available in the restaurant and was ok. The Staff where lovely and very helpful, I will try another cruise line again.

Excursions and spa treatments costly. Food and waiter service excellent.  Cabin and balcony very good. Beautiful ship

Lovely ship with the Deck 5 outside walkway all round the ship an excellent feature. Well designed cabins. Entertainment to suit all tastes. Younger ones can enjoy loud music up in Deck 10 and the Disco, while older ones can enjoy the quieter bars, music, dancing available on Deck 4 and 5. Theatre shows were excellent but you have to get in 30 minutes before to get a decent seat. Not a problem as you can sit and have a cocktail. Food was good with reasonable choice in the main restaurant. The food in the buffet was also good but often struggled to find a table. No hot breakfast in the buffet but great choice with waiter service in the main restaurant. Staff on board were all very efficient and friendly. The all inclusive drinks package was excellent with big choice of cocktails, branded spirits and liqueurs, wine by the glass with limited choice but OK. Avoid the ship during school holidays if you are an older couple. Even in March, the pools were monopolised by families with kids. A couple of downsides which could be improved by Costa would be, (a) Port disembarkation manned by 1 member of staff to barcode read your Costa on board card ! Caused havoc when trying to get off the ship. (b) No encouragement from Costa for passengers to use hand washes.

Costa ships are all italian run and the Diadema was my second time cruising with them. I was unable to book excursions in English on both times which i felt was very unfair. The ship was lovely and the food was to my taste, also i got a great deal for a single person. Entertainment was really excellent.

A very large and new ship very glitzy. There was not very many English speaking holiday makers. It was for Italian tastes. An annoying aspect was that apart from tea coffee for breakfast, you then had to wait between 4-5 with cakes for Italian tea!. After this time you could not get any food in the self-service restaurant, so you had to have a formal meal at 6.45 or 9.30pm or nothing. Water at evening meal was expensive. International formal breakfast was only until 8.45 some days it was 9.15 on others very confusing- it meant an early start to the day if you wanted any cooked food. Staff were excellent and service was good some of the entertainment was just in Italian. There was lots of children and school parties, the ship basically acted as a ferry picking up and dropping off holiday makers from different ports. Not happy with having the additional charge for tips no opt out facility we prefer to give our own tips so that we know they get them, and don't fly in from Nice as the transfers couch was late coming to get you and early taking you back to the airport 7 hours in the airport lounge on way home!

Excellent accommodation & food. All staff were extremely helpful & friendly. We were very impressed with the Gluten Free menu choices & the care the staff took to ensure that all our dietary needs were catered for. Overall a very enjoyable holiday.

We were a little concerned about cruising on a ship this large. She is the biggest we have cruised on but after a short tour we soon grew accustomed to her. We were given priority boarding at Barcelona as we are pearl members. We had chosen a samsara inside cabin.This entitled us to use the seperate samsara restaurant with choices from the samsara and main dining menu. You could choose up to 7 courses for both lunch and dinner and food was of a very high standard but dont go expecting english or american style dining,it is predominantly Italian. We could also have unlimited access to the spa area which included thalasopherapy pool, sauna, steam room, sunbed room and relaxation area,there is also a seperate deck for sunbathing with jacuzzi, this would be very nice in the summer. Our Inside cabin was the largest we'd ever had with plenty of wardrobe and hanging space, kettle with a selection of infusions and a small but functional bathroom with robes and slippers. Roderick our steward kept the cabin spotless at all times and was very attentive and friendly. entertainment for the most part was very good especially the production shows The theatre was on 3 levels but people started to get a seat at least 40 minutes before performance so if you want to be near the front of the stage get there early. Lots to join in around the ship with the entertainment officers if you so wished but also lots of places to relax. One unique addition was the library with no books, everything was on an e reader which you got free of charge from the photo dept. Restaurants around the ship included the 2 main traditional time dining and 1 anytime dining. A buffet restarant which we used on boarding and were very pleased with. No scrambling around here for cutlery as each table had cutlery stands. food stations were clearly marked and choice was plentiful and hot. club restaurant for a 25€ surcharge which included a glass of sparkling wine. we did try this and it was very nice indeed. A tepanyaki show kitchen for 25€. did'nt use but saw lots of people in there. A pizzareia i think for 6.5€,this also seemed to be used quite a lot An ice cream parlour that served home made Italian ice cream,coffee,crepes and maccaroons all at what we thought were reasonable prices and perfect for a mid morning or after dinner treat. There was no buffet restaurant for the evening meal. but we prefer to be waited on anyway. There is an all inclusive package at 25€plus 15% pppd. We dont drink a lot of alcohol so just bought as required. Prices comparable to a 4 star hotel.Eg 5.5€ glass of house wine. 3.75 for small beer.8.5€ for a spirit and mixer. a boys and girls package available for 54€ which gave 20 soft drinks including non alco cocktails. All staff treated us like friends and we were made very welcome. Special thanks to Amy,Justine and all in the Samsara restaurant. There was a non removable 8€pppd service charge but we thought the service we received was well worth this,especially as something comparable on the 3 major lines would have cost double what we paid. The Diadema was delightful and we would definately sail on her again. we are going on the costa neoclasica in march and i will post a review then.If it's as good as the Delightful Diadema we'll have a whale of a time. Thank you Costa, for us you got everything right.