Costa Smeralda Reviews

Beautiful ship. Cabin was clean. Staff were friendly. Food was good. Strange that they serve you at the buffet, I like to control my portion but it was ok when got used to it. Best jam tart ever! Entertainment was ok, there was something for everyone.

Fantastic overall ! but a couple of things let it down 😔

Absolutely fantastic. The design of the ship was amazing. Loved the many little interesting seating areas. The theatres were state of the art and had some brilliant acts. The food was consistently excellent in the restaurant. The staff particularly in the restaurant were very friendly and helpful. The ship was immaculately clean. The trips we went on were very well organised and informative. Down sides. The size of the inside cabins were ridiculous. Smaller than a touring caravan and then a bunk on the wall made it even smaller. The balcony cabin we upgraded to was fine. Had we known about this in advance we would have booked a different cabin. The rules about water and coffee onboard were bizarre and sometimes outrageous. Overall had a brilliant holiday and would do it again.

Brilliant!

The ship was immaculate the staff were forever cleaning, staff were friendly and very helpful, cabins though smaller than other cruise lines were comfotable, the shows were brilliant, food good with a nice choice, now the negatives you were charged for water except at mealtimes, when we booked with you we were told that if we wanted to remove the €22 a day gratuities we could do so, that is NOT the case, no teas or coffees at lunch or dinner. We were charged 54€ for ten items of laundry, but on the whole we had an amazing holiday.

Safety drill drawn out - should be done on first day. Those with long excursions on second day and beyond unable to participate on time. Basic provisions only eg no WiFi except at an expensive extra cost. Free coffee/tea only at breakfast, lunch and tea time. No milk for free tea. Expensive Drinks packages or an extra inflated cost for individual drinks, tea and special coffees. Poor design layout for buffet style main included Restaurant. No room to queue in narrow walkways and no logic to placing of food stations. Chaotic! Horrible waste of food by many guests - limit portions perhaps. Poorly designed theatre spaces with limited views unless on front row. Poor information given prior to excursions eg dress code for mosques for both men and women resulting in extra cost for purchase or rent of suitable clothing. Otherwise - good size room, clean ship, great hard working staff. Very professional and a good variety of entertainment too. For us the ship was just too big with too many people.

Many thanks to Staff at Archipelago restaurant who made my birthday meal extra special.

Costa Venezia is not on your list however: We embarked in Singapore for Tokyo Cruise a little concerned following negative reviews from first two Cruises from Triest - Dubai & Dubai - Singapore. All I can say was either Costa had put everything right or the people who wrote previous reviews on Cruise Critic were on another ship . The ship was amazing, food excellent and I can honestly say we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise. Entertainment was average varying between excellent and so so for a cruise line except for the amazing Tenor who was incredible far better than usual cruise ship standard . Would I cruise with Costa again most definitely YES! Great value for money. It’s not Celebrity but then again it was a fraction of celebrity prices. I would put Costa on a par with P&O.