My cruise with Costa

I have recently come back off a 7 night Costa cruise and I had a great time.  I have been on two Costa ships previously but only for a night so I was looking forward to what Costa had to offer.
 I went on the cruise with my Nan and one of my aunties.  We were on board the Costa Serena and we had 1 night stay in Rome before we boarded the ship in Civitavecchia.  I had booked the flights, hotel and transfers separate.  When we arrived at Fiumicino airport it was chaos.  There were so many people and it took us well over an hour to get out of the airport.  There were so many boards with names on for transfers but once we found ours the holiday could start.  I had booked into the Diana Roof Gardens hotel which isn't far from the train station in Rome.  The hotel was perfect and had a lovely roof terrace where you could look over the city.  We spent the day seeing the sights of Rome although the Trevi fountain was undergoing some work and the Rolling Stones were playing on the evening we were there so many of the roads were closed.

The transfer to the ship worked very well and we arrived at the port a little earlier
than our suggested check in time.  The check in process was so smooth we were  given a number and when called we went through security where we had our photo taken for our cruise card.  This was the first time I hadn't received the cruise card until we boarded the ship and it was in the cabin on arrival.  You then had 48 hours to register your credit card etc to the Costa card.  This could be done either at the reception desk or at the little self service machines around the ship.

We had booked into a balcony cabin and were on deck 7.  I had checked before we went that the 3rd bed would be a sofa bed and it was.  The cabin was very spacious and plenty of room for all of our clothes and to move around.  The bathroom was also a good size and bigger than the bathroom I had recently had on the Ventura.  The balcony was also a good size.  They don't have tea/coffee facilities but this didn't bother me.

We decided to do a tour of the ship the day we boarded so we knew

were everything was.  It was nice to walk around and take photos before all of the bars etc were full with people.  There were plenty of bars on board where all of the songs were English.  You could pick a quiet bar with a piano or they had a ballroom bar,  a salsa dancing sort of bar and a more themed evening dancing bar as well as a nightclub.  There was a theatre on board and shops.  The shows in the theatre were the singers and dancers performed were all in English and there were other acts acrobatics and singers.  We didn't go to every show. The pool deck had several pools and they had a retractable roof on both which is good in bad or cooler weather.  There was a deck party one

evening which went down well.

We ate our breakfast every morning in the buffet restaurant which suited us.  For lunch there was either the buffet or a grill on the pool deck.  We alternated this and ate at both.  There was a wide selection of food.  For the evening the buffet turns into a Pizzeria but we ate our meals in the main dining room.  We were allocated the dining room in the middle of the ship over 2 tiers.  We opted for the 1st dining which on Costa was 7pm. 2nd sitting was 9.30pm which was too late.  We had a table for

just the 3 of us which was great.  Our waiter wasn't the friendliest I have had but this didn't spoil it.  Every night we opted for a starter,  the pasta dish,  a main and then a pudding.  There was a lot of fish on the menu each night where I did struggle but I did always find something I could eat.  The pasta course was as big as a main meal so this always filled you up but the then the main meal was a smaller size.

On the ship there was a speciality restaurant called Club Bacco.  To eat is here there was a €25pp service charge.  We did this on one evening.  There wasn't many people in the restaurant but the food was great.  I didn't like the starters so the chef came out and asked me what I would like.  The service was really good in here and we had a lovely meal and evening.  I ordered the dessert selection and it was like having 4 puddings.

We had pre booked to go all inclusive while on board the ship and it was the best decision.  There was so much choice and with named brands.  There were so many cocktails to work my way through.  We had paid about £18pp per day before we went for the package which was good value as cocktails were just under €6 plus you had a 15% service charge.  They had a chocolate bar on board where you could even have the hot or cold chocolate drinks in lots of different flavours under the all inclusive.

Before I went on the cruise I was very unsure how it would be as it is Italian and knew there would be lots of different nationalities.  This wasn't a problem at all.  English was the second language on all of the announcements and as the singers etc sang in English for me it was like being on any other ship.  I did find that the Europeans didn't dress up as much as we did on board but you find this on other cruise lines now too.  There was one formal night on board and the rest was informal and casual.  The sea day was the gala night.

I would defiantly recommend Costa Cruises and wouldn't hesitate booking another sailing with them
My next blog will talk about the places we visited.