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Costa Cruise Line

MS CostaMediterranea

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Janine Levinson
# previous cruises: 2
Date of Trip: December 21, 2003
Itinerary: Caribbean - Eastern

This is a huge, lovely ship (if you like glitz) with wonderful rooms, even in the ocean-view and lower categories. There are lots and lots of balconies, and the common areas are large and comfortable. The food and activities/port services left much to be desired. Not terribly expensive, and just about worth the price.

The middle room, the Atrium, is grand and elegant. The bars are comfortable. The dining room is great except for the portion at the rear of the boat, where it feels like you are eating aboard an elephant. The decks are handsome and all amenities are convenient with the exception of bathrooms, which I thought were few and far between.

The food in the dining room was presented in a fancy way but was largely instant/reconstituted/"airline" type food. It wasn't decadent cuisine as promised, not in any way. The buffet food was acceptable and in many ways better than the dining room food. The cold cuts were perfect but I didn't really take a cruise to eat cold cuts. The fruit was sometimes good. The beverage machines were often broken and the only beverages available besides water were, well, watery.

Lovely, quiet, well-maintained, spacious. The closets were nice. The shower was as big as could be expected and would fit a big person well, I think. The bed was comfy.

Mostly second-rate. Opera singer was nice.

The port stops were largely worthless. We arrived in two ports too late to see anything, and often spent an hour or more in a disorganized queue to get off the boat with no visible plan for debarkation in place and lots of elbowing line-cutters. More than once we were told to exit at one spot and crowded round there while others dashed off at the other end of the boat from an unannounced exit.

All kinds of people from many different countries. I liked the variety. Activities in five languages were funny if you could get past the confusion.