Costa Cruises, Costa Mediterranea, Western Caribbean Review

Overall Rating

The Costa Mediterranea is a gorgeous ship. The high quality is evident everywhere - from the inlaid wood detail in the elevators, to the lounge areas, and even in the public bathrooms. Our cruise was over the Christmas holiday week (2007), and there were special touches throughout the ship - such as small wreaths at every stateroom door, etc.

We had an end balcony room and felt our room was spacious - particularly the bathroom - with excellent lighting and cabinet space. The staff was friendly and room service very good (although don't expect any of those cute folded towels you find with the American cruise lines).

There were many excursions to choose from - with opportunities we hadn't seen on other cruises. We all thought the toga night was fun as well (sheets provided - bring your own safety pins!)

A major disappointment with this cruise was that Costa took us to a port (La Romana/Dominican Republic) where they suggested we not go anywhere alone because of safety concerns. So if you did not go on an excursion, you were basically stuck on the boat for the full day - or risked your safety by going into town (there was literally nothing past the docks, except guards with machine guns). Why on earth would a cruise line take paying guests to a place like this?

We would also suggest paying close attention to not only the ports visited (with any cruise line), but the length of time spent at each port. It's hard to spend any quality time at a destination with just 5 or 6 hrs there. Of the four destinations with this particulart itinerary, only two were 8am-5 pm. What may be happening in the cruise industry is that the boats are traveling at less knots/hour (conserving fuel costs) between destinations, and less time at destinations (saving docking costs)?

Other cruise lines we've been on include the option of purchasing some sort of drink pass for unlimited sodas - this ship did not. You could purchase a very stupid looking "kid drink" booklet suspended on a lanyard to be hung around your neck - but it contained 20 tickets to be redeemed for sodas or "virgin" speciality drinks for $60. Not a good value at all.

Special "Costa logo'd" beach towels were put into your rooms the night before excursions- but you were charged if you did not bring each of them back. That wasn't made clear at all.

Costa is a European cruise line - and it's important to understand that impacts most, if not all, of this "cruising experience". If you can get over the confusion of hearing announcements spoken in 5 or 6 difference languages, you can probably treat many of the new experiences as part of the adventure.

Gratuities are automatically billed to your account, included room steward. Which is not necessarily bad, but different.

The food had a definite European influence, as you would expect. Left me craving a normal American burger and fries!However, the only salad dressings available were Thousand Island and Ceasar, which I found to be a bit odd. And at one point, the entire ship had run out of diet coke. Fortunately, at the next port they were able to purchase more.

Spa treatments were nice - however there were only six staff members on board so it was difficult to get an appointment that was convenient. They encouraged you to make your appointments in the beginning of the cruise, but then it was difficult to take advantage of any "specials" they ran during the week...or the only times available for those specials were during dinner or excursions, etc.

The entertainment was marginal at best. The shows were boring, and most of the lounge singers we heard had pitch and intonation problems. The best musical group in our opinion was Les Aristocrats - but they seemed almost "hidden" on the lowest deck in the front of the boat.

Compared to other cruises/cruise lines we've been on, this is not one we'll repeat - nor recommend to others.