Costa Cruises, Costa Serena Review

Good Points
Good sized outside cabin. For europe very polite staff. Excellent cabin staff. Good variety of food in main restaurant. Great Locations visited. Organized tours were easy

Bad Points
Have to buy packages for all drinks ie. one package for water, one package for wine, one package for coffee, one package for soft drinks all separate. On our cruise water was 23 euro for 13 1L bottles, soft drinks were 40 euro for 20 drinks, and the coffee was roughly 20 euro for 25 espresso drinks. If you do not buy packages the drinks are more expensive individually and you are charged 15% service. There is a cultural difference between American/British manners and Mediterranean manners and it was at most times infuriating. Standing in line was virtually ignored and most buffet meals feel like cattle herding due to this. Although it was obvious an effort was made to make announcements in all languages, they were mostly Italian. This was frustrating when getting on and off the boat.

General Comments
We really enjoyed this cruise. Even with the bad points it was a great week, you learn to push in, or to avoid peak times in the buffet.
The room was a great size and our cabin steward kept it super neat. I believe he cleaned/checked it 3 times a day.Most of the activities are in Italian (movies, games,etc...) although they will repeat everything in English (games, bingo, etc...) if they know there are English speakers there. This can be more tedious than just skipping the event. Also, most of the children on board ARE Italian so keep that in mind if booking a cruise with your children. The staff speak Italian, the kids are Italian, so even if they explain everything in English your children will be pretty isolated. I've read a lot of negative reviews about this cruise and I really didn't see where any of them came from. The staff were helpful, and very polite, and spoke reasonable if not good English. Most spoke several languages. The food was good in the main restaurant, but a bit processed in the buffet, which is to be expected. The rooms were a good size and clean, loads of storage space (2 people to a room). This is not an American cruise, if you want an all english speaking, bacon and egg eating, steak and lobster cruise this is not for you. If you want exposure for different cultures, loads of different food styles, and are up for more of an adventure than a floating Disney world then I would give it 5 out of 5 stars.