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Great food, great destinations. Somewhat by
David from NH, USA Sailing date: Jul 2007Pros: Food. Lots and lots of smokers and most didn't observe the sections. Very crowded in common areas led to overall rude behavior. Dining/Food
Stateroom Quality
Ship Staff Quality
Entertainment & Activities
Entertainment: Catered towards multi-national audience. Not very entertaining. 
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Bari, ItalyShort day in Bari.
Great city but 3 1/2 hours is not enough time to experience much of it except a few blocks downtown.
Istanbul, TurkeyGet ready to shop at the Bazaar!
Great shopping, lots of fun. Amazing city.
Izmir, TurkeyIndifference in Ismir.
Can be skipped. The excersion was not very interesting.
Katakolon (Olympia), GreeceGo to Olympia.
 44 out of 53 people found this review helpful.
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  Great locations, but poor access by
Chris G. from New York, NY Sailing date: Aug 2010Pros: Service and destinations Cons: The excursions we wanted were often unavailable due to insufficient english speaking guests The ship itself is great. It's large and well laid out. It's a little on the gaudy side, but I think that's typical of cruises (I don't go on many). There were too many children there for my taste, but again, that's probably typical for a cruise. Ship Quality
Dining/FoodThe dinners were very good, but the other food was mediocre to poor. I was a little turned off my the fact that you had to pay for drinks (including water, juice or soda). I'm just not used to that as an American. Ship Staff QualityEveryone spoke fluent English and was incredibly helpful and polite. I was very impressed with the crew. Entertainment & ActivitiesThere were a large number of activities and entertainment options. We only took advantage of them selectively, but enjoyed everything we went to.
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Bari, ItalyI wouldn't go back there as it's less spectacular than other places in Italy. Still, it was interesting to go walk around.
Dubrovnik, CroatiaWe just spend the day on the beach, which turned out to be a great decision. If you go, try to bring a mask and snorkle as the water is incredibly clear and condusive to some water activity.
Don't Miss: The beaches Istanbul, TurkeyI had high expectations for Istanbul, and they were met. The city is enormous and full of interesting history. We visited a lot of sights and my only complaint was that the "all day" tours weren't available for english speaking guests. With only a half day, I didn't get to see everything I wanted, but was impressed with what I had time for.
Don't Miss: Hagia Sophia Izmir, TurkeyI was blown away by the ruins at Ephesus. I had never really heard of the site before, but I have since been inspired to learn all about it. Fanstastic set of ruins and history to visit. Skip the House of the Virgin Mary. It's crowded, requires a long wait, and doesn't include anything worth seeing.
Don't Miss: Ephesus Katakolon (Olympia), GreeceWe went to the Olympia site and had a marvelous time touring the ruins. Our tour guide was well informed, spoke perfect english and great the whole time.
Don't Miss: The ruins at Olympia 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Fifty Fifty by
Godey A from United States Sailing date: Dec 2011Pros: The service personnel was great (dinner, bars, etc.). The cruise had a great itinerary. Cons: The Italian staff (Excursions, entertainment, etc.) wasn't polite or accommodating. For many of our excursions we were stuck with a half English half Russian group, so we paid the same amount to listen to someone speak Russian for hours. I would recommend you plan your own excursions and not use the cruise line's excursion program. We met people who planned their own and they paid less and had a better experience. There is nothing for English speakers to do on the ship. All of the music and all of the entertainment is aimed at Italians and the people that run the quizzes, etc. can't even pronounce ENglish well enough to allow others to participate. Ship QualityThe ship was big but a bit gaudy. It was clean and easy to get used to as regards the layout. Dining/FoodCOmpared to some other cruise lines the food is good. It is Italian, so the pasta tends to be better than other things. The seafood and meat can be avoided, but overall we ate fairly well. Stateroom QualityThe room was pretty big, and we had a helpful cabin assistant. Ship Staff QualityAs I said above, the service crew was great but the entertainment and excursion staff was rude. Entertainment & ActivitiesThere was really nothing for us to do at out age and in our language. 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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great way to see europe off-season by
Greg B from Atlanta, GA Sailing date: Nov 2012Pros: pricing for single cabin, multilingual staff, entertainment Cons: the other passengers I booked this cruise for Nov 2012 since I was traveling by myself and wanted a single cabin without paying double. The markup for the single cabin was only 20%. For that I got an inside cabin on front of the lower deck -- which was fine except for the noise/vibration from the side thrusters when the ship docked (not an issue if you're an early riser). Having traveled on most of the cruiselines I've realized that they all follow the same formula. No different here except that the majority of passengers were italian/spanish/french with a few germans/russians/asians/english. Almost no americans on the ship (which is ok by me). All communications were in italian/spanish/french/german/english and targeted towards your chosen language. NO language issues at all. I picked this cruise based in the itinerary and pricing and would do it again if the pricing were attractive. Would probably choose a different cruiseline if pricing/itinerary were the same. But no regrets. Italians has no sense of order or personal space and are always getting in your way, but you learn to deal with that soon enough. Just be a little pushy and get in their way and you'll be fine. They talk a lot but are mostly soft-spoken, not loud like we americans. The drinks package for 19.50 euro/day is great! Possibly a deciding factor on future Costa cruises. Ship Qualitythe ship design seems a lot older than 2007, it was a missed opportunity to add a lot more features. but it's a big ship and gets you where you're going. the two pools with sliding roofs are designed to be used in many climates. Dining/Foodbreakfast had poor quality control and the coffee was gross, lunch was better but only pizza avail after 4 pm (when you're really hungry after a day in port), dinner was about equivalent to other cruiselines but no surprises other than a pasta course; drinks package for 19.50 euro a day makes everything more tolerable... includes coffee from the bar, bottled water, fresh juice, draft beer (carlsberg), house wines (two choices: red or white), and most mixed drinks. only gripe is that they will not serve bar drinks at dinner, only wine. Stateroom Qualitynothing special. double bed had a very obvious gap in the middle, no attempt to hide it. used duvet cover only, not top sheet (probably could have asked for a top sheet, but didn't bother). Ship Staff Qualitygreat staff. mostly from philippines on this cruise, though i hear the staff changes frequently to suit the rules of where they're traveling. all the staff spoke italian and english, and some also spoke french and spanish, maybe german too. they seemed excited to see me (american) and always spoke to me in english (even if i spoke to them in basic italian). Entertainment & Activitiesevening shows were better than average and appealed to a multilingual crowd. ventriloquist who spoke many languages was a lot of fun. nightclub was super fun one night, pretty dead the other nights (but i was in bed by 1 am most nights). like most cruises mostly older crowd, but enough young people to fill a dance floor. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Italian cruises not for Americans by
A Traveler from Mesa, AZ Sailing date: Sep 2010Pros: food Cons: poor customer service, noise in our cabin, smoking all over the boat As an American, I expect a certain level of customer service. Costa Cruise lines did not meet my expectations at all. For example, we were sold a room directly below the kitchen. It was so loud that there was no chance of us sleeping. We complained at least 2-3 times/ night (I even cried I was so upset about my trip being ruined by lack of sleep). We were put off for 5 days being told that the manager would be leaving a note at our room to let us know what they could do for us. They never left any note and had no intention of doing so. It was just a way to get rid of us for the moment. Day 5 of the cruise we finally sat down with the boat manager who told us that there was nothing that he could do. When asked if they would compensate us in any way, he said that that is not their policy. Apparently, the customer is always right has not made it into their culture yet. It was the worst vacation of my life. And, we could barely walk through the ship because of all of the cigarette smoke. My advice--stick with an American cruise line. 3 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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