Costa Cruises Reviews 

Lacking in organisation .Reception staff rude .Food boring and repetitive MDR chaotic And the main issues for me was the dress code .The app for 5 nights said Elegant .People in main restaurant in tatty tops and need a good wash no one stopped them .Our men went and changed from there tux as they where embarrassed to be in the very very minority .Would not book this cruise line again .The ship is a beautiful build but that's of no use if everything else is negative .Enjoyed port's we visited but felt the ship didn't give the Xmas wow we were expecting.

I’m writing this review because my family’s experience with Costa Cruises has been genuinely upsetting and I want other families — especially those travelling with disabled or neurodivergent children — to understand the risk.
We booked and planned a Costa cruise over a year in advance. During that time we did what responsible families do: we communicated needs, tried to follow the correct process, and planned around our children’s requirements (our kids are autistic and we plan carefully to avoid distress and sensory overload).
Despite all of that, Costa cancelled our booking after around a year. The most distressing part wasn’t just the cancellation itself — it was the way it was framed. The cancellation was presented as being linked to my children’s medical conditions/disability (autism) rather than Costa working with us to make reasonable adjustments or offering practical alternatives.
This left us with:
Massive emotional distress for the children and parents, after months of preparation
Significant practical disruption, because accessible family travel requires long-term planning
A feeling that we were being treated as a “problem” rather than customers
A lack of confidence in the company’s disability handling and escalation process
If Costa felt there was an operational or safety issue with cabin allocation / accessibility / muster arrangements, that should have been handled at the start, transparently, with options offered — not after a year of planning, and not in a way that suggests disability is the reason a family’s holiday can simply be removed.
I’m sharing this because inclusive travel should mean working with disabled passengers, not cancelling them late in the process. I hope Costa reviews how staff communicate decisions involving disability and how they handle reasonable adjustments.

As it stands, they will not give me an actual medical reason for the cancellation and they also refuse to reply to my emails about refunds of other costs we incurred due to their handling of our holiday (such as return flights for 5 people to Hong Kong from the UK). They think that ignoring communication is the way to handle disabled passengers who have been unfairly treated.

I am writing to share my overall experience after spending one week with Costa Cruise, which unfortunately was largely disappointing. The issues began at the booking stage, where the price presentation on the official website was misleading due to hidden mandatory service fees shown in very small print.

After boarding, we faced multiple problems such as a locked balcony door without prior notice, poorly organized safety briefings focused more on sales than safety, inadequate soundproofing in the cabin, worn-out towels, and poor housekeeping despite daily service charges.

Elevators were insufficient for the number of passengers, causing long waits. Most staff in complimentary restaurants were unfriendly, removed plates without asking, and communication in English was often difficult. Aggressive upselling in the main dining room significantly disrupted our dining experience.

Disembarkation procedures were especially problematic, culminating in a serious privacy and safety incident where workers entered our balcony without warning before the official checkout time.

While the Mediterranean views were beautiful, the overall service quality fell far below expectations, especially for a once-in-a-lifetime family trip.

When I could I would give 0 stars. Bad Customer Service after the trip. We were on the Costa Favolosa in October 2025. Genova, Barcelona, Marseille and back to Genova.
They charged me at the last day the whole mini Bar ((55 $)
But the minibar were empty from Day 1. I tried to discuss but they treated me like I had consumed and didn't want to pay. They gave me an adress mail where I should contact. I contacted them several times, not even an answer from costa. What a shame, I will never ever book again a trip with Costa

If I can rate 0 I absolutely would. We searched for a cruise my husband can take departing from DR that did not require a visa. We called an agency affiliated with Costa, crucero .com, the agent confirmed, reassured us only passports are necessary. Once we booked and paid for the trip he ghosted us. We called and emailed costa who confirmed no visas were needed we were asked and provided our passports to the prior agent and costa and the morning of boarding we were denied access to board and my family including my disabled mom were stranded in DR having to bear expenses of booking last minute accommodation and getting a runaround, continuous hang ups and ghosted emails when requesting a refund- stay far away

My husband and I booked a Costa Cruise with David's Kosher Cruises to Norway, departing from Hamburg this past August, with good friends. Unfortunately, my husband passed away very suddenly a week before the cruise. I had to cancel. I understand that the cruise line has a refund policy that states that you do not receive any refund if you cancel close to the departure date. I get it. However, this was really extenuating circumstances. I did not plan for my husband to die! We were really looking forward the cruise and spending time with our good friends, After explaining the circumstances, Costa and David Kosher Cruises came back and said they would not refund any money, but would extend a 50% off voucher for a cruise within the next year. Now you tell me, what new widow is going on a cruise, alone within a year of her husband's death. So, this was worthless to me. Airfare and hotel were refunded. In addition, my friends who went on the cruise said it was horrible. They said very few people spoke English. Mostly people spoke Italian, French and Hebrew. They said the food was terrible and the cruise heads were nasty and not helpful. So I just wanted to post my disappointment in the lack of leniency of the cruise line due to my husband's sudden passing. Will never book with them again.

Sorry I’m an experienced cruiser I don’t understand the negative reviews. This is an Italian ship so if you want to sail with the British don’t book. This has been as good as my past 25 cruises even with some costing double. Personally I found it a refreshing change and far better than boring P&O. There is no bad cruise it’s down to personal preference. Do your research before booking any cruise. This was as good as Virgin at a fraction of the price.

I sailed on Costa Toscana in November 2025 and had an incident at the L’Oliveto restaurant (Deck 5) that completely changed my view of Costa - and the way Costa handled my complaint afterwards was even worse.

During the afternoon snack service at around 5:13 pm, a waiter (identified to me as Roy Pradip) came to our table, said only “dinner is next” and removed the plate directly from in front of my girlfriend while she was still eating. No “may I?”, no check that she was finished, and no basic courtesy.

He then did essentially the same thing to at least five other nearby guests who were also still finishing their food. People were clearly shocked and uncomfortable. When I asked for his name to report the matter, he left the area immediately, which only made the whole interaction feel more disrespectful.

Shortly after, the supervisor (Marisa Salangsang) came to the table and said something along the lines of: “Good afternoon, we will have dinner soon and we need to prepare for it so I would appreciate your understanding.” While that sounded more polite, it did not address the core problem: plates were being cleared from guests who were still eating, with no proper communication and no apology for the way it was done.

Unfortunately, this was not an isolated episode. Over the course of the cruise, I observed:

Staff not yielding or giving way to guests in corridors

Crew speaking and even cursing next to guests

Dirty tables left uncleared for long periods

Silverware being set directly on uncleared, soiled surfaces, which is simply unhygienic

A so-called main course of five shrimps that were clearly old and completely mashed inside, which raises basic questions about food quality and handling

This is not the service level Costa advertises and not what I expect from a ship with Costa Toscana’s profile.

What makes all of this even more disappointing is my background: my father worked as a Hotel Director with Costa for over a decade. I grew up seeing what good Costa service looks like: guest-first attitude, clean and well-managed dining rooms, and professional staff. What I experienced on this cruise was the exact opposite of those standards.

How Costa handled my complaint (or didn’t)
I did not just complain casually at the table. I submitted a formal written complaint while onboard, with:

The exact time and location (L’Oliveto, approx. 17:13)

The names of the waiter and supervisor

A detailed description of the service, hygiene and food quality issues

A clear list of requested corrective actions (coaching, hygiene review, quality audit, etc.)

After the cruise, I followed Costa’s own instructions and emailed multiple official Costa addresses. The only responses I received were:

A request for my booking number, which I provided.

A request to send the same complaint again to another email address but for Portugal.

I complied. After that:

No case ID

No apology

No explanation of corrective measures

No timeline, no follow-up, no acknowledgement of the seriousness of the incident

In other words, as of writing this review, Costa has not properly responded to a detailed, formal complaint about service, hygiene and food quality on Costa Toscana.

Conclusion
Between:

Plates being taken away from guests who were still eating

Repeated lapses in courtesy and hygiene in a main dining room

A shrimp main course that should never have left the kitchen

And Costa’s complete lack of meaningful follow-up after a formal complaint

I cannot recommend Costa Toscana or Costa Cruises to anyone who expects basic respect, cleanliness and professional service.

I am sharing this so future guests know what actually happened, and so Costa understands that ignoring complaints is also a decision - and it speaks as loudly as the incident itself.

The customer service doesnt respond to any request, I wrote them three times to request a cruise card statement to prove the payment made for medical services invoice. No response, so the insurance company cannot refund my mony.

Thank you Costa for the worst travel experience of my life. Staff are either rude and dismissive, or completely unhelpful and stare at you blankly. I think not being Italian was probably a huge factor as we felt completely disrespected and disregarded by both passengers and crew. Just for this reason, I would urge any non Italians or non Italian-speakers to stay away from this cruise line. You are not an equal on this boat. Aside from that, the decor is hideous and feels like you’re trapped in some sort of hallucinogenic maze. Food was consistently lukewarm and the combinations were utterly bizarre. Raw seafood tartar followed by sour cream beef stroganoff? Also, you will be as thirsty as a camel in the sahara here as water is not readily accessible and will cost you and arm and a leg. And if you, like us, think to book an excursion to at least get something out of your trip - DONT! The conduct of the tour which is legally Costas responsibly left a 22 year old female crying and hyperventilating in a market in Morocco. When we eventually mafe it back to the ship to inform them of what we had experienced, we received a blank stare and not much else. Honestly, avoid this company!! Spend your money on literally anything else. You are not safe on this trip, the staff do not care about you, and if you don’t believe me google ”Costa cruise 2012”

Costa cruses..NEVER again..
Im not even sure where to begin..the service is awful and I mean truly awful and the food is just about average at the very best (often cold).If you are any other nationality than Italian prepare yourself , cause everything is in italian.I also get a sense the crew onboard may not have the best working/living conditions.You can not do anything onboard without being charged , not even get a hold of water (plus a 15% service charge on everything..everything).We were being offered to buy better food shown on an Ipad during every dinnerservice we had.The restaurants that are not included in your cruise is pushed on you continously as well as the spa , internet service, drink packets,excursions etc etc..it is simply never ending.
We decided to go on an excursion in Casablanca so we booked one in english as we are mixed nationalities .As a sidenote I would like to add that I speak fluent Spanish, Swedish and English and Im not English.As I know a lot of people may think the English are entitled and expect everyone to speak English.Anyhow we booked an English speaking tour and were told there were 3 seats left .when the tour started we were surprise to board the same bus as the italians.The tour was in Italian!!until another english speaking person went up to the guide and told him that there are english speakers on the bus his response was..thats a problem.To cut a long story short the male guide got aggressive with us (three women)so we decided to leave the tour and returned to the ship.Costas response was complete disinterest and in truth the rep dealing with us at the excursion counter did not speak good enough english for us to explain what had happened.
I would go as far as to say unless you are Italian do not bother with this cruise line.

A sidenote of importance to add I have never in my entire life been surrounded by so many rude and unpleasant people I was astonished at how much it affected my day..elbows and pushing at the buffet, rugby tackling just trying to get in and out of elevators are just some examples.
The decor of the ship is so dated and tired and the lay out of the boat was very confusing at first.
In fact we were so unhappy we cut our losses and left the ship a week early.
So if you are planing going on a cruise please take note of the reviews.Costa cruises really is NOT worth it.Choose another cruiseline and make sure you have the holiday you deserve.

Having read some of the reviews before going on one I did think surely it can’t be that bad, now having just returned home from a costa cruise, I can assure you it is.
The pros, you’re on holidays.
The cons, where do I start:
We thought it strange but there was a sewerage smell in the casino and over the next few days it got worse and went throughout the ship.
The toilets in the room were a lottery if they worked.
The buffet, known as “The trough” was exactly that, lots of foods fried, no real nutrition, very few vegetables and more than one couple calling breakfast a s$&t show.
The tour desk extremely unhelpful and not able to flex or help with any adjustments to tours and when questioned further spoke in another language so you can not listen.
Overall if I could give less stars I would.
Would I go on another costa cruise, not a hope in hell, I have more important things to do like watch grass grow.

This is coming from an American point of view. First the pros. We had a balcony room and it was was good with somewhat comfortable bed and good water pressure. That's it for the pros. Cons, The food is like the other reviews say, horrible. Absolutely tasteless and I think they cook everything then put in the freezer before they serve them because everything is cold. Scrambled eggs are runny (and cold), vegetables are chewy, (and ice cold), even the bacon (how do you screw up bacon) was not cooked and disgusting. The entertainment wasn't much better but mainly that's because I didn't understand most of it. The first night they had an interpretive dance and an animated whale movie which was stupid. The service people were nice people but not a lot of them so if you want a drink good luck. There's no free water, in fact at the food buffets they only had a couple places to get drinks and they were mostly broken. They always had a line to get drinks because there's no place on the ship to get a drink unless you buy it. If everything is closed up you don't get water, or anything to drink because there is no free drink stations on the ship. Having sailed on carnival before I assumed this would be like that but it's not it's worse. Zero out of 5 stars!

The places we visited were beautiful. The staff is very friendly and really wants to make you happy. Unfortunately, the refund of excursions cancelled by Costa takes quite a long time. We have been waiting for our money for 8 weeks now. Hence a somewhat mediocre review.

Overall an excellent holiday .

The ship is clean smart and everything runs like clockwork. Staff whilst not friendly as such were efficient and happy to help although did tend to migrate towards Italian guests first !!

The cabin was spotless and well equipped. Digital safe. Tv. Daily fresh bedding & towels with soaps / gels supplied.

Public areas were clean and today, we didn’t experience issues with crowding or queues as reported by others despite the ship being almost full.

Evening table was allocated to one restaurant but it was also possible to use the self serve or indeed the staff served buffet restaurants. Queuing again was not an issue. We did tend to eat slightly outside of typical European meal times which helps.

There are a few issues that cannot be overlooked.

Safety - I did have to ask multiple staff multiple times to get one adult life vest switched for a child one which took several days !!

The cabin tv has nothing in English at all. Disappointing for children when it has viewing in other European languages.

We did not meet a single other native English speaking person all cruise. This didn’t matter to us and in fact has many advantages especially as I’ve had negative experiences with some “Brits abroad” historically.

Shows and entertainment were good although obviously being multilingual focus on music and display not language which is fine. The main theatre area as you know is ridiculously designed for good viewing unless you’re seated and seated early.

The pools are crowded and made unsafe by unsupervised children leaping in and out. Adults do tend to leave the kids and vanish. Signs should be placed saying no jumping in or rough play. Water became very cloudy as the day progressed which again could be a safety issue.

Food is an issue if you’re vegetarian or vegan ! Whilst they do have an alternative menu available Vegetarian food will contain animal rennet in the cheese and gelatine in desserts as they don’t (want to) understand. There are eggs if you eat them.

Vegan food will feature no protein at all. No tofu quorn pulses lentils nuts milk alternatives or anything. This is absolutely appalling. Even the sous chef didn’t really seem to understand at all. Perhaps they would like to consult with me on more suitable menus !!

That aside the food available was well cooked and presented and reasonably varied. It does cater to European tastes, not an issue for my family but perhaps more so for some. Seafood and shellfish feature heavily. Meats such as veal, guinea fowl etc served often.

Burgers, pizzas etc can be purchased on board and I found the prices very reasonable.

Drinks package we had (middle range) permits only one bottle of water per day but ice cold water is freely available at meals and other times on request. The menu for alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks on our package was more that adequate and menus clearly list which is included.

One excursion we had pre booked was cancelled the night before citing lack of English speaking ticket sales. Pretty appalling and reflects Costa Cruises “profit before customer” ethos.

Before booking excursions do explore the port as many do in fact offer free shuttle bus services to the nearest main areas. This can save a good amount of money. Also little land trains are available at many European ports and cheap to explore the area. Definitely worth doing your homework. There are also many other excursion companies with back to ship guarantees that offer a variety of days out to suit different budgets.

Having never experienced Costa cruises before (this was a fly cruise and we have travelled with other cruise lines) I was skeptical as many reviews are dreadful BUT in fact I was pleasantly surprised and would travel with them again if my dates / location made it necessary.

A very satisfactory albeit it tiring vacation this time and Costa definitely could make a few easy small changes that would vastly improve customer satisfaction.

** @costacruises if you want to reach out I am happy to assist and expand on the challenges mentioned and other small ones ! Improving your UK reputation is something you could easily do if you choose to !!

ATTENTION ATTENTION - for the crew only, what an obnoxious, poorly planned, ad filled, cesspool of an experience. The effort that goes into finding packages and micro transaction opportunities could go into making a cohesive logistics and program structure. The staff is as overwhelmed as the crowd, making this an experience that no one but the costa shareholders enjoy.

Bingo bingo, bingo time.

Horrible quality foods and drinks. Old ship. Showerhead broken. Terrible shows and entertainment. 3 out of 5 tours we booked and paid for were cancelled. We missed Marseille and Valencia. We had to take the Genoa tour in French, which we don’t speak. No drinking water was available outside meal times. We had to purchase bottled water for €4. We had to pay €22 daily room service charge per person. We had to pay 15% service charge on everything. Sun bathing chairs were reserved by people against cruise regulations. We notified the reception many times, but they never honoured their own regulations and did not remove the towels. Therefore, we were never able to use the chairs.

Just a heads-up for anyone planning to book shore excursions with Costa Cruises — especially if you're an English-speaking guest.

We paid €95 per person for what was clearly advertised as an English-speaking tour to Rome on 10 July. But when we arrived, we found out it was actually a bilingual tour shared with German guests, without any prior notice!

The guide had to repeat everything in two languages, meaning we got half the content and rushed explanations in English, while the German part was much longer and clearer. It felt like the tour was really meant for German speakers, and English guests were just tacked on.

There were 17 English-speaking guests on our bus — more than enough for a separate guide, but Costa didn’t provide one. Ironically, the Pompeii excursion the day before (also with Costa) had two guides on one bus, split by language. So clearly, it can be done!

Worse still, I emailed Costa’s customer service and got a generic, dismissive reply that ignored key issues. When I followed up with more details, they stopped replying altogether.

So if you're booking an excursion with Costa Cruises, be careful — you might end up in a bilingual tour you didn’t sign up for, and still be charged the full price. 😠

Feel free to share if you've had similar experiences — let’s make sure these issues don’t keep getting swept under the rug. #CostaCruises #ShoreExcursionFail #RomeTour #CruiseTips #TravelFairness

WE went of a Norway cruise on Costa Diadema in June. It was the worst cruise - out of over 50 we have done on many different ships. The breakfast Buffet was a complete disaster, terribly organised, long queues, hard to access items, not being able to serve yourself - what is the point, when guests keep touching other surfaces like elevator buttons all the time? No free coffee after breakfast, many services have been removed or are now paid only. Generally, a stingy, mean, poorly organised cruise experience, much worse than other cruise lines we sailed with, and even much worse that Costa used to be.... Costa was always a low-class cruise, but at least it had a cheerful, generous Italian spirit. This is now all gone... Many standard services disappeared - for example, there is no longer salt or pepper at the tables and you have to queue separately to get some salt with your eggs... this is just insane! There are no tablecloths anywhere. everything is now charged as an extra. It is high-pressure merchandising everywhere, what used to be social activities have now turned into high-pressure sales meetings. The whole experience is low class, irritating and mean, and the buffet restaurant manager should be sacked for quietly standing by at the disastrous breakfast queues without doing anything.

Return to earlier standards of service, arrange for multi-queue self-service islands at the buffet, and generally stop treating your customers like idiots trying to make them pay for everything!

They sell the tickets and after cancelled with all bookings from airplane London to Barcelona.days off from work .hotel suddenly they can selling all of them, even no money back.Don't trust this company to book in your holiday