Anyone been on a Costa Cruise?

[shakeitoffshakeacocktail]

It's an Italian company but they cater to English speakers and have a UK website.

Thinking of Flying to Rome in April, staying a few nights, joining the cruise and flying back after.

Very niche but Mumsnet Han work wonders! 🤞🚢

Would also be interested in any experience of excursions with them as an English speaker

I haven't but have noticed they don't get very good reviews on Cruise Critic:

I wouldn't be going on any cruise with Costa given their track record:

https://www.history.com/news/costa-concordia-cruise-ship-disaster-sinking-captain

Intrigued by Costa Cruises after seeing YouTuber Emma Cruises videos.

Terrible. They also sink

I haven’t sailed with them but have heard they are quite busy & noisy cruises. I think if you go for it, read all the reviews and go in with realistic expectations. I assume it’s cheap?

We want a cruise with more Italy ports
We are also limited to school holidays but ideally Easter or May half term, rules out the summer as too hot.

But yes it's also cheap!
Never cruised before so at least we'd have nothing to compare it to

We did 3-4 cruises with them, but that was over 15 years ago . We enjoyed the mix of nationalities with English speaking definitely in the minority, On one cruise (Norway) there was i think 16 English speaking passengers, but when we cruised Eastern Mediterranean there were 200 (about 40 from UK, rest American).
The bars were always fun - live music and dancing to the band, and all shows, and on board events (quiz, displays, yoga etc) were explained in the 5 - 6 languages used on board (Italian, Spanish, French, German, Dutch & English then).
It may be very different now, but i much preferred the actual cruising experience with Costa than the experience (food, fellow passengers, layout of ship) on Costa to the Princess Cruises we took out of USA)

I think you can liken cruises to hotels.
Some are little boutique ones with great food and calm environments, they cost much more! Others are big, cheap n cheerful. And everything in between. They all benefit from the beauty of being at sea!

I think the more European mix of passengers definitely makes it feel more like a holiday than the majority English passengers on P and O.
All I would say is that even water needs to be paid for so buy a drinks package!
Also look at Emma Cruises review. Ships look good but lots and lots of kids running amok by the looks of things.
Maybe consider MSC. Has the Italian flair and still cheap but with less mercenary tendencies.

Also first cruises are always fun as you have no comparisons. Just going from place to place is great especially with food, pools and nice rooms thrown in. It’s going to be good value compared to travelling to hotels in each place even if you don’t like it so much.
You can work out what you like and what could be improved for your next one.
Also Italian ports have more travelling to places of interest than Spain or France where generally you can roll off the ship and walk/ shuttle bus or be a 5 minute taxi into town. Rome/Florence/Pompeii are a bit more of a “day out” visit.