Cruising On Costa

This year, we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary at sea and as a family. This is the first time we are sailing on Costa Victoria cruise and we did not have very high expectations after reading the not-so-favorable reviews. However, it turned out exceeding our expectations.  

If I were to compare the Costa Cruise with Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises in terms of service, food and entertainment, the Costa may be ranked lower. But the cabin room was better than Princess as we had a comfortable double bed instead of two separate single beds which were hard and too narrow.

Like all cruise cabins, our ocean-view porthole cabin was quite small, bathroom was very cramped and we often knocked our elbows against the side during shower. Food was acceptable but it was nothing compared to the exquisite food on Princess Cruise. The fine-dining was quite a nightmare due to the long queue to enter and sometimes long wait for the food to arrive. Even the plain water tasted weird on board Costa. The only memorable part about the food were the signature lobster dish, which was delicious, and the exquisite desserts such as chocolate fondant cake, orange sherbet and wild-berries mousse. 

Compared to the friendly and attentive serving staff at Princess, the Costa's serving staff hardly smile except for a couple of them who will chat with the passengers and asked them about the food. Most of them just took the orders and served with a straight face. 

We discovered a small chapel on board the ship. It was a Catholic chapel with the statue of Mary and Jesus on the cross. There was also a room probably for confessions. The chapel would be ideal for those who might want to hold a private wedding on board the cruise.

If you thought the Turkish Bath on board Costa was some exotic spa, you might be as disappointed as I was. It turned out to be just a normal steam bath. I did not try the spa there but went for a skincare talk which turned out to be quite average. 

There were also not many facilities on board Costa compared to Royal Caribbean and Princess which had ice-skating rink, mini golf course and rock-climbing wall. But I had a memorable time at the karaoke where I sang a song "Can't help falling in love" to hubby as a dedication for our wedding anniversary.
 
Fine dining has always been the highlights for cruises but on Costa, we were quite disappointed at the poor coordination of the fine-dining crew and unruly passengers who shoved and jostled rather than queued orderly to get into the restaurants. It was not a very pleasant experience. 

With so much competition from the other cruise ships, Costa Cruises would have to improve on their services to capture the return of repeat passengers.