Hello, cruise lovers! I hope you are all doing well and have some exciting cruises planned for this year!
Recently, I received an email from a woman who really want to go on a cruise but, unfortunately, she doesn’t have the financial means to do so.
It is true; sometimes cruises can be expensive, but I’ve also found that they can sometimes be quite affordable.
If you want to spend less, you just need to choose the right time of the year, an affordable cruise line, and a lower-category cabin.
To help you understand better how it works and what the service level is like, I’ll share my experience traveling with one of the cheapest cruise lines in the world.
The cruise line
I’m sure some of you have already guessed which cruise line I’m talking about: of course, it’s Costa Cruises.
Costa is an Italian cruise line (part of Carnival Corporation) that does many itineraries in Europe but also some itineraries to the Caribbean, South America, Asia, and the Arab Emirates.
Being Italian, it’s very convenient for me to choose this cruise line because their ships depart from several ports near my home.
The ship and the cabin
In general, it seems to me that Costa Cruises’ ships have nothing to envy from many other cruise ships.
During the years, some of them have been moved to Carnival, so more or less the ships are similar to those of the American company.
The only thing I want to point out is that the fleet may be a little old. There are only two recent ships, while the others are all more than 10 years old.
I’ve traveled on “Costa Smeralda”, the second newer ship, and this is my experinece.
The cabin is very similar to those of other cruise lines, same size and same amenities.
I enjoyed the balcony, it was a bit larger than usual, but that depends on the position of the cabin.
I’ve explained how this thing works in the article on how to find the best cabin on a cruise ship.
The food and the service
What did I notice that was different? Definitely the food.
Let’s set things straight right away: the food on Costa Cruises is not of low quality; there is simply less variety and fewer premium ingredients.
For example, when I traveled on Royal Caribbean I often found lobster, filet mignon, sirloin steaks, while on Costa they usually to keep it simple (perhaps also to please the Italian clientele) with lots of pasta, and a few meat and fish dishes.
This is not surprising, many of the passengers on board are Italian, although there are also many foreigners.
I am not good with figures, but I would say 60 percent Italians and 40 percent divided among many other nationalities especially English, Germans, Americans, French and Spanish.
In addition, I’ve noticed that there are many things for which you have to pay. For example, the pizza is not included and is only available in a specialty restaurant (but it was delicious).
The overall food and service experience was good. My waiters were kind and friendly and always attentive to my requests.
As I said in some other article, this is more of a luck thing on cruise ships.
If you don’t like your assigned waiter, simply ask to have another table (or restaurant) for the next day.
The entertainment
This is one of the sorest points! The difference with entertainment on other cruise lines is abysmal.
Not in terms of fun. We actually had a lot of fun during our cruise, danced, had very nice theme parties, and played many games by the pool.
The biggest difference was the theater shows. After seeing Royal Caribbean’s true Broadway-style shows, it is impossible to compete.
The shows are still good, with a few musical performances, a magician, a few comedy shows, and some acrobats, but there’s space for improvement, although I don’t think Costa really have the budget to put on a certain kind of show.
The price and my overall experience
In the end, I must say that the overall experience was positive in relation to the price.
It was peak season and for a 7-night balcony cabin (with location choice during booking) the price was about 1,300 per person.
I checked with Royal Caribbean and, even if the itinerary was just slightly different, the price with them was about 2,100 per person. That’s a huge difference.
So, in the end, I was happy with the cruise. Obviously, you need to set off without high expectations and lower your standards a bit, but I assure you that you’ll have fun, and you’ll still have a great vacation.
If you wanna take a look at the other ships, on my blog you’ll also find the list of Costa Cruise ships ranked from best to worst.
