Costa Smeralda personal opinion

[Bobbingbob]

This is not a review merely a few thoughts on my recent cruise on the Smeralda. We have done many cruises with Costa and on the whole have had a very enjoyable time overall and are used to the pros and cons. This is only about the ship.

 

As Perla Diamanté Club members we like the little perks that come with this status but unfortunately they were hit and miss on the Smeralda which we think were partly to do with it being early days with the new crew. Certain things like robes & slippers had been forgotten (soon brought once requested) and we missed the VIP cocktail party (first night onboard at Barcelona) as we did not receive an invitation so knew nothing about it.

 

By the way, the VIP lounge at Barcelona was a disappointment this time as no drinks whatsoever were on offer (previously there has been coffee, water, fruit juice) and although there were trays of tiny finger rolls there were no plates or napkins. A small number of bottles of juice and water  finally appeared about a half hour before we boarded but was an insufficient amount for the number of people in the lounge - and still no plates or napkins.

The cabins weren’t ready but we were able to board around 1pm and encouraged to go to one of the restaurants for a buffet lunch. We left our carry on bags in the assigned room and decided to check our cabin first. It was in fact ready so we collected our Costa cards and went to our assigned restaurant for lunch.

 

Here was our first really big disappointment as we saw from our cards we had not been allocated the Club Restaurant, the Bellavista, as we had been expecting and which we had been told on at least two occasions by Costa, upon booking and not long before embarking. Apparently there were too many Perla Diamanté guests onboard so we had all been assigned a section of the Arlechino. I suspect the Bellavista will never be used for Perla Diamanté guests but as a paying restaurant.

 

While the Arlechino was pleasant with very good service, the food was hit and miss and I would say overall rather ordinary with the exception of one or two very good dishes and a good buffet spread for lunch. There were no special dishes included such as grilled prawns or fillet steak but certainly more choice if you wished to pay extra. The wine was mediocre unfortunately.

 

I think that for Perla Diamanté guests now that there are so many you’ll have to book a suite if you want to eat in the Club restaurant on most if not all of the ships. We looked in the buffet restaurant on Deck 9 one time and thought the food looked quite good but it was chaotic in there with not enough tables for the number of diners and long queues. This will need to be addressed soon.

 

We had a balcony premium cabin and it was very nice. We loved the layout, the shower room (odd curtain outside as others have already mentioned) and good size balcony. No minibar which was missed and a strange fruit bowl glued to the top of the desk.The large TV sticks out into the room annoyingly so space at the end of the bed is a bit tight. Room service was very good, hot coffee for a change. Overall, we were very happy with our cabin and the cabin steward, who we barely saw, kept everything sparkling which was great.

 

Now, the entertainment such as it was in my opinion was dire. We are older cruisers and have usually enjoyed the theatre on two or three nights on all our previous cruises but here it was non existent. A very strange layout to the theatre, no reserved front row seats and nothing to see anyway. We tried one show, a Michael Buble tribute singer, which lasted about 25 minutes and that was too long. No tenor (missed the wonderful Fran Cobos from the Diamdema) or opera show or even the fun Sapori Italiano. Disappointing.

 

The noise in the central open plan Colesseo was unbearable and the ‘entertainment’ going on here was not to our taste. So zero points for evening entertainment. It is entirely possible that for younger cruisers who stay up much later than we do there is wonderful nightlife but on all our previous Costa cruises we have enjoyed live music, good singers and enjoyable theatre shows but sadly not on Smeralda.

 

Plenty of bars but sadly lacking in live music (which may have been a blessing as the volume Costa are using these days is truly horrendous). We had the Piu Gusto package which was good for us. We liked the Ferrari spritz cocktails in the Ferrari bar and the cocktails in the Campari bar but you cannot not get away from the horrible noise of the stage below with constant bingo etc. so it wasn’t conducive to a relaxing drink. We also liked Mastriano bar was comfortable and the Sports bar looked interesting but we didn’t try it. The gym looked quite small and the once or twice we looked, pretty packed. 

The weather wasn’t really warm enough for us to spend much time on the top decks but they looked pretty. We didn’t find a little chapel onboard so this may be the first Costa ship without one. The Aperol Spritz bar was quite funky and warm enough with the sun shining through the windows to enjoy a drink, should be fun in the summer if you can get a seat.

 

We had been looking forward to seeing this brand new shiny Costa cruise ship and it is enormous but this is mainly due to the huge number of decks full of cabins as we found the public areas easy enough to find your way around. We liked the decor although we didn’t see everything. We didn’t see the captain once all week (never knew who he was as we missed the VIP cocktail party and he made no informative announcements that we heard) and only about two officers who we recognised from previous cruise ships. The Ferrari bar sommelier was the chap from the Diadema Ferrari bar. 
 

In conclusion (and thanks for reading, hope you haven’t fallen asleep with boredom!) this ship is not for us so it is unlikely we will cruise on her again. Too big, too noisy, no entertainment to our taste and disappointing that there was no Club restaurant. On the plus side, comfortable cabins, many bars/cafes, and we have not yet mentioned how very nice we found all the crew from the waiters to the bar staff and our elusive cabin steward. If you are booked to go soon, we always think a cruise is very much what you make of it so I wish you a really great and a happy one.

 

 

 

[alicat58]

Hi Bob

 

Boarding a week today. Very disappointed to hear about the lack of club dining for Diamond pearl. That is one of the nice perks we enjoyed. Also disappointed to hear about the bar entertainment and noise levels. We're late 50's early 60's and though we love music we don't enjoy cacophony. I always thought the sound levels on the Diadema was intolerable. We even walked out of the theatre once because it was distorting it was so loud.

 

We'll certainly check out the bars you mentioned.

 

We were allocated an aft premium balcony on deck 12 and currently the La Colombina restaurant. I have only heard bad things about this particular venue. I also think hubby will be devastated about the lack of that fillet steak that used to be included. I better not tell him, we might stay at home!

 

I'll also comment on our return.

 

Riana

[Bobbingbob]

Hi Riana

Please don’t be downhearted! We had an aft premium balcony on Deck 14 and we really loved it, in fact we said it was as good as some suite cabins we have had. The balconies are pretty big and the cabin itself I’m sure you will be delighted with. Very comfortable.

 

Now, you may be lucky and find you are in the BellaVista Club restaurant (if there happens to not be too may Perla Diamante guests onboard) but if not, the Arlechino is actually pretty nice especially in the part allocated for Club. The Arlechino does lend itself well to a private area for this purpose. I must explain that food wise, my wife and I are pescatarians so, to be honest, it is entirely possible that there will be far more choice    for meat eaters. We got a bit fed up with limited fish/vegetarian choices but as I said, some of the meals were quite good. We had lunch a couple of days and this was great for us as the buffet salad bar usually had lovely fish entrees.

 

The wine was disappointing as it was the usual drinks packages choices. Even when we have been Suite guests, it has been a bit of a tussle to get anything from the Intenditore wine list! My wife seemed quite pleased to get Pinot Grigio which hasn’t always been available, though. The service was excellent.
 

If you have the Piu Gusto I would recommend giving the Ferrari Bar a go. At least it is a couple of decks up from the noisy stage area and there are several Ferrari spritzers worth trying out, my wife was delighted with these. They serve these with a nice mozzarella aperitivo.Likewise, the Campari bar (one deck down from Ferrari) serve these with interesting nibbles. A bit different to some of the other ships!

 

There are several other evening bars with moody lighting and pleasant service such as the Jazz Club. There may also be live music here which we may have missed, we think some things may have been missed off the English version of the Diario de Bordo so maybe an idea to check it out against the Italian version just in case (definitely don’t think it would be deliberate!). There was one great musical trio on a couple of nights in a tiny bar (forgotten the name but near the Casino) but they were only on for about 30/40 minutes early evening 6.30/7.30 followed by a very good French pianist singer who always seem to start just when we went off to dinner but he was also good.

 

We were on Smeralda just a couple of weeks after her launch so I honestly think that things will have settled down and improved over the past month or so. I truly hope you’ll find a better choice of evening entertainment, musically and theatrically. 
 

As a little aside, the disembarking/embarking at port visits now takes a little longer (especially where shuttle buses are required eg. Civitavecchia) due to the greater volume of passengers.
 

I look forward to hearing how it goes and wish you a great cruise, it’s an interesting ship.

(PS My wife wanted to add this:

Rianna, sounds a bit odd and excuse me if it is stating the obvious as you have probably already thought of this, please take your own medicated hand gel/medical/ wet wipes just to be on the safe side. The public washrooms are not always that clean. I will load up myself next time!)

[tenpin]

My thoughts on the present Costa offerings are to say the least are not for publication.

The Diadema was the start of this overbearing noisy trend, Club dining is now just for Suite guests but poor choices and limited extras has lead us to NOT booking with Costa this year, after 24 years with them.

We started looking for a suite last October but are unable to find any 'Med' cruise from our preferred ports, all being given to the upgrades now offered to club members.

 

AS Bob mentioned Perla Diamante members are now vast, unlike before when they introduced a higher club level when numbers got too high, now we are just loyal clients that are being ignored.

 

This year we are back on Princess and have all the perks that come with loyalty.

We certainly were disappointed last year with the Club lounge in Barcellona not a patch on previous departures there.

[Bobbingbob]

I agree about the VIP/Club lounge at Barcelona cruise terminal. It was much better before. Am I correct in thinking it is actually the cruise lines who provide the refreshments there or the terminal itself? It just seems odd that the standard has dropped.

I think we will switch our loyalty from Costa now, too, as they seem to be watering down the rewards. The Club restaurants on all the Costa ships will no doubt all be the same ie in fact exactly the same meals as provided in all the MDRs with no special extras on offer. Recently, it has only been the grilled prawns and fillet steak as extras so pretty poor choice really.

The ‘entertainment’ on the Smeralda was cheap for want of a better description. Thus, if the dining is nothing special and the entertainment for example in the theatre or the ‘live’ music virtually non-existent, cruising with Costa is not offering much for us personally speaking.

We will vote with our feet and look elsewhere. 

 

[Bobbingbob]

PS The noise has become truly unbearable and it is hard to avoid.

[tenpin]

I wrote to H.O in Genoa about the volume in the wine bar on the Diadema even the waiters had trouble taking our orders.

 

Costa's reply was nobody else has complained. 

[Bobbingbob]

You did well to get a reply. I will follow suit and drop them a line so that will make two of us - hard to believe everyone else is happy with the noise level, though.

I think I noticed it first on the Diadema but it is now just as bad on many others, certainly some I have been on anyway including Fascinosa and Smeralda.

[Norwegian Cruiser 73]

We have just returned from a 7 night cruise on the Costa Diadema from Dubai and the noise level in the bars and on the Lido Pooldeck was unbearable. Especially the atrium was very noisy. In the evenings inside the ship, only the winebar was ok with regards to the noise. It was in fact very nice in there. Unfortunately this is more and more common on the main stream lines. We experienced the same on the MSC Seaview last year , they are playing very loud music in the lounges and bars around the ship, even in the Top Sail Lounge in the MSC Yacht Club.  A few years ago we did a cruise on the Royal Caribbean's Jewel Of The Seas and the noise was terrible, not a single venue to relax in. 

[Vald78]

Just returned from Smeralda. I agree on most of the points, but would like to correct some details:

- There was beef fillet on 2 nights in mdr.
- Grilled prawns at lunch in il Rugantino and also for dinner. They also served lobster and wide variety of other excellent seafood. 

- There was live music at the jazz and piano bars. 
- there was a tenor show on a couple evenings. 
 

 

[Bobbingbob]

Glad you found the food good. Sorry if I misled, I was specifically talking about the fact that in the past in the Club restaurant, you could order special dishes at any time which were at no extra charge. This had been watered down to only grilled prawns and fillet steak which could be ordered at any lunch or dinner if you wished but sadly was not available on our cruise in the Arlechino Club restaurant.

 

Yes, grilled prawns were on the menu some days along with other seafood and I cannot comment on the availability of fillet steak occasionally as I am a non meat-eater and I didn’t notice it. There was definitely no lobster offered unless you wished to pay extra. I was talking about included dishes, there were plenty of other interesting options if you wished to pay for them.

 

The small bar which I mentioned above with a very good live trio and a pianist on some nights was indeed the Piano bar. We never saw any live music in the Jazz bar but may very well have provided it later than we were around but I did say we specifically were looking for early evening entertainment and there was precious little compared to many of the other cruise ships.

 

I am very pleased you had a couple of tenor nights to enjoy but there were none the week we were onboard unless they inadvertently omitted them from the English daily news bulletin. 

 

Anyway, good to hear things were good on your cruise and hope you had an enjoyable time.

 

 

[Vald78]

They seem to have improved the menus and entertainment! I was talking about complimentary dishes (no extra charge) at the mdr. Lobster was included there on one night. Tenor shows were mentioned in the English program we received. We had early dinner at 6.45 pm which was quite inconvenient concerning the timing of the shows. The first one was at 8pm (dinner ending 8.45-9 pm) and the second too late for us to stay awake (11pm). 

[Vald78]

Concerning the jazz bar, they had a very good singer on one night. Otherwise instrumental.

[Bobbingbob]

I think you are right, they seem to have improved both the dining and the entertainment which is very good to hear. It certainly needed improving in my honest opinion from our experience. I agree about the timing of the shows with the set dining options, they don’t really work. One good advantage of Club is you can go for dinner at the time of your choosing.

We have done almost 20 cruises with Costa and we have never seen lobster on the menu in any restaurant including Club but maybe we have just been unfortunate! We have paid for it once or twice but the last time it was awful, not worth the money, and this was in the Club restaurant. Did you have lobster the night it was on offer and, if so, how was it? Don’t think I’ll pay for it again.

 

By the way, I imagine it was the same tenor on both nights as I can’t imagine they would have two onboard for a one week cruise? Did you go and did you enjoy it?

 

Cheers

Bob

[tenpin]

Bob,

Lobster used to be served in MDR's once on every cruise, very nice too. Now sold in all club restaurant's & 25 euros (50% off last four cruises) but really not very nice, no lobster picks for claws on Pacifica  & only half which was small & you wanted at least that again.  Not recommended unless they have improved the food & indeed the cooking.

 

Costa's food & choices was the best at sea in the nineties now it is mainly disappointing.

[Vald78]

6 hours ago, Bobbingbob said:

Did you have lobster the night it was on offer and, if so, how was it? Don’t think I’ll pay for it again.

 

By the way, I imagine it was the same tenor on both nights as I can’t imagine they would have two onboard for a one week cruise? Did you go and did you enjoy it?

Hi Bob,

Yes, we all had the lobster that night (half tail). It was very good, although maybe a bit overcooked. Another night they served mixed seafood cake, which was accompanied with a lobster claw. Delicious! I think lobster meat was included in some of the other dishes as well. I have to admit I was very positively surprised when we had the first lunch right after embarkation, when the provided excellent antipasto plate followed by grilled prawns and had the wine I asked immediately available. Absolutely best food we have had with Costa (only 4 cruises, though). 
The tenor was the same. Due to timing, we were not able to listen, although would have wanted. Same with the acrobat show. 

[Bobbingbob]

Thanks so much for that info Vald, really interesting. There were a lot of serious complaints regarding the food on the Smeralda on the very earliest cruises and it really does sound as if they have pulled their socks up and improved dramatically. I hope it continues.

Tenpin, have been Costa cruisers since 2015 and sadly have never seen lobster on offer unless you wished to pay. When you do decide to pay, though, I agree regarding the quality etc, Obviously, it has to be frozen lobster and quite frankly in our experience it has been disappointingly poor. If it is an included item then poor quality is less painful as you can simply leave it!

 

As an observation, when we first started cruising with Costa, the food was actually still pretty good but it does seem to have taken a dive over the past few years. From what Vald is saying, it sounds as if the food in the MDRs may actually be better than in the Club restaurants, Could this really be the case? My wife has often said that the food in the self service buffet restaurants at lunch times looks much better than in the Club restaurants.  At our age, though, we prefer to be served in a calm atmosphere but it seems strange that the quality isn’t on a par at least. We do really appreciate the service in Club, too.

[tenpin]

I think that the decline in food choices began the year after the Concordia round about 2010.

I have menus going back to 1994 the choices were vast & Pasta cooked in front of you in MDR's Lobster was on offer on Formal nights

[Bobbingbob]

So Costa had to cut back to try to recoup their losses. I suspect there has been a lot of corner cutting in various areas including quality and choice of food. The captain of the Concordia has a lot to answer for and he deserves do his full prison sentence.

[Vald78]

On 2/29/2020 at 5:59 PM, Bobbingbob said:

Thanks so much for that info Vald, really interesting. There were a lot of serious complaints regarding the food on the Smeralda on the very earliest cruises and it really does sound as if they have pulled their socks up and improved dramatically. I hope it continues.

The recent reviews on TripAdvisor also reflect improvement. I also posted a review on our experiences there.