Back in October 2024, I booked a 7 Night cruise onboard Costa Smeralda, disembarking from Dubai and sailing to Muscat, Doha, and Abu Dhabi, before heading back to Dubai. Well, I just got home! And I have some thoughts.
Let’s talk flights
I flew with my partner direct with Emirates Airline from Edinburgh to Dubai, which was actually on the brand new Airbus A350 aircraft – stunning! Our departure was Saturday 22nd March at 8:40PM in which we would arrive in Dubai at around 8am Sunday morning. This would mean we’d be able to head direct to the ship and board – no need for a hotel stay. (Luckily, even if our flight was severely delayed, we’d be fine as the ship was docked in Dubai for another 24 hours!)
The flight was everything you’d expect from Emirates – great entertainment, good food, and lovely service. We booked, and paid extra for, the two seats next to the emergency exit. And although we thought it would be more comfortable as there’s no third or fourth seat, and nobody in front of you, you actually just feel on display to everyone who’s waiting to use the washroom. The seats don’t recline as much either!
I never managed to get a wink of sleep so it was movies and TV shows for me! But in all honesty, the flight wasn’t bad. It just meant I had to stay awake for the rest of the day to align my sleeping pattern.
The arrival in Dubai
Landing and clearing customs was a breeze too! As we were leaving to go find a taxi, we saw a man with a Costa Smeralda sign – and although we didn’t have transfers booked, we knew he’d have some information on where to go (and maybe if we were cheeky enough, we could hop onboard the coach). He directed us to a taxi rank and told us to head to Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal, specifically terminal B. We had our boarding passes printed out, and they also stated Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal.
Here is where we begin to run into an issue. Our taxi driver said there are TWO Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminals, and the information on our boarding pass wasn’t sufficient enough to know which port to take us to. Costa Cruises website doesn’t give any other information other than “Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal”.
According to our driver, there is one terminal at the Marina, and another one in the old town.After panicking and checking Google Maps, we saw a photo of a Costa Cruises ship at the Old Town Cruise Terminal, Port Rashid, and assumed it was the right one; when our driver took us to the port, we quickly realised we were mistaken. It was thew other terminal. Well, 45 minutes later we arrived and saw the stunning Costa Smeralda waiting for us.
In reflection, it was the driver who was wrong. Yes, Dubai has multiple cruise terminals – but one is called Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal and the other is called Port Rashid. Cruise lines, like MSC for example, will specify Port Rashid as the terminal name. I’m surprised the driver didn’t know this…
Embarking Costa Smeralda
After my stressful embarkation in Trieste for Norwegian Viva, and the rapid embarking in Barcelona for Oasis of the Seas, I was eager to see how long this would take… As Costa Cruises allow you to embark and disembark across each day of the itinerary, the queues for embarkation were pretty short. I’d say, from the moment we arrived at the CORRECT cruise port, to stepping foot on ship was about 5 minutes? Maybe 10. Pretty good. We were quite impressed with how speedy things were.
Oh, and this was at 9am by the way! Yes, we were onboard Costa Smeralda enjoying a cappuccino by 10am! How wild is that?
Goodbye Passports
In order to get our sea passes, we actually had to hand over our passports. The Costa Cruises staff onboard Costa Smeralda actually kept hold of them until Day 6, Abu Dhabi, where we’d get them back and have to do a face-to-face immigration. I didn’t mind as I trusted they’d keep it safe, but it was interesting!
First moments onboard the worst-rated cruise ship, Costa Smeralda
The ship gets some serious shit on Cruise Critic. It’s rated 2.5 out of 5 stars. So it’s safe to say the backup plan for this cruise holiday was “well, if the ship is awful, it’ll make good content”. I was so shocked. The ship was absolutely stunning and incredibly spotless. And I’m aware it’s fairly new, but it felt brand spanking new!
And as we were embarking on technically the second day of the standard itinerary, the ship was empty when we arrived! It was so easy to just sit, decompress for a moment, and grab a coffee, without feeling like everyone is in the way.
Costa Smeralda’s Itinerary
- Dubai, UAE (Overnight in port)
- Dubai, UAE (left around 1pm)
- Muscat, Oman
- Day at Sea
- Doha, Qatar
- Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Dubai, UAE (Overnight in port)
- Dubai, UAE (time for us to go home!)
We loved that the cruise was very Dubai heavy, and especially those overnights in ports. It was a perfect way for us to see Dubai without the need of a hotel stay. The cruise itinerary was almost identical to MSC Euribia and Celestyal Journey, both of which we seriously considered booking.
Our favourite ports of call were Dubai and Oman. We loved how different they felt from each other, and my partner actually used to work in Muscat, Oman so he loved going back.
If you’re like me and you rarely book excursions, then you’ll appreciate the fact that all of these ports were very taxi heavy. Yes, sometimes the drivers can be a bit pushy with you choosing them over others, but we actually appreciated it as it meant you can haggle a little.
You should be aware that none of these places are that walkable, so make a plan of where you want to go, and just get a taxi!
Our Cabin
Even though we were able to embark Costa Smeralda at 9am, our cabin still wasn’t available to us until 2pm. We also had the amazing surprise of being upgraded to a balcony cabin! We originally booked an inside and fully expected to receive that, but then a few days before the cruise I noticed it said balcony on my luggage tags… I thought it may have been a misprint! Nope – we got upgraded!
We were stateroom 11299 which is in fact an accessible cabin located at the very back of the ship. We thought the location was perfect – and it was actually pretty soundproof too. One thing to note is that because it is an accessible cabin, you aren’t able to just push the doors open. Both the main door and balcony door can only be opened via a button, which then opens them for you. Occasionally I would push/pull the door as you normally would, and it would make this really loud jamming sound – our steward came and showed us how to correctly use it.
One of the bedside outlets, and the mirror had USB ports so that was pretty great too. Meant I didn’t need to use an adapter – win!
Design and Layout onboard Costa Smeralda
Now, I wasn’t overly fussed about the layout, the Colosseo on Deck 8 was a bit of a miss from me. I know that a lot of people complained that the seating was insufficient, but for me it just felt like a missed opportunity during the day.
Costa Smeralda technically has two adults-only areas. Well, adults-only-ish! On Deck 18, there’s an 18+ area that has it’s own pool, a singular hot-tub, loads of sun lounges, and some gorgeous cabanas – which were free to use. There’s also a bar at one side, and an extra-charge food venue to the other. We spent the majority of our days here, and whilst we enjoyed it, it’s nothing like what Royal Caribbean offer. And… some bratty kids kept jumping in the pool ha! Which, y’know, I don’t mind kids on a cruise, but I go to the adults-only area for a reason.
The other adults-only area is on Deck 8, and is technically 14+ when with an adult, and this was at the back of the ship. And oh my gosh, that was the real gem of the cruise. I’m pretty sure nobody knew it was there as it was so quiet. It’s right at the very back of the ship, perfect for sail-aways, and is generally a really cosy vibe.
I’m going to write a blog post that goes in depth about all my favourite venues, but in short, I enjoyed all of them. There wasn’t a single venue that stuck out to me as absolutely awful. Sure, not all of them were to my taste, but they were fine!
How about the service?
I was most nervous for the service onboard. I had heard horror stories. And if I’m being honest, I can see both sides… We had some amazing service. Some alright service. And maybe some bad service. Maybe not bad, per say. But more… distant service.
However, I think the service reflects the clientele onboard. I noticed so many people just snap their fingers at waiters, with no hello, please, or thank you. I know service should always be a smile, but it must be so hard to deliver five-star service when people are snapping their fingers in front of you and expecting you to serve them immediately, with no regards to other guests who are waiting.
We met so many waiters and bar staff who were absolutely amazing. Very friendly, and one even made us an espresso martini even though it wasn’t on the menu!
As for the main dining service, that was okay… We ate at our assigned dining room, Las Colombia on Deck 5 every night, and at our assigned schedule time too – this was the first cruise we had done that every single night, as we wanted to give the main dining room experience a full chance!
Occasionally, our waiter would just appear and look at us, which was a prompt for us to give him our order. There was no “are you enjoying your cruise so far?”, “where have you been?”, etc…
But as for the speediness of the service, we actually timed how long our food took during the Main Dining Room every night. And from the moment we sat down to the moment we left, it was around 60 – 90 minutes. That’s four courses and around 3 glasses of wine. Pretty good I’d say!
Food for thought?
Food. The number one most important thing onboard, right? You can’t really go wrong with a beer, and maybe the weather may be a bit crap sometimes. But if your food is bad or even inedible, then your cruise is pretty much ruined.
I’ve got to say, I loved the food. Really loved it. Not one meal we ate was bad. Every meal we ate in the Main Dining Room was incredible.
Being honest, the buffet I would totally avoid. Absolutely carnage. But this was also my opinion for Oasis of the Seas. I just think if you’re cruising as a couple, solo, or you hate crowds – go to a main dining restaurant. However, we did often take a stroll through the buffet just before closing for a second tea, and it was fine! Another thing I liked about the buffet, the staff actually plate the food for you, which is to prevent excess waste.
We didn’t do any specialty for dinner, however we did do the extra charge pizzeria and burger bar for lunch.
On that note actually, the veggie burger… best (and biggest) burger I’ve had at sea. And I didn’t particularly care about paying €5 for it. On Royal Caribbean I would need to pay for a veggie burger at Johnny Rockets anyways, and we all know that wouldn’t be €5…
The pizza wasn’t really for me. It’s Naples pizza, and I personally just prefer American-style. Nothing to do with Costa’s quality.
I’d like a drink, please!
Drinks are a major, major controversy with Costa Cruises. Incase you didn’t know, you barely get anything included in the standard cruise fare; You only get water, teas, and coffee during the buffets opening hours. Pretty shocking really. No real defending it to be honest. And there’s nowhere on the ship to refill a water bottle! The fountains inside the buffet actually say not too.
We booked the My Drinks package when we first booked the cruise as there was a promo for it. And to be honest, we didn’t understand how it worked or what it included until a few days into our cruise. Costa have little colour codes on each the menus which are associated to the individual drinks packages.
If you aren’t fussy on brands and like glasses of wine, gin and tonics, mojitos, and things like that, then you’ll be fine with the My Drinks package. But if you want premium named brands, then you need to purchase My Drinks Plus.
The standard My Drinks package also includes soft drinks, Pepsi and speciality coffees too, which were amazing. We certainly got our money’s worth with the cappuccinos.
If you’re like me and love an espresso martini, you’re gonna be a disappointed as Costa Smeralda doesn’t do them! We asked at every single bar, multiple times, and only managed to convince one bartender to make us one. Every bar had a coffee machine by the way, so there’s no excuse.
What was the audience like on board Costa Smeralda?
I spoke with the staff about the people on board and they said that the majority of people onboard were from Kazakhastan, and that’s usually the case for when Costa Smeralada is sailing from Dubai. Then the rest of the clientele as Italian, then a small portion of Brits, American, and Canadian. However, English was widely spoken. Both in the entertainment, by the staff, and through the announcements. You won’t struggle too much if you only speak Italian.
Would I sail onboard Costa Smeralda again?
Yes, the ship was great. But I would rather try another cruise ship first before resailing on her. Which sounds bad, but there’s just so many other cruise ships, both Costa and other brands, that I’d be more interested in doing first! I had so much fun onboard Costa Smeralda, and I know she’ll be waiting for when I want to go back. Although, if a fantastic deal came up, I’d book!
Would I sail with Costa Cruises again?
Yes! I’d love to try Costa Cruises in Europe / Med to have a taste of what she’s like on her home turf. Plus, the prices are really great, so I’d be silly to cancel it out.
