When researching my Costa Smeralda cruise, I honestly couldn’t find much information. There was so many YouTube videos slamming the ship, and a mountain of CruiseCritic content that again, slammed them. But none that gave me an insight to the ship or experience beyond the complaints. I didn’t need full praise, but just someone who would see past the differences. Saying that, there was a great blog post by CruiseMummy that gave perspective into her experience, which I encourage you all to read!
Even the Costa Cruises website doesn’t go into that much detail about Costa Smeralda; they use marketing fluff like “Costa Smeralda is synonymous with the Italian dolce vita” – like that’s not going to make my book a cruise?
1. This is not an American or British cruise line
First thing to note, and most likely the most important point, Costa Cruises are not an American or British cruise line (regardless of their parent company). Things are different. The culture is different. The entertainment is different. The food is different. The entire experience is different.
I would say the culture shift is most present in the audience onboard. And maybe you’ve experienced this in other countries, or on other Italian cruise lines. But if you haven’t, i’ll give you an example… You may notice that when you’re walking to a lift, some people won’t hold it for you – and may aggressively press the ‘close’ button even if they see you running towards it. Or maybe they might push in front of you in the buffet, as queuing culture doesn’t really exist.
I’m not saying that these things are going to happen, and I hate to generalise, but this is a frequent comment from other Brits who’ve cruised onboard Costa Smeralda, and it is something I noticed a lot on board. So it’s definitely something to be aware of.
But as an Italian cruise line, there’s also so many amazing differences that I loved. For example, four courses in the main dining room? Yes, please! Pasta always on the menu? Yes, please! I loved that it felt like my first ever cruise, as the experience was so different.
And if you’re cruising Europe or the Mediterranean onboard Costa Smeralda, then I think the languages onboard and the Italian-way of cruising would allow you to feel more embedded in the culture. Now, whilst we’re on the topic of languages…
2. English is widely spoken
A huge thing that people mentioned was the lack of English speaking onboard. Now personally, I disagree, or maybe on a Middle East cruise they did speak more English than a Mediterranean cruise. English was widely spoken onboard my cruise – announcements were in English, the entertainment were in English, and the staff spoke English. Now, English isn’t the first language, but you certainly won’t struggle with the language.
It wasn’t as if English was the minority of languages onboard either. It was second to Italian in the announcements, and all our documentation was in English too!
A small note on the announcements is that you may not really hear that many. For example, on Royal Caribbean the captain will announce that you’ve arrived in port and you can expect to disembark in 15 minutes. Or your cruise director encouraging you all to come to the party for the sail away. This doesn’t really happen on Costa Cruises. The muster drill announcements are quite frequent, and are in every language – which is great as you’d want to make sure everyone on board understood the safety. But that’s mainly it, and they’re quite spread out too. So it isn’t just 30 minutes of blaring through the speakers, it’s one language, then a 10 minute wait, another language, and so on.
We had some great conversations with staff in English, and the staff were actually shocked that we spoke to them in English. I asked some staff members if they spoke Italian and Russian (Russian was very present on my cruise), and they said no but they did understand some key words (beer, wine, etc).
3. Their muster drill is very different
On Costa Cruises you have to watch the safety video on the app, and then head to your muster station with your life jacket. It’s worth noting that you’re given a certain time to go to the station, you can’t just head down whenever you want.
It felt a little strange taking my life jacket with me, but I will say this… This was the only time I’ve been shown how to put on a life jacket and properly secure it. So whilst it may feel like an inconvenience and behind the time with other cruise lines, I found it to be very useful and appreciated it.
I’ve seen many people complain that the hallways get super crowded during this time and I would say that this can be avoided. Our timeframe was between 5:30pm and 6:30pm, we got to our station at 5:25pm, and were done back in our cabin by 5:35pm. We did notice the hallways begin to get crowded around 6:15pm, so i guess if you’re early and don’t wait til the last minute, then you can beat the crowds.
4. You’ll need a drinks package
If you’re considering cruising with Costa Cruises then you’re going to need to purchase a drinks package, even if it’s a soft drinks package. Controversially, Costa Cruises only offer free drinks during the buffets opening hours.
We noticed that getting a bottle of water was kind of like finding gold dust; If you asked for a bottle of water in a bar, the waiters would kind of huff and puff a little, inspect your sea pass, and then depending on the package you have, give you a bottle. And it was a 500ml bottle too! Which doesn’t get you anywhere close to your recommended intake. I swear, it’s like they were running out of it!
There’s also nowhere on the ship to refill your own bottle either. You either buy a drinks package, only drink in the buffet, or go thirsty. Quite shocking really.
I will say this, Costa Cruises do have a lot of promotions where drinks packages are free or heavily reduced, so that’s at least something.
And a positive is that their cruises are a lot more affordable compared to the likes of Royal Caribbean, NCL, and Celebrity Cruises. Even when you add on the drinks packages. Our Costa Smeralda Dubai & the Emirates cruise, plus drinks packages and flight with Emirates airline, was cheaper than the Greek Isles cruise we just did with NCL back in May 2024.
5. All bar and restaurant menus are QR code only
On the note of drinks packages, all the bar and restaurant menus are via a QR code only. Which is great for the environment, but it also means you have to constantly be on your phone, and connected to the ships WiFi in order to access it.
To clarify, you don’t need to have purchased a Wi-Fi package, but you do have to turn off cellular data and link your phone to the Costa Cruises Wi-Fi network otherwise the pages don’t load.
There were a few times when I asked a waiter for a paper menu and they said there wasn’t any, but then I noticed other people manage to get one. So not sure about that…
I have a Google Pixel and every time I scanned the QR code it would download the menu as a PDF, rather than just view it. So I actually ended up with “MDR Menu” saved to my device so many times. They don’t even rename the file either so it’s “MDR Menu” for every single day.
I understand the whole saving the environment part, but they could have had a chalkboard in the bars with some familiar drinks or even special drinks of the day. It felt like such a hassle scanning the QR code, downloading the menu, to then realise it’s the same drinks in most bars. By day 4 I had given up and just got my partner to check.
6. You can embark/disembark at different ports of your itinerary
Now this is also a major talking point for some people, and I previously had an uneducated opinion. Back on my Oasis of the Seas cruise in September 2024, we noticed that Royal Caribbean offered guests to embark/disembark all throughout the cruise too. And it was my seemed unheard of for Royal Caribbean.
On our Costa Smeralda cruise we found it meant the ship was fairly quiet for most of the day! Guests were either exploring the ports of call or they had left the ship super early because they were going home.
But, here’s some little bonus things that happened that actually made this cruise so good:
- Because this ship was docked in Dubai for three days, we were able to embark on (technically) day 2 at 9am!! That’s right, we were able to go through security, check in, get our sea pass, and be on the ship before 10am. We were able to get back off the ship and treat the rest of the day like a regular port day? Isn’t that absolutely wild.
- By having the flexibility to choose any day on the itinerary, we were able to be more selective with our flights. We didn’t have to book flights at specific times to meet the ship’s schedule — instead, we could search for flights that were both cheaper and more convenient.
For me, these were a huge positive, and are a reason I would actively consider Costa Cruises over some other cruise lines in future.
7. The buffet onboard Costa Smeralda is carnage
Now, transitioning to more of a negative option… The buffet. We only visited the buffet a handful of times because it was absolutely chaotic.
Firstly, the size of the buffet in comparison to the amount of guests onboard, is way too small. The layout of the buffet is also very awkward.
Secondly, the staff have to serve you the food. Which, from a waste point of view, I appreciate. But it means that queues get very, very long. And given my point above about the size, and my point from the very top about some guests not understanding the system of queuing… You could spend 20 minutes just queueing. Then once you get your food, you spend another 20 minutes trying to find a seat.
Costa Cruises don’t allow you to take food outside of the buffet either. At least on Costa Smeralda they didn’t. I don’t know if this is maybe a hygiene/pest issue? Not sure.
We did visit the buffet closer to it’s closing times and it was quieter, but you were limited in what was left. But I would honestly rather take a limited selection of food over queuing.
Personally, we didn’t feel the variety of the food in the buffet was that great either. You had your choices of curries, pasta dishes, meat selection, and fruits. That was pretty much it. The buffet was split into two sections: halal and not halal. Side note: I’d like to do more research and potentially a dedicated blog as I’m not sure if this is a specific Costa Cruises thing, or it just reflected the destination we were in.
8. The pools are very different
I know this may seem like a random point, but it’s definitely something that was totally different to our previous cruises.
Onboard Costa Smeralda, the actual ‘main’ pool is the indoor one. Which, we named “the kids pool”, as it was always full of kids and families (minus the time in Doha, Qatar when it was quiet). There’s also some very awkward hot tubs which are kind of hidden amongst the seats. The whole area kind of felt like a sticky, gross, community leisure centre.
There’s then two smaller pools, which are at the side of the ship and feel kind of random… If there’s two or three people enjoying them, it almost feels a little bit invasive to get in and relax. Plus, as they’re on the side of the cruise, it meant that for most of the day one of them is in the shade. Maybe that was their intention? Not sure, but we didn’t bother with them.
9. There’s two adults-only areas (kinda)
Then merging from the point above, there’s the adults only pool which is of a decent size, and has plenty of sun-loungers and even cabanas which were absolutely gorgeous.
If we were outdoors, it was here. And it’s also somewhere we couldn’t find any information on at all. Coming off Oasis of the Seas which has a gorgeous solarium, the Costa Smeralda was never going to compare. It was still lovely, and totally appreciated. It had the occasional unruled child, which was a little annoying, but staff did let them know that this was an adults-only area.
One negative… There was also a SINGLE hot tub next to the pool, which great for when it was a little chilly. But, one hot tub… An entire adults-only area and there’s ONE hot tub.
At one side of the adults only area on deck 18 is a bar with some shaded seats. This was a lovely bar, and the staff were super friendly! At the other side is a speciality healthy eating lunch sort of place, Green Healthy Food, which in all honesty, they should replace. It was hardly ever open and would have been better used for more seating area.
Costa Smeralda also had a sort of second adults-only area. The bar on deck 8 at the very back of the ship is for aged 14+ as long as they’re with an adult.
This is the best bar on the entire ship. Hands down. No questions asked. This is the jewel of the ship in my opinion. This was so much quieter in comparison to the rest of the ship – even at peak times, it was so quiet.
10. There isn’t an 10th thing…
Sorry, I could only think of 9! But glad to see you’ve made it this far down… I hope you found these 9 nuggets of information helpful. And I know it can seem like everybody hates Costa Cruises and especially Costa Smeralda, but I honestly had a lovely time! And I’m actually quite the complainer…
