Costa Cruises

Cruise ships are famous for the endless food choices onboard, but it’s hard to beat the convenience of a cruise ship buffet. My most recent cruise, however, left me questioning whether the convenience was worth the chaos.

Despite the latest and greatest ships offering nearly a dozen dining options, from the traditional main dining room to innovative food halls, many passengers—including myself—still prefer the laid-back atmosphere of a buffet.

Would you sail on a cruise ship with a 2.8 star rating out of 5? Recently, I did just that, and by the end of my week onboard, I couldn't wait to disembark for good.

While researching European cruises earlier this year, I came across a cheap 7-night cruise on Costa Toscana, the world’s 8th biggest cruise ship, which launched in 2021. Wanting to try something new, I booked the cruise on a whim for $1,090 as a solo traveler.

Online reviews should always be taken with a grain of salt, but after spending 7 days on Cruise Critic’s worst-rated cruise line, I can’t help but agree with the rating.

In the age of online reviews, it’s no secret that prospective cruisers do thorough research before booking a cruise line, ship, and itinerary. Cruise Critic is one of the most popular websites to browse when planning a cruise, as it offers reviews on nearly every ship imaginable.

I recently sailed on a 7-night cruise on Costa Cruises' Costa Toscana, the world's 8th largest cruise ship. This cruise line continuously receives some of the worst reviews in the cruise industry, so I was nervous to see what my cheap cabin would look like onboard.

In 2012, Costa Concordia, a cruise ship owned by Costa Cruises, capsized off of the coast of Italy shortly after departing from Civitavecchia. While not as deadly as the infamous sinking of the Titanic in 1912, this incident resulted in some modifications to the safety guidelines within the cruise industry. 

Another cruise line is going to be able to restart cruises in Europe soon.

Costa Cruises announced it will begin sailing again in Italy beginning in March.

Costa Cruises is owned by Carnival Corporation, and will restart operations on the Costa Smeralda, scheduled for March 27 to ports around Italy on 3- and 4-day mini-cruises or alternatively a 7-day cruise, calling at Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari.

A Costa Cruises ship will end its sailing due to a Coronavirus outbreak in France, which follows a small outbreak on the previous ship's sailing.

The decision to cancel the Costa Diadema was made in an abundance of caution by the cruise line due to the health situation in France, where COVID-19 cases have spiked in recent days.

The Costa Diadema has been chartered by a French company for two sailings, with the first sailing having 7 guests test positive for COVID-19 despite being asymptomatic.

Costa Cruises restarted its cruise operations on Sunday, becoming the first Carnival Corporation cruise line to restart cruising.

The Costa Deliziosa sailed from Trieste, Italy and began a 7-night cruise that visits only ports in Italy with Italian passengers onboard.

Costa joins a few other cruise lines that have been able to resume cruises in Europe, including MSC Cruises.

In order to keep passengers safe from COVID-19, a variety of new protocols have been added including:

Carnival Corporation announced today that Costa Cruises will begin sailing again on September 6, 2020 in Italy.

A limited amount of sailings will begin on two ships that wil sail from Trieste and Genoa, Italy, carrying only Italian passengers.

Originally the ships had itineraries that would visit Greece, but will only visit Italian ports.