Costa Favolosa

Our first Costa Cruise and we were not let down at all. The Favilosa is spotlessly clean, the staff could not do enough for us and the food in the dinning room was excellant and hot. The ship is brighly decorated in Italian style and I thought better than NCL- Jade. The all-inclusive package is very well worth the money. The wine we were drinking in the dinning room would have been 27 euros and we had 2 bottles a night. It is a good buy for non-drinkers as all soft drinks, bottles of water and good coffee is avaialable on the package. A bottle of water is nearly 3 euros. We had the five night trip as a taster cruise. We were in our ports for only half a day each, you must remember to keep your watch on ships time and this can change again during a trip. Unfortunatly some people were left behind but the captain delayed the ship for about 45 minutes and kept blowing the horn as a signal. I had read about the Italians being pushy etc and was prepared. (other reviews were helpful) The lifts were ok as most of the time they were not too busy. They do push in when we are queing and they expect others to always move out of their way but hey ho we were in Italy and on an Italian ship so when in Rome....
Now for the smoking policy-for smokers it is great as they have provided indoor space in about 4 bars which generally had good air conditioning. Upstairs in the Lido bar, which has a covered roof for the winter was great as smoking was also allowed there on one side all the time, other areas were restricted whilst in port. It is strange to see people who do not smoke sit in these areas and wave their hands about complaining of the smoke. I don't smoke but sat with my partner in the smoking areas most of the time. It did not bother me being with a large group. We had good fun and met a good group of people, smokers and non-smokers which included other eurpoeans. This made our holiday.
Food-The food in the dinning room was really lovely, we were on the first sitting and it was always hot. Seven courses which you could double up on if you did not fancy one of them, my partner often chose to have 2 bowels of soup. I am a veggie who eats fish and I had some good choices. There is a menu of 'always available' at the front of the menu if you do not like the choice at any meal. There are nights where the waiters sing and dance which was fun and entertaining. The buffet restaurant got busy at certain times so it was worth working out the nest times for breakfast and lunch, we did not use the dinning room for these meals. For those who cannot seem to cope without an omlette bar there is now one in the buffet but only one. The omlettes are samll so ask for two or three, they will be happy to oblidge and this is where the toast machine sits, also where they fry eggs. Plenty of food always available in the buffett. The pizza was simple but good, I did not eat in the pizzaria. Entertainment- I only joined in one night for the Miss Costa Favilosa, I thought it was a belly dancing night, oh how wrong I was but never mind I thought and I won it and no not a free cruise but a Costa towel for my efforts.
Cabins-we had a disabled cabin which was large and spacious with a wet room, it was near the lifts which I could hear early in the mornings but the cabin made up for it. Our cabin steward was great she always looked after us, one set of friends we met had a different tale to tell with theirs and had to complain.
Bar service-fantastic there were no problems with getting drinks on the all-inclusive package.
Tips- the gratuities are reasonable at 7 euros a day which still leaves you feeling able to tip those who go the extra mile for you.
Trips-I only went to one which was to Pompeii which was very good despite our guide telling us to pay attention he was actually vey good. Other ports there were often port buses to the town. We used to Red open top bus in Malta which was a little scarry and not as good as other countires where I have highly recommended them.
Boarding the ship-this was very busy at Venice and I was prepared for the queues, some previous Costa users said that this was not always the case.
Airport Transfers-only one complaint in whole of trip. We flew back from Milan, the coach dropped us off at terminal one despite us all flying from terminal 2. The trip with luggage and pushy people was a nightmare, I wich I had taken a taxi between the two parts of the airport, it is several stops on the shuttle bus which was hard to find, packed and went too fast.
This was such a cheap cruise, the value we had must have been 150%. I will go again and I can highly recommend it. Go with an open mind, do some research so you are prepared. Remember you get what you pay for it is Italian and vey different from P&O. Thank you Costa and Cruise Club and to all my new freinds. Margaret