Costa Diadema - Full Cruise Review

[@sistersontheseas]

Thank you so much for watching our video! ☺ If you've enjoyed it, we'd love it if you'd subscribe to our channel, it’s completely free of charge and it really helps us out 😊

[@TomandDomTravel]

Woo! Thanks for the shout out

[@sistersontheseas]

This video wouldn’t have existed without you 😅

[@JulieAdventureVlogs-sg7ih]

Thanks for the insight. I've been eyeing that ship. Now I have an idea what to expect 👍

[@sistersontheseas]

Oh fab, glad you found it useful!

[@eltrym]

Hi Lizzy and Laura, thank you for your videos, I really enjoyed watching them. I've not watched this final video yet because I wanted to tell you about my experience with Costa and see how the two compare. I cruised for four days at the beginning of November last year, from Barcelona to Savona and La Seyne Sur Mer (Toulon, France) on Costa Favolosa. It was my first ever cruise and I booked it because it was cheap. I'm a non-drinker so didn't take out the drinks package. I booked a guaranteed balcony cabin and was allocated a lovely, quiet room near the front of the ship on the left hand side, 10th floor. I loved the room. I didn't like the noise of the constant corridor music but I took my ear plugs and used them whenever I took a nap or went to sleep at night. Being an outside cabin the wind came through the balcony door when the weather got bad, making quite a noise but it was bearable. I chose to dine in the smaller of the two main restaurants on board because it was midship and less likely to be affected by bad weather. This meant I wasn't granted a table for one, as requested, but was placed on a table for six instead. My fellow diners were European but spoke English. Surprisingly for me, being a bit of a loner, I really enjoyed their company and looked forward to meeting up with them for a chat over dinner at the end of each day. The food in the restaurant I thought at first was excellent. I'm not sure if it went down hill as the days went on of if I just tired of it. I also ate in a main dining room at lunchtimes too. There I didn't like being placed on a table for 12 after I'd specifically requested a table for 1 and there were plenty of single tables available. It felt like I was looked upon badly and I was spoken to rudely when I requested to be moved. In short, I didn't like the attitude of the waiting staff in either restaurant. I am sure there was a lot of tipping going on and those who tipped the waiters got preferential treatment, those who didn't weren't treated equally, in my opinion. In the buffet restaurant at breakfast, there was actually a cereal and muslei section but I didn't find it until the last day, so, like you, I mostly ate cakes and croissants for breakfast. Tea, coffee and water was free in the buffet restaurant but the tea bags were the weak Mediterranean style tea which I wasn't keen on. If I cruised with Costa again I'd definitely take English tea bags with me. I knew there was not going to be a kettle in my room (nor in any rooms I don't think) and I missed not being able to make myself a cup of tea whenever I wanted. I thought everywhere was very clean. I didn't watch or listen to any entertainment nor did I go to any bar so I can't rate either. Would I cruise with Costa again? Yes. I thought the cruise was extremely good value for money, but I'm not sure I like cruising that much to book another cruise with any cruise company. X

[@sistersontheseas]

Thank you for watching our videos, very interesting to read your take! We definitely had some similar opinions, the corridor music was annoying but overall we really enjoyed ourselves.

[@deekang6244]

We always budget to give a daily tip in the MDR. Amazing how well it works.

[@cruisingwiththe4bs]

Hey, really enjoyed this review. Stopped by as always intrigued by Costa and you had a lot of answers. Oh my it looks lively!! Italian carnival? I am truly amazed about the no included pizza!!! What nuts, imagine if MSC stopped doing included pizza! Thanks for sharing!

[@sistersontheseas]

Thank you! It was definitely lively, always lots going on. We’re really want to know what kids clubs would be like with all of the languages though 😅

[@cruisingwiththe4bs]

@@sistersontheseas 🤣 as mental as MSC ones I imagine

[@FraserAtSea]

Really enjoyed this one! The pricing on Diadema really is excellent - I find their product to be significantly better than their price suggests on there. The missing lampshade is really poor, though - I’ve never seen that on a cruise ship!

[@sistersontheseas]

We were very pleasantly surprised! The lampshade was a strange one but to be fair to them they fixed it very quickly.

[@KenGoesCruising]

Were there any vegetables with the main course?

[@sistersontheseas]

Not very many! We commented that there was a lack of vegetables on board! 😅

[@m.m.4645]

We will never never again chose Costa! Both cruises, one a few years ago and one in December 2023 were definitely not to our liking. The prices were unbeatabely low and that is what you get!!! We had awful food, overcrowded and actually closed off to more people restaurants, long line ups everywhere, people refusing to wash hands (and nobody cared about!), the "pay" restaurants were serving hardly anybody, very loud and rude people, a balcony that could not be used because of smoke coming honestly from ALL the other balconies around us. Entertainment was lousy, quizzes/trivias always were made in such a way that only an Italian could win, the final question would always be Italian based. Sometimes you were lucky to get a seat in the theater of that huge crowded Smeralda, then you could watch the disaster, we gave up on it. Having a problem with the stateroom it took 3 calls and visits to the reception until somebody showed up at all, but it still was not fixed. We also gave up on that. The best was the weather, but only because Costa was not responsible. No way Costa again. We leave it to others.

[@sistersontheseas]

Oh no, that sounds very different to our experience. Perhaps us being on a slightly older and smaller ship made all the difference!