Our cruise was the jewels of the Indian Ocean.

We were unhappy with poor customer service. This is mainly because of compulsory tipping of 5euros pp per day. Food was continually being rejected in the restuarant due to the temperature which was luke warm, the tough meat and tastless soups. The first cruise where I have not gained weight!
The long queues at the lunch buffet meant waits of often 15 minutes to get a meal.
Lack of hygiene. The buffet tables were only wiped when passengers made a request. No spray was used until the end of the dining period. The staff were very slow clearing dirty crockery from the outside tables. I witnessed dirty crockery left on tables for more than 30 minutes. No hand gel available. Several people including myself had tummy upsets which was no surprise.
Coffee was not offered after the evening meal. When requested it took 15 minutes to arrive and was cold
Lack of communication from captain.
Turfed out of our cabins at 4 am on last day when we didn't have to leave until 5.45 and many people hours later.
The entertainment was hit and miss. Some good acts but 2 nights with only a video --one of which was taken of our cruise!
Generally poor service received from an unhappy crew.
This resulted in disappointment and lack of enjoyment.

The itinerary change. This was drastically cut partial due to the political problems at Madagascar, but also engine problems which remained unresolved. We had 3 stops in 14 days.
Seychelles 2.5 days(should have been 1.5)
Mombasa 1.5 days (extra half day for repairs)
Reunion 2 hours (a technical stop, it should have been 10 hours).
Three ports were cut from the original schedule. No reason was ever given for Comoros being dropped from the itinerary. The Europa has susequently stopped at Madagascar even though the political problems still exisit and even worsened.
Feelings anongst the passengers was running high. Meeting were called in the theatre where lawyers gave their opinions and petitions were drawn up.
We were given some compensation 300e each and 600e off our next cruise with them--I think not!

The ship was clean and the food superb. The waiters and cleaners were fantasic - couldn't fault them at all but the management and Customer Services staff weren't at all helpful. As there were at least 4 different languages on board, the entertainment wasn't as good as I have encountered on Thomsons Celebration, where everyone was English speaking. As this cruise ship is Italian everything was naturally spoken in Italian then French and sometimes English was left out completely. We were very much the minority on this ship! Even though it was sold to us in England. As I only has Sterling with me I thought it would be simple to get a few Euros so that when we docked it would be a start when we were to reach land. I was told to come back later as Customer Services were too busy. I came back 3 hrs later and was told they were too busy to come back the next day. Came back the following day to be told the same story yet again. I was now angry and demanded some Euros, which eventually they gave me.

I couldn't get over the price of any type of drink whether it was alcoholic or non-alcoholic on board. A can of Fanta or Coke was 2E 60c then 15% surcharge on top, making the can 3Euros! A bottle of wine started at 18Euros then a surcharge levied of 15%, making a very vinegarish bottle of plonk over 20Euros!! It was the dryest cruise I have encountered. Not many people could afford to drink anything. Water was even 3Euros!

At the end of the cruise which lasted 2 weeks we were forced to pay a surcharge of 70Euros for Service and had already paid Virgin £2.50 pp per day when we made or payment for the holiday.

At the beginning of the holiday our passports were taken from us and we were given photocopies in case the originals were lost. On the last evening we received a copy of our daily Newsletter that is delivered to the cabin each evening to be told that our Costa inhouse payment card would stop at 12.00 midnight and that if we wanted to make cash payments then we were to go to a point on the ship at 3.30am!!! One of our party was a frail 87 year old lady. She hadn't registered a credit card and hadn't spent much on board. She had also not been feeling well and we decided that as soon as it was midnight we should take her to Customer Services to get the 42Euros they owed her rather than her having to wait up until 3.30am, due to her health and age etc. When we took her to Customer Services and explained that they owed her some Euros and age etc and that it would be good to let her have a sleep to around 6am, we were told that rules were rules and that she would have to return at 3.30am to receive any monies due to her. We were infuriated by that comment by the Italian Receptionist, but she didn't want a fuss and said she would stay awake until 3am and go and queue up with everyone else for her Euros.

The queue was very big and about 3.40am she finally got a few Euros back that could have been given to her 3 hrs beforehand.

We were also told in the newsletter that we were to get our passports at 06.30am at different points of the ship, so that we could all fly home. What a disaster!! The passports were all over the place, arguments were starting between the crew and passengers. At one point I thought someone was going to be hit! Finally at around 9.00am we got our passports back.

In effect everyone that was leaving the ship had to stay up ALL night the previous night and not have any sleep.

Previously I have been on Thomson cruises and what a difference. I realise I had been spoilt by them. Everything was fantastic. They really had done their homework.

I will never go on a cruise with Costa again and will tell all my friends to do the same. I notice there is a ship called Costa Fortuna. This one should be called Costa Lota!!!!

Our second cruise with this itinerary as we did the same cruise last year on Costa Classica. Flights and whole package arrange through Costa and we flew with British Airways.
Arrived at Dubai on time but what a difference to 2007. In 2007 we breezed the Passport Control helped by the Costa Rep who rushed us through the “Fast Track” at Dubai and straight onto the coach, we mustn’t have been in the airport more than half an hour. This time we queued for about 45 minutes to get through Passport Control. Then off to collect our luggage to discover hubby’s case not there and after finding a BA staff member we discovered it was not put on the flight from Heathrow!!! What a good start to our holiday. Filled out all the necessary forms assisted by a very helpful Costa Rep then off for the Coach. Well we waited and we waited and we waited for over one hour for the coach. We arrived at Dubai at 11.30pm and left at 2.00am. Things were not getting off to a good start.
Arrived on the ship and to our Cabin which was on9008 Deck 9 Andromeda and a superior outside cabin. Well that was a lovely surprise as the cabin was huge. There was the double bed with plenty of room either side, a three seater sofa, 2 chairs and 2 tables. There was also a door which closed off the corridor which was great for shutting out the noise. The bathroom was larger with a bath two showers over the bath one full height and one half height. Only complaint was the water pressure was very poor on the high shower so used the half height one which wasn’t very good for washing your hair!!
So we unpacked the one suitcase and set down for some sleep. In the morning we went to the Customer Service desk to see about the missing case as the ship was due to sail at 1.00pm. Immediately the Customer Service Manager, Federico intervened and took us into his office and completed all the paperwork and suggested we bought some clothes as nobody had any idea if/when the case would turn up. Hubby only had the clothes on his back and Federico said he could have them laundered as often as he wanted free of charge. We took advantage of this and I went to buy a new shirt for hubby in the shop and there was a very limited choice and the cheapest was a Marlborough Classic shirt at 69 euros!! Hubby had not had the new shirt on his back more than 30 minutes when Federico called to say the suitcase had now arrived on this ship. Wow lucky or what, 30 minutes before we were due to sail.
Costa Europa is one of Costa’s older ships and not as “glitzy” as the newer ships however we liked the ship and layout and cabin situation. We ate in the main restaurant 4 nights out of 7 and we found the food much improved from our previous Costa Victoria cruise. We also celebrated our Wedding Anniversary by eating in the Club Europa restaurant. The food was wonderful, and very reasonably priced and the service was second to none. I would definitely recommend it for a special occasion. The wine is quite pricey though and two bottles set us back 72 euros!!
We did not go to any of the shows instead we liked “people watching” in the Medusa lounge. The majority of pax were German, in fact I would say 80% were German.
We did all the ports of call last year so did not do any organized trips this year. We stayed on ship at Fujairah and in Bahrain we took the shuttle bus into the centre but it was awful, dirty and scruffy so we went back to the ship. The best ports are Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Dubai. In Dubai we spent most of the time on shore exploring Dubai and eating out in Dubai which is absolutely incredibly cheap, with excellent food and service. We always looked for where locals were eating and you cannot go wrong.
Disembarkation was smooth and straightforward. The last day is a long day though as the flight back to UK was at 3.00am so it’s very much a kind of hanging around day. Dubai airport is awful though. We actually checked in on line 24 hours before the flight but upon arrival at the airport they did not have a fast bag drop off so we had to queue for over one hour whilst the whole plane checked in with only one BA check in desk open. After check in there is absolutely nowhere to sit at Dubai airport and the fact we were there for over 4 hours was not very pleasant.
We had a wonderful week and having done the cruise twice now I think we have seen the area although we would definitely go back to Muscat, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
This will be our last Costa cruise as we have cruised Costa four times now and time for a change.

The ship was very clean, no problems noted in toilet areas or restaurants. Cabin also excellent.

Food: Excellent, although the breakfasts were not aimed at the English people on board it was non the less good and there was plenty of choice. The restaurant was lovely, the food, the waiters etc couldn't have been better.

The entertainment was aimed at the more elderly crowd we thought, It was still good but we didn't bother with a couple of the shows as they sounded 'oldy'- know what we mean? There were two other areas where evening entertainment was held with people singing and areas for dancing - it was ok but we wouldn't rave about it.

Wouldn't sail with Costa again as we want to try other ships (sailed on the Island Escape last year, great!)

We had a problem with our cabin on deck seven. There were 10 cabins at the back of the ship that were directly under the disco, they dont tell you that you will hear every sound, every word from the disco above - we demanded to be moved and luckily we were (as apparently we made the most fuss). The other passengers also complained but they were unable to be moved as the ship was very full. Please ask lots of questions when booking your cabin as they just want to sell you the room they don't care whether you can sleep or not. we are still in talks with Costa regarding this but they just aren't interested in our complaint.