We just got back from an epic 14-night adventure aboard the Costa Fascinosa…” our 22’nd Costa cruise and you might wonder why we cruise with Costa so much? We have to say, when I think of Costa, we think of fun. Like “Lets have a party” or “fun for everyone”. It really makes we want to go back!  Also this time, we’ve got a full ship tour of the costa fascinosa, and  You’re not gonna want to miss this.”

Now here’s the twist the last time we sailed on the Fascinosa back in 2022… it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. 😬 Was it better this time? Oh, we’ve got thoughts. Stick around till the end to find out if Costa turned things around! As always, we’ll rate every part of the cruise — from the food to the fun — using our one-to-five anchor scale… and we’ll even compare this trip’s scores to our last time on board. Improvement? Let’s see!

BUT WAIT! This wasn’t just any cruise… this was the hit parade cruise – a special c-Club sailing — Costa’s annual exclusive voyage packed with events, surprises, and VIP guests. We’ll also take a deep dive into those c-Club events, tell you what we loved, what we didn’t, and how they stacked up against our last c-Club experience!

So grab your virtual boarding pass — we’ve got a lot to unpack.” But before we begin we have to tell you that this article is not sponsored by anyone and that paid for our cruise out of our own pocket.

Let’s begin our tour by talking about the boarding process!

Boarding

We boarded the Costa Fascinosa in the port of Savona, Italy. This is Costa’s main hub for boarding. The day we boarded the Costa Fascinosa the Costa Toscana (one of Costa’s biggest ships) was also in port to embark and disembark passengers. For this reason, the port was bustling. Traffic was quite bad and it took us quite a bit of time to reach the car drop off.

Fortunately, we booked the parking in advance to reserve a spot. By the way, if you are planning on cruising on Costa and driving to Savona please book your parking way in advance because they sell out quickly!

Once we managed to park our car the rest of the boarding process was quite smooth and quick.  Normally, due to our status with Costa, we have priority boarding; however, on this particular cruise, more than half of the passengers had Gold and Platinum status, including those traveling in a suite. However, the boarding process was rather quick anyway, and in less than 20 minutes we were in our cabin.

The traffic to reach the parking is always a bit annoying to us, but we agreed that from now on we will take the train to Savona to avoid the mess. Time to move on to our next topic on our tour of the Costa Fascinosa and we talk about the ship itself!

Time to vote for boarding, and our vote is a 4 out of 5 anchors. The traffic to reach the parking is always a bit annoying to us, but we agreed that from now on, we will take the train to Savona to avoid the mess. By the way, 4 out of five anchors were the same vote we gave for boarding in 2022! 

The ship

The Costa Fascinosa was built by Fincantieri and launched in 2012. It is 290 meters long. It has a capacity of 3800 passengers and 1110 crew members.

The ship has 14 decks for passengers.

Deck 0 is the crew deck, and Decks one and two are dedicated to passenger cabins. 

On deck 3 front of the ship you’ll find the theater, the main atrium with 4 beautiful panoramic elevators. , Also in the atrium, you’ll find the Amarcord bar with a nice dance floor that is used for indoor parties. On the port side of the atrium, you’ll find the tour desk while on the other side, you can find the front desk. Also on deck 3 just past the atrium, you can find the Archipelago specialty restaurant and one of the main dining rooms the Otto e Mezzo. Also on deck 3, all the way aft, you’ll find the other main dining room called Gattopardo.

Moving to deck 4, you will find the second floor of the theater at the front of the ship, the photo lab just above the atrium, and the second floor of the  Otto e Mezzo main dining room. Also on deck 4 toward the back of the ship you’ll find the disco club and the second floor of the Gattopardo dining room with the special area dedicated to the Gold and Platinum members called the Club Bistro. 

On deck five at the front of the ship there is the third level of the theater. Above the atrium, you’ll find the stores. Toward the middle of the ship, there is the sushino sushi bar and the grand bar Topkapi with a nice stage and dance floor. Toward the back of the ship, you will have the casino. Passed the casino all the way aft you will find the Teppanyaki restaurant, the wine bar Angelo Azzurro (one of our favorite places on board), and the Salone Cheri lounge with a nice big bar, another nice stage, and dance floor. 

Decks 6 to 8 are dedicated to passengers’ cabins.

On deck 9, there are a few cabins at the front of the ship. In the middle of the ship, there is a covered pool with a retractable roof. By the pool, you can also find the Blue Moon bar and the Salty Beach burger stand. Toward the back of the ship, you will find the buffet. All the way aft, you can find the second pool and the Aperol Spritz bar. 

Moving to deck 10 at the front you can find more passenger cabins. Toward the middle of the ship, you will pass the second level of the main pool with some ping pong tables and nice chairs. Toward the back of the ship, you will pass some nice outdoor solarium and the kids’ playground. Also on deck 10 toward the back of the ship, you can find the pizzeria. 

On deck 11 at the front of the ship you will find my favorite spot on the ship: the spa and some other cabins. In the middle of the ship, you will find the second outdoor pool with slides and a lot of suntan beds all the way to the aft of the ship. All the way aft you can also find the Club Fascinosa restaurant for suite and platinum passengers. 

Lastly on deck 12 at the front of the ship, you will find the second level of the spa, the sunset bar, and a special reserved sun deck. Also on deck 12  towards the back of the ship, you can find the run track and the basketball court. 

Well after this long tour around the Costa Fascinoisa, let’s talk about the ship conditions. In most areas the ship was in excellent shape, especially the pools looked like they were recently renovated with brand new tiles. The sun beds however, are still a bit dated and in need of replacement. We also noticed a lot of maintenance around the ship while we were in ports and this is a very good thing. In particular, we noticed that they were changing mattresses in the cabins. The decor of the ship was the usual Costa theme, with a lot of lights and colors. Some of the artwork was not our favorite, but this is a very minor detail. 

We guess it is time to vote for the ship, in 2022, we gave the Costa Fasciosa a 3 out of 5 anchors. Today, we will give a 4 out of 5 anchors for the ship because we liked the fact that some areas were recently renovated.

Time to explore another aspect of our C-Club cruise on board the Costa Fascinosa, and we will talk about:

The Itinerary

Our cruise was a 14-night Mediterranean cruise specifically designed for the C-Club event that covered some very unusual ports. We started our cruise from the port of Savona, Italy. We, then sailed to the port of Civitavecchia Italy to board more passengers. From there we sailed to the beautiful town of Siracuse on the island of Sicily Italy, which is a port that is not very common for cruise ships. The ship stayed in Siracuse till 10 pm, allowing passengers to experience the city at night and go for dinner there if they choose. From Siracusa, we had one sea day before reaching another port of Nauplia which is another destination not often covered by many cruise lines. After Nuplia, we then sailed to the port of Izmir in Turkey, which I enjoyed. The next stop after Izmir was the beautiful city of Istanbul, where the ship stayed overnight, allowing us to experience the city also at night.

Once we left Istanbul, we had one sea day before reaching the stunning island of Zakynthos in Greece. We then had two more days at sea before reaching Barcelona, and we then went to Marseille before going back to Savona. Overall, the itinerary was wonderful because we stopped in several unusual ports, and we had an overnight in Istanbul, which we have never seen before.

We give the itinerary a 5 out of five because Istanbul was fantastic, and being able to visit it at night was wonderful. Also, there is no reason to compare the vote with our 2022 one because the itineraries were completely different.

Moving on to another topic to explore about Costa Fascinosa, and we talk about the cabin.

The Cabin

In 2022, we booked a simple balcony cabin on board the Costa Fascinosa. This time, because it was such a special cruise event, we decided to book a suite. Our suite was cabin # 7341, located on deck 7 right in the middle of the ship. The location was wonderful because the cabin was centrally located, with elevators right around the corner. Also, being in the middle, it would have been a great cabin in case of a rough sea, which we did not experience during the all cruise. 

Inside the cabin was spacious, with a lot of closet space. There were two closets by the bed with some drawers and also another walk-in closet with a second desk. In the room, we had a wide, nice desk, with some good space to work. We also had a very handy coffee maker, which we loved. Below the desk, we had a nice minibar that was great for storing milk for coffee. 

The bed was really comfortable with a good amount of space on each side. One feature that the room had was Costa’s signature ugly brown couch that we still think needs to be replaced. The bathroom was wonderful with a nice double sink and a fantastic walk-in shower with some cool LED lights and jets. 

The balcony was wide and big enough to accommodate 2 chairs and a nice sun bed. Unfortunately, we did not use the balcony very much because the weather was not the best. 

The room was in great shape, with nice, clean carpets. The decor of the room matched the decor of the ship.

Well, it is time to vote now we did like the room a lot, other than the brown couch obviously, in particular, we loved the space, the coffee maker, and the shower. So our vote is 5 out of 5 which is 2 anchors more than we gave in 2022.

Ok, let’s move on to another topic about our C-Club cruise, and we’ll talk about the cleanliness

Cleanliness

From the moment we stepped on board the Costa Fascinosa, we noticed that the ship was really clean. Every area of the ship was spotless. The carpets around the ship were in excellent condition. We noticed that the cleaning crew was around, cleaning every area of the ship constantly. On our two-week cruise, there were a lot of parties on board involving food and dancing. A few hours after each party, the ship was perfectly clean like nothing ever happened. 

Time for me to vote for the ship’s cleanliness and give the ship a 5 out of five for this category, which is the same vote we gave in our previous review.

Let’s move on to another aspect of our Costa Fascinosa c-Club cruise, and we will talk about the service.

Service 

So before I start talking about the service we experienced on our cruise, let us play you a little clip of our review in 2022….

Well, we are very happy to report that service on board the Costa Fascinosa this time was lightyears better! In particular, all the staff on board were well-trained, very friendly, and attentive. It was quite obvious that management did a good job of training everyone. 

At the Club Fascinosa restaurant, the manager Conrad, which we knew from previous voyages, was wonderful, he tried his best to accommodate every request we had and he always did it with a smile. Also, our waiters Mark, Putu, Delvy, and many others were always friendly and incredibly efficient! Well done guys! Also, because we were traveling in a suite, we had a butler who was responsible for food and service in the room. His name is Mackbul and he was probably the best one we have ever had! Not only he was incredibly efficient, but he was always happy, cheerful, smiling, and genuinely happy to help. 

We also spoke a lot with the French-speaking hosts on board who were also very friendly and always very glad to talk and socialize. 

On this sailing, we did visit the c-Dream which is the future cruise office on board. This office is located on deck 5 mid ship, just above the atrium. Most days of the cruise the c-Dram had an insane line of passengers at the front and it took a very long time to be able to see an agent. We went to see Giulian to book the 2026 c-Club cruise and he was great, quick, and very efficient, however, I had to wait in line for more than 45 minutes for a booking that only required 5 minutes! I really think there should be an appointment system, maybe on the Costa App, in order to avoid the massive lines and make passengers happy. 

Time to vote for service, and we think that it was a huge improvement compared to our 2 out of five anchors in 2022. Today, we will give a 5 anchors out of five for service.

Our next item to discuss on our c-Club cruise on board the Costa Fascinosa and we will talk about the restaurants:

Restaurants

Costa Fascinosa has 2 main dining rooms both located on decks 3 and 4. The Otto e Mezzo is located mid ship while the Gattopardo is located all the way aft. As we mentioned before at the Gattopardo deck 4 they have a dedicated area for Gold and Platinum c-Club members. The food is the same for both restaurants. The ambiance of the restaurants is quite nice and spacious with a good amount of natural light. We did not eat at any of the restaurants.

The buffet on board the Costa Fascinosa is located on deck 9 toward the back of the ship. At the buffet they serve breakfast, lunch, merenda (that is mid-afternoon snack), and dinner. The ambiance at the buffet was nice and spacious with a lot of tables. We did not eat at the buffet but we never noticed a huge crowd like we have seen on other ships.

There are five specialty restaurants on board the Costa Fascinosa. The most famous one is the Archipelago, where 3 Michelin-star chefs designed 3 tasting menus to choose from. The price to eat at Archipelago is €59 per person for dinner, but it does not include wine, even for passengers who have a drinking package. If you choose to do the wine pairing, there is an extra charge. Also at Archipelago, it is not possible to do any substitutions on the menus. Even if you have a food allergy or intolerance, you can not change anything! Now the ambiance of the restaurant is quite nice, very modern and classy. Service at the Archipelago is impeccable and it truly feels like eating at a Michelin-star restaurant. Now we normally do not eat at this restaurant because I do not eat any seafood, and every menu at Archipelago includes one or more dishes with seafood, and no substitutions! However, because on this particular cruise, we became C-club Platinum members, we had one lunch at Archipelago included in our benefits. Also one of the 3 lunch menus had no seafood so we were able to go and enjoy a very nice meal. 

The second specialty restaurant on board the Costa Fascinosa is the Teppanyaki, which is located on deck 5 toward the back of the ship. We did not eat Teppanyaki on this cruise, but we have tried it before on several other ships, and we always had a lot of fun and a great meal.

The other specialty restaurant, also located on deck 5, is the Sushino sushi restaurant. The location is toward the mid-ship by the Grand Bar Topkapi. We did not eat at Sushi on this sailing, but we have noticed a lot of passengers eating there.

The fourth specialty restaurant on board the Costa Fascinosa is the Pummid’oro pizzeria located on deck 10 aft. The ambiance is nice and rustic, like a true Italian pizzeria. The pizzeria is open between 7 pm and 1 am because a lot of passengers eat pizza after going dancing. We did not eat at the pizzeria, but we did have a pizza delivered to our restaurant, and it was an authentic, delicious Italian pizza. The prices for pizzas are very reasonable. 

The last specialty restaurant is the Salty Beach Street food restaurant, located on deck 9 by the covered pool. During the day, this restaurant serves burgers and hot dogs for free, and at night, they serve gourmet burgers and sandwiches for a small fee. We did not eat at this restaurant.

Lastly, there is the Club Fascinosa restaurant located on deck 11 at the back of the ship. This restaurant is dedicated to suite passengers and platinum members upon availability. Because we were traveling in a suite, this was our dedicated restaurant, and we loved it. The ambiance is more intimate than the main dining rooms. It also has a more personalized service. The food is practically the same as in the main dining rooms, except for one or two gourmet dishes.

Also, Costa is implementing table-side carts with a few appetizer options to choose from. The cart’s idea is excellent, but in our opinion, it needs some tweaking. First, the carts are a bit too big for the restaurant, and sometimes it is difficult for waiters to move them around the tables and to bring them close enough for passengers to see what is on the cart. For this reason, many people were standing up and walking to the buffet carts style defeating the purpose. The second problem was the fact that in the second week, the choices on the carts felt a little repetitive. As we said, these are minor tweaks that can be fixed.

It is time to vote for restaurants on board the Costa Fascinosa, and our vote is a solid 4 anchors out of five, which we believe is the same vote we gave back in 2022.

Well, after talking about the restaurants on board the Costa Fascinosa, it is time to talk about :

Food

The food on board the Costa Fascinosa was excellent. Well presented, well prepared, and very tasty. The variety of food during the two weeks was good, with a lot of choices to choose from. On a couple of occasions, we found that our food lacked a bit of salt. The head chef on board, Gian Luca Aliotta, is someone we have met before on several other sailings, and we were very happy to see him on board. Also, because this cruise was a special event, the corporate chef from Costa was on board, and we had the opportunity to reconnect with him.

As usual, we enjoyed the desserts on board; they were delicious and very beautiful. Also at the Club  Fascinosa restaurant, they introduced two desserts that are assembled tableside on the carts one is the traditional tiramisu and the other one is the millefeuille. This we think it is a very nice touch. However, we found that in the past year and a half, the desserts need a little refresh as they are often the same. 

Overall we were really happy with the food however, the desserts felt a little repetitive we think it is time for Costa to add a few more new desserts. The tiramisu and the millefeuille assembled table side are great, but they need to add a few more choices. For this reason, our vote is a 4 anchors out of 5, that is one less anchor from 2022. 

Bars

Costa Fascinosa has several bars on board, all of them quite good, with a great selection of drinks. Service at bars is great, and the bartenders are extremely efficient and friendly. Two bars on board deserve a little more attention. One is the Sunset Bar located on deck 12 at the front of the ship. This bar has nice, comfortable chairs, a great ambiance, and it is a very nice place to have a drink while enjoying the view of the ocean. However, two things are a bit strange about this bar. The first one is the fact that they are only open in the evening, during the day, this location would be perfect for serving drinks to passengers sun tanning by the nearby pool. The second bizarre thing is the fact that they only serve a limited number of cocktails, included only in the “My drink plus” package, and nothing else! They don’t even serve a shot of individual liquors that they use in the cocktails. That is very strange. 

The other bar that deserves a special mention is the Angelo Azzurro wine bar. This bar is located on deck 5 all the way aft. At this location, they serve an incredible variety of wines, most of them only included in the “My drink plus” package. At this bar, they have a live pianist who is incredibly talented, and passengers love to go and listen to him play while sipping a nice glass of wine. Often, this bar was so busy that it was almost impossible to find a table.

Time to vote for bars and we think we confirm our vote from 2022 of 4 out of 5 anchors. The bars on board are great they just need a little tweak.

Now it is time to talk about the entertainment and special events on board

Entertainment and special events

As we mentioned in the introduction of this video, this was a special event cruise dedicated to the C-Club members. The theme of the cruise was “Hit Parade” 80s and 90s music. There were special guests on board, such as MTV, the 3 Micheline Star Chefs that collaborate with Costa, and lastly a band from the 90’s, the Skunk Anasie. Also, there were some special parties and events on board themed with the destinations we were visiting. 

In the first week, we were a little disappointed with the special events on board; in fact, we felt that these events were almost an afterthought. In particular, the 3 chefs’ event was just a rather boring cooking demonstration at the theatre that did not involve or engage the audience. In our previous C-Club cruise, there were cooking competitions where the passengers were cooking and the chef was the judge, and this was way more fun. 

The MTV lectures about the music of the 80s and 90s were great, very informative, and well attended. In my opinion were the highlight of the first week. 

Lastly, the guest star band, the Skunk Anansie, was just not the type of music I like. There were a lot of people (including us) who left the theater after the second and third song. It’s not that the band was bad, I think they were not the right choice for a typical Costa passenger. But… then again, we did meet a couple of passengers who booked the cruise just to see them… oh well.

Now, fast forward to the second week of the cruise, the pace picked up, and there were some epic parties that passengers loved! In particular, the Bosforus party in Istanbul was fantastic. The Mamma Mia Party in Zachintos was really amazing, and obviously, the White Party is one of Costa’s best events. All three of these parties had an incredible buffet of food that everyone loved. The energy on board during those parties was incredible, and the amount of fun that people were having was incredible.

Also in the second week, a wonderful singer, whom we have seen on previous sailing, Talia Alexis, came on board and she did an epic tribute to Tina Turner that people loved. The theater was packed for both performances. And EVERYONE was glued to their seats!!

During the cruise, there were the usual Costa shows with a lot of singing and dancing that passengers loved and everyone enjoyed watching at the theatre. 

For this particular cruise, we almost feel that we have to do two votes one for the first week and another one for the second. For the first week, we think that the entertainment deserves 3 anchors out of five, but for the second week, it is a solid 5 anchors out of five. If there is a thing that Costa does better than anybody else are the parties and people had an incredible time dancing.

If we want to go more in depth about this category we can say that The chef show was very lame and the guest star was not our favorite, however, we truly enjoyed the MTV lectures, they were informative and very fun to watch.

Let’s discuss another aspect of the C-Club cruise on board the Costa Fascinosa, and that’s the excursions!

Excursions

On this particular cruise, we took 3 excursions with Costa and one transfer. The first one was from the port of Civitavecchia, where we went to visit the stunning village of Civita di Bagnoregio. The excursion was fun and very interesting. It also included lunch at a typical restaurant that was delicious. Now this is one thing that we noticed with Costa excursions, usually when a meal is included, it is a very good meal in a very nice, authentic restaurant. 

Our second excursion we took with Costa, was in Istanbul, and it was a highlight of the city. We took this particular excursion because it had the skip-the-line to the Cistern that was included, and that was something that we wanted to see. Overall, the excursion was fine and well-priced. 

The third excursion we did with Costa was in Zachintos, where we did a boat tour to see turtles and then a couple of stops at some beaches on the island. The trip started badly because the tour guide only spoke English, and most people on board the bus did not speak English at all. And to be sure, we booked it in Italian, and others booked it in other languages, for sure, French. So, the fact that the excursion was only in English, well, naturally, people were complaining and quite mad. Now, after a few minutes of sailing, we reached the boat. The turtle part of the trip was quite underwhelming; we saw the turtle pop his head out for about 2 seconds. However, the moment we started sailing along the coast of Zachintos, everything changed. The scenery was just breathtaking, and everyone really enjoyed swimming in the turquoise water of the island. The mood on board changed immediately, and all the passengers forgot about the language issue – everyone was really happy. 

Lastly, in Barcelona, we took the Costa Transfer from the port to the World Trade Center. We used this service before, and it is always well organized and quite easy. Now, Costa is implementing a new kind of transfer in a lot of destinations that is a hybrid between a transfer and on hop-on-hop-off bus called Costa Go-round. We think it is a great idea and it has a lot of potential to become very popular. At the moment, those buses only make a few stops in each city, but we are sure that more stops will be implemented. 

Also, we noticed that Costa implemented some new, more adventurous types of excursions for adults only, like the helicopter ride over Barcelona or the swimming with sharks at the Barcelona aquarium, as an example. 

Time to vote for excursions and we think we give Costa Fascinosa a good five out of five anchors for excursions. We think that the Costa Go-round idea is quite brilliant and it will do really well. 5 anchors out of five which is the same vote we gave excursions in 2022.

Moving on to another aspect of our tour of the C-Club cruise on board the Costa Fascinosa, we talk about:

SPA and GYM

As you know, the Spa is my natural habitat, and I love having massages, and the spa on Costa Fascinosa is perfect for that. On the Costa Fascinosa, the spa is located on decks 11 and 12 to the front. The area is huge for the size of this ship. The spa has a large Jacuzzi, a sauna, a steam room, a few relaxation areas at different temperatures, and a winter garden.  We bought the spa entrance for the all cruise and we used it a lot, especially because during the cruise, the weather was not ideal, so the spa was a great place to relax. The spa was in excellent shape, very clean, and very well-kept. 

The spa manager, Michelle, is a very nice friend of ours, and we have sailed with her several times. She booked me several massages that I loved. Everyone at the spa was really nice, friendly, and very well trained.

The spa on board Costa ships is usually excellent, and it is worth getting it. It is important to mention that on board the Costa Fascinosa, there is also a sauna in the gym locker room that is free to use for every passenger. 

Speaking of which, the gym on the Costa Fascinosa is quite big for a ship of this size, it is very well equipped with a lot of brand new Technogym machines. We did not use the gym on this sailing.

Time to vote for the gym and Spa. the spa is a nice place to relax and chill during all the bad weather days on board. We also really enjoyed Michelle’s company, and it was nice to catch up with her. So we give the Spa a 5 anchors out of 5, this is the same score we gave the spa in 2022.

Now it is time to explore another aspect of our C-club cruise on board of Costa Fascinosa:

Stores

The stores on Costa Fascinosa are located on deck 5 toward the front of the ship, right above the atrium. There is a clothing store that sells brand-name clothing, bags, and shoes. Another store that sells perfumes, watches, and jewelry. It also has a very small area for travel essentials, such as shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorant, and hygienic products. There are also chocolates and souvenirs, cigarettes, and liquors for sale at this store. Also on deck 5, there is a store that sells Costa merchandise, like ship models, Costa-branded polos, and t-shirts. Also, during navigation in the morning, they had a pop-up sale table in the main atrium and another one by the grand bar that sold discounted bags, clothes, and other items.

Time to vote for stores, and even though I did not buy anything, we give a nice 4 anchors out of five because finally, Costa has more toiletry items for sale in the stores. In our previous video we gave the stores a 3 out of five so it is an improvement.

Well, let’s continue our tour of our cruise on board of Costa Fascinosa C-Club cruise, and we talk about

Photographers

The photo gallery on Costa Fascinosa is located on deck 4 mid-ship just above the main atrium. At the photo gallery, they still print all the photos and hang them on the walls; however, now it is possible to see the photos also in the Costa App and purchase the digital version right from there, which is a huge improvement. It is still not as good as the system on Smeralda and Toscana, where they have kiosks to visualize and buy photos. 

Photographers are all around the ship as usual, and they take photos with the usual backgrounds in the usual funny poses. However, on this sailing, they were not too pushy, and most of them were nice and funny, and we took several photos. Also worth mentioning is the fact that they were selling a photo package that included all the digital copies for €1,29, which we thought was quite reasonable, and we bought it. All the photos come in a cute little USB thumb drive in the shape of a Costa smokestack. This is the first time we bought this package because for €129, it covered all the photos taken by both of us.

In 2022, our vote for photos was a 3 out of 5 anchors. Right now, we think we will change our vote to a 4 out of 5 anchors for photos because we think that the price for the package was good and worth getting it; however, the fact that the photos are still printed first is a bit… disappointing. We still don’t like the huge waste of paper at the photo lab, but it seems that Costa is working on that.

Ok let’s move to another aspect of our Costa Fascinosa C-Club cruise, and we talk about:

Internet on board

Costa offers internet on board through Starlink, and we have to say that the connection is fast and very stable. It does slow down a little when the weather is cloudy, but it was still more than enough for us to work on board, upload videos, video call, and do pretty much everything we needed. We bought the full internet package online before departure because it was discounted at  €188 for 2 weeks, instead of €238. Costa also offers other packages, just for social media or the cheapest package for WhatsApp. We still think that the price of the internet is quite high, but the connection is excellent, and we needed it. Also, it is always a good idea to check the prices of the different packages online before departure because Costa often runs sales.

Before we vote for the internet on board we want to quote a paragraph from our review in 2022:

“There was one evening that we needed to use the internet, and we couldn’t because the costa app didn’t work.  After about 30 minutes of trying, we called the front desk, and they suggested going through the web browser, but in the end, it didn’t work.  So we really weren’t happy with it.”

Well, we think that the Internet on board come a long way since then and our vote now is a 4 anchors out of five, if they lower the price a little it would be a 5. What is your vote, Rick? On this sailing we never had a problem with the Internet, it was really reliable and fast.

Moving on to the next chapter of our complete tour of our C-Club cruise on board the Costa Fascinosa and we talk about the casino

The Casino

The Casino is really big for this ship; it is located on deck five towards the back of the ship. There are a lot of tables and a very good number of slots. On this cruise, the casino was not very busy, and most nights when we walked by, almost nobody was playing at the tables. We played a little bit to pass the time, but we did not win any jackpot this time. 

Even though we did not use the casino very much, we did come out ahead. And that all went to tips.

We give the Casino a 4 out of 5. We think the area is nice but a bit dated; it would benefit from an update. 4 out of 5 anchors was also our score in 2022.

It is time to discuss a very important aspect of our cruise on board the Costa Fascinosa, and it is:

The Price

The C-Club cruise is Costa’s biggest event of the year, with special guests, special parties, and events; it is natural that the price of the cruise is higher than normal. For this cruise, we paid €3522 per person for a suite. The price of the suite also includes the My-Drinks Plus package, which alone costs around €448, and also includes gratuities and travel insurance. So, as you can see, it is a true all-inclusive price we paid. In our opinion, for this cruise, the price was fair, considering what it offered.

For this reason, our vote is 5 anchors out of five.

Let’s move to the last item of our tour of the C-Club cruise, and we will talk about disembarkation

Disembark

The disembarkation process was really quick and efficient. We did send a bag using Bagexpress the night before disembarking, and we walked our other bags with us off the ship. Once we arrived at the terminal, we were able to collect the keys to the car and in less than 5 minutes, we hit the road back home.

No doubt that we give a 5 anchors out of five for disembarkation because it was really easy and quick. Back in 2022, our vote was a 3 out of five so we guess this was a big improvement.

Conclusions

Overall, we enjoyed our C-Club cruise on board the Costa Fascinosa. As we mentioned before, the first week seemed a little subdued, but the second week made up for it. The parties in the second week were pretty epic, and we had an incredible amount of fun. The itinerary was fantastic, and we hope that Costa will implement more overnights in some ports because it is wonderful to be able to visit some destinations for more than one day.

One very important thing to point out is the fact that on this cruise, most of our fellow passengers were long-time cruisers, with a lot of traveling experience, and for this reason, it was very easy to connect and make friends. Also on this particular sailing, we were able to reconnect with a lot of people we had met before on other sailings. It was also very nice for us to see some crew members that we know from past cruises and be able to reconnect with them and create friendships. 

Something that we often notice when traveling with Costa is the fact that each ship is run differently, and sometimes it also feels that every ship is its own cruise line. This might be a bit strange for someone who is not used to it, but we have learned to work with it. 

Finally, we really want to point out how much fun we have every time we sail with Costa. In the fun department, Costa exceeds our expectations on every single cruise we have done so far.

Ciao