Costa Atlantica
by Gene Simasek
Eastern Caribbean
January 23, 2005
This was our second cruise on Costa. We enjoyed our first on the Victoria and still have fond memories of it. Although we've been on 5 other cruises, no ship stands out in our memory like the Costa ships although the destinations certainly do. We sailed to relax and did'nt care about the excursions, having been to the Caribbean before. The Atlantica in out opinion is a beautiful ship. It looks like no expense was spared, especially in the various lounges. The Florian Cafe(a replica of the original in Venice) is a case in point with the marble, painted ceilings and portraits, the red velvet, the classical entertainment, all made for a pleasant venue to sit and relax. The show productions were probably the best we've seen on a ship, ie the staging, sound and lighting. The Chapel, though hidden in a corner of the ship is another beautiful rendition and the flagstone floored garden passage is wonderful. I used the 3 level exercise facility with hot tub at the front of the ship every day as well as the steam room and sauna.
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I left the stateroom shower to my wife and luxuriated in the spa shower with its 5 shower heads. Everyone was friendly, service was good, the food variety was outstanding, quality was good except for most of the desserts which don't look or taste like what you expect.Anybody that complains, please don't come back. I heard someone complain about too many elevators because they had too many choices and often got on the wrong one. Oh well. There was a large Jewish group(served Kosher food) and Irish group(from all over the USA and abroad) on board, as well as Europeans. If you don't like to mix with other cultures and people, please go elsewhere.
Boarding and disembarkation were well organized. The bottleneck was at Customs.
Would we go on Costa again? You bet.
