Roll Call Costa Victoria 8/1/05

[donmimi]

Any English speakers out there going with us????

[Nat5735]

Yes, I will be going on that cruise. Have never been on this ship/line so not sure what to expect. I am going single and my past experience is on Crystal so am eager for any info or recommendations you might have.

[donmimi]

This will be our third trip on Costa -- and our third in the Mediterranean with them. We pick our trip by itinerary, rather than by cruise line. so have traveled on a number of different ships in many different places. It will not be nearly as luxurious as Crystal, but if you have a suite, it might be comparable in some ways.

 

Costa in the Mediterranean tends to be full of Italians -- as one might expect --with the cultural differences that occur. There is more smoking and everyone is chatting on cell phones -- families are traveling together in cabins of 4 rather than 2 -- the noise level of conversation is deafening and everyone is having a wonderful -- albeit loud time. Our first trip all of the evening shows were in Italian, our second were all in English The buffets are very crowded and it is very confusing -- the Italian idea of "getting in line" is very different from our own and there is a lot of jockeying for position to get into the buffet lines.

 

That said, Costa takes very good care of its minority passengers and the two times we have traveled with them, we have been carefully seated with other English speakers at dinner and separate tours have been arranged for English speaking guests! Both times, we have been assigned an English speaking "host" who is kind of like our camp counselor to take care of any issues we might have. We will be a very small minority on board however. Our last cruise was on the Atlantica las summer with nearly 2000 passengers; less than 200 were classified as "English speaking" and I suspect there were only 8 or 10 Americans. We had a lovely time -- it is simply up to ones ability to immerse oneself in another culture. Please do not expect American style food -- although quite excellent cuisine, it is not american style and you have to roll with it!! Best to breakfast European style -- make yourself a ham and cheese on baguette with yoghurt on the side -- or have fruit and bread like the Europeans. Lunch is okay -- generally some pasta with eggplant or some sort of shell fish; a variety of salads that may be unfamiliar and some stuff that is ok. Dinner is quite good; always a pasta course that is wonderful and the rest is basically cruise food. Wines on board have been excellent; on the Atlantica, I could order a half carafe of quite good house red for our dinner at very reasonable prices.

 

Be aware that ship announcements are in 7 languages; it is quite lengthy. I do remember a cocktail party for the English guests on the Atlantica. We shall see on the Victoria!

 

We will look for you on board. Please feel free to contact us for any further thoughts.

 

Don & Mimi

donmimi@optonline.net