Live from Costa Deliziosa World Cruise 2024

[HoosierShipmate]

Thank you @At7Seas for this report - am really enjoying it so far, the descriptions and details and photos are all amazing.  I love seeing the places, the drinks and especially the meals during longer cruises and I’m looking forward to all the updates!  Kudos and thank you! 

[maryann2]

Have a great cruise. Thank you again for doing this review.

[At7Seas]

Day 2, Dubrovnik (Croatia)
 
Luckily the visit of Dubrovnik was quite late, so I had time to sleep after a quite intense day and arrange me in my cabin a bit further. It is definitely a difference whether you stay for short two weeks of for 18 weeks! I skipped breakfast and had early lunch instead. Because of calling Dubrovnik the lunch time was starting at 11:30 already. “Breakfast” with mushroom soup, a very nice prepared fish and a Pino Grigo.
 
For Dubrovnik I had organised a local tour. Although a shared tour I turned out to be the only guest. First part was visiting the most impressing view points in the surroundings and thereafter a walk through the historic centre with a guide telling more about this beautiful city. I booked with Horizon, very recommended: https://www.dubrovnik-tours.hr/, the price of my combined tour was 45 €. I was also quite lucky regarding the weather, first quite nice sunshine and only a short heavy rain shower I was easily able to hide from. In the end I had free time to roam around and our late arrival and late departure allowed me to take the last possible return at 18:30 from one of the old city gates. 10 minutes later I was aboard and staff told me that I was the last guest returning - despite all aboard was set for 19:30. I was in my bathroom when I felt the ship moving and indeed we left the port long before the planned time, which should have been at 20:00.. Dinner followed very soon and I shifted reviewing the pictures and writing this lines to the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[At7Seas]

@dritan, HoosierShipmate and maryann2, you are all more than welcome to follow! The ship is still relatively empty, in Savona, Marseille and Barcelona more pax will board. After that and when everything felt onto it’s place I will report a bit more about the ship and how it is to sail solo on a world cruise.

[greg2014]

Thank you for your posts and live report from the world cruise. I was always interested how it could be on such a long cruise. I will wait for your next posts 🙂

 

Dubrovnik is always nice but outside peek season it looks different. No crowds everywhere, sometimes it is even possible to find empty narrow street.

[At7Seas]

Day 3, at sea
 
That this cruise is finally happening still feels a bit unbelievable, but mentally I more and more arrive on the ship. Also found the last things I was missing. Now it paid out that I not only have a list with things to pack, but also marked in it in which bag things are. Some days at sea are just comfortable for a rest, although I travel to see the world I am ready to admit that as well.
 
Today I started with a visit to the excursion desk, the unusual happened. An excursion in German had been cancelled and in English it was available! Since the number of English speaking guests is relatively low this more often happens to English language excursions. And for Catania I had to change, because Costa right now does not go onto the Etna, related to the security regarding of the recent eruption I was told and the vulcano obviously didn’t calm down completely yet. I simply don’t know whether the access is completely prohibited or whether Costa is very cautious.
 
Again a day without breakfast, instead of that at lunch some very tasty eggplant rolls, a consommé with peppers and meat and a really delicious scorpion fish.
 
I indeed laid down on one of the new deck chairs the Deliziosa has when the sun found a space between the clouds, but only for five minutes, also on the Med it is winter and simply too cold. I like the new deck chairs definitely better than the old version, so much I can say already. In the afternoon the ship was extremely calm, did everybody take a nap? I had some cappuccini and spent most of my time with reading.
 
Santa Maria di Leuca at the heel of Italy
 

 
Internal pool
 

 
Copy of Sfera con sfera by Arnaldo Pomodoro in the atrium
 

 
Today was the first formal evening, the theme was “elegant”.
 
The dinner was in one word excellent. I had chose beef tartar as antipasto, wild boar ravioli as first main, sea brass stuffed with salmon mousse and prawn tail as second main and cheese as dessert. For those who might be interested, up to now every evening we had ice cream as dessert option, which doesn’t happen often on Costa, there had been long discussions about. The destination dishes are created by one of three highly decorated chefs, pity enough poor Hélène Darroze lost orientation and sailed to the wrong port tonight, she went with a duck confit moussaka style to Katakolon in Greece, while the Deliziosa is on its way to Catania on Sicily.
 
Sea bass fish fillet stuffed with salmon mousse and prawn tail
 

[At7Seas]

7 hours ago, greg2014 said:

Dubrovnik is always nice but outside peek season it looks different. No crowds everywhere, sometimes it is even possible to find empty narrow street.

 

Indeed. There is a reason that Dubrovnik had limited the number of cruise ships in port to two.

[At7Seas]

Day 4, Catania (Italy)
 
Today I went with Costa on excursion: “The Riviera of the Cyclops and Taormina.” In fact it was the other way round. I watched a sunrise beyond my imagination with unbelievable views of Mount Etna instead of having the planned breakfast (who said that you gain so much weight on a cruise, definitely not if you skip meals permanently). It was soon time to board the excursion bus and we went first to Taormina. A wonderful small town on a hill above the sea with an theatre from old Greek, Roman and modern times - it is since about 70 years again in use. The permanent drizzle rain on a sunny morning at least created a nice photo opportunity. Further we went to Acireale with a beautiful cathedral and to a Norman castle on a massive basalt rock in the sea. Taormina is definitely worth visiting. Acireale is nice, but an hour is definitely too much. The stop at the castle was a good addition and well timed. The guide was not really good, I also found massive mistakes in his explanations. He told things about architecture which is simply not true, 1500 years long arches were built without the use of cement. According to him this doesn’t work. Question: why do Gothic cathedrals exist? Roman “opus caementitium” was forgotten and Portland cement not yet invented… And when during World War II the German army invaded Sicily? Germans invaded Northern Italy when the Kingdom of Italy was asking the allies for peace. As so often: a tour is as good as the guide. This one was bad. Back aboard it was tea time and I had my breakfast with some pastry and fruit.
 
Sunrise in port
 

 

 

 
 
Taormina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Acireale
 

 

 

 
The castle and other rocky islands as remains of an early eruption of the Etna
 

 

 
Back onboard
 

 

[At7Seas]

Day 5, Naples (Italy)
 
Today a very short visit, we were only six hours in port and collected some guests. The terminal of Naples is directly in the city centre and regarding the short time available I decided to revisit the Archaeological Museum again, which hosts all the famous findings from Pompeii, Herculaneum and other larger and smaller sites around the Gulf of Naples. Since my last visit the place in front of the terminal changed and now I know what had been built there, a direct access to the metro station. This I used and took line 1 to the museum for incredible 1.30 €. I won’t tell a lot about the museum, but let the pictures talk:
 
Royal Palace of Naples from the ship
 

 

The Farnese Collection - A Faun
 

 
The Farnese Collection - Emperor Augustus
 

 
The Farnese Collection – Hercules
 

 
Homer
 

 
Party time or in the past Bacchanalia
 

 
The Magna Graecia Collection - krater
 

 
The Magna Graecia collection - mosaic floor
 

 
The collection of frescoes - Theseus freeing Athenian boys from Minotaur’s Labyrinth
 

 
House of the Faun in Pompeji - the faun himself
 

 
House of the Faun in Pompeji - a mosaic (the much more famous Alexander mosaic was not shown, it is in restoration)
 

 
Leaving Naples
 

 
MSC was also in town
 

 
A peaceful Vesuvius
 

 
Passing the island of Ischia
 

 

[At7Seas]

Day 6, Savona (Italy)
 
Today was a busy boarding and loading day. Savona is the main port of Costa and even the cruise terminal belongs to Costa. Right now the emergency drill for new guests is ongoing.
 
In the morning I had taken the Costa excursion to Finalborgo and Noli, two villages towards the French border seen from Savona. These two couldn’t be more different. Finalborgo within the mountains, dominated by hilltop castles of a noble family and at a time nearly abandoned before tourists discovered the rugged mountains for sporting.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The former sea republic Noli is situated directly on the sea. The former wealth can be seen in the family towers and some still rich architecture, although Noli lost its role in trade quite early when the ships became too big and the port too small.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[At7Seas]

Still day 6, Savona (Italy)
 
Directly after I did my today’s post there was an announcement that everybody should come to deck 9 for a world cruise sail away party. I would have totally missed it, because I regarded the item in the Oggi a Bordo as one of the usual meetings for new guests. No, it was the official kick off for the world cruise. Even the CEO of Costa Crociere SpA Mario Zanetti came to wish us together with the captain - or since we are on an Italian ship comandante - and other officials a good cruise.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[At7Seas]

Day 7, Marseille (France métropolitaine)
 
It was a sunny day with an ice cold mistral was blowing. And a very long day! I decided to take the excursion to Avignon and visit the pope’s palace. A massive complex with very huge halls, it is not only a coincidence that it is the largest palace in gothic style ever built. A surprise was the size of the quite small papal apartment, but it is nicely decorated. As difference to the Vatican the complex is not built more or less around a cathedral, actually there is not a single church in the palace, just a number of chapels is. During the free time I decided to dance on the bridge of Avignon. The medieval stone bridge once crossing the river Rhône was just below one kilometer long until the river decided to wash away most parts. Of the originally 27 arches only four are left, probably because of the chapel of a local saint being part of the bridge. Today it is a national monument and the remains are well preserved. When we were ready to leave for Marseille again the bus broke down. The back door did not close properly and the bus went in limp mode. All efforts on the spot remained not working and we had to wait for another coach - and the Deliziosa waited for us.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[At7Seas]

Day 8, Barcelona (Spain)
 
Today we had the last boarding for guests that sail around the world. In the meanwhile I decided to visit a quarry. Famous Architect Antoni Gaudí had built for the family Milà a house, which consequently was named Casa Milà. The reaction of the people of the time was harsh and because they didn’t like the natural appearance of the stone facade they called it La Pedrera and this name is still in use, even by the museum housed in it today. La Pedrera means the quarry. But it is a quite modern one. In fact a construction from steel and concrete with the facade attached to instead of the in those times usual bearing outer walls. All the balconies and large windows couldn’t be built without. The dwellings are bright and have an unusual but also very practical design, Some ideas today considered as modern had been already realised in this building. The quarry was both, Gaudí’s last secular building and the last he finished. Thereafter he only worked on the Sagrada Familia, which is still not ready yet. There are plans that the church should be completed in 2026 - the 100th anniversary of his death. At half past three this afternoon we left not only Barcelona, but also our last European port before returning from the other side of the globe. We are sailing to our short visit to the African continent now.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[At7Seas]

Day 9, at sea
 
Today was a very slow day to recover from the earlier ports. I slept too long for breakfast, had early dinner and during the afternoon I met one of the members from the cruise critic roll call and we talked the entire afternoon. Time flew.
 
Let’s have today a closer look to entertainment. Every evening there is life music constantly in four bars. It is very easy to find a matching place for every taste and mood. I personally like the pianist a lot. But also the theatre offers a lot of different entertainment. Since Savona twice every evening, while before with little passengers aboard it was reduced to one daily show. We had great singers, a sound and light show and yesterday evening a flamenco group. Since singers don’t produce great pictures I have here a few from yesterday’s dance group:
 

 

 

 

 

 

[At7Seas]

Day 10, Casablanca (Morocco)
 
First I want to look back to yesterday evening. I went to the theatre and looked out of a window and saw the rock of Gibraltar in the twilight. Since 2017 I didn’t see it any more despite passing a couple of times, just it was always dark outside.
 
This morning we arrived early in Morocco. There were excursions to royal cities far away, but I definitely don’t want to sit for seven or eight hours in a bus. I decided to visit Rabat nearby, but this excursion had been cancelled by lack of participants, while the very long tours took place. So I did the included tour within Casablanca.
 
We are at the most Western part of the CEU time zone, so when we gathered in the bus at 8:15 it was still dark outside. During our stop at a central place next to city hall and the new opera daylight slowly came up. Next stop was the King Hassan II mosque. Yes, it is a very impressing building, but it is a place that has completely fallen out of place and time. Morocco is by no standards a rich country and hadn’t been in the 1990’s when it had been built. A few decades ago this place of worship far from all dimensions had been built with the most expensive materials and techniques, to make it more complicated partly into the sea. Elsewhere in medieval or renaissance times such places were built. Thereafter we went to a souq and stood in front of the royal palace, the latter is in use and not open for public. In the end we were brought into what was called a “traditional pharmacy”. Nothing traditional at all, we were cooped up in a small room and were told just to buy this, to buy that.
 
Gibraltar
 

 
Africa
 

 
Opera house
 

 
Mosque
 

 

 

 

 

 
Room for ritual washings
 

 
Souq
 

 

 
Entrance gate to the royal palace
 

 

[broberts]

@At7Seas, thank you for documenting your voyage for our enjoyment. The pictures are wonderful.

[kremerlorraine]

@At7Seas - loving the photographs and detailed descriptions so far. I was a bit disappointed that there was no video of you dancing "sur le pont" in Avignon though!

 

Could you let us know the names of the Hotel Director and Cruise Director, please?

[whogo]

This is a wonderful cruise blog, At7Seas, I hope you will continue these daily reports until your return home in May.

 

Have you heard anything about itinerary changes due to troubles in the Red Sea?

[At7Seas]

14 hours ago, kremerlorraine said:

@At7Seas - loving the photographs and detailed descriptions so far. I was a bit disappointed that there was no video of you dancing "sur le pont" in Avignon though!

 

Could you let us know the names of the Hotel Director and Cruise Director, please?

 

Sorry, you don‘t want to see me dancing!
 
I am bad with names, but the hotel director I had somewhere, Luca Melone. Something deep in me says about the cruise director Raffaele, but this could be very wrong as well. It might help, I have him in a picture:

[At7Seas]

1 hour ago, whogo said:

Have you heard anything about itinerary changes due to troubles in the Red Sea?

 

No information about the Red Sea yet. But many more cruise ships are scheduled to pass through before it will be our turn, including Costa Toscana and an AIDA vessel, which is essentially just a differently branded Costa ship as well. Even more from other Carnival owned companies. This will give an indication. It is so long to go and the situation can change on daily basis. Sure, there will be alternative plans be made, but I don‘t expect them to be announced any time soon. I not even heard anything about our stay in Ecuador and the nightly curfew last week introduced in the entire country for 60 days definitely will have an effect on our overnight there.

[At7Seas]

Day 11, at sea
 
The first long night on this cruise, time changed with an hour. A good thing having an extra hour to rest from time to time on this cruise. Compared to other Costa cruises this ship goes to bed quite early, the bars are getting empty rapidly after second dinner sitting. Yesterday evening I made as so often with warmer weather a walk over deck and discovered that the pool bar was already closed long before midnight.
 
After breakfast this morning I went to the first lecture on this cruise: “The Islands of the Fortunate,” the Macaronesian islands. This expression the old Greek created is today used for all islands along the Southern European and Northern African coastline in the Atlantic Ocean. One of them, Tenerife, we will visit tomorrow.
 
I applied for my Sri Lanka ETA, the 90 day window before arrival has opened today. So all visa are done, first Australia, later India and now I may visit Sri Lanka. I need to show this to the reception and thereafter I will go to the single party. No, @kremerlorraine, no video of me dancing…

 

[kremerlorraine]

1 hour ago, At7Seas said:

 

Sorry, you don‘t want to see me dancing!
 
I am bad with names, but the hotel director I had somewhere, Luca Melone. Something deep in me says about the cruise director Raffaele, but this could be very wrong as well. It might help, I have him in a picture:

Thank you! I don't think we have encountered either of them before.

[At7Seas]

Still day 11, at sea
 
Just would like to share a few pictures of tonight’s great show "Venezia Innamorate" (Venice falls in love):
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BVILady]

I am also on the ship for this World Cruise. I have been on Costa before, including last years World Cruise and always like the food. I have to say the food on this cruise is excellent. I have never been a person taking pictures of my meals, but I am actually tempted now. I am at the early sitting at dinner and quite a few people find the wait for the 2nd show at 21.00 kind of long, so that might be why people might not be hanging out longer after the shows. I am enjoying your reports and pictures a lot. Please keep them coming. Thank you very much.

[kremerlorraine]

20 hours ago, At7Seas said:

 

No information about the Red Sea yet. But many more cruise ships are scheduled to pass through before it will be our turn, including Costa Toscana and an AIDA vessel, which is essentially just a differently branded Costa ship as well. Even more from other Carnival owned companies. This will give an indication. It is so long to go and the situation can change on daily basis. Sure, there will be alternative plans be made, but I don‘t expect them to be announced any time soon. I not even heard anything about our stay in Ecuador and the nightly curfew last week introduced in the entire country for 60 days definitely will have an effect on our overnight there.

MSC announced yesterday that it has cancelled three of its cruises that were due to return to Europe in April via the Red Sea and Suez Canal. The ships will take the South Africa route instead (with no passengers).