Cause after 5 days sailing around where the scenery never changes yet times move back some days and not the others - I have lost a sense of day and time. Is it Friday or Saturday? 7am or 6am? Does anyone really care? I have no idea what time zone I am in and the phone/Siri of are no help. I must not be the only one as day 3 the ship started daily 9am announcements. Eventually we will cross the international date line, so another interesting time awaits.
As promised, I looked around for meaningful information on the ship -- the Costa Deliziousa and have a few tidbits:
Built by the Italian ship building company Fincantieri (thanks Kris!)
Placed into service in 2010 and has not yet been refurbished. The color schemes are original (which explains a few of them)!
958 ft long, 11 decks tall
Costa has 12 active ships. The Deliziousa is part of the Luminousa class which means it is a smaller ship in size and passengers to allow a more flexible itinerary. IE this ship can fit through the Panama Canal where the giant ships being built today cannot.
Costa, an Italian line, is eventually owned by the Carnival Corp
Specifically for the World Cruise
I have heard there are little less than 2000 passengers and approx 1000 crew
The average age on this cruise is 65. I have been surprised to see some families with children - pre school and young school age. Enough to have an active children's program on board. Plus, there also seems to be an amount of older 20's (really doesn't everyone now look like they are 14) that is making this lower than I expected.
Passenger nationality - Italian, German, French, English speaking (not really a nationality I know), Asian
English is not the common language. I have met 3 other Americans on board (of course there can be more) but English speaking lumps in US, Great Britian and other nationalities not listed who can speak English (Scandanavian countries) whether they do or don't. English is definitely the minority for sure, but the crew evens it out by not understanding anyone! or everyone! There is one delightful tiny Italian grandmother who stands at the buffet telling the crew exactly which prepared plate she will accept. As they frantically try pointing to every plate available, her approach is -if you didn't understand the first time, I will yell louder as I'm sure you aren't hearing me!
Costa has an app. There is so much you can do on the app - check out the daily schedule, the menus are listed, reserve at a specialty restaurant, spa treatment, check your bill, sign up for tours. And other things I have no concept of because, the Costa app is not available in the US app store. And I thought the App Store was the same for the world - silly me. Aside from the daily schedule that is printed, if we need information, there is a line to stand in. Yay.
As I have a variety of stories or issues with Costa, let's just look at some pictures or we could be here for a while, ok? I have some from my first night on board and then as more people joined the ship in the subsequent stops. I did determine that the cruises official start is considered Savonna where they rolled out the blue carpet for boarding passengers.
The reception area, deck 2, is where English speakers stand in line. There is also the tour desk to the right of the reception desk which also involves a line. One of the main bars in the middle, generally for people as they wait in line. Notice behind the bar, an alcove where a nightly solo or duo will play easy listening music. That alcove just seems weird to me.
The main color scheme throughout seems to be pink, red, orange and brown? With splashes of green or blue.
Meals are provided at either the buffet (breakfast, lunch) or the main restaurant (breakfast, lunch, dinner). The buffet has more options with the find a table scramble while the restaurant offers few choices, but someone will find you a seat. Costa is very clear about what is included in your basic fare and anything else - is extra. 3 meals and afternoon snack (tea, american coffee, cake). is included. No midnight buffets exist. There are specialty restaurants, a sushi stop, ice cream shop, late night food (pizza, burgers)- all extra. Included beverages are water by the glass, tea and coffee - everything else is extra. Interestingly all tea/coffee is stopped in the restaurants/buffet after breakfast except for 1 area in a bar on a top deck. But it's kind of not mentioned and you have to stumble across it.
Main Restaurant - decor leaves me speechless. The reflective surfaces almost make noise. The pink here is not a special effect - it is every day.
The buffet area at a quiet lull
There are 2 pools inside and outside. So far the inside pool has been closed these past 5 days as I think the ship movement causes waves from the pool to break over onto the deck. Both pools appear to be filled to the 3 foot level, hopefully that will change at some point to deeper.
Inside pool (thankfully the pink color was a special effect) and outside pool
Shushi stop (foreground) and casino which has never been full when I walked through. The shops are all under construction so who knows what those will look like. The disco, like the restaurant is filled with more pink circles and odd seating but hey an elevated lit dance floor.
That is a little peek into the public areas. Let me know if there is something else you might want to see.
Next stop Barbados! I will be so pleased to get off this boat for a very fun walking historical tour of Bridgetown with local food stops!
whoo! those are some interesting visuals!