Cruise Ship: Costa Atlantica
Cruise Destination: Caribbean
Cruise Dates: January 2006
Guest Contributor: Ghaz
My boyfriend and I booked a last-minute Caribbean Cruise the beginning of January 2006. My boyfriend and I enjoyed our time together - the Caribbean is always such a beautiful place to visit - but I had some concerns about the cruise itself.
I would suggest that you not recommend the Costa cruiseline for anyone wishing to go to the Caribbean. The cruiseship, Costa Atlantica, was a beautiful one, I do concede that. The interiors were fashioned after famous Italian cafes and landmarks. I'm afraid, though, that even though the ship itself was beautiful I could not really enjoy my trip. I would like you to know that I am by nature a very easy-going person. However, certain aspects of this cruise really bothered me. The itinerary was a good one; we had no days at sea and visited a different island every day. However, the only day we stayed on the island until 11:30 pm was when we visited Guadeloupe, an island we were told was not very safe and one we should not be visiting after dark. We docked around 12pm and therefore had very little time to view the island because everyone came back on board around 5:00 or 6:00 pm. When we came back to ship there was very little to do. I love swimming pools and the Atlantica only had 3 very small pools. In addition, the pools and hot tubs were open from 8 am until 8 pm. Most days we got back from the islands and the excursions around 5:30-6:00pm and were not allowed to go into the pool areas. I spoke with other passengers and my boyfriend who had been on Carnival ships or Sunbird Ships and their pools did not close until after 10:00pm. That would give you enough time to lounge around and swim, especially if you hadn't had an opportunity to do so if you'd been touring the islands. The Atlantica had a gym but again, it was only open from 8 am until 8 pm. Very limited hours.
In addition, once you had boarded the ship, aside from having dinner there was nothing else you could do. Among 2500 people, only 100 of us spoke English and it was very difficult to socialize and meet people in the lounges and cafes. The crew also spoke very limited English. At first it was fine, but by the end of the cruise I found it very difficult. My concern is that I wanted to visit the Caribbean, not try and learn a few different languages just to be understood. The evening entertainment was of extremely bad quality as well. One night, they had the crew do performances. Most of them couldn't sing and the rest could barely remember their lines! Also, on a 7-day cruise, the entertainment and themes for the night were repeated twice. To sit through two nights of the same horrible performances was really too much. There was no variety at all and really, there was no point in doing anything after dinner.
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