Costa Atlantica 3/13-20/10 - REALLY LONG trip report!

[Goldryder]

Thanks for your quick reply! So would I be right in saying that a TUX wouldn't be out of place or stick to a shirt and tie. It will be the Eastern Caribbean that we will be sailing round.

 

Smart slacks/trousers, shirt & tie will be fine in the Caribbean. You can take the tux if you wish, but with flight weight allowances and the fact that tuxes tend to be in the minority on some routes - such as Caribbean, you would probably best stick with smart slacks/tie/shirt instead.

 

Go with what you would feel the most comfy wearing. Costa, being Italian, is quite a formal line...for instance, last month on Costa Victoria I was chatting at length with the maitre d' about dress code adherence and he had recently transferred from Princess to Costa. He is from Italy and now on Costa Pacifica, he loves the way that Costa passengers generally get into the full spirit of formality compared to the more laid back Princess.

 

The buffet on my cruise was closed almost every night due entirely to people preferring the main dining rooms and dressing for dinner. Some traditions die hard (thankfully).

[daniel007]

Again Thanks:) for your quick reply.We have cruised the Caribbean before but only with P&O and 95% made an effort and wore TUX, and it was so nice to dress to the 9s. Costa we have never done and it seems quite hard to find out information.

[Goldryder]

Again Thanks:) for your quick reply.We have cruised the Caribbean before but only with P&O and 95% made an effort and wore TUX, and it was so nice to dress to the 9s. Costa we have never done and it seems quite hard to find out information.

 

You're welcome :)

 

There are a quite few of us who love Costa, we are from various timezones though, so it can be hard to find us all onsite at the same time.

 

If you wish to go for the tux, then do so...I seriously doubt that you will be the only one as many Europeans & Aussies/Kiwis do the same thing.

 

Wear it for the first formal night and if you feel out of place, then wear smart trousers, shirt & tie for the other two....certainly doesn't hurt to put a toe in the water in that respect :)

[GSRDPM]

Hello! It's nice to see this thread pop up again. I really enjoyed our cruise on the Atlantica. Even though our cruise companions were less "European" compared to most that travel on Costa, it was definitely a more international mix than your typical Caribbean cruise. We did dress up for the formal nights (Jackets and tie for the men and relatively formal dresses for the ladies) and I would say that most who ate in the dining room tended to dress more formally on the Atlantica than on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas which we cruised the southern Caribbean this past March.

[NancyJewel92]

I, too, was glad to see this thread again. GSRDPM-Tom -- It was nice to relive our two Atlantica sailings by re-reading your review and seeing your photos. :D

 

We really enjoyed our two sailings aboard the Costa Atlantica. The big change this year was the schedule -- our trip was a Friday-Friday sailing. GSRDPM's photos reminded me of what we missed this year -- other ships, and their passengers, in ports. :p Each port this year had only one other ship. It was delightful.

 

My thought, though, is that the Friday-Friday schedule was a step away from North American passengers by Costa. For the typical US Monday-Friday employee, a weekend-to-weekend sailing results in five vacation days. Friday-Friday "cost" us seven, since we flew to FL on Thursday. (And good thing we did since a big snow storm impacted travel from the northeast that weekend.)

 

Winter 2012 schedules bring another shift away from the typical US traveler as I think the sailings are longer than a week. Therefore, the group with which we usually travel will be aboard MSC in 2012.

 

To the poster that revived the thread - don't hesitate to start a new thread with your questions. There's lots of informative and helpful folks on this board. Enjoy your cruise. :)

[GSRDPM]

I was wondering if anyone realized that Francesco Schettino (The Concordia's captain) was the captain of the Atlantica for this cruise.

[NancyJewel92]

I was wondering if anyone realized that Francesco Schettino (The Concordia's captain) was the captain of the Atlantica for this cruise.

 

I didn't know about the cruise that is the subject of this thread, but he was the captain of my 1/30/2010 sailing. When I read in recent news reports that he's been he captain of the Costa Concordia for the past six years, I thought, "not exactly" ;-).

[De La Cruise]

I didn't know about the cruise that is the subject of this thread, but he was the captain of my 1/30/2010 sailing. When I read in recent news reports that he's been he captain of the Costa Concordia for the past six years, I thought, "not exactly" ;-).

 

Looks like you really lucked out on 2 scores:

 

First, I guess you're all lucky that Captain Shettino was in unfamiliar waters, so was probably less inclined to showboat

 

Secondly, the demographics on board the Atlantica was largely American and Canadian. It's true that Americans have a less than salubrious reputation for decorum, but compared to the experience that we had on the Concordia's sister ship, the Serena, give me a predominantly American passenger manifest any day!

 

Lest I be accused of racism, I must say the the problem was not with Italians per se but more with the passenger profile on our Western Med cruise - the problem is more socio-economic rather than one of nationality. My DW has a long, long fuse, and yet towards the end of the cruise, she had enough - habitual :cool:queue jumping at buffets, piling a mountain of food on plates that cannot possibly be consumed, children crying and crawling under tables, the usurpation of your table/chairs and the constant raucous laughter from the next table were examples of the anti-social behavior that we had to put up with for 12 days!

 

Strangely too, for 12 days we noticed that passengers hardly greeted each other in the corridors, something that is so common and pleasant on board other cruise lines.

 

We decided not to let it affect our holiday, so we shut our mind to that and just focus on the good stuff such as our wonderful waiters and the Formula 1 simulator, but hey, I can think of better ways to spend 12 days on the waves!

[De La Cruise]

I was wondering if anyone realized that Francesco Schettino (The Concordia's captain) was the captain of the Atlantica for this cruise.

 

Oops! I clicked the wrong box! Fortunately, I'm not piloting a ship.

 

In any event, Tom, I must compliment you on a great review. It makes us feel that we're on board the Atlantica too - so well written with the pix completing the whole narrative.