On the cruise ship – Part 2
From 'Transantlantic Cruise from Europe to the Caribbean'
THE ENTIRE CRUISE ITINERARY, AS WELL AS INDIVIDUAL TRAVELOGUES FOR ALL STOPS ALONG THE ROUTE, can be viewed HERE.
On the cruise ship – Part 1
You'll learn more about the Costa Favolosa itself and the entertainment on board. You'll find out how my daughter and I learned to dance the merengue, how we celebrated crossing the Tropic of Cancer, and many other experiences we had during our transatlantic cruise from Europe to the Caribbean.
THEATER AND ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM. After dinner, we usually hurried to catch the show in the huge auditorium, which spanned three floors. Every night there was a different show; some were very interesting, while others were just there to fill the program. There were acrobats, an ice-skating show, a ventriloquist whose mouth didn’t move, a talent show featuring the crew, and more. The show lasted an hour, and by 9:00 p.m. we were already back in our room.
PARTIES: In the evenings, there were organized parties on the ship—for example, “Ciao, ciao, Europe!”, a masquerade ball, a Christmas party, and so on—but as a family with two small children, we were only able to attend the ones that started earlier. One evening, we went to the Central Hall (the ship’s main hall), and that’s where the first party was held. At one point, a bunch of balloons fell from the ceiling, and they filmed us with a camera. Later, on the TV in our cabin, we watched the clip that was airing, featuring highlights from the current cruise.
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A major event in our life aboard the ship was crossing the Tropic of Cancer. This happened on December 13. It was a big celebration on the ship—the captain was signing autographs, there was a party, and so on…
DANCE CLASSES. During our first few days with Avi, we took various dance classes with a flamboyant instructor. We learned the waltz first, then the cha-cha-cha, bachata, salsa, merengue, and tango. Since, for various reasons, I wasn’t able to join any of the dance classes on my first cruise, I was able to catch up on this one.
AVERAGE AGE OF PASSENGERS. We were struck by the fact that the average age of the passengers on the ship was over 50. Most were retirees, grandmothers, and grandfathers. There were only about twenty younger families with children. On the second-to-last day, when we stopped at the island of Martinique, a large number of the French passengers disembarked, and many African families with 4–5 children each boarded. And just like that, the average age dropped to 30+. There were a total of six Bulgarian families on the ship, and we ended up meeting two of them on the last day. Just imagine how big that ship was!
EVACUATION DRILL.So… on the first day, there was an evacuation drill. We went to the location where it was taking place, and I was the only one of the four of us who participated. My husband and the kids didn’t want to, but I’m all for activities like that. In this case, however, it turned out to be a pretty boring activity, because we had to put on the life jackets we’d brought from our cabin, and the only thing the staff taught us was how to put them on and how to line up in case of an evacuation. For 30 minutes, we stood there frozen in place and couldn’t move…
At the end of the demonstration, they scanned our boarding cards to prove we had participated. Quite boring compared to MSC years ago, where there was an evacuation simulation and they had lowered two or three lifeboats into the sea and some of the cruise staff had gotten into them to show us live what should and should not be done in case of evacuation. Since Simeon and the kids did not participate in the demonstration and this was recorded, the next two mornings in our cabin's mailbox we received letters concerning them, stating that they had not participated in the drill and if something happened, it would be their own responsibility. Meaning if the ship sinks and you drown, it's entirely your own fault 🙂
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LANGUAGE. On the ship, the poor impression made was that they spoke mainly Italian and French, and possibly Spanish and English. But only possibly. As far as I remember on the previous cruise with MSC Lirica, the main language was English and Italian.
KIDS' ACTIVITIES. On board, there are two kids' rooms, with one being typically baby-oriented, while the other is for older children. The theme of the entire children's program was based on the Italian children's cartoon Peppa Pig. There were various children's activities, which, however, were conducted in Italian, and our children did not want to join. The children's outdoor pool was located on the uppermost deck. There was a mini water slide and some buckets that filled with water and then tipped over. The weather allowed us to sit for a long time and sunbathe. It was downright hot. Once, while we were at the pool, we got caught in a heavy downpour – it suddenly started raining and we all got soaked to the bone.
DAYS AT SEA. Eight days of our 17-day cruise were spent on the open sea. On days like these, we indulged without a second thought in all sorts of activities on the ship—dance classes, eating, and more eating. The kids played in the children’s pool or in the nursery, while I went to aerobics and the gym.
SWIMMING POOLS. On the Costa Favolosa ship there was one large and 3 other small pools. While the weather was cold, they had put up a retractable glass roof and it felt like a sauna effect. On the upper deck there was also a water slide for adults.
FITNESS. I used the time while the children were sleeping to visit the gym. Generally, I'm not a sporty person at all, and the idea of going to a gym to work out regularly has never appealed to me. But on the ship, the fitness center had a mildly TERRIFYING view of the ocean, and my favorite machine turned out to be the Wave. Over the next six days (while we were crossing the Atlantic Ocean) I spent 20-30 minutes in the gym every day, and in the end, I really had toned up, but that's a different topic… 🙂 Many very elderly passengers also came to the gym – they ran, sweated, and had nothing in common with Bulgarian gym-goers.
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PHOTOSHOOT AND PICTURES. One of the ways cruise companies dip into your pockets is through the onboard photographers. On the first GALA evening, as we were taking a walk, we saw a female photographer taking pictures for a photoshoot and we left. We did what we were doing, and afterwards we told ourselves "Well, whatever..." and went to get the whole family photographed. We are professional photographers ourselves, but our quality pictures together can be counted on one hand. We just decided that since we were dressed decently anyway, we might as well have a picture for the memory. Besides general photos, the photographer focused heavily on individual photos of our daughter. Judging by her attitude and behavior towards us, we thought they would turn out to be awesome pictures. The next day, however, when we reviewed them, it turned out they were quite overexposed and had poor composition. At least that was our opinion as people with experience in this field. On the next GALA evening, we took photos once again, this time with a different photographer. His pictures turned out better, so we bought 2 for 35 euros. Throughout the cruise, we eagerly anticipated getting our picture taken with the captain. We have an incredible memory of a similar photo from a previous cruise, where the captain is holding our 3-month-old daughter in his arms. Unfortunately, Costa really let themselves down with these photos – they weren't even good enough to buy them as a keepsake.
In the evening, when we were leaving from the island of Tenerife, we had already gone to bed when we felt some movement outside. Some boat came up to the ship. As far as I understood later, some woman had gotten off the ship and therefore it was necessary to return to the island again.
