Would love to see some new reviews for Costa Atlantica!!!

[parisienneatheart]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been watching for reviews but there haven't been any in awhile. So, if anyone has been in the last few weeks, can you please post a review. Even if it's a short one, we would still love to hear from you!

 

Thanks!

[Baybear]

I posted a rather long "food review" on this board titled "Detailed Costa food review for those thinking of going" and that was based entirely on my recent trip Feb 6-13 on the Atlantica. But it was only about their food... I can add other comments here!...

 

Although I found the food to be "mixed" in quality, the rest of this ship I thought was just terrific, from the Staff and personal attention and care, to the ship itself and it's maintenance and upkeep. We docked alongside the Carnival Inspiration at one port and there was rust "dripping down" from a lot of the Carnival ship's portholes and outside doors, and then when you turned and looked at the Atlantica it was spotless... pure white everywhere on its exterior. It must be very well maintained to look that good. And the same goes for its interiors (which my Wife finds to be a bit "gaudy", but others were heard by us on the ship to say "How beautiful!") which were again spotless with no worn or dirty floors, walls, furniture, etc.

 

Our waiters and busboy were wonderful, remembering to replenish my iced tea.. something even the staff on the QE2 didn't do when we were on it two years ago. Very friendly crew and staff too on Atlantica.

 

Interesting international set of passengers with many speaking only Italian, and many others speaking German with about 50 people from Quebec Canada speaking in a "weird" French accent that I mistook for Italian. Every time I started talking to someone with an accent I'd say "Are you from Italy?" and they'd say, "No, Canada Quebec", or if I said "Are you from France?", they'd say "No, I'm from Italy"... I never got it right! Announcement are made in FIVE languages very often and it takes a long time to get through them all, but that was a minor inconvenience, because after all, we're on vacation and have all the time in the World!

 

Rooms were just fine with lots of closet space. We were upgraded to a balcony room on Deck 6 and this was the first balcony room where we had three large opening-doors with rods for hangers (plenty of hangers provided by the ship!) so that my Wife and I didn't have to argue about whose clothes went where. And the hangers were large plastic ones with wide ends so that you didn't "pinch" your clothes in the shoulder after they hung up... I've never seen hangers on a cruise ship that good.

 

Food... go to my other post. They don't have "anytime dining" so if you want to eat in the dining room you have to either go at 6PM or 8:45PM. With about a 15-minute grace period to get there, or you won't be allowed in. The buffet is open most of the time.

 

Entertainment: This was very interesting, because this is an Italian Ship and an Italian Staff (Officers and Cruise Director) and the entertainment is more "Italian/French" than the typical American Broadway type entertainment. For example almost every show included their Italian Tenor who would sing some Opera and then some popular tunes (Opera singers that try to sing popular tunes without changing their style don't really sound too good to me!). They also had a superb "Circus du Soleille" type acrobatic act that wowed the crowed for one evening of entertainment. And they had a male singer who was not great, and a female singer who was better. Then the usual cadre of shipboard dancers who were "OK". My Wife and I are not people who ever go to shows like these so we're not ones to compare to NYC or other places, but my impression was that these shows were good, but not as good as on other lines like NCL and Carnival.

 

The cruise director was very very interesting in my personal opinion, because he gave a lecture on science and religion delving into quantum mechanics and philosophical ideas such as "matter is an illusion" and "we are all only light (energy)" which a fascinating discussion and something that I'm very into. But it's not the normal cruise fare. Other talks and lectures about Port shopping and Bingo and Art Auctions were "the usual" and I stay away from these. Yes they have Bingo, Art Auctions and a large casino like most ships this size.

 

Their pools are very nice.. they have two pools on Deck #10 with a small bar between them and they are never crowded. An adults-only pool is in the back with a jacuzzi/hot-tub and they do not allow children to be in them. Then there is another pool in the exercise gym, I think. Most times the ship's open spaces did not appear to be crowded even though they carry up to 2600 passengers. But I heard there were only about 2100 on board, so that may account for (1) our room upgrade, and (2) the uncrowded conditions.

 

We did not eat in the buffet for any dinners, but ate lunches there occasionally. You have to be careful and try small bits of items until you figure out what's good for you and what isn't. Most items I found pretty boring and dull, but one... the beef curry dish was very boldly flavored and quite good I thought. If you use an ice-cream dispenser and you get "iced milk" coming out, just go to another one and it will probably be "harder". They seem to have trouble with these making the right consistency ice cream (soft-serve) as do a lot of other ships we've been on on other lines.

 

The ports we went to were just great! Key West, Grand Cayman, Roatan Honduras and Cozumel Mexico. We snorkeled in all but Key West (bring our own gear) and didn't pay for any ship excursions... Just walked to the conch train in Key West and took it for their price, and took taxis or busses (on Grand Cayman) to good snorkel beaches and paid from $5.00 to $8.00 per trip for two of us.

 

Wife loves shopping in Cozumel while drinking a Margherita... yes you can do that without getting arrested.

 

We saw lots of Honduran marines with machine guns when we landed and went ashore at Roatan, but it turned out they weren't there because of me... they were dedicating the docks and Mahogany Beach that Carnival built there and the President of Honduras was right out there with us tourists, even having his picture taken with anyone who wanted to. A regular, nice looking guy dressed in slacks and a short-sleeved shirt like anyone else.

 

Anything else you're interested in?

[sunlover58]

BayBear- where did you dock in Key West? I have heard several different stories about this. Some say they were tendered in and others say they were at the base and had to take the trolly into town.

[Baybear]

We were tendered at Key West. Other ships were docked, but we had to take the ship's lifeboats into town. That was one of the annoying things about that port since you have to wait in the theatre until they call your number (you collect the number when entering and you can't get a number for someone else... everyone has to be present to get a number... and you have to wait there, you can't leave the theatre until they call your number). These boats are quite slow and it was quite a trip to the docks, but I love the water and so didn't mind once we got in the boats to go ashore. In Grand Cayman we were also tendered, but there they used fast boats from shore (hired out by the line) so it went much faster.

 

We disembarked right at Mallory Square, I think it was... In any case it was right downtown and you didn't need to take any trolley to get to all the action.

[parisienneatheart]

thanks so much for the review....i do have 3 year old twins and there is supposed to be a kids pool/area...did you see it? you were probably not interested in it either but in your personal opinion, could 3 year olds go down the waterslide on the ship. i have looked at the pictures, but i am not so sure if they are old enough. how about gelatto? when i was on msc last year (the other italian line) they had homemade gelatto near the pool bar with different flavors every day. it was amazing and like $2 a cup i think, well worth the price b/c it was so fresh....did u see any of that? also, do u know what time they will allow to board....the earliest? we can be there early that morning and i am curious to get on the boat and explore and make the most of the first day. what time were the rooms ready? i am going to be on the eastern itinerary so the port stuff doesnt apply to me....i am wondering if anyone else knows out there if st thomas, san juan or nassau use the tendering....i know nassau doesnt but what about st thomas and san juan? i have been to both, but honestly cant remember as it has been more than 10 years. would u go on costa again? i loved msc last year and it sounds like costa is very similar in food/cleanliness/entertainment/rooms, etc...so, i am looking forward to it. thanks a bunch for taking the time to do the food review and this one.

[Baybear]

i do have 3 year old twins and there is supposed to be a kids pool/area...did you see it? you were probably not interested in it either but in your personal opinion, could 3 year olds go down the waterslide on the ship. i have looked at the pictures, but i am not so sure if they are old enough. how about gelatto? when i was on msc last year (the other italian line) they had homemade gelatto near the pool bar with different flavors every day. it was amazing and like $2 a cup i think, well worth the price b/c it was so fresh....did u see any of that? also, do u know what time they will allow to board....the earliest? we can be there early that morning and i am curious to get on the boat and explore and make the most of the first day. what time were the rooms ready? i am going to be on the eastern itinerary so the port stuff doesnt apply to me....i am wondering if anyone else knows out there if st thomas, san juan or nassau use the tendering....i know nassau doesnt but what about st thomas and san juan? i have been to both, but honestly cant remember as it has been more than 10 years. would u go on costa again? i loved msc last year and it sounds like costa is very similar in food/cleanliness/entertainment/rooms, etc...so, i am looking forward to it. thanks a bunch for taking the time to do the food review and this one.

 

Yes I would definitely go on Costa again mostly because of their price (very competitive) and their well-maintained ships, rooms and staff and ports. Even though I 'ranted' somewhat about their food (I have a very educated palate and therefore am overly picky about food) I would eat there again given all the other positives and now that I know "what's good" and "what's not" I can pick all the right items on the menu!

 

The kids could use either of the two pools in the center of the ship, but not the pool in the back. There is a very wide pool area around the outer portions where it is only about 4" deep and in the very center it all of a sudden becomes "deep". So a 3-year old could play around the very wide (takes about 4-5 feet from the edge before you get past the 4" deep part into the center where it drops off) part quite safely with someone watching to see that they don't "trip" into the center part where it's deeper. The kids could also use the hot tubs / bubbler pools too and seem to like that very much. Kids typically would be in these hot tubs but not in the pool itself.

 

I didn't check to see if there's a height or age minimum on the water slide. There's an attendant there all the time when it's in operation (typically for two hours in the AM and another two in the afternoon). But I think I saw a "daddy" coming down with his 2-3 year old in front of him in case you want to do that. But this is very high up (but SLOW!) and may be a little frightening for a 3 years old who may stop midway down and decide he doesn't want to go any further. Almost all the children coming down the slide looked 5-6 years old or older.

 

We got on the boat at about 1:30PM, but others on this site have said they called Costa and they said they could embark as early at noon. Note that this ship leaves at 7PM (at least ours did) and they don't clear out the previous passengers until about 10AM or even later, so I'd think noon is the earliest you could board.

 

They had excellent gelato for dinners for dessert, but I don't recall seeing any around the ship spaces during the day, except for those "soft ice cream" dispensers, which were NOT gelato. Maybe someone else on the Atlantica was able to see/get some of the gelato during the day.

 

Our room was ready when we boarded at 1:30PM and the luggage arrived about 1 hours later at 2:30PM. But luggage arrival is very variable and one person's experience will probably not be another's.

[szdiver]

I did a review for JAN. 23RD CRUISE - HAD A BLAST...