You may recall that Costa is the cruise line who owned the ship that ran aground in the Mediterranean last January due to the Captain's negligence killing a number of passengers. In the days following the accident it was discovered that they had done no muster drill during the cruise, it had been scheduled for the following day, so the passengers did not know where to go. Reviewing their website today, it would seem that the cruise line is taking precautions to make sure that nothing like this happens on one of their ships again. They have a video which details the safety precautions they take on board as well as the safety equipment that all of their ships are now equipped with. It looks like they have launched several new ships in the last year or two which I suppose is necessary when you run your old ones aground and they go adrift off the coast of Egypt. To the right is a picture of me at muster on a Royal Caribbean ship.... I find that muster is much more productive if you bring along a drink although on my last cruise, they didn't allow you to bring drinks. Boooo!!!!I was hoping to find out from Costa's website how big their ships are, but I couldn't really find any passenger capacity information. What I did find, however was an amazing 18 night repositioning cruise from Miami to Savona, Italy with stops in the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Tortola, St. Maarten, St John's, the Canary Islands, Funchal, Malaga (Spain), Marseille (France) and finally ending in Savona, Italy. The price on this cruise starts out at an amazingly low $999 for an inside cabin with the price of a balcony at only $1,699 which they say is a 68% savings from their normal price on a cruise like this! When broken down for a balcony, you are only paying $94 a night per person. That is really good. I'm lead to believe that Costa's ships are much smaller and more luxurious than the Americanized Princess, Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships that we are accustomed to which could make this an extraordinary cruise (assuming that the Captain doesn't get stupid and run the ship aground). Now I don't see how anyone could take a cruise like that and not spend several days in Italy at the end of it. So you would either need to be retired or have a ton of vacation time saved up to go on a vacation like this. But wouldn't it be nice?!?!?! I know a few of you with retired parents and in-laws who this was just made for! Take a look Costa Repositioning Cruise from Miami.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you throw caution to the wind and go jump on what could be an unsafe ship. But it does seem like a bargain and with all of the bad publicity that they have had in the last year, it might be the safest time in the lines history to take a Costa Cruise. This Costa thing has completely gotten me off topic today. I was hoping to finish telling you about cruising options out of Fort Lauderdale and move on to other Florida ports. Perhaps tomorrow we can do all of that. For now, I will let you get on with your day. Have a great Wednesday and give me a call if you want to send your mother-in-law on that Costa cruise....
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