Diving Into Costa Deliziosa

As I’ve mentioned before as travel agents we get some special perks.  In June of 2016 I got the actual dream trip.  At a conference I won a 7-day cruise along the Western Mediterranean (which I hadn’t been able to explore extensively) on a cruise line I had never used before.  We embarked on the cruise in Savona, Italy and sailed to Naples, Sicily, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca and disembarked in Barcelona.  As usual, I run into my usual problem which is who to take with me? I of course took my travel buddy and long-time bestie, who had never been to Europe so off we set to explore Italy and Spain on the Costa Deliziosa!

            I will be writing more about my trip in other posts but this one is all about the ship!   Costa Cruise Lines is an Italian cruise line, they have just started exploring the North American market.  The food, the entertainment, the service and the crowd you can expect on a Costa Cruise. 

            Let’s start with the food that’s the real important part here.  The primary areas we ate were in the main dining room, buffet and the lunch bar by the pool. The dining room served mainly Italian dishes and seafood.  Let’s note that I spent a week in Italy before jumping on this cruise ship, as much as I love Italy and Italian dishes this girl was ready for more variety. The bar in the pool had more traditional “American dishes”, such as burgers and French fries.  The buffet mainly had pizza and more pastas.  We usually had lunch in the pool bar because the room Costa accommodated us with was a balcony suite right under the pool. Needless, to say we had lunch usually at port just because we enjoyed fully immersing ourselves in the culture and eating in local restaurants. 

            The entertainment, meaning the shows, put on by the cruise ship were nothing to rave about.  We went to the theatre the first 2 nights to see what how we would like it and we were honestly not impressed at all.  For the remainder of the cruise we would hang out on the main bar where we felt it was a lot more fun.  

            The crew members really make the trip a memorable experience.  It’s mentioned several times through their advertisements that the first language is English on the ship.  Yes, that’s true the main language is English; which means if you speak to the crew member in English they will understand or try their hardest to understand you, however, many of the guests on this ship were Europeans. Which if you board a European cruise line especially in Europe you need to keep this in mind.  If this is something that is a deal breaker for you I suggest you reconsider.  

            Our room was out of this world. I’ve sailed on everything from an interior cabin to a balcony suite.  On this cruise they gave us a balcony suite towards the end of the ship.  This means we had a bigger balcony than usual, to give you an idea we had 2 lounge chairs, 2 regular sitting chairs and a table which all fit comfortably.  We also had the best views from our very own balcony whenever we got to a new destination. We were treated like queens on the ship from everyone I honestly have no complaints on that end.  Another thing I like about Costa is that they are usually more economically priced than other cruise lines in that region.  Also, since they are European line they have ships in Europe year-round compared to American liners that come to North America in the fall and go back in the summer.  I also thoroughly enjoyed the ports.  These are ports I had been wanting to visit for awhile but never got around to because they were not convenient in my other trips, especially in Spain.  I was able to visit cities that had been on my list for a while that I never got around to seeing.  

            Costa Cruise lines is a line I will be considering using in the future.  I’ve had several clients on this line and they’ve thoroughly enjoyed themselves and haven’t given me any complaints.  They have a price point that is very enticing. One thing I forgot to mention earlier they have a system that you can start and end your cruise at whichever port you’d like instead of the traditional cruise that must start at one end and end in the other.  They also have ports that are very popular however aren’t accessible to all the cruise lines and that is a very attractive factor for them, including the fact that they sail throughout Europe year-round. Their destinations are not traditional, and I appreciate that.  Costa Cruise Lines has a unique way of cruising and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to my next trip aboard one of their ships. 

Captivating Cartagena

Cartagena is a city in the Caribbean that has gotten very popular lately. It has become one of the most instrammable places in the Caribbean. When I traveled to Cartagena I was expecting all of the colorful and colonial buildings.  The beautiful old churches everywhere, friendly people who would give me a sense of home since I’m Latina, and street vendors selling all types of food and souvenirs everywhere you would go. 

Spoiler Alert!

I wasn’t completely wrong .

 I did feel at home because I could speak Spanish freely with my grandmother and not feel as if I was being rude.  My grandmother felt like she could go anywhere and they would understand her since she barely speaks English and is my main travel partner.  There were tons of street vendors everywhere you’d go selling fresh fruit which was of course absolutely delicious and cheap! As you get to know me there are 2 things I absolutely love while traveling and that are local street food and live music.

That being said, before arriving to the old city we went to the new city where the main sights are and I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that I wasn’t impressed. It just wasn’t what I was expecting, and then to top it off, the moment we got off of our bus we were swarmed with street vendors selling us souvenirs.  I wasn’t expecting that I be actually quite bothered by it.  I would warn anyone thinking of heading out to Cartagena to watch out for that, it’s a common mistake non-experience travelers face a lot and it’s a quick way for one to get robbed. I hadn’t experienced that in a very long time so it was a bit of a shock to me.   

Before heading to the old city we made 1 last stop at the beach.  One thing enjoyed about Cartagena was that it reminded me of Miami.  You are able to see the hustle and bustle of a city and then a quick drive takes you to the beach.  I feel as if you can get both in a day and there aren’t many Caribbean cities that can offer that.  

The old city of Cartagena has beautiful colorful, colonial buildings. I literally spent about 3 hours just walking down the streets and getting lost through the old city.  We would walk into the stores, talk to the locals, get some tips from our guide, but the most I did was just get lost in the streets of the old city.  Which is another one of my favorite things.  I love to discover a new city and just get lost in the attraction.  It’s hard to choose one photo stop in the old city of Cartagena.  There are so many beautiful buildings and old churches.  

I only had a few hours in Cartagena since I was on the MSC Divina.  However, if I were to go back to Cartagena, which I plan to do a tour of Colombia as a whole, so I do see myself heading back there at some point.  I would stay in the old city and enjoy all that it has to offer.  I would spend a few more days getting lost in those streets and explore some of the other cities that I didn’t get to explore this time around.