Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean International (originally Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines) is world’s second biggest cruise line. Thay began in 1960’s as a union of Norwegian ship owners who wanted to expand their business to United States market. And they did it! Since their first ship, they give a lot attention to new ships and all kind of innovations.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship

Or maybe you prefer evening…

Royal Caribbean Ship In The Evening

Swimming in the pool or resting in jacuzzi is fun, isnt it?

Pools on deck on one of ships

Well, we recommend you Royal Caribbean Cruise line! But we recommend all cruise lines You should check which one fits best for you.

MSC Cruises Logo

MSC Cruises – Mediterranean shipping company based in Geneva. They started working in 1987, so they are relatively new company in cruising niche. They made a good concept of affordable cruise vacation which was a great success in 1990’s. Now, their biggest competitor is Costa cruises.

Costa cruises was, few years ago, bought by Carnival cruises, and since then they are making ships similar to their ship designs. On the other hand, MSC Cruises are making and designing their own ships. First ship in MSC cruise line was Achille Lauro. You’ll not have the luck to travel with this ship, since he sank in 1996. (Fire broke up near the coast of Africa. All passengers were saved.)

In early faze there were 2 more ships – MSC Melody and MSC Rhapsody, and you can travel with them, since they are still sailing. MSC made a huge breakthrough with their 59,058-ton and 1,445-passenger vessel – MSC Lirica (first sailed in 2003) and 1,756 passengers MSC Opera (first sailed in 2004). Their biggest ship(s) was made in 2008. and it’s called MSC Fantasia. It’s 133,500 ton weight and takes 3,300 passengers. Two sentences before i said ship(s), because it has a sister ship with same weight and passenger capacity called MSC Splendida, which first sailed in 2009.

MSC Cruises ship - MSC Fantasia

Interesting thing is that famous actress Sophia Loren was a godmother to every new ship since MSC Lirica.

Costa Cruise Logo

Their slogan is “Cruising Italian Style”, and yes, they offer you high quality cruises mixing sophisticated elegance of Europe and spirit of Italian people. They offer cruises from 7 days and more all over the world, and some of their top destinations are: Caribbean, the Mediterranean, trans Atlantic, Asia, Indian ocean, North Europe…

They began as a transportation company, transporting olive oil and fabrics between Genoa and Sardinia in Italy (in the 1800’s). Today they became a biggest and (some say) best cruise fleet in whole Europe.

About the cruise:
I was on Costa cruise few times and every time it was wonderful. Their ships are amazing, staff is great, everything is like from a story.

Some years ago people didn’t like extensive smoking on Costa ships. As whole European union, Italy made some laws which forbid smoking in some places. That laws are only valid on territory of Italy, but Costa cruises agrees them on sea and in other countries. You can smoke in (some) lounges, bars and on deck, but you can’t smoke in restaurant. Important thing for smokers is that you CAN smoke in your room. Maybe your cleanser will tell you not to smoke, but by ship rules you can smoke in your room. Again, some years ago, staff on board were Italians, and people didn’t like their low level English skill. Now, staff on Costa ships are mainly from Philippines, South America and India, and all of them speak English very good.

Costa Cruise Ship

You can choose room type you want. They have rooms with 2 beds separated, rooms with one big bed, rooms with 2 beds and one for a child, rooms with balcony, rooms with or without cabin window… and expensive luxury apartments. Price of your cruise depends mostly of room type you choose.

Costa Cruise Room

As I was on few cruses with this company, I highly recommend them for your next cruise. I’ll probably say this when I describe all cruising lines, but they all invest lots of time and money to make everything perfect. I must say, if you want a perfect vacation you must take a cruise. If you choice is Costa, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

That was some general info on Costa Cruise company, we’ll write a lot more about them, and next time it will be about some specific things like rooms, booking, ships, destinations…