Early in 2007 we received a phone call from our daughter who said "Mom you've been hoping we could all go on a cruise over Christmas; I think I found one we will all enjoy". We immediately booked several cabins to accommodate our daughter, judy, her husband, Bob, their children, Andrew 15, Kristine 18, Bob's parents, Helen and Marvin, and us, Donna and Art. Anticipation is half of the fun, so we all enjoyed looking forward to the holidays. We agreed: no other gifts. Our gift was being together with no one having to put up a tree, buy presents, cook multiple meals and clean up after it was over. Our daughter and granddaughter, who is in college, drove to our home in N. Florida and spent two nights before we drove to Ft. Lauderdale. Our son-in-law, Bob had booked rooms for us near the port where he and our grandson, Andrew had flown the day before. His parents arrived and we were all together ready to board the next day. The lines appeared to be rather long when we arrived. My husband and I had just qualified for the Coral card as part of the Costa Club, so we were given preferential boarding. The rest of the family followed soon after. We have always been impressed with the smiling welcome offered to guests when boarding and we were not disappointed! And then we noticed the beautiful Christmas decorations surrounding us. The huge Christmas tree reached several decks up and was covered with glittering ornaments.

We were advised that the cabins were not quite ready, so we made our way to the Lido deck and the buffet. The only negative thing I have to say about the Fortuna is that there is no true outdoor dining. Glass surrounds the Lido, and smokers are forced to sit by the very noisy pool. Wonderful crunchy salads, tasty tender baked fish, and plenty of other choices made me wonder how they could do this with what they had left after a week at sea. After eating we made our way to our cabins which were on deck 6. All were clean and sparkling. We were greeted by our smiling cabin attendant who was always available and quick to grant our few requests. Luggage arrived quickly, and we were unpacked and ready to sail. We loved all being out on our balconies and waving goodbye to Ft. Lauderdale as we watched the pilot boat come out to collect the pilot after exiting the port.

Since our whole family is into computers, my husband brought his laptop and set it up in our room. That was a magnet for our grandson, who loved coming in and playing on it. While they were engaged with that our granddaughter would come in and just sit and chat. I found out all the latest happenings in her college life. Great gab fests. Our daughter, Judy loves Bingo, so I met her one day to play. Fun, but we didn't win. We both love the slot machines, so spent some time and money in the casino. Marvin and Helen also enjoyed playing and would often go there before dinner. Judy treated herself to a body massage in the Spa and reported it to be totally restorative for mind and body. Andrew went to the teen center the first night and every night thereafter. He met lots of people and reported they played some games that were fun and then just "hung out". He said there were about 20 girls and 20 guys, so they must be doing things right to draw that many. Bob and Andrew signed up for excursions at St. Maarten and Grand Turk. They drove small rubberized boats that went very fast and "had a ball". Several of us enjoyed walking around Tortola and visiting all the open air vendors near the dock. St. Maarten was teeming with cruisers since there were 4 cruise ships there that day, but it is always fun to wander in and out of the shops, listen to the steel band, and stop for lunch. Read more