I am a 55-year-old American professor of literature who has been working in Dubai for eight-and-a-half years. My wife is a 47-year-old high-school math teacher from the Philippines. The local schools are closed for three weeks during the holidays and we wanted to get away for awhile. We travelled extensively last summer by plane and will do so again next June: the time-saving convenience of taking a cruise from Dubai appealed to us. We live in the UAE and had no interest in the destinations: we would be cruising only to enjoy the ship.

My wife found an advertisement for this cruise last fall in the local newspaper, the Gulf News, and suggested we give it a try. I was apprehensive about cruising with Costa because of the mixed reviews I had read on this site. On the other hand, my needs were very limited: I simply wanted to get away from my villa for a few days on a luxury cruise ship, be able to use the Jacuzzi when I wanted, have a few exotic rum drinks, enjoy decent food whenever I was hungry, and read a few novels on my Kindle on our balcony. For the most part, my list of needs were met.

This was my eighth cruise and my wife’s second. Our last cruise together was two years ago on NCL’s Pride of America: that earlier cruise served as my wife’s only yardstick. Read more