Why Costa? - If you know me, you know I'm a die-hard Holland America fan. Then why in the HAL did I elect to cruise "Italian Style" with Costa Cruise lines? Well, let's go back about a year ago, when we initially scheduled. SunFlower (my better-half) wanted to do a Western Caribbean, which included Key West. She's never been there and was really looking forward to hoisting a few at Sloppy Joes, seeing Hemmingway's 6-toed cats, Audubon's house and the treasure of the Atocha. So, I booked an inside cabin on Holland America's ms Veendam, out of Tampa, on a one week Western Caribbean.

In April, after finishing with the Internal Revenue, we decided to invite our daughter, her husband and two boys to join us. They accepted and I changed the single inside to two adjoining/connecting outsides. Everything's going along nice and smooth. In July, DD informs us that she's not going to be able to cruise, as she's expecting our fifth grandchild in March. Cancel the two outside cabins and transfer to a single verandah for Grub (our oldest grandson), SunFlower and me. August and Hurricane Dean just about wipes Costa Maya (one of our stops) off the face of the Earth. Change four, drop Holland America and book the Costa Mediterranea, as she was on a similar itinerary and included a stop at Key West.

Pre-Cruise - Once we had our booking number, we did all our shore excursion and amenities bookings on-line, through Costa's website (http://www.costacruise.com). I suppose I changed excursion selections a half-dozen times as SunFlower and Grub kept me appraised of their choices. I never had a problem making or changing the bookings. Kudos to Costa for this feature. Read more