Well let me start by saying my DW and I have been on over 25 previous cruises including Carnival, NCL, RCCL, HAL, and a couple of small lines. We are in our young 50's and consider ourselves independent travelers. We have found reasons to like and dislike all of the cruise lines for various reasons and our tastes. Generalizations can always be tough but some of our impressions are Carnival is less elegant but more fun, we love NCL's freestyle dining but the service was weaker, HAL has great service, elegance, and food but an older crowd, and RCCL has ok food but excellent entertaining shows. We tend to like smaller more intimate ships but have had great fun on bigger ships as well. That said here goes on the 4-3-2010 sailing of the Atlantica.

We picked this ship specifically for its price for what is typically an expensive time, in addition Costa has an excellent reputation of catering to Roman Catholics and because this cruise was over Easter. Mass on Easter was available, as on all other days of the cruise.

We drove most of the way down the previous night and stayed at the brand new Holiday Inn Express in Palm Bay Florida . The hotel was very nice, and the staff helpful. We had a very nice free breakfast the next morning and left for Tampa. We parked at the port and it was $105 for the 7 nights. It is a block to the terminal where you can drop off your bags. We arrived at the port at 12 and within 45 minutes we were heading up the gangway. Read more