Costa Cruises

MS CostaAllegra

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Operator: Costa Cruise Lines
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 1969 / 1992
Length / Tonnage: 617 feet / 28,430
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 410 / 800
Officers / Crew: Italian / International
Operating Area: Europe and South America
Telephone / Fax: Tel 125 2216 / Fax 125 2217

Yes, the COSTA ALLEGRA began life as a container ship...it's amazing what you can do with a little steel and metal. It's true that you can't convert a sow's ear into a silk purse but with their COSTA ALLEGRA and COSTA MARINA, Costa Crociere proved that you CAN turn ordinary container ships into spectacular cruise ships. How did they do it? Simple...they took a pair of good hulls and a lot of ingenuity plus a finely honed sense of aesthetics, some showmanship and a lot of good taste...and VOILA...there were the COSTA MARINA and COSTA ALLEGRA!

She came down the ways in 1969 as Johnson Line's ANNIE JOHNSON, a fast, modern container ship...she was handsome, too...not a word usually associated with box boats...but Sweden's Johnson Line always DID have an eye for aesthetics...Through one of his many companies, Greek shipowner Antonis Lelakis bought her in 1986 for his Regency Cruises...the plan was to convert her into the modern cruise ship REGENT MOON....but things didn't quite happen that way and the ship was sold that same year to Naples' Mediterranean Shipping Company...and the ANNIE JOHNSON went back to hauling boxes...only now she was named ALEXANDRA.

With some prodding from the Italian government....in the form of construction subsidies...Costa Crociere bought the ship in 1989...she would become a cruise ship after all....and once she entered the T. Mariotti yards at Genoa in 1990, it took the better part of two years to convert this box boat into a highly capable, extremely competent cruise ship...Actually...Costa Crociere had some experience converting a Johnson Line container ship into a modern cruise ship...having waved a magic wand on the AXEL JOHNSON to make her the COSTA MARINA...this time, though...Costa went all out....lengthening the eventual COSTA ALLEGRA by 13.5 metres AND installing powerful new engines. The result...well outside she is a bit of an ugly duckling when you first meet her but her looks grow on you and...well..now..I kinda like her looks....

Inside...she's so pretty! "ELEGANT, ROMANTIC and MODERN" Want a cruise ship that fits the bill? Think COSTA ALLEGRA because...she IS just that...and she is NOT overpriced! For me that's a big plus...I don't ever advise paying more for anything than you NEED to pay...For her many windowed passages, glass skylights, windows arranged from floor to ceiling on several decks, the COSTA ALLEGRA has been nicknamed "la nave del cristallo"... the ship of glass...and she sure is a dreamboat! Light, spacious, airy...and yes..I found her to be elegant, romantic and modern...and I bet you will, too.

Lemme go all out...sophisticated and refined are the words for this ship's public rooms...even when her entertainment gets a bit too loud or some of the passengers be a bit out of place...The COSTA ALLEGRA's public spaces will both please and wow you! Maybe it's that fine Italian hand that designed and decorated the spaces several hundred people will share...maybe it's the lack of pretense and gimmickry that so please here...but whatever it takes...this ship has it...I'd go so far as to say that some of her public rooms are "eye candy"!!! The designers and decorators know an awful lot about color and its effects on people...Pretty Ship! Where to start? How about the embarkation foyer...? Last time I saw it, it had a huge, tall Christmas tree in it...a fir able to command attention as it soared up two decks....in this three deck atrium...polished, glassy and classy....those are your first impressions when you board this liner..they were mine and they linger with me...

Folies Bergeres Showroom - 370 seats...The drawback to this beautiful room is the position of the stage...it's front and center..and if you don't like the act in progress or even if you need simply to visit the gentlemen's or lady's sand box...you will be rude as you make your way out of the room.

Since some of the musicians play for volume rather than anything else, you may find the windowless Piazzetta Allegra an alluring refuge from entertainment...dull folks like me flock to such spaces...our hearing the better for our unsocial conduct...

Sassy and modish is the richly blue Murano Bar...where glass skylights let the sun shine in by day and the floodlit swimming pool above shine in by night. With 125 seats this room is a throwback to the Smoking Room on Atlantic liners of yore...and is quite the magnet for cruise passengers able to amuse themselves in conversation....there's a combo playing in here most nights...once in a while they do get too loud...when they do I usually move on...the COSTA ALLEGRA has a lot of places to go...and though the Monte Carlo Casino can entertain 170 gamblers at a time...I am no gambler so I will hardly pause there...unless one of the players catches my eye and I think it might be fun to flirt...So it's usually aft for me to the dramatically glassed in Flamenco Ballroom...a room with plenty of views...There's a long bar in here and if you like a competent bartender who lives to "set em up" for you...you might find yourself doing your drinking in here and your passing out in here, too.

One flight up is the Crystal Club Disco...It's round...and not a thing like the teacup ride at Disney Land but it IS round, it's glassed in, too, and has a glass dome to boot..and oh well, you need to see this room to believe it...

Naturally, a ship like the COSTA ALLEGRA offers even more spaces...among them the Children's Center....way up top and well out of the way so yowling brats parked there don't stand a chance of getting on your nerves...health and fitness buffs...ok...even guys like me who just want a haircut...will head up to the Caracalla Spa...it's a beautiful duplex space equipped with beauty salon, gymnasium, sauna and shower facilities. Since I do like a heavy workout I find the gym a bit minimally equipped but it suffices 95% of this ship's passengers and since you won't be onboard for THAT long...the inability to bench press your usual 350lbs shouldn't trouble you TOO TOO much....

The devout will welcome the Chapel...attended by the ship's resident Roman Catholic priest.

You'll eat here at LEAST once a day...and on some days two, three or even FOUR times...If there's one space that doesn't quite work aesthetically, it's the 474-seat Restaurant Montmartre...no matter the time of day or lighting, I found it to be quite an ugly room, but for all my differences of opinion with the decorators, I laud the designers for the extraordinary efficiency of the ship's main eatery. From the grande descente of a main entrance, through other means of ingress and egress, this a very well planned space that somehow manages to convey the air of a much smaller, genteel dining room. You never get a sense that 400+ diners can busily chomp away at the same time...yet it's still a pretty gracious room and the service a real crowd pleaser..

But you want to know about the food...I hear you asking: How's the food? Pretty good...most of it...and while only some of it is extraordinary...there's almost nothing you'll send back...but if you do...don't struggle through it...your waiter wants you to enjoy your food...and he won't be happy until you are...I remember food presentation on the COSTA ALLEGRA more clearly than on other ships...everything looked so pretty...good enough to eat...and most of it was better than good enough.

For more casual eating events...for dining alfresco...there's the Yacht Club. High up in the ship, this room was arranged by people who know how to keep a chow line happy! From breakfast buffets to please the heartiest North American appetites to lunch buffets in that "ABBONDANZA" style of New York's famous old Mamma Leone's, you'll find a lot to eat here...and a pleasant place to enjoy it...the Yacht Club seats 180 people inside and a few dozen more outside...on terraces on either side of the ship...I myself like one of the tables outside on the starboard side but don't tell too many people...all too often on ships I am about to tuck into some tasties or other...when a fellow passenger sets upon me to talk ships...and good thing for me that they do...I have gained more stories for my American Merchant Marine History Series from other travelers than I have gained weight from cruise ship food....so if you find me and want to talk ships...come on over!

Still hungry? there's fresh pizza in the pizzeria in the Piazzetta Italia...and if you are too embarrassed to be seen chowing down AGAIN....I mean come on...didn't you eat YESTERDAY??? you could call for room service..

There are 410 of them and except for the three suites and ten minisuites, the 205 outsides and 192 inside rooms are small...yet you probably won't notice because they were ingeniously designed and perfectly fitted....they're nicely decorated, too, and exude an airy, breezy ambiance. You'll be surprised to learn just how many amenities have been incorporated into the 140 square feet of a standard cabin. Expect direct dial phones, TV, hair dryer and safe in your cabin...and more storage space than initially meets the eye...if you book one of the minisuites...you get sleeping places for four and a terrace. Curiously, large and well designed as they are...and they reflect a floorplan that would do an apartment building owner proud, the ship's three big suites do NOT have private verandas....instead they feature enough of a living room to host a party of elephants...and a private dining area.

Few ships cater for so nationally and linguistically varied a passenger list as does a Costa Liner, yet few ships come near handling different language groups in the same ship nearly as well. Granted, during North America's winter when the COSTA ALLEGRA cruises along the Brasilian and Argentinian coasts (with an occasional stop in Uruguay)...about half of the passengers carry Argentine passports, the remainder Brasilian...dining times reflect this mix...

In summer, expect small groups of Americans - 40 to 80 would be my guess for the number of Yankees on this ship's average European cruise...of the remainder there are always LOTS of Italians...and you know the Italians rank way up there among the friendliest people on the planet...as well as speaking the most gorgeous language human ears have ever heard...Italians love children so expect to meet quite a number of Italian families traveling with all the kids they can find...and aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters...count me IN!!! Germans, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese and British passengers often choose a COSTA ALLEGRA cruise...and it's not just for the ship's great itineraries and good prices...Costa's European cruises are always a good value...they come for Costa's "Cruising Italian Style"...they come because the ship has earned an enviable reputation among European passengers for her classy interiors and high standards of catering and service.

As for her transAtlantic cruises between Italy and Argentina...well...no cruise attracts more interesting people than transAtlantic crossings...and don't be surprised if you run into me on board the COSTA ALLEGRA some day.

If you like a good itinerary, Costa Crociere can surely please you on a COSTA ALLEGRA cruise. Let me advise the North American traveler interested in a 1998 Europe cruise to contact a travel agent or Costa Line to take advantage of some really special savings. Particularly appealing is Costa's free air and two free nights in Europe promotions....these are capacity controlled and date restrictions apply particularly for the free airfare...I'm not a travel agent so I don't have the latest information on special savings, but with the COSTA ALLEGRA doing six different ten night Baltic and Russia cruises from Amsterdam...three eleven night fjords and North Cape Cruises from Amsterdam as well as a thirteen nighter to the North Cape and Spitzbergen, anyone with a penchant for some cool air, spectacular scenery, and fascinating port towns should take a closer look at some of these offerings.

The COSTA ALLEGRA has a few other itineraries in store, like her eight night Amsterdam to Genoa on September 6th. After she reaches Genoa on September 14th, she begins a series of four seven night cruises. These are the only ones of their kind, and since the itinerary is unique in the North American market, I will take the extra band width required to tell you she's going to call at Palma, Lisbon, Cadiz and Malaga, and perhaps, best of all, there are two full days at sea on these cruises.

As I said, transatlantics attract the most interesting customers, and in November, the COSTA ALLEGRA heads back to South America on a cruise of approximately seventeen days to Rio, and twenty one to Buenos Aires. Remember, once in South America, it will be summer, so this ship is able to offer a second season of warm weather cruises. If this past year is typical....and it certainly is....these cruises are seven, eight, nine and ten days, and call primarily in Brasilian ports. Costa Crociere offers South America cruise passengers some pretty nifty themes, and had I all the time and money in the world, I would love to take the "Romantic de la Plata" cruise, featuring irresistible touches of Italian romanticism... yet somehow, both the "Festival Italiano" and the "Sapore d'Italia" really pique my interest. Italian pop singer Nicola di Bari was 1998's guest star, while chef Alfredo Peloni showed his stuff on this year's "Sapore d'Italia" cruise. Further attracting the romantic, all South America summer cruises offered Brasilian ballroom teams.

If you're an "English-only" kind of guy or gal, this packet is NOT for you....if you are uncomfortable in the presence of foreigners, stay away because this welcoming ship is not specifically geared to the English speaking North American market and the five language announcements alone will drive you batty! However, if meeting people from other countries and cultures and making friends with people who don't live down the block is as much your style as it is mine....then by all means consider the COSTA ALLEGRA.

Militant non-smokers might get a bit miffed here for many Europeans still puff away in public spaces and have little regard for our controlling American ways...you may come away from the ship feeling that there were times when you smoked an entire packet of cigarettes in a phone booth...but I hope you won't feel that way.

If the COSTA ALLEGRA holds any big minus for me it is the length of her cruises...Her longest are the 17 to 21 day transAtlantic...and most are 7, 9 or 10 days...and this is a ship that can certainly please in the long run....in fact I think 21 days would be about the shortest cruise I would want to make when I next sail in her...but remember...I am multilingual and very much traveled and my friends live on many continents and on many ships at sea...I often dream in Italian or Spanish so I am totally at home here...so...the final word from me is...I LOVE her!