Costa Concordia

by Ulrike
(Canada)

Please note that on January 13th, the Costa Concordia ran aground due to human error by the captain. The majority of the crew and passengers made it to safety. Unfortunately there were some casualties and some people got hurt.

We are Excellent Vacation Ideas are very saddened by this tragedy and send our condolences to the families of those lost.

For news coverage of this event, we invite you to see the BBC reports or the CNN reports

Review of the ship:

We (my husband and I) took an eleven day Mediterranean cruise last February on the Costa Concordia (Costa Cruise Lines).

The Cruise, right from the start was great, I loved every minute of it! The first thing I really appreciated about the Costa Concordia was the lack of endless lineups prior to boarding. Two years earlier we took a short three day cruise in the Caribbean, and the endless line ups in Fort Lauderdale were very tiring. But in Civitacecchia/Rome the boarding proceedure was very quick and painless. One reason for this was that the ship didn't take passengers at just one port, but people began their cruise from several ports along the journey, thus there was not the massive crowd trying to board, or imbark at just one port.

The ship was very comfortable. We had a clean, comfortable balcony room, and I just loved opening the door and listening (and watching) the water shoshing by.

Yes, the ship is quite Italian, but the largest number of passengers came from Germany. I loved the European flavor! The live music in various areas (I guess they were bars) was great. It too, had a European flavor.

The food was wonderful -- a large array of tasty dishes served buffet-style for breakfast and lunch. Excellent dining for supper, with great service for us vegetarians. We did not go hungry!


Being a bit of a history buff, this cruise really appealed to us, as we stopped at so many historic sites. It was a grand tour - an awesome experience for us - not just enjoying the comforts of the cruise ship which was always there waiting for us with it's comforts and luxuries after another interesting excursion, but it also afford a very enjoyable way of seeing more of the world, and traveling back in history.

From Civitacecchia, we sailed up to Savona where we toured an ancient castle named Priamar. We also went inside a church called The Sistine Chapel (smaller than the one in Rome). Savona is proud of the fact that two popes came from their little village.

From Savona we sailed two days for Greece and landed in Katakolon. Here we explored the ruins of Olympia - the birth place of the Olympic Games. In the center of ruins was the temple to Zeus. Once this was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world with a statue of Zeus over 40 feet tall sitting on a beautiful decorated throne within the temple, presiding over the Olympic Games. Now the temple is in ruins and there is no statue. When Roman Emperors became Christian they took down many of the pagan gods. There was another church in Olympia which was once a pagan temple, but had been converted into a Catholic church. A lot of interesting history!

From Katakolon we sailed around the tip of Greece to Athens. Interestingly Athens, like Rome, also has seven hills. These hills stand out rather sharply. The Acropolis sits on top of one of these hills which was considered ?the sacred rock. Not far from the Acropolis is a large rock (used as a platform in ancient times) upon which it is said Paul spoke to the Athenians about the ?unknown God. We also toured the Agora, or ancient city center of Athens at the foot of the Acropolis.

From Athens we sailed to Turkey to a city called Izmir. Izmir is actually the site of ancient Smyrna (one of the seven churches of Revelation), but a big modern city now stands there and only a few traces of the ancient city are visible. But a tour bus took us to the ancient city of Ephesus (also one of the seven churches). Ephesus was once by the sea, but now is quite a ways inland. Earthquakes around 700 AD changed the flow of the Cayster River and the harbor filled with silt. Ephesus was finally deserted when the sea port closed, and so the ruins still give a pretty good idea of what Ephesus was like back in the days of Paul. Ephesus has a lot of Christian history. There is a house nearby said to have been the house of the apostle John, where he took Mary the mother of Jesus and cared for her.

Next we went to Rhodes (another place where one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Colossus of Rhodes, used to stand astride the Harbor.) Of course that is gone. We toured the medieval Old Town with its very narrow streets, it's strong walls and fortress (palace)

Next we sailed to Limassol on the Island of Cyprus. This was quite a modern looking city, yet with streets with quaint shops, and wonderful walk ways along the ocean beach. We were amazed to see oranges and lemons growing on trees (remember this is February)

Our last stop was in Alexandra, Egypt, from there we took a tour bus to Cairo. There one of the seven wonders of the ancient world are still standing (The pyramids). I even got to go on a camel ride!

Next we relaxed on the ship for two days as we sailed back to Civitacecchia, where we had to leave the ship as our cruise had ended. We drove to Rome and spent another three days there touring the many sites, before returning to our home in Canada where piles of snow awaited us!

As I said, I enjoyed every minute of the cruise! I'd love to do it all over again.