COSTA ALLEGRA looks modern, yet classic Italian in her interior style. Many design details remind me of the Italian ships from the 60's.

This ship truly represents what I envision a Costa ship to look like. Unfortunately the new Costa ships are nothing more than Carnival Cruise Lines in camouflage.

Good job Bart! I also agree with you in that my least favorite space is probably the dining room, although I still like it better than many other ships.

Ernie

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eroller wrote:
This ship truly represents what I envision a Costa ship to look like. Unfortunately the new Costa ships are nothing more than Carnival Cruise Lines in camouflage.

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Sad isn't it.

Full marks to Bart for another great photo-review.

******

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
Really really nice pictures! Maybe MSC will follow in the footsteps and design a ship's interiors like the "old" Costa Cruises...

FULL marks to Bart....
NO marks for Carnival

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I believe that Msc has a different approach to the " italian style " than Costa.

All Msc newbuildings were designed by Studio de Jorio, who was involved during the conversion of Guglielmo Marconi into Costa Riviera in late Eighties.

The interiors of Msc Lirica and Opera remind a lot those of Athena ( formerly Italia Prima ) and of the Grandi Navi Veloci ferries, also designed by de Jorio.

They can be described as classic contemporary italian style.

Costa Marina and Costa Allegra were designed by Guido Canali, Costa Classica and Costa Romantica by Pierluigi Cerri, Costa Victoria was codesigned by Cerri and Robert Tillberg.

Their interiors were more classic and traditional than those of Msc ships.

After the last drydocks many things have changed onboard these Costa vessels. Their interiors were updated introducing new soft furnishings, artworks, and the type of seat that you can see on the right of the Flamenco ballroom in the wonderful Bart's photos, a standard feature onboard all Costa " older " vessel.

The pre-Carnival Costa fleet are starting to look very attractive to me!

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Originally posted by eroller:
Bart de Boer has posted another great ship review. This time it's the COSTA ALLEGRA, a ship you don't often hear about. Judging by Bart's excellent photos,
Good job Bart! I also agree with you in that my least favorite space is probably the dining room, although I still like it better than many other ships.

Ernie

Click Here for Bart's review and pics

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I think Bart visited the ship on another date than I did as I did not see him that day.
I visited the COSTA ALLEGRA on 13 August 2004, the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
http://www.vdleek.nl/album4.html

However, I cannot agree with Ernie's description of the OOSTERDAM. That clinical complies more to the COSTA ALLEGRA with her shiny interior.
It certainly is not what you expect on a former containership

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However, I cannot agree with Ernie's description of the OOSTERDAM. That clinical complies more to the COSTA ALLEGRA with her shiny interior.
It certainly is not what you expect on a former containership

Willem van der Leek[/QB]

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When I mentioned "clinical", I was speaking solely of the OOSTERDAM's cabin corridors, not the rest of the ship. The cabin corridors on OOSTERDAM are some of the worst I have ever seen. Nasty carpet, poor lighting, and not a single piece of artwork to be found. Even the cabin doors were ugly. I believe Bart agreed with me on this point(or me with him) in his review of OOSTERDAM. For the record, the rest of OOSTERDAM was anything but clinical!

The cabin corridors on COSTA ALLEGRA look stunning.

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Originally posted by eroller:

The cabin corridors on COSTA ALLEGRA look stunning.

Ernie

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Reviewing Bart's pictures and mine, I concluded and remembered that we visited COSTA ALLEGRA on the same day.

The word 'stunning' does have controversial meanings when translated into Dutch

1. having a numbing effect / making dull.
2. overwhelming, fantastic.

I do not know how to call them. They were different, Italian, certainly not like on REGATTA or DEUTSCHLAND, even different than on COSTA EUROPA.
The corridors on OOSTERDAM and WESTERDAM (the Vista's I visited) are extremely long. I think that is making them bad looking.
But the corridors on GRAND PRINCESS do even look longer and I did not like them.

But, as you may agree with me, it is all a matter of personal taste. And it's good we don't have the same

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Originally posted by Willem H. van der Leek:

The word 'stunning' does have controversial meanings when translated into Dutch

1. having a numbing effect / making dull.
2. overwhelming, fantastic.

I do not know how to call them. They were different, Italian, certainly not like on REGATTA or DEUTSCHLAND, even different than on COSTA EUROPA.

But, as you may agree with me, it is all a matter of personal taste. And it's good we don't have the same

Willem van der Leek

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Hi Willem,
Just to clarify, a good translation for my definition of stunning is "gorgeous". I did think the cabin corridors on COSTA ALLEGRA looked gorgeous and interesting. Not dull and boring like on OOSTERDAM. Of course I have not seen COSTA ALLEGRA's in person so I can only go by the photos.

Back to OOSTERDAM, most of the decor did grow on me after the initial shock. Some areas I really liked and others will never win me over. I truly think if they changed out that nasty "stain hiding" carpet to something better, the overall look of the interiors would be greatly improved. I'm thankful they don't have that carpet on the pre-Vista Class ships.

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Originally posted by eroller:

Hi Willem,
Just to clarify, a good translation for my definition of stunning is "gorgeous". I did think the cabin corridors on COSTA ALLEGRA looked gorgeous and interesting. Not dull and boring like on OOSTERDAM. Of course I have not seen COSTA ALLEGRA's in person so I can only go by the photos.

Ernie

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Well Ernie, just as I said, it's a matter of taste.

When we walked on that ship, I sometimes thought 'yes, I would like to cruise on this' and just on another deck 'no thank you, not for me'.
It is just the feeling you get.

My wife and I did have the opportunity to visit the OOSTERDAM when she was dedicated in Rotterdam, and allthough it was a very large ship, in some areas we got the feeling 'yes'. But, when walking through one of those very, very long corridors, it was 'no'.
When visiting WESTERDAM last year, we did get the 'yes' feeling just a little more than on OOSTERDAM.

REGATTA (Hi Tim ) did give us also more 'yes' than 'no' feelings.

RCI gave us more 'no' than 'yes'.

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Originally posted by eroller:

The cabin corridors on COSTA ALLEGRA look stunning.

Ernie

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On Bart's photos I see only ONE corridor and that was NOT a cabin corridor.

In that corridor were only offices and the chapel.

The ship herself is great an real pre Farcus Costa vessel. Well the exterior do nothing with me the interior sith everthing. She looks very handsome. As i have sail with Costa a/b there Romantica i would sail this vessel to. Simply love here. The Costa designers now what they where doing. Sad and shame that Carnival turned to Farcus to design the new ships. They made an great misstake with this.

About the Oosterdam found the ship very fine and was impressed by here. But i to found here cabin corridors to light and dull. The rest of the interiors where fine an real HAL ship. But compare to the Rotterdam she looses out.

So last year i geth the chanse to see the Westerdam.
Was invited by the Rotterdam Port Authority and Holland America Line fore receving my free cruise to Alaska that i have wone. whene boarding the vessel at Rotterdam i was struck by here interior. HAL dith learn frome the Zuiderdam and Oosterdam and found here very attracting much better thene the Oosterdam. They dith even hung some Pictures of old HAL passenger liners and freighters in the corridors.

Back to the Allegra i hpe really that she servived with Costa it would be an misstake to sale here of ore to move here to another brand.

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Originally posted by Willem H. van der Leek:

On Bart's photos I see only ONE corridor and that was NOT a cabin corridor.

In that corridor were only offices and the chapel.

Willem

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Ernie & the others, thanks for the nice words. I'm glad you liked the review. I was looking forward to showing you Pride of America in the next issue of Ship Parade, but all pre-inaugural festivities in Bremerhaven that were planned for this weekend were cancelled today... Too bad!

Willem, the photo you mention was shot on Gaugin Deck and most definitely shows a cabin corridor. You can see the cabin doors to the right.

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Originally posted by Bart:

Willem, the photo you mention was shot on Gaugin Deck and most definitely shows a cabin corridor. You can see the cabin doors to the right.

Bart

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I thought it was the midship corridor on Lautrec from the main hall forward.

Did we go down to Gaugin ?

And yes: new Costa ships smack of Carnival. The words "garish" and even in certain areas, "outlandish" come to mind.

From what I've seen of the new MSC ships, they're quite nice.

[ 05-31-2005: Message edited by: BigUFan ]