Supplement to Travel Trade
November 2001

Costa Atlantica:

A New Era of Cruising Italian Style

By Nick Verrastro

As it makes its North American debut this month, Costa Cruises' new CostaAtlantica is introducing a new era of Cruising Italian Style -- what might be called Cruising Italian-American Style.

For the CostaAtlantica, truly a beautiful ship, combines the best of both Italy and America: art and style, space and efficiency, tradition and innovation, Venice and the Venetian, history and the future.

Indeed, the CostaAtlantica is the vanguard of a new type of ship -- called Panamax 8000 -- for both Costa Cruises and Carnival Corp., which now totally owns Costa.

Panamax 8000 ships, such as the CostaAtlantica, max out on the Panamax design, still allowing them to sail through the Panama Canal, but at the maximum height and width to provide a lot of public space and cabins with balconies -- which are offered in 80% of the oceanview cabins on the CostaAtlantica. Oceanview cabins account for 78% of the ship's 1,057 staterooms, including 58 suites.

The 2,114-passenger, $400-million CostaAtlantica is the first in a series of four newbuilds for Costa using the Panamax 8000 base (Carnival's Spirit-class ships also incorporate the design).

In this era when it seems as if a ship is inaugurated every other month, a newbuild almost has to be truly unique to make a splash, as Costa Cruises president and CEO Dino Schibuola noted recently aboard the CostaAtlantica.

Said Schibuola, "While of course the passengers and travel agents will be the ultimate judges, I believe the CostaAtlantica is a truly unique ship and will be very well received in the American market."

"The CostaAtlantica," Schibuola added, "is an evolutionary ship with a variety of truly unique rooms. It is very impressive. The design captures in a very striking way the very unique country that is Italy -- where on every corner there is a surprise, a little bit of history, a unique perspective on life.

"So I think that travel agents, who are our first clients, will be pleased to see this ship."

What Schibuola said he finds especially captivating about the CostaAtlantica are its variety of shipboard experiences. "There are so many different ambiences, different personalities and different characteristics in each of the rooms on this ship, that even in seven days passengers probably will not discover all its unique features."

The CostaAtlantica's large amounts of space -- both in the public rooms and out on its decks, and in its staterooms as well -- are what the ship's designer Joe Farcus likes most about the design.
<graphic2:center>
"The greatest thing for an architect is to design space," said Farcus, famous for his Carnival Cruise Lines ship designs. "And for me space is the best part of the CostaAtlantica. The outstanding feature of this design is that the atrium is midship, which has a profound effect on circulation, on the way people use the ship.

"I think my favorite room on the Atlantica is the lobby/atrium because from the atrium you can see the way to go to all the public rooms, including the Lido restaurant and the Club Atlantica above."

The 10-deck high La Dolce Vita Atrium perhaps best reflects the essence of the CostaAtlantica. The atrium is named for the Federico Fellini film -- as are all the ship's decks, with the Fellini theme further carried out in the art adorning staterooms and corridors and in the Paparazzi and Via Veneto lounges.

La Dolce Vita Atrium gives you what you expect from a modern mega ship and surprises you with the unexpected, to use Schibuola's words, with its unique perspectives.

Along with the shiny glass and Times Square lighting effects, La Dolce Vita Atrium surprises you with its frescoed walls, as if this were a Pompeii on the high seas, the frescoes glimpsed from the glass elevators as you traverse the Atrium space.

And looking up, toward the expected glass dome -- you notice the unexpected -- strands of marble outcroppings painted on the atrium ceilings as if this La Dolce Vita Atrium were built on the foundations of a Roman ruin.

And, then in La Dolce Vita Atrium's highest reaches, you notice a glass stairway, seemingly suspended in the air like a stairway to heaven (not a place for the vertiginous), connecting the two levels of the Club Atlantica, which is the alternative fine-dining restaurant and after dinner nightclub.

Wherever you go in the CostaAtlantica, you will turn a corner only to be taken aback by a work of art so stunning in its originality, in its different perspective that it stops you in your tracks, or reminds you of the awesome beauty of Italy -- especially in the CostaAtlantica's Renaissance-style reproductions, appropriately in the Tiziano main dining room, named for the Renaissance master Titian, and in the lido deck Botticelli Buffet and Napoli Pizzeria.

The CostaAtlantica contains more than 400 original works by Italy's renowned contemporary artists -- graceful Murano glass sculptures, breathtaking contemporary interpretations of classical Italian themes in oil and in digital graphics, drawings by Milo Manara commemorating the Fellini films each deck is named for.

Farcus is right about La Dolce Vita Atrium: it really does make it easy to find your way around this ship almost as soon as you embark. It pulls the passenger into the CostaAtlantica, as Farcus said, so that the ship is their stage to use intensively for whatever vacation experience they want -- the primary objective of his design.

Most all of the CostaAtlantica's public rooms are gathered on Decks 2 and 3 (La Strada and La Dolce Vita, respectively), and again on Decks 9 through 12, which contain the alternative eateries, pools, spa and gym and sports facilities.

On Decks 2 and 3, forward from La Dolce Vita Atrium, are the Fortuna Casino with slots, roulette and blackjack and a bar; the Caruso Theater (three decks high extending up to Deck 4) accommodating 1,200 people, Piazza Madame Butterfly main lounge with its Oriental-Italian operatic theme; the Coral Lounge (Deck 1) with its maritime theme and surreal coral sculptures; Via Della Spiga shopping promenade, with Fendi, Gucci, Paul & Sharke, Gianni Versace and Costa Boutique among other shops; and the library/Internet center with six flat screen Internet terminals (passengers can send digital postcards).

Adjacent to the library/Internet center is Caffe Florian, an authentic reproduction of the famous 18th century landmark on St. Mark's Square in Venice. Three rooms from Caffe Florian are reproduced here in exact detail from the dZ<caron>cor to the menu and chamber music.

A grand stairway connects Caffe Florian on Deck 3 and Piazza Madame Butterfly on Deck 2.

Aft of the atrium and leading into the Tiziano dining room are the Via Veneto (Deck 2) and Paparazzi (Deck 3) lounges decorated with blowups of photographer Tazio Secchialoli's series of "La Dolce Vita" black and white photos from the 1960s, and those of other paparazzi of the period. There are pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Fellini, Anita Ekberg, David Niven and Joe DiMaggio on Via Veneto in Rome.

The split-level Tiziano Restaurant accommodates 1,300 people at each seating, in a variety of configurations including banquettes. A separate annex, seating 85 guests, can be used for affinity and meetings groups.

The CostaAtlantica's alternative restaurant, Club Atlantica ($18.75 surcharge) on Decks 10 and 11, is under the direction of famous Italian chef Gualtiero Marchesi, and becomes a nightclub after dinner hours.

The Botticelli Buffet and Napoli Pizzeria -- beautifully decorated with Renaissance reproductions under a glass and brass dome encapsulating a crystal chandelier -- are on Deck 9, the lido or Ginger and Fred Deck. It is named for the two major swimming pools, called Ginger (she's under a magrodome) and Fred, each adorned by a Murano glass sculpture of the dancer by Venetian sculptor Luciano Vistose.

He also designed Club Atlantica's glass stairway suspended in the atrium's nether reaches.

A third pool on Deck 9, the Aurora, is aft.

The Olympia Gym and Terme Ischia are forward on Decks 9 and 10 with the latest exercise equipment and spa treatments, including a sauna and giant Jacuzzi. Deck 10 is a wide open promenade deck wrapping around the Ginger and Fred deck and swimming pools.

More sports are on Deck 11, an open deck with a tennis court that can be configured for basketball and volleyball, along with a jogging track forward. Aft on Deck 11 is the children's pool with a waterslide la Carnival.

Speaking of children, the CostaAtlantica has an extensive children's area, Pinocchio Children's Room, as well as Virtual World with the complete array of video games.

Family accommodations on the CostaAtlantica include triples in 631 oceanview staterooms -- 533 with balconies; quads in 71 inside staterooms, 65 oceanview and 75 oceanview with balconies.

The staterooms on the CostaAtlantica are roomy and well-equipped. As Farcus said, the cabins are beautiful and Carnival Corp. chairman and CEO Micky Arison was so impressed with the design that the cabins on the CostaAtlantica are now the design standard for Carnival Cruise Lines' Spirit-class ships.

"There is a lot of space in these cabins and you can actually hang your clothes in the wardrobes," noted Farcus.

All have a lot of closet space, with three wardrobes including one with five shelves on hinges so they can be pulled up to provide more hanger space. There are seven hangers for men's clothes and eight for women's clothes; six drawers, refrigerator bar, a safe, TV/radio, lower beds that convert to a queen, nightstands with lamps on each side of the bed, and a sofa bed (some cabins have one or two uppers).

The bathroom has a roomy shower with a wrap around curtain and a floor mat. The bathroom vanity has six shelves on top and two below, a hair dryer and a 220/110 receptacle. Bar soap is furnished on the vanity and the shower has a liquid soap dispenser. There are four towels and two towel hooks inside the bathroom door.

The stateroom decor is very comfortable and tasteful -- nothing garish. The furniture is cherrywood with light wall coverings and light green carpeting with a yellow/rust pattern.

As it makes its North American debut, the CostaAtlantica is sailing on a variety of inaugural season Caribbean cruises, all roundtrip from Ft. Lauderdale.

These include the 7-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary to San Juan, St. Thomas/St. John, Catalina Island/Casa de Campo and Nassau; and the 7-night Western Caribbean to Key West, Playa del Carmen/Cozumel and Ocho Rios.

After a trans-Atlantic crossing from Ft. Lauderdale, departing on April 27, 2001, the CostaAtlantica once again will sail on 7-night cruises to Greece and Turkey roundtrip from Venice