Supplement to Travel Trade
January 2005

Costa Magica:

Art and Elegance at Sea

By Marilyn Green

Pier Luigi Foschi, president and CEO of Costa Crociere, remarked at the November inauguration of the Costa Magica that the launching of a new vessel is a moment of emotion, a time of achieving dreams. And there is a mysterious, dreamlike quality to the Magica itself, along with full expression of the elegance of Italian taste.

Cruising on the Magica is a double journey. As you move through the ship you pass through a series of Italy’s most magical destinations from Trentino in the north to Sicily in the south. The Costa Smeralda, Ostia Antica, Positano, Portofino, Palinuro, Isola Bella, Spoleto, Capri, Grado, Vicenza and Bressanone are all present in image and essence in the ship’s public spaces, and the real destinations merge into mythology and the world of dreams and imagination.

The “moving city of 5,000 people,” as Foschi described the Magica, travels through time as well as space, with Renaissance detail here and stunningly modern art images there.

The more than 360 original works of art on board are not only beautiful, they are extremely diverse, from many different schools. And in an unusual move, the most striking and magnetic sculpture group, a set of terra cotta forms extending 16 feet high by Trentino artist Bruno Lucchi, was placed, not in the central atrium but aft, in front of the Costa Smeralda dining room.

Titled “Between Memory and Vision,” the sculpture collected knots of passengers walking slowly around it, day and night. Like the other two-level main restaurant, Portofino, Costa Smeralda has lighting concealed in pods in the walls to create magical effects. Seating is well planned in both, and the selection of dishes offered included plenty of Italian fare, along with international dining that encompasses vegetarian, sugar free and other diet choices.

The Bellagio Buffet Restaurant is unusually elegant for an informal restaurant, with domes and columns giving it impressive space and dignity. Passengers lingered over the buffet stations at mealtimes and along the window walls, sipping coffee and talking, between selections. The lighting is straight out of Cocteau’s classic film, “Beauty and the Beast,” where the heads and arms of mysterious beings emerge from the walls holding torches (translated into light bulbs for ship safety).

The Vicenza Club Restaurant is simply exquisite. Its elegance rests on the superb table settings, the striking choice of colors and textures, and the food and wine served. The Versace china and gold napkins bring the rich, dark room to life. It is wonderfully romantic, with dark woods and shining gold, marble floors and Renaissance walls, and friezes from Palladio’s villas reproduced around a giant skylight. The menu by Zeffirino has some exotic features, along with a range of steaks, seafood, fowl and vegetables, plus some outrageous desserts.

The 4,600 square foot Saturnia Spa features a remarkable staff of therapists and a very spacious beauty salon with a wall of glass (light years away from earlier confined boxes). The gym is similarly beautiful and well equipped with Pilates balls and Technogym equipment, which can be programmed with a key that can be taken ashore to land-based gyms. Spinning bikes, treadmills, yoga classes and health seminars round out the offerings of facials, hair and nail services, wraps and outstanding massages. The salon has an unusual feature: dedicated pedicure thrones with gently massaging chairs, greatly appreciated by guests.

The Positano Lido aft also was very popular with fitness and relaxation devotees, who basked under the removable glass roof which will be so important for the Mediterranean winter. Overlooked by an impressive bronze sculpture of Poseidon, guests enjoyed the swimming pool and Jacuzzis day and evening. Two other Lidos each have their Jacuzzi and pool, one dedicated to children.

Details of the public rooms combine fantasy and tradition: wonderful fat gold columns with stripes melt into the molding in the Grand Bar Salento, resembling something between Egyptian art and giraffes. At more than 3,600 square feet, the space matches Costa Fortuna’s Grand Bar Savoia as the largest bar on a cruise ship. The ceiling above the dance floor is covered in images of the Baroque churches of Lecce and a “Two Sicilies” collection of silver objects on display.

Spoleto, site of the international “Two Worlds” arts festival, is the theme for the ship’s ballroom, with reproductions of the original festival posters and sculptures of dancers representing the ballet. Theatrical terra cotta masks from the region add to the sense of being a part of the mystique of Spoleto.

The Sicily Casino draws on the region’s folklore and traditional puppetry. Sixty-five puppets created by Emanuele Salamanca, a member of a family with more than a century of puppetry tradition, represent legendary beings and knights in the battles between the Christians and Saracens. The gaming is set up for European tastes, with more roulette and fewer craps tables.

Italy’s charming beach resort, Grado, inspired the disco. The two-level, glass-wrapped space in the midst of the room has a giant polished brass sun hanging over the floor, and the floor itself has sand effects, with the wall mosaics evoking waves. The disco is very lively indeed, but guests should know that the action generally starts in the wee hours of the morning. It’s easy to keep an eye on it from the casino.

The startling effects in the disco are echoed in the Ostia Antica Game Room, where adults and younger cruisers come aboard the ancient Roman trireme (war ship) entrance to launch themselves into the magic of virtual reality.

The Bressanome library has amazing blue chairs to shelter readers, more like ecclesiastical thrones, each the size of a phone booth and nearly as private. The sacred theme continues with niches displaying wooden sculptures of Alto Adige, since Bressanome was a Bishop’s See for centuries.

For convivial entertainment, Costa Magica’s Urbino Theater is three levels and seats around 1,300 people. It would be a striking theater anywhere in the world, with Renaissance forms, rich inlaid wood paneling forming musical instruments and a gold dome with a most impressive Murano glass chandelier. The shows feature extraordinary special effects and very tight musical numbers, very accessible to any language group.

The Spoleto Ballroom is decorated with the famous festival’s posters, and sculptures of ballet dancers are suspended in air, doubled by the black reflecting ceiling.

In the Capri Lounge, blues and yellows replicate the island’s famous Blue Grotto with neon lights behind cobalt glass and yellow stone wall sections with rough granite skirting like the walls of a grotto.

The nine-deck atrium sums up the Magica’s showcase of the country with a photographic collage of Italy’s loveliest places, along with a bronze sculpture with one of several haunting titles found in the ship’s art: “There were four of us and now there are three of you.”

There are more than 5,000 works altogether with the serigraphs, and the suites are decorated with paintings inspired by the theme of magic and with custom designed velvet cushions.

The 1,358 staterooms have prints by Augusto Vignali with a central theme of magic and the suites have paintings by a group of excellent Italian artists, along with custom velvet cushions.

The stateroom décor is quite elegant, soft and feminine rather than dramatic. Four hundred sixty-four of the 1,358 cabins have balconies, as do the 58 suites. The inside cabins are 185 square feet, with two closet areas, additional drawer space, sofa, twin beds that make up a queen size and bathrooms with showers.

Oceanview staterooms with verandas are the same size with an additional 65 square feet of private balcony, including lounges and a table. Suites range from 275 square feet with 65 square foot balconies to 345 square feet and 85 square feet of private veranda. Twenty-seven staterooms are set up to accommodate passengers with disabilities.

The Magica’s spectacular November inauguration in Barcelona marked the first time in its history that Costa Cruises launched a ship outside Italy. Foschi called the move a symbol of the importance Costa places on Spain. Costa currently calls on 15 ports in Spain and next year the company’s two largest ships, the Magica and Fortuna, will visit Barcelona regularly. During the ship’s inauguration, paperwork was being signed for the line’s new terminal in Barcelona, which should be a reality in 2006. The 7 million euro project will be accompanied by upgrades to the port infrastructure to match the quality of the ships calling there.

Foschi underlined the opportunities for cruising in Europe, which expects 1 billion tourists in 2010, remarking that the penetration for cruising in the marketplace is very low. In North America, the penetration is 6.4% while in Europe it is 1.4%. In some ways, Europe may be an even better market proportionally than North America, because Europeans have much more vacation time and like to travel. Foschi said the average North American has 13 vacation days, less than a third of the average Italian’s vacation time. He noted, however, that Costa is an exporter of the Italian experience, as 60% of the company’s passengers originate outside Italy.

The line’s next ship, the Costa Concordia, is due in June 2006. It is 51-feet longer than the Magica, carrying 3,800 passengers and is unique in its two covered pools to allow passengers to enjoy swimming and sunning during winter in the Med.

Carnival Corp. vice chairman Howard Frank agreed that Europe is still years behind North America in cruise passenger growth.

“Since the ships are traveling full, the solution is to add more capacity,” he added. He said the company continues to see prospects to grow Costa, adding that one of the new orders in the recent euro/dollar package will definitely go to Costa and, of the 13 ships currently on order, seven are earmarked for the European market. Two additional ships will be placed in the AIDA brand between 2007 and 2009, making a total of six ships for the German market. Of the company’s overall business, 30% is sourced out of Europe.

Until spring, the Magica is sailing an 11-day Historical Treasures itinerary from Savona, visiting Naples, Alexandria (Egypt), Cyprus and Rhodes in Greece, Marmaris (Turkey) and Athens and Olympia in Greece. During spring and summer 2005, the ship moves to a 7-day cruise of the Balearic Islands, Tunisia and Malta from Savona, departing Mondays from April 25 to Nov. 21.

Foschi said there are no plans to place year-round ships in North America at this point. “Our destiny as a company is in Europe,” he added