Our cruise was aboard the M/V Costa Classica, part of the Costa Cruise Lines fleet, of Italian registry. Apparently, the ship had just finished a Mediterranean cruise, and a large number of Italian passengers had stayed aboard. So roughly half the passengers on this cruise were Italian. This made life interesting; you would start to talk to someone, only to realize from their blank stare that they were Italian and didn't understand a word you were saying. We did, however, learn to say "Non tocare, per favore" when they tried to pet the dog!

The "Chocolate Fantasy Cruise" was the creation of Landry and Kling, a travel agency in Coral Gables that specialized in theme cruises. Not all of the passengers on the cruise participated in the chocolate theme; it was restricted to those who had signed up through L & K.

We left Friday morning and caught a flight from LAX to Miami, with a layover at Tampa. We were met at Miami airport by a Costa Cruise Lines representative, and took a bus to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

Hurry up and wait! After a frustrating fiasco in the coffee shop in which neither of us got what we ordered for breakfast, we spent a while sitting around the hotel lobby waiting for the bus to take us to the Miami docks.

A pile of luggage


Waiting for the bus


First view of our ship through the bus window

We boarded the ship, found our stateroom, got settled in, did some exploring, and got some lunch at La Trattoria buffet. We started off the trip with a bad scare - we thought we had lost some of our luggage. Not only had two of our bags made the trip from the hotel to the docks on a different bus from the one we were on, but our name tag had fallen off of one of our bags. I finally spotted it peeking out from under a pile of unclaimed luggage.

The chocolate orgy began from the moment we arrived. Waiting for us in our cabin was a bag full of assorted chocolate goodies, including a packet of Carnation instant cocoa, a bag of Nestle's chocolate chips, a small box of Ethel M chocolates, and a sample pack of Boomer's Oogies!

We then got dressed for the first event, a "Bon-Bon Voyage Party." This was the first gathering of what I referred to as "The Chocolateers." We met our fellow chocolate lovers, as well as Brian and Tok (yes, "Tok"), our tour group leaders.

Dressed for the evening


Two fellow Chocolateers, Don and Peg


Brian (right) and Tok (left), the tour group leaders

We then went to dinner. Let me say right here that cruise food is as good, and plentiful, as you've heard. And it's all free! (Don't worry, they get plenty of your money other ways - drinks, the casino, tips, shops...). In addition to the main dining room, there was La Trattoria buffet, Il Dolce Amore Patisserie and La Tavernetta - not to mention the infamous midnight buffets!

The main dining room, the Tivoli Restaurant

There were so many passengers on this cruise that dinner was served in two seatings, early (6:15) and late (8:30). The Chocolateers were in the late seating group. This made for late nights. It also meant that we were still full from dinner when we went to the midnight buffets, which was probably just as well.

After dinner, we went to the show in the Colloseo Showroom. The show consisted of the cruise director, David Lawton, introducing the cruise staff, and a magician named Paul Fiddler who was quite enjoyable. A major part of his act was a trained parrot that had an amazingly large repertoire of tricks and stunts. There were shows every night, but we didn't go to all of them.

The Colosseo Showroom