Roadtripping

A short tour of the Costa Mediterranea

In the last few years, I’ve been on 25 or 30 cruise ships, most of them new or newly renovated, sometimes overnight or longer, sometimes just for a few hours. Some features are universally eye-grabbing: dramatic atriums, pool decks, grandly decorated main dining rooms, romantic verandah staterooms. But without spending at least a couple nights on the ship, I can’t judge how well passenger traffic flows through the ship, how good the food and service in the dining room are, or how livable a pretty stateroom is.

So when I got a tour of the Costa Mediterranea this week, my first visit to a Costa ship, I knew I wouldn’t be there long enough to come away with a strong sense of what kind of experience it offered. And part of my interest was because the ship was in the same fleet as the Costa Concordia, the ship that sank off the coast of Italy last year and has yet to be towed away.

The two ships are not in the same class. The Mediterranea’s vital statistics: launched in 2003, tonnage 85,700, 2,112 guests. Concordia is about 30 percent larger, carries about 900 more guests and was launched in 2006.

The main reason I hadn’t been on a Costa ship was that there had not been a lot of opportunities. Costa home ports only one ship in Miami, and does so for only the winter and early spring for Caribbean sailings, before sending the ship back to Europe. After the sinking of the Concordia, Costa stayed pretty low-key in Miami.

Although Costa is owned by Carnival (since 2000), it’s an Italian line that caters to European guests. And that’s what struck me most during my short time on the ship: just how dominant the ship’s Italian heritage is. While many ships have sleek contemporary décor, the Mediterranea is ornate with lavishly detailed murals and wall coverings, colorful Murano glass fixtures, Renaissance-style statuary by the pools, and extra embellishment on just about everything.

Atrium bar on Costa Mediterranea

Dinner service was very traditional, with two seatings; each guest’s seating and table are the same for the entire cruise. In a day when many ships have half a dozen or more extra-fee restaurants, the Mediterranea has only one (upscale Italian fare), plus the lido deck buffet as alternatives to the main dining room.

Two-level main dining room on Costa Mediterranea

Announcements on the loudspeaker were made first in Italian. There’s a toga party at the end of each cruise.

As I expected, I finished my tour without getting a sense of what spending a week on the Costa Mediterranea would be like. But I can tell you this: The ship has a gregarious personality.

Royal Caribbean names 2 new ships

Royal Caribbean, which has been very secretive about its next two “Project Sunshine” ships, on Tuesday announced their names and said steel-cutting had begun for the first ship.

The ships will be Quantum of the Seas, which is scheduled to debut in fall 2014, and Anthem of the Seas, expected to launch in spring 2015.

Royal Caribbean had already said that the ships would be 158,000-ton, 4,100-passenger vessels — smaller than their Oasis-class ships — but has not said what their features will be. Will they have Flowrider surfing pools? Staterooms that overlook a park in the center of the ship? A parade of DreamWorks characters? We don’t know. While Princess and Norwegian Cruise Line have been unveiling the innovative features of their ships under construction, Royal Caribbean has been silent.

In fact, Royal Caribbean says on its Project Sunshine blog that “a handful of spaces on the new Sunshine-class ships will remain ‘white spaces’ until the last moment so that Royal Caribbean can respond to the latest trends.” The ship has been in the planning and design phase for three years.

Royal Caribbean intends for the name Quantum of the Seas to signify cutting-edge design.

 “The new ship will be such a leap forward in terms of vessel design and guest experiences that we thought the name Quantum of the Seas was perfectly appropriate,” said Adam Goldstein, president and CEO.

We’ll just have to take his word for it for now.

The first piece of steel was cut for the ship Tuesday at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany.  Royal Caribbean has not announced either ship's home port or itineraries. 

Behind the scenes at United/Fort Lauderdale

I was on my knees, trying not to bang my head on the low ceiling of the airplane’s cargo hold, shoving suitcases out the door and onto the conveyor belt as fast as I could.

The part of me that likes things orderly — a very small part, as people who have seen my desk know — wanted to line up the bags neatly, top up, but there was no time for that. It had to be enough that none of the bags fell off the moving belt. Grab, shove. Grab, shove. The bags kept coming and I kept sliding them into a crooked line on the conveyor belt.

The professional baggage handler grinned as he hit the button that moved forward the floor of the luggage compartment, bringing another row of bags within easy reach. He was a muscular guy who clearly worked out, and he had for an assistant a past-middle-age woman whose idea of a workout is walking downstairs to the cafeteria for coffee.

He was doing all the heavy lifting, pulling bags off the top of the stack and bringing them down to the floor. I had to twist my upper torso to move each piece of luggage, but the end of the conveyor belt was level with the floor, and I slid rather than lifted most of the bags. Usually the baggage handler unloads the cargo bay by himself. Having someone arrange the bags on the conveyor belt probably moved things along faster than usual, but it was apparent that baggage handler was not to be my employment Plan B.

I was just playing anyway. United Airlines was giving select members of its top-tier frequent flier group a behind-the-scenes tour of its operation at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport operation, and I had been invited to tag along.

This was not an ordinary tour; this was hands-on, and most of us were like kids who get to climb on a fire engine during a firehouse tour.

There were about 30 of us, and most of us got to do as many of the following as we wanted: Make boarding announcements, scan tickets at the gate, drive the jetway (the passenger bridge), drive the luggage trolleys, scan baggage, track down lost luggage, drive the luggage ramp up to planes and raise and lower it, wing-walk a plane in (those are the guys who walk next to the tip of the wings, orange stick held high), set the chocks in front of a jet’s wheels so it doesn’t roll forward, push back a jet from the gate. 

In addition, we got tutorials on how the baggage system and maintenance crews work. We got to heft a black box, see the three-level tangle of luggage conveyor belts, track down the owner of a piece of luggage left on the carousel, hear about the necessity of balancing the weight of luggage in the cargo bins.

Once, our little sub-group of five got to sit in the cockpit of a jet not quite ready to board and talk to the co-pilot.

The employees were all friendly. That’s no surprise: This group was the airline’s best customers, who have voted with their wallets that this airline’s staff is the best.

What was particularly interesting was that even though in the public’s eyes, the merger of United and Continental was completed on March 3, behind the scenes, much of the operation is still run like two airlines. As a plane is prepared for takeoff, the merged airline has two incompatible systems to track as baggage is loaded and balanced, food and drink are brought on board, a place is refueled. It will be at least a year before all the flights are on one system, employees told us. In the maintenance storeroom where bins of parts are labeled and ready for use, it’s United parts on United planes, Continental parts on Continental planes. At least the same crews work on both. Someday, it truly will be one airline.

And in the meantime, about 30 people understand a little better all the work that goes into making a flight ready for travel. 

What's included in an all-inclusive cruise fare?

If you’ve looked into booking a cruise and tried to figure out which cruise would actually cost more by the time you added in all the expenses – shore excursions, airport transfers, cocktails – you know how hard comparing costs can be.  Now, AllThingsCruise, a website for cruise enthusiasts, has done a good bit of the research and made it available on its website.  The site has posted a chart with answers from 33 cruise lines – the big mainstream lines to the small luxury lines and river cruise lines – to 13 questions about what’s included in the fare. The chart still doesn’t cover every money matter you’ll want to know about, like how many of a ship’s restaurants charge extra fees and does it have a drinks package,  but it will give you a head start on making those comparisons.

Taking the train to Orlando

When I made a day trip to Orlando last week to check out the new attractions at Magic Kingdom, I took the train up and flew back on Spirit. Any time I can trade the stress of flying for a leisurely train ride, I’ll do it. Roomy seats, no security lines, a lounge car, no charge for two checked bags, and no need to arrive more than 15 minutes early – there’s really no debate.

Cost: $38. Ride time: 9 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m. I didn’t need a full day at the park, so the arrival time worked fine. I had a late flight back, departing at 9:40 p.m. Parking at the Fort Lauderdale Amtrak station is free, but I had to pay for a taxi from the airport back to the station.

After taking this ride a few times, I have some advice to pass on:

* If you’re going to Disney and don’t need to get a rental car, get off at Kissimmee, which is the stop before Orlando. It’s closer.

* Amtrak doesn’t issue e-tickets. You’ll need to print out your ticket at the station. I try to get to a station — it doesn’t have to be the one you’re leaving from — a day or two in advance. It takes only a minute, and parking is free.

* If you’re going to leave your car at the train station, you’ll need a free parking pass from a station agent. Get there 10 or 15 minutes earlier so you have time to stand in line for the pass, then walk it back to your car.

* The cashier in the lounge car takes a long break shortly after the train departs West Palm Beach. If you need coffee, get it by 10 a.m.

* Make sure your schedule has some flexibility. Amtrak has a lower priority than freight trains, and is frequently late. Towards the end of my trip, the train crept along behind two slow-moving freight trains and arrived about 20 minutes late. 

Naming ceremony for the Carnival Breeze

If it seems that I’ve been blogging a lot about cruise ships lately – especially for someone whose first (travel) love is roadtripping – I am. This is the season when ships that have spent the summer in Europe return to South Florida and when new ships that were built in Europe’s shipyards arrive in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.

Which explains why I’ve attended two ship-naming ceremonies in the last eight days: Celebrity Reflection last weekend and Carnival Breeze on Saturday. Those two, along with Oceania’s Riviera – which had its ship-naming in Europe – are the new ships of 2012, all of which have arrived in Miami in the last few weeks.

Ship-naming ceremonies have several traditions associated with them, including the selection of a godmother and the breaking of a bottle of champagne on the hull of the ship. Other traditions, such as the sacrifice of sheep or even humans, thankfully have been discontinued. The original purpose of the ceremony was to introduce the new ship to the god of the sea – Neptune, Poseidon, whoever. The ancient Greeks drank wine to honor the gods and poured water on the new vessel as a symbol of blessing, but those two rituals eventually merged into one, and the liquid of choice in recent times has been champagne.

It’s considered bad luck if the godmother smashes the bottle against the hull and it doesn’t break -- Judi Dench swung a bottle of champagne against the Carnival Legend three times before it broke – so now, the bottles often are scored with a glasscutter first. It’s probably also considered bad luck if guests are cut by flying shards of glass, so the ceremony isn’t necessarily held near the hull. Both the Carnival and Celebrity ceremonies were held in the respective ship’s theater. The godmothers stood on the stage and cut or pulled a ribbon, and by some remote mechanism, the bottle was swung against the hull and smashed, which we saw on a huge video screen. Seems like a waste of good champagne to me, but who am I to say no to Poseidon?

Tracy Wilson Mourning is the godmother of the Carnival Breeze, and the ceremony was both touching as she talked about the Honey Shine mentoring program for young girls, a program she founded, and funny, as master of ceremonies John Heald pranced like a hefty supermodel on the catwalk and threatened to sing Barry Manilow songs. (Carnival’s frequent cruisers all know Heald – he is senior cruise director for Carnival and writes a funny, slightly risqué and usually helpful blog here.)

Watch next Sunday’s Travel section, when I’ll tell you about the new ships.

My photos of the ceremony, by the way, were pretty awful, so I pestered Andy Newman, who has photographed many of Carnival's ships, on Sunday morning for these. Top, Carnival Breeze's godmother, Tracy Mourning, and Capt. Vincenzo Alcaras with a stand-in bottle of champagne (the real one was swung against the hull). Below,Tracy with husband Alonzo (yeah, I know who he is but this is HER show) and the captain on the bridge.

 

A touch of Miami on Norwegian Cruise Line's next ship

For the Norwegian Breakaway, a new ship that will home port in New York City, Norwegian Cruise Line commissioned Peter Max to paint its hull with images of the New York skyline, named the Rockettes as godmothers, designed a promenade inspired by the Coney Island Boardwalk, and added New York-style hot dog carts.

On Monday, Norwegian announced the first of the Miami features that will grace Breakaway’s twin,  the Getaway, which will home port here: a hull painted by David “LEBO” Le Batard, a Cuban-born Miami artist known for his murals. The hull will feature a mermaid, a lighthouse, pelicans and other whimsical sea features.

“We wanted somebody who embodied the unique culture of Miami,” said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian’s CEO, who cited Le Batard’s  “bright, colorful, fun … stunning” works  in making the announcement at the artist’s studio in Wynwood.

Sheehan declined to say what other Miami details might be associated with the ship: An arepa stand? A promenade that looks like Ocean Drive? “Cuban coffee,” he volunteered. Well, of course! But what could be more Miami than to announce a work of art on a ship to kick off Art Basel week?

The Breakaway and the Getaway are 4,000-passenger ships under construction in Germany. The Breakaway will arrive in New York in May and sail cruises first to Bermuda and later to the Caribbean and Florida. The Getaway will arrive in Miami in January 2014 and will sail to the eastern Caribbean year-round.   

Renderings of the Getaway (top) and Breakaway (above) courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line.

Celebrity Reflection: A shower that is bending cruise ship design rules

If you spotted a Celebrity Cruises ship sailing along the South Florida coast on Sunday, it probably was Celebrity Reflection, the line’s newest ship. And if you noticed an odd addition to one of the top decks, what you were seeing was an example of a trend in cruise ship design: a cantilevered space.

The feature that’s getting all the oohs and aahs on the Celebrity Reflection, which took travel agents, writers and VIPs on a short cruise-to-nowhere over the weekend, is a glassed-in shower in the ship’s biggest suite that extends out over the edge of the ship.

As people toured the 1,636-square-foot suite and the shower on Sunday, it was hard to tell which characteristic they found most provocative – the glass enclosure or the fact that only a thick pane of what looked like frosted glass came between their feet and the ocean 14 decks below.

“This is kind of scary,” said a travel agent, as she stepped into the shower.

“Are you sure that people can’t see in?” asked another.

The shower is enclosed with a special reflective glass that is supposed to guard the occupant’s privacy, but as a back-up, the flick of a switch will turn the glass from transparent to translucent.

The shower is in the “Reflection Suite,” a one-of-a-kind stateroom that also boasts a bathtub and rain shower on its private veranda.

On Sunday, a line of people waiting to see the shower wound up one side of the living room, down the other, and through a bedroom. 
Some people stepped into the shower, others regarded it from a secure distance.

It’s not the first cantilevered space on a cruise ship. Some ships have jacuzzis that extend out over the side. Two Disney ships have a flume ride in a clear tube that loops out over the water. The new Royal Princess ship, which will arrive in Port Everglades late next year, will have SeaWalk – a glass-bottomed walkway that will be cantilevered 28 feet beyond the starboard side of the ship.

Rendering of SeaWalk by Princess Cruises

Mickey sets the stage for arrival of Disney Wonder in Miami

Mickey Mouse was in Miami Wednesday to promote the arrival of the Disney Wonder for a season of Bahamas and the western Caribbean cruises. The Wonder, which will be the first Disney ship to homeport in Miami, will arrive Dec. 23 from southern California, where it has been doing cruises to Mexico. It will spend next summer in Alaska. No word yet on whether the ship will return to Miami next winter.

Road trip attraction: A train ride through Jimmy Carter's past

I was planning a road trip to the Carolinas, looking for interesting diversions along the way, when I came across an excursion train that runs out of Cordele in southwest Georgia. The train, which usually runs on weekends, is operated by the state Department of Natural Resources -- "a rolling state park," they call it. I bought a ticket. The day trip took us through rural farmland and pecan groves to Plains, where Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter live, and a tiny town called Archery, home of the family farm where the former president grew up. Read my story here.