October 22, 1991: A Day on St. Thomas, USVI
	October 20, 1991: A Day at Sea on the Costa Riviera
	Return to the Caribbean Cruise Index

Today, Monday, is also a day that we will spend entirely at sea. Perhaps it would have been a nicer cruise if we could have stopped at our first port today, but other than Nassau, which we will visit on our way back, and Cuba, which we can't visit at all, there is not much alternative to making the two-day run directly to St. Thomas.

A Tour of the Bridge on the Costa Riviera

Yesterday, Grant and I signed ourselves up to take a tour of the bridge of the ship, and we did that in mid-morning. The tour was very short- just 45 minutes or so, but our group got a chance to see the bridge and ask questions. Grant, of course, was extremely interested in how the ship operates.

Being at sea all day is not as boring as it sounds. There was lots of stuff to do on the ship. Grant and I got up fairly early and went and had some breakfast with Patty and Don. Patty wanted to get some sun, so I reserved a chaise for her and for myself while Grant and I went off to the 10 a.m. tour of the bridge.

There weren't too many people on the tour; even so, we kind of hung back until many of them left the bridge and we could walk around a bit more freely. Grant wanted to get some pictures of the bridge without a crowd of people there, and the picture at left is one of them. Everything was either built in or automated; I don't know what I expected, but I guess I expected something more like an old sailing ship or perhaps one of Grant's sailboats. Everything was so clean and neat I had the impression that this bridge was just to impress the customers, that the real bridge where the real work was being done was somewhere else.

This is the forward part of the bridge on the Costa Riviera. There is a ship's wheel, right in front of that curved wooden backrest, but there was never anybody there. I deduced that the ship must have an autopilot and we must be on it. I thought about asking someone, but I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Grant.

Grant did ask some more interesting questions of some of the crew, but he didn't get really complete answers. We had hoped that the bridge tour would go into detail about the functions of the instruments and other pieces of equipment, but basically it seemed to be just showing the passengers that there was a bridge and what it looked like. That wasn't enough for a seasoned sailor like Grant.

I thought the bridge was really interesting although, as I said, I guess I expected something more like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, with the captain in the center of the action. But I suppose that when you are just heading straight through open ocean, there's not a lot to do. Just before we left, some crewmembers did show up, and so we took a couple more pictures of the aft side of the bridge:

The Bridge of the Costa Riviera

The Bridge on the Costa Riviera

Our Stateroom on the Costa Riviera

After the tour of the bridge, Grant and I went back down to the Lido deck and the swimming pool. I lay down on a chaise next to Patty and read a book I had brought. Grant stayed in the shade talking with Don and Lynn, and also wandered about the ship for a bit. After I got some sun, I located Grant and we had some lunch in the Dolce Vita restaurant right there on the Lido deck. After that, we went back to the cabin for a while so Grant could take a nap. I thought this might be a good time to take some pictures of the stateroom.

This was my first cruise, and when we were planning it, I had no experience to go by. I figured that since no matter what cabin you were in, you'd still get the benefit of all that the ship had to offer. Besides, I'd always heard that you don't spend much time in the cabin anyway. So we got the most reasonable rate we could- and that was for a cabin in the interior of the ship- no balcony, no window and no porthole.

Looking back on it, it would have been nice to be able to see out- if only through a porthole (actually, cabins on today's ships don't have portholes, they have windows- sometimes quite large ones). At the end of this cruise, I thought that if we did another one, we'd spend the extra money and get one with a view.

Anyway, to begin the tour of our cabin, small as it was, I went to the foot of the bed and took this first picture looking back towards the door to the hall. Out the door and to the right is a short hallway that leads right to one of the main stairways at this end (bow) end of the ship. There is also an elevator, which made it convenient for Grant. The shore excursion office is on this floor.

To the left is a longer hallway with staterooms on either side. There is a dressing room on the other side of the ship from here, which is accessible through a short passageway near our door, where you can use hair dryers and so on. They won't plug into the bathroom here, although shavers will. (I learned later that the Costa Riviera is an older ship, and all the newer ones have regular electric systems that allow you to bring your own small appliances. Actually, most of the newer ships come equipped with hair dryers at least- like most hotels.)

To the right of the exterior door is the door to the bathroom. It is a compact affair, something like a large airplane lavatory with a shower added. Everything is stainless steel. The shower is a small, round affair, just big enough for one; it has a circular curtain. There was a regular commode (although made of steel rather than porcelain) and a small lavatory and short counter. Though small and spartan, the head was quite adequate for our needs.

Ours was about the smallest cabin on the ship. You can spend pretty much what you want to on your cabin; the largest were maybe three or four times the size of ours, and those might have two bedrooms and two baths as well as an outside balcony. But what they say is true: with so much to do on the ship and off it, anything beyond a certain size is kind of a waste of money. A balcony would be nice, though, and maybe one day we'll see what that kind of cabin is like.

Closet and Chair

(Picture at left) The closet is just to the left of the door. Our life vests are there (we have already had one drill and will have another sometime during the cruise) and space for all our bags and clothes. To the left of the closet is one of two chairs in the room and a small coffee table (which doesn't show up in this picture or the next).     (Picture at right) As we continue around the room, there is the other chair and then a small chest of drawers, desk and mirror. There is a phone for both calls within the ship and ship-to-shore communications. I got the steward to always leave a full pitcher of ice for me so that I could have a cold soda late each evening. The orange came from the welcome buffet held in mid-afternoon. The wall to the left of the desk is parallel to the sides of the ship and almost exactly in the middle of the boat.

Chair and Desk

If we continue turning, we see the other corner of the room. The way our room was arranged, the head of the bed was forward, and the foot of the bed pointed aft towards the stern. There was little or no sense of motion here in the cabin, although there was the constant low vibration of the engines, but not even much of that. If you didn't know you were on a ship, you wouldn't know you were moving.

So this is the rest of our stateroom. We got a cabin with a queen-sized bed, although that meant that it took up basically the whole room. (I don't think any of the passenger cabins have smaller beds; I suppose this is why single travelers have to pay a premium. Since the cabins in a given category are all the same size, the cruise line feels it has to charge more than just half of what a couple would pay to occupy the same room.

As I mentioned, everyone says that you don't spend that much time in your room anyway, but for Grant it would have been nice to have some more space to move around in. He had brought some books and magazines to read when he had to lie down because he wasn't feeling well, but still it would have been nice to have either more space or more amusements he could work on within the cabin. Needless to say, there is no television out here on the ocean.

The cabins are just like rooms in a hotel; once you leave for the morning, the cabin crew assigned to your row of rooms come in and clean everything, put out new towels, make the bed and so on. There is always a steward around during the day and up until about midnight for whatever you might need; ours took very good care of us- especially when it came to bringing medicines right on schedule from the fridge in the service room down the hall.

Afternoon Aboard the Costa Riviera

After photographing our stateroom, I got my own book out and laid down for a while with Grant. He seemed as if he was having a good time, but I could tell that all the activity was wearing. After a short while, he dozed off, and so I left him to go see if I could play some bridge.

When I got to the card room, there were a couple of games already underway. Lynn's mother was one of the regulars, and when I got there she was already playing with three other ladies. I waited for a few more people to arrive at which point we formed another table, and then I played for a couple of hours.

I wanted to do my jogging before dinner, so I left the card room and came back through the Lounge, where I found Grant relaxing and waiting for Patty. As I've mentioned, Grant feels good sometimes and not so well other times. He seemed not to be too well this afternoon, so I sat with him until Patty showed up. All I've been able to do all summer long is to try to help him be as comfortable as possible. I hoped he was enjoying the cruise, and Patty told me the very next day when we were on an excursion in St. Thomas that indeed he was having a great time on the ship- even when he didn't feel so well.

I went back to the cabin to change for jogging while Grant and Patty went to the Dolce Vita Cafe for an afternoon snack. Don joined them there for a while, and he took this picture of the two of them. The food on cruise ships is legendary. Vast quantities of it are almost always available. Breakfast and lunch are both restaurant service and buffets, and at dinner you can have as much as you wish. Wanting to get as much for our cruise dollar as we could, I might have liked to eat every meal, but I realized on the morning of our first sea day that I simply couldn't put away that much food each day. A cruise is not for the person on a diet, I would think.

Italian Night on the Costa Riviera

After jogging for an hour (about four miles, I calculate) I was a bit dizzy, since the "track" is so short. But it was nice weather and I was the only one on the marked track. Then I went back to the cabin. Grant was already there, so the both of us got ready to meet Don and Patty in the restaurant for dinner.

I guess it may be common, but on our cruise we had the same dining room steward, John, serving us throughout the cruise. So, on Italian Night, he was the one serving Patty and the rest of us. When we got to the dining room, it had been done up in a green and red Italian motif, and panels depicting Italian scenes had been hung on the walls along the side of the ship. I recall that when I was sitting in my corner, I had a view down the length of the wall, and I noticed that the pictures, hung only at the top, were gently swaying out from the wall and then back again. It was only at that moment that I could really feel the swaying of the ship; up until that time I had not noticed it. John has accustomed himself to Texans quite well as he has brought a pitcher of iced tea to the table.

It was pleasant having just the four of us at our own table; we could all be ourselves, and of course Grant didn't have to explain himself or his condition to anyone. You get a menu from which you can choose one or more entrees, and then the vegetables are standard, although there is a variety. There is always an appetizer and some juice of some kind. I usually ordered two entrees, and then sampled the vegetables, appetizers and other parts of the meal; certainly we all got plenty to eat.

John got used to us and our idiosyncrasies pretty quickly; he and the busboy Patek were quite pleasant, but then of course they are paid to be. I can't remember each meal, but all were good with only minor exceptions. The dining room staff was a veritable United Nations- John was from England and Patek came from Pakistan, while the restaurant manager was Italian. Dinner usually took about an hour and a half, and was always very enjoyable, unless Grant happened to be feeling poorly which, thankfully, was only once that I can recall. Here are a couple more pictures from Italian Night:

The Portofino Dining Room on the Costa Riviera

Our Waiter, John, and Our Table in the Corner

Most times, all the tables in the dining room would be full, but sometimes people would choose to eat in their cabins or up on the Lido deck, or just save themselves for the midnight buffet. The cruise line made an effort to provide some additional spice to each meal, with Italian night being just one of the special dinners, with a group of entrees and desserts that were nominally Italian. For the unadventurous, the menu always included a list of standard upscale restaurant fare.

Our second sea day came to a close with us visiting the Lounge and the casino, and Grant and I walking the decks for a while before turning in.

You can use the links below to continue to album page for our Caribbean Cruise or to return to the cruise index page so you can continue through the photo album.

	October 22, 1991: A Day on St. Thomas, USVI
	October 20, 1991: A Day at Sea on the Costa Riviera
	Return to the Caribbean Cruise Index