Costa Fortuna Cruise – Day 1 and 2 -Sailing along the ship of dreams

People might have diverse ideas around year-end vacation plans like booking a farmhouse away from the hustle bustle of the city life or shack near a beach side destination like Goa or may be going to a remote no network/WiFi place with a loved one and many more. But just imagine spending this time in a cruise where you are just passing time relaxing in a balcony sea facing cabin, tasting lip smacking food, performances by renowned dancers around the world, standing on the reeling and watching the huge ocean and the list goes on and on. Vow isn’t it?

I got a chance to experience these vow moments last year. I was so busy with my work the entire year to decide on my year-end vacation plans that it was almost November end when I actually started thinking where to go. All the package tours and flights were full to the most happening destinations around this important time of the year. So while I was sitting saddened at home, my dad suggested why don’t you try this "New year with Costa Fortuna Cruise package tour" by Chariot travels which also covers additional 4 days of Singapore sight-seeing and trust factor was already there since he had toured it previous year only. Without a second thought, I made this booking along with my sister and niece. Then started dreaming about this tour and making our preparations thereby pumping the excitement J.

I will cover Singapore travel experience in a separate blog. The next series of blogs will only cover my Costa Fortuna Cruise experience and the places we see during the 6 day's journey of our sailing. 

I always had a fantasy of going on a luxury 5-star cruise from the time I saw Titanic movie during my childhood days and off-late Zoya Akhtar reignited the spark with the movie "Dil Dhadakne Do". Hence for me this was my "Ship of dreams" and indeed my dream holiday. 

Day 1 – Dec 24^th– Onboard Costa Fortuna

Our local travel bus hired by Chariot left us at the Cruise terminal at around 4:30 PM in the evening Singapore time. We were instructed to put luggage tags to our check-in bags, which were provided by Chariot along with the tickets. Post that it was a typical immigration process, security check and boarding just like Airport. However, before boarding into the cruise, you will need to surrender your passport at the entrance and then only you will get keys for your room. Passports will be returned on the last day once you clear your checkout bills and surrender the keys. Each member of the room will get a key card of the room with their name on it. So best thing is you will not be dependent on each other to move around in the cruise. And also this will be a good souvenir to take back home. 

As we entered the cruise, the staff onboard warmly greeted us. Inside the cruise, there are clear indications and directions of which floor our rooms are and in which wing. So following them, we reached our room. It was seriously a dream come true moment for me.

Our Cabin Stewardess was waiting for us outside the room to greet us. She told us that the next 5 days we could reach out to her for any help. She showed us around our cabin and gave all-important instructions. Our cabin was an elegant one with a direct sea view from our balcony with nice relaxing chairs to sit and absorb the same.

Next in few minutes, we heard an announcement that there will be a mock evacuation drill. We were asked to put on our life jackets and follow our Stewardess to the safe zone. We started walking and reached the safe place where in the volunteers asked us to stand in a line of 5 each. They gave instructions on what needs to be done in case of emergency, how many lifeboats are there, how to reach them etc. It was interesting to listen to them since I had seen all these only in movies.  

Then we went to the top deck and the smell of hot French fries caught our attention from the restaurant. So we thought better to have them first and then explore the deck since we were super hungry also. The large windows that overlook the sea invite you to relax and enjoy your food. It was seriously blissful. We could believe that finally we are on our dream holiday.

Then there was big honk – indication that the ship is about to start sailing. As ship started sailing, we could see the Singapore flyer and all the important attractions leaving us as we started moving away from them.

This was my second cruise experience. While my first cruise experience has been Nile Cruise, this one was like a 5-star luxury experience sailing on sea and you have everything onboard.

Day 2 – Dec 25^th Christmas Eve

We woke up late today since we knew that it was a day at leisure for us to explore the cruise. When we opened the cabin door, we noticed that there were nice flyers kept inside the mailbox of our room. My niece was super excited to see lot of events planned for kids – games, picture with ship captain, a chance to meet Santa, click pictures and play with him. We knew her day was sorted. You get a daily event schedule in your mailbox and full day of fun activities planned for kids, women and all age groups. Therefore, entertainment onboard of your entire day is nicely taken care of here.

Best part about this cruise are all the restaurants, decks, theaters and other places are clear marked so that even kids can walk around easily. My niece had explored the entire ship on day 1 only so well that she was guiding us to the spa and swimming pool. Finally, she got ready and set off with her friends for all the Christmas celebrations planned for kids.

We thought of relaxing in the Jacuzzi and swimming pool. There are 3 pools and enough Jacuzzi’s on top deck. Somehow, we could get place and we got a much-expected relaxation in Jacuzzi. This was the moment where our heart was saying, “This is called a vacation”. We also went in the water slide couple of times to get amusement park experience. Time just flew and then it was time for lunch.

We went to room to freshen up. When we opened the room door, we saw nice plum cake wrapped in a box kept on bed with Christmas greeting card along with bunch of cookies and chocolates for my niece. We were really surprised and delighted with the hospitality on board.

We quickly freshened up and now started thinking where to have lunch. There are 3 multi-cuisine restaurants. We had already explored one of them the previous day. Chariot travels was kind enough to organize Indian food for us in one of the restaurants. So we quickly had some food and headed down to explore the rest of the recreational facilities onboard – casino, dance floor, lounges, bars, theater, gym, play area, library, multi-sport field etc. There are enough stuffs to keep you busy throughout the day (even without WiFi). There is also a shopping area where in all premium brand shops are there (clothes, shoes, bags, watches, jewelry etc). You will hardly go to your room to relax.

There are Photoshop centers at everyplace where in photographers will invite you to click pics and all these will be displayed on the last day on wall so that you can buy them and make an album of your cruise memories.

Such a luxury trip will not be complete without entertaining performances. We had seen the event calendar in the morning and knew that at 7 pm there would be Christmas special dance performances. So we went to the theater little early to ensure that we get seat at the right place where in we can watch the performances without any disturbances. It was spectacular and the 2 hours’ time just flew. Here on every evening there were exciting and engaging shows daily by different dancers Salsa, Latin American, Italian etc.

Then it was dinner-time. We went to the other restaurant where Chariot had arranged Indian food for us. Our Chariot tour guide briefed us on our next day plan - where the ship would dock and what time to be ready. Well, that is a surprise for my readers😊.

Post dinner when we went to the top deck, the same set of dancers whom we saw in theater had set up a stage to teach us the dance steps and DJ night thereof. I was just telling my sister only this piece of fun was missing in this entire experience and here it is. We also put some steps along with people, dancers, crew and had great fun. In between realized that we need to get up early tomorrow to dock into our first port/touring place. We decided to call off for the day, reached our cabin and had a nice sound sleep.

You will have to wait for my next blog to see where we docked next day. From here on, our journey of island hopping on this ship of dreams begins😊.