Since I was on a 3-week Costa cruise, I thought I would comment on the use of the different languages. First off, I didn’t like it for several reasons: (1) It was downright annoying!!! to hear that constant chatter all day long; (2) If you missed the English announcement as what happens when the announcements are made while you are in your cabin and your door isn’t open (by the way, this also happens on Carnival ships).

You have mentioned several times about the lost luggage. One of the fun nights on Costa was the very last night which was Toga Party night. Everyone was given a clean sheet by the room steward to wear for dinner and the evening and you could dress it up or put it on many different ways. This gave the passengers an easy-out to get all their packing done without worrying about packing what was worn that night.

Maybe, this might be an amusing way of handling those glitches of luggage that doesn’t arrive in time for dinner and maybe doing this on the first night might be an option for this.

And, too, I’ve noticed that cruises which start off in a foreign port, follow foreign customs, i.e., the food choices are chosen according to foreign tastes, yet when the cruise starts from the U.S., it it more Americanized. And, likewise, if I am leaving from a European port, I could possibly pick up an English-printed announcement paper at the Purser’s office. All the times are there – I don’t need to be told over and over what’s going on. We all always have our bulletins to READ.

Sorry for the length of this . . . I guess I’m just getting over excited . . . I’m doing the doc dance (my documents have arrived) and the 70 of us are trying to get our suitcases closed for our trip on the Legend.

Just one more thing . . . I was attempting to order cruise shirts (my hubby & I will be both celebrating our 70th birthdays on the cruise and I noticed that I couldn’t order a John Bloggy shirt that could be worn on any ship because it is only for the bloggers cruise (which I will wear it then) but a generic John Bloggy shirt would be useful. Come to think of it, when we’re on the 50-day cruise we could probably use a blogger Muu-Muu
(ha-ha)

Them pictures are great, me and suzann loved them, sorry we are a couple days late with our wishes, congratulations been busy with work etc. good luck and good health with many more years to come..love robert and suzann

John -

You are surely deserving of every accolade you receive. My daughter, our friend, and I are counting the days ’til we will see you and Heidi on the TA in October.

Sue