Cruising ltalian-style

THE last night on a
cruise ship tends to be
a bit of a let-down:
bags packed, passen-
gers go for dinner
wearing the clothes
they will be travelling
in the next day.

Nor on the Costa
Victoria they didn’t.

This was toga night!

The vast majority of the
1,900 souls on board draped
themselves in bedsheets and
made an entrance at cocktail
hour then trooped off to
dinner in regalia the likes of
which have not been seen
since Nero’s last night on
the fiddle,

There were some amaz-
ing sights, such as the man
from Kelowna sporting a
cowboy hat with oak leaves
on the brim, while cruise
director Nick Weir, a tower-
ing 6’6” in sandals, strode
the deck like Caesar.

Women were boldly
imaginative, many turning a
simple bedsheet into a fetch-
ing fashion garment.

And although it never
got as wicked as Roman
nights at Hedonism II in
Jamaica, the party truly
went with a swing just as
they used to do on ocean
liners when on long voyages
passengers regularly had
masquerade nights.

Modern cruise ships typi-
cally put a masquerade event
on the program but it’s usu-
ally a dull parade of passcn-
gers who don’: dress until
after dinner.

Don’t just take my word
for it: a major cruise guide
has voted the Costa’s toga
night as the most off-the-
wall event of the year at sea.

Cruise director Weir
spends the whole week
working up the passengers
for the big night. He is a
man with a wacky sense of
humour who gets zanier
cvery day, supplementing
the usual fare of (very good)

roduction shows with
talian karaoke and pizza-
throwing.

After all that a toga party
sounds quite tame and peo-
ple forget their inhibitions
and join in.

! mean, you didn’t run
away to sea to be the same

person for a week, did you?

Nobody works harder on
the Costa Victoria than
Weir, 31, who has been a
sipiise director since he was

His days are 18 hours
long, he works seven of
them a week and six months
straight before heading
home to Brighton, England.

Home used to be
Australia and he went to
university in Miami.

Weir speaks Italian,
Spanish, and can fake
Japanese brilliantly. He
sings, plays the guitar and is
a master story-teller.

Just as well Weir is such a
big presence around the ship
because you're not likely to
meet an officer unless you
go to the disco at midnight
and look like Madonna. As
for the captain you’ve as
good a chance of sighting
Elvis. Mind you it’s the
same on all ships with
Italian or Greck officers.

This is a new ship, built
in Germany and a whopping
75,000 tons topped by two
huge yellow funnels.

In case you wondered,
that’s huge, allowing for
Costa — whose slogan is
“cruising-Italian style” — to
include nifty features like a

izzeria, but one would
ave expected an Italian
rather than a Filipino chef.

The best parts of the din-
ing experience were the ser-
vice from the hard-working
(also Filipino) waiters and
the wines, well-chosen and
reasonably priced.

However there is an odd
system whereby you have to
pay for the wine, involving
tedious coming and going
with cruise cards, before you
get it.

On the other hand, beer
drinkers were ecstatic to find
that all the bars had draught
Tuborg from Copenhagen.

There is no library,

33 Er

THE Cesta Victoria, seen here docked at Key West in Florida, does seven-night cruises every Sunday from
Ft. Lauderdale, alternating east and west Caribbean. .

although books are available
for passengers who go to
the purser’s office and ask
for a list studded with
howlers such as Pride and
Prejudice by Jane Austin
and Brighton Rock by
Graham Green.

Best bring your own
reading material and take it
to the beautiful lounge for-
ward, ride the glass clevator
to the top and hide away in
the coziest little hideaways
imaginable.

If you want to get out
and about head for Costa
Victoria’s covered prome-
nade deck (twice round is a
kilometre) perfect for walk-
ing, cunning, and being
steel, roller: blading. Believe
me, you need something like
this to work off the pasta.

Cruising Italian-style is a
lot of fun until you find you
need a double-bedsheet for
the toga party.

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