Ballroom Dancing on the Med and/or the Fortuna

[Projunior]

My wife and I are considering booking a Caribbean cruise on Costa. We are Princess Platinum members and enjoy dancing in the Wheelhouse bars on the Princess ships (despite the fact that the dance floors are the size of postage stamps). But Costa sounds intriguing and we're seriously thinking of giving them a try if for no other reason than to see which line has the better pizza (we think Princess pizza is tremendous).

Can anyone tell me if there is ballroom dancing nightly on either the Med or the Fortuna?

We are not really interested in dance lessons, but, rather, whether there are lounges with live music and dance floors where people can foxtrot, rhumba, cha-cha, etc. If there is music, is it every night? For how long? What size are the dance floors?

[Kristina99]

Costa ships have extremely spacious dance floors. I was on the Costa Magica and every place we went there were couples out on the floor dancing. Both Costa ships that will be sailing the Caribbean this season have a similiar layout, so im sure you will be able to find ample dancing space.

[DennisBeach]

Assuming they have not changed since last year. Costa has a lot of ballroom music. Fortuna has a large dance floor in one lounge. With smaller dance floors in the Latin Lounge, 2 piano bars and a large lounge at the back of the ship.

We sailed the sister ship Magic, In early 2006 and 2007. The ships band plays occasionally in the back lounge. Other 4 lounges have music most of the time, from early evening to about 1:00 AM. The 4 lounges have 2 or 3 entertainers/groups, that rotate. There are some interruptions for other events, but the lounge with the large dance floor, had 4-6 hours of music every night. In the ballroom, they changed groups without us even noticing it a few times. Normally when they switch, there is no break in the music.

They play the type of ballroom music you hear in high level dance competitions, not the big band music, some consider ballroom. DJs in our area do the same thing and since we like that type of music, we really enjoyed our 2 cruises on the Magica.

Dance floor in the ballroom, is large, has a wood floor and is unobstructed. They actually offset 4 structure posts to make it unobstructed. Since it is in the center and not on an upper level, it was very stable for a ship. We danced in the lounge at the back of the ship a few times and really noticed a difference in stability.

We are going on the Fortuna in 3 months and we sail Costa primarily because of the dancing opportunities. Food is a mixed bag, except for lunch. The few times we went to the dining room for lunch, the food was great.

Costa's slogan is Cruising Italian Style and it is different from most of the cruiselines. Less announcements, less organized activities, more music in the lounges. Less emphasis on the theater and more emphasis on lounge music. They do have kids and teens activities like the others. Emphasis is on European food and American food is not to good. They also have dance lessons by the staff and by teachers, if they can get someone. Staff focuses on line dance versions of latin dancing. teachers do normal ballroom group lessons.

They also have a disco, but we never made it there yet.

[Paul Motter]

Costa ships have some of the biggest dance floors at sea and they do encourage dancing. The dance floor will feel immense to you if you normally dance in a Princess wheelhouse bar.