Today is a special day because on February 25, 2020, I posted the first photo on Oggi A Bordo's Instagram. Yes, you read that right: this story started just 19 days before we all locked ourselves in our homes for weeks. A travel project that started in the middle of a pandemic.
Actually, I never thought that this could become so important to me today. I wasn't too worried about not being able to travel and starting this account. After all, it all began with the desire to upload the photos from my last trip on board Costa Smeralda. I was inspired by the name of the ship's daily program, Oggi A Bordo, and simply started uploading all the photos during the lockdown as a way to kill the time.
I was excited because since I was a child, I fell in love with my first cruise on Costa Concordia, and until 2019, I hadn't crossed the seas again (in that case on board Sovereign of the now gone Pullmantur and Costa Diadema). Costa Smeralda fascinated me and ignited something in me to start telling such a magical story as a vacation on the seas.
As you can imagine, during my first few months, I relied entirely on my previous journeys, and it was in May 2021 when I wanted to travel again, no matter what. There were no cruises in Spain, so I took a flight to Rome and embarked on the Smeralda for a week. I couldn't stop after that. Then came the Greek Islands, more Mediterranean, the Norwegian Fjords, and even the United States.
It was in the midst of all this frenzy that I delved deeper and deeper to expand the Oggi A Bordo project to what it is today: a community united by our passion for discovering new destinations and especially doing so through the sea. And this is just the beginning.
These three years have brought me many positive things, as well as challenges and obstacles. I want to focus on the best of everything, which has been the connections I have been able to make and continue to make every day with each of the people who come across any of the channels or trips. It's wonderful to learn more about people from all over, whether they are the crew who make every detail special, travelers who look to social media to discover new horizons, and all kinds of friendships that arise on board or at any of the destinations that I still maintain today.
I want to thank my friends at Costa and Royal Caribbean who have supported me so much lately with wonderful projects, each one of the crew members I've met, and especially thank you for the opportunity to sail together on this journey. As I said, this is just the beginning.
In 2023, we have new series on YouTube for the Spanish market, new collaborations that I can't reveal yet (and they're really WOW!), new formats like the revamped website that you now have available with new sections that will arrive over the next few weeks to better advise you on your next trips, new directions in which Oggi A Bordo is expanding, and of course, new adventures like the next cruise, which is a return to where it all started: Costa Smeralda.
We set sail. ⚓️
Sergio NM