Revell of Germany has produced a hefty number of fine kits for comparatively little money during the last years. This kit is no exception. Despite the tiny format, you get a considerable amount of detail, top class decals and the kit itself is very cleverly engineered.

 The CS AIDA is the first cruiseship of a new marketing concept targeted mainly at younger guests.  Outwardly recognizable by the big smiling mouth and eyes, the whole concept is directed at youth, fun and feeling well. CS stands for Club ship, suggesting that you´re aboard a swimming holiday club. The website at www.aida.de shows this approach very well. 

The AIDA was built at Turku in Finland in 1996; meanwhile the success of the concept has brought the commissioning and launching of two sister ships, so she has been renamed to AIDAcara (the sister ships are named AIDAvita and AIDAaura) . The ship is 193 m long and houses 1186 passengers, cared for by a crew of 370.

 The kit was a gift for my girlfriend´s 5-year-old son Lasse, and we built it together. It was completed in a weekend (hey, that´s modeling, too! A good change from you-know-what...) We found just one problem, and that was the placement of the decals for underwater part of the hull. These were, er, dedicated to the spares box, and the hull was sprayed red. Apart from that, we followed the none-too-complicated instructions and were amazed at how the various decks snapped together and finally slid into the one-piece-hull and rested there securely. It testifies to Revell having built yet another well-fitting mold. 

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