Costa Victoria News

Carnival Corp unit Costa Cruises on Friday extended its pause on operations to Aug. 15 and canceled all cruises in Northern Europe for the rest of the 2020 summer season.Genoa-based Costa, which had earlier suspended trips until July 31, also cancelled all future Costa Victoria cruises.“The decision is linked to the uncertainty on the gradual reopening of ports to cruise ships and the restrictions that may still be in place for the movements of people due to the COVID-19 global pandemic…

Germany's Port of Kiel says goodbye to the  Italian cruise shipping company Costa Crociere cruise vessel Costa Pacifica for this year’s season on Sunday (September 02).To mark the over 40 years of partnership between the shipping company, the city and the port, Hans-Werner Tovar, City President, Dr Dirk Claus, Managing Director Port of Kiel, Captain Paolo Viscafè and Dr Jörg Rudolph, General Manager Costa Germany, unveiled a bronze plate on Kiel’s Walk of Cruise Ships at the Ostseekai Terminal.City President Tovar: “With this plate on the Walk of Cruise Ships, we commemorate the particular importance of Costa Crociere for Kiel as a cruise location. For more than 40 years the ships of Costa have been calling at our port.

Costa Cruises is continuing to expand and renew its fleet of ships flying the Italian flag. At Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard, construction has begun on a new 135,500-ton ship with 2,116 cabins, due for delivery in 2020. Like its twin Costa Venezia, it will be designed specifically for the Chinese market. Between 2019 and 2021, four new ships will enter service for Costa, with an overall increase in capacity of 43%. Costa Venezia, currently under construction in the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, is due to arrive in February 2019, while the flagship Costa Smeralda, the first cruise ship for the world market powered by LNG, built by Meyer Turku shipyard (Finland)…

Costa Group – part of Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise company – announced that its new generation ships, the first LNG powered at sea, will call Marseille in 2019. The Costa Group, the leading tourism group, the No. 1 cruiser in Europe has renovated its commitment to Port of Marseille through different initiatives that began in 1996 when the new cruise called “La Dolce Vita” started its weekly operations from Marseille to offer the French guests every Saturday a brand new and unique experience in the best places of the Mediterranean onboard its ship Costa Romantica. This new offer launched by Costa contributed to the French people being more and more interested in experiencing a cruise vacation.

Carnival Corporation adds new ships in China to further expand its market, growing its capacity in China by 140 percent from 2013 - 2015. Costa Serena – set to sail out of Shanghai in April 2015 – joins Costa Victoria, Costa Atlantica and Sapphire Princess to make Carnival Corporation the first global cruise company with four ships based in China. Carnival Corporation & plc announced Costa Serena will deploy year-round in China next year, making Carnival Corporation the first global cruise company with four ships based in China, the world’s fastest-growing cruise market.

Cruise Shipping Asia-Pacific talks to Buhdy Bok, Vice President Pacific Asia & China, Costa Crociere S.p.A prior to  Sept. The following questions were address by Mr. What should be common goals within the marketplace? BB: In Asia, I believe that the cruise market, despite registering strong growth, is still relatively under-penetrated. Therefore, the goal of cruise liners is still to actively promote the benefits of a cruise holiday. On top of marketing efforts, which every cruise brand is doing, cruise operators should work hand in hand to provide attractive itineraries, through port and destination development, to bring out the uniqueness of a cruising vacation.

Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal will be the home port for Costa Victoria, which will provide 33 itineraries a year, making Costa Cruises the biggest international operator at the terminal. With the explicit support and encouragement from the Chinese government Costa Cruises has been running cruises from Shanghai since 2006. At the end of this year it’s estimated that Costa will have operated more than 300 cruises and holidayed over 300,000 people from China. The growth of the market means that the Asia Pacific region is one of the most important for Costa Cruises…

Costa Cruises has resumed its Japan itineraries. On August 26th, 2011 Costa Classica will be leaving Shanghai for a 4-day cruise calling at Fukuoka (Japan), Cheju (South Korea) before returning to Shanghai. This decision demonstrates Costa’s confidence in Japan’s tourism market and its support to the revitalization of the local tourism industry. Costa Classica cruises to Japan are very much appreciated especially by Costa Chinese Guests. As the first international cruise company to enter the Chinese market, Costa Cruises has been operating cruise itineraries from China to Japan for more  than five years. From August to October this year Costa Classica, home-ported in Shanghai, will operate a total of 12 cruises to Japan and South Korea.

Costa Cruises has appointed a new Vice President of China, Buhdy Bok, who will head the local operations of the Italian company. Costa Cruises was the first international cruise company to open the cruise market in China, selling its “Italian Style” cruises to the Chinese. After six years of intense activity in the country, Costa Cruises now boasts local offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong and homeports in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tianjin. In 2012, Costa Cruises will expand its offer in the region with the deployment, starting from May, for the first time, of the Costa Victoria (75,200 gross tonnage and 2,394 total guests). The company hopes that Bok will support its in China, a strategic market for the future development of the largest Italian travel group and no.1 cruise company in Europe.

Today marks the beginning of Kiel’s tenth season as a base port for the cruise ships of the Costa Crociere Shipping Company. It comes as “Costa Pacifica” arrives in Kiel to become the biggest cruise ship ever to berth in the port. Arriving from Harwich, the Costa flagship was met early this morning by the tug “Bülk” and escorted with a fountain display to Kiel’s Ostseekai Cruise Terminal where her captain and crew were officially welcomed by the President of the Schleswig-Holstein state capital, Cathy Kietzer.

Costa Crociere continues to make investments to keep its fleet operating at the highest quality standards. Between November and December 2007 no less than 4 ships in the Italian company’s fleet, Europe’s biggest and most modern, were placed in dry-dock to carry out technical maintenance and restyling operations worth a total of 15 million euros. The works were carried out in the dry-docks of the ports of Genoa and Palermo: the Costa Victoria (from 13 to 23 November) was the guest of the Mariotti shipyards in Genoa; the Costa Marina (from 13 to 25 November) was placed in dry-dock no. 5 of the port of Genoa; the Costa Concordia (from 4 to 14 December) and the Costa Classica (from 20 November to 1 December) were overhauled in the Fincantieri dry-docks of Palermo.

Radical changes are imminent for Costa Victoria, one of the nine members currently comprising the Costa Crociere fleet. On January 6, next year, at the end of her New Year's Eve cruise, the ship will leave the port of Savona bound for Bremerhaven in Germany, where it will arrive after 5 days at sea and undergo work at the Lloyd Werft shipyard. During Costa Victoria's stay in the yard, which will last approximately 30 days, it will be dry-docked for routine maintenance work, which is performed regularly every two years on all the company's vessels. At the same time, it will be subjected to extraordinary upgrading work, involving the addition of panorama verandas to 242 oceanview cabins on decks 9 and 10…

Costa Victoria, renovated thanks to the installation of panorama verandas in 242 cabins and 4 minisuites, will be premiered in front of 400 travel agents coming from the North West of Italy on February 13. Costa Victoria, one of the 10 ships in the Costa Crociere fleet after a facelift involving the addition of panorama verandas with private views to 242 cabins. The balconies were installed during a one-month stop when Costa Victoria was dry-docked at the German Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, where she was built.

Costa Victoria, renovated thanks to the installation of panorama verandas in 242 cabins and 4 minisuites, will be premiered in front of 400 travel agents coming from the North West of Italy on February 13. Costa Victoria, one of the 10 ships in the Costa Crociere fleet after a facelift involving the addition of panorama verandas with private views to 242 cabins. The balconies were installed during a one-month stop when Costa Victoria was dry-docked at the German Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, where she was built.

Manuel Grimaldi confided to some close friends last December that not only had he decided to set up a new line from Italy to Spain but also to purchase Superfast 1 now called Eurostar Roma for about $49.3 million. The specification of the vessel will mean a greater presence in Mediterranean RoRo and in fact there are now three of this type of vessel under the name of Grimaldi Ferry Prestige. The new purchase Eurostar Roma (pictured opposite page) was presented by the Naples shipping group in Rome on January 23, 2004. The vessel is 24,000 tons, 570.8 ft. (174 m) long, with a beam of 78.7 ft. (24 m) and a cruising speed of 27 knots. Eurostar Rome can carry 1,400 passengers with 100 cars as well as 110 trailers.