Costa Victoria in for a Facelift at Lloyd Werft

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, as well as to 4 minisuites on deck 11 - in all, 43 percent of the ship's oceanview cabins. This will be the first time that refurbishing of this kind has been carried out on a cruise ship that is already in service, and it will result in the further enhancement of the Costa fleet. With the advent of the "new" Costa Victoria and the new flagship Costa Fortuna, due to be christened at the end of November 2003, some 44 percent of the fleet's oceanview cabins will now be equipped with verandas overlooking the sea. "The work that we are going to carry out on the Costa Victoria," said Pier Luigi Foschi, the Chairman and CEO of Costa Crociere Spa, "is part of our fleet renewal program, which also includes the introduction of another two new ships, Costa Fortuna and Costa Magica, conceived to further improve the quality of the product offered to our Guests. Cruisers definitely rank cabins with private verandas among the most sought after facilities because they help make the atmosphere of the holiday on board even more exciting and alluring." Werner Lueken, Managing Director of Lloyd Werft, said "We are very pleased to welcome the M/V Costa Victoria again in Bremerhaven. She was completed in our shipyard in 1996 and handed over to the owners, Costa, and now this beautiful ship is returning to have 246 panorama verandas installed so she becomes even more elegant and attractive to the passengers. We are proud that Costa Crociere has entrusted us to carry out this conversion in a very short time span and its usual quality." Costa Victoria, which was built by the Lloyd Werft shipyard and entered into service in 1996, is 75,000 gt, 252 m in length and 32 m in breadth. The ship can accommodate up to 2,394 passengers in 964 cabins. The interiors of Costa Victoria were designed by the Italian architect Pierluigi Cerri, and feature mosaics by Emilio Tadini.