American cruise stalwart Carnival Cruise Line is teaming up with sister company Costa Cruises - Italy's favourite cruise line - creating a new concept for Carnival's North American guests.
Costa by Carnival will debut in the spring of 2023, as Costa Venezia joins the Carnival fleet, sailing from New York. In spring 2024, Costa Firenze will arrive on North American shores to sail from Long Beach, California.
Carnival will operate the ships, which will marry the great service, food and entertainment that Carnival's guests enjoy with Costa's Italian design features. "Costa Venezia and Costa Firenze will bring Carnival's guests the ambiance and beauty of Italy," said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. "We're going to invite our guests to Choose Fun with Carnival, Italian Style!"
Duffy continued: "This is an exciting opportunity for us to operate two additional beautiful Vista class ships in the U.S. and bring a unique experience to those who love the culture, food and vibe of Italy. There are lots of ways we plan to create an immersive fun experience for our guests who choose to sail on these ships, which have beautiful Italian-design elements, dining and retail that will deliver Carnival fun leveraging the spirit of Italy from our sister line Costa Cruises."
Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Cruises, said: "We are excited to see these iconic ships make their debut in the U.S. under the leadership and operation of our sister brand. Costa providing the beautiful ship with its Italian design and Carnival delivering FUN, Italian Style!"
Duffy said that the ships will continue operating their regular Costa itineraries until they are assigned to Carnival for dry dock work and deployment.
Deployment and itinerary plans are being finalized, with the Venezia announcement coming soon given the spring 2023 launch date. Costa Venezia and Costa Firenze are sister ships to Carnival Vista, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Panorama, weighing 135,500 gross tons and accommodating up to 5,260 guests.
Topics From This Article to Explore
