Costa Venezia

Costa Venezia (due to enter service in 2019) is the first Costa Cruises ship constructed and designed specifically for China's market.

Of this class, two new cruise liners for Costa were scheduled for delivery in 2019 (Venezia) and 2020 (still unnamed sistership), both constructed by the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri. Each vessel has gross tonnage 135,500 tons, 2116 cabins and passenger capacity 4200 (max / double-occupancy - 5260 pax).

History - construction and ownership

Costa Cruises is a Genoa-headquartered subsidiary company owned by Carnival Corporation. Costa is Europe's second largest cruise line (after MSC) with year-round operations in the Mediterranean. Costa was founded in 1854 as cargo shipping company. It started passenger shipping services in 1947, with regular Transatlantic crossings between Europe (Italy) and South America. In 2000, Costa Cruises was acquired by Carnival Corporation (shipowner).

• Ship's design features more efficient use of both indoor and open-deck spaces, with several multi-functional areas. The activity (Lido) deck features aqua park with a water slide, high-rope garden, mini-golf course. The pool deck is covered with retractable glass roof. The Beach Club (adults only complex) is beneath the glass roof and features a swimming pool, waterslides, rock climbing wall, sports deck area. This deck also has a giant LED wall for movies and other outdoor video entertainment.
• The ship has dedicated club lounges for teens and kids, including for toddlers.
• The ship's panoramic glass elevators also connect the outdoor areas.
• There is a glass-bottomed skywalk, huge wellness complex (Organic Spa and Fitness), Plaza (with numerous bars and shops), Atrium Lobby Lounge (meeting place with stage for street performers), large-capacity Theater (main show lounge).

Another ship order agreement (with the German shipbuilder Meyer Werft) was signed in July 2015 and included construction of 4 new cruise ships. The contract was finalized in April 2016. Of these 4 vessels, 2 are for Costa Cruises (Costa Smeralda from the new Helios-class vessels) and the other 2 for AIDA Cruises (Carnival's German brand).

Managed by Costa Group, the Costa and AIDA combinjed fleet is Europe's largest. In 2014, one out of every two cruise ship tourists in Europe sailed on either AIDA or Costa ship. In 2015, Costa Group had 20 offices in 14 countries, around 27,000 shipyard employees and total passenger capacity of over 68,000 berths (across the combined fleet). Costa Group also is the leader on China's rapidly growing cruise market in Asia.

Besides the ship's staff and crew, Costa cruise passengers are also served by Peper robots - latest cyborg technology implemented fleetwide in 2016. These humanoid robots greet and guide passengers upon embarkation. They also assist them throughout the cruise by providing information and tips on onboard dining, entertainment, enrichment program (workshops, pre-scheduled events), casino and shopping promotions, shore excursions and tours. Pepper robots are mobile and communicate in 3 languages (English, German, Italian). They can also interpret human emotions by analyzing voice tones and face expressions.

Cruise itinerary program

The inaugural voyage of Costa Venezia was scheduled for March 8, 2019. This eastbound repositioning cruise from Europe to China (53-day "world voyage" March 8-April 29 from Trieste to Yokohama via Suez Canal) included popular ports of call in Italy, Croatia, Greece, Israel, (Suez Canal transit), Jordan, Oman, UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi), India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China (Hong Kong), Taiwan and Japan.

The inaugural cruise was offered for booking in 3 different segments - 20-day (Trieste-Dubai), 18-day (Dubai-Singapore) and 17-day (Singapore-Yokohama. The ship will be homeported in China (Shanghai) for year-round passenger shipping operations exclusively in Asia.

Inaugural cruise tickets were also available for booking by European customers.

• The vessel's a keel-layng / coin ceremony was held on November 1, 2017, at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone (near Trieste, Italy).
• The ship was launched on June 22, 2018 (floated out) at Monfalcone shipyard.

Inaugural cruise itinerary 2019

The inaugural cruise of Costa Venezia (the repositioning cruise from Europe to Asia) was the only itinerary officially anounced by Costa Cruises and available for booking on March 2, 2018. Tickets for the maiden voyage were available for booking by both European and Asian customers.

Next table shows the itinerary's ports of call and port times. Prices started from USD 5000 pp (inside cabin rates based on double occupancy).

This eastbound repositioning cruise was offered for booking in 5 different itinerary segments:

• 19-day (Trieste-Dubai) - prices from USD 2000 pp
• 17-day (Dubai-Singapore) - prices from USD 1700 pp
• 16-day (Singapore-Yokohama) - prices from USD 1600 pp
• 33-day (Dubay-Yokohama) - prices from USD 3600 pp
• 36-day (Trieste-Singapore) - prices from USD 4000 pp

Godspeed to the new ship!