Carnival Cruise Line – proudly known as America’s cruise line announced today in a press release that they are teaming up with Costa Cruises – Italy’s favorite cruise line – creating a new concept for Carnival’s North American guests when COSTA® by CARNIVAL® debuts in the spring of 2023 and Costa Venezia TM joins the Carnival fleet sailing from New York. Costa Venezia will be followed by Costa Firenze TM arriving in the spring of 2024 to sail from Long Beach.
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!”
“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,” said Duffy. “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!” Zanetti said that Costa will be informing clients impacted by this news.
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.
Looking forward to these new Carnival/Costa ships!!!