Carnival Cruise Line is teaming up with sister cruise line Costa Cruises to create a new concept on two cruise ships that will sail from North America starting in 2023.
COSTA by Carnival will debut next year when Costa Venezia begins sailing from New York. A year later, Costa Firenze will head to Long Beach in the spring of 2024.
Carnival Cruise Line will operate the two cruise 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 cruise ships will continue operating their regular Costa itineraries until they are assigned to Carnival Cruise Line for dry dock work and deployment. Deployment and itinerary plans are being finalized, with the Venezia announcement coming soon since the ship will launch cruises from New York next year.
Costa Venezia and Costa Firenze are sister ships to Carnival Vista, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Panorama, coming in at135,500 gross tons and accommodating up to 5,260 guests.
