At7Seas

Everybody familiar with Costa understands through this promotion video that only very few changes are planned. A lot of “very new” or “very special” things are simply typical for Costa ships. Even a lot of venues keep their names, only a few things are adjusted to Carnival. I completely agree that ships should sail - and if demand is right now from the US market ships should sail there. Regardless that there are signs that Asia might go cruising again. Of course there are definitely no Costa branded ships available for this as soon as the Firenze left the fleet. For the time being the Serena can pick up again, but this vessel is hard needed for Costa’s bread and butter cruises in the Caribbean during winter 2023/24 already. They already miss a ship for the usual tour to the Canaries, which is done with the Firenze for the last in January 2024. There are no signs that Costa can’t fill the ships planned to sail for the European market in summer 2023 and the Firenze is larger than the later returning Serena. There are simply no special promotions with give away prices as Costa does when the sale is slow. And if you ask me MSC in the same port forms no serious risk for Costa - I can’t know the new project of course, so I compare the known. MSC has neither an Italian touch (they try being a compromise between international and Italian and fail with both) nor reaches the quality by far. They are just cheap. I personally regard MSC being a ferry boat line one takes if no better option is available - or too expensive.

As far as I know Luminosa kept her chimney in original shape, but it was repainted to fit into the Carnival brand style. So even for this there is a precedent - but obviously not planned with the Venezia. And I am not even scratching my head, because I don’t expect this could be an accident. Who ever said that promoting something as a completely new concept - with all risks regarding acceptance - would be cheaper than telling customers about an innovation within the existing brand? Challenging existent customers without a strategy is no good idea, offering a new product with a special design within the known brand would definitely be the easiest way - and much cheaper. I don’t think that the new concept is based on thoughtless decisions. Avoiding costs of re-branding by introducing a new brand? This doesn’t make much sense economically. When talking about economics there could be another interesting possibility. An intelligent strategy instead of stumbling around because Carnival management fears the own existing customers could not accept the architecture of a ship. This thought is based on factual communicated details and I combine these with marketing strategies only. It still doesn’t answer how the concept will be realised at all, but is at least a possible answer to the why. This leaves no questions open, no head scratching, just requires a consequent implementation. Costa has a too high capacity through the Chinese market breaking away something needed to be done. Even after all changes planned as today the European fleet of Costa 2024 will have a larger capacity than in 2019 and the ships will be younger. Sounds as being prepared for a healthy growth within Europe. Costa however openly communicated that there are European nationalities no longer booking their cruises, so again cabins are waiting for guests. Making the name Costa popular among US cruisers through Costa by Carnival would be an intelligent strategy within the group. In European waters Costa is the largest brand within Carnival Corporation and Plc accommodating English speaking guests. I don’t know whether this has been the strategy behind the concept, but with a growing US market it would be a brilliant idea for selling more cruises in the Med and other regions where Costa has a strong presence without sending another ship of Carnival Cruises or another American brand over. Smuggling another brand into the minds of Carnival guests is no reason to scratch my head, definitely makes sense economically, and a positive experience is a really great promotion.

Well, my central point is that there is hardly any information and I have quite a lot of questions. What do we know? Fact is that “Costa by Carnival” is announced as something completely new. The expression “Fun Italian Style” was used for promotion already in the first official announcement, it isn’t newer than the new Costa by Carnival. Protecting this as trademark should be no surprise, because everything else would be a stupidity. This doesn’t take away that I am not sure what kind of public should be attracted with these words. But if you look at the graphics below both brands Carnival and Costa are read on the Costa Venezia (I use here the name as displayed), as well as the mentioned slogan. Also the outer design of the ship is a clear combination of both brands. It is no photograph, when I saw the Venezia last month the only blue on the bow was the name and the picture was used earlier. It wasn’t made by someone who just used his own fantasy, this illustration was officially used in a press release as well: One can‘t compare this project to the full integration as with the Luminosa lately, which never was said to sail under the new concept. Being a new concept is not my interpretation, but part of the official statement. There is a very simple reason why we should believe this statement. It doesn’t make sense promoting a new concept for the same old product, it is way harder to sell. The easy way would have been to tell customers that the brand they are familiar with will offer cruises on a wonderful new ship with an unique atmosphere. The Luminosa was definitely not the first ship that left Costa, regardless whether sold to a third party or transferred to another brand and / or subsidiary of Carnival Corporation and Plc, but up to now this always happened with full integration into the new brand, often enough with a completely new name. The neoRiviera got a new name and a full new design, although the use as AIDAmira was from the very beginning planned for a short time while waiting for a newly built ship. Up to now older vessels left the Costa fleet after being at least a decade in service, this is different now, since the Venezia is only four years old. That a type of ship is used more than once within Carnival group and sometimes beyond is absolutely no surprise. If the other ships of this type are comparable in factual use indeed - and have despite of the disadvantage described above success on the US market - I can understand why exactly these ships will sail from American ports. Having restaurants included in the fare is nothing special for the brand Carnival, most cruise lines do so and Costa offers exactly the same. Not having any change is no proof of becoming completely integrated in Carnival, while the owners say the opposite. A “complimentary” restaurant as proof for a full integration into Carnival I would regard as reading too much into things, for me this is another sign that we lack information. And within Carnival group you earn points with the brand you book with, not the company that actually owns the ship, AIDA is besides Costa the second brand of the company Costa Crociere SpA and sailing AIDA doesn‘t result in Costa points, neither automatically, nor on request. Just as the brands P&O and Cunard are handled separately, although both belong to the same subsidiary in the UK. Or the US based brands… Running cruises from the USA with staff of Carnival Cruises has at least two obvious advantages. Costa Europe staff knows both Italian and international guests and their special wishes, those having intensive contact with guests need not only to be fluent in Italian, but in English as well and have to have some basic skills in the other standard languages aboard, while Carnival Cruises staff has mainly to be familiar with the needs of US guests. Costa Asia had different requirements than Costa Europe of course, although these were just departments of the same company. Already from this point it makes sense to keep the staff with the target market they are best qualified for. Besides the USA have extreme strict and complicated immigration rules, which causes problems to cruise lines regarding staff on cruise ships. Using staff already sailing US ports could make it much easier, I suppose. All this does not tell us how much Costa, or if you prefer how much Italy, will remain in this new project. It is the same with the information that the Venezia perhaps might be dry docked after most works will be ready. Besides a challenging logic such a statement contains zero information. There are reasons to believe so, but we can’t call a vague statement what might be done a fact. And exactly this is my point, what are the plans? We only know that it won‘t be a full integration of the two ships into Carnival Cruises. Planning something else is one of the few facts clearly announced, which does not take away that plans will be changed at some point. I am not reading too much into what has been said or not, I have questions about what has been left out. As I said before repeatedly: lack of information. Everything officially said about the ship itself your refer to was more or less a description of what already exists, things that mostly remain unchanged. I really can reduce the real changes to American style burgers and US sockets. The name of the MDR doesn‘t explain the concept. Is the fact that the name of venues remain in Italian language everything? Introducing a ship on a new market is fine, but it doesn‘t answer at all what the new concept will be like - or for example why it is exclusively for sale in America, while all the other Carnival vessels can be booked in Europe. So I only can quote and ask the questions I have. And obviously I am not the only one who has questions, as the pure existence of this thread proves. This has been the reason why I told about my personal observations, here I definitely know something.

My Drinks includes all mocktails, soft drinks, all coffees and teas without alcohol, and some juices (by the glass), freshly squeezed juices are excluded. Once I was given on an older Costa ship a cabin which was designed for wheelchair use, just because it was free. It had really a lot of space more than the usually sized cabins. Especially the bathroom was enormous. You should contact the customer service and explain exactly your needs. I met once a couple aboard with a woman in wheelchair and she was very positive about all the assistance she got from Costa.

No doubt, Costa is an Italian product and Italians are their main target group. Costa Croicere SpA is an Italian company and the ships are sailing under Italian flag. But Costa has a lot of international customers as well, I have also been on cruises with them where French or German were the most spoken languages, just depending on the part of the world the cruise took place. Just English speaking guests are not so often found on Costas. Get me right, English is always spoken, but English native speakers are definitlely a small group aboard, while by far the most on Cruise Critic. By the way, MSC is often said to be Italian, in fact it is a Swiss company and the ships are sailing under the flag of Malta. Only the owner family has Italian roots, while the owner of Costa is a company registered both in New York and London - and Costa is definitely not very British…

You write in your first sentence what you think the concept could be. Exactly this is my point, we don‘t know a lot by information officially released, we need to close the huge remaining gaps by guessing. Even about changing names I found different information, sometimes Costa Venezia is used as future name, sometimes Carnival Venezia. My comment about the cruise line offering only buffet included and all restaurants as charged extra, having ships without classic MDR, was to explain that I want to know what to expect before booking. To be clear, this is neither the brand Costa nor Carnival Cruises of course. The many questions you find on these boards make clear that a lot of people want to have more information than offered by cruiselines before booking, regardless whether a brand exist since more than 100 years or didn’t sail yet. If you really want to know what Italian style is just go to Italy and experience life there. Feel it, take part in it. Costa mirrors this very naturally at sea, of course, it is a product made in Italy by Italians for Italian and international guests. When I cruised on another line and visited the Italian restaurant on board staff was completely confused that I selected the courses the in Italy typical way. Thinking pasta could be the only main course is a mistake even an absolute beginner shouldn‘t do. This is a small example of Italian style tried - but failed. If food, drinks, entertainment, the entire cruise would be Italian only by the scene of the ship, if everything would be dominated by (of course not limited to) the already quoted American style burgers it wouldn’t be Italian style, regardless the names of the venues. Costa has researched the wishes of their Chinese guests and used these data to build the Venezia as their first for the Chinese market built cruise ship, followed by the Firenze. Someone described the result as casino surrounded by a shopping mall to bring the differences to the point. Okay, most cruise ships have a casino, all Costas have one, but making it the central attraction aboard is something new for Costa - and the two new ships built for the European market the same time are not built like this concept either. And the existing ships if deployed to Asia for several years were reconfigured for China and rebuilt when returning to Europe. When the Fortuna left to sail in Asia decor elements were removed to avoid possible misunderstandings between cultures. Differences can be found both in the complete layout and in the tiny detail. When such an effort is done for serving the Chinese target market it would be surprising if it wouldn’t have been done for the US market now as well. The aim that Americans should feel at home was communicated, but about nearly everything beyond this announcement we need to guess again.

To begin with the entire concept is not clearly communicated. I have no doubts that “Costa by Carnival” will start, but it is completely uncertain how this project will look like. Is the intention integrating ships made for China into the Carnival fleet and it is a marketing trick to call possible differences between Carnival Cruises and Costa by Carnival “Italian touch”? Or is the intention making Costa on the US market more popular, since the line has hardly any US customers? There is a huge difference between letting the brand Carnival grow and an attempt to make Costa popular in another part of the world. Or doing something completely different I didn’t think about. Of course looking at American sites teaches us about the planned sailings (the Venezia cruises are not listed by the European sites selling Carnival Cruises and she is no longer listed under Costa). I completely agree that the places to be visited are a very important part of a cruise, for me personally even the most important part. But this doesn’t take away that the entire concept needs to fit as well. Again talking about myself, I am not convinced of the “funship” concept. I also avoid a cruise line that includes only buffets in the price of the cruise. Everybody has these likes and dislikes, so the concept is definitely important. “Fun Italian style” as advertised doesn’t answer any question, that one need tell in a press release that the sockets will be replaced shows how little is actually said (BTW, if you might not know, every Costa vessel has for guest use sockets for continental European and US plugs next to each other). Just as an example: creation of an adult area. This is filling a press release, but is this new for the Venezia? No! That burgers American style are announced might be owed at the aimed home market of course, but this also leads to the question how Italian Costa by Carnival will be, just a decoration with Italian names of venues? Or are just tiny American accents on a purely Italian ship planned? After so many questions to the facts. That the Venezia left service so early for working on her slowly is just not true. The original plan was to let her sail in the Med until Easter before she should undergo some works and to start Costa by Carnival with her. Costa communicated that the planned sailings from December 22 to April 23 from Turkey were cancelled because their aimed customers can’t participate in this cruise. This cryptic announcement simply means that guests from Ukraine and Russia didn’t book. The cancelled cruises from Istanbul might explain as well, why the Venezia wasn’t sent to South America - where are already three Costa ships during this winter by the way.

Well, it is the usual laundry bag. When I used it in most cases everything fit in, but not easily, I roll everything up to avoid as much air as possible. But the limit is 25 pieces and not what fits into the bag, size of the bag is more about logistics. A bit on top of the bag never was a problem. I always get everything back in two bags… You need to fill-in the laundry form anyway, this enables also to double-check the number of pieces. Don‘t forget to write your Magic Bag reservation number on it as well to avoid double billing.

Indeed, there are a lot of uncertainties about this new project "Costa by Carnival". When I saw the Venezia moored in Civitavecchia some decks were completely lit in the morning hours, others dark (I passed by during daybreak and after sunset). This could possibly be taken as a hint that perhaps some internal works took place. But as I wrote outside everything remained completely unchanged, this includes the name as Costa Venezia, all remained in the typical style of this brand, as well as no “Costa by Carnival” slogan on her as pictures in advertisements show. Tracking data show her since end of December in the container part of Cagliari port once a while, but also anchored close to the Sardinian shore. I am aware that there is a Navy shipyard in town, but not about any other being able to carry out works this scale locally. Fincantieri as builder for sure has no shipyard in Cagliari, for major works later in a ship’s lifetime often Chantier Naval de Marseille is used by all daughter companies of Carnival group, at least if works are done in the Mediterranean. “Probably move to a dry dock” states exactly this uncertainty as well, just as I expressed with my own “we will see”. I only added my personal observation because there is hardly any information released by Costa and Carnival.

Welcome to the Costa Board now… The Venezia four weeks ago was docked in Civitavecchia (Rome) and outside no conversion happened at all. She remained completely in Costa style. The ship is just below four years old of which she was not in use quite long through covid. I could imagine of course that the many Chinese signage will be removed, since the Venezia as well as the Firenze were built for sailing in China, where Costa was the big player before the pandemic. A market that completely disappeared. Instead last year “Costa by Carnival” was invented, so it is not just sending another ship from one brand to the other within Carnival Corporation and Plc, which among others owns both Carnival Cruises and Costa Crociere. How much Costa remains when vessels will be sailing now exclusively for the US market instead of the Chinese market we will see. Right now the Venezia isn’t dry-docked either, but in Italian waters next to Sardinia.

You can use the laundry service by the piece or you can book a “Magic Bag” for ordinary machine washing, ironing, and folding. One bag may contain up to 25 pieces and the price is € 19.99 per bag. You can book in advance for every day of your cruise you want to use it, except the last day. You need to pack the bag up to 11 AM and the clean clothes are returned the next day. For the spa I copied the offers out of Mycosta from my next booking, further information I don’t have, also no personal experiences: Dolce Limoncello Body Scrub and Massage - 50 minutes Price: € 135.20 Ionithermie Cellulite Reduction Program (50 minutes) Price: € 119.20 Shampoo and Style Dry Price: € 39.20 ELEMIS Asian hot stone massage (50 minutes) Price: 119.20 Relaxing Massage (50 minutes) Price: € 103.20 Fire & Ice Manicure (50 minutes) Price: € 39.20 Kerastase Elixir Ultime 24 carat indulgent ritual Price: € 31.20 ELEMIS BIOTEC Facials Price: € 179.00 € 143.20 Hot Mineral Body Boost Price: € 183.20 Fire & Ice Pedicure (60 minutes) Price: € 55.20 One Pass. Three Classes. Price: € 19.00 Keratin Express Beauty for Short Hair (60 minutes) Price: € 111.20 ELEMIS Pro-Collagen Marine Facial Treatment (50 minutes) Price: € 119.20 ELEMIS Pro-Collagen Grooming Treatment with Shave Price: € 71.20 ELEMIS Sports Tissue Massage Price: € 119.20 ELEMIS Intensely Cleansing Salt Scrub - 50 minutes Price: € 135.20 Poultice-Powered Muscle Release Price: € 183.20 Thai Poultice Massage (75 minutes) Price: € 135.20 Go Smile Tooth Whitening (30 minutes) Price: € 119.20 Full body massage with ELEMIS seaweed treatment (75 minutes) Price: € 159.20

Costa has often sales, but these differ from market to market. Right now Costa has an all inclusive for cruise only prices sale here. You never know in advance, just the black week offers come very reliable. I‘ve the impression that sales are depending on circumstances as well - including some very good prices for cruises starting soon and having many empty cabins left. This also means that their best selling cruises during high season are not very likely to be offered very cheap. Just keep an eye on their website dedicated for your residence, which limits Americans to their US site. Those of us based in the EU may book on every Costa site dedicated to any EU member country and shop around as long as we can handle the language - and the differences are often significant.

X-raying suitcases really should be done, otherwise it would be ridiculous to do so with hand luggage by obvious reasons. But it is done by external security of course. I have no doubt that they all will act the same as soon as for example weapons are in a suitcase, but all the rest is difficult by different reasons: first the exact understanding of what is in the suitcase. Electric items aren‘t generally forbidden, so the human brain will look after typical forms, while the difference between scanned pictures and what we normally see can be enormous. Who ever was asked at airport or port to open a bag for further inspection knows that understanding all details can be difficult. And besides this the different lines have very different rules about prohibited items. Not to forget that we are talking about humans. The security who confiscated my scissors (the man has worn the uniform of a private company BTW) obviously was easy to scare and didn‘t follow Costa‘s rules, but made some of his own. This works in both directions of course, so port staff not knowing exactly the rules might allow banned things aboard as well.

Well, NCL lists as prohibited: "Items brought on board the vessel and not supplied by the Company containing any kind of heating element", RC: "Items that generate heat or produce an open flame". A lot of others have comparable rules. Celebrity generally bans heat-producing items as well, but indeed makes an exception for curling irons and hair straighteners (but not for hair dryers). For Azamara I didn't find a list during a quick search. How strict Costa will be is not predictable. I wear a short beard and maintain it with scissors, blades round edged and definitely below 7 cm and by this short enough to be allowed on cruise ships - until someone found that they would be dangerous. That time I ended my cruise with a long beard. So may be you will have curls when your cruise is over…

Yes, they are prohibited. It is about the electric wiring and the risk of fire when the network gets overcharged. Honestly, I can‘t remember any cruiseline allowing private devices in need of high electrical power, some have even a positive list what is allowed and everything not listed is forbidden. However, Costa has a fix installed hair dryer in every cabin. It takes a bit longer, since they are lower rated than usual ones, but it works.

Yes, they are called "elegant".

These ships I haven't sailed yet (Firenze is booked for this year). Definitely another argument not to take My Drinks Plus. In 2022 I sailed on Deliziosa and Fascinosa and on both the mini bars were in use.

Regarding the package My Drinks I only can agree that it is great, the best value of separate packages I found on cruises. If you regularly want to use the mini bar, or want a lot of bottled water or canned drinks, or want high priced spirits you should consider an upgrade, if not give My Drinks a try. If you have already sailed Costa My Drinks is exactly the formerly second largest package Piu Gusto plus a small bottle of water every day. The third package is completely abolished, the smallest only available on world cruises now. About the nationalities aboard I am not too surprised. The share of Italians differs on Costas with the area the ship sails, it is always substantial, but they are not everywhere in the world the largest group. And Costa had many winters a ship in India before covid, so Indians sailing not too far from home is no surprise, just a sign that in their country is also returning to normality. The largest chance of having a maximum of Italians is in the Med during summer school holidays.

It is called Costa by Carnival. Since Costa SpA is owned by Carnival Corporation and Plc every Costa is a Costa by Carnival. Costa cruises exclusively sold by Carnival Cruises? Definitely yes. Costa ships operated by Carnival Cruises? Some claim so, but neither Costa nor Carnival. That there will be differences is understandable. Italian hardly will be leading language for cruises that can be booked from the USA only. Or that the typical Italian food could be watered down to an average American taste to avoid the complaints sometimes heard from US customers. We have to wait and see.

May be. However, doing the major works first after leaving service would be the least surprising - and this did not happen. I passed along more or less in dark and inside she was on several decks fully lit, perhaps for removal of all the Chinese signage and minor repair as needed after such a short time in service. And since it is no transfer to Carnival (the brand now) and this project is completely new, we all don‘t know what to expect.

Hello, gay solo cruiser here. Is anyone else booked on this long cruise? Having a drink, some good times at sea, and perhaps going on excursions together would be nice.

Bad enough issues with their websites happen once in a while, in my observation more frequently during the weekends. The link from the personal page on the Costa website to the pages with your cruise more often doesn‘t work. In this case you can try to go directly to www.mycosta.com and login with your name and booking reference. Transfers are often only available during internet bookings, but no problem at all, you can contact Costa‘s customers service, they will tell you when a shuttle will be available and the costs. If you decide to use them you will get a new booking confirmation.

The pictures I saw here on cruise critic showing the Venezia in a new design combining elements of both Costa and Carnival brands are not matching reality. I saw the Venezia earlier this week in Civitavecchia and the hull was all white, no blue bow at all. The writings didn’t mention Carnival, no stupid slogans as “fun Italian style”. Everything was for 100% Costa design. When Carnival Corporation and Plc really wants to introduce Costa to the US market it would also be better to keep it as it is. For early promotion it might be fine to show a link to a known brand, but it was a wise decision to keep Cunard, Aida, or Holland America to name a few separate from the brand Carnival. I don’t know whether Seabourn guests would be happy to sail suddenly under the brand Carnival. P&O adult-only ships serve a very different clientele than Costa with an extremely child-friendly policy. To flatten the Italian style to Carnival fun would not be the key to a new market.

Not really a surprise. It is a language question. Costa for example offers in opposite to MSC no sailings from the USA, for Costa it is normal that one ship is calling in US ports every second year only. With the new project to replace Costa’s Chinese with the US market this will change of course. Generally on Costa vessels English native speakers are a very tiny minority, English works well as lingua franca, but not everybody who can talk with his cabin steward in English feels comfortable when it comes to reading and writing in English, which is of course essential for participating on cruise critic. That a company covering English-speaking countries has more activity on English language boards than one, which doesn’t, is definitely no surprise.

True. Just have short look where MSC has all websites legally based: Geneva. Clear statement of applicability of Swiss law can be read in the disclaimer as well. In print media or on TV throughout EU I regular see "we are great" advertisements, but no "x less" as we had now with black week on the internet. If you disagree with MSC try to sue them. MSC always searches a way to sail around laws they regard to be restrictive. Obviously they are not willing to fulfil Austrian and German pricing laws and resist including service fee in the fare - despite the courts ruled so. Recently MSC also changed the name of the fee - honi soit qui mal y pense.