Costa Cruises has started selling tickets for the inaugural cruise of Costa Venezia, the Italian company’s new ship currently being built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone.
The cruise will set off from Trieste on March 8, 2019, on a 53-day, eastward-bound itinerary in the footsteps of Marco Polo that will end in Yokohama, in Japan, on April 29, 2019.
The cruise will take guests on a voyage of discovery through different cultures, landscapes and flavors, just like the Venetian explorer. The ship will leave the Mediterranean and cross the Suez Canal and the Red Sea before entering the Persian Gulf, calling at Croatia, Greece, Israel, Jordan and Oman on the way. After stops at Dubai and Abu Dhabi – futuristic cities built in the middle of the desert – the ship will then head towards India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The last leg of the cruise will be the Far East: Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.
The itinerary can be split into three different legs, Trieste-Dubai, (20 days) Dubai-Singapore (18 days) and Singapore-Yokohama (17 days), or combinations of the three legs.
The inaugural cruise is currently the only cruise holiday option available on the new ship. Costa Venezia is the first Costa ship to be designed and built specifically for the Chinese market, and after its first voyage, it will be dedicated exclusively to the local market. So it will be a unique opportunity to try a different cruise experience from the one usually available to European and American guests.
A different cruise experience that starts with its interior design, which will be a veritable “virtual” trip to Venice. The options available in terms of gastronomy, entertainment and shopping will be especially appealing. Guests on the inaugural cruise can take part in a fun “Golden Party”, inspired by the color symbolizing fortune and wealth in China, with lots of surprises and gifts to be won every 10 minutes. Or you can try the enchanting masked party inspired by the famous Carnival of Venice. The food on board will be very varied: you can enjoy the delicacies of Italian cuisine and discover traditional Chinese and Asian dishes, as well as sample the cuisine of the places that the itinerary calls at. The shopping area will be particularly wide-ranging and well-stocked with Italian and international big name brands.
Costa Venezia will have a gross tonnage of 135,500 tons and will include 2,116 cabins for a total of 5,260 passengers. A second ship designed for the Chinese market, Costa Venezia’s sister, will be delivered by Fincantieri in 2020.
Besides the two Fincantieri ships, Costa Cruises has two other ships on order by 2021 that will be built by Meyer shipyards in Turku (Finland) and that will be among the first cruise ships in the world powered by liquefied natural gas. The first, Costa Smeralda, will enter service in October 2019.
In 2006 Costa Cruises was the first international cruise company to enter the Chinese market, in which it has become a leader. In China cruises with Costa are known as “Italy at sea”, because they offer local guests an Italian and European-style holiday experience, with top quality cuisine, entertainment and hospitality.