Costa by Carnival

[foodsvcmgr]

Weeks after it was first announced with further details and schedules due to follow, does anyone else find the total silence on this upcoming concept a bit odd?

Especially if the first ship is/was due in New York next year?

Thoughts anyone?

[mz-s]

It's just a way to use Costa's ships for Carnival without having to spend money to renovate them. What's to say?

[deliver42]

They are basically  the same as every Carnival ship pre Vista Class.

[rs45thompson]

I thought they would have it available to book by now.  They have to have time to fill the ships.  Carnival has come out to say that people are booking like crazy.  Maybe they are waiting for it to calm down a bit and then they will post it.  They may not be able to handle the volume with people without the vaccine being able to book and then the Costa ships too?  

[dbrucern]

John Heald announced that there would be information coming out shortly with a week or two on the Luminousa looks like she will be sailing from Australia

[Guest BasicSailor]

27 minutes ago, dbrucern said:

John Heald announced that there would be information coming out shortly with a week or two on the Luminousa looks like she will be sailing from Australia

AH, the solution .

[CarnivalShips480]

The two Costa ships will actually be renamed Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze and become Carnival ships, but keeping the Italian design features.

[mz-s]

2 hours ago, deliver42 said:

They are basically  the same as every Carnival ship pre Vista Class.

 

But no Carnival venues - no Guy's burgers for one thing.

[tidecat]

Both Venezia and Firenze are supposed to have drydocks before repositioning to North America. I'm wondering if those have been finalized, because those will likely have the greatest impact on when service for Carnival begins.

 

FWIW, Luminosa still hasn't opened for booking and is going to sail for Carnival in potentially less than 90 days.

[Tradestock]

Since one of the ships will be sailing from Australia, is there any news about the home port for the other?  Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions about Carnival utilizing the existing booking engine for these ships or will there be a separate site like HAL, Princess, etc?  I am OK with no burgers, retention of the "Italian flare" sounds interesting. 🙂

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, Tradestock said:

Since one of the ships will be sailing from Australia, is there any news about the home port for the other?  Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions about Carnival utilizing the existing booking engine for these ships or will there be a separate site like HAL, Princess, etc?  I am OK with no burgers, retention of the "Italian flare" sounds interesting. 🙂

There are three different ships, not two.  The Luminosa will be positioned in Australia and is not part of the Costa by Carnival ships, but will be reassigned to the Carnival fleet.

The Costa by Carnival ships are the Firenze and the Venezia, will be drydocked but may eventually go back to Costa, so they will not be Carnivalized like the rest of the fleet. Had read on one of the threads that one of the two new ships would possibly be home porting in NYC.

[tidecat]

Venezia is supposed to be based in New York as of "Spring 2023". Firenze is supposed to be based in Long Beach as of "Spring 2024".

 

Prior press releases have indicated these cruises will be sold by Carnival, so they should be available through Carnival.com. Sailings will count towards Carnival's loyalty program.

[SummmerInKefalonia]

Carnival Cruise Line

Costa Luminosa ----> Carnival Luminosa: in fall 2022 it will be completely transfered to Carnival. It will be homeported in winter 22-23 to Australia and in summer 23 to Alaska.

 

Costa By Carnival

Costa Venezia: in spring 2023 it will be chartered to Carnival & continue to sail with the same name, colours and flag. It will be homeported to New York.

 

Costa Firenze: in spring 2024 it will be chartered to Carnival & continue to sail with the same name, colours and flag. It will be homeported to Long Beach.

Edited August 21, 2022 by SummmerInKefalonia

[Tradestock]

Thank you for the replies. These developments sound interesting to me.  I suspect the New York itineraries will include Bermuda and the fall northeast and Canada colors, maybe even a far flung Greenland visit.

[CarnivalShips480]

On 8/20/2022 at 10:03 AM, CarnivalShips480 said:

The two Costa ships will actually be renamed Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze and become Carnival ships, but keeping the Italian design features.

 

[CruiseAdict218]

On 8/20/2022 at 10:03 AM, CarnivalShips480 said:

The two Costa ships will actually be renamed Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze and become Carnival ships, but keeping the Italian design features.

 

2 hours ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

 

They are keeping their Costa names; and will remain Costa ships in the entirety, except maybe minor changes, as they are joining the “joint” brand, the point is to get Americans familiar with Costa, which would be pointless if they lost their Costa name. 
 

Costa Luminosa will be receiving the Carnival name, as previously mentioned; as it’s joining the Carnival fleet. 

[DallasGuy75219]

57 minutes ago, CruiseAdict218 said:

They are keeping their Costa names; and will remain Costa ships in the entirety, except maybe minor changes, as they are joining the “joint” brand, the point is to get Americans familiar with Costa, which would be pointless if they lost their Costa name. 

Doubtful. The core Carnival customer does not have the interest and/or means to take their family to Europe (or all over the world) for a cruise.  If there was a market for this, there would be more Carnival brand ships homeported in Europe, not just when a ship was just built or drydocked there.

 

This is an effort to get more productive use of Carnival Corp. assets in the short term without the expense of completely rebranding a ship.

[CruiseAdict218]

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Doubtful. The core Carnival customer does not have the interest and/or means to take their family to Europe (or all over the world) for a cruise.  If there was a market for this, there would be more Carnival brand ships homeported in Europe, not just when a ship was just built or drydocked there.

 

This is an effort to get more productive use of Carnival Corp. assets in the short term without the expense of completely rebranding a ship.

Yes that is also correct but to the few it does cater too, it would keep them in brand. 

[CruizinSusan70]

6 hours ago, Tradestock said:

... maybe even a far flung Greenland visit.

Interesting spin.  The current Greenland sailings are this year and next out of Baltimore and outrageously overpriced.

[CarnivalShips480]

On 8/21/2022 at 2:42 PM, CruiseAdict218 said:

 

They are keeping their Costa names; and will remain Costa ships in the entirety, except maybe minor changes, as they are joining the “joint” brand, the point is to get Americans familiar with Costa, which would be pointless if they lost their Costa name. 
 

Costa Luminosa will be receiving the Carnival name, as previously mentioned; as it’s joining the Carnival fleet. 

That's what I thought too but then I saw these:

https://carnivalgrandport.com/port-project-information/about-ccl

Go down to future ships

 

https://carnival-news.com/about-3/company-history/

Go down to 2022

 

 

What do you think?

[CruiseAdict218]

30 minutes ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

That's what I thought too but then I saw these:

https://carnivalgrandport.com/port-project-information/about-ccl

Go down to future ships

 

https://carnival-news.com/about-3/company-history/

Go down to 2022

 

 

What do you think?

I’ve never seen either of these before, that makes sense if the concept is called or styled as “Choose Carnival, Italian Style”. But whatever it may be I’m ready to book, hope they post the New York sailings soon. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by CruiseAdict218

[foodsvcmgr]

Interesting developments, although official from Carnival sourced material, not much in the way of an actual announcement.

The renaming is not what was originally implied, perhaps initial reactions were not as favorable as hoped leading to modified plans.

I assume the funnels will now be repainted like Luminosa if the Costa name is changed.

Most important will be itineraries and pricing.

[cruisingguy007]

On 8/20/2022 at 5:10 AM, deliver42 said:

They are basically  the same as every Carnival ship pre Vista Class.

 

Kinda sorta, but not really. They are a vista class ship but If you look at the layout, it's a distinctly Tuscan flair and it's not exactly the same. I'm quite excited to cruise on the Firenze when it arrives in LBC. Now the only question is how long do we have to wait to get a Excellence-Helios class ship out west? Hopefully, sooner, rather than later.   

[Calnev1]

Just got what looked like a really good casino deal on the Carnival website for the Carnival Luminosa.  A free balcony plus $500 OBC plus DOU.  But then looked closer, oh, its $500 AUD OBC.  So the cruise will be in Australia.  Not as good a deal.   And then when I clicked through looking for specific cruise dates, I got the "Oh Snap, no cruises" message, so its  not really even bookable yet.  They must have posted  this deal to my account too early.

[ShakyBeef]

On 8/21/2022 at 8:57 PM, CruizinSusan70 said:

Interesting spin.  The current Greenland sailings are this year and next out of Baltimore and outrageously overpriced.

Greenland from Baltimore?1?!  Please tell me where you are seeing this.  I can't find these sailings on the Carnival website and would be very interested in booking one.