Costa Cancels Winter Programs in Europe on Two Ships

[sealynx]

Costa has cancelled the winter season for Venezia and Diadema. No alternative itineraries have been announced. It seems to me Costa is struggling. First the announcement that Luminosa, Venezia and Firenze will leave the fleet, now an additional reduction in winter capacity. Of course winter season is always a season with low demand, but still.

 

Read on CruiseIndustry

 

I've been thinking more about Venezia and Firenze leaving the fleet semi-permanently. These ships were designed for the Chinese market. Their interior is highly influenced by the cities they've been named after. Could be a factor in this decision be that Italians are not eager for a cardboard version of their own cities?

[Wansbrough]

The Costa Venezia will operate through early December. All cruises from Dec. 1 to mid April 2023 have been cancelled, according to a company statement, adding: "The product is the ideal offering for some nationalities that under the current scenario cannot have access to it."

 

We were booked on Venezia for 12 April 2023 which was cancelled. We have just rebooked for 1 April sailing so will be monitoring with interest..... There was also very limited cabin selections available on both sailings for UK agents to sell. Very strange set of circumstances.

[Dancer Bob]

Given the situation forecast for energy in Europe this winter, Costa proably is worried they won't even be able to get fuel for the ships, let alone fill them with passengers.

[BVILady]

1 hour ago, Dancer Bob said:

Given the situation forecast for energy in Europe this winter, Costa proably is worried they won't even be able to get fuel for the ships, let alone fill them with passengers.

that makes a lot of sense combined with the move of 2 ships to the US where fuel will be cheaper. Also I do understand the concern with Russians not being able to cruise.

[CruiseAdict218]

Well according to this article, more options are being considered: 

 

“According to a press release, given Costa Cruises' significant presence in Asia, particularly China, which remains closed to cruising, the brand continues to evaluate deployment options and fleet optimization alternatives beyond the previously announced transfers of Costa Luminosa to Carnival Cruise Line as well as Costa Venezia and Costa Firenze to the COSTA by CARNIVAL concept.“

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/28390-carnival-corporation-reports-2022-q3-earnings-ebitda-turns-positive.html

 

Magica and Serena have no current plans and even though they were transferred to the new China brand, Mediterranea and Atlantica are also still out of service. 

[toad455]

Costa is running with just 8 ships essentially. Magica and Serena are not in service. Venezia and Firenze are going to Carnival. No new builds slated.

[sealynx]

I think there is more to it than just the Chinese market being closed as well as the lack of Russian passengers. Other companies in Europe, even part of the Carnival corp, are growing. MSC is growing big time, taking a large part of the Italian market, but also from almost any other European country. German market has also always been a big one, but is turning towards MSC, AIDA and Mein Schiff. Costa seems to have lost their game. They are the only of the big companies with still ships in lay up, even though plenty of ships have left the fleet completely. While other companies are not only investing in new tonnage, they also invest in new amenities. The new Costa ships are big, and new, but hardly innovative in regards to the passenger experience. Costa can't even keep open their buffer for more than a few hours on a row. It would be saddening, but I wouldn't be surprised if there wouldn't be a Costa Crociere in ten years time.

[Janet&Carl]

I think their new rules regarding the loyalty status has also had an impact.  I know it did with us.  Although we have kept our next cruise which under the previous conditions would have seen us sail with Perla Oro.

 

It is now impossible for most to achieve any level of loyalty status with them - if  you book an inside you have to constantly travel more than a world cruise continuously to maintain status.   

 

We have returned back to MSC at least their status and benefits are achievable.

 

[Wansbrough]

On 10/6/2022 at 9:24 AM, sealynx said:

I think there is more to it than just the Chinese market being closed as well as the lack of Russian passengers. Other companies in Europe, even part of the Carnival corp, are growing. MSC is growing big time, taking a large part of the Italian market, but also from almost any other European country. German market has also always been a big one, but is turning towards MSC, AIDA and Mein Schiff. Costa seems to have lost their game. They are the only of the big companies with still ships in lay up, even though plenty of ships have left the fleet completely. While other companies are not only investing in new tonnage, they also invest in new amenities. The new Costa ships are big, and new, but hardly innovative in regards to the passenger experience. Costa can't even keep open their buffer for more than a few hours on a row. It would be saddening, but I wouldn't be surprised if there wouldn't be a Costa Crociere in ten years time.

 

I think its sad and quite likely to happen. They do appear to be struggling somewhat so I guess the other brands will swallow up the remaining ships.

 

15 hours ago, Janet&Carl said:

I think their new rules regarding the loyalty status has also had an impact.  I know it did with us.  Although we have kept our next cruise which under the previous conditions would have seen us sail with Perla Oro.

 

It is now impossible for most to achieve any level of loyalty status with them - if  you book an inside you have to constantly travel more than a world cruise continuously to maintain status.   

 

We have returned back to MSC at least their status and benefits are achievable.

 

Although we reached Pearl some years ago under the old system we have continued to use them even after the first Costa Club reshuffle. We weren't happy with the new rules as it showed no loyalty to the loyal customers. On the other side of the coin, MSC let anyone match their status using other cruise lines points/levels.

Not a big fan of MSC, they are all fur coat and no knickers if you ask me. (British phrase meaning - have an impressive or sophisticated appearance which belies the fact that there is nothing to substantiate it.)

My, how Costa have let it slip over the last few years. We will be experiencing Toscana over Christmas and will be interested to compare these bigger ships and onboard expereince. Our two favourate ships, Atlantica and Mediterranea are just sat gathering dust. ☹☹

[BVILady]

another reason they have lost so much business to other cruise-lines is that they have come up with itineraries recently later then other cruise lines. Other lines have already World Cruises up for 2025 and Costa has not even any summer-programs for 2024. Due to that for this summer we have booked 2 cruises with  Royal Caribbean since Costa's itineraries were not out and ended up taking one cruise with MSC. I  hope they will catch up and get organized again in the near future. I am not loyal to any cruise line usually itinerary, date and price are the deciding factors for me but am invested in Costa right now being booked for 2 World Cruises so routing for them. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by BVILady
not complete

[Janet&Carl]

We like MSC have had 10 cruises with them - their suite experience far surpasses Costa.  We get to try both in the next 6 months as well as an Azamara cruise, so we'll see which one we stick with.  Like @BVILady we primarily book for the itinerary but the price has to be right too as we have to book airfares from Australia which are lengthy and expensive.

 

[Wansbrough]

6 hours ago, Janet&Carl said:

We like MSC have had 10 cruises with them - their suite experience far surpasses Costa. 

 

Cruising in suite or MSC's YC holds no interest for us, I'd sooner take two cruises. 😉

On MSC if you are not YC then the product is less than mediocre. For the record we have sailed MSC 4 times and have a 3 nighter booked for next April, purely to take family away for a few days at a cheap price.

[Janet&Carl]

9 hours ago, Wansbrough said:

Cruising in suite or MSC's YC holds no interest for us, I'd sooner take two cruises. 😉

 

Lucky for you you dont have long haul to get to them 🙂 we would cruise much more if we didnt have to fly (usually) more than 30 hours to get there and back.  The flying takes some getting over. Living on a island at the bottom of Australia can be a drawback sometimes.

[gerryuk]

Just come off a 15-day round trip from Barcelona via Istanbul on Costa Diadema. I booked an inside guarantee, travelling solo. When they sent me the room documents i was not very happy to find the cabin i was given was a small single bed affair. I did not know Costa had single bed cabins. I rang them up a couple of days before the cruise and asked them to change the cabin so i could have a double bed. They told me they had None available. When on the ship i was surprised that you could not walk down some of the corridors as they had blocked them off, as they could not sell the cabins. I was on level 2 port side and the starboard side was closed off, same on some of the other floors.

The bars seemed busy at night, but you could tell by the numbers in the theatre that they are struggling to sell cabins. Another problem was excursion's, i had a couple cancelled as there were not enough English speakers on the cruise booking the tours. One of the tours was to Istanbul, but that turned out to be a blessing. All i did was get off the ship and walk for about 20 minutes to the Main Mosque and grand bazar, well worth it on foot. As this was a round trip, customers embarked and disembarked at every stop including the island of Crete. There was only a handful, of English-speaking guests on board, a few French and Germans but the vast majority were Italians, don't think there were any Russians on board. 

For Costa, this seems to be the perfect storm. First Covid then the war in Ukraine and now the cost-of-living crisis. It would not surprise me if Costa were merged with Aida to save money. 

[RD64]

An interesting thought - now that you have put it out there - a Costa /Aida merger definitely would make sense.

[CarnivalShips480]

What I would like better is if Costa was dissolved into Carnival, all the ships are in the same classes as the Carnival ships so they would be similar and work well

[CruiseAdict218]

1 hour ago, RD64 said:

An interesting thought - now that you have put it out there - a Costa /Aida merger definitely would make sense.

 

1 hour ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

What I would like better is if Costa was dissolved into Carnival, all the ships are in the same classes as the Carnival ships so they would be similar and work well

Merger into AIDA really wouldn’t make sense, now a merger into Carnival, as they share the same classes between them would and it seems Carnival is laying out the ground work with Costa by Carnival; just create a super fleet.

[sealynx]

I don't see a Costa/AIDA-merger working either. There are too many differences: fleet wise, experience wise, passenger origination wise. I do see a future for Costa, but they need to redesign large part of their product.

[BVILady]

Costa is already a Carnival daughter, would miss the Italian food and European Atmosphere if they are turned into just another Carnival.

[maryann2]

On 10/9/2022 at 4:51 AM, gerryuk said:

Just come off a 15-day round trip from Barcelona via Istanbul on Costa Diadema. I booked an inside guarantee, travelling solo. When they sent me the room documents i was not very happy to find the cabin i was given was a small single bed affair. I did not know Costa had single bed cabins. I rang them up a couple of days before the cruise and asked them to change the cabin so i could have a double bed. They told me they had None available. When on the ship i was surprised that you could not walk down some of the corridors as they had blocked them off, as they could not sell the cabins. I was on level 2 port side and the starboard side was closed off, same on some of the other floors.

The bars seemed busy at night, but you could tell by the numbers in the theatre that they are struggling to sell cabins. Another problem was excursion's, i had a couple cancelled as there were not enough English speakers on the cruise booking the tours. One of the tours was to Istanbul, but that turned out to be a blessing. All i did was get off the ship and walk for about 20 minutes to the Main Mosque and grand bazar, well worth it on foot. As this was a round trip, customers embarked and disembarked at every stop including the island of Crete. There was only a handful, of English-speaking guests on board, a few French and Germans but the vast majority were Italians, don't think there were any Russians on board. 

For Costa, this seems to be the perfect storm. First Covid then the war in Ukraine and now the cost-of-living crisis. It would not surprise me if Costa were merged with Aida to save money. 

Thank you for posting your experience, Gerry.

I had a cabin with a single bed on Fortuna so yes Costa does have single cabins!!!

 

Will you be booking the Toscana from Dubai next March. I remember you were doing that itinerary in March 2020, and we know what happened then.

[gerryuk]

On 10/12/2022 at 2:49 PM, maryann2 said:

Will you be booking the Toscana from Dubai next March. I remember you were doing that in March 2020, and we know what happened then.

 

No, i will be on Toscana in November from Barcelona to Dubai for 22 nights. Got a good solo price 820gbp for an outside premium cabin with a double bed. I have a transatlantic from Rio to Barcelona in March next year.

[CruiseAdict218]

Costa Fortuna has deployment cancelled from April 2023 to April 2024, which was due to take over for Costa Venezia in the Eastern Mediterranean. 
 

Wonder what the plan is now…
 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/28528-costa-cancels-majority-of-fortuna-s-cruises-for-2023-and-2024.html

[Beezo]

2 hours ago, CruiseAdict218 said:

Costa Fortuna has deployment cancelled from April 2023 to April 2024, which was due to take over for Costa Venezia in the Eastern Mediterranean. 
 

Wonder what the plan is now…
 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/28528-costa-cancels-majority-of-fortuna-s-cruises-for-2023-and-2024.html

 

I saw that this morning as well.  My guess is that you will see Fortuna transferred to another Carnival Corp brand, most likely, Carnival Cruise Line.

 

As of right now, Magica and Serena are out of service, and Fortuna pending after the winter season with nothing announced for two more years....

 

 

[CarnivalShips480]

It said new deployment to be announced soon.

 

I think that Magica and Serena would be the first ships to be transferred.

[Wansbrough]

14 hours ago, Beezo said:

 

I saw that this morning as well.  My guess is that you will see Fortuna transferred to another Carnival Corp brand, most likely, Carnival Cruise Line.

 

As of right now, Magica and Serena are out of service, and Fortuna pending after the winter season with nothing announced for two more years....

 

 

 

"the cruises are being cancelled as a result of international restrictions"

 

I wonder what they mean by that? We had our Venezia cruise cancelled which was the same itinerary they referenced ( Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt). We are now booked on NCL Jade doing similar ports except its not doing Egypt.

I'd love to know more but I guess its all smoke and mirrors.