New Updates on Costa by Carnival

[foodsvcmgr]

Check Cruise Industry News as well as the Carnival website for more details on the Costa by Carnival concept.

Names confirmed to be changed to Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze.

A hybrid paint job with a blue Carnival bow but retaining the Costa funnel logo.

Still no itineraries.

[Honolulu Blue]

10 hours ago, foodsvcmgr said:

Check Cruise Industry News as well as the Carnival website for more details on the Costa by Carnival concept.

Names confirmed to be changed to Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze.

A hybrid paint job with a blue Carnival bow but retaining the Costa funnel logo.

Still no itineraries.

Thanks for sharing.

 

No itineraries yet, but since one leaves from NYC and the other from Long Beach, they both have limited places they can go.

 

The whole concept gives me a headache.  Why do this rather than just take over the ships?  There must be some reason that's not being said and I'm too dense to figure out.  I will say it's a bad sign for Costa for sure.

[foodsvcmgr]

I think the major reasons for the strange hybrid concept are:

Lack of funds to convert the ships to full Carnival.

Possibility they may revert to Costa at some point.

Concern that marketing them as straight Costa would produce lesser interest and yields.

[KhanOfKhans]

Are they actually renaming them? They claim that they are, but all the mock-ups I've seen, even with the new livery, still say Costa Venezia on the side of the ship. I guess it's just an error, but this whole thing is bizarre.

[IntrepidFromDC]

The theme seems to be an Italian slant on "fun ships" and to me that smells like "slightly more refined".  I just hope they go all in on the food and have really excellent Italian ristorantes, in which case I'll choose these ships over the typical Carnival Caribbean cruises about half the time.

[CarnivalShips480]

13 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for sharing.

 

No itineraries yet, but since one leaves from NYC and the other from Long Beach, they both have limited places they can go.

 

The whole concept gives me a headache.  Why do this rather than just take over the ships?  There must be some reason that's not being said and I'm too dense to figure out.  I will say it's a bad sign for Costa for sure.

I think they are trying to advertise these as Italian ships so much that they need the Costa funnels to remind everyone of the ships's Italian heritage. A complete conversion would kind of drop the Italian part and loose the excitement of doing "Carnival Fun Italian Style" I am glad they are replacing Costa with Carnival in the name because they will be Carnival ships in the Carnival fleet, just different (Italian) 

 

Also I'm thinking this coming week for itineraries, usually they come out a week after the sign up

Edited October 23, 2022 by CarnivalShips480
Added last part

[jsglow]

On 10/22/2022 at 6:23 AM, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for sharing.

 

No itineraries yet, but since one leaves from NYC and the other from Long Beach, they both have limited places they can go.

 

The whole concept gives me a headache.  Why do this rather than just take over the ships?  There must be some reason that's not being said and I'm too dense to figure out.  I will say it's a bad sign for Costa for sure.

It's actually really easy to understand.  The plan minimizes conversion costs.  Think of it like painting your kitchen instead of doing a full remodel with new cabinets and appliances.  No problem; good strategy.  Then build a marketing campaign to suit that.  All good.

 

I agree.  Costa probably ain't long for this earth.  She's relegated to being a 'ship supply' subsidiary.

 

BTW, I really like the new Blue/Gold paint scheme.  They're kicking themselves right now that they didn't think of it before putting Luminosa into dry-dock.  Oh well; that's a minor 'oversight' that can be corrected years down the road.

 

I'm going to spend some time looking at those hulls.  I believe but am not certain that Costa has a handful of Spirit Class vessels.  That'd be great.

Edited October 23, 2022 by jsglow

[jsglow]

Alright, here's what they've got...

 

2 Exel Class

2 Vista Class (already on the way as Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze)

1 Dream Class

1 hybrid Spirit/Vista Class

4 Splendor Class (will never, ever be called their original Concordia Class ever again!) 

2 Destiny/Triumph Class (how do you say 'sunshining' in Italian?)

 

There's your potential new additions to the Carnival fleet post Jubiliee people.

[CarnivalShips480]

51 minutes ago, jsglow said:

Alright, here's what they've got...

 

2 Exel Class

2 Vista Class (already on the way as Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze)

1 Dream Class

1 hybrid Spirit/Vista Class

4 Splendor Class (will never, ever be called their original Concordia Class ever again!) 

2 Destiny/Triumph Class (how do you say 'sunshining' in Italian?)

 

There's your potential new additions to the Carnival fleet post Jubiliee people.

Also good to note that Costa Magica (destiny class) and Costa Serena (concord... fine Splendor class) aren't in service and there are no cruises planned for them in the future.

 

All the ships in the Costa fleet except the Vista and excel class ships were designed by Joe Farcus so I don't know how Italian they are.

 

Magica and Serena I think are next to the Carnival fleet but maybe with a Luminosa type refurbishment

[tidecat]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

Alright, here's what they've got...

 

2 Exel Class

2 Vista Class (already on the way as Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze)

1 Dream Class

1 hybrid Spirit/Vista Class

4 Splendor Class (will never, ever be called their original Concordia Class ever again!) 

2 Destiny/Triumph Class (how do you say 'sunshining' in Italian?)

 

There's your potential new additions to the Carnival fleet post Jubiliee people.

There would be some benefit to Costa in Carnival pulling Deliziosa (Spirit/Vista) and Diadema (Dream) in that it is two fewer classes for Costa to maintain. Moving the idle Magica to Deliziosa's itineraries can be spun as an upgrade. Diadema to Serena would be a downgrade, albeit not a huge one. Moving Deliziosa and Diadema over gives Carnival more time to recover the cost of rebranding, as those ships would be expect to sail until the 2040s.

 

Costa could move Magica and Serena over with less disruption to their guests. That limits Carnival into where they can deploy them, though. If Elation and Paradise are to be retired next year (both are due for drydock), it would require moving two of Spirit, Miracle, and Luminosa to the height restricted ports (Tampa, Jacksonville, Baltimore). Carnival would likely only get 11 years out of the Magica and around 14 years out of the Serena compared to 17 for Deliziosa and 21 for Diadema.

 

Carnival may also want a second ship full time in Australia at some point, is losing Charleston as a home port, and may need to retire the Sunshine as well.

 

 

[Theosprey247]

Do the vista class Costa ships have a Havana area?

[jsglow]

1 hour ago, tidecat said:

There would be some benefit to Costa in Carnival pulling Deliziosa (Spirit/Vista) and Diadema (Dream) in that it is two fewer classes for Costa to maintain. Moving the idle Magica to Deliziosa's itineraries can be spun as an upgrade. Diadema to Serena would be a downgrade, albeit not a huge one. Moving Deliziosa and Diadema over gives Carnival more time to recover the cost of rebranding, as those ships would be expect to sail until the 2040s.

 

Costa could move Magica and Serena over with less disruption to their guests. That limits Carnival into where they can deploy them, though. If Elation and Paradise are to be retired next year (both are due for drydock), it would require moving two of Spirit, Miracle, and Luminosa to the height restricted ports (Tampa, Jacksonville, Baltimore). Carnival would likely only get 11 years out of the Magica and around 14 years out of the Serena compared to 17 for Deliziosa and 21 for Diadema.

 

Carnival may also want a second ship full time in Australia at some point, is losing Charleston as a home port, and may need to retire the Sunshine as well.

 

 

All quite interesting.

 

I really doubt Carnival is ready to toss any build from the 2000s overboard anytime soon.  I think we're going to see them refurbish and stretch those hulls as long as possible.  There was a sea change between the Fantasy Class and the fully modern Destiny Class with respect to Balcs, etc.

 

Plus Carnival can't do everything with the big Vista/Excel boats.  That really doesn't work in their tertiary ports.  They already struggle with berths out in LA with Panorama.

[jsglow]

Saw this....

 

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

[Beezo]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

Saw this....

 

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

I agree.

 

I mentioned on another thread, but with 10 ships across 5 classes, Costa does not have many fleet type synergies.  Moving the solo Deliziosa and Diadema to Carnival leaves them with 2 destiny, 4 Concordia, and 2 Excel.

[CarnivalShips480]

8 hours ago, tidecat said:

There would be some benefit to Costa in Carnival pulling Deliziosa (Spirit/Vista) and Diadema (Dream) in that it is two fewer classes for Costa to maintain. Moving the idle Magica to Deliziosa's itineraries can be spun as an upgrade. Diadema to Serena would be a downgrade, albeit not a huge one. Moving Deliziosa and Diadema over gives Carnival more time to recover the cost of rebranding, as those ships would be expect to sail until the 2040s.

 

Costa could move Magica and Serena over with less disruption to their guests. That limits Carnival into where they can deploy them, though. If Elation and Paradise are to be retired next year (both are due for drydock), it would require moving two of Spirit, Miracle, and Luminosa to the height restricted ports (Tampa, Jacksonville, Baltimore). Carnival would likely only get 11 years out of the Magica and around 14 years out of the Serena compared to 17 for Deliziosa and 21 for Diadema.

 

Carnival may also want a second ship full time in Australia at some point, is losing Charleston as a home port, and may need to retire the Sunshine as well.

 

 

Yes, it would make more sense to move Deliziosa and Diadema over and have Magica and Serena fill in. They had to cancel 6 months of Diadema sailings, so I don't think the downgrade would be a problem. There would be a problem with this though. Deliziosa does a world cruise, and I don't know if Magica or Serena could fill in, maybe.

 

After looking at Deliziosa's world cruise, here are a few things I noted:

 

- It starts in early January so this change would have to happen soon, it can't switch cruise lines mid cruise

 

-It goes through Panama Canal. Deliziosa can fit in the old locks, Magica and Serena can't. They can fit in the new ones, but I don't know if switching which locks this cruise goes into is a problem

 

 

Maybe it is better for Serena and Diadema to come to Carnival. That would keep Deliziosa doing the world cruise and emliminate a one ship class in Costa.

 

or/and

 

Delizosa could switch to Carnival and take its world cruise with it. Maybe a Carnival Deliziosa world cruise would sell better than a Costa Deliziosa one

[tidecat]

The other option would be to pull Deliziosa later in 2023 (like after said world cruise). Of course that means another ship may be idle longer. It may be worth just pulling Magica and Fortuna from Costa, and 10+ years later Carnival replaces them with new builds. Luminosa and Miracle would get sent to Florida if the Fantasy class is retired.