Firenze

[Eli_6]

I looked on Costa's website and it appears that her last sailing is January 21, 2024. How long do yall think the conversion will take?  (I would guess the Venezia would give us an idea--anyone know how long she is in dry dock?) Do you think there will be a transatlantic and/or panama canal transit to get the ship from Europe to Long Beach after the conversion?  

[ohioNCLcruiser]

1 hour ago, Eli_6 said:

I looked on Costa's website and it appears that her last sailing is January 21, 2024. How long do yall think the conversion will take?  (I would guess the Venezia would give us an idea--anyone know how long she is in dry dock?) Do you think there will be a transatlantic and/or panama canal transit to get the ship from Europe to Long Beach after the conversion?  

This ship can't go through Panama Canal due to the hanging lifeboats so cross that off the list. If she goes around the horn that would be a very long cruise. I'm guessing she will position there empty like the Panorama did.

[CruiseAdict218]

2 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I looked on Costa's website and it appears that her last sailing is January 21, 2024. How long do yall think the conversion will take?  (I would guess the Venezia would give us an idea--anyone know how long she is in dry dock?) Do you think there will be a transatlantic and/or panama canal transit to get the ship from Europe to Long Beach after the conversion?  

Where does the last cruise leave from? I wonder if they will cancel any because they cancelled a huge chunk of Venezia’s cruises but also gave them plenty of time for conversion work (which has probably started based on what John Heald posted) and will probably enter dry dock at the very end. 

[tidecat]

Carnival Miracle's last Long Beach sailing (for now at least) is May 5-8, 2024. I would suspect Firenze would start May 12, 2024 and generally run 7-day cruises. Panorama does have some 6-day and 8-day cruises mixed in her program as well, so Firenze may have to do some of those just out of necessity. A Sunday/Thursday/Tuesday rotation could work as well, or even just a Thursday/Sunday rotation if Carnival wanted to offer shorter cruises.

 

I think all of the open Costa bookings will sail as scheduled, especially since cruise lines don't typically change out crew during the holidays. The worst that could happen is that Firenze begins in June or July instead of May.

[tidecat]

9 minutes ago, CruiseAdict218 said:

Where does the last cruise leave from? I wonder if they will cancel any because they cancelled a huge chunk of Venezia’s cruises but also gave them plenty of time for conversion work (which has probably started based on what John Heald posted) and will probably enter dry dock at the very end. 

The last sailing for Costa Firenze is a 14-night roundtrip sailing from Savona, Italy on January 7, 2024. Even if drydock work doesn't start until February and takes six weeks, there will still be plenty of time to kill for a mid-May arrival in Long Beach.

[NWX]

3 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I looked on Costa's website and it appears that her last sailing is January 21, 2024. How long do yall think the conversion will take?  (I would guess the Venezia would give us an idea--anyone know how long she is in dry dock?) Do you think there will be a transatlantic and/or panama canal transit to get the ship from Europe to Long Beach after the conversion?  

Aren't you on the wrong board?

[Stickman1990]

2 hours ago, Hark the Shark said:

That's right. This is the Regent Board. Apparently.

The Crystal Cruises board actually 

[StoryMag]

Thank you Hark the Shark! I needed that laugh!

[PaulMCO]

Did Crystal turn into Costa???

[fisherboe]

Sir, this is a Wendy's

[Emdee]

3 hours ago, PaulMCO said:

Did Crystal turn into Costa???

Both start with a C?

Are  they reimagining a Costa cruise ship?

Edited January 14, 2023 by Emdee

[Eli_6]

I posted this on the Carnival board because the Firenze has been sold to Carnival. I have NO CLUE why it was moved to this board, but I have nothing to do with that. 

[Eli_6]

The Firenze was sold to Carnival and is being converted to a Carnival ship and will be out of Long Beach.  I posted this on the Carnival web page about it going into dry dock after it finishes its sailings with Costa and then wondering if it would have a CARNIVAL transatlantic sailing and for some mind boggling reason the Mod moved it to the Crystal cruises page.  This is really annoying and not the first time I have had a Carnival related post moved off of the Carnival page to another completely unrelated page. 

[Eli_6]

18 hours ago, suzeluvscruz said:

Aren't you on the wrong board?

Tell that to the Carnival mod who moved my post here. 

[KenzSailing]

I have some Celebrity questions.  Am I in the right place?

[May B]

2 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

Tell that to the Carnival mod who moved my post here. 

I guess we’ve all learned something about the Carnival mods. Please pardon our snarkiness, Eli. We’re getting antsy around here!

 

Best wishes to you for a great cruise on Firenze.

Edited January 14, 2023 by May B

[NWX]

1 hour ago, KenzSailing said:

I have some Celebrity questions.  Am I in the right place?

Which celebrities?😜

[PaulMCO]

4 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

Tell that to the Carnival mod who moved my post here. 

No issue -- this is the most excitement we have had on this board since last January...

Edited January 15, 2023 by PaulMCO

[At7Seas]

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.

[CruiseAdict218]

6 hours ago, At7Seas said:

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.

Carnival brand ambassador John said she was undergoing wet dock refreshment at Cagliari then will probably move to a dry dock to have the new livery applied. He’s expected to fly out to give an update on the process as things finalize. 

[At7Seas]

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.

[CruiseAdict218]

1 hour ago, At7Seas said:

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.

But what are the "uncertainties"? Quite a few details have been released, what public areas will be changed over, what won't be. Cruises from NYC are being sold and at a great pace. They pulled the ship out of service on December 1, and doesn't reenter service till the end of May, so there's plenty of time for work to be slowly carried out. There's no reason for them to rush all the work now when they can do it closer to May and still have plenty of time for it to be finished. The ship can always reposition quickly to any dry dock yard but Chantier Naval de Marseille isn't the only yard they used for major work. 

 

I'm not sure what more details you would need? If this wasn't going to happen the ship wouldn't have been pulled out of service for so long, maybe for a shorter period of time like Diadema and/or sent else where like to South America. Carnival isn't going to backtrack now and potentially lose a lot of money when they can't afford to.

[At7Seas]

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.

[CruiseAdict218]

I think its a little bit of both, use the ships were they can generate more profit as well as pushing the Costa name back in North America but the latter probably to a lesser degree given the ships are changing names but keeping their yellow Costa funnels. 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by only the buffet is included? But the concept won't be for everyone and neither is "The Fun Ship" style. Throw in a few American concepts but outside of that what would you consider to be a true Italian style? There is a new concept restaurant coming, but I think it will really be the decor that gives it the "wow" factor in this case. 

 

It's not going to be an entire huge brand created but like a sub brand between the two, when you think about it, how different is the concept of using the ships in Asia, outside of specialized signage and what not. 

 

But you are right, I forgot that was the reason for that season to be cancelled given everything that is going on in Europe. But all in all, its a good trial concept that has never been done before and certainly has potential to really be something, give lack of information. I'm excited to just sail on the ship regardless of the marketing concept. 

[At7Seas]

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.