Tag Archives: costa cruises

Costa Cruises Announces Brand Transformation

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Costa Cruises has added various new features to its cruise offerings, as well as renewed its visual identity.

According to a press release, Costa’s new concept is based on “enabling guests to explore destinations through unique experiences, both onboard and ashore.” To build these experiences, the company has focused on three key areas – cuisine, tours, sustainability – with a new visual identity to communicate them.

The concept is in line with the principles of its “Manifesto for value-driven, sustainable and inclusive tourism,” the decalogue that outlines the company’s commitment to “grow together with local communities.”

“Now our ships are sailing again, we decided to completely renew our offer. The innovations are so significant that we can talk about a whole new way of travelling with Costa. We want everyone who holidays with us to enjoy unique, enriching experiences, discovering destinations in the most authentic, insightful, sustainable way possible,” explains Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Cruises. “For more than 70 years Costa has been synonymous with cruise travel. At this very important time for the recovery of tourism, we wanted to rewrite the future of cruises in a way that is more responsible and mindful of people and the planet, with the aim of steering the sector back to the constant growth it saw before 2020.”

When it comes to cuisine, Costa worked with chefs Bruno Barbieri, Hélène Darrozeand Ángel León. The chefs have explored authentic local recipes from the destinations visited by Costa ships, reworking them with their own personal know-how.

In that way, Costa Cruises has created two new features: the Archipelago restaurant and Destination Dishes. Destination Dishes are individual recipes designed by the three chefs, interpreting the traditions and flavors of the places guests will be visiting the following day. They are available at main restaurants on all Costa ships, included in the price of the cruise.

The new Archipelago restaurant, available on the Costa Smeralda and coming soon to other ships in the fleet, gives guests three menus to choose from, one by each chef. The menus offer five dishes created to explore each part of the sea route through its cuisine. Archipelago features “island” tables for a more intimate experience, framed by a copper sculpture enclosing pieces of driftwood, installations made using wood salvaged from the shore. 

The chefs’ menus were designed “with the greatest attention for the ingredients,” according to the press release. Most of them are being sourced from local producers, and the way the dishes are prepared allows to prevent food waste, Costa said.

The driftwood decorating the “islands” was salvaged as part of “Guardians of the Coast”, the environmental education program for the protection of the Italian coastline run by the Costa Crociere Foundation. For every dinner eaten at the Archipelago, Costa said it will donate part of the proceeds to Costa Crociere Foundation to support environmental and social projects.

The company has rethought its entire range of tours, too. The itineraries have been redesigned to accommodate longer stopovers in ports, giving guests whole days to explore their destinations and make the most of their whole cruise.

“Costa tours become genuine experiences discovering the essence of each place, allowing guests to enjoy the most genuine traditions, flavours and colours, and creating value for local communities,” the cruise line wrote.

As part of its transformation, Costa Cruises has decided to transform its logo too, with a new visual identity. The letter “C” in the logo, which has been accompanying Costa on seas worldwide for over 70 years, has been given a new look, which brings “two different motifs” together in a “sinuous, enveloping embrace,” The two motifs are the earth, seen in yellow in the lower part of the logo, and the sea, in blue in the upper part, joined in the same experience thanks to cruises with Costa.

Costa’s latest innovations are already available on ships currently in service: the Costa Smeralda, the flagship powered by LNG, and the Costa Firenze, offering week-long cruises around the western Mediterranean; the Costa Luminosa and Costa Deliziosa, with week-long cruises around the eastern Mediterranean; the Costa Diadema, now running 10-day cruises to Spain and Portugal.

Innovations will then be extended to the next ships gradually returning to operate, including the new flagship Costa Toscana, the second LNG-powered ship in the fleet, in service from March 2022.

Carnival: Optimistic For Restart in the U.S. By Year’s End

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Carnival Breeze

“At this time, we have every reason to be optimistic we will be sailing in the U.S. before year’s end,” said Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corporation, on today’s third-quarter earnings call.

The company’s Costa Cruises brand has already returned to service with two ships in the Mediterranean, soon to be joined by a third ship, the Costa Smeralda, according to Donald. They are sailing weeklong cruises from different Italian homeports. The sister brand, AIDA, is set to launch service later this month, also in the Mediterranean, with German passengers.

Donald explained that the ships are sailing with lower occupancy levels enabling the cruise lines to test and assess their health and safety protocols.

With national brands, Donald said Carnival is ideally positioned for a phased-in return to service, as each brand can be restarted independently, and in most cases with ready access to drive-to markets.

Also, with a small percentage of the fleet entering service, for now, he said, there will be less reliance on new-to-cruise, compared to all previous growth cycles that required the brands to tap more new passengers.

In addition, as Carnival is disposing of some 18 older ships and right-sizing its shoreside organization, Donald said a leaner and more efficient company would emerge.

“All initiatives going forward will be focused on maximizing cash generation and creating shareholder value. The delivery schedules of new ships have been stretched out and there is only one new ship on order for 2024 and one for 2025. This will further reduce our capital expenditures and allow us to repay debt,” he added.

Added David Bernstein, CFO and chief accounting officer: “We are focused on assets that are cash generative, so we can pay down debt, rebuild our balance sheet and get back to investment-grade rating.

“We are working through a number of different financial scenarios, but there is a lot of uncertainty involved so it is difficult to give (financial) guidance. (However), we expect over time to build occupancy up to generate positive cash flow and reduce the cash burn. The start-up occupancy level is less than 50 per cent. Over time, once we know we have things right, we will increase occupancy, while keeping social distancing in mind as well.”

Bernstein noted that the break-even point ranges from 30 to 50 per cent occupancy for different ships.

Costa Ready to Restart Cruise Operations This Weekend

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Costa Deliziosa

Costa Cruises is scheduled to restart sailing in Italy this Sunday, Sept. 6.

Carnival’s Italian brand will be followed by Germany-based AIDA Cruises scheduled to resume on Nov. 1.

The brands will begin in a gradual, phased-in manner with six initial ships and limited itineraries, becoming the first two of Carnival’s nine brands to resume operations.

“Our highest responsibilities and top priorities are always compliance, protecting the environment, and the health, safety and well-being of our guests, the communities we visit and our crew,” said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation. “We are engaged with a large number of medical experts and scientists around the world, and they are providing us with extremely valuable insight that we are using to develop new and enhanced protocols that are in the best interest of our guests, crew and overall public health. In areas of the world where community spread is largely mitigated and authorities are supportive of a gradual return to service over time, we look forward to again welcoming guests onboard.

The initial cruises will take place with adjusted passenger capacity and enhanced health protocols developed with government and health authorities to follow shoreside mitigation guidelines, the company said.

Costa Cruises is restarting sailing with two initial ships departing from Italian ports beginning Sept. 6.

The Costa Deliziosa will offer weekly cruises from Trieste on Sept. 6, 13, 20 and 27, visiting five destinations in southern Italy, including Bari and Brindisi in Puglia, Corigliano-Rossano in Calabria, and Siracusa and Catania in Sicily.

The Costa Diadema will follow on Sept. 19 from Genoa, calling at Italian ports in the western Mediterranean, including Civitavecchia/Rome, Naples, Palermo, Cagliari and La Spezia.

The one-week itineraries are being reserved exclusively for Italian guests.

AIDA Cruises will resume its cruise operations with two of its ships, sailing from the Canary Islands in November 2020, followed by an additional two ships departing from the western Mediterranean and the United Arab Emirates beginning in December 2020.

The first of the brand’s cruises are set to begin Nov. 1, with seven-day voyages to and departures from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, with AIDAmar, followed by sailings from Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife with AIDAperla on Nov. 7. In December, AIDA Cruises will resume sailing operations in the Western Mediterranean with AIDAstella departing on seven-day cruises from Palma, Mallorca, beginning Dec. 12. Additionally, AIDAprima will offer seven-day cruises from Dubai starting Dec. 11 and from Abu Dhabi beginning Dec. 15.

In working with global and national health authorities and medical experts, Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises have developed a comprehensive set of health and hygiene protocols to help facilitate a safe, healthy return to cruise vacations, according to a press release.