The Valiant Lady now has her colours, as the final touches are being put on the hull of the second cruise ship for Virgin Voyages in Palermo, Sicily.
Delivered earlier this year to start up Virgin Voyages, the 2,770-guest ship is expected to start sailing in early 2022.
The Valiant Lady will officially make her debut in the UK before heading to Barcelona to sail the Med in the summer.
With dates ranging from March 18 through May 14, 2022, the Valiant Lady will sail on a series of three new itineraries, including a mix of three-night, 11-night and 12-night voyages.
The hull art on the Valiant Lady was created by artist Hillary Wilson, where the new mermaid celebrates the strong, beautiful, friendly and modern embodiment of a black American woman, according to a press release Virgin issued over the summer.
“Like the Scarlet Lady that came before her, the Valiant Lady will feature a glamorous new mermaid at the helm. Virgin Voyages’ leading ladies, its mermaids, are an important symbol for the brand and meant to keep guests safe on their voyage,” the cruise line said.
AIDA is one of the cruise lines that has managed to resume service after a pandemic-related break, at least partially.
In this short update, Cruise Industry News recaps what the German cruise line has been up to since it stopped sailing in March 2020.
Service Resumptions
Over the last year, AIDA continually looked for service resumption opportunities. While some plans ended up scrapped before the actual service start, others went ahead. The German cruise line already welcomed passengers back three times.
The AIDAperla then re-entered service on March 20, marking the third AIDA resumption. The ship is currently sailing in the Canaries, offering a week-long cruise departing Gran Canaria and visiting Tenerife, La Palma, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
After the sales in other brands, AIDA ended up with some of the older and smallest vessels across the nine brands of the corporation – including the 38,000-ton AIDAcara built in 1996 and the 48,200-ton AIDAmira built-in 1999.
AIDAcosma Delayed
AIDA’s 2021 new build, meanwhile, was significantly delayed. Initially scheduled for a spring debut, the LNG-powered AIDAcosma was pushed to the third quarter. With the change, the vessel’s inaugural season in Europe was entirely cancelled and the first voyage rescheduled to Oct. 23, 2021.
In other AIDA shipbuilding news, the cruise line announced in November that it is progressing on its way to emission-neutral ships. The cruise line also said that it plans to install batteries onboard the AIDAperla and fuel cells onboard the AIDAnova in 2021.
Costa Cruises will be restarting service on the Costa Smeralda from March 27 and on the Costa Luminosa from May 2. This was announced by its parent company, Carnival Corporation, in a press release.
“The cruise ships of Costa Cruises … are ready to set sail again and offer guests holidays filled with leisure and relaxation, along with enhanced health and safety protocols,” the company said.
The Costa Smeralda program will consist of an unchanged itinerary across Italy for three- or four-day mini-cruises or, alternatively, a 7-day cruise, calling at Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari.
On May 1, the Costa Smeralda will return to one-week cruises in the Western Mediterranean with visits to Italy (Savona, Civitavecchia and Palermo), France (Marseille) and Spain (Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca).
The Costa Luminosa will be departing from Trieste from May 2, and the following day from Bari, confirming its program of one-week cruises in Greece and Croatia, according to the press release.
“Costa is working with national and local authorities of the countries included in the itineraries of its ships outside Italy to define the details of the restart of cruise operations, with enhanced health and safety measures through the implementation of the Costa Safety Protocol,” Carnival Corporation wrote. “The protocol contains operational measures related to all aspects of the cruise experience, both onboard and ashore, which were implemented in the past months of cruise operations.”
All other cruises scheduled until the end of May, and not included in the program updated on Feb. 17, will be cancelled. Costa is in the process of informing travel agents and customers affected by changes.
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