Costa Crociere, the Italian unit in the Carnival Corporation & plc group, said the delivery of its LNG powered flagship Costa Smeralda would be delayed further.
The ship, which is built by the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland, would now depart on its first cruise just before Christmas, while previously the departure had been set for the end of this month. This again was a month later than the originally envisaged date.
“As a result of this delay, the first Costa Smeralda cruise will depart from Savona on December 21, 2019. The itinerary, which will be repeated until May 16, 2020, remains unchanged: Savona (Saturday), Marseilles (Sunday), Barcelona (Monday), Palma de Majorca (Tuesday), Civitavecchia (Thursday) and La Spezia (Friday),” the company said in a statement.
“Costa Cruises is sincerely sorry for what has happened and is informing the travel agencies and guests booked on the Costa Smeralda cruises from November 30 to December 20, 2019, which can no longer take place,” it continued.
The ship is based on a platform shared by four brands of the Carnival group – Costa Crociere, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line. AIDAnova, the first unit of the class that was built for AIDACruises at Meyer’s Papenburg shipyard, was also delivered late. The roughly 185,000 gross ton ships are the largest units in the fleet of the Carnival group that comprises about 100 ships.