Genoa – October 2, 2006 – Costa Crociere, the Italian cruise company and the market leader in Europe, announced earlier today that it has appointed Sandra Yunta as the new General Manager of the Palacruceros, the new Barcelona cruise terminal, which is nearing completion and will be exclusively managed by Costa.

Sandra Yunta, who is 31 and a native of the Catalan city, joins Costa after gaining substantial experience as cruise shipping manager at the Barcelona Port Authority. She will be directly in charge of operations at the “Palacruceros”, which is due to open its doors for business in the winter 2006/2007 season, and will be reporting to Costa Crociere Marine Operations Director Roberto Ferrarini.

The Barcelona “Palacruceros” will be located in an area of approximately 5500 square meters on the “Adosado” pier; the Port of Barcelona has given Costa Crociere a 25-year concession on the site. The Italian company has foot the bill for the construction work, amounting to approximately 11 million euros. Costa Crociere and the other Carnival Corporation & plc cruise lines will have berth priority for the terminal.

With the assistance of the engineering firm “Sener” of Barcelona, the “Palacruceros” has been designed by the Vicini firm of architects in Genoa, who also contributed to the interior design of the Savona Palacrociere, another terminal managed by the Italian Company. Like the Savona “Palacrociere”, the new Barcelona “Palacruceros” has been specially devised and designed to provide hospitality for cruise Guests. Thanks to the novel architecture and extremely functional use of the interior, the “Palacruceros” will guarantee cruisers high quality services.

For example, the “Palacruceros” will have a Children’s and Teens’ Club, an Internet point, shops and offices, a VIP lounge and a café with a panorama terrace. The areas inside set aside for embarkation and disembarkation operations have been designed to reduce waiting time as much as possible; to this end, conventional check-in operations will actually be done away with altogether. Considerable stress has also been placed on security and environmental issues regarding the terminal’s operation.

The pier of the new “Palacruceros” will be 300 metres long and 20 metres wide. The facility will be on four levels with a total area of approximately 10,000 m², over half of which will be covered. It will be able to accommodate cruise ships with guest capacity up to 3500.

The forthcoming opening of the “Palacruceros” confirms Costa Crociere’s role as the first European company to implement a policy of direct management of cruise terminals, as demonstrated by the investments already made – in addition to the Barcelona development project – in the facilities in Savona and “La Romana” (Dominican Republic) and the agreements signed with the port authorities in Naples and Civitavecchia.

In 2006 Costa Crociere has scheduled about 80 calls in Barcelona, bringing a total of over 200,000 Guests. Until November the Costa Fortuna and the new flagship of the fleet Costa Concordia will make weekly stopovers in Barcelona on Fridays and Tuesdays, respectively. Costa expects its local traffic to increase substantially in 2007, with a total of 126 calls forecast, which works out to 330,000 Guests (up 65% on 2006), and confirmation of weekly departures of the Costa Fortuna and Costa Concordia.. Costa Crociere has two commercial offices in Spain – one in Barcelona and the other in Madrid – both engaged in the promotion, marketing and sales of Costa cruises throughout the country.