To end its 60th birthday (1948-2008) celebrations with a bang, Costa Cruises has arranged three Great Anniversary Cruises with an aura of exclusivity. On October 26 and November 3 and 11, the Italian Company’s most loyal customers will be boarding the Costa Mediterranea in Savona for an 8-day itinerary with stopovers in Malaga, Cadiz, Lisbon, Gibraltar, Alicante and Barcelona. The first cruise was actually “sold out” with more than 2,300 Guests onboard.

As the name suggests, they are theme cruises specially devised to celebrate the six decades of Costa’s history The ship will herself be personalized with special interior decoration, so as to involve the Guests right away in a festive convivial ambience.

Guest Starring on the first two cruises are the “legendary New Trolls”, a Genoese group that is part of the history of Italian pop music; they will be performing at a gala concert in the superb three-tier Teatro Osiris. On the November 11 departure, the star attraction will be the acclaimed international singer Al Bano, who will join in the celebrations for Costa by treating the audience to his greatest and most popular hits.

The history of the Company has been traced on the ship in a one-off exhibition of photographs depicting the fleet members and life on board from 1948 until the present day. And that’s not all! The Guests can also take part in an Auction of copies of decorative objects from Costa’s fleet, brochures, menus, old printed programs of the day’s activities on board and fragments from the hull of the “legendary” Eugenio C, the flagship of the fleet from the ’60s to the ’80s. During the first cruise the auction was a great success: a fragment from the Eugenio C was sold for 1,600 euro. A market has been also arranged trading Costa souvenirs, memorabilia and collector’s items.

Among the activities planned for these commemorative Cruises are some deck games from yesteryear such as shuffleboard as well as an entertaining Quiz on the history of the Company. Key events include the gala dinners, with some traditional delicacies from the past added to the menu, plus dancing, shows every evening, live music and games all celebrating Costa Cruises’ historic diamond anniversary. Brand new shoreside excursions have also been specially arranged in Spain and Portugal exclusively for the anniversary cruises, giving participants a whole new perspective on these countries.

The celebratory cruises ends in style with a farewell cocktail party during which there will be projection of archive footage and the chance for the Guests to drink a toast with the Masters, Maîtres d’ and cruise directors that have sailed on the best known and most popular ships in the Costa fleet.