Costa Cruises has announced the Costa Venezia will move out of China and offer cruises to Turkey starting next May, sailing from Istanbul, according to a press release.
In other news, the line also announced the Costa Toscana will enter service in the Mediterranean starting next March.
“Waiting for the return of cruises to Asia, we have decided to bring the Costa Venezia back to the Mediterranean to offer a truly unique, never-before-seen cruise program, that will only be available with Costa. The heart of this new product is Turkey, with Istanbul, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In line with our plan to gradually resume operations, we have also decided to move the entry into service of our new flagship, Costa Toscana, to March 2022,” stated Roberto Alberti, Chief Commercial Officer of Costa Cruises.
The Costa Venezia’s new program in Turkey includes three different itineraries, all sailing from Turkey.
From May 1 to November 13, 2022, the Costa Venezia will offer two one-week itineraries dedicated to Turkey and Greece, alternating with each other, which can also be combined into a single 15-day “super tour” with eight port calls of more than 10 hours each.
The first itinerary includes a two-day, one-night stopover in Istanbul, the Turkish destinations of Izmir and Bodrum, the island of Mykonos and Athens in Greece.
The second itinerary includes two two-day, one-night stops in Istanbul and Kusadasi, Turkey, before heading out to explore Rhodes and Heraklion, Greece.
In winter 2022-2023, the Costa Venezia will offer a third 12-day itinerary in Turkey, Egypt, Israel and Cyprus, which will visit Istanbul, with a stop of two days and one night, Bodrum, Limassol, Haifa, with overnights in Alexandria in Egypt and Kusadasi.
The new Costa Toscana will be delivered as scheduled in December 2021 and enter service on March 5, 2022. The ship will sail week-long cruises in the Western Mediterranean visiting Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Palermo, Civitavecchia/Rome. The Costa Toscana cruises originally scheduled from December 18, 2021 until early March 2022 will instead be operated by Costa Luminosa, which will therefore cancel its program of long winter cruises in the Mediterranean due to the restrictions currently in place in Israel.
