Carnival Cruise Line announced today that it is teaming up with Costa Cruises and creating a new concept for Carnival’s North American guests when COSTA by CARNIVAL debuts in the spring of 2023 and Costa Venezia joins the Carnival fleet sailing from New York. Both brands are owned by Carnival Corporation.
The Costa Venezia will be followed by Costa Firenze arriving in the spring of 2024 to sail from Long Beach.
The moves add approximately 8,500 berths to the North American market, according to Cruise Industry News estimates.
Both ships are presently sailing in Europe but were originally intended to operate in the Chinese cruise market.
Carnival will operate the ships, which will marry the great service, food and entertainment that Carnival’s guests enjoy with Costa’s Italian design features.
“Costa Venezia and Costa Firenze will bring Carnival’s guests the ambiance and beauty of Italy,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.
“We’re going to invite our guests to Choose Fun with Carnival, Italian Style!”
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to operate two additional beautiful Vista class ships in the U.S. and bring a unique experience to those who love the culture, food and vibe of Italy,” said Duffy.
“There are lots of ways we plan to create an immersive fun experience for our guests who choose to sail on these ships, which have beautiful Italian-design elements, dining and retail that will deliver Carnival fun leveraging the spirit of Italy from our sister line Costa Cruises.”
Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Cruises, said, “We are excited to see these iconic ships make their debut in the U.S. under the leadership and operation of our sister brand. Costa providing the beautiful ship with its Italian design and Carnival delivering FUN, Italian Style!”
Zanetti said that Costa will be informing clients impacted by this news.
Duffy said that the ships will continue operating their regular Costa itineraries until they are assigned to Carnival for drydock work and deployment.
Deployment and itinerary plans are being finalized, with the Venezia announcement coming soon given the spring 2023 launch date, according to a statement.
The Costa Venezia and Costa Firenze are sister ships to the Carnival Vista, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Panorama.
