The newest ship to join the cruise fleet later this week is the 114,500-ton, 3,012-passenger Costa Favolosa, having been built at an estimated cost of $750 million at the Marghera shipyard of Fincantieri. She will be the 15th ship in the Costa Crociere fleet, before the Fascinosa joins next year. According to Costa, “Favola is Italian for fairy tale and the new ship is a veritable fairy tale ship or contemporary enchanted castle, with a perfect combination of fabulous atmosphere and state-of-the-art high tech fun.”
Contemporary
Describing the design of the Favolosa to Cruise Industry News, Miami-based Interior Designer Joe Farcus, said the ship represents contemporary design expression. “We have not followed any themes per se,” he said. “The ship is not thematic, but it is ‘rich.’ We have used interesting light effects and materials, creating richness and excitement.
“When passengers step onboard, Costa wants them to leave their every-day behind and step into a special world created at sea and also get into a holiday state of mind.” Nothing aboard the ship is off the shelf, according to Farcus. “Everything is custom-made. We created new diamond-shaped lights that sometime are white with blue inserts and sometimes blue with white inserts, as well as three-dimensional and pyramid-shaped. They also make up the main chandelier in the atrium and are used in the staircases.”
Creating Excitement and Drama
Among the rooms Farcus pointed out is the Grand Bar, which he said has a yacht feel with wooden beams arranged in a grid pattern in the ceiling, with amber glass providing subtle lighting. He described it as a sunset-color effect. The walls are in rich wood with a dark grain. “To me the room comes together as a sailboat effect,” he added. “And to me this is contemporary design.”
The main restaurant has special light effects with handmade glass lamps on the walls, looking like flattened beehives, with white glass with red inserts. The walls themselves are marble with metallic bronze beehive-looking inserts. The walls also have moldings, which Farcus described as having the shape of an elongated football. The chandeliers have concentric shapes that also mirror football shapes with colored LED lighting for different effects.
Farcus also said the Lido is one of the nicest he has ever designed with “beautiful wood work and lots of tiles.” He compared the color on the walls to mixing coffee and milk and swirling it around without it actually mixing. “Overall, the effect of the design creates excitement; it is quite dramatic,” Farcus added. “It is my style of eclectic designs whereby no public room mirrors another.”
Read the full article, Costa Favolosa: Fabulous Fairy Tale, in the Summer edition of the Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine.
