From Costa:----------------------------------------------------------
COSTA CRUISES SET TO OFFER A HOST OF INNOVATIVE ITINERARIES IN 2011:
ROUND-THE-WORLD TRIP, THE RED SEA AND CRUISES ON THE NEW FLAGSHIP COSTA FAVOLOSA
Costa Cruises’ 2011 brochure, just released and on its way to some 80,000 travel agents all over the world, features exclusive new itineraries offered by Costa and Costa alone.
The return of the historic 100-day “round-the-world” trip on the brand new jewel of the fleet Costa Deliziosa; 7-day Red Sea cruises departing from Sharm el-Sheik; new 7-day Mediterranean winter cruises.
Summer 2011 will mark the debut of the Costa Favolosa, the new flagship under construction in Marghera: a veritable “fairytale castle” that will set sail from Venice on her inaugural cruise bound for Israel and Turkey.
Genoa – February 2, 2010 – Costa Cruises, the largest Italian travel group and Europe’s n.1 cruise line, has released the advance copies of its 2011 brochure, which will be distributed to about 80,000 travel agencies worldwide. The publication of the brochure almost a year ahead of the cruise departure dates enables all Costa’s customers to take full advantage of “ProntoPrice”, the Company’s landmark pricing policy with greatly discounted rates exclusively available to early bookers.
Costa Cruises’ staggering range of vacation options in 2011 includes over 250 destinations and more than 130 different itineraries. In keeping with its tradition of pioneering strategy, the Italian Company has come up trumps yet again, offering its customers an array of innovative cruise routes next year – routes that are exclusive to Costa and a first for the global cruise industry as a whole:
1. “Round-the-world” cruise: 100 days in the wake of famous navigators
The Costa Deliziosa, the latest jewel of the fleet delivered by Fincantieri on January 29 this year, will be the first Costa liner to offer once again the historic “round-the-world” cruises, for so long a highlight of the Italian company’s operations spanning more than 6 decades. On December 28, 2011 the Costa Deliziosa will depart from Savona on a 100-day world voyage. The cruise can also be broken down into 3 stand-alone segments: from Savona to Los Angeles via the Caribbean and the Panama Canal; from Los Angeles to Singapore with stopovers in Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia; and from Singapore to Savona via Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, the Red Sea and Egypt. A splendid trip of a lifetime.
2. Red Sea
During the winter 2010/2011 season, two ships – the Costa Allegra and Costa Marina – will be offering 7-day cruises in the Red Sea. Departures from Sharm el-Sheik every Monday on the Costa Allegra and every Thursday on the Costa Marina. The itinerary includes 3 days in Sharm el-Sheik and one-day calls at Adabiyah (Egypt), Safaga (Egypt), Aqaba (Jordan) and Eilhat (Israel) before returning to Sharm el-Sheik. A wonderful chance to enjoy a vacation in a unique setting amidst desert and crystal clear sea, entertainment and culture.
3. Costa Favolosa, the “fairytale castle”
The Costa Favolosa (114,500 gross tonnage and 3780 total Guests), which is currently under construction at Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard, is the first of two sister ships due for delivery by 2012. The second, the Costa Fascinosa, will join the fleet in spring 2012. Favola is Italian for “fairy tale” and the Costa Favolosa will indeed be a contemporary “fairy tale castle” in the sea – a perfect combination of magical atmosphere and state-of-the-art hi-tech fun. The main innovations on board include: 6 new veranda Suites with their own jacuzzis and a new entertainment area called Club Cavallo Bianco, comprising: 4D Cinema, PlayStation World, a bar with ice-cream, drinks and popcorn, Kids’ Dance Floor, children’s game room, and a new Aqua Park water playground for little ones with its own galleon. The Costa Favolosa will leave from Venice on her maiden cruise on July 7, 2011: a 10-day voyage of discovery to Israel, Greece and Turkey, with stopovers at Bari, Corfu (Greece), Haifa (Israel), Izmir (Turkey) and Dubrovnik (Croatia). The Costa Favolosa will be operating on 7-day cruises from Venice and Bari to Turkey, Greece and Croatia throughout the summer season in 2011.
4. New Mediterranean destinations: Valencia with excursions to Madrid, 7-day winter holidays
Costa Cruises is also introducing new options in the Mediterranean, in both winter and summer. The main news for the summer season is the addition of Valencia to the 7-day itinerary on the Costa Magica, with the chance to visit Madrid as well, thanks to the high speed train linking the two Spanish cities. For the first time, the Costa Magica will also be offering 7-day winter cruises calling at Savona, Civitavecchia, Palermo, Tunis, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona and Marseilles.
5. Continental cruising with a difference
The Costa Mediterranea in the summer and the Costa Pacifica in the winter offer 11-day cruises taking in 3 continents without leaving the Mediterranean: Italy and Greece (Europe), Turkey and Israel (Asia), and Egypt (Africa) all provide ports of call on a historic route following in the footsteps of St. Paul on his journeys to some of the places where he preached. For those who want a longer vacation, on March 18, 2011 the Costa Fortuna will depart from Santos (Brazil) on a transatlantic cruise with destination Venice.
6. The Far East
In March-April 2011 the Costa Classica will be offering a new 14-day itinerary, which can be enjoyed as a whole or broken down into two 7-day segments, in both cases departing from Singapore. The route takes in some of the finest places in Malaysia and Thailand.
Also confirmed for the second consecutive year the exceptional cruise in Greenland, in summer 2011 will be on board the Costa Deliziosa from Amsterdam.
The innovations in Costa Cruises’ 2011 brochure don’t stop with the routes and the ships but also include the range of services and products available on board. On the ships in the fleet, Guests will be able to purchase new excursion packages and new Samsara Dream wellness packages. The former, available on a vast range of 7-day Mediterranean and Caribbean cruises, comprise the top 3 excursions on each itinerary at a special discount price, thus enabling you to make the most of the cruise experience both on board and ashore. The new Samsara Dream package means that even passengers not staying in a Samsara cabin will be able to enjoy a full spa experience in the exclusive wellness areas on Costa’s ships: tea ceremony, 2 fitness lessons, 2 admissions to the solarium and access to the Samsara Restaurant. To make the 2011 cruise experience even more memorable, there will be new exclusive Costa products for purchase in the shipboard boutiques: fashion wear, designer gift items and accessories.
The 2011 cruise itineraries include the increasingly popular eco-tourism excursions, comprising visits to parks, oases and nature reserves, with programs that minimize the impact on the ecosystem and create economic opportunities for the local communities, as well as “made to measure” food & wine excursions, organized in restaurants listed in the Michelin Guide.
Once Guests have purchased a Costa cruise, they can personalize it before departure, according to their preferences, by booking any of a vast array of services at www.costacruisesasia.com: excursions; wellness treatment packages; dinner at the Club Restaurant; champagne and spumante to celebrate that special occasion; packages offering a choice of the finest wines; “welcome to your cabin” packages; birthday/anniversary celebration packages; floral arrangements; Costa gift items; “PlayStation on demand” cabin service on the Costa Deliziosa, Costa Luminosa and Costa Pacifica.
Costa Cruises’ 2011 brochure in Italy, France, Germany and Spain will also be innovative because for the first time it will have a “QR code”, enabling mobile phone users to download a special video illustrating the new edition.
Costa Cruises is Italy’s largest tourism group and Europe’s no. 1 cruise company. For more than 60 years its ships have plied the seas of the world, offering the best in Italian style, hospitality and cuisine and providing dream holidays with the utmost in terms of fun and relaxation. In 2009 about 1.3 million guests chose to go cruising with Costa, a record for the European cruise industry. Its fleet has a total of 15 ships, all flying the Italian flag, each with her own distinctive characteristics and unique style; together each year, they offer the chance to visit some 250 separate destinations in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Baltic Sea, the Caribbean, South America, the United Arab Emirates, the Far East and the Indian Ocean. Two more new ships are due to enter service by 2012. Costa Cruises has been certified by RINA (Italian Shipping Register) with the BEST4, an integrated system of voluntary certification of corporate compliance with the highest standards governing social accountability (SA 8000, issued in 2001), environment (UNI EN ISO 14001, 2004), safety (OHSAS 18001, 2007) and quality (UNI EN ISO 9001, 2008). All the ships in the Costa fleet have been assigned RINA’s Green Star notation certifying that they are operated in compliance with the highest environmental protection standards. Costa Cruises is an official partner of WWF Italy for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea. In Mediobanca’s 2009 survey of over 3700 Italian enterprises that recorded revenue of at least 50 million euros the previous fiscal year, Costa Crociere S.p.A. ranks in 10th place as regards profitability and in 65th in terms of sales. In the “Global Reputation Pulse 2009 international study, Costa Cruises is 1st among Italian “service industry” companies; Pulse scores are a measure of the corporate reputation (in terms of trust, esteem etc) of the 600 largest enterprises located in 32 countries worldwide. Costa Crociere S.p.A. is a member of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world’s largest cruise company.
For additional information:
Costa Crociere S.p.A.
Corporate Marketing & Communication Department
Press Office
Davide Barbano
Tel. +39 010 5483523 Cell. +39 3346525216 barbano@costa.it
www.costacrociere.it
Press Releases and pictures available at www.costamediapartner.com
COSTA CRUISES’ 2011 ITINERARIES
MEDITERRANEAN
Winter
Three Costa ships deployed on Mediterranean winter cruises: the flagships Costa Pacifica and Costa Concordia, plus the Costa Magica. The Costa Pacifica sails from Civitavecchia and Savona on 11-day cruises with calls on 3 continents (Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Egypt), in the footsteps of St. Paul. The Costa Concordia leaves from Savona on 11-day cruises to the Canary Islands. The Costa Magica offers 7-day Western Mediterranean voyages departing from Savona and Civitavecchia.
Summer
Three ships operating in the Eastern Mediterranean on 7-day cruises: the new flagship Costa Favolosa, with departures from Venice and Bari and port calls in Greece, Turkey and Croatia; the Costa Fortuna, from Venice and Bari bound for the Greek islands and Croatia; the Costa Victoria, sailing from Venice and Ancona for the Greek islands, Athens and Croatia. Plus the Costa Allegra, homeport Venice on 12-day cruises to the Black Sea and 11-day trips to Egypt-Israel and Greece-Turkey.
Four more ships will be positioned in the Western Mediterranean on 7-day cruises: the Costa Serena, Costa Concordia, Costa Magica and Costa Marina. The Costa Serena’s route will be Savona, Naples, Catania, Tunis, Barcelona, Marseilles, Savona. For the Costa Concordia: Savona, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Tunis, Palermo, Civitavecchia. Meanwhile the Costa Magica will call at Savona, Civitavecchia, Naples, Tunis, Valencia and Mallorca. From July through September the Costa Marina will be deployed on a special Mediterranean itinerary taking in Leghorn, Capri, Malta, Tunis, Menorca, Barcelona and Monte Carlo.
The Costa Mediterranea sails from Savona and Civitavecchia on 11- to 13-day cruises to the Canary Islands, Greece-Turkey, Israel-Egypt, and the Black Sea. In the fall the Costa Deliziosa will operate on 11-day cruises to the Canary Islands, while the Costa Luminosa will offer 11-day vacations to Lisbon and Casablanca.
RED SEA
In winter 2010/11 Monday sailings on the Costa Allegra and Thursday sailings on the Costa Marina, in both cases from Sharm el-Sheik on exclusive new 7-day cruises in the Red Sea. Three days in Sharm el-Sheik, plus one-day stopovers at Adabiyah (Egypt), Safaga (Egypt), Aqaba (Jordan), Eilhat (Israel) and return to Sharm el-Sheik.
DUBAI & ARABIAN GULF
In winter 2010/11 the jewels of the fleet Costa Luminosa and Costa Deliziosa, Costa’s top of the range offer, will be back in the Arabian Gulf on 7-day cruises departing from Dubai and calling at Muscat (Oman) Fujairah, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. In January the Costa Luminosa will offer a special 21-day cruise from Dubai to India and the Maldives.
INDIAN OCEAN
From December 2010 through April 2011 the Costa Romantica will sail from Mauritius on 14-day Indian Ocean cruises with port calls in the Seychelles, Madagascar and Reunion.
FAR EAST
The Costa Classica and Costa Romantica will be back in the Far East again in 2011. The Costa Classica will depart from Hong Kong and Singapore on 14- to 16-day cruises to some of the loveliest places in this part of the world (Thailand, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan), as well as mini-cruises with departures from China. In March-April 2011 the Costa Classica will be offering a new 14-day itinerary, which can be broken down into two 7-day segments, sailing from Singapore to Thailand and Malaysia. From April 2011 the Costa Romantica will offer mini-cruises and longer vacations from Singapore and Shanghai.
NORTHERN EUROPE
There will be 4 Costa ships deployed in Northern Europe in summer 2011: the Costa Luminosa, Costa Deliziosa, Costa Pacifica and Costa Atlantica. The Costa Deliziosa sails from Amsterdam on cruises to North Cape, Baltic cities and an exceptional trip to Greenland. The Costa Luminosa will be operating on 7-day cruises out of Copenhagen to the Norwegian fjords and Baltic cities. For the first time the Costa Pacifica will be deployed on Northern European cruises with homeport Kiel: 11- to 17-day cruises to the fjords, North Cape, Iceland, Spitsbergen and Baltic cities. Finally, the Costa Atlantica will be based in Copenhagen on 7-day voyages to the Norwegian fjords and Baltic cities.
CARIBBEAN
There will be 2 Costa ships in the Caribbean in the 2010/11 winter season: the Costa Mediterranea out of Guadeloupe and the Costa Atlantica out of Miami. Both will offer 7-night cruises calling at a different Caribbean island each day. Barbados – one of the finest, most exclusive islands – has been permanently added to the itinerary. Costa’s Guests in the Caribbean will also be able to enjoy the Company’s private beach resort at Catalina in the Dominican Republic.
NORTH AMERICA
The Costa Atlantica in the spring and the Costa Mediterranea in the fall will be deployed on cruises along the Atlantic coast of the USA and Canada, to see the stunning natural spectacle of the spring and fall foliage tinged with gorgeous seasonal shades, and visit superb destinations like New York, Quebec City and Boston.
SOUTH AMERICA
There will be 3 Costa liners operating in South America in winter 2010/11: the Costa Serena, Costa Fortuna and Costa Victoria. Departures from Santos, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires on cruises to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
ROUND-THE-WORLD CRUISE
On December 28, 2011 the Costa Deliziosa will set sail on a 100-day round-the-world trip, with the route embracing all 5 continents. The cruise can be broken down into three stand-alone segments: Savona-Los Angeles; Los Angeles-Singapore; Singapore-Savona. Fares for the full 100-day trip include a special all-inclusive formula comprising the top 15 excursions and all restaurant beverages.