It would make total sense to pull the Destiny; oldest of the class out of the Caribbean which may have had excess capacity and put her on the more profitable Concordia itinerary.

The other thing that caught my eye was WHEN they were sending her over - February 4th! That is well outside the normal time frame for trans-atlantics and for cruise ships repositioning to Europe.

Even if she was due for a major refit they wouldn't send her to the Med, they would just do it in Freeport like they did with the Carnival Liberty.

This from Cruise Industry News:

Additionally, Carnival Destiny will offer a 16-day transatlantic crossing departing Miami Feb. 4 and arriving Civitavecchia (Rome) on Feb. 20, 2013.

Featured ports on the crossing include Ponta Delgada (Azores), Portugal; Malaga, Spain; Monte Carlo, Monaco; and Genoa and Livorno, Italy.

Carnival Destiny, the 1996-built 101,353 gross ton cruise liner of Carnival Cruise Lines, will undergo an extensive refit in early 2013 that will involve both outer decks and indoor spaces on board the ship. The dry docking itself is scheduled to take over a month.

The Lido deck is to be completely refurbished and as part of this the magrodome in the stern of the vessel will be removed. The space here will be occupied by new restaurants, Camp Carnival and the WaterWorks with water slide will be relocated from the front of the ship to the aft. The WaterWorks will be upgraded and it will be an evolution of that on the Fantasy class of the company: a pool with two parts will be built, whikle a third pool will be added as well. On the software side, the youth programme at Camp Carnival will also be upgraded.

Carnival Destiny is now 15 years old and it was the first cruise ship in excess of 100,000 gross tons in size, and it is the "mother" to many ships that have followed – such as the sister ships Carnival Triumph, and Carnival Victory, that followed in 1999 and 2000 respectively. Both of these were built with an additional deck. The Conquest class of Carnival Cruise Lines and the Concordia class vessels of sister company Costa Crociere are developments of Carnival Destiny’s deign.

Indoors, an opening in the middle of the two deck high Galaxy dining room on decks 3 and 4 will be closed and a steak house plus an Italian restaurant will be built in the area on deck 4. There will be a charge for dining in both of these and passengers can have their dinner any time during the opening hours of the restaurants.

On the lower level of the Galaxy dining room, deck 3 meals will be served on the basis of the Your Time dining concept of the company.

All cabins will receive a facelift and the entire spa area will be modernized as well.

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Originally posted by Matts:
I also can't see Costa taking Destiny. They have new ships coming on stream including the Costa Fascinosa this year and followed by a Costa derivative of the Carnival Dream. If the week long med circuits are indeed the most profitable and heavily booked, then they have plenty of ships to reshuffle if needed. I also think they have moved beyond the parent company hand me down phase now.

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It would take Costa at least 3 years to get a direct Concordia replacement. The new ships were planned with the idea of the Concordia in the fleet.

It is not so much a hand me down, as a temporary situation. Destiny is not ideal for the Med unless in the summer.

My theory is that Carnival need a vessel in the Med for the 2013 summer season. With Legend in Dover and Destiny due for the refit, they will have the work on Destiny done at Fincantieri from Feb to April and she will then sail the Med for the summer before returning to the Caribbean.