Costa Cruises’ 294m, 92,700-gross ton cruise ship Costa Deliziosa (picture credit Tom Barslid), a sister ship to Costa Luminosa and the largest cruise ship in the Italian cruise line’s fleet after the Destiny and Concordia-class ships, is to visit three South African cruise destination on her 2015 World Cruise.

The 2,800-passenger cruise ship, which cost R4.5-billion to build in 2010, will make port calls in Richard’s Bay, Durban and Cape Town during her 116-night World Cruise roundtrip from Savona, Italy.

Costa Deliziosa will reach South African shores after a leisurely week-long crossing of the Southern Indian Ocean from Fremantle, Australia, via Port Louis, Mauritius.

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The direct crossing from Australia to South Africa is an unusual itinerary for most cruise ships sailing a World Cruise, missing out all of the popular Indian Ocean cruise destinations such as the Maldives, Seychelles and Zanzibar.

With the cruise ship scheduled to stay overnight in Cape Town on April 10^th, 2015, it seems Costa are keen to put South Africa’s cruise ports front and centre.

Richard’s Bay will be Costa Deliziosa’s first South African port of call on April 6^th, followed by Durban on April 7^th. She’ll reach Cape Town two days later after a three-night cruise along South Africa’s famous and infamous Wild Coast.

Costa Deliziosa will only be visiting South Africa, as Cape Town, the popular South African cruise hub, is not being used as a turnaround port for passengers to join the ship for the European-bound leg of her World Cruise.

However, Cape Town will be a cruise port of departure for Costa’s much smaller ‘neo Collection’ cruise ship Costa neoRiviera, which will depart the Mother City on March 14^th, also bound for Savona.