Costa Cruises revealed the name of its second LNG-powered cruise ship, a sister ship to Costa Smerelda, during a steel cutting ceremony for the new vessel.

Costa Toscana is being built at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland like her sister ships (parent company Carnival Corporation has ordered seven of these ships for Costa, Princess, AIDA and Carnival Cruise Line).

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All are due to enter service between now and 2023 and represent a €6-billion investment by the company. The first of these latest additions was the AIDAnova, delivered last December.

At 180,000-gross tons and carrying more than 5,000 passengers in 2,600 staterooms, Costa Toscana will feature 11 different restaurants (including one specifically conceived for casual family dining), 19 bars, a huge spa area with 16 treatment rooms, an on-board waterpark with waterslides, four pools and a dedicated facility where kids can hang out and make new friends their age.

While sister ship Costa Smeralda will also have her very own museum: the CoDe – Costa Design Museum, showcasing the excellence of Italian design, it’s unclear if the same will be available aboard Toscana.

“The steel-cutting ceremony for Costa Toscana is another step forward in our sustainable development plan,” said Neil Palomba, President, Costa Cruises. “LNG propulsion for cruise ships is a major innovation, pioneering a new era in the use of low-carbon fuels that will significantly reduce exhaust emissions to help protect the environment without compromising on safety, in line with our top priorities.”

“Costa Toscana and her sister ship Costa Smeralda may be highly innovative products, but they will retain that inimitable Italian hospitality that has been Costa Cruises’ hallmark since the brand’s inception, conveying the exhilaration of ocean travel and providing enhanced guest experiences for repeat and first-time cruisers alike,” he added.

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Costa Smeralda is nearing completion with the finishing touches being put to the interior fit-out at the same yard in Turku prior to her entry into service in October this year. Costa Toscana is expected to be delivered in 2021.

Both ships have been named after one of Italy’s loveliest and most popular areas (Tuscany on the one hand and Sardinia’s most famous coastal strip on the other – costa is Italian for “coast”).

On Costa Smeralda all the decks and public areas are named after – and designed based on – iconic Italian places and this is likely to be the case aboard Toscana as well.

Costa Smeralda is set to make her debut on October 20, 2019, with a 15-day preview cruise from Hamburg to Savona featuring two-day stopovers in some of Europe’s best cities for history and culture including Hamburg, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Barcelona and Marseille.

The official naming of Costa Smeralda will be celebrated at a special ceremony on November 3 in Savona. From there, the following day, the new flagship will set sail on a 6-day inaugural cruise to Barcelona, Marseille and Civitavecchia.

Costa Smeralda will be deployed in the Western Mediterranean through April 2021 on one-week cruises homeporting in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Civitavecchia and La Spezia.

Costa Toscana’s cruise program will be announced in the next few months, according to Costa Cruises.