Costa Cruises is consolidating its cruise itineraries in Italy, dropping its multiple-country programs and longer Mediterranean itineraries so that its ships will only be visiting Italian ports.
The move by Costa Cruises comes in response to the long-awaited second wave of coronavirus across Europe, which has led many countries to reintroduce travel restrictions and lockdowns.
Costa Smeralda is one of the cruise ships Costa has returned to service out of Italy.
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Italy is still allowing cruises, with strict health and safety measures in place, but due to uncertainty over how much longer Italian passengers will be allowed to visit nearby countries, Costa is limiting its cruises to Italy and Greece.
Costa Deliziosa will continue operating her current one-week itinerary in Italy and Greece until January 3, 2021, calling at Trieste, Katakolon/Olympia, Athens, Heraklion/Crete and Bari, instead of visiting Montenegro and Croatia as originally planned.
Her 2021 World Cruise program has also been cancelled.
Costa Smeralda will extend her Italy-only cruises until the end of February 2021, visiting Savona, La Spezia, Cagliari, Messina, Naples and Civitavecchia/Rome.
She was meant to begin cruising from Italy to France and Spain in November, but those plans have been dropped.
Costa Diadema will postpone the start of her longer Mediterranean cruises until April 6, 2021, offering 14-day cruises to Turkey and 14-day cruises to Egypt and Greece.
Costa Firenze, currently in the final fit and finish stages of construction at the Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera, will be delivered as planned in mid-December 2020, but her cruise to China from Dubai remains on hold.
Costa Firenze is one of the ships Fincantieri will deliver to Costa later this year.
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She will instead offer seven-day cruises in Italy, France and Spain from February 28, 2021.
Costa Favolosa’s cruises in the Caribbean have been canceled and the ship will return to the Mediterranean to sail mini-cruises from Italy from April 2, 2021.
The changes to Costa Cruises itineraries come as all cruise lines that have resumed operations scramble to respond to the renewed travel restrictions in Europe as a result of the second wave.
TUI Cruises and AIDA Cruises, operating out of Germany, have also been affected by the new lockdown there. While AIDA Cruises has suspended operations once more, TUI has said it will continue to sail roundtrip cruises to nowhere from Germany.
MSC Cruises has also resumed limited cruises from Italy alongside Costa Cruises, but has not indicated yet whether it will be altering its cruise itineraries as a result of the new travel restrictions.
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