Costa Cruises has announced updates to its 2022-2023 schedule regarding two of its newest ships Costa Venezia and Costa Toscana.
Costa Venezia debuted in 2019, and was designed for the Asian market where she began her life sailing from China, but now, Costa is pulling the vessel from Asia and redeploying her moving it to the Mediterranean, with starting in May 2022, Venezia will offer three different itineraries all roundtrip from Istanbul, Turkey.
Each itinerary is reported as designed for longer time in the ports, allowing guests more opportunities for exploring and enjoying the destinations, with two one-week itineraries dedicated to Turkey and Greece, alternating with each other, which will be able to be combined into a single 15-day “super tour” with eight port calls of more than 10 hours each.
The first itinerary includes a two-day, one-night stopover in Istanbul, the Turkish destinations of Izmir and Bodrum, the island of Mykonos, and Athens, Greece and the second will include 2 two-day, one-night stops in Istanbul and Kusadasi, Turkey, before heading out to Rhodes and Heraklion, Greece.
In winter 2022-2023, the ship will offer a third 12-day itinerary in Turkey, Egypt, Israel, and Cyprus, with the schedule including Istanbul for two days and one night, Bodrum, Limassol, Haifa for two days and one night, Alexandria in Egypt, and Kusadasi.
Shore excursions on these Costa Venezia cruises will include options such as a private concert in a Roman amphitheater in Ephesus, sleeping in houses carved into the rock in Cappadocia, discovering the natural pools of Pamukkale, and more.
Venezia‘s new itineraries will be available for booking in the first half of October.
Costa Cruises’ new flagship, Costa Toscana, is currently under construction, set to be delivered as scheduled this December, with the liquefied natural gas-powered ship set to enter service on March 5, 2022.
Toscana‘s itineraries from March 5 2022 forward remain unchanged operating week-long cruises in the western Mediterranean visiting Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Palermo, and Civitavecchia (the port for Rome).
The vessel’s itineraries originally scheduled from December 18 through early March 2022 will instead be operated by Costa Luminosa, which as a result cancels Luminosa‘s program of long winter cruises in the Mediterranean due to restrictions in Israel.
Chief Commercial Officer of Costa Cruises Roberto Alberti said “Waiting for the return of cruises to Asia, we have decided to bring the Costa Venezia back to the Mediterranean to offer a truly unique, never-before-seen cruise program, that will only be available with Costa.”
“The heart of this new product is Turkey, with Istanbul, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In line with our plan to gradually resume operations, we have also decided to move the entry into service of our new flagship, Costa Toscana, to March 2022.”
In other recent news, Royal Caribbean has also announced last week that its new Oasis-class ship, Wonder of the Seas, will not debut in China as scheduled, with instead, she will cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to the Caribbean starting in March 2022 and in May, she will move to the Mediterranean for the summer season.
A report by John Alwyn-Jones, Cruise Editor.
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