Costa Cruises has announced the dates it will be resuming cruises once again on its European itineraries. The line has been sailing on and off for most of the last year with one or two ships.
The line had initially planned on restarting operations in April, however, this has now been moved to May instead.
Costa Smeralda & Costa Luminosa Will Sail in May
This decision has been taken because restrictions still exist in Italy and other European countries to prevent the virus’s spread. These measures are not conducive to ensuring that the company provides the best cruise vacation to its guests, especially for their shore experiences.
Costa Smeralda will be the first ship to resume sailings in Italy and is currently scheduled to do so on May 1, 2021. The itinerary for the vessel includes sailings in popular Italian ports of call like Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari. The vessel will be sailing to these ports on three and four-day itineraries.
In June, Costa Smeralda will resume one-week cruises in the western Mediterranean, visiting Italy’s Savona, Civitavecchia and Palermo, France’s Marseille, and Spain’s Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.
Costa’s second vessel to resume sailings, Costa Luminosa, has been delayed and will now resume its operations on May 16, 2021. The vessel will be sailing on its intended schedule to Greece and Croatia from Italy.
The itinerary involves ports like Trieste, Bari, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, and the beautiful city of Dubrovnik. This is in accordance with the latest roadmap for the resumption of international tourism in Greece.
Also Read: Costa’s Flagship Crashes Into Pier and Causes Damage
Costa Safety Protocol Does Not Include Vaccination
As we would have expected, Costa cruises are not requiring their passengers to be fully vaccinated before sailing. The cruise line has been tremendously successful in managing its operations since August of last year and has had no outbreaks onboard of COVID-19.
Worth Reading: It’s Officially One Year Since Cruise Lines Started Suspending Operations
There are a number of measures the line enforces, including restrictive capacity onboard, swab tests on all guests and crew, temperature checks for departing and returning passengers, excursions to protected ports, physical distances on board and at the cruise terminals, new methods of using onboard services, improved sanitation, and medical services, and use of protective masks when needed.
Costa Cruises has also announced it would be canceling all voyages up to the end of May, excluding the sailings onboard Costa Smeralda and Costa Luminosa. Costa is currently in the process of informing the guests affected by this.
Whether or not we will be seeing more Costa cruises in the next few weeks is unclear. The company is still working with foreign governments on the plans for the cruises departing in May.
Whether this will include countries not yet scheduled in was not remains unknown, although, with the recent increase of ships sailing in the UK and Caribbean, it does not seem unlikely.
Main Photo Credit: byvalet / Shutterstock.com
