Construction has started on the Carnival-owned Costa Toscana which will be operated by Costa Cruises once in service in 2021.
Costa Toscana Construction Begins
Costa Cruises which is owned by the Carnival Corporation continues to move forward with its second new generation mega-ship, the Costa Toscana. Construction has officially started on the future vessel which will be the sister to Costa Smeralda which is joining the fleet in October 2019.
There was a ceremony at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland as the first steel-cutting took place with the attendance of shipyard and cruise line executives.
Neil Palomba, president of Costa Cruises, said:
“Once again, Costa Cruises is paving the way for the industry as a whole: in accordance with our global vision aimed at sustainable development, we were the first to invest in this technology, which is now really starting to take hold.
However, a lot remains to be done in terms of the ready availability of gas bunkering infrastructure to ensure the seamless transition to LNG.
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.”
Costa Toscana will be around 180,000 gross tons and the shipyard even has her at 185,000 gross tons! The large cruise ship will have 2,661 cabins and 1,678 crew members will be working onboard.
Take a look at a 3D rendering video tour of Costa Smeralda which the Costa Toscana will look similar to:
Just like sister ship Costa Smeralda, she will be powered by Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) which is the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel. Costa Toscana will become one of the largest cruise ships int the world and one of the most advanced in the Costa fleet. The Italian based cruise line will reveal further specific details about the ship in the future.
The Carnival Corporation has several other almost identical mega-ships on order or under constructions for different cruise brands including Costa Cruises, P&O Cruises, Adia Cruises, Princess Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line with the much anticipated Carnival Mardi Gras.
Cruise Hive will continue to keep readers updated on all the latest mega-ship news. Costa Smeralda will debut on October 20, 2019 with a 15-day preview cruise from Hamburg to Savona.
Rendering Image: Costa Cruises
