''Costa Favolosa'' is a cruise ship ordered for Costa Crociere in October 2007. Based on the design, ''Costa Favolosa'' was laid down by

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

Marghera Marghera is a ''municipalità'' (borough) of the ''comune'' of Venice, Italy. It includes the industrial area known as Porto Marghera (English: Marghera Port) or Venezia Porto Marghera. Etymology The name Marghera is said in popular myth to come ...

shipyard on 5 November 2009 and launched on 6 August 2010. Part of a five-ship expansion of the Costa Crociere fleet, the vessel entered service in July 2011.

Design and description

The vessel is based on the design already in service with Costa Crociere. At , she can carry up to 3,800 passengers in 1,506 cabins; six more than previous ''Concordia''-class ships.

Construction and career

''Costa Favolosa'' and

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

were ordered in October 2007 as part of a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

2.4 billion expansion of the Costa Crociere fleet, with five ships entering service between 2009 and 2012 to increase the company's passenger capacity by 50%. ''Costa Favolosa'' cost

510 million to build. The names of the two ships were selected via competition. The first phase saw 16,000 pairs of names submitted by

travel agent A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destinatio ...

s and their customers from around the world, after being asked to suggest names. These names were to evoke the idea that the ships were magical and glamorous places. 25 name pairs were shortlisted and placed on the company's website, where over 42,000 visitors voted on their favourite. ''Favolosa'' (Italian for "fabulous") and ''Fascinosa'' ("fascinating" or "glamorous") were selected as the winning name pair. Costa Favolosa Diamanti Bar 1

The first section of the cruise ship was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

shipyard on 5 November 2009. The ship was launched from the builder's dry dock on 6 August 2010. ''Costa Favolosa'' is the fifteenth ship in service with Costa Crociere.

COVID-19 pandemic

In March 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the ship departed from

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

. Six of the disembarked occupants of the ship tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 26 March, as the ship stopped offshore from

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, Florida, the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

reported the evacuation of seven sick crew members, out of the 1,009 who stayed aboard. An update by

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

on 3 April 2020 stated that the ship was then docked near Miami. Seven crew members and the sick passengers had been evacuated. Other passengers had disembarked in Guadeloupe. On 8 April 2020 an Indian crew member died from the disease after the ship was disembarked and was sent into Miami Hospital on 29 March.More Coral Princess cruisers leave ship; Costa Favolosa crew member dies of coronavirus
USA Today, 7 April 2020 On 8 May it was reported that four of the 78 Belgian nationals who were vacationing on the ship had died.

References

External links

{{Concordia class Ships of Costa Cruises 2010 ships Cruise ships involved in the COVID-19 pandemic