''Costa Smeralda'' is an currently operated by Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of

Carnival Corporation & plc Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of two companies – Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carniv ...

. At , she is the largest ship commissioned for and to ever operate for Costa, and is the sixth-largest cruise ship in the world, . ''Costa Smeralda'' is also the second cruise ship in the world to be fully powered by

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

(LNG), making Costa the second cruise line to operate a ship running on LNG, after sister brand,

AIDA Cruises AIDA Cruises is a German cruise line founded in the early 1960s and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc since 2003. Based in Rostock, Germany, AIDA Cruises caters primarily to the German-speaking market; as seag ...

, became the first in 2018. ''Costa Smeralda'' is set to have a

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 ...

, , that is scheduled for delivery in 2021. Her inaugural cruise sailed on 21 December 2019.

Design and description

As a liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered vessel, ''Costa Smeralda'' is powered by duel-fuel hybrid engines and receives all of its onboard and navigational power from LNG. ''Costa Smeralda'' derives its design and technical template from the original prototype of the Helios class, which would later come to form ''

AIDAnova ''AIDAnova'' is a cruise ship built by Meyer Werft GmbH in Papenburg, Germany under contract from Carnival Corporation for AIDA Cruises. The first of the new ships, she was launched on 21 August 2018 and delivered on 12 December 2018. She has ...

.'' The ship is fitted with four 16-cylinder,

MaK Mak may refer to: People *Mak Dizdar (1917 - 1971), Bosnian poet *Muhammad Arshad Khan, Pakistani painter popularly known as "MAK" *Alan Mak (director) (born 1968), Hong Kong film director *Alan Mak (politician) (born 1984), British Member of Par ...

16VM46DF models, with each cylinder rated for a maximum output in excess of , totaling per engine. Maximum power is rated at . ''Costa Smeralda'' has 20 decks and a length of , a draught of , and a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of . Passenger capacity is 5,224 with double occupancy and 6,554 at maximum capacity housed within a total of 2,612 passenger cabins. The crew complement is 1,646. The system gives the vessel a service speed of .

Construction and career

Planning and construction

On 15 June 2015, Carnival Corporation announced an order for four 180,000 gross-ton

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

s powered by

(LNG) from

Meyer Turku Meyer Turku Oy is a Finnish shipbuilding company located in Turku, Finland Proper. The company is fully owned by German shipbuilder Meyer Werft GmbH. The main products are cruise ships and cruiseferries. The shipbuilding facility is Perno shipy ...

Turku, Finland Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

, with one of the ships eventually being built for Costa. On 13 September 2017, Costa announced the name of its first LNG-powered vessel as ''Costa Smeralda'', after the

Costa Smeralda The Costa Smeralda (, ; sdn, Monti di Mola; sc, Montes de Mola) is a coastal area and tourist destination in northern Sardinia, Italy, with a length of some 20 km, although the term originally designated only a small stretch in the comm ...

("Emerald coast") in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

, at the ship's steel-cutting ceremony at Meyer Turku's shipyard. 4 July 2018 marked the beginning of the ship's hull assembly with the

keel laying 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 ...

and coin ceremonies. She was floated out from the shipyard on 15 March 2019. The ship began a round of

sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s on 7 October 2019. A separate round of sea trials began on 16 November 2019 and was successfully completed shortly thereafter. Meyer Turku constructed the ship with the help from sister yard,

Neptun Werft Neptun Werft is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Rostock. Since 1997 it has been part of the Meyer Neptun Group together with Meyer Werft in Papenburg. History The company was founded as the "Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik von ...

, in supplying a section containing the ship's main and auxiliary machinery and related systems.

Delivery and christening

''Costa Smeralda''s delivery was marred by extensive construction delays that postponed her debut by two months and caused Costa to scrap initial inaugural festivities, including her maiden voyage, that were planned for the ship. ''Costa Smeralda''s two postponements in delivery marks four substantial delays overall in construction and delivery for an Excellence-class vessel, after also experienced two postponements in delivery in 2018 at Meyer Werft. The ship was originally slated to be delivered in October 2019. Her debut was scheduled to be on 20 October 2019, with a 15-day maiden cruise from

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Savona Savona (; lij, Sann-a ) is a seaport and ''comune'' in the west part of the northern Italy, Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea. Savona used to be one of the chie ...

. Her christening ceremony was scheduled to be on 3 November 2019 in Savona, after which she would begin cruising the Western

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. On 16 September 2019, Meyer Turku and Costa announced that ''Costa Smeralda''s delivery would be postponed by approximately one month, to mid-November 2019, citing technical complexities with the construction. All cruises and ceremonies scheduled prior to this date were subsequently cancelled and the ship's maiden cruise was postponed to 30 November 2019 and moved from Hamburg to Savona. On 29 October 2019, Meyer Turku announced a second postponement in delivery for ''Costa Smeralda'' and restated the complexities as the reason for driving the project's timeline beyond the planned schedule. The inaugural voyage from Savona was now postponed to 21 December 2019. On 5 December 2019, Meyer Turku delivered ''Costa Smeralda'' to Costa at the Meyer Turku shipyard. She was christened by her godmother,

Penélope Cruz Penélope Cruz Sánchez (; ; born 28 April 1974) is a Spanish actress. Known for her roles in films of several genres, particularly those in the Spanish language, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British A ...

, on 22 February 2020 in Savona.

Operational career

Following her delivery, ''Costa Smeralda'' left Turku on 6 December 2019 for the Mediterranean for travel industry presentations in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

on 18 December, in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

on 19 December, and in Savona on 20 December. She officially debuted on 21 December 2019 from Savona for her inaugural cruise, calling in Marseille, Barcelona,

Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...

Civitavecchia Civitavecchia (; meaning "ancient town") is a city and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located west-north-west of Rome. The harbour is formed by two pier ...

, and

La Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

. For her inaugural season, she continued sailing weekly voyages, with

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

later scheduled to replace La Spezia for summer 2020 and

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

later replacing Cagliari in winter 2020–2021. From April 2021 to October 2021, ''Costa Smeralda'' is scheduled to cruise in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

from

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

for the first time.

Coronavirus quarantine

In January 2020, the vessel and her 6,000 passengers were quarantined at the Italian port of Civitavecchia following two suspected cases of

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

(coronavirus) infection related to 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 ...

. A spokesperson from Costa Cruises stated that a 54-year-old woman aboard the cruise ship was suffering from a fever and that she and her husband were both being tested. They were later found to be uninfected by SARS-CoV-2 and passengers were allowed to go on shore the next day.

Incidents

On 22 January 2021 the ship collided with a crane in Savona, resulting in the destruction of one of the ship’s lifeboats.

References

{{Costa Cruises 2019 ships Cruise ships Cruise ships of Finland Cruise ships involved in the COVID-19 pandemic