Owned by Carnival Corporation, Costa is Europe’s largest cruise line with a fleet of a dozen ships ranging in size from 25,000 to well over 100,000 tons. It is growing fast to meet the burgeoning European cruise market.
Fleet
The fleet varies widely from two smallish ships built from
the hulls of container ships to some of the largest vessels afloat. The size of
the newbuilds continues to increase.
Itineraries
Costa bases ships in the Caribbean in the late fall through
the winter into spring, and its ships either cater to Europeans or to North
Americans and Europeans. In the summer, they cruise the Mediterranean with a
European majority. Here they compete with all the big mass market players on the
same repetitive itineraries at a good value price. Costa also bases ships in South America, the Persian Gulf and East Asia but North Americans rarely come aboard.
Dining and Decor
Nominally Italian, Costa employs Italian officers and
Italian maitre d’hotels and offers Italian and Continental menus. The food is
mass market fare. The smaller and older ships have a sleek European décor while
the newest megaships have Carnival Corporation’s Joe Farcus design, colorful
and glitzy and loosely themed to Greek gods, Italian artists, legends and the
like, not unlike his Carnival Cruise Line creations.
Programs
There are lots of onboard activities but no special enrichment
programs.
Onboard Experience
The largest cruise market is the Mediterranean where Costa
is the dominant player, and here the passengers are overwhelmingly Italian,
Spanish and French with a small percentage of North American booking
individually and more coming in groups. Announcements will invariably be in
four languages, and maybe more. So the atmosphere is dominated by middle-class
Europeans, including Italians.
Competitors
Costa’s main competitor would be Mediterranean Shipping
Cruises, a huge Swiss-owned container firm that has rapidly been building new
tonnage. MSC ships slightly edge out Costa for an Italian product.
