Assembly work started on Tuesday, February 11, at the Meyer shipyard in Turku, Finland on the hull of Costa Toscana, the 2nd ship in the Costa Cruises fleet to be LNG-powered (liquefied natural gas).
Costa Toscana is the sistership of Costa Smeralda, which entered service on December 21, 2019. Toscana and Smeralda are part of an expansion plan including 7 newbuilds being delivered to Costa Group by 2023, for a total investment of EUR 6+ billion. As many as 5 of these ships are LNG-fueled.
The beginning of hull assembly work on the liner was celebrated with an official ceremony involving the top management of Meyer Turku shipyard and Costa Cruises. Minna Arve, the mayor of Turku, was chosen as the godmother of the event. During the ceremony, several commemorative coins were placed on the keel of the newbuild as a symbol of good wishes for crew members, passengers, and future voyages. Over the next weeks, the vessel will begin to take shape in the dry dock, where a huge section of the hull has been positioned. This measures one hundred meters and corresponds to the “floating engine room unit”, containing the engines.
The 14-day inaugural voyage of Costa Toscana will depart from Hamburg on June 28, 2021. Its final destination is Savona and the programme includes long calls of 2 days and 1 night in Barcelona, Lisbon, and Marseille.
During summer 2021 and until November, Costa Toscana will offer week-long sailings to discover the western Mediterranean, visiting Barcelona, Cagliari, Marseille, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, and Savona. From mid-November 2021 through Easter 2022, the itinerary will still last a week but will change to visit a couple of the best-loved Italian cities of art: Barcelona, Civitavecchia/Rome, Marseille, Palma de Mallorca, Palermo, and Savona.