The Carnival Corporation-owned subsidiary and travel brand Costa Cruises announced important updates of its 2022-2023 ship deployment and itinerary programs, regarding two of the fleet's newest liners - Costa Toscana (currently under construction in Finland / at Meyer Werft Turku) and Costa Venezia (2019-built).
Starting in May 2022, Costa Venezia will offer sailings to Turkey, departing from homeport Istanbul (Galataport). Venezia will strengthen Costa’s Mediterranean program, where Toscana is also deployed - starting March 2022.
The new program of Costa Venezia in Turkey includes 3 different itineraries, all with embarkation/disembarkation in Istanbul. These are designed to provide longer stopovers in the ports, allowing guests to enjoy some of the most popular experiences of each destination, visiting UNESCO sites, cities rich in history, ancient ruins, and wonderful beaches.
From May 1 through November 13, 2022, Costa Venezia is due to offer 2 week-long itineraries dedicated to Greece and Turkey, alternating with each other, that can be combined into a 15-day “super tour” with eight ports of call of 10+ hours.
The first itinerary features a 2-day, 1-night stopover in Istanbul, the beautiful destinations of Izmir and Bodrum in Turkey, the island of Mykonos Island and Piraeus-Athens in Greece.
The second itinerary features a couple of 2-day, 1-night stops in Istanbul and Kusadasi-Ephesus in Turkey, before heading to Rhodes Island and Heraklion Crete. In winter 2022-2023, Costa Venezia will also offer a third 12-day Holy Land itinerary in Turkey, Egypt, Israel & Cyprus, which will call at Istanbul (with a stop of 2 days and 1 night), Bodrum, Limassol Cyprus, Haifa (with a stop of 2 days and 1 night), Alexandria Egypt, and Kusadasi.
The new itineraries of Costa Venezia, which include “flight & cruise” packages from all major countries in Europe, will be available for booking from the first half of next month.
The new flagship of the line, Costa Toscana, will be delivered as scheduled in December, entering service on March 5, 2022. The ship's itinerary from that date will remain unchanged, with 7-day cruises in the Western Mediterranean calling at Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Palermo Sicily, Civitavecchia-Rome.
Costa Toscana cruises scheduled from December 18, 2021, through early March 2022 will instead be operated by Costa Luminosa. Luminosa will therefore cancel her program of long winter cruises in the Mediterranean because of the restrictions currently in place in Israel.