Costa Cruises announced that the cruise ship Costa Pacifica will homeport in Taranto starting June 3 to October 7 2023 offering seven-night voyages, to the Greek islands.

As the health situation related to COVID-19 continues to improve across the world, most cruise lines have started to relax the mask policy for the crew. Crew Center has talked to crew members working on several major cruise lines to find out what are the latest crew mask policies. Surprisingly most of them said that masks are now optional and not a requirement in all crew and guest areas.

Preparations for the upcoming South American cruise season are well underway, with a record number of cruise ships scheduled to visit 17 destinations in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The 2022/2023 season will be the longest one in the past decade, spanning from October 29, 2022 to April 20, 2023. The leaders in the region’s cruise market MSC and Costa Cruises will deploy a total of eight ships.

Crew Center received a letter from Costa Cruises crew member expressing his concerns about the latest transfer of Costa Luminosa, and two additional ships to Carnival Cruise Line, in regards to what will happen to the crew and the future of the company. Lack of clarity when and if other Costa ships, currently in lay-up, are expected to restart, is leaving many crew members in limbo. 

Welcome to CruiSea, the most advanced social app for guests and crew to meet, connect and benefit from the discounts in ports or aboard the ships.

After years in preparation by cruise industry seasoned professionals and IT specialists, CruiSea is proud to present its final product of this unique app. CruiSea bringing the cruise community together and boosting the social ship life.

Luigi Stefanelli expands his responsibilities at Costa Cruises. In addition to maintaining his position as Costa Cruises General Manager for Spain and Portugal, he will now be in charge for the French market, thus leading the second and third most important markets after Italy.

Costa Luminosa has completed its final voyage as a Costa Cruises ship and is now one step closer to joining Carnival Cruise Line as Carnival Luminosa.

What's next for the soon-to-be hybrid cruise ship? When she arrived in Trieste, Italy on Sunday, September 4, 2022, Costa Luminosa officially completed her final sailing with Costa Cruises.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg rejected the appeal against the 16-year sentence for the Costa Concordia Captain Francesco Schettino. "No violation of rights and freedoms is found," claims the court.

In an attempt to contain the spread of the Coronavirus among the cruise passangers and crew Costa Cruises has reintroduced the obligation to wear masks aboard Costa Fascinosa. Captain Mario Moretta, in coordination with the company and the medical staff on board, has informed guests in a letter distributed to their staterooms

Finally, after 10 years the Italian Republic will honor the late Costa Cruises crew member Giuseppe Girolamo, with the highest award for Civil Valor. The award honors Giuseppe’s act of exceptional courage that clearly manifest solidarity, recognizing his heroic act to save others during the Costa Concordia disaster.