Costa Cruises and Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri have celebrated the official float-out ceremony of Costa Firenze. The ceremony was held at the Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera, Italy, where the ship is being built with scheduled delivery on September 30, 2020.
Costa Firenze is the sister ship of Costa Venezia and Costa Cruises‘ second ship designed and built specifically for the Chinese market, where the Italian company was the first to start operating in 2006 and is currently the leader.
With a gross tonnage of 135,500 tons, 323 meters in length and a capacity for over 5,200 guests, Costa Firenze and Costa Venezia are the biggest ship introduced by Costa to the Chinese market. Both ships are part of an expansion plan that includes a total of 7 ships being delivered to the Costa Group by 2023, for a total investment of over 6 billion euros.
As part of the float-out ceremony, Costa Firenze officially reached the sea for the first time. The celebration followed the protocol provided by the seafaring tradition for such occasions, by flooding the basin where the ship took shape in recent months, following the cutting of the ribbon and the breaking of the bottle by the float-out ceremony’s godmother Franca Pierobon, an employee of Marghera shipyard.
“Costa Firenze is a further proof of Costa Cruises’ long-term commitment to China market” – said Vanessa Li, Vice President Marketing of Costa Group Asia. “We aim to bring the beauty of the Italian lifestyle to Chinese guests, offering them an authentic Italian vacation experience. Together with Costa Venezia, which is enjoying great success, the arrival of Costa Firenze will help boost the development of Chinese cruise industry. The potential for future growth remains enormous: cruise travelers in China currently represent less than 2% of Chinese people who holiday abroad”.
Costa Firenze is inspired by the city of Florence, representing centuries of Italian culture and history. During the Costa Firenze cruises, guests together with their families and friends, will have a chance to immerse themselves fully in Italian beauty and aesthetic, which will take shape in various aspects of life on board: from interior design to dining, from entertainment to hospitality.
You can find out more on Costa’s second ship for China here.
After her delivery scheduled on September 30, 2020, Costa Firenze will head to Singapore, offering cruises for Chinese customers from October 20, 2020 onwards.