VESSEL REVIEW | Costa Toscana – Costa Cruises’ newest flagship to serve Mediterranean and South America itineraries

Italy's Costa Cruises recently took delivery of its newest flagship, the LNG-powered Costa Toscana built by Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland. A near-identical sister of Costa's former flagship Costa Smeralda, the RINA-classed, Italian-flagged newbuild is named in honour of the famed Tuscany region of central Italy.

The ship boasts an LOA of 337 metres, a moulded beam of 42 metres, a design draught of 8.6 metres, a gross tonnage of 185,010, and a crew complement of 1,646. Up to 6,554 guests can be accommodated in 2,612 single cabins and suites across 11 decks. Around 1,550 have their own balconies.

Standard features in each guest cabin include a small lounge, a refrigerator with minibar, a direct-dial telephone, and a flat-screen television. The interior design of the cabins was provided by Dordoni Architetti.

The 17-deck ship also has 19 bars and lounges, 11 restaurants, 13 indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs, a water park with slides, a gym, a spa with sauna, a game room, retail shops, play and activity areas for children, and a live entertainment venue with capacity for 915 people across three levels. There is also a panoramic, open-air walkway that is situated at a height of 65 metres.

A partnership of various designers including Adam D. Tihany, Jeffrey Beers International, Partner Ship Design, and the Rockwell Group were responsible for the interior layouts of the onboard spaces other than the guest cabins. Furniture, lighting, and other accessories were meanwhile provided by Molteni and C, Roda, Flos, Dedar, and Rubelli.

The dual-fuel propulsion will enable the massive ship to sail at a service speed of 17 knots in addition to significantly reducing its emissions of NOx (85 per cent), CO2 (20 per cent), SOx (near-zero emissions as claimed by Costa's parent company Carnival Corporation), and particulate matter (95 per cent). Energy consumption will be kept as low as possible with the aid of an intelligent energy efficiency system.

To reduce reliance on onboard water storage tanks, special desalination equipment is fitted to process enough seawater that will supply the ship's daily requirement of fresh water.

Costa Toscana sailed on its maiden operational voyage out of its homeport of Savona in Italy on Saturday, March 5. Its destinations on this seven-night cruise include Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Palermo, and Civitavecchia near Rome.

The ship will continue serving Western Mediterranean itineraries through to the summer of 2022 while destinations including Naples and the Canary Islands will be added by the following November. In December, it will reposition to Brazil, from where it will serve itineraries in South America.