An Italian atmosphere in a Scandinavian setting
The Costa Favolosa entered service in July 2011. 289 metres, 1507 cabins,
3014 travellers at double occupancy, a last refit in 2018 and one hundred and
three cabins attached to the spa, including twelve suites.
She is the most northern ship in the fleet. She spends the summer out of
Hamburg, on the Norwegian fjords and northern Europe, with Iceland and
Greenland on the programme in some years. The contrast is the subject: an
Italian crew, Italian cooking, announcements in several languages, and outside
the cliffs and the low light.
And in winter, the other extreme
From November 2026 to February 2027 the ship switches to the Caribbean and
South America, out of Fort-de-France, Santo Domingo and Pointe-a-Pitre. Back to
the Mediterranean in spring 2027, then northern Europe again the following
summer.
One hundred and sixty-one departure dates sit with us. The point to check
remains the class's: fewer than forty per cent of the cabins have a balcony,
and on a northern route where you spend hours looking outside, that counts more
than elsewhere.
The other ships in the fleet
The Costa Fascinosa, the Costa Pacifica and the Costa Serena share her hull exactly. The Costa Smeralda is the liquefied
natural gas ship.
The line, and what happened to it
Sixteen ships in 2019, eight today. Half the fleet left in six years: sold to
American, Chinese or British companies, transferred to other brands of the same
group, or cut up in a Turkish demolition yard. Of our seventeen Costa pages,
nine describe a ship the line no longer operates.
Costa was born in Genoa in 1854, in the olive oil trade. It has run ships
since 1924 and carried passengers since 1947. An American group took half of it
in 1997 and all of it in 2000. It is today one of the nine cruise brands in
that group, and its position there has weakened.
The wreck of 13 January 2012 off the island of Giglio killed 33 of the 4252
people aboard, including a diver killed during the salvage. The captain was
sentenced to sixteen years. It is from that wreck that the muster drill before
sailing comes, on every cruise ship in the world.
The fare, item by item
Included: the crossing, the cabin, meals in the main restaurants and the
buffet, shows, entertainment, the children's club and port taxes. Transfers are
included only when they are part of the package purchased.
Not included: air travel, insurance, drinks outside meals, excursions,
speciality restaurants, treatments and laundry. A drinks package exists and is
bought in advance or aboard.
The hotel service charge deserves a paragraph of its own. It is added to the
onboard account every day, automatically, and the North American contract calls
it mandatory. The amount depends on the traveller's age and on the region of
the world. It can be adjusted at the front desk, during the cruise only: after
disembarkation no change is possible.
Life aboard, unwrapped
This ship is a floating hotel rather than a destination. You go ashore every
day, come back for dinner, and the evening starts late. It is a European
format, and it suits anyone who wants to be in Europe from the moment they
board. It suits badly anyone looking for the continuous entertainment of a
North American line.
The unsettling points, said plainly: announcements in several languages in
turn, an evening buffet on European hours, wider tolerance of smoking than
here, a reduced daytime programme, and service more distant than on an American
line. In exchange, the crew-to-traveller ratio is around one to three, the
excursion catalogue runs past two thousand options, and the speciality
restaurants regularly exceed expectations.
Accessibility calls for care. No official table of adapted cabins is
published ship by ship; the available figures come from deck plans read by
third parties. They are indicative, not contractual, and any booking for a
traveller in a wheelchair is validated with the line before the deposit.
Leaving from Quebec
Air travel is booked separately. From Montreal, Rome, Barcelona and Athens
are reached non-stop for part of the year; Savona, Genoa, Kiel, Hamburg and the
Caribbean ports need a connection. A hotel night before embarkation is not a
luxury, it is the margin that absorbs a delayed bag.
On recourse, the situation deserves saying clearly. The carrier is Italian,
the contract provides for Italian law, and the competent courts are those of
Genoa, to the exclusion of all others. The contract also invokes the Athens
Convention, which caps liability for personal injury. This is not particular to
this line: most European cruise operators have equivalent clauses.
Nothing establishes a Quebec licence in the line's name. Voyages AquaTerra
holds that licence: trust account, Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel
Agents, and one file for flight, cruise, hotel and insurance.
