Transferred to another brand of the same group
The Costa Luminosa no longer sails for Costa. Delivered in 2009, 294 metres,
1130 cabins, she was transferred in September 2022 to the same group's North
American brand and returned to service in its colours in November 2022. She has
sailed the Australia-Alaska axis since, out of Brisbane.
That transfer is part of a wider movement: three Costa ships changed brand
within the group between 2022 and 2024, all towards the North American market,
judged more profitable. It is one of the clearest signs of Costa's weakening
position within its own group.
The 2020 health file
This ship also carries one of the heaviest episodes of the early pandemic,
and there is no reason to skirt it. In March 2020, on a transatlantic crossing,
she was refused by several ports before landing her travellers in Marseille on
19 March. Three travellers who had disembarked earlier in Puerto Rico tested
positive, and one of them later died. Class actions were filed in the United
States.
This file should not be confused with that of another ship of the same line,
which crossed the same period without a single confirmed case aboard. They are
two distinct stories.
The ships Costa still operates
The Costa Smeralda and the Costa Toscana run on liquefied natural gas. The Costa Pacifica and the Costa Fascinosa share the
fleet's most common class.
The house, the group and the wreck
A Genoese house of 1854, come from olive oil and textiles, a shipowner since
1924, a carrier of passengers since 1947. An American group acquired half of it
in 1997 and all of it in 2000; it is one of nine cruise brands there.
The fact that matters today lies elsewhere: the fleet went from sixteen
ships in 2019 to eight in September 2026. Seven hulls sold or transferred, one
scrapped. That is half a company gone in six years, and it shows on our own
site, where nine pages out of seventeen describe a ship that is no longer
there.
On 13 January 2012 the Costa Concordia struck rocks off the island of
Giglio with 4252 people aboard. Thirty-three people died, including a diver
killed during the salvage. The captain was sentenced to sixteen years, upheld
on final appeal. We say it here because a client will read it elsewhere, and it
is better read accurately.
What this trip asks of you from Quebec
A flight not included in the fare, a hotel night before embarkation that we
recommend every time, and a valid passport. Door-to-door travel often exceeds
what the brochure suggests, especially when the embarkation port needs a
connection.
The recourse question comes up weekly with clients. The carrier is a company
under Italian law; the North American entity is only its sales agent. The
contract provides for Italian law, the courts of Genoa to the exclusion of all
others, and the Athens Convention, which caps liability for personal injury.
Quebec protection comes from the agency that sells. Nothing establishes a
Quebec licence in the line's name. Voyages AquaTerra holds a licence from
Quebec's Office de la protection du consommateur, deposits your payments in a
trust account, and your file falls under the Compensation Fund for Customers of
Travel Agents.
