Five names in twenty-seven years
The Costa neoRiviera no longer sails for Costa. Out of a French yard in
1999, 216 metres, 816 cabins, she has carried five successive names and sails
today for a British company.
The chain, in order: a first name from 1999 to 2003, a second until 2013,
then Costa neoRiviera from 2013 to 2019, then a fourth under the same group's
German brand after a refit in Genoa, then a fifth since May 2023 under the
British flag, out of the United Kingdom.
A confusion to avoid
This ship is regularly confused with another, operating today in the eastern
Mediterranean, which never had anything to do with Costa. The two hulls
followed neighbouring paths within the same group at the same time, hence the
confusion. We checked it: they are indeed two different ships.
This page sells nothing. It says where the hull is, under what name she
sails, and which other ship she must not be confused with.
The ships Costa still operates
The Costa Serena leaves for South America. The Costa Favolosa covers the fjords and the Caribbean.
The Costa Diadema is the most accessible in the fleet. The Costa Deliziosa has the best ratio of cabins
with a balcony.
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.
