Costa Deliziosa

One of the newest ships within the Costa Cruises fleet is the Costa Deliziosa, sistership to the earlier Costa Luminosa. The design of the ships is based on the vista-class, originally designed for Holland America Line, and the Spirit-class, designed for Carnival and Costa. Like her sister, Costa Deliziosa was built at the Fincantieri wharf at Marghera, Italy. Her yardnumber was 6164. But her keel had been laid at the Fincantieri wharf at Ancona, and after the keel and the first section were completed in july 2008, this was towed to the wharf at Marghera where the ship was finished. The ship measures 92.720 tons, has a lenght of 292 meters, she is 32,30 meters wide and her draft is 8 meters. Her passenger capacity is 2828 and she sails normally at a speed of 21,6 knots, although her top speed is 23,6 knots.

On the 12th of january 2009, the ship sailed her first trials and these were satisfactory so the Costa Deliziosa was delivered to Costa Cruises at the 27th of january 2010. After her delivery, she sailed  her maiden voyage from Savona, Italy starting at the 5th of february. During this voyage she was named in Port Rashid in the United Arab Emirates, one of the first cruiseships that was ever named in the Middle East. The naming coincided with the opening of the new cruise terminal in Port Rashid. Instead of a bottle of champagne, a bottle of juice was used, because of the Muslim faith of Dubai.  

Costa Deliziosa started cruising out of Port Rashid before she was placed in the European summerseason out of Copenhagen in 2011. On the 21st of may 2011, she had the misfortune to be broken loose from her moorings at the port of Bergen, Norway due to high winds. The ship scraped the pierside over the lenght of 50 meters, but there was no real damage done to the ship and no one was hurt. For safety, the rest of the passengers that had to board the ship were not using the gangway but were tendered onboard.

The pictures of Costa Deliziosa were taken at the 25th of may 2011 when she was in Amsterdam. This day, I was supposed to have a tour inside the ship but because she was delayed for hours due to bad weather in the North Sea, my tour was cancelled.