Costa Cruises will restart cruises in Italy in March

Another cruise line is going to be able to restart cruises in Europe soon.

Costa Cruises announced it will begin sailing again in Italy beginning in March.

Costa Cruises is owned by Carnival Corporation, and will restart operations on the Costa Smeralda, scheduled for March 27 to ports around Italy on 3- and 4-day mini-cruises or alternatively a 7-day cruise, calling at Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari.

From May 1, Costa Smeralda will return to sailing one-week cruises in the western Mediterranean, with visits to Italy (Savona, Civitavecchia and Palermo), France (Marseille) and Spain (Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca).

Costa Luminosa will restart cruises on May 2, departing from Trieste, and the following day from Bari, confirming its program of one-week cruises in Greece and Croatia.

All other cruises scheduled until the end of May, and not included in the program updated today, will be cancelled. Costa is in the process of informing travel agents and customers affected by changes.

Government support

Costa is able to restart operations thanks to support from European governments

Costa is working with national and local authorities of the countries included in the itineraries of its ships outside Italy to define the details of the restart of cruise operations, with enhanced health and safety measures through the implementation of the Costa Safety Protocol.

The protocol contains operational measures related to all aspects of the cruise experience, both on board and ashore, which were implemented in the past months of cruise operations.  Such measures include limited capacity, swab tests for all guests and crew, temperature checks when disembarking and re-embarking the ship, protected shore excursions, physical distancing on board and at the cruise terminals, new ways of using on-board services, enhanced sanitation and medical services, and use of protective face masks when necessary.