Costa Favolosa Completes Official Sea Trials

The Costa Favolosa, the new flagship of Italy’s Costa Cruises, has successfully completed her official sea trials.

The ship, the 15th in Costa’s fleet, built by the Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera (Venice), completed her first crossing during which tests were conducted to verify the correct operation of the various systems, equipment and engines.

During the tests at sea, the Costa Favolosa was brought up to her maximum speed (more than 23 knots = 40 km/h) which was maintained for 8 consecutive hours to test the ship’s endurance.

There was also a “crash stop”, meaning a complete stop at maximum speed to determine in how many meters the ship comes to a stop during an emergency.

During the test known as the “UMS”, the Costa Favolosa sailed for 6 straight hours only using the automatic energy and propulsion system controls.

And finally, with the “black out” test, the electric power was cut off to check that all ship functions automatically returned to normal when the power was restored.

After completing her trials, the Costa Favolosa returned to the shipyard, in Marghera, to complete the fitting out of the interiors prior to being placed into active service.

The Costa Favolosa will be ready for delivery on 30 June 2011, while the naming ceremony will take place two days later, on 2 July in Trieste.

The Costa Favolosa, weighing in at 114,500 gross tonnage and with accommodation for up to 3,800 total passengers, will be the largest ship flying the Italian flag. Costa Cruises’ total investment for this cruiser is about 420 million euro.

The Costa Favolosa is set to make her debut on a 4-day vernissage cruise departing from Venice on 4 July 2011, calling at Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Koper (Slovenia). This will be followed by her grand inaugural cruise, which leaves Venice on 7 July: an 11-day itinerary taking in Greece, Turkey and Croatia with stopovers in Bari, Izmir, Istanbul (Turkey), Mykonos, Athens, Olimpia (Greece) and Dubrovnik (Croatia). Throughout the 2011 summer season the Costa Favolosa will be offering 8-day cruises from Venice and Bari to Olympia (Greece), Izmir and Istanbul (Turkey), and Dubrovnik (Croatia).

The sister ship of the Costa Favolosa, the Costa Fascinosa, currently under construction in the Marghera shipyard, is scheduled for delivery in the spring of 2012. These two ships are part of the Costa group fleet’s expansion plan, which began in 2000, a plan worth 9.6 billion euro. In particular, 9 ships with the Costa brand to be delivered from 2003 to 2012 have and will be built in Italy.

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