Carnival Venezia

Carnival Corporation entered a strategic agreement with Fincantieri in March 2015 about five cruise ships for delivery between 2019 and 2022.[6] The Enchanted Princess was ordered in April 2016.[7] In December 2015 Carnival and Fincantieri signed a memorandum of agreement about four cruise ships of them.[8] In January 2016, Carnival Corporation announced that they had made firm their commitment with Fincantieri to expand Costa Cruises' Asia fleet, with two vessels at 135,500 gross tonnage (GT) each, with a guest capacity of approximately 4,200 passengers.[9] The contracts were finalized in April 2016, which were built off of a memorandum agreed upon between the cruise line and the shipyard earlier in 2015.[10] The ships, comprising a new class of vessels in Costa's fleet, were planned to carry an interior design that would focus on Costa's Italian traditions for their Asian clientele to experience.[9]

On November 1, 2017, Costa Cruises announced that the first of the two vessels built specifically for the Chinese market would be named Costa Venezia. The announcement came at the coin ceremony for the ship at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone.[11] On June 22, 2018, Costa Venezia was floated out from the shipyard[12] and additional details were also announced about the ship's interior design and facilities, revealing that many of the key features of the ship would be inspired by Venetian landmarks and their architecture, including the ship's main atrium, theatre, and restaurants.[12] She completed her first round of sea trials on December 27, 2018 and began the second round on January 18, 2019.[13] Fincantieri officially delivered Costa Venezia to Costa Cruises on February 28, 2019 in Monfalcone.[14]

Costa Venezia's godmother, Gan Beiye, a frequent cruiser with Costa Cruises, officially christened the vessel at the naming ceremony on March 1, 2019 in Trieste.[15] Costa Venezia held a vernissage cruise on March 3, 2019, departing from Trieste to Greece and Croatia, before arriving back in Trieste on March 8.[16] Its official inaugural voyage was a 53-day cruise that departed on May 8 from Trieste to Tokyo.[5] Beginning on May 18, 2019, Costa Venezia was homeported year-round in Shanghai, serving exclusively Chinese guests on itineraries around East Asia.[5] In May 2022, transferred to the Mediterranean, she was cruising from Istanbul, Turkey, until ending its cruises for Costa in early December.

On June 22, 2022, it was announced that Costa Venezia would sail under the Carnival brand in 2023, from New York, with Carnival and Costa introducing a new concept, "Costa by Carnival". The ship would be renamed Carnival Venezia, have a Carnival Italian Style livery and be staffed and operated by Carnival Cruise Line. It began a refit and rebranding at the Navantia shipyard in Cadiz in March 2023.[17][18]. Costa Venezia's sister ship Costa Firenze would also debut under the Carnival brand in 2024, sailing from Long Beach, California.[19] In December 2022, Carnival announced that these two ships will be known as the Venice-class.[20]

Carnival Venezia is planned to debut on May 29, 2023, sailing a 15-day Transatlantic voyage from Barcelona, Spain to New York, and adopt Carnival Magic's original planned summer season from there, sailing a mix of four- to eight-day sailings to Bermuda, Caribbean and Canada & New England. The schedule shows, from late September, a mixture of eigh- to twelve-day cruises to the Bahamas and the Caribbean for the winter season, and also that Miami, Florida would feature as a port of call on some nine-day cruises to The Bahamas.[21][22]

Originally Carnival Venezia was scheduled to sail year round in New York but it was announced on May 16, 2023 that the ship would reposition to Port Canaveral, Florida in late 2024. Carnival Venezia will depart New York on a 12 day Southern Caribbean reposition cruise to Port Canaveral in December 2024, she will then sail a one off four day cruise to the Bahamas before alternating 7 day Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises. She will also sail two 14 day Caribbean cruises as well. The ship will reposition back to New York in Spring 2025.[23]