In March of 2019 I was lucky enough to be on the “vernissage” cruise of Costa Venezia. Yes! I was on the first cruise of a completely new ship! A first new Costa ship to debut in 5 years. To say it was amazing would be an understatement!
Costa Venezia is a Costa ship specifically designed and made to cater to Asian guests. She is a ship built with the Chinese market in mind. At 135.000 GTs she is currently the biggest Costa ship, well at least until November when Costa Smeralda will debut at 180.000 GTs. If Costa Venezia looks familiar to you, I’m going to tell you why’s that. It’s because Costa Venezia is a Vista class ship. Other ships in that class are very well known Carnival fun ships Carnival Vista and Horizon, her corporate cousins! If you’re a ship geek like me here are a couple of quick facts about the ship:
- Length: 324 meters
- Passenger capacity: 5.260
- Crew: 1.300
- Passenger decks: 14
Venezia only did two cruises that were available to be booked by western guests. A Six-day “Vernissage” cruise and a 53-day repositioning cruise from Trieste to Tokyo! I was lucky and also quick enough to book a 6-day cruise on this beauty that is probably not coming back to Europe anytime soon!
The cruise I was on started and ended in Trieste, Italy and visited Bari, Corfu and Dubrovnik. We were also meant to visit Zadar, Croatia but because of bad weather conditions we stayed in Dubrovnik for an overnight which I really can’t complain about since so many people pay extra for cruises that include overnight port stops!
I started my cruise by arriving in Trieste a day before the cruise to explore the city because I’ve never been to Trieste but to also see the ship docked there, since it’s christening happened just a day before, so it was tied up in Trieste for three days for the press to take a look at the amazing new ship before it’s started it’s first cruise!
Trieste is a beautiful city, full of history and places to explore. You can spend a good amount of time just walking around and admiring the beauty of this small coastal city. Trieste is not a big city but it’s love for it’s sea and ships runs strong, since the city was established and fueled by fishers and shipbuilders, this was best shown in a way that all throughout the day visitors were pouring down to the city’s waterfront to snap a picture of a brand new ship that was built in a nearby shipyard located in the city of Monfalcone. You could sense an amount of pride that Italians have for these Italian built ships that sail all around the world.
I rented a room not too far from the cruise terminal (which is conveniently located right across the main city square) so walking to the ship next morning did not take too long. Boarding (from arriving to the terminal to boarding the ship) did take some time but you have to know that the cruise terminal in Trieste is not as big as terminals in larger cruise ports. Boarding did not last longer than an hour, and with good company time flies! And there we were, on a brand new ship. We stepped on to the ship around noon and the cabins were already ready, but that’s because NO-ONE stayed in them before us so crew had more time to get our cabins ready. Usually cabins are not ready that early!
The ship is beautifully decorated and the theme you ask? Of course, it’s Venice! Everything is made to pay tribute to that unique Italian town but not in a tacky way. Costa found a way to pay homage to this Italian city while still making the ship look contemporary and classy. Main decks of this huge ship are decks 4,5 & 6 where everything from main restaurants to shops and the Main Atrium is located. And of course decks 10&11 where the spa, buffet and the lido deck is located.
I stayed in an ocean view cabin on deck 1. The cabin was pretty big, but the thing I did not expect was two washrooms! There was a washroom with a toilet, shower and a sink and there was another washroom with a tub and a sink! It was amazing to have this, I can only imagine how useful this is when there are 4 people in the cabin! The cabin number was 1392 and it was nicely decorated with the main theme ofcourse being Venice. There are many plug sockets and USB charging ports. There is also a flat screen TV where you can check your onboard account, book shore excursions and spa treatments. Storage space was also nice with three huge closets and drawers underneath the table. Weirdly enough there was no mini fridge. Oh well, that’s a feature I almost never use anyway! We had an amazing room steward called Dante, he was very helpful and took care of us and our cabin everyday!
One of my favorite parts of this ship was the ships Atrium. It was made to look like Piazza San Marco in Venice and somehow they did manage to cramp the charm and beauty of Piazza San Marco into this three deck high space. I was also impressed by the ships Lido pool area. It looked like a small city square with a pool and even two huge artificial trees. How crazy does that sound but trust me, it looks even better in person!
Some other amazing features of this ship were it’s Main Theatre called Rosso theatre, which is all red and gold and takes your breath away. But be aware that the theatre on this ship is slightly smaller, so it does tend to fill up pretty quickly. I heard that this is a problem also on Carnival Vista and Horizon which share the same layout. There are also multiple lounges and bars where various events can be held, like trivia, dance classes etc. Costa Venezia also has a large number of high end shops and a huge casino. Much larger then I’ve seen on any other ship. One of the best design features of this class of ships is it’s outdoor promenade on Deck 5 which goes around the whole ship and offers outdoor seating for many specialty restaurants and loungers to soak up the sun!
Dining
This ship has two main restaurants, Marco Polo Restaurant(mid-ship, one deck) and Grand Canal Restaurant (aft, two decks). I was assigned early seating in the Grand Canal Restaurant and that’s the more beautiful one in my opinion since it literally has a canal in the middle of the restaurant with a real gondola in it! You can also dine in four specialty restaurants onboard. On the lido deck you will also find Burger bar and Dim-Sum (wok food restaurant) and at the back of the buffet there is a Pizza bar and a sea food shack. These we all complimentary on or cruise but I believe that there was a fee added when the ship arrived in China.
Now about the food and service. The food in the main restaurant was great and I have nothing to complain about there, food in the buffet was also great but throughout six days I saw little to no change in what they were offering. On Costa ships you will find best desserts in my opinion, from cakes to sugar free soufflés, everything is amazing! Service on the ship was excellent and I have nothing bad to say about any of the crew. Of course it was the first sailing so it would be crazy to expect everything to be perfect. It’s new ship for the crew as much as it’s new to you! So go on inaugural sailings with a bit of understanding that some things will go wrong, or take longer or be confusing so pack some patience and you’ll be good to go!
Now about the itinerary!
To be quite honest as a passionate cruiser and cruise ship “geek”, on this cruise the itinerary took a backseat. After all it was all about the brand new ship! Having said that, this itinerary was great for a short cruise! I did not take shore excursions at any of the ports, but made sure to at least see main attractions of each city. On the first day we visited Bari, Italy, a bustling port city, more oriented towards industry than tourism. It has an old city in which you can explore narrow old ally ways. The old city is a short, 10-minute walk from where the ships docks. We walked for a bit, bought a mandatory fridge magnet and returned back onboard to enjoy the ship!
On the second day of the cruise we visited Corfu, Greece, a beautiful town which is really picturesque and charming. I bet everyone who’s gone on an eastern Mediterranean cruise visited Corfu, but it’s a town worth visiting many times since it’s so nice to just walk around the town and enjoy the Greek culture all around you. You can take some amazing photos in Corfu and find some good bargains in it’s plentiful street shops which offer basically everything and anything! Don’t judge me, but in Croatia we do not have Starbucks so whenever I see one, it’s a must go for me. There are also many cafés, and the prices are really good. The city center, is not that close to the cruise port. You can take a shuttle bus which takes you to the city center for a small fee or go on foot, which I did and I would say it is a half an hour walk along the main road.
Our final stop was Dubrovnik, Croatia, or as many tourists know it as the city where massively popular TV show Game Of Thrones was shot! This was supposed to be a one day stop but it turned into an overnight stop in Dubrovnik. Which when you think about it sounds really elite since many luxury cruise lines offer overnight stops to explore the city you’re docked in. I got really lucky in a way! In Dubrovnik you can explore the old town which is not big but it’s full of historical places you can read about all day long. It’s a city so rich with history that one day is not enough to learn about everything this city can tell you! But be aware, thousands of tourists flock to this city during the summer season so better avoid Dubrovnik from June-September! Port of Gruz, cruise port in Dubrovnik is a good 30-minute walk away from the Old town, but every cruise line offers shuttle buses which take you from the pier to the city center. Prices can vary, on my cruise it was 10€ pp and buses were leaving every ten minutes.
In conclusion, I would have to say that I was amazed by the beauty of this new Costa ship and by the new direction Costa is taking, regarding to their interior designs. I was not expecting perfect service and food since I am familiar with the fact that some inaugural cruises do not go as planned but on this cruise nothing was that much different from any other ordinary cruise. I found out that on my cruise there were only around 3.600 passangers so it’s was no wonder that I never felt like the ship was overcrowded or had any problems with passanger flow. This ship also has these new “smart elevators”. You can find these elevators only on this ship and Carnival Horizon. They are made to handle a bigger number of people in a way that you press a deck on a screen you want to go on infront of elevators banks and the screen directs you to an elevator that’s going to that deck. It makes sense since elevator can then take a direct route to that deck. The problem is not many people were familiar with this technology so I did not really see the difference in crowding and waiting times compared to traditional elevators.
I would definitely recommend this ship and Costa to anyone who wants to have an Italian experience at sea. It is a lively cruise line with most of the passengers coming from many European countries. On Costa ships you will always find live music being played in various lounges and also many activities take place during the day and run well into late night, for those who want to party! Service and food is amazing so if you haven’t tried Costa yet I definitely recommend that you at least try the Italian way of cruising!
As always, thank you for reading, Dominik!
Cruise Ship Paradise 