Costa Cruises’ Favolosa Completes Successful Sea Trials

Costa Cruises’ Favolosa Completes Successful Sea Trials

Costa Cruises’ Costa Favolosa, which is scheduled to enter service July 2, has successfully completed its official sea trials. The 15th ship in Costa’s fleet, Favolosa is being built by Fincantieri shipyard at Marghera, Italy. During sea trials, tests were conducted on various systems, including navigation, safety, equipment and engines.

Standard trial assessments included bringing Costa Favolosa up to maximum speed (more than 23 knots), which was maintained for eight consecutive hours to test endurance. A “crash stop” -- a complete stop from maximum speed -- also was conducted to determine how quickly and over what distance the ship could come to a halt in an emergency.

During the test, Costa Favolosa sailed for six hours straight under only automatic energy and propulsion system controls. Finally, in the “black-out” test, all electric power was turned off to ensure that all ship functions automatically returned to normal when power was restored.

At the successful completion of sea trials, Costa Favolosa returned to the Marghera shipyard for final fitting out of the interiors prior to entering active service. Costa Favolosa is slated for delivery June 30, and the naming ceremony is scheduled for July 2 in Trieste, Italy.

The 114,500-ton, 3,800-passenger Costa Favolosa was built at a cost of 420 million euros and will be the largest ship to fly the Italian flag. Favolosa’s sister ship, Costa Fascinosa, currently is under construction at the Marghera shipyard and is scheduled for delivery in spring of 2012. The two ships are part of Costa’s 9.6 billion euro fleet-expansion plan that began in 2000 and called for nine ships to be built in Italy and delivered between 2003 and 2012.

Costa Favolosa debuts on a three-night preview cruise from Venice on July 4, calling at Dubrovnik, Croatia, and Koper, Slovenia. The grand inaugural cruise departs Venice on July 7 on an 11-night itinerary with calls at Bari, Izmir and Istanbul, Turkey; Mykonos, Athens and Olympia, Greece; and Dubrovnik. Throughout the 2011 summer season the ship will sail seven-night cruises from Venice and Bari to Olympia, Izmir, Istanbul and Dubrovnik.