Costa Cruises Unveils Names of Newest Fleet Members

[mercedes]

After more than 16,000 suggestions from more than 40,000 travel agents and fans around the world, the names of the 16th and 17th ships in the Costa fleet have been selected. The two sister ships, set to debut in 2011 and 2012, will be named the Costa Favolosa and Costa Fascinosa. The selections were chosen as a result of Costa's "Send Us a Sea of Names" project whereby travel agents and fans sent in name suggestions for the two ships. The final selections were chosen based on their definition of the all-encompassing magic, glamour, emotion and passion reflected on all of Costa's ships.

The Costa Favolosa and Costa Fascinosa, (114,500 gross tons with a double occupancy of 3,000 each) will be delivered in summer 2011 and spring 2012 respectively. The two new sister ships, built by Fincantieri at its Marghera shipyard, are part of a major fleet expansion plan for Costa with five new ships due for delivery between 2009 and 2012. This plan includes the launch of the Costa Luminosa the Costa Pacifica (June 2009) and the Costa Deliziosa (set to debut in January 2010) for a total investment worth 2.4 billion Euros. The Costa Favolosa will be the first of the two new vessels to enter service. The laying of the first "building block" is set to take place on Thursday, November 5 at Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard.

The choice of names was guided by 40,000 travel agents in over 40 countries who submitted more than 16,000 pairs of names as part of the "Send Us a Sea of Names" project. The initiative encouraged travel agents, customers and web users all over the world to take part in the search for the names for the two new Costa flagships. The submissions were summarized in a list of 25 pairs of names posted on www.worldofcosta.com . All web site visitors were invited to choose their favorite pairing. More than 42,000 votes were received.