Costa Cruises revealed the name of its latest cruise ship, Costa Smeralda set to debut in October 2019. The news was announced during the steel cutting ceremony today at Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland. Costa Smeralda will be the first vessel in Costa Cruises Fleet to be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel. The vessel will exceed 180,000 gross tons with more than 2,600 staterooms for a total capacity of 6,600 passengers onboard. Costa Cruises will add one more cruise ship, sister to Costa Smeralda, which will be delivered in 2021. For its inaugural season, Costa Smeralda will be sailing Western Mediterranean voyages, from Savona, Italy as a home port.

 “The two new Costa Cruises ships are a true global innovation and set new standards for the entire sector. They will be among the first cruise ships powered by LNG, spurring the development of this green technology, especially in the Mediterranean area, and they will be the world’s first LNG-powered ships that will be marketed to consumers from multiple countries, including Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland. The new ships will also offer unique services and present a state-of-the-art interior design, serving as the perfect expression of our Italy's Finest concept, which is a distinguishing feature of the Costa Cruises brand around the world for providing guests with a truly immersive Italian experience.” Neil Palomba, president of Costa Cruises.

“In the last two years, we have had a very intense design collaboration with our customer and the outcome is a really fresh and new design fused with the latest of technology. We are happy to bring our experience with building LNG powered passenger ships to bear. Today is a very special moment in shipbuilding, when all the ideas, creativity, technology and signature design that is going into Costa’s new ships, are finally starting to become reality," stated CEO of Meyer Turku Jan Meyer.”