This morning the cruise ship Costa Luminosa arrived at the port of Trieste, Italy for the final preparations ahead of the restart of cruise operations this weekend.

Today, May 1st Costa resumes cruise operations, with its LNG-powered flagship Costa Smeralda. as the first vessel in the fleet to start cruising with guests. The start of cruise operations was celebrated this morning in the presence of the Costa Cruises General Manager Mario Zanetti, and the local authorities, including the mayor of Savona Ilaria Caprioglio.

Costa Cruises officially presented the program for summer 2021, which will start on May 1, with Costa Smeralda. The company decided to focus on destinations in the Mediterranean, close to the European guests offering cruises on Costa Deliziosa and Costa Luminosa in the Eastern Mediterranean and Costa Smeralda together with Costa Firenze in the Western Mediterranean.

Costa Cruises has postponed the restart of its ships and will start sailing from May.

This evening Italy's most glamorous festival Sanremo kicks off, the music festival that captures the soul of the country each year. This year there will be no audience at the Ariston theatre because of COVID-19 restrictions and the music extravaganza will go live on TV by the state broadcaster RAI. 

Two Costa cruise ships are getting ready to set sail again and offer guests holidays with enhanced health and safety protocols. The restart is scheduled for March 27, with the departure of the flagship Costa Smeralda, sailing guests to beautiful Italian destinations, with 3- and 4-day mini-cruises or alternatively a 7-day cruise, calling at Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari.

Today Costa Cruises passenger terminal Palacrociere in Savona will be available as a Covid-19 vaccination site for people over the age of 80. As part of the "Silver Vaccine Day" campaign in Italy, Costa Cruises decided to open the cruise terminal in the fight against the virus, once again showing its contribution, solidarity and genuine care as a socially responsible company.

Carnival Corporation has confirmed a security breach, admitting to suffering unauthorized access and ransomware attack on two of the company’s brands information technology systems.

An accident happen this morning in the port of Savona during a docking maneuver of the cruise ship Costa Smeralda. The vessel hit and damaged a cargo crane, and one of the ship's lifeboats on the port side detached and crashed into the sea. The port authorities are investigating the accident and damages to the pier and the vessel.

The leading fintech company providing payment services for seafarers on the world's major cruise lines announced a new 3D face recognition feature called “FaceCheck”. Adding extra security to the crew members accounts Brightwell says the new feature will bring an additional layer of assurance and fraud prevention to the accounts.