Following the protests in France, the cruise ship Costa Smeralda has canceled its scheduled arrival in Marseille. Instead, the first LNG powered cruise ship for Costa Cruises will sail directly to Italy. During her inaugural voyage, the ship departed from the Finnish shipyard Meyer Turku on December 5. The first stop was in Barcelona where the ship refueled its LNG tanks and was presented to the Spanish market in a grand ceremony.

The same protocol was intended for the French market where hundreds of travel agents and loyal customers were invited. Unfortunately, the company was forced to cancel this event because of social movements in France resulting in a disruption in transport.

The following message was sent to all participants saying "Due to uncertainty about transport and accessibility in general related to the strike notice in France, we regret to announce that the Costa Smeralda will sail directly from Barcelona to Savona, Italy."

Around 200,000 people took to the streets of Marseille yesterday to protesters against the new pension reforms according to the French media. The protests are expected to continue all across France during the week. 

Costa Smeralda is scheduled to arrive in Savona, on Friday where it will be officially baptized before starting its first regular cruise the following day. The flagship of Costa Cruises will sail Western Mediterranean voyages with embarkations in Savona (each Saturday) or Marseille (each Sunday), visiting Barcelona (Monday), Palma de Mallorca (Tuesday), Civitavecchia (Thursday) and La Spezia (Friday). Costa Smeralda, is one of the largest cruise ships, measuring 337 meters long by 42 meters wide, and tonnage of 182,700 GT. with a capacity of up to 6,518 passengers.