The shipyard Meyer Turku announced further delay in the construction of the latest flagship for Costa Cruises, Costa Smeralda. Following this delay, the first voyage is now set for 21 December 2019 when Costa Smeralda will depart from Savona, Italy. The itinerary, which will be repeated until 16 May 2020, remains unchanged: Savona (Saturday), Marseille (Sunday), Barcelona (Monday), Palma di Maiorca (Tuesday), Civitavecchia (Thursday) and La Spezia (Friday).

"Costa Cruises sincerely apologizes for what has happened and is informing the travel agencies and guests booked on the Costa Smeralda cruises from November 30 to December 20, 2019, which can no longer take place," the line said.

In September, Meyer Turku announced that Costa Smeralda's delayed construction would delay delivery by one month. Now the Finish shipbuilder announced that the vessel will be another month late. The safety of passengers and crew is a number one priority, and therefore everything needs to run correctly from the first voyage.  There is a lot of new technology on board and the shipbuilder needs to make sure everything is working properly.

Costa Smeralda, which in Italian means Emerald, is the second LNG-powered cruise ship for Carnival Corp. This 182,700 gross tonnage mega-ship has a capacity to accommodate 6,518-passengers and 1678 crew.