Costa Cruises launched its first sailing since the global cruise shutdown in March, an all-Italy itinerary for Italian residents only on the Costa Deliziosa.
It is the first of Carnival Corp.'s nine cruise brands to resume service.
The Costa Deliziosa's departed Trieste on a seven-day cruise on Sept. 6 that will visit Bari, Brindisi, Corigliano-Rossano, Siracusa and Catania.
Costa Group CEO Michael Thamm said that the line, which implemented a series of Covid-related health procedures onboard, said "we're continuously monitoring the situation with a view to gradually reintroducing cruising on more ships from October, with itineraries extended also to include guests from our other European markets."
The protocols include testing all passengers and only allowing passengers to visit ports on what the line is calling "protected shore excursions," organized by Costa. The line said that only small groups of people will travel on sanitized transport and will be subject to temperature checks before leaving and rejoining the ship.
Costa said that onboard amenities and entertainment have been redesigned to comply with its safety protocols, such as adding repeat performances of live shows to enable smaller audiences at each one, eliminating self-serve buffets and limiting seating capacity in theaters, show lounges, bars and restaurants. It also enacted staggered entrance at the spa, pools and kids clubs with a limited number of people allowed in at any one time.
The ship will also mandate mask-wearing when necessary and will introduce self-service clinical thermometer kiosks and place hand sanitizer dispensers throughout the ship.
The Costa Diadema is scheduled to launch next, on a cruise from Genoa on Sept. 19, that also will only call at Italian ports and carry residents of Italy. That ship will be followed by the Costa Smeralda and the Costa Firenze, the company's ship currently under construction at Fincantieri's Marghera yard.
MSC Cruises became the first of the large-ship cruise lines to launch service since the pandemic shutdown, also on cruises from Italy in August.