Following the ship’s delivery in Venice by Fincantieri on 30 January 2010, Costa Deliziosa departed on 1 February, for a five-day cruise and the 17th edition of “The Champions of the Sea” awards ceremony.

This traditional annual event is dedicated to more than 1,800 travel professionals from across Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas, and for the first time is being held on board a recently delivered ship, providing travel agents with a sneak preview of the fleet’s latest cruiser.

 

Travel agents will be the first to discover the “pure pleasure” of Costa Deliziosa during a five-day mini-cruise departing from Venice en-route to Savona and featuring calls in Naples and Livorno. Elegant and sophisticated, Costa Deliziosa (92,600 dwt and 2,862 guests) is the ideal setting for the event.

 

Amid the beautiful backdrop of the Duse theatre, the top travel agents from around the world will be presented awards during the three gala evenings onboard the cruise. Following the traditional welcoming ceremony the first day will mark the inauguration of the “Five ‘C’ Wonders”, the wonders of entertainment that only Costa Deliziosa and her sister ship Costa Luminosa can offer their guests.

 

Five godmothers and travel agents from five continents around the world will be the first to experience the passion of “The ‘C’ Wonders”: Tracey Thallon of Infinity and Explore Holidays from Australia, representing Oceania; Rossella Vatrini of Le Chateau Viaggi from Italy, representing Europe; Jackie Friedman of Nexion Inc. from the United States, representing the Americas; Amel Marrakchi of Amelvoyages from Tunisia, representing Africa and representing Asia, Jinghua Zhao of Guangzhou Merchant Travel from China.

 

“The Five ‘C’ Wonders” are the best that technology can offer in terms of onboard fun and entertainment: 4D cinema to dive headfirst into incredible adventures as the main character through special effects and animation never before offered on a cruise ship; roller-skating track; latest generation golf simulator with outside ‘putting green’; Grand Prix simulator; reproducing genuine race cars battling it out on some of the best circuits in the world, the same simulator used to train real F1 drivers; and “Playstation World”, an area equipped exclusively with Playstation 3, and available in cabins “on demand”. Another major attraction onboard Costa Deliziosa, is the 3,500-m² “Samsara Spa” wellness centre with the exclusive Technogym Kinesis room, something sure to be a hit with travel agents.

 

Built at Fincantieri’s Marghera (Venice) yard with the labour of around 3,000 people, comprising both the shipyard’s own employees and those of about 500 contracted suppliers, most of which are Italian firms, Costa Deliziosa is an emblem of “Italian made” excellence and entailed a total investment worth 450 million euros.

 

Send us a Sea of Names

The three agencies that proposed the most appreciated pairs of names chosen by Costa Cruises relative to the initiative “Send us a sea of names” will be celebrated on the second day of the cruise. As the first time travel agents, customers and web users from around the world were asked to suggest the names of the fleet’s newest flagships, Costa Favolosa and Costa Fascinosa, which will enter service respectively in summer 2011 and spring 2012.

 

The first award will go to Hyun Soon Shin of Teser Travel (Perugia) who came up with the names Costa Favolosa and Costa Fascinosa. The agent will be the guest of honour at the christening of Costa Favolosa in 2011 and an onboard guest during the ship’s maiden voyage. The agent will also receive a “Thank-you kit” (consisting of a plaque, a personalised model and a monograph by Philippe Daverio called “Art is the ship”) along with the “Best Comfort, Best Costa Business” workstation, including a computer with dual screen plus Wi-Fi keyboard and mouse, an ergonomic armchair, a table lamp and a limited series Costa Cruises pen holder.

 

The other two award-winning agents will be Magali Truc (France) of the Leclerc Voyages, and Arola Sabater (Spain) of the Viatgi agency, who proposed two pairs of very noteworthy names. The other 25 travel agencies, whose proposals made it to the final short list, will receive special acknowledgement for their participation.

 

Champions of the Sea Awards

The traditional awards will be presented during three ceremonies attended by Costa Cruises’ top management and in particular by Costa’s Chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi and President Gianni Onorato. These awards, trophies designed especially for this event, harmoniously combine the distinctive “Champions of the Sea” dolphin and the ‘C’ of Costa Cruises. The ‘C’ is the backdrop for the entire composition, depicting a leaping dolphin, a gold and silver plated creation with a special Verona pink striped marble for the base, made by Valenza Po.

 

The “Over the Top” agencies, the best overall, will also receive beautiful silver artistic creations and a bottle of Amarone Stella Aneri 2004 Special Reserve Costa Deliziosa. This limited edition wine is aged in one of the 15 barrels reserved for Costa’s ships. Each barrel contains enough wine to fill 133 bottles, and every bottle has a label with the name of the ship and comes with a product quality certificate.

 

2011 annual brochure

But that’s not all; travel agents will also be treated to a sneak preview of all the latest innovations in Costa Cruises’ annual 2011 brochure. The itineraries (November 2010-January 2012) of the Italian company will be presented with unprecedented advance notice, and for the first time during the “Champions of the Sea” cruise. The new brochure, which will soon be available in all travel agencies, presents the return of the historical “Round-the-World” cruises on board Costa Deliziosa. During this fascinating and unique 100-day cruise, that can be divided into three parts (Savona - Los Angeles; Los Angeles - Singapore; Singapore - Savona), guests can experience the thrill of circumnavigation surrounded by modern-day comforts. Other new offers include a seven-day winter cruises in the Red Sea, calls to Valencia, from where guests can also go to Madrid, and seven-day winter cruises in the Mediterranean.