Just announced: Costa Luminosa to move into Carnival Cruise Line’s fleet and to be named Carnival Luminosa! We have been watching Costa Magica hanging off the coast of La Spezia, Italy for the past several months in anticipation of the ship being transferred over to Carnival (re: Carnival Sunset article). We even got excited when the ship entered dry dock in Marseille, France for a couple of weeks. Today, however, Carnival announced that Costa Magica would remain in Cost Cruises fleet and instead take ownership of Costa Luminosa.

The ship is a hybrid spirit- and vista- class design with some extra length added to the familiar Spirit-class and some of the larger guest-centric spaces of the Vista-class (re: Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, Cunard, Costa Cruises). Soon, Costa Luminosa will enter dry dock to begin the transformation process changing out some of the public spaces into familiar Carnival favorites, though don’t expect a Fun Ship 2.0 upgrade to take place immediately.

Australia

When Carnival Luminosa enters service, she will sail the Australian summer beginning in November and continue to run through May of 2023. After Australia, Luminosa will make her way up to sail the Alaskan summer from May through September before returning to the Australian summer October through April. This cycle will continue for the foreseeable future.

What will happen to Carnival Splendor and Carnival Spirit? As previously announced, Carnival Cruise Lines was waiting for the green-light from the Australian government to allow cruise ships to sail on revenue cruises again. In an effort to increase Alaska exposure, Carnival moved the Splendor to North America to handle the 2022 Alaska summer season with plans to do a trans-Pacific sailing at the end of September, when the Splendor heads back to Australia for good. Carnival Spirit has made the permanent move to sail in the United States for the foreseeable future, as bookings are no longer available to select in Australia.

Check back soon for progress pictures and other information regarding the transformation of Costa Luminosa as it becomes the Carnival Luminosa. Head over to Carnival’s News Room to read the full details about this announcement.