AIDAcosma nears float out milestone as top block placed
The final ‘block’ has been placed atop AIDA Cruises’ mammoth new LNG-powered cruise ship, AIDAcosma, marking the imminent completion of her assembly ahead of her float out, delivery and repositioning to the Middle East.
The placement of the Bridge block, containing the ship’s navigation bridge, communication centre and officers quarters, was completed on Sunday and brings the 5,400-passenger cruise ship a step closer to her debut in the Middle East cruise market next year.
The 180,000-gross ton, LNG-powered mega ship is the second of the two largest cruise ships ever built for AIDA Cruises, and will be one of the largest cruise ships ever to homeport in Dubai when she arrives for the 2021/22 Arabian Gulf cruise season in November next year.
The ship is due to be delivered by the Meyer Werft shipyard from its Papenburg site in spring, 2021 and will spend her summer season cruising in the Baltic and Norwegian fjords before repositioning to Dubai to undertake a series of 7-night roundtrip cruises in the Arabian Gulf between November and March.
She is the second of AIDA’s Excellence-class cruise ships, part of a series of similar vessels being built for Carnival Corporation’s US, Italian, British and German cruise brands. AIDAnova was the first, and AIDAcosma will be followed by a third in 2023.
There are also ships of the same class being built for P& O Cruises (Iona), Costa Cruises (Costa Toscana) and Carnival Cruise Line (Mardi Gras). These ships are not only the largest ever built for each of the Carnival Corporation-owned lines, but also the largest LNG-powered cruise ships in the world.
LNG is the cleanest burning fossil fuel, reducing harmful emissions significantly, and is seen by Carnival Corporation as the future for a more environmentally-friendly cruise sector.
AIDAcosma will be a city at sea, with 17 restaurants and 23 bars, a Fun Park at the stern with a children’s pool, a twin water chute and water slide, a theatre, spa, gym, shopping mall, sports centre, several pools and more than 2,500 cabins. AIDAcosma will arrive in the Middle East in November, 2021 and will begin her Arabian Gulf cruise season with a 7-night roundtrip cruise from Dubai, visiting Doha, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi.
Her port calls in Dubai will be overnighters, while in Abu Dhabi she will stay for two nights and three days. AIDAcosma will alternate this itinerary with an eastern Arabian Gulf cruise that sails from Dubai and visits Doha, Muscat and Abu Dhabi. On these cruises she will stay overnight in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but the Abu Dhabi port call will be shorter.
