New German mega-ship AIDAcosma delivered ahead of 2022 Dubai season
AIDA Cruises took delivery of its new Excellence-class cruise ship AIDAcosma on Tuesday, ahead of the massive vessel’s 2022 winter cruise season in Dubai. AIDAcosma, the second such ship commissioned by AIDA Cruises, was built by Meyer Werft and will be christened on April 9th by champion athlete Kristina Vogel in Hamburg.
AIDAcosma will enter service in early 2022 and spend her inaugural cruise season sailing roundtrip from Hamburg on what AIDA Cruises calls its metropolis voyages. After her christening in April, she’ll then reposition to Barcelona, cruising roundtrip in the Mediterranean to Mallorca, Lisbon, Cadiz and Malaga. AIDAcosma will operate these itineraries until October, with Palma De Mallorca also offered as an embarkation port, with some itineraries also calling in Florence, Rome and Corsica.
On October 29th, she’ll depart Palma De Mallorca on a 21-night repositioning cruise to Dubai, where she will spend the winter cruising in the Arabian Gulf. Because AIDA Cruises is part of the Carnival Corporation group of cruise lines, the ship will use the new Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal on her turnarounds in the city.
AIDAcosma will interport between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, offering both UAE cruise ports as an embarkation and disembarkation port until March, 2023. On each of her 7-night roundtrip cruises in the Arabian Gulf she’ll call in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha in Qatar, and Muscat in Oman. In Abu Dhabi she’ll stay overnight in port, while in Dubai she’ll spend two full nights alongside.
AIDAcosma, like her sister ship AIDAnova, is fully powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), making her more environmentally friendly as her engines produce less carbon emissions and no sulphur emissions.
The 183,858-gross ton ship carries more than 5,200 passengers and will be the largest cruise ship ever to homeport in Dubai to date (as she is just slightly larger than MSC Virtuosa, which is homeporting in Dubai for the current season).
The ship is the 14th vessel to join the AIDA fleet and features many of the features and amenities that have made AIDAnova so popular with the German cruise market.
There are 17 restaurants and 23 bars onboard, as well as a multi-deck Theatrium with a 360-degree stage, a Beach Club on the top deck that becomes a nightclub at night, as well as several pools, including an infinity pool and a waterpark.
The ship also features a massive spa and gym, with five saunas, a tepidarium, a fireplace lounge and an outdoor Jacuzzi deck.
Her 2022 cruise season in Dubai will mark her debut in the Middle East, which was meant to take place this year, but she was instead replaced with AIDAbella due to shipyard delays.
