Costa Deliziosa ready to set sail

It’s an Italian ship sailing out of an Arabian port but British passengers are expected to book the majority of cabins on board Costa Deliziosa’s cruises from Dubai this spring.
Dubai’s Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan, was the most important of the VIPs at a spectacular ceremony on Tuesday, when the ship was officially named by having a glass of non-alcoholic sparkling date juice smashed against its hull.
Along with 3,000 other guests – most of them passengers on the inaugural voyage – he watched parachutists drop into an arena on the quayside at Port Rashid as a prelude to a ceremony which mingled Italian and Arabian culture – from the inevitable Nessun Dorma to displays by veiled horsewomen on magnificent Arab stallions.
Deliziosa joins her twin sister, Costa Luminosa – launched in Genoa last year – sailing seven-night cruises from Dubai to Oman, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas is also sailing from Dubai on similar itineraries.
Costa’s UK boss, Marco Rosa, is reluctant to give precise figures but tells my colleague Sue Bryant, from cruisecritic.co.uk, that Brits and Germans in search of a break in the sun would make up the majority of Costa’s passengers sailing from Dubai.
He says: “Dubai has really invested in promoting itself and we are getting the benefit now.
“Price is the big advantage of a cruise compared to staying in a hotel in Dubai.
“All the dinners and drinks could be quite challenging in terms of cost, especially for a family. Value-for-money makes a cruise the obvious choice.”
The number of holidaymakers staying in Dubai’s luxury hotels is on the increase again after a worrying dip last year and the emirate confidently expects to have 325,000 cruise passengers passing through its new terminal this year.