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The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse

By: Becky Little

Updated: August 10, 2023 | Original: June 23, 2021

Many famous naval disasters happen far out at sea, but on January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia wrecked just off the coast of an Italian island in relatively shallow water. The avoidable disaster killed 32 people and seriously injured many others, and left investigators wondering: Why was the luxury cruise ship sailing so close to the shore in the first place?

During the ensuing trial, prosecutors came up with a tabloid-ready explanation : The married ship captain had sailed it so close to the island to impress a much younger Moldovan dancer with whom he was having an affair.

Whether or not Captain Francesco Schettino was trying to impress his girlfriend is debatable. (Schettino insisted the ship sailed close to shore to salute other mariners and give passengers a good view.) But whatever the reason for getting too close, the Italian courts found the captain, four crew members and one official from the ship’s company, Costa Crociere (part of Carnival Corporation), to be at fault for causing the disaster and preventing a safe evacuation. The wreck was not the fault of unexpected weather or ship malfunction—it was a disaster caused entirely by a series of human errors.

“At any time when you have an incident similar to Concordia, there is never…a single causal factor,” says Brad Schoenwald, a senior marine inspector at the United States Coast Guard. “It is generally a sequence of events, things that line up in a bad way that ultimately create that incident.”

Wrecking Near the Shore

The Concordia was supposed to take passengers on a seven-day Italian cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona. But when it deviated from its planned path to sail closer to the island of Giglio, the ship struck a reef known as the Scole Rocks. The impact damaged the ship, allowing water to seep in and putting the 4,229 people on board in danger.

Sailing close to shore to give passengers a nice view or salute other sailors is known as a “sail-by,” and it’s unclear how often cruise ships perform these maneuvers. Some consider them to be dangerous deviations from planned routes. In its investigative report on the 2012 disaster, Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports found that the Concordia “was sailing too close to the coastline, in a poorly lit shore area…at an unsafe distance at night time and at high speed (15.5 kts).”

In his trial, Captain Schettino blamed the shipwreck on Helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin, who he claimed reacted incorrectly to his order; and argued that if the helmsman had reacted correctly and quickly, the ship wouldn’t have wrecked. However, an Italian naval admiral testified in court that even though the helmsman was late in executing the captain’s orders, “the crash would’ve happened anyway.” (The helmsman was one of the four crew members convicted in court for contributing to the disaster.)

A Questionable Evacuation

Evidence introduced in Schettino’s trial suggests that the safety of his passengers and crew wasn’t his number one priority as he assessed the damage to the Concordia. The impact and water leakage caused an electrical blackout on the ship, and a recorded phone call with Costa Crociere’s crisis coordinator, Roberto Ferrarini, shows he tried to downplay and cover up his actions by saying the blackout was what actually caused the accident.

“I have made a mess and practically the whole ship is flooding,” Schettino told Ferrarini while the ship was sinking. “What should I say to the media?… To the port authorities I have said that we had…a blackout.” (Ferrarini was later convicted for contributing to the disaster by delaying rescue operations.)

Schettino also didn’t immediately alert the Italian Search and Rescue Authority about the accident. The impact on the Scole Rocks occurred at about 9:45 p.m. local time, and the first person to contact rescue officials about the ship was someone on the shore, according to the investigative report. Search and Rescue contacted the ship a few minutes after 10:00 p.m., but Schettino didn’t tell them what had happened for about 20 more minutes.

A little more than an hour after impact, the crew began to evacuate the ship. But the report noted that some passengers testified that they didn’t hear the alarm to proceed to the lifeboats. Evacuation was made even more chaotic by the ship listing so far to starboard, making walking inside very difficult and lowering the lifeboats on one side, near to impossible. Making things worse, the crew had dropped the anchor incorrectly, causing the ship to flop over even more dramatically.

Through the confusion, the captain somehow made it into a lifeboat before everyone else had made it off. A coast guard member angrily told him on the phone to “Get back on board, damn it!” —a recorded sound bite that turned into a T-shirt slogan in Italy.

Schettino argued that he fell into a lifeboat because of how the ship was listing to one side, but this argument proved unconvincing. In 2015, a court found Schettino guilty of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, abandoning ship before passengers and crew were evacuated and lying to authorities about the disaster. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In addition to Schettino, Ferrarini and Rusli Bin, the other people who received convictions for their role in the disaster were Cabin Service Director Manrico Giampedroni, First Officer Ciro Ambrosio and Third Officer Silvia Coronica.

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Ten years on, Costa Concordia shipwreck still haunts survivors, islanders

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Philip Pullella reported from Rome; Additional reporting by Yara Nardi, writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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10 years later, Costa Concordia survivors share their stories from doomed cruise ship

Ten years after the deadly Costa Concordia cruise line disaster in Italy, survivors still vividly remember scenes of chaos they say were like something straight out of the movie "Titanic."

NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella caught up with a group of survivors on TODAY Wednesday, a decade after they escaped a maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 32 people. The Italian cruise ship ran aground off the tiny Italian island of Giglio after striking an underground rock and capsizing.

"I think it’s the panic, the feeling of panic, is what’s carried through over 10 years," Ian Donoff, who was on the cruise with his wife Janice for their honeymoon, told Cobiella. "And it’s just as strong now."

More than 4,000 passengers and crew were on board when the ship crashed into rocks in the dark in the Mediterranean Sea, sending seawater rushing into the vessel as people scrambled for their lives.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, had been performing a sail-past salute of Giglio when he steered the ship too close to the island and hit the jagged reef, opening a 230-foot gash in the side of the cruise liner.

Passengers struggled to escape in the darkness, clambering to get to the life boats. Alaska resident Nate Lukes was with his wife, Cary, and their four daughters aboard the ship and remembers the chaos that ensued as the ship started to sink.

"There was really a melee there is the best way to describe it," he told Cobiella. "It's very similar to the movie 'Titanic.' People were jumping onto the top of the lifeboats and pushing down women and children to try to get to them."

The lifeboats wouldn't drop down because the ship was tilted on its side, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded on the side of the ship for hours in the cold. People were left to clamber down a rope ladder over a distance equivalent to 11 stories.

"Everybody was rushing for the lifeboats," Nate Lukes said. "I felt like (my daughters) were going to get trampled, and putting my arms around them and just holding them together and letting the sea of people go by us."

Schettino was convicted of multiple manslaughter as well as abandoning ship after leaving before all the passengers had reached safety. He is now serving a 16-year prison sentence .

It took nearly two years for the damaged ship to be raised from its side before it was towed away to be scrapped.

The calamity caused changes in the cruise industry like carrying more lifejackets and holding emergency drills before leaving port.

A decade after that harrowing night, the survivors are grateful to have made it out alive. None of the survivors who spoke with Cobiella have been on a cruise since that day.

"I said that if we survive this, then our marriage will have to survive forever," Ian Donoff said.

Scott Stump is a trending reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY (which you should subscribe to here! ) that brings the day's news, health tips, parenting stories, recipes and a daily delight right to your inbox. He has been a regular contributor for TODAY.com since 2011, producing features and news for pop culture, parents, politics, health, style, food and pretty much everything else. 

10 years later, Costa Concordia disaster is still vivid for survivors

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Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio . But for the passengers on board and the residents who welcomed them ashore, the memories of that harrowing, freezing night remain vividly etched into their minds.

The dinner plates that flew off the tables when the rocks first gashed the hull. The blackout after the ship’s engine room flooded and its generators failed. The final mad scramble to evacuate the listing liner and then the extraordinary generosity of Giglio islanders who offered shoes, sweatshirts and shelter until the sun rose and passengers were ferried to the mainland.

Italy on Thursday is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration that will end with a candlelit vigil near the moment the ship hit the reef: 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2012. The events will honor the 32 people who died that night, the 4,200 survivors, but also the residents of Giglio, who took in passengers and crew and then lived with the Concordia’s wrecked carcass off their shore for another two years until it was righted and hauled away for scrap.

“For us islanders, when we remember some event, we always refer to whether it was before or after the Concordia,” said Matteo Coppa, who was 23 and fishing on the jetty when the darkened Concordia listed toward shore and then collapsed onto its side in the water.

“I imagine it like a nail stuck to the wall that marks that date, as a before and after,” he said, recounting how he joined the rescue effort that night, helping pull ashore the dazed, injured and freezing passengers from lifeboats.

The sad anniversary comes as the cruise industry, shut down in much of the world for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, is once again in the spotlight because of COVID-19 outbreaks that threaten passenger safety. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last month warned people across-the-board not to go on cruises , regardless of their vaccination status, because of the risks of infection.

A dozen passengers on cruise ship test positive for coronavirus

The passengers, whose infections were found through random testing, were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, according to the Port of San Francisco.

Jan. 7, 2022

For Concordia survivor Georgia Ananias, the COVID-19 infections are just the latest evidence that passenger safety still isn’t a top priority for the cruise ship industry. Passengers aboard the Concordia were largely left on their own to find life jackets and a functioning lifeboat after the captain steered the ship close too shore in a stunt. He then delayed an evacuation order until it was too late, with lifeboats unable to lower because the ship was listing too heavily.

“I always said this will not define me, but you have no choice,” Ananias said in an interview from her home in Los Angeles. “We all suffer from PTSD. We had a lot of guilt that we survived and 32 other people died.”

Prosecutors blamed the delayed evacuation order and conflicting instructions given by crew for the chaos that ensued as passengers scrambled to get off the ship. The captain, Francesco Schettino, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all the passengers and crew had evacuated.

Ananias and her family declined Costa’s initial $14,500 compensation offered to each passenger and sued Costa, a unit of U.S.-based Carnival Corp., to try to cover the cost of their medical bills and therapy for the post-traumatic stress they have suffered. But after eight years in the U.S. and then Italian court system, they lost their case.

“I think people need to be aware that when you go on a cruise, that if there is a problem, you will not have the justice that you may be used to in the country in which you are living,” said Ananias, who went onto become a top official in the International Cruise Victims association, an advocacy group that lobbies to improve safety aboard ships and increase transparency and accountability in the industry.

Costa didn’t respond to emails seeking comment on the anniversary.

Cruise Lines International Assn., the world’s largest cruise industry trade association, stressed in a statement to the Associated Press that passenger and crew safety were the industry’s top priority, and that cruising remains one of the safest vacation experiences available.

“Our thoughts continue to be with the victims of the Concordia tragedy and their families on this sad anniversary,” CLIA said. It said it has worked over the past 10 years with the International Maritime Organization and the maritime industry to “drive a safety culture that is based on continuous improvement.”

For Giglio Mayor Sergio Ortelli, the memories of that night run the gamut: the horror of seeing the capsized ship, the scramble to coordinate rescue services on shore, the recovery of the first bodies and then the pride that islanders rose to the occasion to tend to the survivors.

Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 1,000-foot long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering. But the night of the disaster, a Friday the 13th, remains seared in his memory.

“It was a night that, in addition to being a tragedy, had a beautiful side because the response of the people was a spontaneous gesture that was appreciated around the world,” Ortelli said.

It seemed the natural thing to do at the time. “But then we realized that on that night, in just a few hours, we did something incredible.”

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10 years later, Costa Concordia disaster vivid for survivors

FILE — The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its starboard side after it ran aground off the coast of the Isola del Giglio island, Italy on Jan. 13, 2012. Italy is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Giuseppe Modesti)

FILE— The grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen through a window on the Isola del Giglio island, Italy, Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— Oil removal ships near the cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, after running aground near the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, last Friday night. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— The Costa Concordia ship lies on its side on the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

FILE— A sunbather gets her tan on a rock during the operations to refloat the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia on the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Once the ship has refloated it will be towed to Genoa’s port, about 200 nautical miles (320 kilometers), where it will be dismantled. 30 months ago it struck a reef and capsized, killing 32 people. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— The wrecked hulk of the Costa Concordia cruise ship is towed along the Tyrrhenian Sea, 30 miles off the coast of Viareggio, Italy, Friday, July 25, 2014. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Fabio Muzzi)

FILE— A view of the previously submerged side of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, off the coast of the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Italy, Monday, Jan. 13, 2014. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— A passenger from South Korea, center, walks with Italian Firefighters, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, after being rescued from the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground on the tiny Italian island of Isola del Giglio. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— A woman hangs her laundry as the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen in the background, off the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— In this photo taken on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, Francesco Schettino, right, the captain of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, is taken into custody by Carabinieri in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Giacomo Aprili)

Experts aboard a sea platform carry oil recovery equipment, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, as they return to the port of the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, where the cruise ship Costa Concordia, visible in background, ran aground on Ja. 13, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— Seagulls fly in front of the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— Italian firefighters conduct search operations on the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia that ran aground the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

• Copy Link copied

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. But for the passengers on board and the residents who welcomed them ashore, the memories of that harrowing, freezing night remain vividly etched into their minds.

The dinner plates that flew off the tables when the rocks first gashed the hull. The blackout after the ship’s engine room flooded and its generators failed. The final mad scramble to evacuate the listing liner and then the extraordinary generosity of Giglio islanders who offered shoes, sweatshirts and shelter until the sun rose and passengers were ferried to the mainland.

Italy on Thursday is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration that will end with a candlelit vigil near the moment the ship hit the reef: 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2012. The events will honor the 32 people who died that night, the 4,200 survivors, but also the residents of Giglio, who took in passengers and crew and then lived with the Concordia’s wrecked carcass off their shore for another two years until it was righted and hauled away for scrap.

“For us islanders, when we remember some event, we always refer to whether it was before or after the Concordia,” said Matteo Coppa, who was 23 and fishing on the jetty when the darkened Concordia listed toward shore and then collapsed onto its side in the water.

“I imagine it like a nail stuck to the wall that marks that date, as a before and after,” he said, recounting how he joined the rescue effort that night, helping pull ashore the dazed, injured and freezing passengers from lifeboats.

The sad anniversary comes as the cruise industry, shut down in much of the world for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, is once again in the spotlight because of COVID-19 outbreaks that threaten passenger safety. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last month warned people across-the-board not to go on cruises , regardless of their vaccination status, because of the risks of infection.

For Concordia survivor Georgia Ananias, the COVID-19 infections are just the latest evidence that passenger safety still isn’t a top priority for the cruise ship industry. Passengers aboard the Concordia were largely left on their own to find life jackets and a functioning lifeboat after the captain steered the ship close too shore in a stunt. He then delayed an evacuation order until it was too late, with lifeboats unable to lower because the ship was listing too heavily.

“I always said this will not define me, but you have no choice,” Ananias said in an interview from her home in Los Angeles, Calif. “We all suffer from PTSD. We had a lot of guilt that we survived and 32 other people died.”

Prosecutors blamed the delayed evacuation order and conflicting instructions given by crew for the chaos that ensued as passengers scrambled to get off the ship. The captain, Francesco Schettino, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all the passengers and crew had evacuated.

Ananias and her family declined Costa’s initial $14,500 compensation offered to each passenger and sued Costa, a unit of U.S.-based Carnival Corp., to try to cover the cost of their medical bills and therapy for the post-traumatic stress they have suffered. But after eight years in the U.S. and then Italian court system, they lost their case.

“I think people need to be aware that when you go on a cruise, that if there is a problem, you will not have the justice that you may be used to in the country in which you are living,” said Ananias, who went onto become a top official in the International Cruise Victims association, an advocacy group that lobbies to improve safety aboard ships and increase transparency and accountability in the industry.

Costa didn’t respond to emails seeking comment on the anniversary.

Cruise Lines International Association, the world’s largest cruise industry trade association, stressed in a statement to The Associated Press that passenger and crew safety was the industry’s top priority, and that cruising remains one of the safest vacation experiences available.

“Our thoughts continue to be with the victims of the Concordia tragedy and their families on this sad anniversary,” CLIA said. It said it has worked over the past 10 years with the International Maritime Organization and the maritime industry to “drive a safety culture that is based on continuous improvement.”

For Giglio Mayor Sergio Ortelli, the memories of that night run the gamut: the horror of seeing the capsized ship, the scramble to coordinate rescue services on shore, the recovery of the first bodies and then the pride that islanders rose to the occasion to tend to the survivors.

Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 300-meter (1,000-foot) long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering. But the night of the disaster, a Friday the 13th, remains seared in his memory.

“It was a night that, in addition to being a tragedy, had a beautiful side because the response of the people was a spontaneous gesture that was appreciated around the world,” Ortelli said.

It seemed the natural thing to do at the time. “But then we realized that on that night, in just a few hours, we did something incredible.”

Winfield reported from Rome.

Costa Concordia: Ten years on pianist recalls terrifying escape from the capsized cruise liner

Ten years on from the tragedy, Antimo Magnotta has revealed how he still has "terrible flashbacks" and can remember people's screams as the enormous vessel tipped over off the coast of Italy.

Thursday 13 January 2022 17:06, UK

On 13 January 2012, the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Tuscany after hitting a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Francesco Schettino, the captain of the cruise liner, was jailed for 16 years for multiple manslaughter after the disaster that left 32 people dead.

On the tenth anniversary of the tragedy, the ship's Italian pianist Antimo Magnotta, who is now living and working in London, has relived his terrifying ordeal and told Sky News how he is still tormented by flashbacks from what he witnessed.

I was working in a very elegant bar at the back of the ship called Bar Vienna. I remember it was a beautiful night, a starry night, the sea was very calm and quiet.

Then all of a sudden the ship suddenly swerved and started tilting. It was really unexpected because the conditions at sea meant it made no sense for this to happen.

I thought to myself - "did we hit a whale or a giant monster or something?".

I fell over and the piano started drifting on stage. I left the bar and found myself stumbling along sloping corridors with passengers and crew members. I was heading to the centre of the ship where there would be more balance.

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When I got there I found myself with other crew members and passengers on this huge dancefloor. We were expecting some instructions, some kind of explanation, but the ship began to have multiple blackouts and power failures.

The ship was performing some very strange movements, it was tilting on one side and then slowly titling on the other side, I was thinking to myself - "what is this?".

Passengers and crew members were screaming and calling out names. We couldn't see each other in the darkness.

It was quite cinematic I must say, it looked like a David Lynch film actually.

Finally, after more than an hour, the emergency signal on board was sounded.

I was a pianist, but I was also a crew member, and I had been trained to carrying out certain duties in an emergency.

I reached my master station and was in charge of a roll call for 25 crew members to embark on a life raft. I remember four people on my list were missing.

I was expecting a crew member from the bridge (the room where the ship is commanded) to come downstairs and lead myself and my crew members to our designated life raft.

But no one came from the bridge, and of course the ship, in the meantime, was still performing this very macabre choreography of slowly capsizing.

While the ship was tipping over I was confronted with a portrait of an ongoing tragedy, a grotesque paradox.

It was like being inside a cabinet of horrors. I mainly remember the sounds - there was this cacophony from the bowels of the ship. People were screaming.

I describe the ship in this moment as being like a swan in agony. It was suffering.

I eventually saw a crew member dressed all in white carrying a box of walkie talkies. I asked him what was going on.

He whispered: "Don't you know? We hit a rock, and this caused a massive leak on the side of the ship."

He was very agitated, he was running on adrenaline, and said: "You know what, the best suggestion would be for you to run for your life, and if you can, abandon the ship."

I thought this must be some kind of joke, but then he just vanished.

Everyone was really panicking and end up scattering all around.

This was the very beginning of my personal nightmare, because I had to perform a gruelling evacuation of the ship.

I knew where the life raft I was supposed to get on was located, and I knew it would now be under water.

I was 41 at the time and said to myself I can't die, this must be a joke.

But I started thinking about my daughter and this triggered a reaction in me, so I started climbing on some metallic bars, some ladders, pipes, whatever I could find in my way.

It took some time, but I found myself on the flank of the ship outside, facing the dark sea, holding onto a winch, a crane, I was holding on to this rope like I was clinging on to life itself.

All I had to do was just wait to be rescued, It was difficult because it was pitch dark, the most difficult thing to do was to make myself visible.

This lasted pretty much four hours.

The ship was more or less on it side by this point, breaching at a very dramatic angle, maybe 80 to 85 degrees, if not more.

It was like the carcass of a stranded whale. I could feel and hear the death rattle of the ship.

When I was on the flank of the ship I felt something is deteriorating, disintegrating, my image, my story, was fading away, it was vanishing, "I can't die," I said to myself.

I was not alone of course, there was a bunch of between 35 to 40 people around me, passengers and crew members.

I could see rescue boats and there was very frantic activity in the water. Helicopters were hovering above but they didn't seem to see us.

Eventually a little rescue boat was sent for us, and I will always say, jumping in this little rescue boat was like jumping back to life.

It was 3am, more than five hours after the ship hit the rock, that the rescue boat dropped me off at Giglio Island.

It was like celebrating a second birthday, it was the beginning of my second life.

Unfortunately, later on, I learned that two fellow musicians had lost their lives. My friend, a Hungarian violinist, who lost his life, had just gone down to his cabin.

I just thought to myself what if it had been the other way round?

This has haunted me for a long time.

In the aftermath of the disaster I was devastated and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

I had mental scars still lingering, survivor's guilt and chronic insomnia. I couldn't play the piano anymore. I had a stone in my chest and not a heart.

I took up a new form of self-therapy and started writing, and I would cry sometimes of course.

It was a way to express myself and my anger.

These days I feel much better and I play the piano in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Now I am feeling much better, but still I have terrible flashbacks and insomnia - my sleep is always interrupted.

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Costa Concordia: Italian tragedy that reflected state of a nation

Drama that unfolded with cruise ship disaster captivated Italy and stood as a metaphor for nation’s political and economic ills

The Costa Concordia disaster was more than a tragedy in Italy. It was a national drama with an eccentric cast of characters – a reckless villain, his secret lover and a hard-done-by hero – that has riveted the country for three years. The hulking mass of the capsized 115,000-tonne cruise ship, which for 900 days lay seemingly unmovable and partly submerged in the Mediterranean, became a metaphor for the political and economic ills of an entire nation.

On Wednesday, just as Italy’s moribund economy is beginning to show signs of recovery, a court in Grosseto, Tuscany, issued the verdict that families of the victims and survivors of the ill-fated voyage have been waiting for since the ship sank hundreds of metres from shore in January 2012, killing 32 people.

Francesco Schettino, the vessel’s captain whose brazen maritime manoeuvre caused the disaster, was found guilty of manslaughter . He now faces 16 years in jail.

In the final days of a trial, which began in July 2013 and included more than 69 hearings, attorneys for Schettino described him as a scapegoat who had been vilified but deserved to be treated like a hero. While they acknowledged that the captain bore some responsibility in the accident, they insisted that his maritime instincts helped save most of the 4,000 passengers and crew on board, thanks to his decision to delay the evacuation order long enough so that the ship was close to shore before it was abandoned.

Schettino’s attorneys also pinned blame on the vessel’s helmsman – they claimed he misunderstood the captain’s orders – and the failure of the ship’s emergency generators, which prevented the watertight doors from sealing properly. “In a crew of 1,000 people is only one responsible?” said Domenico Pepe, his attorney. But that version of events did not withstand the scrutiny of the court.

The 3,299 passengers who boarded the Costa Concordia on 13 January in the Italian port city of Civitavecchia for their seven-day cruise around the Mediterranean had much to enjoy. There were 1,500 cabins, one of the largest fitness centres at sea, a Turkish bath and solarium, a poolside movie theatre on the main pool deck, and 13 bars, including one devoted to cognac.

The ship’s captain also had reason to feel chipper. The married commander, now 54, was accompanied by his lover, Domnica Cemortan, a classically trained dancer from Moldova.

That night, after dining with Cemortan, Schettino invited her to the bridge of the cruise liner, where he took command of the vessel.

What Schettino did next – and the reasons he did it – would become a central issue in the case against him.

Just as the ship was making its way north-west along the coastline, Schettino called for the vessel to be steered close to Giglio as a way to “salute” the island.

Cruise ships had sailed close to Giglio before. But this time, there was a deadly miscalculation. Just 15 minutes after Schettino had given the coordinates to his helmsman, at 9:45 pm, the Costa Concordia rammed into rocks, creating a massive 50-metre gash in the ship’s hull.

Prosecutors would later argue that Schettino’s brash move was an attempt to impress his girlfriend, an allegation he has denied.

“I didn’t do it as a favour for her,” he told the court in Grosseto.

Instead, he said he did it as a favour to the ship’s head waiter, who was a native of Giglio, and to give his passengers a beautiful view of the island.

The vessel immediately started to take in water and tilt. It lost power and the engine room began to flood. But passengers on the decks above did not initially have reason to be afraid.

Even as the crew began to frantically assess the damage and start the emergency diesel generator, Schettino ordered them to tell passengers that the ship had simply suffered an electrical outage and that everything was under control. Some reassured passengers stayed in their cabins and later lost their lives. The same erroneous information was given to the harbour master at Civitavecchia.

“I did that to calm the passengers down, I feared that otherwise there would be panic,” Schettino said in his defence at trial.

The Costa Concordia began to drift and, investigators later explained, list as a result of water in the damaged hull. By 10.15pm, the Italian coastguard began getting reports of trouble on board directly from the passengers, but Schettino still did not react.

Inside, panic reigned. Claudia Poliani, a hairdresser from Rome who survived the disaster, would later describe the chaos in court testimony.

“From the happiness and wonder of being on a cruise, we passengers became panic stricken and fell over. It was dark and no one helped us … no one told us what to do. We found lifejackets ourselves,” she said.

Another survivor, Rosanna Abbinante, told the court she feared that she would “die like a rat”.

Ultimately, it took more than an hour for Schettino to give the order to abandon ship. By that point, the vessel was already tilted at a 30-degree angle, complicating some of the rescue effort. About 20 minutes later, even as hundreds of passengers continued to await rescue, Schettino abandoned his post and left his second in command in charge of the evacuation. Twelve minutes later, the latter also abandoned his post, with about 300 passengers still on board.

That moment in the crisis was immortalised by a recorded radio exchange between Schettino, who was in a lifeboat by then, and Gregorio de Falco, a coastguard captain who became a national hero for his emphatic order that the captain “Get back on board, for fuck’s sake”.

“You need to tell me if there are children, women or people in need of assistance,” an exasperated De Falco shouted. “Listen Schettino … you saved yourself from the sea, but … I am going to make you pay for this.”

De Falco became such a hero that, when it emerged more than a year later that he had been transferred out of operational service into a desk job, his apparent mistreatment created a new spate of soul-searching in Italy. Some suggested the country did not know how to reward people who showed good character.

The salvage of the Costa Concordia was the most expensive such operation in history, with an estimated cost of $1.2bn. It was also risky. The operation, led by a wisecracking South African named Nick Sloane, involved first moving the capsized vessel into an upright position, and then slowly shifting it into deeper water. In such an unprecedented operation, environmental contamination was a constant threat, with tonnes of rotting food, passenger belongings and other items still located on the vessel.

Ultimately, the massive ship’s final journey to Genoa took four days.

In the aftermath of the disaster, legal claims mounted against the owner of the ship, Costa Cruises. They included lawsuits by the region of Tuscany and a €189m suit by the island of Giglio, which claimed that the accident and the presence of the downed vessel hurt tourism and the local economy.

“This region is known and appreciated around the world for figures such as Leonardo, Galileo, Giotto, Michelangelo and Brunelleschi, but after the catastrophe of Concordia, it became famous for Schettino and his vulgarity,” said Enrico Rossi, the governor of Tuscany, who testified in the trial against the commander.

As the Costa Concordia made its final journey out of the port of Giglio, some survivors and families of victims looked on as a final farewell.

Martine Muller and her husband were given the cruise as a birthday gift from her children. She told the Guardian at the time how she was frantically asking everyone she knew whether they had news from her husband, while she waited at the port. Then the bodies began to arrive.

“And I said, well, my husband’s in there. And he was. He was the first person recovered,” she said.

The youngest victim of the disaster was a five-year-old girl named Dayana Arlotti, who drowned with her father after they were told there was no space in a lifeboat.

The final victim was not found until November 2014. As workers began to break apart the ship in Genoa, and they discovered the body of Russel Rebello, an Indian waiter.

The process of scrapping the ship is expected to take two years.

• Costa Concordia
• Francesco Schettino
• Water transport

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Packed Italian court as captain in Concordia disaster hears evidence

GROSSETO, Italy -- The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that crashed into an Italian reef appeared in court Monday to hear the evidence against him, while hundreds of passengers who survived the deadly shipwreck and the families of those who died in it showed up just "to look him in the eye."

The case of Francesco Schettino, 51, was of such enormous interest that a theater had to be turned into a courtroom in the Tuscan city of Grosseto to accommodate all those who had a legitimate claim to be at the closed-door hearing over the disaster.

As dozens of experts, lawyers and prosecutors packed the building, all eyes were on Schettino, who returned to Tuscany for the first time since his arrest to, in his own words, “Face my accusers.”

In the next few days, Schettino, the eight other people accused, and the many survivors and families of victims, will learn if he will face charges over the deaths of 32 people after his ship run aground off Giglio island on Jan. 13.

Schettino is accused of manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship while passengers and crew were still aboard. He denies the accusations and has not been charged. Any trial is unlikely to begin before next year. 

“The sooner we can resolve it, the sooner the victims can get on with their lives, they can put this behind them. ... We are anxious to do that, but not so anxious to compromise on our will to change the industry for better standards,” John Arthur Eaves, Jr., an Alabama-based lawyer representing several American survivors of the disaster, told NBC News.

Monday’s hearing was the first and most important in a preliminary trial, aimed at establishing who should be indicted over the disaster.

Over the next few days experts, who were appointed at an earlier hearing in March, will present their analysis of the data retrieved from the black box, audio recordings and other on-board equipment.

The hearing is off limits to the media, and the only way to learn what is happening inside is through lawyers and witnesses who emerge from the theater during breaks.

Dramatic opening Schettino himself has become a lightning rod for international disdain for having left the ship before everyone was evacuated.

As befitting a star attraction, the captain arrived Monday at the makeshift courthouse through the back door in a car with darkened windows.

Costa Concordia captain admits he was 'distracted' by phone call

"Schettino looked like he just walked out of a fashion magazine. He was dressed in a black suit, black tie, and was very tanned. He didn't betray any emotion, and took many notes,” Eaves told NBC.

Even the weather added to the sense of drama.

A massive storm, nicknamed Cleopatra by Italian meteorologists, hit Grosseto a couple of hours after the hearing began, dumping rain on members of the media waiting outside.

A group of German survivors said Schettino was seen biting his nails, and another witness claimed to have seen him shaking hands with another survivor.

"We want to look him in the eye to see how he will react to the accusations," said survivor Michael Liessen, 50, who was attending with his wife. 

Schettino is one of nine people facing charges, although eyewitnesses, leaked audio and video recordings, a pre-trial report and even the liner’s owners, Costa Crociere (a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival), appeared to put the blame squarely on him.

Wider fault? However, Eaves, the American lawyer, suggested the fault may lie wider.

"It was just said in court that musicians on board had more safety training than other crew members," Eaves told NBC.

Costa Concordia cruise ship captain says sacking unfair

“We are not going to save lives if we don’t change the standards in the whole industry, not only of this particular captain,” he added.

It is alleged Schettino was in command when he steered the gigantic ship too close to Giglio coastline, allegedly to perform a maritime salute to grant a favor to the ship’s head master, who was originally from the island.

The Concordia hit a reef, tearing a 160-ft. gash in her hull, taking in water and eventually running aground yards from the island’s port.

Video taken by passengers at the time showed scenes of chaos and confusion as the Costa Concordia started to list heavily.

In the intervening months, Schettino has sought to restore his reputation and set the record straight by giving his version of events.

His strategy has not met with widespread approval.

An angry member of an Italian consumer association told NBC News it would be raising a formal objection to Schettino’s presence in court.

“We are losing sight of the victims of this tragedy, but they could line the pockets of the shamed captain,” the member said.

Complete Europe coverage on NBCNews.com

Many questions Expert evidence will have to address many questions, among them:

Did Schettino make a personal and fatal mistake in taking the ship too close to the island, or should, as he claims, the blame be shared with other crew members?

Did Schettino voluntarily abandon the ship hours before all passengers were evacuated?

Did he delay the call to abandon the ship, further endangering passengers?

Did he really save hundreds of lives by steering the ship as close as possible to the coast, as he claims, guided by a “divine hand”?

A pre-trial report, leaked to Italian media weeks before the trial, places much of the blame on Schettino.

Costa Concordia disaster spawns shipwreck tourism for Italian island

The 270-page report, compiled by maritime experts appointed by the court, reveals that the captain abandoned the Costa Concordia hours before the last of the passengers had reached safety and was slow in issuing the order to abandon ship and alerting port authorities.

But the experts -- two admirals and two engineers -- also note that evacuation drills had not been undertaken by all passengers on the ship and not all crew members understood Italian, the operating language of the liner.

“You find a consistent pattern of a lack of discipline on crew training, on the design of the vessel, on the communication problems. They go back to standards that were set up by Carnival in the United States. This captain made a horrible mistake, but we are not going to save lives if we don’t change the standards in the whole industry, not only of this particular captain,” Eaves said.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

An Indonesian helmsman, for instance, failed twice to understand orders, veering to the right instead of the left as he was told by Schettino, who joked he should pay closer attention or “we will go on the rocks,” only minutes before they dram aground.

A local newspaper said Monday the captain’s lawyers told the judge and prosecutors to “consider the position of the helmsman.”

Schettino, they seem to suggest, was not the only one to blame.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Captain of Ship That Capsized Off Italy in ’12 Is Convicted

By Gaia Pianigiani

• Feb. 11, 2015

ROME — An Italian court on Wednesday convicted the captain of a cruise liner that capsized in 2012 , killing 32 people, of manslaughter and sentenced him to just over 16 years in prison for his role in one of the worst maritime disasters in modern Italian history.

The captain, Francesco Schettino, 54, was convicted of multiple counts of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel, the Costa Concordia, before all of its 4,229 passengers and crew members had been evacuated. The court also barred him from commanding a ship for five years and from ever holding public office.

The captain’s lawyers said they would appeal the verdict. Captain Schettino will remain free in the meantime; under Italian law, the appeals process can take years to resolve. The captain was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read.

Prosecutors in the Tuscan town of Grosseto, where the trial was held, had sought a sentence of more than 26 years for Captain Schettino , whom they held responsible for sailing too close to shore and hitting a submerged rock off the island of Giglio, and for not promptly ordering the ship’s evacuation.

Francesco Pope, one of Captain Schettino’s lawyers, called the prosecutors’ sentencing request “enormous” in a telephone interview after the verdict was announced. “I’d only like to point out that the judges reduced that by almost half,” he said.

In closing arguments that went on for days, prosecutors attacked Captain Schettino’s conduct on the night of the shipwreck, calling him a “reckless idiot” and accusing him of making deadly mistakes and lying to passengers, maritime authorities and rescue officials.

One of the prosecutors, Alessandro Leopizzi, noted how the captain had managed to reach Giglio safely, “without even getting his feet wet,” while passengers remained on the tilting ship. In taped conversations from that night , the captain told a coast guard official that he had tripped onto a lifeboat before the evacuation was completed.

Although Captain Schettino acknowledged some responsibility for the disaster during the trial, he defended the decisions he made, such as not dropping the anchor soon after the ship struck the rock. He also said he delayed sounding an alarm to prevent greater panic among the passengers.

“I was put in a media meat grinder,” Captain Schettino said in his final remarks to the court before the verdict was read Wednesday. “That has put the entire responsibility for this incident on to me, with no respect for the truth.”

He maintained in court that he had saved lives by steering the cruise liner toward the coast. In defending his actions, the captain said his orders were not executed correctly by his crew, including an Indonesian helmsman who veered the ship in the opposite direction. Captain Schettino also cited technical malfunctions.

Several passengers told the court about various equipment failures in the chaotic hours after the impact, including a faulty emergency generator, as well as mistakes made by other crew members, some of whom spoke neither Italian nor English.

The court also ordered Captain Schettino and the company that operated the ship, Costa Cruises, to pay damages of 30,000 euros, or about $34,000, in compensation to each passenger, and several million euros to local and national government bodies for the environmental harm caused by the accident.

Captain Schettino was the only defendant in the trial. Five other employees of Costa Cruises who were indicted in the case were allowed to make plea deals in the early stages of the proceedings; none are serving prison time.

The company has already paid €1 million in administrative sanctions in connection with the disaster, and it offered in January to settle with each uninjured passenger for about $14,400.

Under Italian law, companies can be held responsible for their employees’ conduct, but the ship’s operator was not indicted in the case. Costa Cruises is controlled by the Carnival Corporation.

The 19-month trial was held in a theater because of the large number of people involved, including hundreds of witnesses who discussed complicated technical details.

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Pictures: 5 Cruise Ship Disasters That Changed Travel

Some good may yet come of Italy's Costa Concordia wreck. At least since Titanic, cruise accidents have sparked new safety standards.

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I work from a cruise ship for 3 months a year. Here's how I stay productive at sea.

• Walter Biscardi runs his travel business remotely from cruise ships for three months each year.
• He said WiFi reliability has improved, but video calls and finding power outlets can be challenging.
• Biscardi recommends Virgin Voyages for remote workers because of the spaces to work and the WiFi.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Walter Biscardi, a 59-year-old travel agent based in Orlando. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I used to work in film, television, documentary, and marketing, and I ran two creative agencies in Atlanta for 25 years.

A few years ago, my wife and I turned my second passion, travel, into " Where's Walter Travel ." We specialize in travel planning services for cruises , group vacations, theme park tours, and company retreats.

We live in an Orlando rental, but I run the travel-planning business from a cruise ship for three months out of the year.

We started taking advantage of our remote working situation after the pandemic

In a few short years of working on cruise ships, I've noticed that more and more people are starting to do the same thing.

We predominantly cruise the Caribbean. Last year, our three months were spread over six different trips on the Royal Caribbean , Oceania , Virgin Voyages , and Carnival cruise lines. If it were up to me, I'd be at sea for six months a year, but my wife prefers three.

This year, we'll be back on Virgin Voyages in June and on the Sun Princess in October. We're planning a few more, too.

WiFi speed and reliability onboard ships have been game-changers

I don't always look for speed but rather consistency and reliability.

Even though the WiFi is reliable on most ships , it's still not perfect, and you need to manage your expectations. The WiFi on ships is satellite-based, so the signal will be slower if there's a lot of cloud cover. Rain may also temporarily cut it out completely.

The WiFi signal in rooms can be weak. When I get on board, I walk around public places, look at the ceiling, and find the repeaters , which amplify the router's signal . I park myself under a repeater to work, so at least I know I'm getting the fastest signal.

Video calls can be dicey, but voice calls over WiFi work well

Most of my work is using emails, social media apps, and a web browser, so I don't tend to have problems. The upload speed is the most difficult thing about working on a cruise ship.

Related stories

Working from a cruise ship might not be for you if you're required to upload a video to YouTube or be on video for 100% of your Zoom calls. Zoom with video turned off works well. I post TikToks all day, but uploading to YouTube will fail almost every time.

Turn off your cell service on the ship, even if you have unlimited roaming overseas. Phones use satellite maritime cellular, and it's ridiculously expensive. I've heard of people who have come home with $1,000 cellular bills because they didn't turn off their roaming.

I can typically make most of my calls over WiFi, but you won't be able to on some ships. Texting from ship to land usually works well if you're using the same type of phone as the person you're messaging, but when you're texting cross-platform, sometimes it doesn't work.

Finding power outlets can be challenging

Typically, if you need to put in a full day of work connected to power, you need to stay in your room. One tip to finding power when you're looking around public areas is to see where they plug in the vacuum cleaners.

I strongly recommend bringing a powerboard with multiple USB sockets. I have one with 10 USB connections, so I can charge my phone, GoPro, and other devices simultaneously.

Virgin Voyages ships are the most friendly for remote workers

The galley on a Virgin Voyages ship is set up like a coffee shop, with easily accessible power and USB sockets at the table. There are dozens of outlets, as they're inviting people to bring their laptops and work from the ship.

I usually upgrade to the premium WiFi option, which can cost anywhere from $19 to $39 per day on most lines, but Virgin only charges $10 per day to upgrade.

I work in an office at home, so working on a cruise is a big change

I operate at sea as I do on land, with the same office hours available to my clients other than when I know we're going on an excursion.

Cruise ships are comparable to remote working spaces, but they offer so much more. On a cruise, almost everything is included: breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, entertainment, and most amenities.

If I want to take a break from work, I go to the pool. When I finish for the day, I'll go to the theater to see a show.

Meeting places are usually free on a cruise ship. Generally, all you have to do is reserve a conference room. AV facilities are usually included too, although you may have to pay a setup fee.

Remember to be respectful — many people are on board for a vacation. I've been out by the pool and seen people taking business calls on speakerphone, which is ridiculously annoying.

I suggest picking at least one port on every cruise and make it a 'ship day'

About 75% of people will get off the ship at any port, so staying on board feels like you have the whole place to yourself.

Activities like the pools will still be open, and the spas will often discount their services by 20-40% on port days.

Of course, I still recommend getting off and exploring as much as possible — that's what cruises are for.

Watch: Cruise ship captain breaks down 8 cruise ship disasters in movies and TV

• Main content

Princess Cruises' Star Princess ship delayed, 9 sailings canceled

Travelers will have to wait longer than planned to sail on Princess Cruises’ upcoming ship.

The delivery of Star Princess, which was set to debut next summer, will be pushed back by about two months. The cruise line said the delay was a “mutual” decision with shipbuilder Fincantieri.

“Following a comprehensive review of the remaining construction milestones, both parties have elected to adjust the ship's delivery date from July 29, 2025 to September 26, 2025, which will result in the cancellation of the nine inaugural sailings,” Princess said in a news release .

Guests whose cruises are impacted will be able to rebook on any Princess ship and, depending on which sailing they pick, receive future cruise and onboard credits. They will also be able to opt for a full refund of their fare instead.

“Despite our collective dedication and relentless pursuit to deliver the ship in late July, it has become evident that additional time is required to ensure the Star Princess is delivered to the highest standards expected by our guests,” Princess Cruises President John Padgett said in the release.

Your cruise was canceled: Now what?

The ship’s new inaugural itineraries will include 11 and seven-day Mediterranean cruises on Oct. 4 and 15, 2025, respectively. Those will be followed by a two-week transatlantic voyage to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Oct. 22, 2025.

Those sailings will be available to book on April 30.

Star Princess will be the second in the line’s Sphere Class. Sister ship Sun Princess was also delayed ahead of its launch earlier this year, with Princess citing “additional technical work” needed at the shipyard.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].