Costa Cruises appoint robot staff

THE WORLD’S first humanoid robot will join #CostaCruises staff from spring 2016, working on board the Costa Diadema and sister ship AIDAprima. 

Costa Cruises has signed an agreement with the French company Aldebaran, a subsidiary of the SoftBank Group, for the world’s first deployment of ‘Pepper’ #robots on board #cruiseships.

The robots are capable – it says here – of reading human emotions and are built to interact with people by communicating through intuitive interfaces including voice and touch. The machines speak fluent German, Italian, and English, and will be able to provide recommendations on restaurants, events, and excursions. The company says they will improve the ‘customer experience’.

Pepper robots takes the environment and surroundings into account and its joints and wheels enable it to move fluidly. Its 3D camera allows it to detect people and their movements, and it’s able to analyze expressions and voice tones.

www.costacruises.co.uk

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Picture Credit: www.costacruises.co.uk

Costa Cruises to build world's largest passenger ships, as Brits say the Med is best

#COSTACRUISES is to build two ships each large enough to carry 6,000 passengers. No, that’s not an error; it’s not 600. It’s 6,000! 

The Carnival Corporation-owned brand will launch the ships in 2019 and 2020. The vessels will be built at the Meyer shipyard in Turku, Finland, and will be the first ships powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

The Costa new builds will have 600 more passengers than Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class.

Michael Thamm, chief executive of the Costa Group, said: ‘These ships will expand the leadership position for the Costa Group, the market leader in all major continental European markets. The multi-billion dollar contract with Meyer mirrors our strategy to constantly innovate our vacation offers and to deliver an unmatched #cruise experience to our guests.’

Group president Neil Palomba added: ‘The two Costa ships are a real innovation for the market, setting new standards for the whole industry: they will be the first green ships powered with LNG and they will offer a number of guest-friendly features.’

Go Holiday editor David Kernek comments: An ‘unmatched cruise experience’ … ‘guest-friendly features’. Some people might see a cruise ship carrying 6,000 passengers a holiday heaven; others, I suspect, might dismiss it as vacation hell!

Med tops for cruisers

THE Mediterranean remains the popular destination for British cruisers, according to a poll by the Cruise Critic website. Almost half of those polled voted for the Med, which was followed by the Caribbean (30%), Norwegian Fjords (18%), Canary Isles (15%), and Baltic (13%).


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Picture Credit: Costa.serena.istanbul.wmt by User:Wmeinhart - Wolfgang Meinhart, Hamburg - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons, http://www.flickr.com/photos/8688619@N08/4489711333">COSTA ROMANTICA</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)