The ship’s size prevented it from sailing from the Port of Palm Beach, and Port Everglades spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy said the Broward County port might not be able to host the ship during weekdays of the busy winter cruise season.īuilt in 2000 as the Costa Atlantica, the Islander weighs 85,861 gross tons and is 959 feet long.
Since the pandemic, the ship spent most of the past three years anchored off Cypress before going into dry dock in the spring. and the China-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp., which operated it under the Costa name until the cruise industry shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Maritime Executive in October reported that the cruise line had purchased the ship from Adora Cruises, a partnership between Carnival Corp. All 1,100 of the ship’s staterooms will be redesigned when the ship sails on its first voyage on June 14 from Port of Tampa, the cruise line says. A stateroom on the Margaritaville at Sea’s newest ship, Islander.
