“Even though the industry is a bit stuck, 2021 was a very busy year for us,” Giacomo Poggi – who is in charge of the commercial side of refit projects at De Wave Group – said, according to the 2022 Drydocking and Refurbishment Report by Cruise Industry News.

“We completed the conversion of the Carnival Victory into the Carnival Radiance, where we did a transformation of cabins, suites and public spaces,” he added.

At press time, De Wave Group – a global contractor for cruise ships – was also carrying out refurbishment of cabins and suites for the Norwegian Jewel and Norwegian Pearl.

The group also did the refurbishment of all the public and catering areas of the two former Princess Cruises’ ships – Pacific Adventure and Encounter – in preparation for the start of their service for P&O Australia.

“Now, we are working on the public and catering areas for the Costa Luminosa, which is drydocking in Trieste. This will be complete by the end of the year,” Poggi said in late November.

According to Poggi, some of the projects that were suspended during the pandemic restarted in 2021.

“Others were new refit projects, which involved revisiting public and cabins spaces due to the new health and safety procedures,” he said.

For future projects, De Wave is receiving many requests for quotations and bids.

“2022 is a mix of everything,” Poggi explained, “cabins, public areas, catering – everything in terms of interiors. The trend is quite similar to the one we faced in 2021 … I have to say that in the first quarter, we are already completely busy and at full capacity.”