The Costa Serena’s charter as a floating hotel for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games works out to roughly $1.36 million per day, higher than the rate paid for the Aroya’s similar assignment at the Mediterranean Games.
As reported by Cruise Industry News, the Costa ship arrived at Nagoya’s Kinjo Pier on Sept. 15 and will remain berthed there until Oct. 6, a 22-day stay.
The 2007-built ship is expected to house around 4,000 athletes and officials during the Games.
According to Japanese media reports, the Games’ organizing committee chartered the Costa Cruises vessel for 4.48 billion yen (nearly $30 million), or about $340 per person per night.
Earlier this month, the Aroya wrapped up a similar 20-night charter in Taranto, Italy, for the 20th Mediterranean Games.
The Aroya Cruises vessel hosted more than 4,000 athletes from 26 nations during the Games.
The charter, signed earlier this year, was reportedly valued at nearly 17 million euros, or roughly 850,000 euros per night and about 210 euros per athlete.
Taranto’s organizers also chartered Tallink’s Romantika for about 6 million euros to house another 1,200 guests, bringing the total bill for the floating village to around 23 million euros.
The organizing committee said building a dedicated residential complex on land would have been considerably more expensive.
While the Aroya is now repositioning to Saudi Arabia for a fall season in the Red Sea, the Costa Serena will say goodbye to Asia once its stint in Nagoya ends.
Closing out a decade in the region, the ship will sail one final cruise from Japan before embarking on a 65-night repositioning voyage to Argentina.
The Tokyo-to-Buenos Aires world cruise will call at destinations in the Far East, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and South America.
The Costa Serena will then offer cruises to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay before returning to the Mediterranean in early 2027.
Costa’s published deployment has the 3,012-passenger ship spending summer 2027 on itineraries to Italy, Greece and Malta.
It will then make its Caribbean debut in the 2027-28 season, with cruises from the Dominican Republic, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
