The relatively cold, cloudy weather did little to dampen the enthusiasm of Cobh residents as they welcomed the Costa Deliziosa to their town. The ship docked there on Tuesday after it sailed from Vigo in Spain. It is the second cruise ship in a week to dock at Cobh.

The Deliziosa is of course operated by well-known cruise line Costa Cruises. She is the jewel in the Costa crown and was only delivered in 2009 after construction started in 2007 at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy. She formed part of a five-ship expansion to the Costa fleet.

The Costa Deliziosa is perhaps not as big as some of the other super-liners cruising the ocean right now, but at 292 metres (958 feet) she is certainly no baby either. Her beam is 32.3 metres (106 feet) and she weighs 92,700 tons.

Her 1,130 cabins can carry a total of 2,828 passengers in luxury and comfort. The Deliziosa cruises at 40 kilometres an hour (21.6 knots) and on a good day she can reach a top speed of 43.7 kilometres an hour (23.6 knots).

Before embarking on her current cruise, the Deliziosa literally sailed around the world in 100 days. She left Savona on the 28th December 2010 and went on to visit Los Angeles, the Caribbean, Samoa, Hawaii, New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, Singapore, Siri Lanka, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt before she returned to Italy.

The other cruise liner that visited Cobh in the past week was Grand Princess.