Costa’s Smeralda Ban Can Reach Every Carnival Brand

Costa Cruises has put 13 guests on its Do Not Sail List after a fight on Costa Smeralda on March 5, 2026. Ship cameras show punches, thrown chairs, and one man kicked while he was already down. The private ban is in force. Palermo’s criminal file is not finished.

Costa’s own ticket can refuse those guests on other Carnival Group ships for a period the line communicates. That is the travel consequence that landed first, months before the public saw the tape.

A Joke by the Disco Became a Chair Fight

The fight broke out at night on the Naples-to-Palermo crossing. Palermo’s maritime border police, Polmare, led by Manfredi Borsellino, reconstructed it from the ship’s cameras after the crew called ahead.

Two groups of guests, all between 18 and 20, were involved. One group was from the Salento, in Lecce province, and had boarded at Civitavecchia. The other was Sicilian and had boarded at Palermo on an earlier call of the same western Mediterranean loop.

The spark was a remark aimed at a Sicilian woman near the ship’s disco. A young man from the Salento group took it badly. Words became hands. Tables, chairs, and other fittings were used as weapons. The brawl then moved down the corridors and into the lift area, where it got worse.

There, some of the group kept kicking a young man in the head after he was already unconscious on the floor. Crew isolated the scene. The injured guest was taken for medical checks, which later ruled out the worst. The 13 were not held in cells. They were named to the Palermo prosecutor while free.

What Happens After a Cruise Ship Brawl in Italy?

On an Italian-flag cruise, ship security acts first and the next port’s police take the file. Costa Smeralda’s team broke up the March 5 fight at sea, then handed the case to Polmare when the ship reached Palermo. Officers crossed the onboard camera feeds, identified 13 people, and sent them to the Palermo prosecutor for aggravated brawling, in Italian rissa aggravata, while leaving them at liberty.

Italian criminal law treats a multi-person fight as its own offence. Simple participation is a fine. An injury during the fight, even a lesser one, raises the ceiling for everyone who took part, not only the person who landed the blow.

HOW ITALY PUNISHES A RISSA

• Simple brawl: Anyone who takes part can be fined up to 2,000 euros under Article 588 of the Criminal Code.
• If someone is hurt or killed: Mere participation can mean imprisonment from six months to six years, including for injury that follows immediately after the fight.
• Who is covered: The raised penalty is objective. It can sit on every participant, including people who did not know a blow would land.
• This file: Police sent the 13 to the prosecutor for the aggravated form after a guest was kicked while unconscious, then medically cleared of the worst.

That split is why a violent night at sea can look, on land, like a paperwork case. The 13 walked off the pier. The prosecutor in Palermo still had to decide what the kicks and the chairs were worth under Article 588.

Costa’s Ban Can Reach Every Carnival Brand

Costa did not wait for a verdict. A spokesperson said the March 5 incident was handled by onboard security at the time and then referred to police in Palermo, and that the people involved are now on the line’s Do Not Sail List.

The safety and security of our guests and crew are our top priority. This incident occurred on March 5, 2026, and was addressed at that time by our onboard security team before being referred to law enforcement in Palermo. While video of the incident has only recently been shared publicly, we do not tolerate this kind of behaviour and have placed the individuals involved on our Do Not Sail List.

Costa Cruises spokesperson

The public statement names Costa’s list. The ticket goes further. Costa’s UK general contract conditions, valid from 13 July 2026, give the organizer and the master the right to refuse further passage on any Carnival Group company ship for a period that will be communicated to the passenger. The same contract says illegal acts are reported to law enforcement, and that offensive or outrageous behaviour can mean being put off with no refund, at the guest’s own cost to get home.

Costa is the Italian brand inside Carnival Corporation. A refusal written under that clause can, if Costa uses the full tool, follow a guest onto Carnival Corporation’s family of cruise lines, not only onto the next Costa ship.

WHERE A COSTA REFUSAL CAN FOLLOW YOU

Carnival Corporation’s fleet table for 31 August 2026 counted 93 ships and 272,020 lower berths across the group. Costa Fortuna had already been sold and left the fleet in September, so Costa’s own column in that table is not a live headcount. The point of the table is the reach. There is still no shared industry no-sail list that would also block Royal Caribbean or Norwegian. The parent group is the widest net Costa can throw.

The spokesperson did not say this specific listing had already been typed into Princess or Cunard booking systems. The contract gives Costa that option for a stated period. For anyone on the list, that option is the live travel problem, because a prosecutor’s timetable does not decide the next gangway.

Police Released the Ship Video in September

Costa’s security team had the cameras on 5 March. The public did not. Polmare’s identification work, and the decision to put the 13 in front of the Palermo prosecutor, only became a news event when the tape moved in mid-September.

FROM THE DISCO TO THE DO NOT SAIL LIST

1. March 5, 2026: Fight starts by the disco on the night run from Naples toward Palermo, then spreads into corridors and the lifts.
2. Arrival in Palermo: Crew have already alerted Polmare. Officers board, pull the camera files, and identify 13 guests aged 18 to 20.
3. Same port call: The injured guest is checked in hospital. The 13 are reported to the Palermo prosecutor while free.
4. September 15, 2026: The police reconstruction, and the ship video, become public in Sicily, more than six months after the night at sea.
5. After the tape circulates: Costa confirms the people involved are on its Do Not Sail List and says the video’s late release does not change how the night was handled on board.

That lag is built into life at sea. The ship is a private workplace until it ties up. Police need the port, the files, and time to match faces. A cruise guest who was not in the fight could have finished the holiday, flown home, and never seen the clip that later defined the sailing.

Costa Smeralda’s Disco Already Had a Reputation

Costa Smeralda is a 337-metre, 20-deck ship with a maximum of 6,554 guests. Costa’s own fleet page lists 1,550 balcony cabins and 19 bars, plus 11 restaurants and 13 pools and hot tubs. The disco sits inside that late-night stack, not on an open deck where a fight is easy to see from the pool.

COSTA SMERALDA ON PAPER

• Length: 337 metres, with 20 decks.
• Crowd: Up to 6,554 guests at maximum load.
• Cabins: 1,550 balcony cabins on Costa’s own count.
• Night: 19 bars and lounges, with the disco as the late room where this fight began.

On Smeralda and her sister Costa Toscana, the disco and the nearby burger decks already draw extra security because young groups drink there. That is the known pinch point on this class of ship, and it is why a 13-person fight that left the dance floor and reached the lifts is a staffing failure, not a surprise about human nature. Extra guards are there to stop a corridor from becoming a second room. This time the corridor and the lifts still became the second room.

A ship that large can absorb a lot of noise before most guests notice. Most of the 6,554 people on a full sailing would have been asleep or in other bars. The 13 were a tiny share of the load. They were enough to put chairs in the air and a guest on the floor.

The Prosecutor’s File Is the Slow Track

The Do Not Sail List already decides where these 13 cannot book. Costa can make that refusal Costa-only, or it can use the Carnival Group wording in the ticket and name a period. Either way, the line does not need a judge in Palermo to keep them off the next gangway.

The prosecutor’s file is slower, and it is the one that can follow someone into a courtroom. Aggravated brawling is a separate track from a private blacklist. A guest can be barred from a brand and still wait, free, on a denuncia. A guest can also, in other cases, be cleared by a court and remain unwelcome on the ships. The two systems do not have to match.

In mid-September the 13 were still described as free pending that file. No later public update has recorded a conviction. For anyone else booking Costa, or another Carnival Group brand, the useful fact is simpler. A nightclub fight at sea is handled by ship security until the next pier. The lasting penalty is the list, and Costa’s contract is written so that list can travel.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a cruise-ship incident, a company ban, and published Italian criminal rules. It is for information only and is not legal advice, criminal-defence advice, or guidance on any person’s case, booking rights, or travel plans. Readers who need advice about a ban, a police report, or a booking dispute should consult a qualified lawyer licensed in the relevant country, and should not treat the penalty ranges described here as a prediction of any outcome. Figures, ship counts, contract wording, and case status reflect the cited company, fleet, and legal texts as they stood in the sources used for this piece and may change.