Sunday, March 31, 2024

Carnival Cruise Line guide: Everything to know about ships, itineraries and more

carnival cruise routes

Signature shipboard facilities are Seaside Theatre (outdoors), Thrill Theatre (3D Cinema), Disco Nightclub, Casino (gambling, tournaments), Stage Shows, Playlist Productions, Hasbro Game Show, Carnival Waterworks (aqua park with slides). In March, CCL signed an exclusive partnership with Lakeland Brewing Company (Florida) to can and keg CCL own private label beers crafted by a professional brewery team on the new liners Vista and Horizon (at sea). The 3 new craft beers (ThirstyFrog Caribbean Wheat, ParchedPig West Coast IPA, ParchedPig Toasted Amber Ale) are based on unique recipes and currently available (on tap and in 16-oz cans) fleetwide and also at CCL's private port destinations. In October were added ParchedPig Pumpkin Ale and ParchedPig Beach Lager. In mid-March 2019 started construction works on the exclusive "Carnival Terminal 3"/CT3 in Port Canaveral (opened in June 2021). In April, CCL expanded the shipboard youth programming (fleetwide) via exclusive partnership with Zumbini.

carnival cruise routes

Carnival Jubilee

On one of Carnival's newest ships, Carnival Panorama, there's no RedFrog Pub, but the Smokehouse Brewhouse has a stage that's home to live music nightly and some of the ship's karaoke sessions. Also, there are always several music venues where you'll find live performers in the afternoons and evenings, including — on some ships — the Atrium Bar and a secondary hub area called Ocean Plaza. Every vessel has two main dining rooms and a casual buffet eatery where meals are included in the fare. For dinner in the main dining room, you must sign up for either Your Time dining (you go whenever you want) or Traditional Dining (you have a fixed table and time for dinner).

Meyer Werft conveys CCL's cruise ship Carnival Jubilee

Bar (serving ocean-themed and color-changing beverages, including cocktails and shots) and The Golden Mermaid Lounge (serving specialty cocktails and having a stage for live band music performances). Also on Deck 6 is the "Emeril's Bistro 717" (a specialty restaurant by Emeril Lagasse/CCL's Chief Culinary Officer). Of 26 ships, 21 Carnival cruise ships are scheduled to visit the Caribbean and Bahamas, including the 5,282-passenger Mardi Gras, its newest and largest ship. There are 12 U.S. ports from which Carnival offers Caribbean and Bahamas cruises. Carnival has recently dispatched two of its ships to Australia to operate trips from Sydney and Brisbane in what might seem like an unusual divert for a line known for short, accessible, affordable American voyages.

carnival cruise routes

Australia

Port Miami and Port Canaveral are Carnival's most important cruise ports, Galveston, Texas, Long Beach, California, and New Orleans. In addition to Baltimore, Charleston, South Carolina, Mobile, Alabama, and Jacksonville, Florida, you may also find Carnival ships in secondary ports. It is relatively uncommon for Carnival ships to sail longer voyages than three to eight nights.

From Galveston Carnival offers cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean, visiting ports in Bahamas (Nassau, Freeport, Half Moon Cay), Florida (Key West), Mexico (Cozumel, Costa Maya), Honduras (Roatan), Belize City. The decor is marked by floor-ceiling windows (wall-to-wall), heavy red and green, with gold accents, a colorful dragon (at the entrance). Dishes include favorites like Kung Pao Chicken, Singapore Chili Shrimp/Prawn, Slow-Braised Pork Belly, Egg Drop Soup, Crispy Pork Carnitas Tacos, Steak Ranchero, Mole de Pollo Mexicano, Pork Lomito, Pescado Frito Crujiente, Camarones a la Diabla (shrimp). Carnival Jubilee has the fleet's fourth "Big Chicken" restaurant at sea (by Shaquille O'Neal). Triumph was Carnival's first-ever liner with mobile phone systems ("Cellular At Sea" by Wireless Maritime Services). This partnership (between AT&T and MTN Sat / Maritime Telecommunications Network) allowed passengers to use their cell phones at sea to call directly at any time.

: First new build ships

You'll receive things like a single complimentary bottle of water (at the Red tier) and a single free drink that only can be ordered on the last night of a cruise (at the Gold tier). Carnival has a point-based frequent cruiser program, the VIFP Club, that has five tiers, ranging from Blue (requiring no points) to Diamond (200 points). All vessels operate on a "cashless system," with any onboard purchases you make posting automatically to your onboard account. The exceptions are any Carnival ship based in Australia, where pricing is listed in Australian dollars.

From Disney to Carnival, here are the Caribbean cruises sailing out of New Orleans in 2024 - NOLA.com

From Disney to Carnival, here are the Caribbean cruises sailing out of New Orleans in 2024.

Posted: Wed, 29 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

FAQs for Carnival Cruises Destinations

For the project (installing a total of 91 units) was contracted "VOTI Detection" (Montreal-based company). The 3D scanners feature advanced imaging and remote diagnosis capabilities. They save the image files which (if needed) can be later re-analyzed.

With a huge variety of excursions for every age and sense of adventure, it’s easy to plan your perfect vacation. Each of our ships is a unique experience — check the features and find out which ship is right for you. Alaska Airlines offers regular nonstop flights to Havana from Los Angeles (California USA). An 80-min ling JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale (Florida) to Havana costs less than USD 100. Previously, air travel from the USA to Cuba was thought charter flights only. From Port NOLA are offered 4-5-day Western Caribbean getaways to Mexico.

Pipe burst during storm leads to flooding on Carnival Sunrise cruise ship

PayPal can be used by cruise ship tourists upon making their initial deposits on the voyage or any balance due. In addition to PayPal, Carnival also accepts all major credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diner's Club, MasterPass. Hub app also allows checking the Sail & Sign onboard account, viewing maps, scheduled events, dining and drinking options, add favorites. On select ships via Hub app can also be purchased tours/shore excursions. Fly2Fun deals allow customizing flight reservations with different options, including the specifying preferred departure ports, flight schedules, airline/carrier, type of accommodation.

If you're sure Carnival is your line, look for a travel agent who specializes in trips with the brand. You want someone who understands all the little quirks that are unique to Carnival's cabin categories and, preferably, has done ship inspections to see the cabins firsthand. As you might expect, pricing for ships will generally be lower during offseason periods such as September, October and parts of November. The second-to-highest tier, Platinum (75 points), brings such perks as priority check-in and boarding, priority debarkation, priority dinner reservations, priority spa reservations and priority water shuttle boarding. Platinums also get complimentary wash-and-fold laundry service (with a limit of two to five bags, depending on the length of the cruise). In fact, the lower tiers of the Carnival program are among the most stingy in the entire cruise universe.

The XL-Class is similar as design and facilities to HELIOS-Class ships produced for Carnival Corporation's brands Costa and AIDA (all by Meyer Werft in Papenburg Germany). Other EXCELLENCE-Class liners (Carnival Celebration sisterships) are Carnival Mardi Gras (2021), Carnival Jubilee (2023), P&O Iona (2020), P&O Arvia (2022), Costa Smeralda (2019), Costa Toscana (2021), AIDAnova (2018), AIDAcosma (2021). CCL's 26th ship was launched/floated out from drydock, on July 22, 2023, then was moved to the shipyard's outfitting pier. Carnival Jubilee's hull livery has a unique feature - a Texas star on the bow. During the launch ceremony, Christine Duffy commented that this is a symbol of CCL's commitment to Port Galveston, as Carnival was the first cruise line that started homeporting in Galveston year-round.

Three- and four-night Carnival trips to the west coast of Mexico typically only feature a single Mexico call in Ensenada and, at times, a stop at Catalina Island off the coast of California. Carnival is one of the leaders in cruises to the Mexican Riviera — the string of resort towns running down the west coast of Mexico. The line's Southern Caribbean itineraries — typically eight nights in length — will often bring visits to Aruba and Curaçao, as well as one or more northerly Caribbean ports such as Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. However, each of Carnival's six- to eight-night Eastern Caribbean itineraries is a little different. There are typically three and sometimes four calls on these Eastern Caribbean cruises. Carnival offers a broad range of Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries from no fewer than 11 U.S. ports.

You have plenty of choices when you set out for the postcard paradise that is the Western Caribbean. Carnival cruise ports of call include Grand Cayman, Mahogany Bay, Nassau, Costa Maya, Belize, Key West, Yucatán (Progreso), Cozumel, Montego Bay, Falmouth, Limón, and Colón (Panama Canal). You’ll do more than just pass the time as you sail from port to port. Our ships sail to stunning destinations — see just where on the map we go. Carnival offers private tours via motor coaches, yachts, and helicopters. Carnival ships have a new tour dispatch system, from where tours depart as local operators board the ship to meet the participants.

Pricing changes over time, but the fastest "premium" service on Carnival vessels was recently priced at $21.25 per day when bought in advance ($25 per day when bought onboard). In addition to entertainment spaces, the interiors of Carnival ships are loaded with other venues where passengers can kick back and let loose day and night, including a wide range of bars, lounges and nightspots. Among the wide variety of offers are over cruises of up to 5 days, providing passengers with many "mini-cruise" options, including new 4- and 5-day deployments for Carnival Valor( from Port Canaveral) and Carnival Victory-Radiance (from Miami). Between May and October, at least a few Carnival ships sail to Bermuda every year. Two days in Bermuda are included in most of the sailings, which last six nights. The line offers a few shorter Bermuda sailings, along with longer seven-night Bermuda sailings occasionally.

Designed to be quick and digestible, they typically last around 30 minutes and have relatively small casts (just eight on some ships). There's seemingly always something playing on a Carnival ship, whether it be a glitzy singing-and-dancing production in the main theater, a comedy show in a secondary lounge, a magical act or a call-you-up-on-stage interactive game show. Occasionally, Carnival will deploy a ship to Europe for a few weeks or months. This often takes place when a vessel needs to go to a European shipyard for an overhaul.

The best Carnival Cruise Line itineraries: 5 great places its ships go

carnival cruise routes

PayPal can be used as a payment option for any of Carnival cruise itineraries with durations 3- to 15-days, visiting ports both USA and international ports and destinations. HUB app is a free download mobile app allowing onboard chatting between Carnival passengers. A fee of USD 5 per device per cruise is required to activate the chat feature.

Carnival Paradise & Carnival Sunrise make CCL-Carnival Cruise Line’s first calls to Grand Cayman

Carnival's biggest operations are out of PortMiami and Port Canaveral in Florida; Galveston, Texas; Long Beach, California; and New Orleans — all major cruise hubs. You'll also find Carnival ships in such secondary cruise ship ports as Baltimore; Charleston, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and Jacksonville, Florida. The arrival of Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration over the past two years has marked a major turning point for the line. At around 180,000 tons, they rank at No. 15 and No. 13, respectively, among the world's largest cruise ships — the only Carnival ships to crack the Top 20. One more ship in the series — Carnival Jubilee — will arrive in December 2023. This is a notable change for the brand from just a couple of decades ago.

Carnival shipboard Wi-Fi plans

The fun continues when you reach your port — there’s a huge variety of shore excursions to choose from. The new tour deals pertain to over 50 call ports in Mexico, Hawaii, Bahamas, Caribbean, Canada New England, South America. Ecstasy also had a 10-day "Carnival Journeys" voyage (September 12, 2022) visiting Key West, Grand Turk, Amber Cove, Grand Cayman, Cozumel. Between May 2019 and Oct 2022, Ecstasy was homeported in JAXPORT (Jacksonville Florida) to operate year-round on 4-5-day short breaks to The Bahamas. The program started with a 15-day Transatlantic crossing (RepositionCruises.com) from Barcelona to NYC (May 29-June 13, 2023).

Stranded gulf sailors rescued by CCL's Carnival Jubilee ship

Sunrise ship's godmother is Kelly Arison - daughter of Micky Arison. The vessel's christening ceremony was on May 23, 2019, held at Manhattan Cruise Passenger Terminal in Port NYC New York. The naming ceremony featured a 4-ft (1,2-m) high champagne bottle sculpture (filled with confetti) which was custom-made by Romero Britto (1963-born Brazilian artist). Follows the complete list of Carnival Sunrise lounges, clubs and other entertainment venues for kids, teens, and adults.

FAQs for Carnival Cruises Destinations

All new cruisetour offers complement CCL's "Shore Excursion Best Price Guarantee" providing a 110% refund in OBC/onboard credit if passengers find a better price on similar land tour deals. Each Fun Ship also has a dedicated "shore excursion desk" with experienced staff to answer any questions and to recommend particular tours. The company's tour section was revamped with enhanced navigation, more videos, and photos, online reservations, guest-written tour reviews. The new program "Carnival Journeys" features destinations like Hawaii, Caribbean, Mexico, Panama Canal, Europe. Since 2015, Carnival Cruise Line offers the so-called "Carnival Journeys" itineraries. These are longer than usual voyages with length ranging between 9 and 15 nights.

Entertainment and activities

carnival cruise routes

The two ships — most recently the 2,260-passenger Carnival Luminosa and 3,012-passenger Carnival Splendor — typically operate a mix of three- to 10-night sailings along the Australian coast and to New Zealand. Most of the sailings are six nights in length and include two days in Bermuda. The line also typically offers a few shorter four- and five-night Bermuda sailings and, occasionally, a longer seven-night Bermuda sailing. The giants of cruising to Alaska are Princess Cruises and Holland America, which are sister lines to Carnival that control a large percentage of the market.

During the day, Celebration Central Atrium serves as a relaxing space for enjoying beverages, light food, live music or participating in trivia contests and leisurely pursuits. The Atrium's Lobby level (deck 6) has a large Center Stage (portside) for live performances and is served by the Tropicale Bar. The Atrium's mid-level (deck 7) is integrated into the Casino Louge served by the Aquaria Bar (featuring glass murals by Luciano Vistosi, from the ship Carnival Victory). From the Atrium's upper level (deck 8) are accessed the restaurants Bonsai Sushi and Bonsai Teppanyaki. Festivale Restaurant (MDR/main dining room) is aft-positioned on both decks (6-7). Like most large-sized newbuilds, the new Carnival Jubilee is LNG-powered, with 4x Caterpillar Marine LNG engines (model MaK 16M-46DF) generating combined output 57,2 MW.

Created in partnership with Food Network's Guy Fieri, Guy's Burger Joint offers burgers that beat anything you'll find around the pool on other mass-market ships and even most luxury vessels. In recent years, Carnival also has deployed two of its vessels to Australia to operate voyages from Sydney and Brisbane. In a departure from Carnival's American-focused business model, the Australia sailings are aimed mostly at the local Australian market, though they are open to American travelers.

That said, given the complexity of booking a cruise — there are a lot of decisions to make during the booking process; trust us — we recommend you use a seasoned travel agent who specializes in cruises. One or two nights a cruise, there will be a more formal "cruise elegant" night where men are expected to turn out in dress slacks and a dress shirt, preferably with a sports coat, or even in a suit. The suggested attire for women on such nights is cocktail dresses, pantsuits, elegant skirts and blouses. During the day, there is no specific dress code, and people dress casually. If it's a sea day in a warm-weather destination, and you're bound for the top deck, that means looking like you're going to the beach — T-shirts, shorts and bathing suits (with a cover-up to go inside) are just fine.

The option is available via "Manage My Booking" (Carnival.com) where customers can select a package for the duration of the cruise. On Carnival ships departing from Australian ports tipping is not compulsory. In February, CCL added X-ray security 3D scanning at 9 of its North American homeports.

carnival cruise routes

In 2001, the new Panamax size Spirit class debuted with the Carnival Spirit, the first of the four-ship class within the Carnival fleet. In 1993, Carnival began to get rid of their older second-hand tonnage, and sold their first ship, Mardi Gras, after 21 years of service with the line. The Carnivale followed the same year, going to newly created Carnival subsidiary Fiesta Marina Cruises.

Upcoming Carnival Cruises: 2024 Prices, Itineraries + Activities on Cruise Critic - Cruise Critic

Upcoming Carnival Cruises: 2024 Prices, Itineraries + Activities on Cruise Critic.

Posted: Mon, 23 Oct 2023 14:30:46 GMT [source]

In December 2020, CCL-Carnival officially announced the inaugural season's schedule of the new Celebration liner. Next tables show the Maiden Voyage (ship's first cruise) and the inaugural Caribbean itineraries with lowest prices in USD per person (with double occupancy). Grand Central features 3000-ft2 (280-m2) glass panels (built into the vessel's superstructure) to provide passengers with unobstructed views as they relax in comfortable seating. The Gateway (midship on deck 6) houses the Latitudes Bar fitted with travel-themed chairs and menus and featuring a mechanical split-flap display board (listing the daily menu - cocktails, wines, spirits, special tastings/samplers). At Latitudes Bar are also held the Celebration Happy Hour event (with live entertainment) as well as private parties and special occasions (birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc). In mid-January 2018, CCL announced 4 new craft beers that will be brewed onboard Carnival Horizon (and on the new XL-class ships/Mardi Gras, Celebration, Jubilee).

The same year the veteran ship Festivale, the last of the original second-hand fleet, was retired. In other words, if you are sailing seven-night cruises, you will be Gold level on your fourth sailing, as you will be passing the 25-day mark on that sailing. In addition, vessels offer extra-charge laundry and, on select ships, dry cleaning services. On most ships, smoking (including electronic cigarettes) is only allowed in designated outdoor areas and in casinos and nightclubs.

For the most part, Carnival ships don't have quite as many features on board as Royal Caribbean or Norwegian vessels, in part because they're not as big. They're still packed with a variety of attractions, including multiple entertainment venues, casinos, spas and lots of deck-top fun zones such as water parks and ropes courses. You'll find at least one of its ships sailing out of pretty much every major port city around the country. (2025) New sailings from New Orleans including 4 and 5-day itineraries with stops in destinations like Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico, as well as longer 6-7-day cruises. Two special Carnival Journeys itineraries sail to and from New Orleans to Barcelona in June 2025. The 2022-built Carnival Celebration operates year-round roundtrips from Miami (preferential berthing at Carnival Terminal 3).

Follows the complete list of Carnival Celebration lounges, clubs and other entertainment venues for kids, teens, and adults. The Gateway has a large digital map showing the current location of all CCL ships in real-time. Carnival Jubilee was officially delivered to CCL by Meyer Werft GmbH & Co KG on December 4th (2023) in Port Bremerhaven. The delivery event was attended by Christine Duffy, Ben Clement, Jan Meyer, as well as the ship’s senior officers.

As is typical with cruise line loyalty programs, lower tiers don't bring all that much in terms of truly valuable benefits. During the evenings, there is an official dress code, but it's pretty laid-back. Most nights are designated "cruise casual," which means just that — khakis or jeans, polo shirts, sundresses, etc. Super casual items such as cutoff jeans, men's sleeveless shirts, T-shirts and gym shorts aren't permitted. Carnival allows you to bring one bottle of wine or Champagne per person onto ships at boarding plus up to a dozen standard cans or cartons of nonalcoholic drinks such as sodas.

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