Latest Cruise News

Anyone that has taken a cruise before, knows the least favorite part is the mandatory muster drill. For years, guests have been required to attend these drills en masse, with literally thousands of guests all moving in the same direction at the same time. Thankfully, with the introduction of  the Oasis class ships from Royal Caribbean over a decade ago, guests stopped having to carry their life vests from their cabins to the drills. On newer ships, we’ve also seen a move to having guests attend the drills in indoor…

Along with today’s news of fleet reductions, Carnival Cruise Line also confirmed that an additional Excel-class, LNG-powered ship will be arriving in November 2022. The yet unnamed, second Excel-class ship has been confirmed from the Meyer Turku shipyard. The sister ship to Mardi Gras will showcase many of her features, including BOLT, the first roller coaster at sea, and sail out of PortMiami as previously announced. Carnival had also previously announced plans for a newly upgraded terminal at PortMiami that will accommodate the second Excel-class vessel. Carnival said it will…

Carnival Cruise Line made it official today that two of their ships Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Inspiration have been sold. Additionally, Carnival Fascination and Carnival Imagination will move to a long term lay-up status, with no specific timeline identified for a return to operation. These moves are part of Carnival Corporation’s recent announcement to reduce its overall capacity and focus on ships with upgraded features. All four of these Fantasy Class ships are some of the oldest in the Carnival fleet with Fantasy originally arriving in 1990, Fascination in 1994,…

Carnvial Cruise Line’s most anticipated and largest cruise ship ever, Mardi Gras has been progressing at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland.   Carnival recently had to cancel a number of sailings due to delays at the shipyard, but have set a new debut for February 2021. Workers have installed nearly 800 feet of suspended track for BOLT, the first rollercoaster at sea, that will encircle upper decks and offer guests an exhilarating ride with dips and drops with breathtaking ocean views 187 feet above the water line. All…

One of the most anticipated cruise ships coming in 2020, Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras, has now been officially delayed until 2021. The largest ship ever for the cruise line at 183,000 tons, Mardi Gras was originally scheduled to debut in August 2020, but due to delays at the ship yard, the first sailing was pushed back until November 14th. Itineraries out of Port Canaveral for departures from Nov. 14, 2020 to Jan. 30, 2021 have been cancelled, with the first departure now planned for February 6, 2021. Unfortunately, Carnvial…

There has been much speculation recently about the status of major dry docks involving cruise ships from Royal Caribbean. Many were scheduled to commence right as the cruise industry paused all operations. Today, Royal Caribbean sent out an official notice to travel partners and media that Amplifications for four of their ships are postponed indefinitely. Due to the impact of COVID-19 and given the closure of shipyards along with the disruption to the supply chain, Royal Caribbean® would like to make you aware of some updates regarding Allure of the Seas®, Explorer…

Carnival Cruise Line managed to repatriate nearly 3,000 Carnival team members through the Port of Dubrovnik last week, through what they called “an extraordinary effort”. The cruise industry really does bring the citizens of the world together and Carnival proudly boasts 110 nationalities amongst its onboard team.  That can make things complicated in this current situation as the world’s largest cruise line works to repatriate more than 26,000 team members home, with a backdrop of some nations with closed borders, flight options limited, and debarkation and immigration policies frequently changing.…

Virgin Voyages has announced that they have canceled all sailings on Scarlet Lady through October 15, 2020. This is the second wave of cancelations for Virgin Voyages, as their initial planned launch and inaugural sailing for late March was previously delayed until August. Scarlet Lady was delivered to Virgin Voyages in early February with a brief introduction to travel media and agents in Dover and Liverpool in the U.K. A special 4-nigth cruise event planned for Richard Branson’s 70th Birthday for July 15, 2020, has been rescheduled for July 14,…

Carnival Cruise Line advised guests and travel agents today of our plan to phase in a resumption in our North American service this summer, beginning on August 1 with a total of eight ships from Miami, Port Canaveral and Galveston.  In connection with this plan, our pause in operations will be extended in all other North American and Australian markets through August 31. The key elements of this plan include: All North American cruises from June 27 to July 31 will be cancelled. Beginning August 1, we plan to resume…