Carnival Cruise Line is celebrating a special milestone, as it has now welcomed three million guests since its cruise restart in July 2021.
After recording the biggest booking week in its entire 50-year history this spring, Carnival Corporation’s latest business update projects that Carnival Cruise Line’s ships will reach nearly 110 percent occupancy this summer.
The cruise line hit the two million mark for guests in May, so the number has risen to three million in less than 75 days — an average of 95,000 guests per week across the fleet of 23 ships.
Carnival’s five busiest homeports — PortMiami, Port Canaveral, Galveston, Long Beach, and New Orleans — were among the first to resume guest operations, and account for 77 percent of all Carnival embarkations. Port Canaveral is home to the line’s newest and largest ship — Mardi Gras — which has welcomed 250,000 guests on board since its inaugural sailing a year ago.
“Carnival set the pace for the industry as the first major cruise line to return to full guest operations in the U.S., and we continue to lead as we now have welcomed three million guests who have enjoyed much-needed vacations,” said Carnival president Christine Duffy. “The economic benefit to our homeports and destinations is also significant and we are looking forward to restarting cruise operations in Australia this October.”
In addition to sailing from 14 of Carnival’s year-round and seasonal U.S. homeports, the line’s three-ship deployment to the Pacific Northwest set Carnival up for its largest Alaska season ever, with around 100,000 guests expected to embark on voyages north from Seattle and San Francisco.
Carnival Pride is spending the summer in Europe, offering itineraries with stops at 40 ports in 17 countries, embarking from Barcelona, Spain and Dover, England. On November 12, the ship will be back in Florida resuming operations from Tampa.
Carnival ships have made over 3,000 port call visits at 92 individual ports in the past year. The line’s vessels have called on Mexico the most with about 800 visits — half of which have been to Cozumel. Other top destinations are Nassau, Half Moon Cay, Amber Cove, and Mahogany Bay.
Passengers have gone on two million shore excursions since the restart. In Cozumel, the most popular excursion is catamaran sailing and snorkeling at Paradise Reef, which has been enjoyed by 30,000 guests. An excursion to Blue Lagoon Island is most popular in Nassau, and in Mahogany Bay, 13,000 guests have chosen to “Discover Roatan” by observing the island’s wildlife and natural beauty on a guided tour.
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The rapid return of Carnival’s guests is consistent with the growth that has previously been announced, with five ships joining the fleet over the next two years.
This November, Costa Luminosa will become Carnival Luminosa and begin sailing seasonally from Brisbane, Australia.
Carnival Celebration will join sister ship Mardi Gras as the next Excel-clas ship this fall, and a third vessel in the class — Carnival Jubilee — is set to debut in Galveston next year.
Carnival also plans to launch a new concept, “Costa by Carnival,” which will bring two additional ships from sister line Costa into the Carnival fleet in 2023 and 2024.
Check out the infographic that Carnival made for its three million guest milestone:
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