Carnival Cruise Line celebrated another milestone last week when they saw their 3 millionth guest take a cruise on one of their cruise ships since sailings resumed a year ago.
After recording its biggest booking week in the cruise line’s 50-year history this spring, Carnival Corporation’s latest quarterly business update predicted Carnival Cruise Line ships will reach nearly 110% occupancy this summer. This expectation is being realized in guest growth across the fleet. Carnival Cruise Line saw total guest numbers in May hit two million and has now grown to three million in less than 75 days – an average of 95,000 guests per week.
“Carnival set the pace for the industry as the first major cruise line to return to full U.S. guest operations, and we continue to lead as we’ve now welcomed three million guests who have enjoyed much-needed vacations,” said Carnival president Christine. Duffy. “The economic benefit to our ports and destinations is also significant and we look forward to resuming cruise operations in Australia this October.”
In addition to sailing from all 14 of Carnival Cruise Line’s year-round and seasonal U.S. homeports, the cruise line’s three-ship deployment to the Pacific Northwest powered its largest Alaskan season ever, with nearly 100,000 guests unforgettable vacations are expected to start from both Seattle and San Francisco. The Port of San Francisco is also Carnival’s newest seasonal port, solidifying its position as the cruise line receiving more visitors than any other California operator.
Carnival Pride is spending the summer in Europe, offering packed itineraries with stops in 40 popular ports in 17 countries, and departures from Barcelona, Spain and Dover, England. The ship will return to Tampa and resume operations there on November 12, 2022.
In total, Carnival cruise ships have made more than 3,000 port calls at 92 individual ports in 36 countries. Carnival ships have visited Mexico the most with nearly 800 visits – half of which have been to Cozumel, making it the cruise line’s most popular port. After Cozumel (385 calls), the other destinations included in the top five are: Nassau (320 calls) and Half Moon Cay (155 calls) in the Bahamas, Amber Cove, Dominican Republic (159 calls) and Mahogany Bay, Roatan (123 calls ).
Carnival Cruise Line recently broke ground on a new $200 million cruise port in Freeport, Grand Bahama, which officials predict will breathe new life into the tourism economy of the Bahamas’ second-largest city.
The rapid turnaround of Carnival’s guest base is in line with previously announced growth, 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, an Excel-class ship powered by LNG, will join her groundbreaking sister Mardi Gras as part of the Carnival fleet and begin service from PortMiami in November. A third Excel-class ship, Carnival Jubilee, will debut next year from Galveston. Carnival also continues to plan the launch of its new concept, “Choose Carnival Fun, Italian Style,” which will bring two additional ships from Costa to Carnival’s fleet in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
