tidecat

As satisfying a successful launch of Venezia may be, remember that any cost associated with remodeling the ship, along with all of the unsold tickets in Europe while Venezia was deployed there, is ultimately the cost of exiting China. A Vista-class ship runs about $750 million. I have not seen a dollar amount quoted on the drydock, but given the length I think it would probably was at least $20 million. Whatever those costs are, ultimately they get doubled when you tack on Firenze in addition to Venezia. If you assume that Costa Magica and Costa Serena would not have been laid up as long as they were had Venezia and Firenze not been built, with a cost at least $1 million per month per ship, entering the Chinese market was ultimately a $1.6 billion mistake. It will take 10-15 years of Carnival Fun Italian StyleTM to make that back, assuming Carnival averages $230 in profit per passenger, which was the company average across all brands for fiscal year 2019.

I'm not really sure why the article chose 2029 as the reference point. Carnival (Corporation) hasn't even finalized what they intend to order for 2027. Royal will probably still have a sizable lead over Carnival Cruise Line, but I doubt it will be 1.1 milliona1 passengers.

Is it possible to use a gift card to make the initial deposit on a cruise? It looks like I have to book a cruise first using a different payment method and then load them to my princess.com account.

It looks like Venezia will not be sailing from New York year round: https://cruiseradio.net/carnival-venezia-port-canaveral-2024-2025/

You actually don't need to purchase a Internet package to use the chat feature in the Hub app.

As long as you stay only one hour behind the local time in port, the more likely you will NOT change.

Yes, they are all part of the Excellence class. Jubilee has a few more staterooms than Celebration, which has a few more than Mardi Gras, but aside from that, and the differences in venues, they are the same ship.

I suspect Spirit will wind up having the work done in Spain like Pride is having done now. Pride is getting five additional cabins where the first floor of the nightclub is now, I would not be surprised if that is Spirit's fate as well.

If Mobile goes back to year-round service, someone else has to take a cut. Carnival Corporation isn't taking delivery new ships beyond what was already on order until at least 2027, if not 2028. The best shot at year-round service prior to 2028 would be for Luminosa to move to spend winters in Miami instead of Brisbane, and then for Conquest or Sunrise to take Luminosa's place Down Under. The other alternative would be to consolidate the Tuesday and Thursday departures out of Seattle onto a single, larger ship like Firenze, which would free up Luminosa and Spirit for year-round service in Brisbane and Mobile. Carnival Corporation could fill the berth in Seattle with a Princess or Holland America ship if it so chose.

It looks like nothing for February 2025 - I would suspect this will be when Spirit goes to drydock, as her last was in August 2021.

No February 2025 cruises, even though there are both January and March 2025 itineraries - it looks like some drydock time for Spirit.

Either Venezia gets sent back to Costa when she is due for drydock again around 2028, or Carnival makes the conversion permanent and gives her a new funnel.

The only real pinch point I noticed on Mardi Gras was in front of the Alchemy Bar. It gets crowded during the evening, especially when you're trying to get to one of the restaurants aft of it.

But wait, there's more! The Fed is meeting next week (May 2-3), and while the consensus is that another 0.25% rate hike is expected, any surprises there will likely impact the market as a whole. That said, around 75-80% of Carnival's debt is at fixed rates, so an increase may not have much impact.

It will be late 2023 before you see anything for 2026. There's still some ships for which late 2024 and early 2025 have not been released.

As the ships in the current fleet approach 30 years of age, it is going to be difficult to maintain the number of ships, even if overall passenger capacity increases. While Carnival Cruise Line could theoretically pull from other brands, I don't see that happening either. The only possible exception might be in 2025 when the second Sphere-class vessel comes online for Princess, but Princess has lost five (Pacific, Star, Golden, Sea, Sun) ships since 2020 and will have only added three by 2024 (Enchanted, Discovery, Sun). Barring a weak market eslewhere, the next chance for Carnival Cruise Line to resume homeporting in San Juan is 2028 when Carnival Corp starts building ships again.

I'll be making the short drive to Indiana to catch the one next year - the center line runs near Bloomington.

Would Carnival possibly set up a dedicated space for it within the casino? If so, Venezia might be the first with it simply because she is in drydock. That's not to say the installation couldn't be completed while a ship is in service (especially during a port heavy itinerary), but I'm sure it's easier to handle without guests onboard.

I think it's more that it doesn't make sense with Miami literally just down the road. Holland America and Princess seem to be allocated to Carnival Corp's berths in Fort Lauderdale.

Freedom should receive it later this October, as well as a restored funnel. Glory, Panorama, and Splendor will be a while as they won't be due for drydock until 2024.

I thought Carnival Miracle might be a candidate for that given Miracle has effectively been kicked out of Long Beach by Firenze. Instead, Miracle becomes the fourth ship out of Galveston, at least outside the Alaska season.

I wouldn't read too much into that. Carnival Jubilee and Carnival Panorama were originally meant for other lines (P&O Australia and AIDA). There isn't another Vista class vessel in Costa or any other brand's fleet to transfer to Carnival Cruise Line. Given that Venezia and Firenze will still have yellow stovepipe funnels, I wouldn't even be surprised if they go back to Costa by 2034.

Maybe, but the North America and Australian (NAA) segment was the only profitable one per the last quarterly earnings report. Given the comments about demand being "a year behind" in Australia, that really means it's the US market carrying the load. Carnival Cruise Line, Princess, and HAL will be most of the NAA segment.

A third ship would require a second berth if the first two are doing 7 day itineraries. There are no legal 3-day itineraries out of New Orleans, so a Monday/Friday schedule isn't possible like it would be in Long Beach, Port Canaveral, and Miami.

Yet Royal acquired Silversea in 2020 - while that might be the glass that gets broken in case of an emergency, I think they'd just part with their half of TUI - then they'd be free to compete against them in certain markets to try to reallocate any excess capacity (barring any noncompete agreements).