Carnival Cruise Line Lays Out Next Round of Restart Plans

With eight ships already in operation, and more restarting in September and October, Carnival Cruise Line announced the next round of details about additional ship restarts for November 2021 and beyond.

Carnival Valor will follow Carnival Glory in New Orleans with four- and five-night sailings starting on Nov. 1.

Carnival Legend will restart Nov. 14 out of Baltimore, replacing Carnival Pride, which restarts guest operations from Baltimore Sept. 12 and then moves its homeport to Tampa following a Panama Canal repositioning cruise.

Carnival Radiance will have a new maiden voyage date of Dec. 13 out of Long Beach. This has been rescheduled from Nov. 5 due to a revised dry dock transformation plan.

Carnival Pride’s new service from Tampa is scheduled to start on Nov. 14.

Carnival Conquest’s restart from Miami on Oct. 8 has been rescheduled to Dec. 13.

Carnival Sensation’s Oct. 21 restart from Mobile has been moved to Jan. 2022.

With the extension of Carnival Sensation’s restart, five ships operating out of U.S. homeports will be moved to 2022: Carnival Liberty from Port Canaveral, Florida; Carnival Sunshine from Charleston, South Carolina; Carnival Paradise from Tampa, Florida; Carnival Ecstasy from Jacksonville, Florida; and Carnival Sensation from Mobile, Alabama.

Separate from its U.S. operations, Carnival has cancelled four additional sailings for both Carnival Spirit and Carnival Splendor out of Australia.  Cruises on both ships are now cancelled up to and including Dec. 16, 2021.

“We are very pleased with the progress of our restart which will grow to 15 ships sailing from seven U.S. homeports by mid-November,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.

“We are making slight adjustments to our timeline to take into account supply chain realities and ensure that our destination and shore excursion offerings can meet the strong demand we are seeing from our guests. Our teams, ship and shore, are prepared to continue delivering on our great guest experience and manage all health and safety protocols.”

Carnival is also advising guests booked in November and December that it will continue to meet the CDC standard of vaccinated cruises and that guests will need to present proof of both vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test at check-in (children under 12 are exempt).

Carnival is working to set up mobile pre-cruise rapid testing sites at all of its homeports as a back-up alternative for vaccinated guests who aren’t able to make arrangements (details forthcoming).  In addition, guests will be asked to wear masks in most indoor venues of the ship where people congregate.