If you’ve sailed on a cruise ship from my hometown of Jacksonville, Fl, you know that only small ships can sail under the bridge. The Carnival Fascination, Carnival Elation and the Carnival Ecstasy have been homeported in Jacksonville, but CruiseHive.com is reporting that the Carnival Spirit will be coming to Jacksonville!
“Carnival Cruise Line announces deployment changes for two ships and a delayed restart for another. The changes include Carnival Spirit being redeployed to the U.S. and Carnival Ecstasy repositioning to Mobile as Carnival Sensation will be postponed with resuming operations.
Carnival Cruise Ship Changes
The cruise line is making some changes that affect three cruise ships. Carnival Sensation, initially scheduled to resume guest operations in March 2022 out of Mobile, Alabama, has been delayed even further. The Fantasy-class vessel was finally set to resume on March 5 with a five-night voyage.
The vessel first arrived in Mobile in May 2021 after sister ship Carnival Fantasy was sold for scrap in 2020 and then Carnival Fascination was sold off too. Carnival Sensation prepared for its restart and began to vaccinate crew members. However, the ship has remained on hold since the industry-wide suspension started in March 2020.
Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald said, “As we continue our successful restart of guest operations in the U.S., we are making some adjustments in vessel deployments. We have delayed the restart of Carnival Sensation.”
As a result of the delayed restart for Carnival Sensation, the sister ship Carnival Ecstasy will reposition from Jacksonville to Mobile to take over Carnival Sensation itineraries. With both ships in the same class, the impact will be limited to booked guests. Carnival Ecstasy has also remained on hold and was originally scheduled to begin guest operations from Jacksonville, Florida, on March 7, 2022.
Carnival Spirit to the U.S.
It’s also been announced that due to Australia still not reopening to the cruise industry, its Australian-based vessel, Carnival Spirit, will be redeployed to the U.S.
Heald also said, “And, because of the continued uncertainty of when cruising can resume in Australia, we are bringing Carnival Spirit to the U.S. Carnival Ecstasy will reposition from Jacksonville to Mobile and sail the Carnival Sensation itineraries, effective with the planned March 5 restart. Carnival Spirit will position to Jacksonville to sail the published itineraries from that port, effective with the planned restart on March 7.”
I can’t put into words how happy I am that the Carnival Spirit will be sailing from Jacksonville!
Here’s some Carnival Spirit stats:
Carnival Spirit Ship Profile & Stats
- Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Line
- Line Class: Spirit
- Registry: Panama
- Year Built: 2001
- Year Last Refurbished: 2012
- Capacity: 2,124 passengers
- Decks: 12
- Gross Tonnage: 88,500
- Length: 960 ft
- Beam: 106 ft
- Average Speed: 22 knots
- Inside Cabins: 213
- Outside Cabins: 849
- Nationality of Officers: Italian
- Nationality of Crew: International
- Number of crew: 930
Click on the link below for the full story mentioned in this blog post:
https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-deployment-changes-and-further-delay/65153
