Carnival Cruise Lines has announced the debut of its new ship Mardi Gras, has been postponed further due to delays at the Finnish shipyard because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also announced the bow-to-stern transformation of Carnival Victory, which is also being renamed Carnival Radiance, would be delayed until the spring, as well as several itinerary changes for its ships.
The launch of Carnival’s newest and largest ship ever, which will be powered by LNG, is now expected to enter service on 6 February 2021, sailing the Caribbean from Port Canaveral.
The ship was originally set to debut in August 2020, offering preview sailings around Northern Europe from Copenhagen and Southampton, as well as New York departures, before moving to her permanent home in Florida. In December 2019, Carnival announced construction delays would impact her schedule. It was decided to cancel her European and New York programme and instead debut from Port Canaveral in November 2020. Now that date has been changed to February 2021.
Guests impacted by this latest announcement will receive a 100% Future Cruise Credit along with $600 of onboard credit per stateroom, or alternatively a full refund.
At 180,000 gross tons, Mardi Gras will be Carnival Cruise Line’s largest cruise ship in their fleet. The cruise ship will feature six distinct zones – Grand Central, French Quarter, La Piazza, Summer Landing, Lido & The Ultimate Playground – over 20 decks, including the first roller coaster on a cruise ship.
Work on Carnival Victory, currently in drydock in Cadiz, has been put on hold. The transformation work, which includes changing the name of the ship to Carnival Radiance will now likely not be completed until spring 2021.
As a result, Carnival Breeze will be redeployed from Fort Lauderdale to Port Canaveral and will assume the itineraries for Carnival Radiance from 8 November 2020 until 24 April 2021.
Carnival Breeze’s original scheduled sailings out of Fort Lauderdale from 7 November 2020 until 7 March 2021 have been cancelled and affected guests will be moved over to Carnival Magic sailing from Miami, which will operate the same itineraries. Carnival Magic’s transatlantic and European itineraries between 13 March and 3 May 2021 have also been scrapped.