tidecat

Summer cruising out of primarily fly-in ports like Canaveral and Miami will sell tickets farther in advance, as families with children are heavily boxed in on when they can sail. All sailings for Glory are sold out up until January 22. That sailing only has one category left, and the next one has sold out all interior cabins. I'd expect those to sell out early next month, especially with no ship in Mobile right now. For that matter, they might sell out next week when most of the Midwest and South experiences bitter cold temperatures. Fares for both sailings look healthy (around $100/pp/day for Ocean View), although the Suite fares look a bit optimistic at over $400/person/day. The only sailing where fares seemed weak was the August 27 sailing, but that is after school starts in most of the country. Even the Valor, which has plenty of inventory for late January, is still sold out through the January 14 sailing.

Jacksonville is the next closest Atlantic port besides Charleston for virtually everyone in South Carolina and Georgia. Norfolk is the next closest port for nearly everyone in North Carolina and Virginia. It remains to be seen, but it may be possible that putting another ship, even seasonally, in Jacksonville could still be on the table, as Carnival Miracle's and Carnival Spirit's 2025 itineraries haven't been announced yet.

Speaking of the beach that is not short . . . Itineraries for Panorama through Spring 2025 were released today. Radiance is open through the same time frame. We know Firenze is on the way. Miracle, however, doesn't have any Long Beach sailings after May 5, 2024, and the last open sailing for Miracle is from San Francisco on September 16 to Hawaii. Is Miracle on the move?

Right on the first part, but the one time I sailed out of New Orleans, the casino was open immediately after the muster drill. If it floats, that's good enough for Louisiana.

I don't see them going back anytime soon. Costa has too much capacity as China is unlikely to fully reopen and Europe is soft thanks to Russia. If not enough people Choose Fun Italian Style, Venezia and Firenze are likely to become Carnival Reflection and Carnival Meridian.

That has to be a drydock - last one was in October/November 2021 - although don't rule out a Transatlantic or repositioning cruise during that time free as well on either side of the drydock.

USB ports might be added depending on what other electrical work has to be done. Obviously with the sheer number of rooms on a cruise ship, it requires a fair amount of labor to be done in a reasonable time frame. Most of the Funship 2.0 features were designed to be completed within a two week drydock. Obviously that was in a pre-Covid world. Painting the hull can lengthen the drydock, as it obviously has to dry before the dock is flooded again, and can get in the way of other hull and propeller maintenance. Where the drydock takes place will also be important; Grand Bahama Ship Yard in Freeport is a few hours from Florida; Cadiz, Spain, or Marseille, France not so much. It takes around a week to cross the Atlantic, and of course it has to be done twice.

We need an Italian/Asian fusion restaurant to make a full loop.

@shiner6 What ship will you on? If you're on Mardi Gras (and presumably Celebration), Cucina del Capitano has table service for breakfast, and there is also Emeril's Bistro (which is a la carte, but obviously has a unique menu).

What Royal (or Norwegian) do with any particular one ship doesn't dictate what Carnival does. Carnival's strategy is to maximize the number of drive-in homeports and departure dates. Having two ships doing 3-4 day cruises in the nation's second largest metropolitan area - not to mention Miracle originally being scheduled to sail seasonally out of San Diego - was very much consistent with that. California requires shore power for the ships that homeport there and given Victory/Radiance was out of service during a very extended dry dock, it made sense to add it then. If Imagination and Inspiration are still around, there's no guarantee Carnival would have done that. Royal also has a different dynamic in that their fleet is global - they don't have the number of brands Carnival Corporation does - so getting Navigator to Los Angeles was a good response to Carnival's move with Radiance. If Carnival Cruise Line felt a response was necessary, there would have been other ships due for drydock to facilitate the shore power conversion. Anyone of Breeze, Dream, Glory, Liberty, Magic, Sunrise, or Valor could have made the move. It's also possible Imagination and Inspiration could have received new features in a 2020 or 2021 drydock (perhaps similar to the Paradise and Elation drydocks) had those actually happened.

You're mixing up the timing. Carnival Valor moved from Galveston to New Orleans in May 2019, along with Glory from Miami to New Orleans: Carnival bringing new cruise ships to New Orleans in 2019 | Business News | nola.com This effectively was a three-way-trade, as Galveston lost Valor and gained the Dream; New Orelans lost Dream and Triumph (Sunrise) and gained Glory and Valor; and Fort Lauderdale (not Miami) wound up with Sunrise, only to lose it to Miami. Back in November 2018, Carnival announced Radiance would sail from Port Canaveral starting in 2020 (I was on the second-to-last Victory sailing out of Miami), but those plans changed even prior to the shutdown: Carnival Radiance featuring Shaq restaurant to call Port Canaveral home – Orlando Sentinel It was announced in October 2019 that four ships would operate out of Galveston from May 2021, including Radiance and Breeze. Breese was a replacement for Carnival Freedom: News Flash • Port of Galveston, TX • CivicEngage Carnival Cruise Line to bring Carnival Radiance to Galveston, make other changes - Houston Business Journal (bizjournals.com) Then in July 2020, Carnival announced Radiance would be sent directly to Long Beach in April 2021: CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE ANNOUNCES UPDATES TO FLEET PLAN | Carnival Cruise Line News (carnival-news.com) The July 2020 announcement also marked the withdrawal from Fort Lauderdale as Sunrise would take over for Sensation in Miami

I think it's also a case of demand being exceptionally strong out of Galveston. Pre-Covid the plan was to have four ships out of Galveston: Radiance, Breeze, Dream, and Vista. Covid obviously forced that to be dialed back, but Jubilee makes up 5,300 of the 7,000 lower berths between Vista and Radiance, and still represents around 1,300 additional lower berths compared to what Carnival had in Galveston prior to the shutdown.

Magica was supposedly sold to Seajets per Wikipedia - haven't been able to confirm it. She isn't on Costa's fleet page nor are there any sailings available for booking. Fortuna would probably head to Spain or France for drydock after she returns to Italy from her Transatlantic, so I would concur that move may indeed be coming.

The only sailings I saw available for booking on Serena were December 2023 and later. Fortuna doesn't have anything available for booking after mid-April 2023. That's not to say that the Serena sailings may ultimately be canceled or may take place on another ship, or that Serena might re-enter service sooner. It likely would not be cost effective to move Serena over from Dubai to South America to take 2-3 months of Fortuna sailings, so we may not see a move until the middle of next year.

Given the state of current events (see: Russia) that probably will wind up being the correct call. Presumably the only things that were lost from scrapping those two were the summer season in Mobile; a winter season in Miami (held down by Carnival Spirit for 2022-23); a North American summer/Australian winter season in Brisbane (Luminosa's Alaska season); and a winter season in San Diego (somewhat offset by greater seasonal capacity in Long Beach). Carnival could theoretically get two of those four back by moving Costa Fortuna over to the Carnival fleet.

Wikipedia shows Costa Magica has been sold to Seajets. I have yet to confirm this, but if this is happening, or has happened, we should get confirmation soon. Carnival Corp should be releasing earnings later this month. There are 10 ships remaining in the Costa fleet, with Firenze scheduled to transfer to Carnival in January 2024 for a "Spring 2024" return to service in Long Beach.

The 1998-built Fantasy class ships play a role in Carnival's strategy of serving large markets that have low bridge clearances: Tampa and Jacksonville. While Baltimore has the Spirit class, it has similar bridge clearance issues to Tampa and Jacksonville. Costa Deliziosa (Spirit/Vista hybrid), built 2010, is the only ship in the Costa fleet that is a suitable replacement. Even if Costa Atlantica and Costa Mediterranea are available, they were built in 2000 and 2003, respectively, so they do little to extend the life of Tampa, Jacksonville, or Baltimore as a homeport.

Mexico has abolished Daylight Savings Time outside of the states that border the US. Everywhere else in Mexico ended Daylight Savings Time permanently in October 2022: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time_in_Mexico Prior experience may not be a useful guide for 2023 sailings. Depending on the exact date of the OP's sailing, it may be different than even other March departures.

That lines up with the drydock cycle as well. Triumph went out of service in late February 2019. Five years from that is February 2024.

The 6,000 has to be total passenger capacity. At 2,350 cabins, capacity at double occupancy would only be 4,700, and 6,000 passengers would represent 127% of double occupancy. Disney Dream's maximum capacity is 160% of double occupancy, and Disney Magic's maximum capacity is 155% of double occupancy. I suspect Disney will probably consolidate some cabins from the original plan to increase the number of "upper" berths. Disney can probably also get better revenue yield by replacing interior cabins with public spaces, converting balcony cabins into suites, etc. Assuming the lifeboats are accurately depicted on the rendering (ten on each side), Disney could step down to a 305-person lifeboat (which would be comparable to the ones on Carnival Celebration and Mardi Gras) rather than needing 20 lifeboats of 450 persons each.

Diamond and Platinum always have priority check in, regardless of their check-in "window".

There are some other loans that have rate that is at least LIBOR + 3.8%. Right now the 1-year LIBOR rate is over 5%. This may save Carnival some interest the next few years.

Carnival refinanced its 2024 maturities with senior convertible notes due in 2027. Although Russia's bombing of Poland is probably going to weigh down cruise stocks too.

Yes. Read your ticket contract.

They probably got fined by the state Occupational Health and Safety Administration at some point in the past. A company can get fined for not doing (and documenting) drills and training. For example, you may personally know how to be safe around blood, but your company still has to formally train you on bloodborne pathogens.