Carnival Cruise Line has announced that they will add two additional cruise ships to their fleet by 2023, one brand new ship and a second that will come from one of her sister cruise lines.
In late 2023, Carnival Cruise Line will have a third Excel class cruise ship join the fleet. The ship will be the same class as Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration. The vessel was originally scheduled to sail under AIDA Cruises but will now enter service under Carnival Cruise Line.
The second ship that Carnival is adding is Costa Magica. The cruise ship will go through a dry dock converting the vessel to a Carnival ship. Costa Magica will get a name change and join the fleet in mid-2022. The cruise ship is just over 100,000 gross tons, similar in size to the Sunshine class from Carnival Cruise Line.
These two cruise ships are in addition to the new capacity growth represented by Mardi Gras, Carnival’s first Excel-class, liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered ship which starts sailing from Port Canaveral on July 31 and her sister ship, Carnival Celebration, which will be delivered and sail from Miami starting in late 2022, as part of Carnival’s 50th birthday festivities.
The addition of these four cruise ships will bring the Carnival fleet to 27 by year-end 2023, and these ships bring many new amenities and features for guests, as well as environmental benefits and enhancements as Carnival continues to exceed and expand targets for emissions efficiencies.
“We are excited about these additions to our fleet which reflect the strong position that Carnival has established in the U.S., the pent-up demand we continue to see for cruise vacations, and the overall plans by Carnival Corporation to optimize capacity and growth in key markets,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “While our immediate focus is on our restart of guest operations this summer, this is another cause for excitement at Carnival, and we will be announcing more detailed plans about homeports, itineraries and ship names very soon.”
