A Carnival cruise ship will house first responders for the next 11 days in New Orleans after Carnival Cruise Line reached an agreement with the city and FEMA.
Because of this, Carnival Cruise Line will cancel Carnival Glory’s cruise scheduled to depart on September 12 and will plan to restart its guest operations with Carnival Glory from New Orleans on Sunday, September 19.
Carnival Cruise Line had previously cancelled the September 5 departure for Carnival Glory.
Carnival Glory arrived at the Port of New Orleans on Friday and underwent a required U.S. Coast Guard inspection. The ship began provisioning food, water and materials to prepare for up to 2,600 hospital workers, first responders, city and utility workers and other emergency personnel to join the ship.
The ship will stay in port and serve as emergency housing for frontline workers directly involved in the city’s infrastructure recovery and healthcare needs.
“While we want to provide the city of New Orleans with an economic boost by restarting guest operations, we want to first provide this critical housing support to address emergency needs and to get power restored to the region,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “We appreciate the understanding of our guests, who we know love New Orleans as much as we do.”
Added Brandy D. Christian, President and CEO Port NOLA and CEO of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, “Port NOLA appreciates Carnival’s deployment of Carnival Glory to New Orleans. Her berths will accommodate the hardworking first responders and essential personnel working on storm recovery efforts in our region. Port NOLA, our Federal, state, and local partner agencies all support those who are quickly restoring critical infrastructure in the city and helping to get cargo moving again.”
