By
Rebecca Gibson |
Carnival Cruise Line’s latest newbuild Carnival Vista is to homeport year-round at PortMiami in the US from December 2016.
Currently under construction at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy, the 133,550gt ship will feature various industry firsts and will start her new season from PortMiami with a four-day cruise to Grand Turk departing 29 November 2016. The ship will then offer year-round six- and eight-day voyages from December. Highlights of the six-day cruises include calls at Ocho Rios in Jamacia, Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico. Guests sailing on the eight-day itineraries will be able to visit various different Caribbean destinations including Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Kitts, St. Maarten and the Dominican Republic.
In addition, Carnival Vista will offer a combination of one-time voyages including a five-day cruise departing on 11 December and seven-day voyages departing 17 and 24 December. She will sail to Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic, as well as Mahogany Bay, Grand Turk, Belize, San Juan, St. Thomas and Cozumel.
Prior to beginning her year-round service from Miami, Carnival Vista is scheduled to operate an inaugural season of European cruises from May to October 2016 before repositioning to New York for two roundtrips to the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Carnival Liberty and Carnival Breeze will be redeployed to Galveston, Texas, in 2016. Joining Carnival Freedom, the ships will replace Carnival Magic and Carnival Triumph, enabling them to carry 600,000 passengers per year to destinations in Mexico, Belize, Isla Roatan and The Bahamas.
“Miami and Galveston are among our most popular points of embarkation and deploying our newest, most innovative ships to these homeports speaks volumes about our confidence in growing these markets,” said Christine Duffy, Carnival’s president. “These ships not only offer our guests incredible onboard experiences but also provide our valued travel agent partners with exciting new choices to market to their clients.”
Carnival Liberty will launch year-round four- and five-day cruises to Mexico from 21 March, which will call at Cozumel and Progreso. Prior to the start of her new Texas-based programme, the ship will offer a three-day roundtrip from Galveston in March.
Carnival Breeze will offer three different week-long itineraries from 11 December. The ship’s western Caribbean voyages call at either Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel or Belize, Mahogany Bay (Isla Roatan) and Cozumel, while a Bahamas/Florida route includes Nassau, Freeport, and Key West. Before starting her new year-round schedule, Carnival Breeze will offer a two-day cruise.
Before heading to Galveston, Carnival Liberty and Carnival Breeze will each operate a 12-day cruise to various Caribbean destinations. Sailing from San Juan in Puerto Rico next March, Carnival Liberty will call at St. Thomas, Barbados, Tobago, Grenada, Aruba and Grand Cayman, while Carnival Breeze will depart Miami on 27 November and visit St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Curacao, Aruba and Cozumel.