Carnival Cruise Line offers short cruises of 3, 4 and 5 days for many years. But this is an area of cruises where it has been lagging behind a key competitor in recent years.
The brief cruise strategy is a milestone of Royal Caribbean’s plans and something that, to be honest, is the power of Carnival’s main competitor.
Royal Caribbean has been offering short cruises on its massive Oasis class ships for some time, first in Allure of the Seas. He even launched a brand new ship (Utopia of the Seas) directly in short sailing last year and is ready to start offering a 3- and 4-night cruises to his popular miracle of the seas in the fall.
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Short cruises are liked by people who either can’t get out all week or just don’t want to be on a ship for that long. And from the point of view of the cruise line, short cruises often command higher night-based tariffs, plus they can be a great way to attract new customers to the cruise line.
However, in the case of the carnival, a common complaint (among some cruisers) is that the line usually uses its oldest and smallest ships for short cruises. Not only does it not offer short cruises to its leading ships of Excel Class, it does not offer brief sailing to the few classes of ships that came before it.
Of course, some people enjoy the smaller ships, finding the smaller little captivating. But Royal Caribbean proved to have Clearly The market for short sailing of the largest and the largest ships and it seems that the carnival has noticed.
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Carnival upgrades its short plans for cruise
At a recent briefing for the media, Carnival made several major messages, including the name and home port of its upcoming Fourth Class of Excel. The Festivale carnival will debut in the spring of 2027 and call Port Canaveral, Florida Dom. We now also know that the Fifth Excel Class will be called Carnival Tropicale and will debut approximately a year later, although its home harbor is yet to be disclosed.
What is especially important in this news is that Carnival already has one of its Excel Class ships, which is at home in Port Canaveral, the first in the Mardi Gras class.
More news about a carnival cruise:
Mardi Grass will continue to call Port Canaveral at home. But since Carnival Festivale is delivered and starts sailing, Mardi Gras will start offering short cruises.
“With short cruises on Mardi Grass, our guests, who may not have time to take a vacation during the week, can experience all the incredible features of our Excel class,” said Carnival President Christine Duffy.
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Carnival has not shared some details
To make it clear, many details are yet to be revealed. For starters, we have no idea what Mardi Grass will float after his short cruise schedule begins.
Duffy said the details of the Carnival Festivale route will be released this summer, so we will probably also look at the Mardi Grass graphics 2027.
Mardi Gras is likely to stop at the new private destination of Carnival, Key Celebration. This port, something in response to the perfect Royal Caribbean Day in Coco Cay, opens in July.
Whatever the details are, this is probably a welcome news about cruisers that prefer short sailing, but also like to consider the ship as a destination, not just the ship that takes them from port to harbor.
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