Carnival Cruise Line has announced its plans to grow its fleet by two additional ships by 2023.
The cruise line will be receiving an Excel-class ship that had previously been assigned to its sister line AIDA Cruises, which will arrive in late 2023. Carnival will also take ownership of Costa Magica from another of its European sister lines, with that ship being dry docked, renamed, and officially being rebranded as a Carnival ship. It will officially join the fleet by mid-2022.
These two ship refurbishment and rebrands are in addition to the new capacity growth represented by new build Mardi Gras, which starts sailing from Port Canaveral on 31JUL 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 ships to Carnival’s fleet will bring it to a total of 27 ships by the end of 2023.
“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.”
