Carnival Cruise Line to get 4th Excel-class ship, sister to Canaveral’s Mardi Gras
Carnival Cruise Line made a splash with the debut of Excel-class ship Mardi Gras out of Port Canaveral in 2021 and has since followed up with sister ships Carnival Celebration from Miami in 2022 and the new Carnival Jubilee sailing out of Galveston, Texas.
Now the three sister ships will get a fourth sibling, as Carnival Corp. announced Tuesday it has ordered construction of a new ship from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, for a debut in spring 2027.
It’s actually the 10th Excel-class ship across Carnival’s brands that also includes the new Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess set to debut this year and begin sailing from Port Everglades this fall.
The class of ships run on liquefied natural gas, a cleaner burning fuel that’s part of cruise lines’ efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Mardi Gras became the first LNG-powered cruise ship to homeport in North America when it began sailing from Port Canaveral on July 31, 2021.
Disney Cruise Line’s new ship Disney Wish followed soon after along with Celebration out of Miami and Royal Caribbean’s new Icon of the Seas.
The 180,000-ton ship will have a 6,400-guest capacity. It’s the first new ship ordered by Carnival Corp. in five years with only one new ship among its cruise lines expected in 2025 and none in 2026.
“Building on our strong performance and growing momentum around the world, we are excited to resume our newbuild program and further enhance our global fleet with yet another state-of-the-art ship that will wow Carnival Cruise Line’s guests,” said Carnival Corp. CEO Josh Weinstein in a press release.
Carnival’s fleet recently grew to 27 ships as it took on and rebranded two vessels from sister cruise line Costa — Carnival Venezia in 2023 and Carnival Firenze, which will begin sailing with passengers in April. Carnival Venezia will begin winter Caribbean sailings out of Port Canaveral beginning in December.
1st sailing of Carnival’s Mardi Gras highlights Port Canaveral’s busy week
Mardi Gras, Celebration and Jubilee, though, are the line’s premier vessels and largest in the fleet, each featuring the nearly 800-foot-long Bolt roller coaster, a neighborhood approach to the ship layout and the most cabin categories such as the family-friendly Family Harbor and adults-only Havana Cabana options.
“Our Excel-class ships have been a tremendous addition to the Carnival fleet and proven very popular with our guests,” said Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy in the release. “As the world’s most popular cruise line, this new ship enables us to continue the growth of our incredible fleet.”
