Choose Your Cruise Deal

Table Of Content

• Worth It? Complete Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Drink Package Guide
• Best Carnival Cruise Deals by Destination
• Convenient Port Canaveral “Park & Cruise” Hotels
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday Cruise Deals
• Best Deal on a New Ship
• Read Next: Park & Cruise Hotels for Every Port in America

Carnival cruise deals are easy to find and generally straightforward, but you do need to know when to look and how to compare them to make sure you are actually getting a deal. All cruise lines have ways of making you think you're getting the best cruise deal all the time. It takes a little inside knowledge and (ugh!) even a little math to feel confident your Carnival deal is the real thing. Once you've got the basics down, uncovering the deals becomes fun and easy.

RINA nets deal for Carnival Cruise Line's LNG-powered ships - Offshore Energy

RINA nets deal for Carnival Cruise Line's LNG-powered ships.

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 08:58:22 GMT [source]

Worth It? Complete Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Drink Package Guide

But with Carnival, there are still opportunities to sail with a great deal. In this case, Carnival Jubilee (which debuts in late 2023) will sail from Galveston on September 7, 2024 on a 7-day cruise. You can get aboard this cruise for just $599 per person for an interior cabin. While we have a number of ideas below, if you want to find your own Carnival cruise deal then you can search Cruise Critic for deals here.

Best Carnival Cruise Deals by Destination

These offers are made available to those who have recently played onboard a Carnival ship, as well as through the Players Club Fun Match program, and include a wide range of cabin categories. These cruise specials and price drops are updated multiple times a day. So, check back often to find the lowest fares on your next trip on one of Carnival Cruise Line’s fun ships. This exclusive price widget searches several databases to provide you with the lowest prices found online. Carnival tops its deals with reduced deposits, onboard credit, and room upgrades.

Convenient Port Canaveral “Park & Cruise” Hotels

One of your best bets for a cheap Carnival cruise is to check out the line’s drink packages. Deciding whether drink packages are a deal for you depends on your consumption habits. If you usually drink a soda or two a day, it's tempting to buy the soda package, to simplify things.

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Compare the fun-filled Carnival cruise ships and destinations on Cruise.com for exclusive offers, upgrades and more. An interior cabin starts at just $369 for nearly a week on the ship. This ship isn’t the newest, but was built just a few years ago as the start of the Vista class, Carnival’s second largest style of ship. That means it has all the latest features you’d expect on a Carnival ship. The round trip cruise has stops in Mahogany Bay (Carnival’s private port in Roatan), Costa Maya, and Cozumel before returning home. There’s a lot to do on this ship, so being able to sail for a week will give you time to get it all done.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Cruise Deals

The cruise aboard Carnival Panorama is for seven nights and takes you to all the hotspots on the Pacific side of Mexico. We found this deal, however, that represents the least expensive Alaska cruise of 2024. Starting at $699 per person for an interior cabin, the cruise takes you from Seattle to Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Victoria (Canada) before returning home. That’s a line-up of classic ports in this part of the country that shouldn’t be missed.

Cheapest Overall Carnival Cruise for 2023

You'll also pay 10 percent more for this package if you book onboard. If you book before your cruise, you save 15 percent on a social media plan that gives you enough bandwidth to access the most popular social media platforms and airline sites. Rather than choosing a specific cabin, you are choosing a low cruise rate without knowing exactly what level of cabin you will get.

Best Deal on a New Ship

Sail When Kids Are in SchoolBelow, you may notice that many of the best deals sail in the fall. If you search, you’ll find that there’s a correlation between cruise prices and the school year. Sail during the summer, Christmas holidays, or Spring Break, and fares will be higher than sailing times like the fall or winter.

Read Next: Park & Cruise Hotels for Every Port in America

Before your first cruise with Carnival, you can join the Very Important Fun Person (VIFP) Club. It gives you access to special cruise offers, including discounts during an end-of-summer Carnival cruise sale. If you are lucky, the category you chose will sell out and you will be upgraded -- say from a guarantee interior to an ocean view category cabin.

This evidence is all around you — you’ll find in the Caribbean air, the sand and the water. And with more than 5,000 islands and cays spread across this amazing region, there’s a lot of paradise to see. So how do you choose where to visit on a Caribbean cruise? Best of all, the mild climate means it doesn’t even matter what time of year you go. A Carnival Caribbean cruise takes you to some of the coolest little hotspots… stretching across the world’s designated hotspot. On the other hand, if you do happen to purchase your drinks package onboard, you do have the option of starting the plan at a prorated rate whenever you want.

We’re big fans of sailing Alaska and consider it a must-see. We chose this trip because it is four days with two port stops, including the Half Moon Cay private destination. When it comes to the best time to shop for Carnival cruises, the best deals happen just before demand for cruises to warm sunny destinations heats up.

However, these cruises are usually more expensive than similar length Caribbean trips. So you won't feel guilty saying, "Sorry, kids," to the candy, bring treats from home to distribute onboard; you are allowed to bring prepackaged, sealed items. Read your Carnival cruise details and fine print before packing to make sure you are not bringing more than the allowable limit.

Flights canceled and cruise itineraries changed as Lee reaches New England, Canada

Table Of Content

• Cabins and suites
• Sailings From Port Canaveral
• CRUISE HIVE NEWSLETTER
• Upcoming Tropical Storm Lee Expected to Impact Cruise Destinations
• Gastro Outbreak Hits Luxury Cruise Ship
• Royal Caribbean Blog is your ultimate source for Royal Caribbean coverage.

In short, there's a ton to do up top on Carnival vessels — and it's almost all available to every passenger on board the vessels at no extra charge (the roller coaster is the only exception). When it comes to raucous, though, nothing on Carnival ships quite compares to the frequent karaoke nights on board. Sometimes held in a secondary lounge or a shipboard pub, karaoke on Carnival draws a big crowd. Passengers come prepared with rehearsed songs and sometimes even their own guitars. The quality of the food (and drink) on Carnival ships always surprises us, given the budget pricing of the brand. Despite being one of the industry's lowest-cost operators, Carnival manages to pull off one of the best steakhouses at sea in Fahrenheit 555, and even the no-extra-charge main restaurants get the basics right.

Cabins and suites

Note that, in contrast to airline frequent flyer programs, cruise line loyalty programs do not require you to requalify for status every year. However, it's not as difficult as it might at first seem to hit the more rewarding higher-level tiers in just a few years if you're cruising a lot. In fact, the lower tiers of the Carnival program are among the most stingy in the entire cruise universe. You'll receive things like a single complimentary bottle of water (at the Red tier) and a single free drink that only can be ordered on the last night of a cruise (at the Gold tier). Carnival has a point-based frequent cruiser program, the VIFP Club, that has five tiers, ranging from Blue (requiring no points) to Diamond (200 points). Most Carnival ships have self-serve launderettes on cabin decks with washing machines, dryers, irons and ironing boards.

Sailings From Port Canaveral

Hurricane Forces Multiple Royal Caribbean Itinerary Changes - Cruise Hive

Hurricane Forces Multiple Royal Caribbean Itinerary Changes.

Posted: Sat, 09 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Design-wise, Carnival's cabins and suites are fairly basic and comfortable, if not super stylish. Cabins on recently unveiled or overhauled vessels have a soothing palette of creams and blues. Cabinetry in these rooms is a crisp and clean faux wood, and cabin bathrooms are neutral. For the most part, Carnival ships sail relatively short voyages of three to eight nights.

CRUISE HIVE NEWSLETTER

Designed to be quick and digestible, they typically last around 30 minutes and have relatively small casts (just eight on some ships). Carnival trips are all about letting loose and having a good time. Maybe you'll drink a little too much, eat a little too much, play a little too much — but in the end, you'll say it was your best trip ever. Carnival is the undisputed leader among North America-based cruise brands when it comes to affordability, which makes it popular with vacationers on a budget. Occasionally, Carnival will deploy a ship to Europe for a few weeks or months. This often takes place when a vessel needs to go to a European shipyard for an overhaul.

Disney Cruise Ship Changes Itinerary Ahead of Hurricane Lee - Cruise Hive

Disney Cruise Ship Changes Itinerary Ahead of Hurricane Lee.

Posted: Thu, 07 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The ship follows its planned itinerary, which is well out of the storm’s path. The ship is sailing its planned itinerary well out of the storm’s path, and should return as planned on Saturday, September 2. Carnival Paradise is currently sailing a 5-night Bahamas itinerary and is at sea on Wednesday, August 30, returning to Tampa as planned and a safe distance from the storm. While Port Tampa Bay is closed at the moment, the ship is not scheduled to arrive until Thursday, August 31. Another Fantasy-class vessel, Carnival Elation, is also impacted by Hurricane Ian on the same day – September 29.

Delayed Cruise Ships Set to Arrive Back in Ports Following Hurricane Ian

All guests impacted by the canceled sailings will be emailed details of their refunds and future cruise credits. Guy's Pig & Anchor Smokehouse Brewhouse, notably, has its very own in-house brewery you can see behind glass walls — something still relatively rare on cruise ships. It makes house beers including Parched Pig West Coast IPA and Parched Pig Toasted Amber which you'll find on many Carnival vessels in kegs and cans. Carnival's biggest operations are out of PortMiami and Port Canaveral in Florida; Galveston, Texas; Long Beach, California; and New Orleans — all major cruise hubs. You'll also find Carnival ships in such secondary cruise ship ports as Baltimore; Charleston, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and Jacksonville, Florida. The arrival of Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration over the past two years has marked a major turning point for the line.

Gastro Outbreak Hits Luxury Cruise Ship

Cruise lines are closely monitoring the situation and will take necessary safety precautions, including itinerary changes if warranted. This could mean that Carnival Venezia‘s next sailing – a 7-night Canada & New England sailing departing New York on Saturday, September 16 – might also be altered because of the storm. That potential impact is too far in the future to accurately predict at this time, however, and no official itinerary adjustments have yet been announced. Carnival Venezia is the only Venice-class vessel in the Carnival fleet, transferred from Costa Cruises as part of the “Carnival Fun, Italian Style” program in March 2023. The unique ship can welcome 3,934 guests at double occupancy, or as many as 4,977 travelers when fully booked. After leaving Baltimore at 3pm on the 15th, the ship will have two days at sea before docking in Port Canaveral, Florida; Nassau; and Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Carnival Ship Rescues 27 People Adrift at Sea in the Caribbean

My sister is freaking out and I am getting a little nervous myself.. If the storm goes towards the Bahamas where would be the most likely place Carnival would go instead? Hurricane Lee is about 440 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Guests on Liberty will receive compensation because of the skipped port and returning to the ship's homeport earlier than expected. Liberty of the Seas will skip a scheduled visit to New Brunswick, Canada and instead head back to Cape Liberty for an overnight stay before the cruise ends. Royal Caribbean informed guests booked on Jewel of the Seas that the ship will overnight in Manhattan, New York instead of visiting Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Royal Caribbean Blog is your ultimate source for Royal Caribbean coverage.

Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas September 10th sailing is no longer a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise visiting Perfect Day at CocoCay, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Now, the world's largest cruise ship will visit CocoCay on September 11; Cozumel, Mexico on September 13; and Roatán, Honduras on September 14. Stay tuned to Cruise Hive for further updates about Hurricane Ian’s impact on cruise operations for all cruise lines. Heald also addressed comments to guests currently onboard Carnival Paradise and Carnival Elation, who may be anxious to return home and determine the storm’s impact on their homes and loved ones. Carnival Elation‘s booked guests for the canceled sailing will also receive a full refund and a 25% FCC. In addition to entertainment spaces, the interiors of Carnival ships are loaded with other venues where passengers can kick back and let loose day and night, including a wide range of bars, lounges and nightspots.

The original itinerary included four days at sea, with stops in Bermuda, Castaway Cay, and Nassau. Because there is ongoing uncertainty about the storm’s exact track, additional cruise ports could be impacted. The next sailings for Carnival Paradise and Carnival Elation are canceled due to Hurricane Ian, and other cruises may also be impacted. In fact, when it comes to waterslides on ships, Carnival is the cruise world's king. There's now at least one waterslide on all but one ship in the Carnival fleet (Carnival Luminosa) — something no other line can say.

She's sailing from Norfolk, Virginia to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; Nassau, Bahamas; and Freeport, Bahamas. On the morning of September 8, Hurricane Lee reached Category 5 strength, which is the highest category on the Saffir–Simpson scale. A few hours after reaching Category 5 status, the storm did weaken back into a Category 4.

As Tropical Depression 13 gains momentum several hundred miles east of Barbados, concerns are rising over its potential impact on eastern Caribbean cruises. We will continue to monitor the situation and report any more impacts the storm might have on cruises. Hurricane Lee currently sits about 400 miles northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The storm has thankfully weakened from a severe Category 5 with sustained 165 mph winds down to a Category 2 with current winds of “just” 105 mph. The center of the storm is currently located approximately 830 miles (1,336 kilometers) due east of San Juan, Puerto Rico, moving west-northwest at 14 mph (23 kph). Carnival Cruise Line has notified guests the day before embarkation that Carnival Venezia will not be able to sail the planned Eastern Caribbean itinerary due to the influence of Hurricane Lee.

Unlike other big cruise brands such as Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess Cruises, Carnival doesn't spread its vessels around the world to draw a fly-in crowd. Aimed squarely at Americans, its trips are all about cruising close to home at a reasonable price. The self-described "fun ship" line is the king of short, affordable, fun-focused cruises from U.S. ports to the Caribbean, Bahamas, Mexico and other nearby destinations. No matter where you live in the U.S., you're probably within a few hours of a Carnival ship. Only one Carnival ship, the Carnival Elation, is sailing from Jacksonville on a five-night cruise to the Bahamas.

The rest of the itinerary for the 10-day cruise may also change due to weather. Instead of stopping in the Canadian city on Thursday, the Emerald Princess left Saint John, Newfoundland and went straight to its homeport in Brooklyn, New York. It arrived one day earlier than expected, on Friday, a representative for the cruise line told CBS News via email. Norwegian Cruise Lines has also canceled the planned stops of its Norwegian Escape ship.

Thankfully, hurricane season ended last month, and the upcoming months are a great time to cruise the Caribbean without fear of Mother Nature disrupting the fun. Both Carnival Liberty and Carnival Freedom are safely away from the port on sailings – a 4-night Bahamas cruise and a 5-night Eastern Caribbean cruise, respectively. Carnival Liberty should return to Port Canaveral on Friday, September 1, while Carnival Freedom will return on Saturday, September 2.