Cruise lines reserve the right to change itineraries as needed, and it’s not uncommon for some of the details of a cruise you’ve booked to change before the ship actually sails.
As an example, I took my family on a Christmas cruise a couple years ago on Carnival Magic. At the time we booked it (about a year and a half in advance), one of our scheduled ports was Grand Turk. A few months before our sailing date, it was changed to Carnival’s Amber Cove port in the Dominican Republic.
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Changes can take several forms. In addition to changes to the ports of call, cruise lines can choose to change the order of stops in certain cases or adjust the amount of time you'll spend in each port. Another change that isn’t too uncommon is changes in the times the cruise departs and returns to its home port.
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Carnival changes almost 200 itineraries
Carnival recently reached out to guests on nearly 200 sailings to share changes to departure times. These affect sailings on two specific ships in Carnival’s fleet – Carnival Pride and Carnival Spirit.
Carnival Pride is currently sailing out of Baltimore, Maryland, offering a variety of itineraries year-round. On the other hand, Carnival Spirit (Pride’s sister ship) sails from either Mobile, Alabama or Seattle, Washington, depending on the time of year.
In both cases, Carnival announced that many sailings will now depart 30 minutes earlier than originally planned.
Over 100 sailings on Carnival Pride are affected, and this includes every 7-night sailing on the ship from December 2024 through April 2027. The ship was previously scheduled to depart Baltimore at 5 p.m. but will now leave at 4:30 p.m. instead.
About 100 itineraries on Carnival Spirit from December 2024 through March 2027 will be impacted as well. Instead of leaving at 4 p.m., they will now set sail at 3:30 p.m. It isn’t known exactly what sailings will be impacted (not all itineraries are published that far out), but it there are some – such as the ship’s March 2025 transatlantic sailing – that aren’t on the list.
Not all sailings of these two ships are impacted, and Carnival has set email communications to those booked on sailings with departure time changes. It is unclear why Carnival is moving these sailings to slightly earlier departure times, and there are several possible explanations, including efficiency improvements in the boarding process in recent years that have made it easier to get thousands of people onto a ship.
How could itinerary change impact Carnival cruisers
In most cases, a ship changing its departure time to one a half-hour earlier isn’t likely to have much of an impact on the experience. After all, many ships start boarding for cruises with late afternoon departures as early as 10 a.m., and in my experience, by about 1 p.m., the frequency at which passengers are boarding the ship has slowed down to a trickle.
So, unless a passenger was planning to board at the last minute before the gangway closes, this isn’t likely to impact arrival plans.
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However, there could be some adjustments when it comes to onboard activities. For example, Carnival cruises have a sail-away party, and these will likely be moved up a bit as well. Operating hours for venues such as the ship’s casino could be favorably impacted, as could the onboard shops, which often don’t open while the ship is in port.
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The bottom line is that Carnival – for one reason or another – is choosing to start hundreds of cruises a little earlier than planned, and this is likely to be welcome news to those booked on these ships.
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