Carnival Cruise Line will expand its fleet to five ships in Port Canaveral with the arrival in late 2024 of the Italian-themed Carnival Venezia.
The line announced the rebranded ship originally built for sister cruise line Costa Cruises as Costa Venezia will spend the winter Caribbean sailing season out of the Central Florida port starting Dec. 18, 2024.
The 135,225-gross-ton ship is currently undergoing a facelift in Spain that will include a unique black-and-yellow paint job as part of what Carnival is marketing as Fun Italian Style.
Its first sailing as a Carnival ship is a transatlantic voyage from Barcelona to New York on May 29 with regular sailings from New York’s Manhattan Cruise Terminal starting June 15, its home until it begins Port Canaveral service 18 months later.
Once in Florida, the ship with a 4,090-passenger capacity based on double occupancy will sail one four-night Bahamas cruise before embarking on 15 seven-night cruises alternating Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries as well as two 14-night Carnival Journeys-branded sailings. It will return to New York in spring 2025. Sales for those voyages opened Tuesday.
“The sailings we’re opening today will allow us to share this new signature fun with more guests and bring another truly dynamic offering to one of our most popular homeports,” said Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy in a press release.
Among the ports of call on Eastern Caribbean itineraries are Grand Turk in the Turks & Caicos; San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; and Amber Cove, Dominican Republic.
Western Caribbean itineraries cull from Montego Bay or Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; Mahogany Bay and Isla Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize and Cozumel, Mexico. Some sailings also feature stops in the Bahamas.
The pair of two-week Carnival Journeys cruises are both Southern Caribbean options. One departs Jan. 12, 2025 and visits St. Thomas; Antigua; Dominica; Grenada; Barbados; St. Maarten; St. Kitts and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The second departs Feb. 23, 2025 and visits Grand Turk; Aruba; Curacao; Cartagena, Colombia; Colon, Panama; Limon, Costa Rica and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
Since it was built for Costa Cruises, the ship features Italian design with architectural features inspired by Venice including the atrium the line is calling Piazza San Marco. It debuted in 2019 and sailed out of China until the COVID-19 pandemic. Carnival announced it and a sister ship also coming from Costa that will be renamed Carnival Firenze when it debuts in 2024 are part of Carnival’s new Venice class of ships.
Unique to the ship will be higher-end specialty restaurant “Il Viaggio,” which translates to “travel,” featuring cuisine from several regions of Italy. Other Italian fare includes three-course dining at Marco Polo and Canal Grande Restaurants, Italian street food at La Strada Grill and a couple of fusion offerings with Mexican-Italian at Tomodoro and what one might call città dei sapori, or Flavortown, at least in burger form with Guy Fieri’s Guy’s Burger Joint.
Italian bar concepts include cocktails at Amari, bubbly beverages and coffee at Frizzante, frozen drinks at Rococó and Italian wine at Carnevale Bar & Lounge.
Italian-themed entertainment will take center stage at the red-velveted Teatro Rosso as well as at the Gondola Lounge with a design inspired by Venetian canals.
Many of the venues found on other Carnival ships will be on board as well including steakhouse Fahrenheit 555, Bonsai Sushi & Teppanyaki, Chef’s Table, Lido Marketplace, Seafood Shack, Pizzeria del Capitano, Piano Bar 88, Serenity Bar, Heroes Tribute Lounge; Cloud 9 Spa, Camp Ocean, Circle “C” and Club O2 for kids of different ages; and its own WaterWorks water park and SportSquare activity area with ropes course, jogging track, mini golf and outdoor fitness center.
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