Carnival Cruise Lines is bringing back the Dream class to Port Canaveral with Carnival Magic’s arrival in 2016.
The announcement today was among several fleet shifts by the line that will also see Carnival Victory replacing Carnival Sensation at the Central Florida port.
It’s a capacity jump for Carnival at the port since these two ships will be joining the already-sizable Carnival Sunshine.
“We are significantly upping our game in Port Canaveral with the addition of these great new ships to the important and growing Central Florida market,” Carnival President Christine Duffy said. “When these ships join the spectacular Carnival Sunshine, this dynamic trio of Fun Ships will offer our guests and valued travel-agent partners the widest array of attractive and convenient cruising options from the Space Coast.”
The three ships won’t actually ever be together, though.
Victory will shift from PortMiami in February 2016 to offer three- and four-night Bahamas cruises, while Magic will shift from Galveston in December 2016 to offer seven-night Caribbean cruises. But Victory will leave in October ahead of Magic’s arrival when it gives up short-cruise duties to one of the port’s current ships, Carnival Valor, which arrived last month and sails five- to eight-night cruises.
Aside from a March dry dock slated for Valor, the port will continue to feature three ships from Carnival, except for about six weeks from October-December 2016 before the Magic arrives.
The 3,002-passenger Sunshine is the port’s current largest ship, which was a step down in size after it replaced the 3,646-passenger Carnival Dream in 2014. Dream was the first of Carnival’s current largest class of ships. It debuted in 2009 and sailed from Port Canaveral until 2014. Sister ships Magic and Breeze joined the fleet in 2011 and 2012.
The current stable of Carnival ships at Port Canaveral can accommodate 8,042, based on double occupancy. Come December, the cabin count will grow to 9,676, which is a 20 percent increase.
In the short term, though, when 2,754-passenger Victory takes over for the line’s third-oldest ship, 2,056-passenger Sensation, short-Bahamas-cruise capacity for the line will increase 34 percent.
Victory just came out of dry dock April 4 with enhancements such as the line’s Alchemy Bar and Skybox Sports Bar. The ship features a 14,500-square-foot spa; four swimming pools, including one with a 214-foot-long water slide; 18 lounges; and more than 350 more balcony staterooms than the Sensation. The Victory will offer three-night cruises to Nassau that leave Thursdays and four-night cruises to Nassau and Freeport that leave Sunday.
When Carnival Magic arrives, it will offer a special eight-night cruise Dec. 9, 2016, to St. Thomas, San Juan, Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic and Grand Turk, after which it will offer year-round, seven-night alternating eastern and western Caribbean itineraries. The eastern route will take it to St. Thomas, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Grand Turk and either Nassau or Amber Cove. The western route will visit Cozumel, Belize, Mahogany Bay on Isla Roatan, Honduras and Costa Maya.
Magic features a large WaterWorks aqua park with a 312-foot-long water slide, funnel-style water slide and 300-gallon tipping bucket of water. The ship also features a ropes course that sister ship Dream did not have and the SportSquare recreation area.
Sunshine will continue to offer five- to eight-night Caribbean options.
Sensation will move to PortMiami beginning Feb. 25.
“Today’s announcements of these new deployments, coupled with recently announced Carnival Sunshine and Carnival Valor schedules, will allow a variety of options for short and longer cruises,” Port Canaveral CEO John E. Walsh said.
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