The Carnival Sunshine had its first cruise out of New Orleans recently. The ship is taking the palce of the Carnival Conquest which is moving to Miami.
"The number of cruisers departing from the Big Easy last year soared by 32% to a record 977,703 and is expected to surpass 1 million this year," reported USA Today. "Passenger totals for 2014 are expected to be even higher as the Carnival Sunshine, in turn, is replaced in April by the even larger, 3,646-passenger Carnival Dream."
The Carnival Sunshine used to be the Carnival Destiny and it has been renovated by completely being gutted and rebuilt. The renovations included all new decks, an expansion of dining options and more space for entertainment.
Carnival also announced that a new cruise ship, will be named Carnival Vista. USA Today reported that the 4,000 passenger vessel will debut in 2016.
Carnival CMO Jim Berra said that it will be "extremely connected to the ocean."
"A lot of what we are thinking about for the design and the inspiration (for Carnival Vista) is the views out to the ocean," Berra added. "At the end of the day, that is why people are cruising. They want the salt air. They want the ocean breeze. They want to look out and see the ocean."
The new ship will be similar to Carnival Breeze. CEO Gerry Cahill said, "It will look different than Breeze, and it'll have spaces that are different than Breeze," Cahill said. "But it will have a lot of the same spaces (as Breeze)."
Recently, Carnival announced that they would be cutting back their trips to Europe in 2014.
Carnival has announced that in 2014 they are canceling Europe trips citing expensive flights.
"We anticipate that airfares to Europe will remain high, and we believe our North American passengers will continue to prefer more affordable vacation options closer to home as we move into next year," Carnival said in a statement sent to USA Today. "Therefore we have decided to keep ships in North America during this period rather than place capacity in Europe in 2014."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
