Carnival Cruise Line hailed carrying three million passengers since its operational restart in July 2021 after Covid-19 forced the suspension of sailings.
The line hit the two million passenger mark in May and saw numbers rise across its 23 ships to three million in less than 75 days – an average of 95,000 per week.
Carnival’s five busiest US homeports, PortMiami, Port Canaveral, Galveston, Long Beach and New Orleans, were among the first to resume operations and account for more than three quarters of all embarkations and a total of 2.3 million passengers.
Port Canaveral is also home to the Mardi Gras, company’s new Excel-class flagship and the first in North America powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). The vessel has carried 250,000 passengers since its inaugural sailing.
In terms of the number of sailings, Carnival’s hometown of Miami leads the way with more than 215 voyages to date as the line clocked up a total of 1,104 cruises since resuming operations.
Carnival has generated “significant economic impact” to all 14 of its US homeports, both year-round and seasonal operations, as well the destinations its ships have visited the past 13 months.
Carnival Pride is spending the summer in Europe, with calls at 40 ports across 17 countries, and embarkations from both Barcelona and Dover. The ship will return to Tampa and resume operations there on November 12.
Carnival ships have made more than 3,000 visits at 92 ports in 36 countries since the restart.
Mexico has seen about 800 visits – half of which have been to Cozumel, making it the line’s most popular port with 385 calls, followed by Nassau, Half Moon Cay in The Bahamas, Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic and Mahogany Bay in Roatan, Honduras.
President Christine Duffy said: “Carnival set the pace for the industry as the first major cruise line to return to full guest operations in the US, and we continue to lead as we now have welcomed three million guests who have enjoyed much-needed vacations.
“The economic benefit to our homeports and destinations is also significant and we are looking forward to restarting cruise operations in Australia this October.”
Five ships are being added to the fleet over the next two years. Costa Luminosa will become Carnival Luminosa in November and start sailing seasonally from Brisbane, Australia.
Second Excel-class ship Carnival Celebration will join Mardi Gras with sailings from Miami in November.
Carnival Jubilee, the third in the Excel class, is set to debut next year from Galveston.
Two additional ships from Italian sister line Costa will join the Carnival fleet in 2023 and 2024 respectively.