Itineraries have been unveiled for a former Costa ship transferring to sister brand Carnival Cruise Line this autumn.
Carnival Luminosa will enter service for the US company from Brisbane in Australia on November 6 before reposition g to run summer 2023 cruises in Alsaka from Seattle.
Carnival Luminosa is a sister vessel to the four other Spirit-class ships in the fleet.
More details are yet to be revealed about dry dock work and the revamp of the ship as it switches over from Costa to Carnival ahead of the November start up.
However, the line said that Carnival Luminosa “will be home to many of the activities and experiences from other Carnival ships that guests have come to know and love as well as some new spaces”.
The ship will sail seasonal itineraries from Brisbane until April 13, 2023, including, three- and four-day cruises to popular Australian ports; six- and seven-day Great Barrier Reef and South Pacific sailings and longer eight- to 11-day voyages to destinations such as New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand.
A re-positioning voyage across the Pacific will include a stop in Tahiti among other points.
Carnival Luminosa will then run a four-month Alaska schedule with 17 seven-day sailings as well as six- and eight-day sailings.
A return trans-Pacific voyage back to Brisbane will see stops in Kushiro, Aomori, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, as well as Puerto Princesa, Philippines and Bitung, Indonesia.
Company president Christine Duffy said: “We couldn’t be prouder to welcome Carnival Luminosa to our fleet and to start our highly anticipated sailings from Brisbane followed by unique bucket-list itineraries in Alaska.
“To truly make Luminosa feel part of the Carnival Cruise Line family, we are adding our beautiful new livery to her hull, of course, and are keeping her throwback funnel design that once adorned some of our most iconic earlier vessels.
“We’ll be adding some Carnival features in the upcoming dry dock and adapting some existing features to align with Carnival’s casual style, but ultimately, our crew will make everyone feel right at home as soon as they join the ship.”
Meanwhile,Carnival Cruise Line issued additional updates to its pre-cruise testing protocols for unvaccinated passengers for sailings from September 6.
The updated protocols are:
- In addition to lab administered tests, self-testing is accepted for unvaccinated guests on cruises of up to 15 nights.
- Certain destinations do not accept unsupervised pre-cruise self-testing, including Bermuda, Canada, Greece, and Spain. If used for visiting these destinations, self-testing must be supervised by a medical professional.
- Regardless of the type of test taken, unvaccinated passengers will be required to present negative test results or as part of the embarkation process.
“These changes are consistent with what local destinations have advised will be acceptable for arriving cruise guests, and Carnival will continue to work closely with local destinations to protect the health of its guests, crew and the communities the cruise line visits,” the line said.
“Additionally, travel insurance is no longer a requirement for unvaccinated guests unless it is required by a destination, such as Bermuda. Irrespective of vaccination status, travel insurance is required for all guests visiting Fiji.”