It’s celebration time for Carnival Cruise Line fan. Literally.
The maiden voyage of the carrier’s much-awaited Carnival Celebration will take place on Sunday as the vessel departs Southampton, England, on a two-week transatlantic voyage to Miami.
Recently completed at a shipyard in Finland, the 15-deck ship is Carnival’s sister ship to the 1-year-old giant Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras make waves in 2021 because of its enormous size and what might be the most unusual attraction on a cruise ship: a roller coaster on deck.
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Both ships weigh 181,808 tons, making them the largest ship ever to set sail for the Carnival.
Both Carnival Celebration and Mardi Gras are 35% larger than the next largest Carnival ship currently afloat, the 3-year-old vessel Festival panorama; they are also larger than all but 11 other cruise ships in the world.
Like Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration has a coaster on its top deck. Dubbed Bolt: Ultimate Sea Coaster, it’s similar to the coaster on Mardi Gras, with 800-foot rails. Its vehicles will reach speeds of 40 mph – give or take.
Both ships are designed to hold up to 6,630 passengers. That’s just a little under 7,084 passengers can fit in Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas – the largest cruise ship in the world.
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Carnival Cruise Line
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Just like Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration will feature a giant water park on the top deck and a much larger suites compared to previous Carnival ships. However, the ship will not be a carbon copy of its sister.
It will offer several new features, including a revamped main interior area called Celebration Central. Known as Grand Central on Mardi Gras, the ocean-facing atrium during Carnival Celebration will span three floors and provide access to a variety of dining and entertainment venues.
It will offer ocean views during the day and nighttime shows on its stage, which has been improved upon on Mardi Gras and features more color changing lights than the original – to be exact. 1,400. Designed to look like confetti, they’ll be among the first things passengers see when they board.
Developing ships on the Celebration of the Carnival and Mardi Gras scale has been a big deal for Carnival. Until recently, this line of ships has resisted the trend of big brands to build larger and larger ships that offer a super-speedy experience at sea.
Carnival’s last new ship, Carnival Panorama, didn’t even make the list of the 40 biggest ships when it launched in 2019.
The ship is scheduled to make six- to eight-day voyages to the Bahamas and the Caribbean in addition to Miami. Fares start at $449/person, excluding taxes and fees.
Carnival Celebrations Coming Just Four Weeks After Carnival retired its smallest and oldest shipCarnival Ecstasy.
Related: Another Carnival ship geared towards scavengers
Carnival will also add a second ship to its fleet this month with the appearance of Carnival Luminosa, a 13-year-old ship that until recently remained in the fleet of Carnival’s sister brand, Costa Cruises. The ship was formerly known as the Costa Luminosa.
With the arrival of Carnival Celebration and Carnival Luminosa as well as the departure of Carnival Ecstasy, its fleet is increasing by one vessel to 24.
Carnival will also absorb two more Costa . ships joins its fleet in 2023 and 2024 when parent company Carnival Corp. back to travel in China, where Costa was once a major player.
A third ship in the same Carnival Celebration series, called the Carnival Jubilee, was also ordered from the Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland. The shipyard also built the Carnival and Mardi Gras Celebrations.
TPG will live stream Carnival Celebration’s maiden voyage out of Miami, starting November 21.
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