Majestic Princess Swaps Galveston for South America in 2026-27

Majestic Princess Swaps Galveston for South America in 2026-27

Instead of offering cruises departing from Galveston, the Majestic Princess will sail in South America during the 2026-27 winter season.

Initially scheduled to sail from Texas to the Caribbean, the Royal-class ship saw its four-month season in the region cancelled in early April.

At the time, Princess Cruises said that the decision was part of a “broader global fleet redeployment strategy.”

The company then announced, in late May, its plans to operate the Majestic Princess in South America and Antarctica.

Running between November 2026 and January 2027, the ship’s season in the region includes five itineraries and six departures.

The deployment is highlighted by scenic cruising in Antarctica, including two overnight experiences in the Antarctic Peninsula.

Ranging from 15 to 33 days in length, the ship’s itineraries in the region will also mark Princess’s debut in the Beagle Channel Fjords and Glacier Alley.

The Majestic Princess is also set to visit Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and the Falkland Islands as part of cruises departing from Bridgetown, Buenos Aires and San Antonio.

In other recent deployment news, Princess announced that the Sapphire Princess, which is sailing in South America in 2025-26, will reposition to Asia.

Sailing along with its sister ship, the Diamond Princess, the ship will offer a series of cruises departing from Singapore and Yokohama.

The 14- to 42-night itineraries feature visits to destinations in Southeast Asia and the Far East, such as Hong Kong, Ha Long Bay and Ko Samui.

With the Majestic in South America and the Sapphire in Asia, Princess won’t offer cruises departing from Galveston in 2026-27.

The company is set to operate a farewell season from the Texas homeport in 2025-26, which will include the Regal Princess offering four- to eight-night cruises to destinations in the Western and Southern Caribbean.

Norwegian Cancels Nearly 40 Cruises Onboard Three Ships

Norwegian Cancels Nearly 40 Cruises Onboard Three Ships

Norwegian Cruise Line is cancelling a total of 38 cruises onboard three of its ships, according to a statement sent to travel advisors.

Sailing onboard the Norwegian Jewel, the Norwegian Star and the Norwegian Dawn, the cruises were scheduled to take place between November 2025 and April 2026.

Cancelled cruises onboard the Norwegian Jewel include all the itineraries that were set to depart between Nov. 23, 2025, and April 5, 2026.

The ship was scheduled to offer a series of 16 five- to 14-night cruises to the Caribbean and the Bahamas departing from Tampa.

For the Norwegian Star, cancellations include the ship’s full season in South America and Antarctica, which featured 11 cruises between Nov. 20, 2025, and April 14, 2026.

Sailings onboard the Norwegian Dawn include all cruises previously scheduled to depart between Nov. 2, 2025, and April 12, 2026.

Sailing around Africa and then Asia, the ship was poised to offer 11 cruises during the timeframe, visiting ports in the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and more.

Replacement sailings have yet to be revealed.

According to Norwegian, guests are set to soon receive notification letters outlining the details of the deployment changes.

Affected passengers will receive a full monetary refund to the original form of payment provided at the time of reservation, the company added.

While commissions will be protected for all bookings paid in full, Norwegian will also offer guests a ten percent discount in the form of a Future Cruise Credit (FCC).

Norwegian also cancelled sailings onboard the Norwegian Sun and the Norwegian Getaway.

Citing fleet redeployment, the company cancelled a 14-night cruise to the South Pacific onboard the Sun, which was scheduled to depart on Aug. 7, 2025.

Norwegian also cancelled the Aug. 17 and Aug. 21, 2026, cruises onboard the Norwegian Getaway due to a ship charter.

Carnival Cruise Line Details Dock Locations for Its Fleet

With the biggest fleet in the industry at 27 ships, Carnival Cruise Line has detailed where it is docking or anchoring its fleet during its suspension of service.

BALTIMORE
Carnival Pride
Arrives in Baltimore Sunday, will remain docked at Baltimore.

CHARLESTON
Carnival Sunshine
Arrives in Charleston on Monday, will remain docked in Charleston.

FORT LAUDERDALE
Carnival Sunrise
Arrives in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, will remain docked in Fort Lauderdale.

FREEPORT, BAHAMAS
Carnival Conquest
Arrived in Miami on Saturday, will dock in Freeport.

Carnival Magic
Arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, will dock in Freeport.

Carnival Elation
Currently in drydock in Freeport.

GALVESTON
Carnival Dream
Arrives in Galveston on Monday, will remain docked in Galveston.

GULFPORT (MS)
Carnival Valor
Arrived in New Orleans on Saturday, will dock in Gulfport, MS.

Carnival Freedom
Arrived in Galveston on Saturday, will dock in Gulfport, MS.

JACKSONVILLE
Carnival Ecstasy
Arrived in Jacksonville on Saturday, will remain docked in Jacksonville.

LONG BEACH
Carnival Inspiration
Arrives in Long Beach Monday, will remain docked in Long Beach.

MIAMI
Carnival Sensation
Arrived in Miami on Saturday, will anchor at sea then return to Miami on Monday.

Carnival Horizon
Arrives in Miami on Sunday, will remain docked in Miami.

MOBILE
Carnival Fantasy
Arrives in Mobile on Monday, will remain docked in Mobile.

NEW ORLEANS
Carnival Glory
Arrives in New Orleans on Sunday, will remain docked in New Orleans.

PORT CANAVERAL
Carnival Breeze
Arrived in Port Canaveral on Saturday, will remain docked at Port Canaveral.

Carnival Liberty
Arrives in Port Canaveral on Monday, will remain docked at Port Canaveral.

TAMPA
Carnival Paradise
Arrived in Tampa on Saturday, will remain docked in Tampa.

Carnival Legend
Arrives in Tampa on Sunday, will remain docked in Tampa.

ANCHOR AT SEA
Carnival Vista
Arrived in Galveston on Saturday, will anchor at sea.

Carnival Imagination
Arrives in Long Beach on Sunday, will anchor at sea.

TBD
Carnival Panorama
Arrived in Long Beach on Saturday, future port TBD.

Carnival Fascination
Future port TBD

The Carnival Miracle is currently on a Panama Canal cruise and arrives in California mid-week

Hurricane Humberto Causes Cruise Ships to Alter Course

PHOTO: Five-day forecast for Hurricane Humberto. (Photo courtesy of National Hurricane Center)

Hurricane Humberto, which has developed over the weekend from a Tropical Storm into a full-blown, Category-1 hurricane, is making its way toward Bermuda, forcing cruise lines operating in the region to reroute their ships.

According to CruiseCritic, Humberto has thus far affected two Carnival Cruise Line itineraries that were scheduled to be sailing in Bermuda between Wednesday, September 18, and Friday, September 20.

Carnival Pride, which left Baltimore on September 15, is now spending two days at sea before sailing on to visit Grand Turk and the Dominican Republic's Amber Cove, rather than Bermuda, as was originally intended.

Carnival Sunrise, departing today from New York City, will stop in Charleston, South Carolina, on September 18 before spending a previously-unscheduled day at sea. Sunrise will then spend a single day in Bermuda on Friday, September 20, by which time the storm is expected to have moved on, before cruising back to New York by September 22.

Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas is also scheduled to weigh anchor in Bermuda on September 21, after Humberto is forecast to have already moved away from the island.

While no warnings are currently in effect, the National Hurricane Center anticipates the need to a Tropical Storm Watch for Bermuda later this afternoon, as Humberto continues to gain strength and move east-northeast over the next two days or so.

With sustained wind speeds of 85 mph, the hurricane was this morning sitting about 710 miles outside of Bermuda but is expected to reach the north end of the island by Wednesday night. Humberto is expected to peak as a major hurricane within the next 36-48 hours, with forwarding speed intensifying through Thursday, September 19.

Other effects of the storm include large swells, which will affect portions of the northwestern Bahamas and the southeastern U.S. during the upcoming few days. People in those areas should be aware of dangerous surf conditions and potentially life-threatening rip currents.

Carnival Triumph headed to New Orleans in 2016

Carnival Triumph

Carnival Cruise Line will increase New Orleans capacity when the 3,143-passenger Triumph is transferred from Galveston to replace the 2,052-passenger Elation in the spring of 2016.

The Triumph will sail four- and five-day Mexico cruises from Galveston, starting April 4, 2016. The other ship in New Orleans, the 3,652-passenger Dream, sails seven-day cruises.

The Elation will shift from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Fla., and the Fascination will move from Jacksonville to San Juan. The Elation will sail year-round four- and five-day Bahamas cruises, and the Fascination will sail seven-day Caribbean voyages.

As previously reported, Below is the 12th Feb. article.

Carnival Breeze and Liberty will sail from Galveston

To make way for the new Carnival Vista when it is deployed in Miami in November 2016, Carnival Cruise Line will shift the Carnival Breeze to Galveston, Texas.

Also, Carnival will position the Carnival Liberty in Galveston in 2016. It has just repositioned Carnival Freedom to Galveston, where it is aggressively courting new business.

“Miami and Galveston are among our most popular points of embarkation, and deploying our newest, most innovative ships to these home ports speaks volumes about our confidence in growing these markets,” said Christine Duffy, Carnival’s president.

The Carnival Triumph and Magic, currently sailing from Galveston, will be redeployed with details to be announced at a later date. 

Prior to the start-up of year-round service from Miami, Carnival Vista will operate a pair of voyages roundtrip from New York, beginning with a three-day cruise Nov. 4-7, 2016, followed by an 11-day voyage departing Nov. 7 and visiting Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Thomas, Antigua and St. Maarten.  

Carnival Vista will then offer an 11-day transit cruise from New York to Miami from Nov. 18-29, with calls at Grand Turk, Bonaire, Aruba and St. Maarten.

Its first cruise from Miami will be a four-day cruise to Grand Turk, departing Nov. 29. Thereafter it will do alternating six- and eight-day Caribbean itineraries, mixed with a few one-time, one-off voyages, Carnival said.

Carnival Corp. discloses new CEO's compensation

By Tom Stieghorst

New Carnival Corp. president and CEO Arnold Donald will be paid an annual salary of $1 million for the next three years under a new compensation agreement reached this week.

In addition to salary, Donald will get a bonus this year of $1.125 million and $350,000 in relocation and temporary living expenses.

Next year, Donald will be eligible for a bonus with a target amount of $2.65 million and a maximum amount of $5.3 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His bonus for the 2015 year is not yet specified.

Donald also will participate in long-term incentive-based compensation plans, including a one-time grant of performance-based restricted stock with a target value of $3 million.

He will get an annual grant of Carnival stock worth $3.5 million a year.

The filing said Donald's compensation as a director of Carnival Corp. ended on July 3, the day he began his employment with Carnival. 

A reset for Carnival on Europe

By Tom Stieghorst

The Carnival Sunshine is hosting a media group on its current Mediterranean voyage, and the top concern of the European reporters onboard is Carnival Cruise Lines’ decision to go without a ship in Europe in 2014.

The Carnival Legend, which had been scheduled to sail in Europe next year, is being deployed to Australia, after a winter season in Tampa.  It seems to reverse a promising expansion of Carnival’s sales deployment into the U.K.

At a news conference, Carnival President Gerry Cahill said it ain’t necessarily so. 

“We’re not stopping marketing to the U.K. and Europe,” Cahill noted, saying it would continue to sell cruises to the Caribbean, New York and Barbados to Europeans. 

But Americans made up most of the passengers on a majority of the line's European itineraries.

“Carnival caters best to middle America,” Cahill continued. “The cost of an air ticket to Europe became very, very high, and it was causing a lot of our guests not to be able to afford to come.

“At the end of the day, when the air fare costs more than the price of the cruise, that’s a problem,” he said.

The reset on Europe comes as Carnival is withdrawing from several regional ports on the U.S. East Coast, such as Baltimore and Norfolk, Va. Tighter pollution rules mean higher costs for clean fuels at those ports, and Carnival has an aversion to higher costs. When low prices are such an important part of your strategy, anything that raises them means trouble.
So Carnival is increasingly returning to tried and true markets where it has had traditional success: sailing to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, primarily from ports in Florida.

It recently bolstered its Caribbean capacity from Port Canaveral, where the Sunshine will sail for much of 2014, and from New Orleans, where it will have two ships year-round. Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville will also be home to Carnival ships next year.

For many passengers, flying to Florida isn't as cheap as driving to the port, but it is a lot less expensive than flying to Europe. Travel agents can sell a fly-cruise to Florida because the airfare isn't that scary. But it does mean getting people excited about an area that many cruise passengers have seen before.

The traditional itineraries may not be the most exciting. But with costs rising, they're the ones that Carnival can sell at a price point that middle America can afford.  Europe on Carnival will have to wait for another year.