Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy and Chief Culinary Officer Emeril Lagasse joined the Times Square Alliance President of Countdown Entertainment Jeffrey Straus tonight, along with their families, to flip the switch that lit New York City’s famous New Year’s Eve Ball for the countdown to 2023.
Duffy and Lagasse invited everyone celebrating in New York and watching from home to “Choose Fun Together,” which is also the theme of Carnival’s 2023 advertising campaign that can be seen throughout Times Square.
At the same time, the iconic ball was lit in Times Square, and nearly 100,000 guests onboard Carnival ships fleetwide also kicked off celebrations to ring in the new year.
As part of its fourth quarter business update, Carnival Corporation confirmed it would sell off three more ships, including two from its Costa fleet.
Carnival did not say which ships it was offloading.
“The company expects to remove three additional smaller-less efficient ships from its fleet,” Carnival said in a statement issued on Wednesday morning. “Two of these three ships are from Costa Cruises’ fleet as part of the company’s strategy to right-size the brand in light of the continued closure of cruise operations in China, and Costa’s significant presence there prior to the pause in the company’s guest cruise operations. Once completed in spring 2024, the company’s fleet optimization strategy will have reduced Costa’s capacity so that it approximates the 2019 capacity Costa dedicated outside of Asia to its core markets in Continental Europe.”
With the sale of the ships, Carnival said it now expects total capacity growth of 3 per cent for 2023 compared to 2019, at the lower end of the previous guidance range of 3 to 5 per cent.
The prudent capacity growth rate includes the benefit that newly delivered ships will represent nearly a quarter of the company’s capacity.
With three more ships set to leave, Carnival has divested approximately 26 cruise ships since the start of the pandemic.
Continuing its first cruise to the Western Caribbean, the new Carnival Celebration arrived at the Mahogany Bay Cruise Center for its maiden call on Thursday.
The call also marked the first time the new Carnival Cruise Line vessel visited Honduras.
After entering service with a transatlantic crossing in early November, the Celebration started its debut season on Nov. 21.
Following a special christening ceremony in Miami, the LNG-powered kicked off a series of week-long cruises to the Caribbean. After leaving Miami on Nov. 27, the ship’s current sailing also included the maiden visits to Mexico’s Cozumel and Costa Maya.
The 5,200-guest ship is now set to make regular visits to Mahogany Bay as part of its year-round schedule of Caribbean cruises.
Departing from Port Miami every Sunday, the itineraries also include visits to ports in the Eastern Caribbean.
Developed by Carnival Corporation in partnership with a local businessman, the Mahogany Bay Cruise Center opened in 2009.
A popular cruise destination in the Western Caribbean, the facility serves the Roatan island in Honduras Bay Islands.
In addition to a two-ship cruise pier, the cruise terminal offers a welcome centre and a variety of retail outlets, including two themed bars, a restaurant and several shops.
A chair lift system takes guests from the welcome centre to Mahogany Beach, a 10-acre private island featuring an 825-foot-long white-sand beach with a beach volleyball court and water sports opportunities.
Along with the new Celebration, the Carnival Pride also visited Mahogany Bay on Dec. 1. The vessel is presently offering a seven-night cruise to Mexico, Belize and Honduras departing from Tampa.
A third ship, the Norwegian Breakaway, was also docked at a different cruise terminal in Roatan. The Norwegian Cruise Line vessel is offering week-long Western Caribbean cruises departing from New Orleans.
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