Tag Archives: Port of New Orleans

Carnival Charters Cruise Ship to FEMA and New Orleans to Provide Housing for Storm Responders

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Carnival Cruise Line has announced an agreement to chartered its ship Carnival Glory to the city of New Orleans and FEMA to provide housing for first responders in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

Carnival Glory arrived at the Port of New Orleans on Friday and underwent a required U.S. Coast Guard inspection ahead of starting its official duties. The ship has now begun provisioning food, water and materials to prepare for up to 2,600 hospital workers, first responders, city and utility workers and other emergency personnel to join the ship.

Carnival Glory is planned to stay in port through September 18 to serve as emergency housing for frontline workers directly involved in the city’s infrastructure recovery and healthcare needs.

Related to the announcement, Carnival said it will cancel Glory’s cruise scheduled to depart on Sept. 12 and will plan to restart its guest operations with Carnival Glory from New Orleans on Sunday, Sept. 19. Carnival had already cancelled the Sept. 5 departure for Carnival Glory.

“While we want to provide the city of New Orleans with an economic boost by restarting guest operations, we want to first provide this critical housing support to address emergency needs and to get power restored to the region,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “We appreciate the understanding of our guests, who we know love New Orleans as much as we do.”

“Port NOLA appreciates Carnival’s deployment of Carnival Glory to New Orleans,” added Brandy D. Christian, President and CEO of Port NOLA and CEO of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. “Her berths will accommodate the hardworking first responders and essential personnel working on storm recovery efforts in our region. Port NOLA, our Federal, state, and local partner agencies all support those who are quickly restoring critical infrastructure in the city and helping to get cargo moving again.”

New Orleans negotiating deal with Norwegian Cruise Line

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By Tom Stieghorst
The Port of New Orleans is closing in on a second multi-year commitment with a big cruise line, having just secured one with Carnival Cruise Lines for the next five years.

The port is in the final stages of negotiating a new agreement with Norwegian Cruise Line, port director Gary LaGrange said.

LaGrange said he hopes to have an announcement on a four-year deal in the next 30 to 60 days. “We’re right at the goal line,” he said.

If LaGrange can strike a four-year deal, it would likely give New Orleans a compliment of three big ships doing turnarounds in the Big Easy through at least 2018.

Carnival is the busiest cruise carrier out of New Orleans, which has two terminals in the heart of the city and is working on a third. Currently, it sails the 3,652-passenger Carnival Dream and 2,052-passenger Elation on mostly western Caribbean itineraries.

A new agreement provides that Carnival will keep at least the capacity it already operates in New Orleans through 2019, namely a Dream-class and Fantasy-class vessel.