Thread: Carnival to Launch First Year-Round Cruise Program from Charleston

September 17, 2009

Carnival to Launch First Year-Round Cruise Program from Charleston in 2010


Starting on May 18, 2010, Carnival will introduce the first year-round cruise schedule from Charleston, S.C., with the deployment of the 2,056-passenger Carnival Fantasy. Carnival Fantasy will operate from the Passenger Terminal in historic downtown Charleston.

Charleston's centralized location within the southeastern U.S., as well as the city's strong appeal as a tourist destination, were key factors in the decision to launch year-round service. The Carnival Fantasy is expected to carry more than 140,000 passengers annually from the port.

Carnival Fantasy will operate five-, six- and seven-day voyages on a variety of different departure days. Five-day voyages departing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays will call at Nassau and Freeport, The Bahamas. Six-day voyages departing Saturdays will visit Freeport, Nassau and Key West, Fla. Seven-day voyages depart Saturdays and will feature Grand Turk, the private Bahamian island of Half Moon Cay, and Nassau.

Replacing the Carnival Fantasy in Mobile will be its sister ship, the 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation, which will reposition from San Diego to launch year-round service from that port May 15, 2010.

With the addition of Charleston, Carnival will operate from 12 year-round homeports which are among the line's 20 North American departure points - the most in cruising.

Charleston is a very convenient location for us.

Too bad they chose to go with such boring ports, on an almost 20 year old ship.

Now if they were to do Bermuda, that would WAKE UP the east coast!

Half Moon Cay! That's great!

In the past I think only HAL ships went there!

Going to give this port a try. Booked for next February on a five day.