Carnival Cruise Line is opening the primary in a sequence of year-round cruises from Norfolk, Virginia, with new sailings aboard Carnival Sunshine now accessible from February by way of April 2025
That is simply the primary section of what would be the cruise line’s biggest-ever operational schedule from Virginia, with extra itineraries to be launched within the close to future.
Carnival Sunshine to Sail From Norfolk
Carnival Cruise Line introduced on Thursday, December 15, 2022, that they are going to be increasing operations from Norfolk with Carnival Sunshine to be homeported from the Outdated Dominion state starting in mid-February, 2025. Whereas solely two months of sailings in 2025 are at present deliberate, the cruise line continues to work on scheduling for the long run.
“Carnival Sunshine is the right ship to usher on this subsequent step for service enlargement from Norfolk’s Half Moone Cruise Terminal,” mentioned Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.
“As we work carefully with metropolis and port officers on our plans to extend from seasonal to year-round operations, we’re delighted to open these sailings on the market, so friends from everywhere in the southeastern U.S. can begin performing some planning of their very own for 2025.”
Carnival Sunshine will supply a wide range of 6-8 night time sailings with two totally different itineraries of every size. Relying on departure date, the 6-night cruises will go to both Bimini or Half Moon Cay, and each itinerary choices will cease in Nassau.
The 8-night sailings will each go to Amber Cove and Grand Turk, and relying on departure date, will even go to both Princess Cays or Half Moon Cay. At present, Carnival Sunshine is homeported from Charleston, South Carolina, by way of the top of 2024.
Evaluating Norfolk Ships
Carnival Cruise Line has a 20-year historical past with Norfolk and providing cruises from Virginia. “We’ve been crusing from Norfolk since 2002, and we’re happy to increase our choices from this historic, charming neighborhood whereas strengthening our assist of the native economic system,” mentioned Duffy.
Through the summer time of 2022, Carnival Magic was based mostly from Norfolk as the most important Carnival Cruise Line ship ever to homeport from the town. The ship sailed a sequence of 11 cruises from Virginia, together with voyages to The Bahamas in addition to Bermuda. The ship returned to Norfolk in October for one more temporary sequence of sailings.
Carnival Magic is a Dream-class vessel, with a gross tonnage of 128,000 and a visitor capability of three,609 passengers at double occupancy.
Carnival Sunshine, nevertheless, is a considerably smaller Sunshine-class vessel with a gross tonnage of 102,850 and a visitor capability of three,002 at double occupancy. In 2025, the ship is predicted to deliver roughly 100,000 friends to Norfolk.
Whereas the ship is smaller, Carnival Sunshine does symbolize a major dedication to Norfolk with year-round ships. With Carnival Cruise Line hinting at “its biggest-ever operational schedule from Virginia,” nevertheless, it stands to cause that extra vessels could also be deployed to homeport from Norfolk sooner or later.
Earlier than Carnival Sunshine units sail from Virginia, nevertheless, different Carnival cruise ships are scheduled for the homeport. In 2023, Carnival Magic will return to the town, and it’s possible that deployment plans are persevering with to be refined for late 2023 and 2024.
In early 2020, Carnival Cruise Line signed a cope with the Metropolis of Norfolk to commit to 5 years of sailings. That deal was agreed upon earlier than the industry-wide pandemic shutdown, however the cruise line stays dedicated to Norfolk with this new deployment of Carnival Sunshine.
Along with Carnival Cruise Line, ships from Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, TUI Cruises, Swan Hellenic Line, and American Cruise Traces all go to Norfolk.
