The ultimate guide to Carnival Cruise Line ships and itineraries
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If the United States has a national cruise line, it is Carnival.
The self-described “fun ship” line, the winner of Best Cruise Line for Maximizing Value in the 2024 TPG Awards, is the king of short, affordable, fun-focused cruises from U.S. ports to the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Mexico and other nearby destinations. No matter where you live in the U.S., you’re probably within a few hours of a Carnival ship.
Where you won’t find Carnival ships, notably, is in Asia, South America or, for the most part, Europe. Unlike other big cruise brands such as Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess Cruises, Carnival doesn’t spread its vessels around the world to draw a fly-in crowd. Aimed squarely at Americans, its trips are all about cruising close to home at a reasonable price.
Indeed, if you’re going on a Carnival cruise, odds are you’re driving to the ship, not flying, and you’re probably not paying much more than you would for a trip to a local beach town.
You’re also not going for anything too highbrow. Carnival ships are all about fun in a very laid-back, unpretentious, nothing-too-fancy sort of way.
Entertainment, at times, is as lowbrow as the line is low-cost. This is, after all, the brand that for many years held a Hairy Chest Contest around the pool deck on every voyage to a standing-room-only, hooting and hollering crowd.
The fun comes in many ways, though. While Carnival’s ships, for the most part, aren’t quite as big as the giant ships operated by Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises, they’re packed with a wide range of fun features, from water parks with multiple waterslides to cooking classrooms where you can learn how to make the line’s signature chocolate melting cake.
Related: A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
3 things TPG loves about Carnival
- The “fun” focus highlighted in everything
- The food (really — see below)
- The kids programs
What we could do without
- The smoke in the casino
The Carnival Cruise Line fleet
Carnival is one of the world’s biggest cruise lines by passenger capacity, with 29 ships that together offer around 94,000 berths.
In general, these are big ships. However, with a handful of exceptions, they’re not giants by today’s standards.
Only three of the line’s vessels — recently built Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration and Carnival Jubilee — make the list of the world’s 20 biggest cruise ships. Each measures around 180,000 tons and can hold about 5,300 passengers at double occupancy. After that, there isn’t a single Carnival ship on the list of the world’s 50 biggest ships.
The line’s next-biggest vessel, 4,090-passenger Carnival Venezia, measures just 135,225 tons. That’s about 46% smaller than the biggest ships operated by Royal Caribbean.
Seven of the line’s 29 vessels measure less than 100,000 tons, which makes them almost midsize by today’s cruise ship standards.
This is a notable change for the brand from just a couple of decades ago. There was a time when Carnival operated many of the biggest cruise ships in the world.
However, for many years, Carnival chose not to follow rivals such as Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises in building ever-bigger ships.
The arrival of Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration and Carnival Jubilee over the past four years has marked a major turning point for the line. At around 180,000 tons, they are roughly 35% bigger than the line’s next-biggest ship. And they’re just the first of a series of new, bigger ships coming to the brand.
Two more sister ships in the same series are on order for 2027 and 2028, respectively, and Carnival has ordered three even bigger ships to arrive between 2029 and 2033.
At around 230,000 tons, the three bigger ships on order will be about 25% bigger than any vessel currently in the Carnival fleet. That’ll put them among the very biggest cruise ships in the world.
Perhaps even more notably, these three new ships will be able to hold nearly 8,000 passengers with every berth filled.
The 29 Carnival ships currently in operation can be broken down into nine classes: Fantasy, Spirit, Conquest, Splendor, Dream, Sunshine, Grand, Vista/Venezia and Excel. Many of those classes have a lot in common. Unlike Royal Caribbean, Carnival doesn’t always drastically change the design of its ships from class to class.
Two Carnival ships that do have a somewhat different look are the two Grand Class ships that Carnival recently absorbed from a shut-down sister brand, P&O Cruises Australia. Originally built for Princess, they have a superstructure and interior layout that more closely resembles the ships of Princess than the typical Carnival ship.
Related: The 8 classes of Carnival Cruise Line ships, explained
Destinations and itineraries
Carnival is all about cruises from U.S. ports. You’ll find at least one of its ships sailing out of pretty much every major port city around the country. It’s rare to find them based anywhere else.
Carnival’s biggest operations are out of PortMiami and Port Canaveral in Florida; Galveston, Texas; Long Beach, California; New Orleans; and Seattle — all major cruise hubs. But you’ll also find Carnival ships in secondary cruise ship ports such as Baltimore; Mobile, Alabama; Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida; and San Francisco.
The overarching idea for Carnival’s ship deployments is that a large percentage of the U.S. population can reach one of the line’s ships by car, saving the cost of flights.
For the most part, Carnival ships sail relatively short voyages of three to eight nights.
Carnival vessels based on the East Coast and along the Gulf of Mexico mostly sail to the Caribbean and the Bahamas. Some East Coast ships also head to Bermuda, New England and Canada. On the West Coast, sailings to Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska are the norm.
Carnival also offers some Panama Canal voyages.
Occasionally, Carnival will deploy a ship to Europe for a few weeks or months. This often takes place when a vessel needs to go to a European shipyard for an overhaul.
In recent years, Carnival also has deployed two of its vessels to Australia to operate voyages from Sydney and Brisbane. In a departure from Carnival’s American-focused business model, the Australia sailings are aimed mostly at the local Australian market, though they are open to American travelers, too.
Related to this, Carnival has just absorbed a small sister brand, P&O Cruises Australia, that specializes in cruises for Australians. Two vessels from this sister brand, now called Carnival Adventure and Carnival Encounter, joined the Carnival fleet in March.
Related: The 5 best destinations you can visit on a Carnival Cruise Line ship
Who sails Carnival Cruise Line?
Carnival is the undisputed leader among North America-based cruise brands when it comes to affordability, which makes it popular with vacationers on a budget.
It’s also popular with a fun-seeking crowd. Carnival trips are all about letting loose and having a good time. Maybe you’ll drink a little too much, eat a little too much, play a little too much — but in the end, you’ll say it was your best trip ever.
At one level, Carnival can best be described as a working man’s or working woman’s vacation. The typical Carnival customer is a teacher, nurse, firefighter, contractor or the like, either still working or retired. This isn’t a line for Wall Street bankers or white-shoe lawyers.
Carnival also is huge with families. The fun is for all ages, from 2-year-olds to retirees.
Still, it’s just as much psychographics as demographics that define the typical Carnival customer. Carnival executives have often used the word “spirited” to describe the people who are drawn to the line, and that’s as good a term as any.
Carnival draws a lively, outgoing crowd looking to be part of the action. The typical Carnival customer is the sort of person who shoots up a hand when an entertainer asks for a volunteer to come on stage or jumps up to dance during midmeal music shows in the dining room starring the servers (yes, on Carnival, this is a thing).
Cabins and suites
Unlike some of its biggest competitors, Carnival isn’t known for a huge range of cabin categories on its vessels. The vast majority of the accommodations on Carnival ships fall into one of three broad buckets: windowless inside cabins, ocean-view cabins and balcony cabins.
You’ll find relatively few suites on Carnival ships. Each of the vessels in Carnival’s recent Vista Class series, for instance, offers fewer than 75 suites. Each of the line’s earlier Conquest Class ships has around 50 suites. The oldest Fantasy Class vessels have 28 suites and 26 junior suites.
This is in part due to Carnival’s focus on affordability. The typical Carnival customer isn’t in the market for a super fancy, high-priced suite.
That said, Carnival has seen the success that some of its competitors have had with a bigger range of upscale accommodations, and it’s eyeing more suites for future vessels. The line’s new Excel Class ships, such as Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration, each have 180 suites — more than twice the number of Carnival’s other recent ships.
Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration and Carnival Jubilee each have 11 different categories of suites in all, four of which are part of a new premium Excel category of suites that come with extra amenities and access to a new-for-the-line, resort-style enclave at the top of the ship called Loft 19.
Design-wise, Carnival’s cabins and suites are fairly basic and comfortable, if not super stylish. Cabins on recently unveiled or overhauled vessels have a soothing palette of creams and blues. Cabinetry in these rooms is crisp and clean faux wood, and cabin bathrooms are neutral.
Note that Carnival’s two oldest ships — those that are part of the 1990s-built Fantasy Class — have relatively few balcony cabins by today’s standards. (Even after retrofitting, they only have around 150 balcony cabins out of a total of more than 1,000 cabins in all.) In part because of this, Carnival has been phasing the Fantasy Class ships out of its fleet in recent years.
Related: Everything you want to know about cabins and suites on Carnival Cruise Line ships
Restaurants and dining
Like other big-ship operators, Carnival packs a lot of dining options onto its vessels — some included in the price, some at an extra charge.
Every vessel has two main dining rooms and a casual buffet eatery where meals are included in the fare. The buffet is called the Lido. For dinner in the main dining room, you must sign up for either Your Time Dining (you go whenever you want) or Traditional Dining (you have a fixed table and time for dinner).
Other included-in-the-fare options found on most ships include what may be the two best quick-serve poolside dining venues at sea: BlueIguana Cantina and Guy’s Burger Joint.
Related: 7 secret Carnival cruise breakfast spots that let you skip the buffet crowds
BlueIguana is a Chipotle-style restaurant with yummy made-to-order burritos and tacos. Created in partnership with Food Network’s Guy Fieri, Guy’s Burger Joint offers burgers that beat anything you’ll find around the pool on other mass-market ships and even most luxury vessels.
Additionally, every ship has at least one — and usually several — extra-charge eateries. The most common ones found across the fleet are Fahrenheit 555, the line’s signature steakhouse, and Italian cuisine-serving Cucina del Capitano (if you’re a Carnival fan, you know this as the place where servers sing and dance between courses). The two venues have flat fees of $52 and $24 per person, respectively.
Other extra-charge eateries often found on Carnival vessels include Bonsai, an a la carte sushi restaurant (now on 15 ships), and JiJi Asian Kitchen, which costs $24 per person (now on four ships).
Six of Carnival’s newest ships — Carnival Jubilee, Carnival Celebration, Mardi Gras, Carnival Venezia, Carnival Panorama and Carnival Horizon — also have teppanyaki eateries called Bonsai Teppanyaki (priced at a flat $57.82 per person for dinner and $46.02 at lunchtime; the pricing is an odd number, as it reflects an 18% service charge). Most of these six ships (all but Carnival Venezia) have an a la carte barbecue-and-beer joint called Guy’s Pig & Anchor Smokehouse & Brewhouse, too.
The latter venue was created in partnership with Fieri and serves a free lunch on embarkation and sea days, with all items smoked on board.
Guy’s Pig & Anchor Smokehouse & Brewhouse, notably, has its very own in-house brewery you can see behind glass walls — something still relatively rare on cruise ships. It makes house beers, including Parched Pig West Coast India Pale Ale and Parched Pig Toasted Amber, which you’ll find on many Carnival vessels in kegs and cans. Carnival is the only cruise line to keg and can its own beer.
The quality of the food (and drinks) on Carnival ships always surprises us given the budget pricing of the brand. Despite being one of the industry’s lowest-cost operators, Carnival manages to pull off one of the best steakhouses at sea in Fahrenheit 555, and even the no-extra-charge main restaurants get the basics right.
Although the food, in general, isn’t gourmet, it’s quite impressive for the price point of the line.
Related: Cruise ship restaurant nirvana: The 10 best meals you can have at sea
Entertainment and activities
For the most part, Carnival ships don’t have quite as many features on board as Royal Caribbean or Norwegian vessels, in part because they’re not as big. But they’re still packed with a variety of attractions, including multiple entertainment venues, casinos, spas and lots of deck-top fun zones such as water parks and ropes courses.
Theaters and shows
There’s seemingly always something playing on a Carnival ship, whether it be a glitzy singing-and-dancing production in the main theater, a comedy show in a secondary lounge, a magic act or a call-you-up-on-stage interactive game show.
Every Carnival ship has one big theater where you’ll often find flashy, fast-paced production shows that string together a medley of loosely related tunes. Designed to be quick and digestible, they typically last around 30 minutes and have relatively small casts (just eight on some ships).
In general, the production shows aren’t nearly as sophisticated — or as long — as what you’ll find on Royal Caribbean or Norwegian ships, but they’re lively.
Carnival also uses its big theaters for lots of interactive shows that involve you, the passenger, getting a little silly. They include "Lip Sync Battle Carnival" — a shipboard adaptation of the Paramount Network TV series — and "Hasbro, the Game Show."
With the latter, you can team up with your friends and family to play giant versions of Connect 4 Basketball or Simon Flash in front of a live audience.
Carnival is also well known for the Punchliner Comedy Clubs on its ships, which draw quality comedians and can get a little raucous late at night with adults-only performances.
When it comes to raucous, though, nothing on Carnival ships quite compares to the frequent karaoke nights on board. On Carnival, it’s a thing. Sometimes held in a secondary lounge or a shipboard pub, karaoke on Carnival draws a big crowd. Passengers come prepared with rehearsed songs and sometimes even their own guitars.
Insider tip: Get to the comedy shows early to snag a good seat — or any seat at all. These shows on Carnival ships are hugely popular.