toad455

Those Fantasy class ships that are now scrap would be over 30 years old if Carnival kept some of them or if they got purchased by MAS. The Paradise and Elation are now 26. Odds seem like a Costa ship might be available soon as that fleet keeps dwindling. Keep the Islander out of Tampa and a third ship can go out of Jacksonville for longer cruises (Key West & Grand Turk?) assuming it'll fit.

@DELTABLUE

ODYSSEY: Jamie Fentiman 3-10-24 #1278, Ana Ribeiro 5-5-24 #1414, Ricky Matthews 1-17-24/1-16-25 #1273

For my Jan. 5, 2025 Odyssey cruise, that means Ana will be the CD? And that's her last assignment?

22 minutes ago, BND said:

The official Port of Baltimore FB page is reporting that Vision will be the first cruise ship to depart from Baltimore on May 25.

 

Sounds right. The upcoming Carnival Pride cruise will leave from Norfolk on May 19 but returning to Baltimore on May 26.

1 hour ago, DCDragonfly said:

Carnival has the 5/19 cruise departing Norfolk and returning to Baltimore.

Interesting. So if anyone parks at Norfolk for departure, is Carnival busing then back to Norfolk from Baltimore on 5/26?

So is the May 19 Pride cruise sailing out of Norfolk?

So is this May 12 cruise returning to Baltimore on May 19? Sounds like they might be able to.

Why is Carnival giving guests just 4 days notice?? I saw Heald's post yesterday and thought their late decision making is extremely poor on them.

Puerto Plata has a lot of unpaved roads. In January, I nearly threw my back out because of the rough trip to our beach. If I ever return there, I would just hang out at the pool that's right at the pier.

The issue would be that this "World" cruise would have to use a Spirit-class ship. Alaska/Hawaii gets one, Tampa gets one, Mobile gets one for 6 months, and Baltimore another. Stretches this class a little thin.

Might be time to scrap this ship.

Seems like either Grand Turk or Puerto Plata are the usual substitutes unless it's a short itinerary. I'm sure Royal would prefer two ships at CocoCay everyday, but Grand Turk is a better destination as you can spread out more. I guess RCCL is paying Carnival to use the port?

1 hour ago, BND said:

We just got off Vision today after a b2b.  The Captain said they also expect to return to Norfolk after drydock, so by the end of May.

Which is odd for Carnival to be announcing one cruise at a time. Carnival should just say cruises until the end of May will be moved to Norfolk.

Costa has 9 ships left in their fleet with no new builds planned. Their oldest ship, the Fortuna, is now 21 years old. Maybe they get the old Mediterranea from Adora cruises in a few years if that cruise line doesn't start to get off the ground?

He just got off but has hinted he'll be back shortly. Didn't speculate as to what ship though.

6 hours ago, UPNYGuy said:

This is highly speculative, but this does not bode well for the future of the fantasy class. Those are the smallest ships in the fleet. I can see carnival repurposing two spirit class ships to fill the void. 
 

Plus, those that like the fantasy class really love them. The flipside is those that hate them absolutely despise them. It seems those ships are extremely polarizing because of the lack of features, and the age. 

Paradise and Elation will be 30 years old in 2028. I wonder if any of the Costa ships might bounce over to Carnival by then. Costa seems to be slowly disappearing.

I don't think the Vision left on time today out of Norfolk(5pm). Probably closer to 6:30pm. The Carnival Legend was also late leaving on Monday(~7pm).

Vision is officially docked in Norfolk!

John Heald posted that they're remaining hopefully that the Pride's repo cruise will end in Baltimore. Good for Carnival for being optimistic.

There's also about a dozen ships stuck in the harbor and can't leave. They'll be the priority once it's allowed to reopen.

On 3/28/2024 at 7:54 AM, Biker19 said:

The future 2026-27 deployment thread will have that.

Has this thread been started yet?

Curious to see if any of these Norfolk sailings will become available for sale. Either on the Vision or either Carnival ship.

The Norfolk cruises aren't available to book. At least not yet. Carnival still has the two Pride sailings out of Baltimore in April still available and the repo cruise from Tampa still ending in Baltimore. Carnival seems hopefully the harbor will be clear in time for the Pride to arrive.

only 6 hours in Key West is disappointing.

the one thing that i thought would change would be the departure time out of Norfolk to late evening(8pm or 9pm).

I'm guessing the second cruise is ending a day early because the Carnival ship has the pier on April 20?