Carnival Cruise Line revealed today they will take two of their larger ships to China over the next three years to be based there year round.
Carnival Miracle will be the first to head China. Carnival said the 88,500-ton Spirit-class ship will reposition in the spring of 2017. The 2004-built ship is the smaller of the two carrying about 2,100 passengers. It was enhanced earlier this year with a number of the Fun Ship 2.0 features.
A year later (spring of 2018), Carnival will take an even bigger step into the Chinese market when the 2008-built Carnival Splendor joins her sister there. It is one of Carnival’s larger ships at 113,000 tons carrying 3,000 passengers. Carnival Splendor is a one-off type of ship in the Carnival fleet. It was originally destined for the Costa brand, and built on a Concordia-class hull, but diverted to the Carnival brand about a year before delivery to fill the US brand’s need for capacity.
The complete story and perspective appeared in the October 28 edition of Cruise News Daily.
