Carnival Cruise Line has today confirmed their plans for this Australian wave season, with newly acquired ship Costa Luminosa to join their fleet as Carnival Luminosa and sail out of Brisbane from this November.
Carnival Luminosa will sail out of Brisbane from November all the way through to April, before repositioning to Seattle for a series of Alaskan itineraries.
The vessel is a sister ship to the other four Spirit class ships of Carnival’s fleet, accommodating 2826 guests and 1050 crew. Carnivals previous plan was to acquire Costa Magica, which will instead now remain part of Costa Cruises’ fleet.
Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line said: “With our full fleet back to guest operations and the pent-up demand for Carnival we are seeing every week aboard our ships, the chance to expand with Luminosa and then the arrival of Carnival Celebration in November provides our guests with more choices and new ways to enjoy a Carnival vacation.
“Our Spirit class ships are very popular with our guests and Luminosa will be a great addition given the large number of balcony cabins which make her an ideal ship for this deployment. And equally important, this will allow Carnival to finally start our highly anticipated itineraries from Brisbane, so we’ll have two ships operating in Australia for the high season Down Under.”
Due to the limited amount of prep time, Carnival Luminosa won’t yet have all of the branded Carnival spaces you’d expect, but the ship does have seven pools and hot tubs, 12 bars and lounges and five eateries, but this could change as the ship will undergo some “modest updates” over the coming months.
Itineraries are yet to be announced but destinations will initially include local favourites like the Great Barrier Reef and Airlie Beach, as well as soon including pacific destinations like New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
With this latest acquisition as well as the arrival of Carnival Celebration in November, Carnivals fleet will be 24 ships, as the cruise line continues to thrive post-pandemic.
