Carnival posts best-ever booking week as CDC drops COVID cruise ship warning
Carnival will put a new Excel-class ship into service in 2023
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Carnival Cruise Line said Monday that it had posted its best-ever booking week in the company's history.
The company reported that its busiest booking week was from March 28 to April 3, 2022.
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Carnival noted that the week showed a double-digit increase from the previous record seven-day booking total.
"The excitement of the industry’s restart, our successful return of our entire fleet, the guest reaction to Mardi Gras, our loyal guest response to our 50th birthday this year, the support of our travel advisor partners — and of course, the amazing work of our Carnival team — have all contributed to the strong demand we are seeing, and this record-breaking booking week," Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy said in a statement.
The Carnival Freedom is seen February 18, 2013 in Key West, Florida. (KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Duffy added that all sales channels contributed to the results, including Carnival.com, travel advisers, the Carnival guest contact center and personal vacation planners.
Now, 22 of its 23 ships are back in guest operations across all year-round U.S. homeports.
By the end of 2022, it will have more capacity sailing than in 2019.
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In 2023, it will put another new Excel-class ship into service: Carnival Jubilee from Galveston, Texas.
With the restart of cruising in Australia, Carnival is also financing plans to return to the country.
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"Its final ship, Carnival Splendor, will return to service from Seattle on May 2, and then Carnival will welcome its newest ship, Carnival Celebration, to Port Miami in November," the company said.
This announcement comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifted its COVID-19 travel warning for cruises last month.
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The travel health notice was lowered from "very high" to "high" in mid-February, then from "high" to "moderate" in mid-March.
"While cruising will always pose some risk of COVID-19 transmission, travelers will make their own risk assessment when choosing to travel on a cruise ship, much like they do in all other travel settings," the agency said.
FOX Business' Paul Best contributed to this report.