Throughout the beginning of September, Carnival has been rolling out waves of itinerary changes to future sailings – and the cruise line has just announced more revisions for two additional ships: Carnival Vista and Carnival Sunrise.
While cruise lines make tweaks all the time to account for reasons like scheduling, maintenance needs across the fleet, and port congestion, it’s interesting that a lot of the newly released changes eliminate visits to Half Moon Cay, the cruise line’s private island destination in the Bahamas.
However, this may be due to construction going on at the island to add a new pier that will be capable of accommodating the cruise line’s mega-ships, such as Carnival Jubilee, which launched in 2023 with a capacity of 6,630 passengers.
It’s unclear when the new pier will be completed, but it’s expected to be done in time for Carnival’s massive Excel-Class ships – including Carnival Jubilee, Mardi Gras, and Carnival Celebration – to begin sailing to the exclusive island paradise in 2026 and 2027.
Currently, Carnival and its sister brands can only access the port using smaller tender ships, which ferry guests from their cruise ship to the shore in around 20 minutes, because the water isn’t deep enough for cruise ships.
Carnival’s Latest Itinerary Changes
The earliest sailing to be impacted will be operated by Carnival Vista and is due to set sail from Port Canaveral (Orlando), Florida, on January 5, 2025.
The 6-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary called for stops at Half Moon Cay, Puerto Plata / Amber Cove, Dominican Republic; and Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos. However, the visit to Half Moon Cay has been swapped out with a day in Nassau, Bahamas.
The Vista-class vessel will also see changes to its itineraries to sailings embarking on February 16, 2025, March 30, 2025, and February 7, 2026. The first two are 6-night Eastern Caribbean sailings, while the final of the three is an 8-night voyage to the same region.
But, while the cruise length might vary, all three itineraries are replacing their scheduled call on Half Moon Cay with a visit to Princess Cays, the private island destination that is operated by Princess Cruises.
But since Princess is a Carnival-owned brand, Carnival cruise ships can still visit the exclusive destination. Carnival Sunrise will also be skipping some of her planned calls on Half Moon Cay.
The 2,754-guest vessel is supposed to embark on a round trip sailing to Half Moon Cay, and Celebration Key, the cruise line’s second private island destination, on January 15, 2025. However, the 4-night voyage will see Half Moon Cay be replaced by Princess Cays.
On a similar note, an earlier (but identical) 4-night sailing, which will embark from Miami, Florida, on January 15, 2025, will still call on Half Moon Cay, but on a different day than initially planned.
Conversely, completely going against the pattern, the Sunshine-class ship will be replacing a call on Princess Cays with a visit to Half Moon Cay.
This change impacts a 5-night Eastern Caribbean sailing – which will also call on Grand Turk and Celebration Key – that will set sail from Miami on September 1, 2025.
The final two changes to Carnival Sunrise’s itineraries aren’t specifically related to replacing private island experiences – deviating from the other changes in this round of revisions.
Read Also: What to Expect When You Go on a Carnival Cruise
The 101,509-gross ton vessel’s 5-night Eastern Caribbean sailing, which embarks on February 8, 2025, will actually replace Nassau, the intended first port call of the voyage, with Freeport, Bahamas.
Later in the year, the 5-night sailing embarking on September 29, 2025, will still call on all the ports on the itinerary, but in the reverse order. The ports in question include Celebration Key, Half Moon Cay, and Grand Turk.
