Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Celebration has been voted the Best New Cruise Ship of 2022 in Cruise Hive’s annual Cruise Ship Awards. The 5,374-guest ship was in competition with nine other new vessels that debuted during the year.
Carnival Celebration Is Best New Cruise Ship
Expectations were high for Carnival Celebration, the cruise line’s second Excel-class vessel after Mardi Gras, since it was voted Most Anticipated New Cruise Ship of 2022 in Cruise Hive’s Cruise Ship Awards.
Carnival Celebration received 34% of the votes for Best New Cruise Ship of 2022, coming in ahead of second-place Wonder of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship that garnered 26% of the votes, and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Prima, which received 14% of the votes.
Other ships that competed for the Best New Cruise Ship of 2022 award were P&O Cruises’ Arvia, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Beyond, Princess Cruises’ Discovery Princess, Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Wish, Viking Cruises’ Viking Mars, and MSC Cruises’ MSC Seascape and MSC World Europa. Readers could only cast a single vote in each category.
Carnival Celebration is the largest ship in the Carnival Cruise Line fleet, with a gross tonnage of 183,521, 19 decks, and 2,600 staterooms. The ship was built by Meyer Turku in Finland at the cost of $1 billion.
Voting for the 2022 awards opened up in September, with readers being able to make cast a single vote in each of the eight categories. Any suspicious or repeated votes were not included in the final result. The awards have been running since 2014 and, each year, are open for Cruise Hive readers.
Carnival Celebration Sails the Caribbean From PortMiami
Carnival Cruise Line took delivery of Carnival Celebration at the shipyard on November 2, 2022, and she then became the first new Carnival ship to arrive in the UK in 20 years, sailing her inaugural cruise from Southampton, England, on November 6, 2022. The maiden voyage included port calls in La Coruña and Vigo, Spain; Funchal (Maderia), Portugal; and Tenerife (Canary Islands), Spain.
The ship arrived in Miami on November 20, following her transatlantic cruise from England. Sailing from Terminal F at PortMiami, the ship is operating a winter series of Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises.
Carnival Celebration features 13 bar/lounges and eight specialty restaurants: Bonsai Sushi, Bonsai Teppanyaki, Cucina del Capitano, Emeril’s Bistro 1396, JavaBlue Cafe, Rudi’s Seagrill, The Seafood Shack, and Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse.
Carnival Celebration’s attractions include BOLT: Ultimate Sea Coaster, which was voted the Best Cruise Ship Feature in the Cruise Ship Awards. The roller coaster, located in the Ultimate Playground portion of the ship, lets guests soar 187 feet above the sea and reaches speeds of 40 MPH. BOLT beat out second-place winner Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate Abyss and third-place winner Norwegian Cruise Line’s Go-Karts in the 2022 award category.
Carnival Celebration’s Ultimate playground area also is home to the ship’s water park, mini golf courses, sports courses like a basketball court, and a ropes course.
Carnival Cruise Line’s third Excel-class ship, Carnival Jubilee, is under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. It is scheduled to debut in late 2023 and be home-ported in Galveston, Texas.
