The Carnival Freedom repairs have been completed, and the vessel is returning to service from Port Canaveral, Florida, on June 11, 2022. It comes after the ship spent some time in the Bahamas to make repairs due to a fire that broke out at the end of May 2022.
Carnival Freedom Returns to Service
After being taken out of service for urgent repairs, the Carnival Freedom cruise ship is bringing back the fun to thousands of guests from June 11, 2022.
A fire broke out onboard the Conquest-class vessel on May 26 while docked in Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The fire was mainly within the ship’s iconic red, white and blue funnel and, at the time, was a significant threat to the vessel.
Thanks to the vessel’s fire crews and local authorities, the funnel fire was eventually extinguished with no injuries reported among the crew or guests. However, the fire forced the cruise line to cancel multiple sailings and take another sister ship out of service to help get all the guests back to Port Canaveral.
The good news is that the repair work to the Carnival Freedom has now been completed at the Grand Bahama shipyard in Freeport, Bahamas.
The iconic funnel is not the same as before, and the two fins that come out of the side have both been removed. The vessel now has a more traditional funnel look. The work started while the ship was still in Grand Turk after a technical team assessed the damage.
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Carnival stated at the time, “Our technical team from Miami will be joining the ship later today to conduct a technical assessment and plan for the necessary repairs which will be made at the shipyard in Grand Bahama. This means that Carnival Freedom will not be sailing back to Port Canaveral.”
It’s likely once the ship undergoes a more scheduled official dry dock, the funnel will be fully back to how it was before the fire.
Carnival Freedom will now return to guests operations from Port Canaveral on June 11 as scheduled. The vessel will depart at approximately 3:30 PM on a five-day cruise to Nassau, Princess Cays and Grand Turk.
What Cruises Were Impacted After the Fire?
Repairs to the funnel onboard Carnival Freedom resulted in cancellations of that current May 23 sailing, along with the sailings departing on May 28, June 2 and June 6.
When the fire broke out on the sailing, it was no surprise that it was canceled. With the lack of air transportation from the island, the cruise line decided to use its sister ship, the Carnival Conquest.
The sister ship’s May 27 three-night voyage from Miami, Florida, was canceled as a result. Then the ship headed to Grand Turk to pick up all guests from the Carnival Freedom and take them back to Port Canaveral.
For Carnival Freedom’s following May 28 voyage and the two canceled sailings in June, guests were offered compensation, including a future cruise credit.
Carnival Freedom last underwent a scheduled dry dock in February and March of 2019. The ship is 110,000 gross tons with a passenger capacity of 2,990 and 1,250 international crew members.
