Following an emergency evacuation and the development of technical issues impacting the ship’s top cruising speed, Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Liberty will now have a very late return back to her Louisiana homeport.

The ship is not expected to arrive back in New Orleans until late afternoon on Sunday, December 1, 2024. While this is the same day scheduled for the end of the ship’s 7-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary, cruise ships typically return to their homeports in the wee morning hours, with debarkation beginning between 7-8 a.m.

As of 9 a.m. Sunday morning, satellite tracking data shows the vessel approaching the Mississippi River Delta, but Carnival Liberty must still navigate significantly up the river to reach the cruise port. At the moment, the estimated time of arrival is not until 2:45 p.m., but that will be updated as the ship’s progress continues.

Guests booked on the next sailing have been notified of the very late, revised embarkation and updates to their terminal arrival appointments.

“Our engineers have been making progress with the repair work and we are now expecting to dock in New Orleans late afternoon Sunday, December 1,” the notification confirmed. “We must allow debarking guests to leave the cruise terminal and parking facility before we can accommodate your arrival.”

All cruise terminal arrival appointments are now rescheduled with a significant delay, ranging from 9-9.5 hours depending on the original time. All guests must be checked in at the cruise terminal no later than 11 p.m.

“To ensure a smooth embarkation experience, please adhere to this schedule,” the email said. “Guests who arrive earlier will be asked to return at their newly assigned time.”

Carnival Cruise Line is providing a $25 (USD) per person onboard credit to guests’ Sail & Sign accounts as compensation for the delay and to provide to lunch, as they are no longer able to board the ship for lunch as planned.

Once guests are able to embark, the evening dinner service will be open seating in the main dining rooms and the Lido buffet. This means that the assigned dining times will not apply, and guests will be seated first come, first served in order to accommodate as many guests as efficiently as possible.

It is not known when staterooms will be available for guests to access, though undoubtedly, the housekeeping team and all cabin attendants will be working hard to turn over cabins as quickly as possible.

During such significant delays, guests onboard the ship are generally asked to leave their staterooms as the ship draws closer to the cruise terminal, with different lounges and areas opened for waiting. This permits the housekeeping team to get started on their work as much as possible.

Before the ship arrives, the entertainment team and Fun Squad will undoubtedly be providing extra activities as well, doing everything possible to make the extra time onboard fun even though it is unexpected.

As a matter of interest, the December 1 departure is also planned as Carnival Liberty‘s first Christmas cruise of the season. It is possible the decorating schedule might be changed due to this unexpected delay if the decorating company is unable to work on the ship with her late return.

Will There Be More Impacts on the Next Sailing?

At this time, it is unknown whether or not Carnival Liberty‘s next sailing will need itinerary changes following her late start to the cruise.

Read Also: What You Should Know About Cruise Port Cancellations

The December 1 departure is a highly-anticipated 14-night Carnival Journeys cruise to the Panama Canal. Ports of call on the bucket-list voyage include Grand Cayman, Aruba, Curacao, Cartagena, Colon, Costa Rica, and Cozumel.

While no itinerary changes have yet been announced, it is possible that one or more ports of call may be adjusted or even cancelled to accommodate the ship’s delay.

This is especially possible if the propulsion issue has not yet been fully resolved, though the cruise line has made no announcement to that effect and the ship appears to have been sailing near her top speed en route back to New Orleans.

Guests will be notified as soon as possible if any itinerary modifications are necessary.

Two cruising families can be thankful for the hard work and dedication of United States Coast Guard (USCG) rescue teams after unexpected airlifts from two different Carnival-owned cruise ships in just 24 hours.

Both vessels – Holland America Line’s Koningsdam and Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Panorama – are sailing on the West Coast with Mexican itineraries. The medical incidents are unrelated, but the amazing response of the USCG teams is the same in both situations.

On Koningsdam, the call for an urgent airlift was received by USCG watchstanders (individuals trained to monitor radio calls for assistance) at 7:12 a.m. on Friday morning, November 29, 2024.

At the time, Koningsdam was sailing approximately 280 miles south of the US and Mexico border on her last sea day of a 7-night Baja Peninsula cruise that had departed San Diego on November 23.

A 66-year-old female passenger was reported with symptoms of a stroke, and onboard medical personnel recommended the evacuation so more specialized care could be administered from a hospital on land.

Coast Guard Air Station San Diego dispatched an MH-60 Dolphin helicopter crew for the evacuation, while Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento launched a C-27 to offer assistance with coordinating communications.

Worth Reading: Coast Guard Conducts Two Urgent Guest Airlifts from Carnival Ships

The passenger was hoisted aboard the helicopter and transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla in San Diego. While no further details about her identity have been released in order to protect her privacy and that of her traveling companions and family, her condition is reported as stable.

“Rescues like this are exactly what our crews train for,” said Lieutenant Brady Stepan, pilot, Air Station San Diego. “Through coordination from the command center and outstanding support from our C-27 cover aircraft crew, we were able to get the patient to higher-level care.”

You can watch a video below of the Koningsdam airlift by the US Coast Guard:

There was no delay to Koningsdam‘s schedule and the vessel arrived back in San Diego as planned. The vessel’s next itinerary, a 10-night Mexican Riviera and Sea of Cortez voyage, should depart as planned.

This is not the first time this year that Koningsdam has required medical evacuation assistance. In April, a 65-year-old male guest was evacuated offshore of Tillamook, Oregon under challenging weather conditions.

Second Rescue – Carnival Panorama

At the same time Koningsdam was calling for medical assistance, a second rescue situation was developing aboard Carnival Panorama just as the ship was concluding a 7-night Mexican Riviera itinerary.

Carnival Panorama departed Long Beach, California on Saturday, November 23, 2024 and it was on the last day of the cruise that a medical evacuation was requested.

While few details of this specific situation have been released, guests onboard the newly-revitalized ship have noted that a call for blood donors had been made late the evening before. It is unknown whether the two medical incidents on Carnival Panorama are related.

Furthermore, no details about the age of the evacuated guest or the type of medical situation have been released.

Undoubtedly, the families of both evacuated passengers are grateful for the assistance of the dedicated USCG rescue crews who serve tirelessly to offer help to all those who need it. These crews operate in all weather conditions and under sometimes challenging hazards to ensure everyone is able to get emergency care.

As with Koningsdam, the impacted passenger from the Carnival cruise ship was airlifted aboard a USCG helicopter for evacuation so more specialized care could be provided.

Carnival Panorama continued sailing as planned and was able to return to Long Beach on Saturday, November 30 on schedule. The ship’s next itinerary, a 6-night sailing, is not impacted and will depart the southern California homeport on time.

Carnival Panorama has been involved in a multiple-rescue situation previously. In April 2023, an airlift from the ship was the first of three airlifts performed in 24 hours off the coast of southern California. The other two rescues were from Majestic Princess and Carnival Spirit.

When it comes to delays, Carnival Liberty has just been hit with a double whammy as she nears the end of her current 7-night Eastern Caribbean voyage. 

The Conquest-class vessel will be delayed in its return to New Orleans, Louisiana, after diverting to disembark an ailing guest and then developing propulsion issues soon after. 

While the ship was initially supposed to dock at 8 a.m. local time on the morning of December 1, 2024, she is now expected to arrive sometime in the afternoon. 

The 2,974-guest ship originally called on Key West, Florida, as the first stop of the sailing on November 26. But due to a medical emergency onboard, the vessel circled back on November 29 to allow an ailing passenger to receive urgent treatment from a local hospital. 

“As you know, last night, Friday, November 29, we had to deviate course to Key West to disembark a guest who needed urgent medical care ashore,” reads a letter from Carnival Liberty Captain Arik Mazzi. 

The distance between Key West and New Orleans is only a few hundred nautical miles – which a cruise ship can easily sail in a day, especially as November 30 was already a planned sea day. 

However, the 110,00-gross ton ship also developed propulsion issues after the diversion – which has caused a significant slow down. 

“In addition, the ship has developed an issue that is impacting our sailing speed. Combined, these matters are affecting our timely return to New Orleans tomorrow, Sunday, December 1,” continued Captain Mazzi’s letter.

While the Captain was unable to provide an accurate arrival time just yet, he assured current guests that Carnival’s engineers were already hard at work to address the issue and that he would follow up with updates on progress and timing on the evening of November 30. 

It’s unclear if Carnival will be offering any compensation for the delay, but the major cruise lines will often automatically reschedule airfare booked through the cruise line or reimburse change fees for travel that is directly impacted by the delay. 

The other two calls on the itinerary – which were on Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas – took place on November 27 and November 28, before the medical evacuation and propulsion issues occurred. 

Will the Next Sailing be Impacted?

As is the usual practice among the major cruise lines, Carnival Liberty was supposed to disembark her current passengers in the morning and be ready to embark on a new sailing the same evening. 

In this case, the next sailing is a 14-night, round-trip cruise through the Panama Canal – calling on destinations like Oranjestad, Aruba; Willemstad, Curacao; Cartagena, Colombia;  Colon, Panama;  Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; and Cozumel, Mexico. 

The 2005-launched ship was supposed to set sail at 5:00 p.m. local time, but her departure will almost certainly be pushed back by several hours at least due to the delay.

Depending on the length of the delay once in port, it’s also possible that some port calls could be skipped or rearranged.

It’s important to note that this is assuming that the engineering team will be able to resolve the unspecified propulsion issues in time for the next sailing to go ahead – although the onboard engineering team is already collaborating with engineers on land to make the fix. 

But depending on the nature of the issue, there’s always a chance that Carnival Liberty will need to remain in port for longer than expected – or even cancel bookings in order to make repairs. 

For example, Carnival Vista had to cancel a sailing for emergency repairs in September – and then suffered more propulsion-related delays in October. 

More recently, Princess Cruises – which is owned by Carnival – had to cancel three sailings in a row for Regal Princess due to ongoing power problems.

That said, Carnival Liberty isn’t known for engine or propulsion problems and has remained up to date on routine maintenance through scheduled dry dock visits.

She was most recently in dry dock in 2021 – during which time she received a new livery – and is scheduled to return for standard maintenance and inspections in Summer 2025.

Every cruise passenger has ideas of how to run a cruise line more efficiently and what crew members ought to do to ensure a better onboard experience. Guests rarely know all the behind-the-scenes details of ship operations, however, and not every suggestion guests may make is possible to fulfill.

This is the case with one traveler’s outrage and insistence at a recent situation aboard Carnival Valor, an incident that obviously infuriated them and caused them to reach out to the cruise line’s Brand Ambassador, John Heald.

“I just wanted to ask why Carnival doesn’t have a worker stationed in the self service laundry rooms. They should be telling people that do laundry on a cruise ship to set a timer or something so their clean laundry doesn’t sit in the washing machine or dryer for hours on end,” the guest suggested.

The guest is obviously upset about the situation in the ship’s launderette, as they go on to exclaim “It is not fair! It is not right!” before further explaining.

“While doing laundry on Valor, there were people that put their laundry in the machines, and didn’t return for HOURS,” the guest continued. “This was the last sea day, I got so mad that I literally took the stuff out of the machines and put it on the floor! Where were the Carnival crew?”

It is true that there are no crew members routinely stationed in onboard self-service laundry rooms, a staffing suggestion that Heald confirmed will not be changed.

“Can I start by saying that I know very little about the rules that apply in a self service launderette,” he said. “Obviously we cannot have a staff member sitting in the laundry watching what happens.”

Most individuals who regularly use self-service, unattended laundry rooms understand the unwritten rule that if their clothing is left unattended for a long period, it may be moved out of a machine – either washer or dryer – so another person can use it.

This can be a touchy action for some people, however, who may be reluctant to touch another traveler’s laundry and potentially risk an unpleasant altercation. Even if the laundry is clean, some people may also be a bit squeamish about touching some unknown “unmentionables.”

Other commenters did respond to the original poster, agreeing that signage urging quick removal of items would be helpful in the laundry rooms onboard Carnival cruise ships.

Other suggestions are that crew members could at least check for unattended items that would then be moved to guest services, or perhaps laundry timers could be integrated into the Carnival Hub app as reminders.

What most respondents disagree with, however, is the idea that the original poster put the clean laundry on the floor rather than on a nearby table or on top of a machine.

Most cruise ship self-serve laundry rooms are small facilities, and there may not be a table available for items to be placed on. Similarly, the washers and dryers are often stacked to save space, and therefore clean items could not be put on top of a nearby machine.

While the original poster did not clarify when they were sailing aboard Carnival Valor, the 110,438-gross-ton, Conquest class ship is currently homeported from New Orleans, offering 4- and 5-night Western Caribbean itineraries.

Does Everyone Do Laundry While Cruising?

Heald followed up on the laundry room dilemma by featuring it in a poll, asking if travelers can enjoy a longer cruise without needing a laundry day.

Of the more than 23,000 votes cast in less than an hour, 30% (roughly 7,030) agree that “I could easily pack for a seven or eight day cruise knowing I would not have to do any laundry at all.”

Just 5% of voters (approximately 1,170) note that “I could never do a seven day or an eight day cruise without doing some kind of laundry or sending laundry to be done on the ship.”

In more than 40 cruises, I have only done laundry one time onboard, and that was an emergency stain situation that couldn’t wait until after traveling home. Some passengers, however, do not like putting dirty laundry back in their luggage or they prefer to pack less and wash clothes to rewear during longer cruises.

Read Also: Cruise Ship Laundry – What You Need to Know

To be clear, not all cruise ships have self-serve laundry facilities, and therefore doing one’s own laundry onboard may not always be an option. The Excel class vessels, including Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Jubilee, don’t currently have self-serve laundry rooms.

Guests can always, however, send out their laundry for the ship’s crew to wash, albeit for an additional charge. Both wash-and-fold services as well as more delicate dry cleaning services are available.

On Carnival ships, guests who have reached the Platinum or Diamond level in the VIFP loyalty program also have some complimentary wash-and-fold services as part of their perks, which many travelers appreciate.