Carnival Cruise Lines - Getting Back in the Water
January 24, 2006
Carnival Cruise Lines will be returning a group of three vessels to full
service this spring following their charter to the U.S. government after
Hurricane Katrina. Carnival Cruise Lines' Sensation, Holiday and Ecstasy will
re-enter the world of FunShip
cruise vacations in early spring.
Carnival Cruise Lines said the vessels will resume four- and five-day cruises in
March and April. Before they sail again, however, they will be renovated and
cleaned from top to bottom, ensuring that the passengers-to be will receive the
Carnival experience they deserve.
Carnival Cruise Lines' Sensation, which was docked in New Orleans, launches a
Caribbean schedule from Port Canaveral, Florida, in spring. Since September 5th,
2005 Sensation's 4- and 5-day Bahamas and
Western Caribbean cruises were
cancelled. On March 23rd, 2006, Sensation will resume its cruising, with its
first sailing a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas, during which she will stop in
Nassau and Freeport.
The Carnival Cruise Lines' Holiday, which initially housed several hundred
Katrina victims in Mobile, Alabama, then sailed to Pascagoula, Mississippi, will
return to Mobile on March 27th to operate year-round
Mexico sailings. Calica/Playa
del Carmen and Cozumel, Mexico---a city that is on the mend from being ravaged by
Hurricane Wilma, by the way---are the scheduled ports of call on Holiday's
sailings.
Ecstasy heads back to Galveston, Texas, after being docked in New Orleans, for
year-round Mexico sailings on April 8. While Ecstasy was helping with the
Katrina relief effort, her sister ship,
Elation, was handling Ecstasy's
itineraries, which included 4- and 5-day cruises to the Western Caribbean.
The government had received a lot of criticism for the ways in which Katrina was
handled, but perhaps one of the most hot-button issues was when they paid $192
million to lease the three
Carnival Cruise Line ships. Many in the public,
citizens and politicians alike, severely questioned the move.
And while the initial intent of the federal government was to house victims of
Katrina in these ships, the Carnival cruise ships instead ended up providing
housing to the thousands of workers and their families who were there to assist
in the rebuilding and relief projects. "They are bending over backward for us,"
Captain Bryson of the New Orleans police had said of his stay with
Carnival
Cruise Lines.
Now, it's good to know that things are getting back to normal; one thing that
won't change, however, is that Carnival will still bend over backward to make
its guests happy. Call Cruise Network at 1-888-267-1232 to book a cruise on the
Holiday, Sensation, Ecstasy, or make reservations on any other Carnival cruise
ship.
