South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
New Carnival Celebration cruise ship details revealed
The sister ship to Carnival’s Mardi Gras is joining the cruise line’s Florida fleet this year, and while it will share a lot of the same features as the debut ship in the line’s innovative class, it will have its own identity.
The second of what is now Carnival Cruise Line’s largest vessels, Carnival Celebration will also be 1,130 feet long, 180,800 gross tons and have a 5,282-passenger capacity based on double occupancy. The line has dubbed these ships its Excel class, and part of that is segregating areas of the ship into neighborhoods much in the same was as Royal Caribbean has for its massive Oasis-class ships.
The cruise ship will be the first powered by liquefied natural gas to homeport in Miami, and only the third in North America following Mardi Gras’ debut last summer and the arrival of Disney Wish this summer to Port Canaveral. LNG fuel is a cleaner-burning fuel than the diesel most ships rely on. Celebration will sail out of the redesigned Terminal F at PortMiami beginning Nov. 21.
Mardi Gras’ six neighborhoods are Grand Central, French Quarter, La Piazza, Summer Landing, Lido and The Ultimate Playground.
But Carnival Celebration is only keeping Summer Landing, Lido and The Ultimate Playground, and changing up the other three.
The line revealed details of its version of Grand Central, which it’s calling Celebration Central, but is holding back news about the other two neighborhoods.
As far as Celebration
Central goes, this is the three-deck atrium space on board, which also features a massive 3,000-square-foot, starboard-side, floor-toceiling windows off the ship, which is unlike most cruise lines for which the atrium is cut off from the exterior.
The design features 1,400 color-changing lighting fixtures made to look like confetti shot out of a cannon. The entire space that covers Deck 6, 7 and 8 will change lighting and feel from day into night, and includes 16 individually controlled,
6-by-14-foot LED screens that cover up the window space and can be used for stage performances and other presentations planned for the atrium.
Also in Celebration Central are some venues with nods to Carnival ships past, as the vessel is debuting during the cruise line’s 50th anniversary. That includes the Aquaria Bar and its ocean-themed glass murals from Carnival Victory by Italian artist Luciano Vistosi. Also in the space will be the Tropicale
Bar, which pays homage to the MS Tropicale that debuted in 1982 and was the first custom-built ship for Carnival, and the first to feature the line’s signature funnel.
“From a design perspective, we are incorporating elements from our former ships, paying homage to the history of Carnival, and also showcasing Carnival Celebration as a modern, innovative and forward-looking vessel,” said Ben Clement, senior vice president of new builds, refurbishment
and product innovation in a press release. “While similar to Mardi Gras with a plethora of options for dining, entertainment and relaxation, Celebration will have her own personality, one that celebrates all things Carnival, intertwining where we have been with where we are going.”
Celebration Central also features line mainstays JavaBlue Café, Bonsai Sushi, Bonsai Teppanyaki, Piano Bar 88 and The Punchliner Comedy Club.
The line also updated
progress for the central feature of its space dubbed The Ultimate Playground, namely the BOLT roller coaster. The first iteration of BOLT became the debut roller coaster at sea on board Mardi Gras. What will be the second coaster at sea has been assembled on land by attraction designer Mauer Rides.
The company is testing it in Munich, Germany before taking it to Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland where the ship was recently floated out for the first time.