There’s big news for Carnival… literally. The popular cruise line announced that it was officially welcomed its newest ship — Carnival Jubilee — during a ceremony at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany.
Measuring roughly 180,000 gross tons, Jubilee is the third of the Excel-class ships to be built for the Carnival fleet. joins Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration as the largest ships in the lineup.
These ships feature a radically different design than older Carnival ships, complete with a center theater, the only roller coaster at sea, and nearly two dozen spots to get a meal or a snack. Put simply this large class of ships can offer more of everything.
For Texas cruisers, the arrival of Carnival Jubilee is especially exciting. The ship will homeport in Galveston, marking the largest and newest Carnival ship to sail from the Texas island.
“This ship will bring our most dynamic offering of fun to one of our most popular homeports and will be a great addition to our plans to remain the number one cruise line in Galveston,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.
In fact, the new ship will even feature a Texas star on its bow, a small but important detail that shows the cruise line’s dedication to sailing from the port. In 2001, Carnival became the first line to sail year round from Galveston, essentially kicking off the boom in cruising for the island.
All told, Carnival will now have four different ships sailing from the island once Carnival Miracle also makes its arrival to Galveston in 2024.
More than just growth in Galveston, however, Carnival’s fleet is rapidly expanding following the pandemic where it actually retired many older, less efficient ships. Since then, Carnival Jubilee marks the fifth ship to be added since 2021. That includes Mardi Gras, Celebration, and Jubilee as newbuilds. The cruise line has also taken on Carnival Luminosa and Venezia from sister line Costa. Another Costa ship will join the fleet in 2024 as Carnival Firenze.
Carnival Jubilee’s first cruise is scheduled for December 23 from Galveston. It will sail 7-day cruises around Mexico and the western Caribbean for the foreseeable future. To prepare, the Port of Galveston invested $53 million to upgrade its Terminal 25 to handle the larger LNG-powered ship and to make improvements to the terminal itself.
