Carnival Cruise Line has reached out to thousands of booked guests to alert them to embarkation changes for nearly 200 upcoming sailings on two vessels. Carnival Pride and Carnival Spirit are both impacted by this round of adjustments, which effects sailings as early as next month and as far in the future as spring 2027.
Carnival Pride is homeported year-round from Baltimore, Maryland, offering Bahamas, Bermuda, Panama Canal, Eastern Caribbean, Southern Caribbean, and Greenland itineraries. The ship’s departure time for a wide range of departures is now moved 30 minutes earlier.
“We have revised departure time for your cruise and now plan to sail from Baltimore at 4:30 PM (instead of 5:00 PM) eastern time,” the notification read.
While a 30-minute time change may not be significant to most travelers, it may have an impact over the next few sailings. The adjustment includes all of Carnival Pride‘s December 2024 sailings, and those passengers may already have made plans to reach the cruise terminal.
Sailings through 2025, 2026, and into spring 2027 are also impacted. In total, 103 Carnival Pride cruises are now featuring this embarkation adjustment. This includes every 7-night sailing the ship is making from December 1, 2024 through and including April 25, 2027, regardless of destination.
Similar changes are also being made to itineraries aboard Carnival Pride’s sister ship, Carnival Spirit, sailing from Mobile, Alabama as well as her summer 2025 Alaska season from Seattle, Washington.
The departure change is the same – 30 minutes earlier – but the ship will now depart at 3:30 p.m. instead of 4 p.m.
As with Carnival Pride, Carnival Spirit‘s itineraries are now shifted from December 1, 2024 through March 2027. While not all of the ship’s itineraries are fully published for that time frame, more than 50 departure dates are confirmed on the revision list. It is likely that altogether, roughly 100 cruises will now have the new, earlier departure time.
The ship’s longer sailings, such as her March 16, 2025 transatlantic cruise departure from Barcelona following an extensive dry dock, are not impacted by the departure change.
For all impacted dates, all passengers must still be onboard the 86,000-gross-ton, Spirit class ships by the final boarding times printed on their respective boarding passes. Furthermore, there are no anticipated changes to any of the impacted itineraries’ ports of call.
Carnival Pride Docked in Baltimore (Photo Credit: Port of Baltimore)
As sister ships, Carnival Pride and Carnival Spirit are similar in size, layout, and amenities. Carnival Spirit joined the Fun Ship fleet as the lead in her class in 2001, followed in 2002 by Carnival Pride.
Both vessels can welcome 2,124 guests at double occupancy and are also home to 930 international crew members who stand ready to ensure all guests have a brilliant cruise, no matter what time the ships set sail.
Why So Many Changes?
Carnival Cruise Line has not explained why Carnival Pride and Carnival Spirit both have so many departure time shifts. It is possible it could be related to port operations at Baltimore, Mobile, and Seattle, or may be an effort to improve fuel efficiency by adjusting sailing speeds.
The earlier time shift could also be a result of improved embarkation processing. This could be related to the implementation of facial recognition technology which helps all guests be onboard the ship sooner, permitting an earlier overall departure.
Read Also: Carnival’s Faster to the Fun (FTTF) – Is It Worth It?
While some guests in the first few impacted cruises may need to adjust their travel plans to the cruise port to ensure they arrive on time for the earlier departure, most passengers will not need to make significant adaptations as they head for their cruises.
Would a 30-minute departure change affect your travel plans? Would you prefer your cruise ship to set sail sooner if possible? Share your thoughts on the Cruise Hive boards!
Source: Cruisehive.com
