Carnival Cruise Lines officially announced that the scheduled delivery of the cruise ship “Mardi Gras” will eventually be delayed. Specifically, the LNG-powered cruise vessel’s launch has been extended from August to late October 2020.
For the records, the 5,282-passenger “Mardi Gras” will be North America’s first LNG-fueled cruise ship.
As the officials at the Meyer Turku shipyard further informed, the first revenue sailing of the cruise vessel will depart from Port Canaveral on 14 November 2020.
Moreover, the first eight sailings that were programmed to start on 31 August have been cancelled, involving European, transatlantic and New York-based itineraries and four Port Canaveral itineraries.
We have been working closely with Meyer Turku executives to keep the Mardi Gras delivery on schedule, and while we deeply regret disappointing our guests, this change in the delivery date is required to make sure all of the ship’s systems, features and technology will be fully operational, so that we can give our guests the vacation they expect. Our commitment is to deliver a great and innovative ship, and Mardi Gras will definitely be that when it arrives in North America.
…noted Ben Clement, Carnival Cruise Line’s senior vice president of newbuild.
Overall, recently this month, on 5 December Carnival Corporation successfully delivered the world’s second LNG cruise ship named as “Costa Smeralda” while several days ago joined in the “Getting to Zero Coalition” in order to boost the decarbonization matter of the global shipping industry.