MIAMI BEACH -- Christine Duffy, a cowboy-hat-wearing Christine Duffy, took on Arnold Donald, Carnival Corp. CEO at CruiseWorld today. He announced that the Carnival Jubilee will be the third ship of Carnival Cruise Line's Excel Class. It will launch from Galveston in Texas.
When it arrives in 2023, the 5,400-passenger Jubilee cruises the Western Caribbean; tickets go on sale in 2022.
Carnival's president Duffy told CruiseWorld attendees that the ship will be called the Jubilee in a "nod to our past" and with an eye toward the future.
Carnival continues to name its ships after their original vessels in the Excel class. The Celebration will be the second ship in this class currently under construction. The first was the Mardi Gras which was Carnival's first ship.
Carnival claimed that the original Celebration, Jubilee and Jubilee cruise ships were the first to dock in Galveston. The Jubilee was in 2002 and the Celebration in 2000.
The new ships are distinguished by their use of liquefied petroleum gas and their size relative to their namesakes. The next Jubilee will have four times the size.
The Carnival Jubilee. Photo credit: Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival will be celebrating its 50th year next year. Duffy stated that the line is thrilled to relaunch the Jubilee name. She said that it will include "some fun, new additions that will be revealed over time."
Duffy was on the podium during Donald's Presidential chat with Travel Weekly editor-in chief Arnie Weissmann.
She tipped her cowboy hat and said that Galveston is becoming a popular drive port and "draws guests from many parts of the south, west, and Midwest."
All 22 Carnival ships from the US fleet will sail by March, including the Carnival Radiance, Long Beach, Calif. and the Sensation, Mobile, Ala. In Florida, the Paradise, Tampa, and the Ecstasy, Jacksonville.
For families that sail on them, Camp Ocean is open to all children who have been vaccinated.
