MIAMI, Feb. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival
Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's
largest leisure travel company, today announced that Cuba has granted approval for its Carnival
Cruise Line brand to begin sailing to Cuba starting in June
2017.
To help meet strong demand from U.S. travelers to visit
Cuba, Carnival Cruise Line will
offer a full series of sailings in 2017, expanding Carnival
Corporation's total sailings to Cuba in 2017 and providing more travelers with
the opportunity to visit the Caribbean's largest island.
Carnival Corporation made history in May
2016 as the first U.S. cruise company to sail to
Cuba in over 40 years with its
Fathom brand, which is currently sailing from Miami to Cuba
through May 2017, and has operated
more sailings to Cuba than any
other U.S. cruise brand to date.
Building on Fathom's historic sailings, Carnival Cruise Line
plans to deploy Carnival Paradise for a series of 4- and 5-day
voyages out of Port Tampa Bay in
the second half of 2017 that will include a daytime and overnight
visit to Cuba. Based on guest
capacity, the 2,052-passenger Carnival Paradise will become the
largest cruise ship in history to sail from the U.S. to
Havana when the ship arrives in
June, further expanding Carnival Corporation's presence in
Cuba as the company anticipates
approval for other brands to also sail to Cuba.
Carnival Cruise Line is now accepting bookings for its sailings
that include a visit to Havana in
2017.
"We are pleased to again be granted approval to sail to
Cuba. This time it's for our
namesake brand, Carnival Cruise Line," said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation. "Our
iconic Carnival brand has carried tens of millions of passengers to
the Caribbean during its nearly
45-year history, and we are excited that our largest brand will
sail guests to Cuba, one of the
most sought-after destinations in the world. Our first-hand
expertise gained from being the first to sail from the U.S. to
Cuba in decades, and carrying more
U.S. passengers than any other cruise company over the past year,
will be invaluable in helping our Carnival brand make sure its
guests have a great vacation experience to what is becoming one of
the Caribbean's most desired
destinations."
Donald added: "As we expand cruise vacations to Cuba in the second half of this year, we are
also optimistic we will be granted approval by Cuba for additional Carnival Corporation
brands. The Caribbean is already
the world's most popular region for cruising, and we are excited
about expanding our itineraries across several of our brands to
include Cuba."
EDITOR'S NOTE:
In a separate news release today, Carnival Cruise Line released
further itinerary and booking details for the sailings to
Cuba beginning in June 2017. Additional information is available at
www.carnival.com.
About Carnival Corporation
& plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest
leisure travel company in the world, with a portfolio of 10 cruise
brands in North America,
Europe, Australia and Asia comprised of Carnival Cruise Line,
Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA
Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK).
Together, these brands operate 102 ships visiting over 700 ports
around the world and totaling 226,000 lower berths with 19 new
ships scheduled to be delivered between 2017 and 2022.
Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America
Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both
the New York and London Stock
Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the
world to be included in both the S&P500 and the FTSE 100
indices.
Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com,
www.fathom.org, www.hollandamerica.com, www.princess.com,
www.seabourn.com, www.aida.de, www.costacruise.com, www.cunard.com,
www.pocruises.com.au and www.pocruises.com.
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SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc