Carnival Cruise

Carnival Cruise prides itself as having the most fun ships at sea. Your cruise is sure to be filled with tons of activities, entertainment and delicious eats during your sailing. With a fun and highly energetic atmosphere, the fun truly doesn’t stop onboard a Carnival cruise ship.

For first-time cruisers, learning the ins and outs of a new cruise line can be overwhelming. While all cruises certainly have similarities, each cruise line has their own unique features and amenities. 

Carnival’s private island, Half Moon Cay, is a largely undeveloped island, located in the southeastern Bahamas.

It provides guests with a stunning crescent-shaped beach to swim and lounge, as well as a variety of activities to fill the day.

Named “ Best Private Island” 20 years in a row by Porthole Cruise Magazine, it is clearly popular among its guests.

To make the most of your day, here’s what you need to know when visiting Half Moon Cay.

With the continued popularity of this northern destination, Carnival Cruise Line is offering a number of cruises to Alaska in 2022.

There are sailings every week between May and September on the cruise line’s refurbished Carnival Freedom and Carnival Miracle. Guests can choose from 8 scenic itineraries that voyage to top Alaskan ports as well as scenic cruising of stunning glaciers.  

Carnival unveiled its plan on when all of its ships will be able to restart operations.

Carnival Cruise Line announced on Thursday the schedule for when its entire U.S. fleet will be back in operations.

The new target date is for all 22 of its U.S.-based ships to return to service by March 2022.

My last cruise before the pandemic was a late November 2019 sailing on Norwegian Encore. I was booked on MSC Meraviglia in March 2020, but the world shut down a week before I was supposed to depart. Nearly two years and two doses of Pfizer vaccine later, I finally boarded my first post-pandemic cruise ship, Carnival Pride.

Did I spend the cruise anxiously avoiding my shipmates and hiding on my cabin balcony? Did I throw caution – and masks – to the wind, and join the crowds like it was 2019? Was it the relaxing getaway I’d been dreaming about through lockdown?

I have one last sea day before my cruise ends, and we’re sailing through a storm. The ship is pitching in 12-foot swells (or so guesses the cruise director), and we’ve seen lightning flashes out our stateroom window. 

The pool areas are drenched and closed. The Deck 3 lobby flooded by the doors to the promenade deck. All entertainment activities have been moved indoors.

Our last port of call is Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. It’s a short stop, mainly to refuel the ship. Carnival Pride arrived in port while it was still dark, and all-aboard was set for 1 p.m.

Paradise Cove

Today was another early wakeup call day, so we ordered room service to arrive at 7 a.m. We ordered an array of breads, fruit, yogurt, and caffeinated beverages, and ate it on our balcony while watching the container ships and forklifts on the cargo pier across from us.

Today was the day I most looked forward to on my Carnival Pride cruise to the Bahamas. We would be spending nearly the entire day at Half Moon Cay, Carnival’s drop-dead gorgeous private island.

Land, ho! After two days floating around the Big Blue, I woke up this morning to Atlantis rising up from the horizon – and room service knocking on my door. Today is our first port stop in Nassau, Bahamas, and my friend and I booked a morning snorkel tour through Carnival. 

It was not fun to set an alarm for 7 a.m. (room service arrived at 6:55 a.m. – ouch!), but our day ashore was worth the wakeup call.