Gerry Cahill News

The Port of New Orleans and Carnival Cruise Lines signed a new agreement that will keep the world’s largest cruise line sailing at least two ships year-round from New Orleans through 2019. The new agreement supersedes a 2013 three-year extension and offers three one-year options that could guarantee Carnival homeports at least two ships of equal or greater size than the Dream Class and Fantasy Class ships sailing from the Port today through 2022. The new agreement began July 1, 2014.

Further bolstering its position as Central Florida's largest cruise operator, Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Liberty departed on its inaugural voyage from Port Canaveral, Fla., this weekend, becoming the line's third year-round ship sailing from the Space Coast. With the arrival of Carnival Liberty, Carnival will increase its annual passenger count from Port Canaveral to 600,000 – more than any other cruise operator. On Carnival Liberty's new schedule from Port Canaveral, vacationers can select from a wide variety of five-, seven- and eight-day Caribbean itineraries conveniently departing from the Central Florida while enjoying a wide range of dining, bar and entertainment innovations that were added as part of the line's Fun Ship 2.0 product enhancement program.

New Orleans’ largest year-round cruise ship, the 3,646- passenger 'Carnival Dream', has sailed on its inaugural 6-day cruise from New Orleans. The Port explains that Carnival is the port’s largest cruise operator with two ships carrying more than 400,000 passengers annually – the most of any cruise line. The special six-day voyage, visiting Costa Maya, Mahogany Bay (Isla Roatan), and Cozumel, left from the newly refurbished Erato Street Cruise Terminal, which has undergone a $2.3 million upgrade to accommodate a ship as large as the 130,000-gt Carnival Dream.

Vessel traffic on the Mississippi River returned to normal Sunday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Karen dissipated. U.S. Coast Guard officials rescinded all restrictions on the River and area waterways about midnight, allowing vessels and mariners to resume normal operations. The Carnival Conquest arrived at the Port’s Erato Street Cruise Terminal about noon, followed by the Carnival Elation berthing at the Julia Street Cruise Terminal a half hour later. “Our top priority was to keep a safe distance from the storm while we waited for the river to reopen.

Carnival Cruise Lines has appointed four esteemed maritime and transportation industry experts – Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby, Rear Admiral Joseph F. Campbell, Ray Valeika and Dr. John K. Lauber -- to the company's new Safety & Reliability Review Board. As part of Carnival's comprehensive fleetwide technical enhancement program, the review board was created to provide independent third-party perspective and to drive continuous improvement across the line's fleet. The core objectives of the board are to review Carnival Cruise Lines' current policies…

Citing strong performance and growing consumer demand, Carnival Cruise Lines today announced its’ largest and newest line of ships will sail from the Port of New Orleans beginning in April 2014. First, Carnival will deploy the 3,006-passenger Carnival Sunshine to New Orleans Nov. 18, replacing the current 2,984-passenger Carnival Conquest. The Carnival Sunshine recently underwent a massive $155 million transformation. The Carnival Sunshine will sail regular seven-day western and eastern Caribbean itineraries from New Orleans through April 2014 – when Carnival will reposition the 3…

Carnival Cruise Lines implements enhancements to emergency power capabilities, fire safety technology, & improved operating redundancies across its fleet. The cruise lines say that this enhancement program, is to cost more than $300 million, and rapid upgrades have already begun. The actions by Carnival Cruise Lines will expand the availability of hotel services for the comfort of its guests in the rare instance of a shipboard event that involves the loss of main power. In addition, the plan will reinforce key shipboard operating systems to further prevent a potential loss of primary power.

7 heads of leading cruise lines are set to discuss the industry's current trends & future direction at the State of the Industry session. The session is slated for Tuesday, March 12, at the 29th annual Cruise Shipping Miami conference also featuring Christine Duffy , president and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association, who will lead off with the State of the Industry address, and David Scowsill, president and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council, who will provide the keynote speech. Panelists at the 9:30 a.m. session include Adam Goldstein , president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International; Kevin Sheehan , chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line…

Of 130,000 gross tonnes, and at 306 metres long and 37 metres wide, the “Carnival Breeze” is sister to the “Carnival Dream” and the “Carnival Magic”, which Monfalcone delivered in 2009 and 2011 respectively. The Carnival Breeze is the thirtieth cruise ship to be built by Monfalcone yard. Present at the ceremony were the President and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, Gerry Cahill, while  Fincantieri was represented by both the company’s CEO, Giuseppe Bono and the Chairman, Corrado Antonini.

Carnival Cruise Lines, a brand of global cruise operator Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), accepted delivery of the corporation's 100th ship, the Carnival Magic, in ceremonies at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy, where the vessel was built. In recognition of this achievement, on April 29 all guests sailing aboard Carnival Corporation & plc's 100 ships will enjoy a complimentary champagne toast at dinner to commemorate this historic and unprecedented milestone. All told, more than 227,000 guests across the company's 10 cruise brands will participate in the toast, believed to be the largest celebration of its kind at sea.

Carnival Cruise Lines has cancelled voyages of the Carnival Splendor through the departure of January 9, 2011, to allow time for repairs following an engine room fire last week. The ship is scheduled to re-enter service on January 16, 2011. Guests who were scheduled to sail on these voyages will receive a full refund of their cruise fare and air transportation costs, along with a 25 percent discount on a future cruise. Carnival Splendor was towed to San Diego following the fire which occurred off the Mexican coast on November 8. A team from the U.S. Coast Guard, NTSB and flag authorities, along with Carnival’s engineers and technicians, is currently on board investigating the cause of the fire.

At approximately 6 am Monday morning, Nov. 8, (U.S. Pacific Standard Time), a fire was detected in the aft engine room aboard the cruise ship Carnival Splendor. The fire was extinguished. There were no injuries to guests or crew. The ship has been operating on auxiliary generators and engineers have been unable to restore additional power to the vessel. Thus far, one tug boat has reached the ship and has begun towing with additional tugs en route to expedite the vessel’s return. Given the ship’s speed and current position, we have decided to take the vessel to San Diego where it is expected to arrive late Thursday. Additionally, we are in the process of making all the necessary hotel and flight arrangements for our guests.

Bob Dickinson, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, will retire at the end of the year. He will remain on the company's board of directors. Gerry Cahill, executive vice president and CFO of Carnival Corporation & plc, will assume Dickinson's responsibilities as president and CEO effective immediately so that there is an ample transition period. David Bernstein, Carnival Corporation & plc's vice president and treasurer, will become the company's CFO, also effective immediately. "I have been blessed to have had a long, fun-filled career helping to build Carnival and the cruise industry. I'm still having fun so giving all of that up has been a very difficult decision but I'll be 65 next month and have been pondering this with my family for some time," Dickinson said.