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19th May 2027 | 4 nights | Carnival Cruise Line | Carnival Festivale
Carnival Festivale, debuting in spring 2027, is set to become the fourth ship in Carnival Cruise Line’s award-winning Excel class. Sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida, this new vessel continues Carnival’s legacy of innovation and fun, with a design that honours its namesake—the original Festivale that played a key role in popularising cruise holidays. Built to serve families and fun-seekers alike, Carnival Festivale will introduce a host of brand-new features, including immersive entertainment zones and enhanced youth facilities. It also forms a core part of Carnival’s broader “Innovation Itinerary” strategy, which includes fleet expansion and exclusive new destinations.
Carnival Festivale promises to redefine onboard recreation with Sunsation Point, a brand-new outdoor family fun zone that spans the ship’s uppermost decks. Replacing the iconic BOLT rollercoaster, this area features Carnival Waterworks Ultra—the most expansive and family-friendly water park in the fleet. It boasts six exhilarating slides, two splash pads, and dedicated baby areas to ensure fun for all age groups. Dry play spaces, a treehouse-themed trail, sports courts, ropes courses, mini-golf, and themed arcades round out the daytime fun. By night, Sunsation Point transforms into a glowing hub of activity, with DJs, entertainment, and extended water park hours creating a uniquely vibrant evening atmosphere.
The culinary experience aboard Carnival Festivale blends innovation with beloved favourites. While the ship will see new dining concepts, including a replacement for ChiBang!, guests can still indulge in well-known venues such as Guy’s Burger Joint, Pig & Anchor Smokehouse Brewhouse, and Big Chicken. Chief Culinary Officer Emeril Lagasse is collaborating closely with the food and beverage team to develop exciting new offerings that will debut with the ship. With Mardi Gras also sailing from Port Canaveral, Carnival Festivale aims to complement and elevate the local cruise experience with its updated and diverse culinary options.
Designed with families in mind, Carnival Festivale features 1,000 interconnecting staterooms—almost 70% more than on previous Excel class ships. This change replaces the former Family Harbor concept, offering greater flexibility and space for larger travelling groups. A notable addition is a dedicated area for the Turtles programme, catering to infants aged six months to two years, as well as enhanced spaces for older children across the youth programmes. The stateroom offerings are tailored to today’s family cruisers, ensuring comfort, convenience, and connectivity throughout the voyage.
Budget-conscious, gregarious families, couples and solos looking for an unpretentious vibe that's all about having fun
Anyone who doesn't appreciate off-color humor, lively hairy chest contests, burgers and BBQ, and thumping music
Carnival Cruise Line sells itself as the "fun" cruise line, and it attracts cruisers who are looking to have a good time with little to no pretensions. Carnival cruisers, who range from young to old, tend to be quite friendly, looking to strike up conversations with other people in the buffet, by the pool and, really, anywhere. Carnival is also one of the most family-oriented lines in the industry, and you're bound to see lots of kids onboard, even during the school year. When school is out, you can expect the number of kids to be well into the hundreds. The line is also popular for family reunions, and bachelor and bachelorette parties. People on Carnival cruise ships hail primarily from the United States, mainly the south and Midwest, but you'll also meet folks from Canada, England and usually a handful of other European countries.
Carnival cruises are casual, with shorts, tee shirts, capris, swimsuits or swim cover-ups de rigueur during the day (no bathing suites in the dining venues, however). Most nights the dress code remains much the same, minus the swimwear, though technically the cruise line asks that people not wear shorts into the main dining room. The policy is inconsistently upheld. On "elegant" nights, you'll see a range of clothing from ball gowns, dresses that leave little to the imagination, tuxes and suits to the same shorts and tees people sport all day long. Most men, however, opt for long trousers and collared shirts, while women don sundresses, or a skirt or trousers with a blouse. Men are not required to wear a suit jacket or tie in any venue.
No. While Carnival is one of the more inclusive cruise lines when it comes to dining, you will still have to pay extra for some specialty dining, all drinks (alcoholic and non, except water, select juice at breakfast, and coffee and tea), shore excursions, visits to the spa and any retail purchases, including photos.
Aside from the main pool, which is the hub of much of the line's fun activities, almost every Carnival cruise ship also has at least one waterslide, with several having multi-slide water parks. Additionally, several have a top-deck SportSquare that features a colourful collection of outdoor amusements, including Ping-Pong, billiards, foosball, mini-golf, Twister and a SkyCourse ropes course. On the line's newest ships (Vista and Horizon), there's also the SkyRide, a recumbent bike attraction suspended 150 feet up in the air, requiring riders to pedal their way around an 800-foot track that wraps around the outer decks. Inside, you'll find activities that range from trivia and Bingo during the day to comedy shows and high-tech song-and-dance revues at night. Carnival ships also have lively bar nightlife, especially on ships with a RedFrog Pub; there's also an always-busy casino.
